The Sorcerer's Legacy (The Sorcerer's Path)

by Brock Deskins

  “Hi, Wolf, I can’t believe you are actually reading!” Ellyssa said as they drew near.

  Wolf jumped up startled then glared at Ghost. “I told you to warn me if someone was coming!” he berated the wolf. “Yeah, please don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin the savage image I have worked so hard to cultivate.”

  “You could cultivate potatoes in your ears there’s so much dirt in them,” Ellyssa replied. “But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you are actually civilized.”

  “You take that back! Just because I can read doesn’t mean I’m civilized! Who’s the girl?”

  “This is Missy. She walked all the way here from the city last night.”

  “Oh, you’re the one Ghost saw last night on the road. He said he was watching out for you,” Wolf told the girl.

  “Really? Can I pet him?” Missy asked.

  “Sure, he won’t bite unless you’re a bad guy and then he’ll rip your throat out,” Wolf said morbidly.

  Missy worked up her courage and stroked the big black wolf’s soft fur. Sitting as he was with his big puppy dog eyes and wagging tail, he certainly did not look like he ever bit anyone although he was certainly capable of it. Even sitting on his haunches, he was as tall as Missy and outweighed her by at least eighty pounds.

  The three kids and the wolf played in the woods for most of the day. Wolf and Ellyssa showed Missy all of their favorite places and just spent their time running, jumping, and exploring, enjoying the feeling of total freedom, and for Missy, a rare day without fear. Hunger finally drove the two girls back to the keep. Wolf stayed behind so he could plan his own raid later on when the cooks were not likely to expect it.

  Later that evening after the supper meal, Ellyssa and Missy were up in Ellyssa’s room along with Roger and several other children playing games and talking about school. Missy was amazed and delighted at the colored balls of light they made fly around the room but she soon started crying.

  “What’s the matter, Missy, why are you crying?” Ellyssa asked, laying a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just that everything is so great here and I think about my brother and the other kids having to stay with that bad man,” Missy said sadly.

  “Your brother is still in that terrible place? Why didn’t he come with you?” Ellyssa asked.

  “He was supposed to. He spent a long time cutting through one of the bars over the window. Every day he was able to cut a little bit more with a saw he made. The night he finally got it cut all the way through, he bent it up and held a bed sheet while I climbed down but the bad man came in the room and saw us. Derran told me to run away. I think he hit the bad man. I could hear the man hitting Derran really hard over and over but he just kept yelling for me to run so I did.”

  “Could you find the house you lived in again if we took you?” Ellyssa asked.

  “Yeah, but why? You won’t make me go back will you?” Missy asked in a sudden panic.

  “No, of course not. I say we go and rescue your brother and any other kids that are still there,” Ellyssa said with certainty.

  “We can’t!” Missy exclaimed with dread. “He’s a bad man and big. We’re just kids.”

  “We are not just kids, Missy, we are wizards. We can take care of the bad man and any guards he has. Trust me,” Ellyssa assured her and several of the other children added their support as well.

  “Don’t you think we should tell the grownups first? Maybe they would help,” Missy asked tentatively.

  Ellyssa shook her head. “Azerick probably would but Magus Allister and Rusty probably wouldn’t do anything to break the law. They would probably just tell the magistrate, and if he is a rich man or a noble, they probably wouldn’t do anything. This is something we have to do ourselves. Who is this man anyway?”

  “His name is Lord Potsworth. He is big and really fat and he smells like bad cheese. He likes to wear these big rings on his fingers that really hurt when he hits you,” Missy went on describing the man in detail.

  “It sounds like the man that tried to buy me and got mad when Azerick bought me instead,” Ellyssa said after Missy finished describing him. “Azerick would definitely help us if he was here and I bet he would like it if we rescued the other kids from him. He did not like that man at all. In fact, Azerick blasted him that night and sent him flying.”

  Missy’s face suddenly drained of color. “That must have been that night he came home so angry. None of us had ever seen him so mad before. He beat us all really bad that night.”

