Sorcerer's Creed Books 1-3

by N. P. Martin

  As I was walking away, the little girl called out to me, and I stopped and turned around. "You know," she said, pointing her knife in an easterly direction. "There's some real good rabbit hunting ground over that way, down in the valley."

  A smile crossed my face. Clever little girl. "Thanks," I said and altered my course to walk in the direction the girl had pointed in.

  12

  Witch's Valley

  After the little mountain girl had indirectly told me where the witch was to be found, I headed off in that direction. A few times I had stop and look around, not because I was lost, but because it felt like I was being watched or followed. When I looked around, however, I couldn't see anyone.

  Maybe it was the little girl, I thought, although that was unlikely, given her wariness of the witch. Someone else then. Perhaps another of the little girl's clan. I didn't know. Nor did I have the time to flush out whoever was out there (if anyone).

  So I carried on regardless, and it wasn't long before the compass needle began to point in the same direction, which meant I was on the right path. Not that there were too many pathways in those woods, which seemed to get denser the further in I traveled. Then, after nearly two hours of walking, the compass needle began to spin. Slowly at first, then faster the further on I walked. It wasn't long before the compass needle was almost a blur it was spinning so fast, and I found myself on the edge of a kind of valley in the mountain that was maybe the length of a football field, but rounder in shape. Geologically speaking, the dip or valley didn't seem to fit with the landscape. It was like something had come along and taken a massive chunk out of the mountain terrain, and then the forest had grown over the hole. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have thought much of it. But since the needle was spinning like mad and I was looking for a highly skilled witch, the incongruous hole in the landscape was evidence enough for me that the witch had something to do with it.

  She was down there in that valley somewhere, I knew. Hiding out under a Cloaking Spell. The trees down below were just a mirage to conceal what was really underneath.

  I put the compass into one of my coat pockets and left my backpack beside a nearby tree, intending to pick it up again after I had the witch under control. I imagined things would get hairy from there on out and I didn't need the extra weight.

  No doubt the whole valley was boobytrapped. Certainly with magickal traps. Perhaps even with physical traps also. Either way, due care was called for.

  By that point, the forest had darkened considerably as evening time drew in. Soon enough, it would be difficult to see much through the trees.

  Better get going, I thought.

  As I started to work my way down into the valley, I soon became aware of an odd presence that seemed to be above me somewhere. Picking a path through the trees and undergrowth, it felt like I was being watched again, although not that vague feeling I had earlier. This was more definite and more deeply felt.

  I was being stalked.

  Hunted.

  Stopping, I turned my attention upwards for a few moments, thinking there was something in the trees somewhere. Then a huge black shape passed silently overhead, and I said, "What the fuck?" to myself.

  Something very big appeared to be stalking me from the sky. I wasn't sure what it was. My first thought was obviously a bird of some sort since whatever it was flying. But since I was in the witch's territory now, I began to wonder if perhaps she had a guard in the form of some supernatural creature. In that case, there were a few possibilities. A weredragon maybe. Or a low-level demon. Or even some bestial nightmare she had created herself.

  Whatever the creature was flying above me, it was not going to let me get much farther into the witch's territory before it inevitably attacked me.

  The creature swooped overhead again, lower this time. A dark shadow against the twilight sky, wings making a whoomfing sound as they displaced the air. The thing was huge. Maybe six or eight feet in length was my estimation, though it was difficult to tell it was moving so fast.

  Then an ear-piercing screeching sound split the silence and echoed through the forest into my ears, causing me to halt once again and involuntarily shrink away from the sound.

  But it was a sound I thought I recognized. A sound I often heard where I grew up in Ireland.

  The sound an owl makes when it's on the hunt.

  More specifically, a barn owl.

  "No," I said, shaking my head. "It can't be a bloody--"

  Before I could even say giant owl, a giant owl burst through the tops of the trees and screeched towards me, it's talon's snapping through branches on the way down as they prepared to grip me. I managed to instinctively drop to the ground just as the barn owl swooped over me, its talons missing me by mere inches. It screeched again loudly as it flew back through the trees and out into the open sky again.

  "Jesus," I said, hauling myself up and beginning to run now through the woods, although where I was going, I had no idea. My original plan had been to keep walking until I sensed the spell that was keeping the witch hidden, then I would try to break the spell to reach the witch. Not that I expected any part of that plan to be easy since I knew the witch was aware of my presence and would do everything to fight me off--or kill me. Obviously, the giant barn owl was phase one of her security measures.

  As I ran, still aware of the owl circling overhead, I pulled out my pistol, thinking I could shoot the owl the next time it swooped in on me. Rather unhelpfully, I also noticed the trees had thinned where I now was, leaving more room for the owl to not only see me but also to fly down at me without any obstruction to its massive body. But I had to keep moving anyway. There was no going back.

  A minute later, I entered into a large clearing that brought into view the now dark and starry sky above. Looking up, I searched for the owl but saw no sign of it anywhere.

  Maybe it's gone, I thought.

  I went to walk across the clearing and was stopped suddenly as if I had walked into an invisible brick wall.

