Will chuckled.
“I was about to do the same thing, but she beat me to the punch—and honestly, I don’t think I would have had the guts to go as far as she did. She wasn’t pulling any punches.”
“She’s like a badger,” said Will. “Once she gets her teeth into something, she never lets go.”
Janice shook her head. “I’ve seen her give up a few times, mainly when the baron put his foot down, but not where you’re involved.”
He shrugged.
“I guess that’s why they’re talking about making her a saint.”
Will yelped, “What?”
Janice nodded. “Not while she’s alive, of course, but people talk. She can’t overlook an underdog. She gave a famous speech in front of the cathedral two years ago, rallying the people to give to the cause. She helped shame the nobles into opening their coffers for the poor and those who had lost everything when Darrow invaded.”
He found it almost unbelievable. She was only sixteen then, and I’m sure her father didn’t want her out making a spectacle of herself. Now that he knew her better, he could understand. His sister was a fighter, and he couldn’t be more proud.
Standing up, Will walked over to Tiny and whispered, “We’re leaving in a minute.”
The big man’s brow furrowed, and his lips mouthed the word, ‘now?’
Will nodded, then he raised his voice. “If I can have your attention!” It took a minute—his voice didn’t carry as well as Laina’s—but eventually everyone grew quiet. “The city won’t be safe when dawn comes. You should head for the southern gate. If the guards won’t let you out, destroy the gates and escape. Another ritual is planned, one that will kill every living person within the walls.”
That shocked them into silence, until one person spoke. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Mark Nerrow was close behind. “William, you aren’t making sense.”
He held up his hands. “I know it doesn’t seem fair after what you’ve done, all of you. You saved this city, but I’m not lying. At least one of the vampires remains, and he’s close to the king right now, as we speak, filling his ears with lies.”
“He’s lost his damned mind,” someone muttered.
Another voice added, “I could tell that already.”
Will ignored the naysayers. “Whatever you do, don’t go north. Whatever is happening will be centered around the palace and Wurthaven.” Then he turned away, nodding at Tiny, who quickly followed him.
The crowd seemed too shocked to respond, but Laina’s voice wouldn’t be denied. “Where do you think you’re going?” she demanded.
Will turned back and saw Janice and Laina had already closed the distance, with Janice leading in the race. “Are you trying to ditch me again?” asked his classmate.
He looked at Laina and addressed her first. “You have to make them follow you. Your father won’t listen to me. If I can’t stop him, he’ll destroy this city and everyone in it at dawn, if not sooner. The vampire scourge and our response to it was all part of the diversion.”
“Who?” snapped Laina in exasperation.
“The king and Lord Tintabel, otherwise known as Androv.”
Janice hissed, “The vampire wizard you fought before?”
He nodded.
“Do you think you can beat him this time? You made it sound like you got lucky in that basement,” asked Janice.
He was ready for the question, and Will put everything into projecting confidence as he lied, “Definitely. I’ve already figured out how to do it.”
“How?” challenged Laina.
“I don’t have time to explain.” He looked at Janice. “You have to keep her here so she can lead them.”
For once his classmate seemed to believe him. Janice nodded and took hold of Laina’s arm, but Laina twisted away, giving Janice a cold glare. “Fuck this! I’m coming. She can stay and lead them.”
He met her gaze evenly. “Don’t make me embarrass you in front of everyone. I’m quite capable of paralyzing you.”
His sister growled but finally looked away, and he knew then that she had finally given in. Janice looked at them, and a sudden sense of urgency passed over her features. “Bring him back in one piece,” she pleaded.
Will and Tiny answered in unison, “I will.”
Janice smiled at the dual response. “Close your eyes.”
Not sure who she meant, Will complied, but a second later he heard something next to him. Opening them again, he saw Janice stepping back. She had climbed up on her toes and pulled Tiny down a little so she could plant a kiss on his cheek. “For luck.”
Will watched his friend warily, worried he might faint. If he goes down none of us could catch him. Laina let out a sigh of disgust.
They turned away again, and this time they made it out the door of the cathedral, but Will’s embarrassment wasn’t quite over yet. As they started down the street, he heard Laina’s strident warning cut through the night air. “Come back alive, you jerk, or I’ll find your stupid corpse and cut off your balls!”
Chapter 54
They were moving at a brisk pace, though Will wished they could go faster. If he’d been alone, he would have run, but Tiny’s heavy frame made that impractical. The big man was in excellent shape, but he simply wouldn’t be able to match Will’s running pace for very long. It made more sense to stay together and arrive without being exhausted.
“Where are we going first?” asked Tiny.
“The palace.”
“Think they’re still there?”
Will shrugged. “If not, then Wurthaven is right next door. The entire city populace is packed onto the grounds. We should make sure they’re still safe anyway.”
“We just wiped out all the vampires, though,” Tiny reminded him. “Wouldn’t it be better to look for the king before he gets murdered?”
“That’s why we’re heading for the palace first, but the king will be alive. Androv won’t kill him until he’s destroyed the city.”
“Shouldn’t Androv be dead already? That spell in the cathedral seemed pretty intense.”