  Ellyssa could not help feeling guilty but she was angry even more so.

  “I say we go get him tonight and rescue everyone,” Ellyssa said with determination.

  “I’m in,” Roger said and put his hand in the center of the circle they were sitting in.

  “I’m in too,” Stephanie said and added her hand.

  All of the children quickly added their own small hands to the circle, one atop the other. Once they were all in, the kids pumped their hands one time and prepared for the mission.

  The children all went and grabbed their jackets and exchanged their slippers for shoes or boots. Ellyssa went into the vault and looked through the magical scrolls Azerick kept down there. He had given Ellyssa several classes on reading and using magical scrolls which would allow her to cast the spells written on them even if they were spells that she could not normally cast given her current skill.

  She plucked out a couple scrolls she thought she might need and closed up the vault. She turned to run back up the stairs but stopped when she found Grick looking at her from down the hall.

  “What is troublesome girl doing in Master Azerick’s vault?” Grick asked.

  “I was just looking for something,” Ellyssa replied evasively.

  Grick looked at her shoes, the quiver of darts on her hip, and the way she was dressed. “Look more likes you be going rat whacking to me.”

  “Yeah, me and some of the other kids were going to go rat whacking tonight—outside.”

  Grick nodded suspiciously. “Must be big rat. Maybe big rat like Grick kill in master’s bedroom, eh? You be careful, big rats be tricky sometimes, bite hard.”

  “We’ll be careful, Grick, thanks.”

  Ellyssa ran up the stairs to her room where the rest of her gang was waiting. Ellyssa told them they would wait until it was later when the rest of the keep went to sleep. While they waited, they went over their plan. Ellyssa’s biggest fear was getting past the guards that now walked along the wall and around the outside of the keep.

  She hoped that she had found the solution to that problem in one of the scrolls she took from the vault. Ellyssa made frequent trips down the stairs to see if everyone was asleep yet. It was mostly the kitchen staff that she needed to be gone since that was where they would sneak out.

  The troop of six children crept down the stairs, cut through the dining room, and into the kitchen.

  Ellyssa lifted the crossbar out of the brackets, gently set it aside with Roger’s help, and opened the door. The kids crept past the new extension where the new kitchen had been built and behind the building where the kitchen staff slept.

  The wall was not far from the kitchen billets but farther than it used to be. This section of the wall had been torn down and moved several hundred feet out from where the old wall had been. Ellyssa picked a spot in the wall near where it butted up against the shear granite cliff that towered hundreds of feet over the keep grounds.

  Ellyssa flipped through the scrolls and found the one she wanted. Her face was illuminated by the runes as they flared up and burned out as she read the spell from the scroll. A shimmering hole opened near the wall making it look as though there was a large breach. Ellyssa waved to her gang hidden next to the kitchen billets. Roger led the troop through the magical portal with his shambling gait where it dumped them out at the edge of the woods three hundred yards from the wall.

  Ellyssa stepped through the gate as the last child ran through. It snapped shut
behind her as she stepped through and stopped for a moment trying to shake off the disorienting effects of the spell. She saw Roger sitting against a tree surrounded by the others, holding his nose.

  “Roger, what happened?” Ellyssa asked.

  “When I ran through the portal—I hit a tree,” Roger said, embarrassed.

  “What’s everyone doing out here?” Wolf asked, startling the others as he stepped from behind one of the larger trees.

  “We’re going into the city to rescue some kids from a mean fat man,” Ellyssa said sharply, aggravated at her own jumpiness. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Ghost said you all probably needed my help,” Wolf replied.

  Ellyssa looked at the large black wolf that cocked his head and looked back innocently.

  “Do you want to come with us?”

  “Sure, sounds like fun,” Wolf replied.