  I knew it. A wall of magick.

  Which meant the witch was behind it somewhere, perhaps watching me even now from the other side. Preparing to kill me most likely.

  Putting away my pistol, I held both hands out in a peaceful gesture. "I know you can see me," I called out. "I just want to talk to you, that's all."

  Yeah right. As if she was going to believe that.

  Yet what was I supposed to say? That I was sent by Baal to kidnap her and march her to certain death? I doubted that would have gone down too well. I had to at least try and get her to lower her defenses before I started with the strong arm tactics.

  "You want to let me in?" I said to the space in front of me.

  I waited a moment, and nothing happened. Maybe she thought she was safe as long as she didn't lower the magick walls surrounding her. If that were the case, then I would have to try and lower the walls myself.

  Standing back a couple of feet from the invisible wall, I closed my eyes and entered into the Chaosphere in my mind. First I had to see clearly the kind of magick I was dealing with, then I would have to systematically unravel it all until I had made a hole in it, an entrance to the witch's hidden kingdom.

  Which all would have been great had I gotten that far. For ten seconds after closing my eyes, a great force thumped into my back and slammed me into the ground, knocking me half unconscious. Then I felt something hard wrap around my body, which a second later lifted me off the ground, carrying my limp body up into the cold night air until all I could see was darkness and the outline of trees below me.

  The deafening screech that sounded next told me I was gripped within the talons of the giant barn owl, which gripped so tight I could hardly breathe.

  I'm going to get eaten by a giant barn owl, I remember thinking as I had the sensation of being swung around in the air.

  Probably just as well I blacked out soon afterward.

  13

  Eden Obscured

  When I next awoke, I opened my eyes and
had them immediately blinded by bright sunlight. "Jesus," I said turning my head away from the UV rays as they seared my retinas. I shielded my eyes with one hand the next time I opened them, holding my hand there until I was able to keep my eyes open without feeling like someone was shining a light directly on them.

  It was green underneath me, and I realized I was lying in grass that felt unusually soft and lush to the touch. Despite the lushness of the grass, I assumed I was still in the forest somewhere. I was also grateful I didn't still have the giant barn owl's talons wrapped around me.

  But wait, I thought. It was almost full dark before I lost consciousness after being snatched up by the owl. Now it was daylight. Surely I hadn't been out that long?

  I went to sit up and a pain registered in my back and around my ribs that made me freeze, afraid to move again in case I made the pain worse. The owl's talons had crushed me. God know's what damage the thing had done. Thank God for my trench coat, which seemed to have prevented the owl's talons from piercing my body. Otherwise, the pain and damage would have been a lot worse.

  Gritting my teeth, I made another effort to move again, this time managing to sit up and start to look around at where I was.

  I was in the witch's little kingdom I had by then realized. And what a kingdom it was. A virtual paradise of lush, exotic vegetation in the form of brightly colored plants and flowers, trees with beautiful reddish-gold leaves and large patches of carefully tended beds of rich soil filled with all manner of herbs, some I recognized, some I didn't. Flowing streams and babbling brooks interspersed all of the greenery, feeding the soil and providing a habitat for the many fish that flashed silver under the surface of the water. Hummingbirds of all types mined for nectar in the hundreds of flowers that seemed to grow everywhere. Insects and butterflies of a type I had never seen before buzzed and fluttered about in the warm air. As I breathed in, my nostrils tingled pleasantly at the array of scents coming from the flowers and plants.

  This is Eden, I thought in wonder. More beautiful even than the Hanging Gardens in the center of Babylon.

  Not the type of place I expected an evil witch to be hanging out in. At the very least, I expected a massive, scraggy castle that was cold and dank inside and which was surrounded by perpetual night and all manner of foul creatures.

  Speaking of creatures, where was the owl? Hopefully, outside of the paradise, I was currently situated in. There was no place for a six feet tall barn owl in Eden. Creatures like that should stay in the dark woods where they undoubtedly belonged.

  I managed to stand up, grunting and wincing at the pain in my back and ribs. I didn't think anything was broken. Not severely anyway. Maybe a few cracked ribs. Enough to slow me down, though, at least until I had access to my healing ointments, which I reminded myself, where in the backpack I left behind in the woods.

  When I sat up, I looked to my right, down the long garden to the quaintest cottage I'd ever seen. With its whitewashed walls, perfectly thatched roof and the immense amount of flowers and shrubs planted around it, I was reminded of those pictures you see in some people's houses. Pictures that depict little fantasy cottages that you just know are too quaint to be true.

  Except this one was. Again, I was surprised that I wasn't looking at the walls of a foreboding castle or a dark tower that reached far into the sky.

  What kind of evil witch lives in a place like this? I wondered. I'd met a lot of truly evil people over the course of my lifetime, and none of them hung out anywhere like the light-filled Garden of Eden I was standing in.

  "I suppose you are wondering where you are?" said a voice and I snapped my head around to see that a woman with short blonde hair and a white summer dress had emerged from behind a clump of bushes that seemed to bear a strange fruit that I had never seen before. The woman also had a barn owl resting on her shoulder. A normal sized one. And from the way the owl was looking at me, I knew it had to be the same one that snatched me from the woods.

