Scholar of Magic

by Michael G. Manning

  Once there, he decided it was less than obvious. The stairs were wide enough for three students to walk abreast, and they led upward only, stopping solidly on the ground level. On either side of the stairs were side doors that led into maintenance areas and closets respectively. A man looked up at him curiously as he looked into the maintenance room. Will nodded and ducked out. “Wrong turn.”

  There were two other doors, but neither of them led to anything. Maybe the basement stairs start in the maintenance area. If it’s only used for storage, that might make sense. Moving back to that door, he cracked it until he caught sight of the man within. He seemed to be working on something. Will’s sleep spell sent him sagging to the floor. He stepped in and closed the door behind him. Down the hall, he could hear a commotion as the soldiers entered the front doors of the building and made their announcements.

  Shit, if they find him sleeping, that will arouse their suspicion, he realized. Glancing around the room, Will took stock. On the opposite side of the room were two double doors leading somewhere. On the left side were lockers and a rack for storing cleaning implements and supplies; to the right was a cluttered desk and an old ratty chair. Perfect.

  Sleep spells didn’t keep the target in an enforced slumber, but right after the spell took effect the subject tended to be very hard to wake. Will got a grip underneath the worker’s arms and dragged him over to the desk. Lifting him up high enough to settle into the chair was difficult, but he managed it, though he was grateful that the man was relatively skinny. From there he simply arranged the fellow with his head on his arms, leaning over the desk. The soldiers would hopefully assume he had fallen asleep on the job.

  He could hear loud steps in the hall, so he moved on to the double doors, since there was no other obvious exit. It was a relief when he saw a modest stair behind them, leading downward. There was no light, so once he closed the doors behind him, he had to adjust his vision. Simply increasing his light sensitivity wouldn’t do, for there was no light. He had to change to heart-light before he could brave the stairs.

  Will was halfway down the stairs when he had an unsettling thought. How often does anyone come down here? If the answer was almost never, and the area was unlit, well that made it an almost perfect place for vampires to hide. His heart rate doubled in the span of seconds. Damn it, stay calm, he told himself. His pounding heart ignored him.

  He’d already used his sleep spell and he’d meant to replace it, but now he wondered if another sleep spell was really the right choice. Taking several steps back up the stairs, he constructed an Ethelgren’s Illumination without debating it further. His fear of vampires was far greater than his fear of soldiers.

  Better prepared, he slowly descended. There was no door at the bottom, just an opening into a large room interspersed with heavy stone pillars to support the building above. As he looked around, he realized that the size of the area was deceptive. There were crates stacked up here and there, along with dusty pieces of furniture and other items that were no longer in use. The effect of all that was to give the impression of walls, when in fact it was merely an interruption of his line of sight. As he moved farther in it was apparent that the basement was fully as large as the floor above, and it was a single room.

  The stone pillars that supported the multilevel building above were massive, approximately ten feet in width and scattered no more than twenty feet apart. Between those and the sheer amount of stuff stored between them, the open basement was more of a labyrinth.

  “How the hell am I going to find it in all this junk?” he muttered quietly. It could be in a box, or a display case, or buried under any number of things. The sheer size of the area he needed to search was daunting. If I ever need to protect something important, I’m going to hide it in a place like this. Locks can’t stop me, but this has me completely flummoxed.

  He decided to work outward until he reached one of the outer walls, then make a rough circuit of the entire area. After that he would cut across a few times. He probably wouldn’t find the relic, but if it was in something obvious, he might get lucky. If not, he would at least have a mental image of the layout and the various regions of junk to be searched.

  There were also the soldiers to consider. They’ll do the upper floors, knowing they won’t find anything, just to be thorough. Once those are done, they’ll cordon off the lower level and make a serious search of the basement. He didn’t actually know any of that for sure, but it seemed like the wisest course. Either way, they would likely be coming down before he found what he was looking for, so he would need to figure out where he would hide.

  Inside something was a bad idea, whereas standing against a blank wall was probably the best. An empty section of wall wouldn’t be searched, and the chameleon spell would work best there. Moving forward, he began inspecting the area around him, with an eye for both the relic and an empty section of wall.

  He almost forgot his fear of finding vampires. Almost.

  Looking up, he saw something odd protruding from the low ceiling. In the gray on gray of his current vision, it took a moment to sort out what he was seeing. It looked something like a pile of rags, or it would have if it had been lying on the ground, but this was the ceiling.

  Then it moved, and he saw a hand. His mouth went dry. Fuck!

  It was a mass of vampires, huddled together on the ceiling, clinging there by their fingertips, as though gravity wasn’t really a concern. Will froze in place, his eyes glued to the enemy above. Are they asleep? He was alone, so it seemed improbable that they would have feared to attack him.

  Then he saw a face; its eyes blinked slowly as it watched him. They were perfectly aware of his presence. They don’t know I can see them in the dark, he realized. And they’re probably thinking I’ll leave. If they kill me it would give away their hiding place, in the middle of the day, so they couldn’t relocate to someplace safer.

  They weren’t afraid; they were smart.

