Durek did an about-face and paced back to the other end of the room. He stopped when he reached the wall.
The woman had kissed him! Worse, he had not resisted. Not until it was obviously too late. He could not afford any interest in Marissa, not if he wanted to be a mage. It was forbidden.
A small voice he didn’t trust rose up in the back of his head. No one has to know, it said. That brought a scowl to his face and an urgency to his feet. He whirled around and paced back to the other wall, then stopped and leaned forward, supporting himself with his hand firmly on the stones.
It was forbidden for good reason. Only a fool would try to take the Mage’s Test with even the slightest trace of emotional distraction to worry him. And Ambrisia had told him he would be testing with Korina, within a month at best, or perhaps three at the latest. He would have to be clear-headed when the time came. He could allow nothing to distract him. What could possibly be more distracting than a woman! Love. Hah! Love was death to a mage.
With surprising calmness Durek strolled to the window and looked out at the night. He frowned when he saw the clouds that had arisen with the strange storm—a storm which brought with it a fair amount of snow far too early in the season for Durek’s taste. Because of the clouds, Durek could not see either moon, however, he judged that he had perhaps two hours until dawn. Dawn! He’d been up all night worrying about a fool woman. Not that he was the only one up this late. The gods knew he’d seen more people tonight than he’d seen during the entire day. Of course, he had been studying in his room for most of the afternoon; that is, until he’d gone to get some food, met Marissa in the kitchens, and then ... Still, he’d seen most of the council wandering the halls, all in a huff. Apparently, Guild Master Regecon had called an emergency meeting to discuss something of dire importance. They were probably still awake themselves, engaged in an endless debate in the wizards’ High Council Chamber.
A flash of movement in the night sky caught Durek’s eye. He turned to look, leaning out the window and squinting to make it out more clearly. It had been a sudden motion, something dark cutting across one of the few lucky moonbeams that had escaped the clouds. It flashed again, closer. Durek struggled to see, wondering if it would be worth the effort to cast a spell and shed more light.
Moments later, his need vanished; the creature came into view: a large bat, half again the size of any he’d ever seen, flying with the wind in the direction of the guild. Durek watched the dark shape for several moments, then lifted his eyebrows in surprise as it veered toward him. He smiled softly to himself wondering what spell he should unleash to ward it from the walls. He lifted his hand and stepped back, deliberating back and forth between a simple cantrip against the bat and whether or not he should actually cast it. Surely, it would veer off before it reached the opening.
He invoked the spell just as the bat entered the window’s arch. A single word and gesture brought a puff of smoke to bar the creature’s way.
To Durek’s surprise, the bat flew through the smoke-filled window with ease and only a brief shower of orange sparks to announce its arrival. To Durek’s horror, the bat entered the room and exploded. That was the only way to describe it. The relatively small dark creature mushroomed outward as it hurtled toward him. The wings grew, stretching out into arms adorned with vicious long-nailed hands while the small body ballooned into a man’s chest and torso. Legs and head did the same.
With the momentum of flight carrying it forward, the form of a man slammed into Durek and drove him back against the opposite wall. A hand reached up to cut off the young student’s scream, slamming his jaw shut on his tongue and holding it there in a titan’s grip while canine teeth sank into his throat. In the brief moment before darkness took him, Durek was very much aware of the simultaneously excruciating and exhilarating sensation of blood flowing from his neck.
Drasmyr (Prequel: From the Ashes of Ruin) Page 37