“He’s a wizard,” said Will. “He’s had centuries to perfect his magic, and he has spells that allow him to survive sunlight and pass as human. For that matter, he’s probably protecting his closest servants as well, like Alexa. I doubt he’ll be alone.”
“You said you had a plan to deal with him.”
Will stopped and gave his friend a long, serious look. “I lied.”
“You don’t think you can win?”
He shook his head. “Not in a straight fight.”
The big warrior shrugged, then started walking again. “That’s all right. This time you have me with you.”
Will watched him from behind for several seconds. Mother, help me if anything happens to him. I’d be utterly lost. He hurried to catch up.
As they got close to the palace, they could see that the gates were open and the sentries were gone from the walls. In the direction of Wurthaven, there were flashes of light and the sounds of fighting. Will wondered if the king had abandoned the palace to assist in defending Wurthaven and the people there.
It didn’t seem likely, though. He thinks the city is lost no matter what, including all those people. He’ll be wherever it is that he plans to enact the ritual. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Androv would be with the king, making sure that no one else could contradict his story.
Whoever was attacking Wurthaven was simply part of the diversion. Lognion wouldn’t be there, and neither would Androv. Yet if Lognion intended to work a massive, city-wide ritual he would need a large number of sorcerers to assist him, and trying to do it from some point on the city’s walls would be needlessly difficult. If that’s where most of his forces were deployed, the king was potentially operating alone.
That meant there was only one possible place the man could be planning to perform his ritual. Will froze.
Tiny gave him a worried look. “
There’s fighting over there. We have to go.”
“That’s a diversion, and any vampires over there will be ones that were protected from our ritual,” said Will. He pointed southwest. “He’s that way. If we stop here, we might not make it in time.”
“We still have to help the people,” said Tiny.
Did they have time? Any vampires that had survived the ritual Will had performed would be protected against daylight, so they’d be much more difficult to dispatch. He was pretty sure that Androv wouldn’t kill Lognion until the king’s ritual was done, and the king had told him he would wait until dawn. That was still hours away. “You’re right,” said Will, hurrying forward.
The school gate was wide open, not that it mattered. The stone walls weren’t much of a hindrance to creatures that could leap twenty feet and claw their way up the rest of the way to the top. Dead guards lay scattered about the entrance like broken dolls, and in the distance, Will could hear screaming.
The fox was in the henhouse.
As big as Wurthaven’s grounds were, the populace of the city was sufficient to fill almost the entire place with a light crowd. The vampires, however many there were, were running loose in a giant playground, killing indiscriminately. Will needed to get their attention, for it would be impossible to track them all down in the time they had.
Activating the limnthal, he summoned his shield and handed it to Tiny since his friend had left his at the house. “I’m going to try and attract their attention,” he told him.
“How many do you think will come?” asked Tiny, looking nervous for the first time. “It was pretty intense back at the cathedral, and it’s just you and me now.”
“I don’t know, but if you see more than three or four, maybe you should take the potion.”
“Which one? Oh!” Tiny opened the potion holder and made sure his fingers knew where the appropriate vial was.
“Here we go,” warned Will, then he used one of his prepared spells, Ethelgren’s Illumination. Filling his lungs, he yelled as the balls of searing light soared outward, turning night into day. He didn’t expect it to kill these, since they were obviously protected, but there was no better way to draw attention at night. “Come and get me, you bloodthirsty bug-fuckers!”
Tiny gave him a confused look. “Bug-fuckers?”
Will shrugged. “Would chuckle-fucks be better?”
“You need help.” Tiny’s eyes grew wide. “It’s more than three or four!” He jerked the potion free of the pouch so hastily that it flew from his fingers and broke on the pavement several feet away. Fumbling for the second vial, he slowed down just enough to successfully unstop it and bring it to his lips.
Will was already picking them off as they came into range. The force-lance spell, like most force effects, didn’t need much turyn when used over short distances, but the cost went up exponentially with distance. At ten yards it was negligible, at twenty it was tiring, and at thirty yards it was well beyond his rate of turyn recovery. He started firing at forty yards, and by the second spell he knew he would run out by the fourth. At twenty yards he started again, but it only took a second for them to close that distance.
He took down ten in that time, though it was obvious they were only wounded. Once they were in melee range, he switched to using the point-defense shield since it was more effective at stopping their forward movement and he wasn’t killing them anyway.
Through that span of several seconds, Tiny hardly moved, though a low growl was beginning to emerge from his throat. The big man seemed to be vibrating, as though he might be on the verge of a seizure.
Will began to despair, for he couldn’t see in all directions, and the vampires on the wings had kept running, circling to flank them. He wanted to turn so he could see the threat coming at his back, but the monsters in front of him moved too quickly. It was all he could do to repulse their attacks with a blinding series of shields.
A roar erupted from Tiny, a sound so deep and feral Will thought some new monster had sprung upon them. The big warrior blurred as he spun in place, and his falchion cut through something behind them. Will didn’t have the liberty of watching. A second later the squire danced in front of him then passed behind, moving around Will in a circle. Clawed hands, arms, legs, and pieces of wood-hafted spears fell to the ground in his wake.