  That didn’t help his stomach, which was tied in a knot, or his heart, which was beating a rapid drumbeat in his ears. Can they hear that? Since they hadn’t attacked, he guessed not. He probably wasn’t close enough.

  A short distance back, he heard the doors at the top of the stairs open. He had misjudged; the soldiers intended to search the basement first. Boots sounded on the stairs, and the mass on the ceiling shifted, beginning to scatter outward. There was about to be a battle, and Will was right in the middle of where it would happen.

  The first three men to enter were normal soldiers, but behind them were two sorcerers. Light spells shot out in two directions, illuminating the area. They weren’t the right sort of light spells to destroy vampires—apparently the Driven hadn’t learned those spells. Until a week ago no one had really believed that vampires existed, and most probably thought they’d never existed. And according to Janice, Ethelgren’s biography had been removed.

  How much other information had been deliberately destroyed over the years? If it was a coincidence, it was an awfully convenient one for the vampires. Will doubted it was anything but deliberate, the result of years, decades, perhaps even centuries of planning. And now I’m in a basement where a relic of a legendary vampire hunter is stored, and it just so happens there’s a whole gaggle of the monsters here as well.

  It all came together in his head in a flash of clarity. They’d been looking for Ethelgren’s Exhortation. It was possible they’d been here for days, searching through the assorted junk, trying to find one of the last good weapons that might be used against them.

  Hell, maybe the curse on the relic was a carefully created fabrication. Maybe the vampires had been selectively killing those who touched it to instill fear. Then again, that’s a little much, thought Will. There’s paranoid and then there’s crazy.

  The vampires had scattered and were approaching the basement entrance from all directions. Will prepared to release his illumination spell when something unexpected happened. Both the sorcerers who had created the light s
pells fell as bolts of blue light speared through their chests.

  More soldiers were coming down, and a third sorcerer appeared, stepping over the bodies of his fallen comrades. Seeing what had happened, he lifted his hands and a force-wall appeared in front of him just before more bolts of blue splashed against it.

  There was a spellcaster among the vampires. Will released Ethelgren’s Illumination as that thought percolated through his awareness.

  As before, the searing white orbs shot outward, raising howls of rage and fury from the vampires as they burned and died, but this time there were a few differences. As the globes moved away and Will opened his eyes slightly, he saw that two of the creatures hadn’t died, and both of them turned their eyes on the source of the brilliance, squinting against the glare.

  He began moving sideways, trying to get away from the epicenter, which turned out to be wise. More blue bolts flashed into the area where he had been standing, coming from the hand of one of the two vampires, a tall male with a commanding presence and long, black hair. The one beside it he recognized—it was the child-like female he had met before, Alexa.

  They adapted quickly to the bright light, and he could see them tracking his position as he ducked to the side. His point-defense shield appeared several times in rapid succession, blocking more of the deadly blue bolts as the vampire wizard focused on him. The creature’s aim was perfect; any one of the attacks would have nailed him, despite his movement.

  The vampire smiled, showing long fangs, then reached up with a piece of cord in his hands and began to casually tie his long hair back. The expression in his eyes said it all. ‘I’m going to enjoy this.’ Will felt a shiver of fear run down his spine. Alexa merely looked at him and smirked, as though she knew he was in over his head. She made no move to attack.

  Meanwhile, the soldiers and sorcerers coming down from the floor above weren’t idle. One continued to hold the force-wall, protecting them as they formed up, while several other sorcerers readied spells. The soldiers moved to either side, preparing to guard the flanks when the shield was released.

  The lead vampire continued to ignore them, reserving his attention for Will. “Alexa told me about you, but I hardly dared believe her words. Are you real, child? Or have I begun to have delusions after so many years?”

  Will didn’t have another illumination spell ready, not that it would have helped. The chameleon spell and unlocking spell would similarly be useless. I’m fucked, he thought. Royally, fucked. So he tried what had worked before, with Alexa. “Alexa is your pet? That means you must be Androv? Is that correct?”

  The vampire gaped at him in mock surprise. “How long it has been since I heard that name from mortal lips? Who was your teacher, child?”

  Alexa hissed. “Just kill him, my lord. He uses words only to delay.”

  Will glanced at her, and his deadly intent found expression. A force-lance blasted forth, only to stop as a point-defense shield appeared in front of the small vampire’s head. Androv smiled graciously, then growled at his subordinate. “Silence, Alexa. Leave the conversation to your betters.” He looked back at Will. “It has been centuries since I’ve encountered a true practitioner of the arcane. I thought they were extinct, among your kind at least. Who was your master?”

  “It’s rude to ask questions without offering something in exchange,” countered Will. From behind the vampire, he could see that the sorcerers were finally ready with their planned attack. Keep talking just a little longer, you pompous prick.

  The force-wall dropped, and lances of fire flashed forward, followed by four fire elementals. Even before he saw the results, Will knew they wouldn’t be good. Fire? He’s a wizard. Even I could handle that.