  I just stared at the woman for a long moment as I took her in. Age-wise, she looked to be in her early thirties or thereabouts, although with sorcerer's it could be hard to tell their real age (as you know already). She was pretty, I'd give her that. More than pretty actually. That much was obvious after just a few seconds of looking at her. Margot Celeste was beautiful, and naturally so. Her frame was slender, her curves perfectly shaped. The woman exuded charm and effortless sex appeal.

  But then, most of the witches I had ever met came across the same way. Witches were usually powerful, independent and deeply in touch with themselves and their sexuality. All of that could make them quite alluring and often easy to fall for. If you were able to trust them, that is. My experience with witches had taught me never to trust them. For one, most of them had a deep-seated hatred of men. And for another, they always had an agenda, either their own or that of their coven's if they belonged to one. Or both.

  Up until that point, I had no reason to believe that Margot Celeste would be any different. Still, she did not seem at all evil to me right then. And I knew evil better than most.

  "You're familiar, I take it?" I said, nodding at the owl on her shoulder before getting to my feet. "For an owl, it makes a good guard dog."

  As if understanding what I said, the owl did that thing they all do and swung its head around in a circle as if taunting me before letting out a triumphant sounding screech.

  Screw you Mr Barn Owl, I thought. If my Garra Wolf were here, he would make short work of you.(Linked Comment)

  Margot Celeste smiled then. "Oh really? Do you own a Garra Wolf? How very exotic of you."

  What the fuck?! Did she just read my mind?

  "Yes, I did. Your magick, including your wards and defenses, will not work in this place."

  "You neutralized my magick?" I was too surprised to be that angry about it. Besides that, I was so enthralled by the witch at that point that I didn't think I would need my magick anyway. Of course, that was just my cock that had me thinking such foolish things. But when the little head demands the attention of the big head, you don't have a choice but to listen, right? Right?

  "Did you think I would trust that you wouldn't try to use your not inconsiderable magick against me?" she said, then turned her head to the owl and whispered something to it. A second later, the owl launched itself off the witch's shoulder and flew right towards me, pulling up at the last second, so it just missed my head.

  "Your familiar has an attitude problem," I said, glad the damn bird had finally flown off to eat a mouse or whatever it was barn owls normally did.

  "Barney has served me well over the years."

  "Barney?" I couldn't help smiling. "Where you seven when you named it that?"

  I could see her trying not to smile. "It's just a name. Speaking of which, what is yours? I could root around inside your head and find out, but I'd prefer to allow you the courtesy of telling me yourself. Despite the fact that you showed me no such courtesy by turning up at my doorstep uninvited."

  She had a point, I supposed. "The names Creed. August Creed."

  "August Creed," she said as if my name was familiar to her. "I know you. You have quite a reputation around the city."

  "A reputation for what?"

  "For doing the things others don't want to do."

  I thought about that for a second. "As close a job description as any, I suppose. I'm surprised our paths haven't crossed by now."

  She gave me an easy smile as she ran her slender fingers over the leaves of the bush that bore the unfamiliar fruits. I watched as she plucked one of the dark purple fruits from the bush and held it up, the fruit about the size of a tennis ball in her hand. "This fruit is my own creation," she said with a hint of pride. "Most of what you see in here is my own creation."

  She tossed the fruit towards me, and I caught it easily with one hand but winced as I strained my cracked ribs. The smooth-skinned fruit felt somewhere between an apple and a plum. "Are you trying to poison me?"

  "Poison you?" She
laughed as if the idea was ridiculous. "If I wanted you dead you would be dead already."

  "And why aren't I?" It was a question I wanted to know the answer to. "You read my mind. You probably know why I'm here. Maybe you even know who sent me."

  She came closer then, stopping right in front of me as if I was no danger whatsoever to her. Which I wasn't, not without my magick anyway. "Don't you want to taste the fruit, August?" she asked, her clear gray eyes focused right on me.

  I caught her scent as well then, which came across as exotic and as alluring as the scents that permeated the garden around us. Soon it became just her and me as if someone had turned down the dimmer switch on the rest of the world.

  Then she seemed to glide forward, and I felt her take my hand, the one that still held the dark fruit, and she guided the fruit towards her mouth and took a slow bite out of it. Juice immediately sprang from the fruit and ran down her chin. Her eyes never left me as she began to push my own hand towards my mouth and I bit into the fruit. I had never tasted anything like it. Sweet. Succulent. Juicy. Everything a fruit should be.

  As sticky juices ran down my own chin, I became intensely aware of my desire for the witch. In my mind, I wanted nothing else in the universe but her. I wanted to taste her. To taste every part of her, knowing full well that she would taste even better than the fruit I'd just had.

  Before I knew it, her face was right in front of mine, and her mysterious eyes were looking into me. She might have been reading my mind again, but I didn't care. I was so captivated by her presence it felt like I could have stood there for the rest of time and just stared into those eyes. Into that face.