The Sorcerer's Abyss (The Sorcerer's Path)

by Brock Deskins

  “Wonderful, our secret weapon has arrived,” Andrill said. Ellyssa took a place next to the table.

  Ellyssa looked at Andrill and Braxis and said, “It looks like you started the battle early,” commenting on the cuts and bruises evident on both men’s faces.

  Andrill gave his usual charming smile. “Some people are reluctant to give information or provide assistance, but everyone has their breaking point.”

  “This is our secret weapon?” a large, thick-necked man asked as if Ellyssa’s presence were a joke.

  “I assure you, Trevor, she is quite formidable,” Andrill replied. “Have you heard of the Witch of North Haven?”

  Trevor looked at Ellyssa as if he were sizing up a horse before placing a bet. “This slip of a girl?”

  “This slip of a girl has killed dozens of slavers, sank their ships, and battled several Academy wizards at once and prevailed. If Faralynn has shown us anything, it is not to judge one’s strength by simple body mass.”

  “I hope you are right,” the house leader replied.

  Andrill turned his attention back to her. “Ellyssa, this is Trevor, another house leader whom I trust enough to help in this endeavor. Understand this is going to be an enormous operation. We have hundreds of our members poised to strike at nearly every one of Faralynn’s chapter houses. Our job is to take out Faralynn and her wizard. Our targets are always together and currently in a manor a few blocks from here. We know from experience the wizard is able to detect our presence the instant we come near any place in which they are residing. It is probably the biggest factor in our inability to bring Faralynn down.”

  “He would definitely have the place warded,” Ellyssa confirmed.

  “Precisely, and that is where you come in. We need you to get us past those wards so we can get close enough to strike before kicking the hornet’s nest. Until now, any spies I sent anywhere Faralynn resided were killed before they got near the house. Can you get us closer?”

  Ellyssa chewed her lip as she thought. “Most wizards cast wards in layers. A full block is stretching even an alarm ward thin, so it probably won’t be that complex. Unless he is exceptionally masterful, I should be able to breach it without detection. The problem will be the inner wards. Those are bound to be harder, and even if I can dismantle them, doing so without his knowledge could be challenging.”

  Andrill nodded as he followed along. “If you can get us up to the doors, it should be sufficient to give us a chance. At that point, your job is to neutralize the wizard before he incinerates us all. Without his interference, we will have a much more level playing field.”

  “Faralynn will probably be thinking the same thing and send her wizard after me, so it shouldn’t be too hard to separate the two of them.”

  “You have a good head for tactics,” Andrill commended.

  “I had a good teacher.”

  Trevor interjected, “Our people are in position and waiting on our signal. Best we get ourselves placed as well.”

  “Ready?” Andrill asked.

  Ellyssa swallowed down her nervousness and twitched her head in an affirmative. Several men and a few women closed ranks behind them as they led the way out of the manor and onto the street. Ellyssa took the lead since no one knew precisely where the boundary to the wizard’s wards lay.

  Dark shapes flitted across rooftops and down alleys as the party moved toward Faralynn’s redoubt with as much stealth as nearly a hundred bodies could make. Ellyssa sent very subtle tendrils of detection magic ahead of her in hopes of sensing the ward without alerting its creator.

  Andrill warned her in a whisper they were drawing close to Faralynn’s mansion. A moment later, Ellyssa held up a hand, stopping everyone in their tracks. It was a weak ward and easy to disassemble without alerting the wizard who created it. Andrill made a slight motion and a woman in her thirties immediately appeared at his side.

  “How many lookouts have we crossed?” Andrill asked the woman.

  “Seven,” she answered, “all neutralized.”

  They had already killed seven people? Ellyssa never heard a sound, nor had anyone around her given any indication they had known any hostiles were nearby. Yet the only person who appeared the least bit surprised by this information was Ellyssa.

  “Ellyssa, we will need to move with a great deal of stealth from here out,” Andrill told her.

  They weren’t already? Ellyssa quickly gained a newfound respect for these thieves. They obviously honed their skills every bit as much as she did to the point where it too was almost magical to her thinking.

  “Stick near to me and do exactly as I tell you.”

  Ellyssa nodded and moved as quietly as she could. Andrill directed her toward shadows looking no different to her from any other stretch of road or walkway. He pointed to where she should step and how to bend her body to conform to whatever they were currently using for concealment.

  They stopped before reaching the end of the street opening in front of a long, stone and wrought iron wall. Ellyssa stretched her probing magic out across the street and lightly brushed against the ward surrounding the entire complex.

  “The wall is warded,” she informed the thief leader.