Spears?
They had come in with such speed that Will hadn’t even seen the weapons. Behind the blood-maddened young vampires there were three wearing armor and bearing weapons. They had hung back, letting the wild ones take the damage as they charged in. One of them was now tossing aside his spear in favor of a broadsword.
Seeing the sharp metal made his skin prickle, and Will was acutely aware of the fact that he hadn’t donned any armor that day. He felt naked, and for the first time he realized that perhaps he had grown too comfortable relying on his spells. He could only watch so many directions at once.
Tiny was behind him, and Will saw a shadow pass overhead. Given the way the vampire flailed, it seemed the monster had been thrown, rather than leaping on its own. Will kept using his point-defense shield, for the attacks from the front kept coming too quickly for him to try and inflict damage. He absently noted that several broken crossbow quarrels were now on the ground in front of him. There are more in the back firing at us!
Tiny came around once more, and Will could see several shafts caught in his mail. Apparently, there were fiends firing from other directions as well, directions Will couldn’t see. Tiny was cutting a deadly swath through monsters, but without silver on the blade, the wounds healed too quickly—even severed limbs could be reattached without too much effort, if the cut was clean.
Will had thought the fight would be smaller, that they would have some room to breathe, time to use the alchemical fire he carried to destroy the vampire remains. He already knew these were protected from daylight, since they had survived the ritual, so the spells he had prepared were useless.
It was only a matter of time before Will and Tiny tired and soon after that they would die.
Desperate, Will stepped left to avoid one creature’s rush rather than use his shield, and with that moment to spare, he summoned Ethelgren’s Exhortation. He resumed using the shield a second later, while at the same time he felt the old wizard begin to rush into his body.
He shut that down instantly, pushing Ethelgren back while still defending himself, and his spells never faltered. That’s not going to happen, he sent mentally.
I had to try.
Asshole. I’m surrounded by vampires protected from daylight. Any ideas?
Let me take control, suggested Ethelgren dryly.
Not again. If I die, I’ll drop this rod and your enemies will melt you down.
The ancient wizard gave a mental sigh. Since you’re not dead, you must be defending yourself. What are you using?
Point-defense shield.
That’s all?
I don’t have anything else!
Amateur.
Is that coat of light spell you used built into the rod? asked Will.
It is, but it’s no good if they’re protected from sunlight. It won’t stop physical attacks, and light won’t repel them. You need armor or an iron-body transformation.
I haven’t mastered that one yet.
It’s built into the rod. Let me show you.
Will was still steadily blocking attacks from howling fiends that were just a few feet away. Mentally, he eased up on the pressure he was using to contain Ethelgren and he received a flash as the long-dead wizard showed him the turyn signature needed to activate the iron-body transformation.
A second later, Will repeated what he had felt but with more turyn, which he directed into the relic. The overall sensation was similar to casting a spell, except that instead of routing his energy into a spell construct, he was sending it into an item. It was also much faster, since he didn’t have to create the spell first, so in a sense it was like reflex casting. There was a slight lag, though; unl
ike a force effect, other spells did require some small amount of time to function. He still hadn’t learned to reflex cast any non-force spells, so the delay had never been noticeable before, but he could feel it now. Even so, it took less than a second, and suddenly he felt a cold stiffening of his skin, slowing his movements.
His skin had darkened, taking on a reddish-brown color, and it felt as though someone had dressed him in heavy but supple leather, from head to toe. It worked! he announced internally. Now I just need a way to kill them.
Are you any good with a sword?
Somewhat, but there’s someone even better next to me.
Do you have any silver on you?
Just money.
He sensed Ethelgren’s mental nod. That works. Another flash of turyn came to Will, along with an explanation. You have to hold the weapon when you cast it, and the silver is consumed. The spell only lasts an hour or so; after that the steel reverts to normal.
It coats the blade in silver? asked Will.
Ethelgren chuckled. I designed the spell. It’s much better than that.
Shifting the relic to his left hand, Will summoned his smallest coin pouch and tried to shake out the coins he needed, spilling gold marks, silver clima, and copper bits in all directions. He caught a few and then discarded all but one clima. He passed it over to his left hand and then summoned his rapier.
During his chaotic coin dance, Will lost focus on what was going on around him and he felt several thudding blows against his body, but no pain. One vampire even managed to grab hold of him, but Tiny cut the creature fully in two; then, when it was apparent that the upper portion was still hanging on, he cut the monster free by slicing off its arms.
The hands continued stabbing at him with sharp nails, but Will’s skin resisted everything. Then he activated the spell and the coin in his hand dissolved, flowing toward the sword he held. As it ran up the blade, the silver dust exploded into argent flames. Damn that looks wicked!
That’s why the ladies loved me, said Ethelgren.
Shut it, pervert, Will chastised. “Tiny, catch!” he shouted, and with those words he tossed the rapier into the air. If their positions had been reversed, Will probably would have missed the catch. There was simply too much going on, and catching a sword by the hilt required a certain amount of concentration, even if a person was ready.
Scholar of Magic Page 54