  The squad of children and one big wolf walked a large half circle through the woods to avoid being seen by whoever was on the walls. Almost all of the martial students were boys except for Roger’s sister, Melissa, and three other girls. It was a dark moonless night so it was very unlikely anyone would have seen them even at half the distance but Ellyssa was not taking any chances.

  It was well after midnight when they finally reached North Haven’s outer city wall. Ellyssa did not have another long step scroll and it was highly unlikely that they could sneak past the guards. The main gate was closed and the guards would have to open the sally port to let anyone in or out of the city. Ellyssa figured it was best not to even try to sneak past and strolled boldly up to the gate with her retinue in tow.

  “What are you kids doing outside the city this late?” the guard standing in front of the sally gate asked, leaning on his spear.

  “My father won a bet with a man in the city and he sent us to collect it,” Ellyssa said confidently.

  “What kind of bet? What are you supposed to collect and why so late at night? And why did he send you kids and not come himself?”

  “Please, sir, let us through. Pa’s been drinking and he gets real mean when he drinks. He told me to come get the hog he’s owed or he would take a strap to me,” Ellyssa whined, letting tears come to her eyes. “I’m afraid to walk at night so my friends came with me so I wouldn’t be scared.”

  The guard looked at the group of children, his eyes lingering on Wolf and Ghost. “Is that a wolf?”

  “No, sir,” Wolf spoke up. “He’s a wolfhound!”

  “Don’t look like no wolfhound I ever saw before,” the guard replied scratching his head under his bassinet.

  “He’s a special breed used to infiltrate the wolf packs and destabilize them from within their own ranks,” Wolf replied without missing a beat.

  The guard looked at Wolf and blinked a few times in confusion. “Open the gate!” he shouted to his man inside.

  With a clank of iron, the sally gate swung in and let them through the thick, stone wall. Once inside, Missy gave Ellyssa directions, telling her which way to go. The children drew a few curious and possibly hostile looks from other street people but one look at Ghost made them decide to keep to themselves and let the kids pass without incident.

  Missy guided them through the streets and across the city into the wealthy part of the district near the castle. It was slower going the closer they got to the fine manors and mansion, having to avoid the increased number of city watch patrols.

  “That’s it over there,” Missy said, pointing to a large white manor with the blue clay tiles with which the castle and the rich liked to roof their homes.

  “How many guards?” Ellyssa asked.

  “Just two at night, one during the day, and never in the house. Potsworth is too cheap to hire more and he probably does not want too many people to know that he buys children and how he treats them.”

  “How are we going to get past them?” Roger asked.

  “We need to get one of them to open the gate,” Ellyssa said. “Missy, do the guards know you and know that you ran away?”

  “I’m sure they know I got away but I doubt they would recognize me. The guards aren’t allowed inside and we hardly ever got to go out.”

  “I think I have an idea,” Ellyssa said and told everyone her plan.

  A minute later, Ellyssa and Missy walked across the street from where they were hiding and strolled up to the gate. It was made entirely of wrought iron bars so the guard easily spotted them as they stepped into the light of the lamp burning brightly atop the square brick columns on each side of the gate.

  “What are you kids doing out here?” the guard asked.

  Missy stepped forward. “My name is Missy. I ran away from Lord Potsworth a couple days ago but I’m hungry and cold. Would you please let me back in?”

  “He told us one of you ran off night before last. Didn’t say nothing about there being two of you.”

  “She’s my friend. I told her Lord Potsworth might let her stay too,” Missy told the guard.

  “Yeah, I suppose he would. All right, get you both inside, quick now.”

  Ellyssa took a pinch of sand from her belt of pouches and spoke the words to her spell.

  “Hey, what’s she do—,” the guard collapsed heavily as the sleep spell took hold of him.

  Wolf led the rest of the gang across the street and inside the gate. Wolf, Roger, and another boy dragged the guard into the small open shed where he normally sat watching the gate while Ellyssa pushed it back shut.

  “Get ready to take care of the other one if you see him,” Ellyssa warned.