  “Can you take it down from here?”

  Ellyssa swung her head from side to side. “I’ll have to get closer, preferably right up against the wall.”

  Andrill made a motion with his left hand and several thieves disappeared behind them. A moment later, Ellyssa heard the soft twang of a crossbow padded to be especially quiet from the roof of the building next to her. Three more muffled shots quickly followed the first. Andrill then motioned for her to proceed to the wall, guiding her with a hand on her back.

  Ellyssa stopped a few feet from the wall and used her magic to get a closer look at the ward. She chewed her lip as her magic revealed a ward significantly more complex than the first. She followed the strands comprising the weave of the spell with her mind before attempting to unravel it. It was extraordinarily difficult, like choosing a single thread in a tapestry, following it across the entire weave, and removing just that thread without disturbing any of the others.

  Minutes passed and Ellyssa could feel Andrill’s mounting anxiety. Only the shadow of the wall they crouched near provided any sort of concealment, and another guard could happen upon the ones killed a few minutes ago and raise an alarm.

  Ellyssa pulled free one last thread and announced her success. “Got it.”

  “Does the wizard know you have disabled it?” Andrill asked.

  “I don’t think so, not unless he deliberately checks on it. Now what?”

  “We get over the wall and hope there are no more of these damned things,” Andrill said.

  The rest of the thieves scurried across the street and pressed against the stone wall. Small grappling hooks trailing rope the same color as the stone arced over and attached to the wrought iron spearheads. Men and women in dark clothes scaled the ropes and disappeared over the wall as quickly as Ellyssa could have covered the same distance walking down the sidewalk. And with about as much ease.

  Andrill helped Ellyssa up the rope and quickly dropped down beside her on the other side of the wall. Most of their allies had already vanished into the shadows and shrubs, their existence occasionally punctuated by a muffled cry or soft thud of a body striking the ground.

  “We are doing excellent so far,’ Andrill whispered. “They have been relying on the wizard too much and have gotten lax. Can you feel any more wards?”

  Ellyssa sent her magic forward, crawling along the ground and floating through the air, questing and probing with fingers as light as strands of spider silk. She soon discovered the complex wards cast all along the exterior of the mansion and quickly withdrew from her magical inspection.

  “As I thought, the entire outside of the house is protected,” Ellyssa informed the thieves near her.

  “Can you remove it?” Trevor asked.

  Ellyssa replayed what she saw of the weaves i
n her mind. “I don’t know. These are the primary defensive wards and are much stronger than the others were. They are as strong and well crafted as any I have ever seen. I suggest we be prepared for discovery.”

  Trevor looked grim but Andrill gave her a reassuring smile. “We are far closer than we have been before and are in a good position from which to strike. Do your best, and we shall be ready to act, no matter the outcome.”

  “We need to get closer, but no one must get too near the house,” Ellyssa said.

  Andrill and Trevor whispered and gestured to their nearest cohorts and waited a few minutes for the affirmative replies of their people. The thief bosses received word that everyone understood and motioned the assault group forward.

  Ellyssa motioned for them to stop about ten feet from the mansion’s wall and bent her mind to the task of unraveling the ward. Fresh sweat soon beaded on her brow and ran into her eyes. Ellyssa felt her body fatiguing under the enormous mental exertion she expended on the ward. She began to worry that if the wizard was as adept at fighting as he was at making wards, she could soon be facing a serious challenge.

  ***

  “Now this is interesting,” Rhys said, breaking the silence of the parlor.

  Faralynn looked up from the glass of red wine she was enjoying. She looked at the wizard. The once horribly burned side of his face was locked in concentration. “What is that, Rhys?”

  “Someone is trying to breach my house wards, as they have already succeeded in doing to the two outer ones.”

  Faralynn threw back the remains of the glass and stood abruptly. “Who is it?”

  Rhys closed his eyes and looked into the ether. “I am not sure. A woman, a young one at that.”

  “Academy?”

  “No, I think not. She shows a definite education, but her technique is not well honed. She almost feels like a hedge wizard, strong but informal and unstructured.”

  “Can you defeat her?”

  “Of course,” Rhys scoffed. “She is a child, no matter the evidence of her raw talent.”

  “I recall you saying something similar in regards to a boy who destroyed both your black tower and your face,” the thief responded drolly.

  “That was different and you know it,” the wizard snapped. “That idiot Shakrill summoned a damn demon and lost control.”

  Faralynn thought for moment. “It must be that imbecile Andrill. It seems he found himself a wizard and thinks to unseat me. You say the wizard is young?”