  Sure enough, the fire-lances faded out as they reached Androv, dribbling away into impotence. The elementals should have been more of a problem, but a force-dome sprang up at the last instant around the vampire. No! It’s two force-domes! realized Will. But that’s impossible. He knew that no caster could have more than one force effect in play at any given moment. Then his eyes spotted the trick.

  It wasn’t two force domes; it was a single spell with a complex shape. It was open above and below the vampire, but around him was a circular wall that was more like a tunnel. A cylinder with the elementals trapped inside it.

  And he reflex cast that, thought Will. Shit.

  “Pardon me for a moment,” said Androv, and then the vampire vanished. Or so Will thought at first. After a second, he realized the monster had simply vaulted over the ring of force, landing in front of the surprised sorcerers and soldiers. One of them managed to raise a force-dome, but it didn’t save them. The ground beneath their feet exploded upward, sending jagged shards of stone through the bodies of everyone inside the dome. The king’s men were dead before they could finish falling.

  Another highly specific spell, and again Will knew it almost certainly hadn’t been prepared in advance. It had been reflex cast. None of the spells Will knew could save him from such a monster, not even if he was able to reflex cast all of them. He was overmatched in every single way.

  As the sorcerers died, their elementals began to fade away, no longer forced to manifest, though they had already set fire to some of the boxes and furniture that had been trapped near them. The force-ring vanished, and Androv turned back to Will. “You said I shouldn’t ask questions without offering something in exchange. How about this? Are you here looking for this?” The vampire reached into a coat pocket and withdrew a short iron rod decorated with silver runes. The end had metal flanges mounted on it, like a small mace. Will knew immediately what it must be. “We found this yesterday. It’s a shame you didn’t come sooner.”

  “You should be careful,” said Will. “I hear that all the previous owners had bad luck.”

  The vampire laughed. “Bad luck is for inferior beings. You should know better than that. After all, your luck has improved considerably today.”

  Will noted that the smoke was increasing rapidly in the enclosed basement. Eventually it would choke him to death, but in the interim it might provide an advantage. He already knew that vampires could see heart-light as well as ordinary light, but the flames and smoke were already creating a chaotic haze that his own vision was having difficulty with.

  It was his normal sight that was making up the difference, using the ordinary light produced by the flames. He adjusted his vision until the smoke vanished, and the room was clear except for the solid objects within. “I’m not feeling very lucky,” said Will, waiting for the smoke to grow thicker. He began walking rapidly to his left, causing the smoke to swirl and making it difficult for the vampires to track him visually.

  “Clever, boy, clever!” shouted Androv. “The reason you’re lucky is because I found you first! Most of my minions would simply devour you, but I understand your true worth! How far have you progressed? Are you merely first-order? Or did you manage second-order?”

  Will said nothing, but he released the chameleon spell. Between it, and the smoke and flames, even the vampires would find it hard to see him. He watched them and saw that their heads were no longer tracking his position. Instead they swiveled back and forth, trying to catch sight of him again. Androv snapped his fingers, and Alexa moved forward. “Be careful, my sweet. We want him alive.”

  Alive? Will felt a stone appear in the pit of his stomach. He wants to recruit me.

  “You can’t escape, young wizard. The smoke obscures everything, for both of us. But I know you need air to live. The door is your only hope and I’ll be waiting here for you.”

  So you think, asshole.

  The master vampire was still holding the relic in his hand as Will quickly formed a force-lance. Point-defense shields only worked when you could see the attack coming. Androv screamed as Will’s spell removed the vampire’s arm at the elbow, sending the relic and the hand holding it skittering away into the smoke-filled basement.

  Androv responded with a volley of blue bolts, but Will was able to see
them coming. He blocked those that threatened to skewer him, then began circling in the other direction, heading toward Alexa, who was stalking blindly through the smoke. As he moved, he prepared another force-lance.

  She must have heard something, for she shifted the direction of her travel, moving around a collection of bookcases and wardrobes to circle around behind him. But he could see her every move. Reaching down, Will picked up a broom someone had dropped and tossed it ahead and to the right, so that it landed ten feet in front of him.

  Alexa pounced.

  Taking aim, he blew her left leg off. The leg would limit her movement, and since it was the same one he had nearly removed last time, it had a sense of irony that he felt sure she wouldn’t miss.

  He backed away quietly, but with his next breath the smoke was too powerful, and a choking cough escaped his lips. Alexa leapt toward him on her remaining leg.

  She moved too fast for him to dodge, but a point-defense shield met her in midair, stopping her forward motion and causing her to fall. Then a force-lance took her in the shoulder, shattering her clavicle and spine. It had been a reflex cast spell. Damn, I wish I could do that on command. Currently, panic seemed to be a good motivator for his new ability.

  Turning, he began to run, coughing as he went. He had to get out soon, or the smoke would be the death of him. He headed in the direction he had seen the relic fall, which was also in the direction of the exit. Unfortunately, his coughing also gave his position away, and he saw Androv running past boxes on his right, moving to intercept him. Will stopped and focused, and then he felt what he had hoped for. Keeping his eyes on the moving vampire, he began to fire force-lances, one after another in rapid succession.