  She had barely gotten the words out of her mouth when the second guard stepped around the corner.

  “Hey, what are you kids doing out here?” the guard demanded and strode towards them.

  Two of the girls both took a pinch of sand from their own pockets and dropped the second guard onto the grass, sleeping.

  “Try not to have everyone casting a spell all on the same person at the same time,” Ellyssa advised. “We don’t want to waste the few spells we each have.”

  They left the second guard lying in the shadow of a large hedge where it was unlikely anyone walking down the street would see him. The kids sprinted across the grass, cut through a flower garden with no consideration of the damage, and stopped outside the front door.

  “It’s locked, what do we do now?” Missy asked, trembling as she tried the door.

  Coming back here even with the support of her new friends was absolutely terrifying for her. For almost half her young life, Lord Potsworth had been the ultimate authority and had broken her to subservience by the most cruel and painful methods just as he had with all the children in the house.

  “I got it,” Roger said and stepped forward with a tiny key fashioned of bent wire.

  Roger cast his spell and the lock on the door clicked open at the same time the little wire key the Source consumed the little wire key. Ellyssa pushed the door open and led her troops inside. The foyer was large with an enormous crystal chandelier hanging from the twenty-foot ceiling but was unlit. The floor was tiled in alternating black and white squares each a yard across like a giant chessboard. Rich tapestries decorated the walls, and busts and small statues stood atop fluted pedestals.

  “Everyone lives upstairs,” Ellyssa whispered, pointed up a grand set of stairs that swept out to take up almost half the width of the floor at the bottom but narrowed to perhaps eight feet wide at the top. A red carpet with gold embroidery split the stairs in half, just slightly narrower than the top of the stairs.

  They slowly crept up the stairs with as much stealth as they could muster, fearing with each step that one of the steps would squeak and alert Potsworth to the intruders. They need not have worried. The stairs were made of stone and marble veneer and would not make a sound if every child in the school jumped up and down on them.

  “The kids are in those two rooms. My brother is usually in this one,” Missy pointed out.

  “They’re locked too. Can you open t
hem, Roger?” Ellyssa asked.

  “I only had the one opening spell prepared, sorry.”

  “Potsworth has the keys in his room somewhere,” Missy said, dropping the honorific as a show of defiance.

  Ellyssa walked over to the door Missy said led to Potsworth’s room. She tried the handle and jumped back in surprise when the door suddenly flew open and a large fat man glared down at her with a stout cudgel in his hand.

  “What is going on out here?” Potsworth bellowed.

  Ellyssa sprang back towards to stand with the rest of the group as Wolf stepped forward with his bow drawn and Ethan, one of the larger boys, stepped up with Wolf’s sword tightly gripped in his sweating hand.

  “You better put that little poker away, boy, before I brain you and take it,” the fat lord warned menacingly.

  The master of the house may not have been intimidated by a bunch of children, even if one held a sword and another a bow, but the snarling, hundred and fifty pound wolf that stepped through the group of children was enough to make even the bravest of men take a step back.

  Ellyssa had known Wolf and Ghost for a year now, and in that time she had only seen Ghost as a sort of friendly dog that always followed his half-elf friend about. She had never even seen his teeth except when he was gnawing on a large bone. But the animal that now bared a huge set of fangs and rumbled a terrifying growl from deep in its chest made even her nervous. Ellyssa always supposed Ghost was capable of hurting someone, but this was the first time she saw that the wolf was quite willing to do it as well.

  “Drop the club, fat man, or Ghost tears your throat out,” Wolf ordered.

  “How dare you insult me in my home and threaten me with weapons and a vicious dog!” Lord Potsworth railed indignantly. “Do you have any notion of what it feels like to take a man’s life, boy?” Potsworth asked, regaining his courage from the fact that no one has harmed him yet.

  “Yes I do. I’ve killed two men and I sleep like a babe,” Wolf replied and loosed his arrow, taking off the top of the fat lord’s right ear.