  “She appears to be, possibly only just out of girlhood.”

  “The arrogant fool probably latched on to the first person he found with talent and thinks he can challenge me. Come, Rhys, let us go take care of Andrill and his child wizard.”

  Rhys followed in Faralynn’s angry wake as she shouted an alarm. All through the mansion, thieves relayed the warning and grabbed up their weapons.

  ***

  “Bloody hell!” Ellyssa cursed and stood up. “I’ve been made. Stand back!”

  The two guild bosses took several steps back, removed a copper tube from a pocket, and pulled an attached cord dangling from one end. A bright orb of light streaked out of each of them and rocketed over a hundred feet in the air. Seconds later, several more balls of fire dotted the skies over the city.

  Ellyssa drew in the Source and hurled it against the stone and stucco wall before her. The barrier shattered and blasted chunks of stone into the interior of the house, striking down several thieves who were already racing to the defensive. Dark shapes erupted from the shadows and poured through the breach, many leading with the twang of crossbows before pulling blades and diving headlong into a brutal melee.

  By the time Ellyssa and Andrill pushed their way through the breach, the spacious ballroom beyond was a press of flashing, thrusting, slashing steel, and twisting bodies. Ellyssa briefly wondered how the combatants could tell friend from foe. Fortunately, such was little of her concern. Her job was to find the wizard and remove him from the battle.

  Ellyssa had to wait only a moment for the wizard to appear. A slight tingling on the back of her neck was the only warning she got before the entire length of wall behind her and Andrill erupted into flames. Ellyssa managed to raise a protective shield an instant before the fire washed over her and the guild boss. Several thieves nearby were not as fortunate. Stepping clear of the flames and pulling Andrill along with her, Ellyssa dropped her shield and extinguished the flames trying to seal the breach in the wall.

  “Up there!” Andrill shouted and pointed to a balcony on the second floor.

  Ellyssa responded immediately, launching a fat ball of fire from her hands where it exploded in the alcove where the wizard had been standing. Ellyssa knew her strike had missed and looked furtively for the wizard to reappear. Knowing the wizard had simply leapt away, she raked lightning along the second floor, sending chunks of stone and plaster raining down onto the ground floor and destroying an entire length of wall.

  “You need to get that little witch out of here before she brings the entire building down on top all of our heads!” Faralynn shouted at Rhys as they both sought cover around an upstairs corner.

  “Are you all right to defend against Andrill’s men on your own?” Rhys asked.

  “Yes, just break their momentum and I can lead them through the tunnels below and bleed them out.”

  Rhys nodded and emerged at the edge of the gaping hole that had once been a wall. A dozen luminous orbs materialized in a line near the room’s ceiling and streaked down into the melee below. It was not precisely a surgical strike, but most of those struck down by the magical assault were enemy.

  Ellyssa spotted the wizard just as he unleashed his magic. She sent a stream of fiery orbs lancing back at him, but Rhys simply stepped off the ledge and vanished. Ellyssa knew he must have used a gate and looked frantically for him to reappear. Once again, the wizard did not keep her waiting.

  Andrill shoved Ellyssa to the side and dove away in the opposite direction just as a green ray of light with the circumference of a large melon shot between them. The deadly beam burned through half a dozen fighters and several walls beyond them. Ellyssa rolled to her feet and spotted the wizard outside where he had gated in behind them.

  “This is what you have been waiting for. Go get him,” Andrill told her.

  Ellyssa sprinted through the huge fissure in the wall as streaks of arcane power lanced from her hands out into the darkness. She did not expect to hit the wizard, only to keep him moving and on the defensive long enough for her to get clear of the building and outside.

  Anticipating her foe’s tactics, Ellyssa ripped open a gate and dove through just as she cleared the hole in the wall and emerged near the stone and wrought iron fence surrounding the mansion.

  A ball of fire exploded right where she would have emerged had she not leapt through her magical gate at the last instant. The wizard’s fireball illuminated a massive swath of the grounds and revealed his position. Ellyssa released another powerful arc of lightning and shattered the tree immediately behind Rhys.

  Rhys saw the spell coming and dove aside, using his magic to help his legs launch him nearly thirty feet in a single leap. The wizard had another spell on his lips even as his feet touched the ground. Rhys spun toward the girl and curled his right hand into an upward grasping claw.

  The soil beneath Ellyssa’s feet began churning as if something enormous was burrowing its way out to devour her. She leapt away, but the ground burst beneath her in a spray of dark soil and detritus and wrapped around her body. The earthen fist raised her high off the ground. Wind blew her hair back as the hand tried to dash her against the manicured lawn.