Secrets and Spellcraft

by Michael G. Manning

  “They don’t come around here very often,” said the wounded man. “We thought we’d gotten lucky when you came this way.”

  Will was torn. He’d been considering waiting for the patrollers. They would ask him some difficult questions, but he was clearly the victim. Leaving the scene would be a crime, but then again, none of the men knew his name, and he doubted the man who had hired them would go to the authorities.

  But if he left, the man he’d interrogated might die before anyone helped him. “Is there anyone around here who would help you?” asked Will.

  The man nodded.

  “Why aren’t they coming?”

  “They’re all indoors. Probably scared you’ll kill them,” admitted the wounded man.

  That made up his mind for him. “I guess I should leave then.”

  He started to walk away but the wounded man called after him, “My name’s Cedric. If I don’t die, I’ll remember you.”

  Will looked back in disbelief. “Is that a threat?”

  “A debt,” said Cedric, holding up the vial Will had given him.

  Will studied the man for a moment, his expression blank, then he nodded.

  Chapter 23

  Will walked a short distance, then took the first right turn he came across. There were some people in the cross street, so he kept going until he saw an alley he could duck into. Once he was sure he wasn’t being observed, he cast the climbing spell and made his way up to the roof of the two-story building. The climb was agonizing, for his shoulder protested every time he lifted his left arm.

  He tried to make himself comfortable on the roof, then used his belt knife to cut off his left sleeve so he could use it as a bandage. The wound was ugly, but not serious. The biggest danger was that it would turn septic. Getting it properly cleaned and treated would minimize that risk, but he was too tired to move.

  Once he had bandaged it to stop the bleeding, he lay back on the roof to rest. The sun was shining on his face, turning the world orange even through the lids of his eyes, but he fell asleep anyway. When he woke, the sun was still up and he was uncomfortably warm. His armor and tunic were damp with sweat—the blood on his clothes had already dried.

  Everything seemed fine, until Will started to move. His back was in agony and his left arm vigorously protested when he tried to use it to assist in sitting up. I should have gone back to the dorm before resting, he realized.

  He half-grunted, half-laughed in pain as he struggled to get to his knees. Climbing down was going to be a nightmare. Will eased his way down until he could look over the edge and make sure the alleyway was clear. It was, but the street beyond it had gotten busier.

  Without the climbing spell, he would never have made it down without falling, and even with it there were several moments that forced painful cries from his lips. Will flexed his knees once he was down, grateful that at least his legs were still in good shape. Then he set off to find his way back to Wurthaven.

  He walked almost a mile east along one street before stopping to ask for directions, since he wanted to avoid talking to anyone who might have seen his fight. The sooner they forgot his face the better. An old washerwoman pointed out the way he needed to go, and after a mile in that direction he found an intersection he recognized. Will found another alley and removed his cloak, then he switched out his tunic with a more common one that he kept in the limnthal.

  By the time he reached the wall that separated Wurthaven from the city, his muscles had loosened up, but the climb was still painful. He was glad when it was finally over. One more modest walk and he would be back to his room.

  Will was almost to the entrance when someone called out to him, “Will!” Turning his head, he saw Rob walking toward him. No one’s spoken to me in weeks, and now today of all days…

  “Rob,” he said simply.

  “How have you been?” asked his one-time friend.

  “Not bad.”

  “I wanted to apologize for not being around. I had to leave for a week, so you probably thought I’ve been avoiding you. Well, I did for a little while. I didn’t know what to think. I know you’ve probably had a hard—what’s that on your face?” Rob’s expression turned to one of concern.

  “Probably just dirt—”

  Rob leaned closer, examining his cheek. “That’s blood. There’s dried blood all over the right side of your face. What the hell happened?”

  “I took a bad fall earlier,” said Will weakly.

  “Don’t go inside like that. Wait over there.” Rob pointed to the side of the dorm. “Keep your right side toward the building. I’ll be back soon.” He left, heading toward the bath houses on the other side of the dormitory. He returned a few minutes later, a wet towel in his hand.

  Will used the towel to wipe the crusted blood from his face, and when that wasn’t enough to satisfy his friend, Rob took the towel into his own hands to finish the job properly. “There,” said his friend. “I think you can go in without scaring anyone to death now.”

  Rob followed him inside and stayed with him all the way to his door. Will stopped there and looked back. “I’d invite you in, but I have a lot of work to do.”

  “Oh,” said Rob. “Don’t worry about it. Are you sure you’re all right, though?”

  He nodded. “I’m fine.”

  “You were a little stiff coming up the stairs, and your complexion is off. You still haven’t told me what happened to you. That blood didn’t come from nowhere.”

  “I just had a fall,” repeated Will. “I didn’t even realize I was bleeding.”

  “It didn’t look like it came from your scalp,” countered Rob.

  “I’ll figure it out when I wash up. I’m fine, Rob. We can talk tomorrow.”

  Rob gave him a dubious look. “You still remember where my room is, right? Come find me if you need anything.”

  “I will.”

  After Rob left, Will stripped off his clothing, making a pile on the floor. Then he examined his left arm. There were several ugly punctures in the skin and muscle close to where it met his shoulder. The skin was red and crusted with blood, and Will didn’t like the look of it. He could see a mild bruise around the punctures, but he was mainly worried about the wound turning sour.

  His brigandine was in fair shape, however. One of the plates in the back was dented and a rivet had popped loose, but otherwise it seemed fine. I’d have died if hadn’t been wearing it, he observed silently, remembering the two knife attacks it had stopped, one to his kidney and the other to his gut. Will resolved to never leave the room without it on in the future.

  His grandfather would probably still be alive if he’d been wearing something similar the day he’d been shot with the crossbow.

  Will didn’t feel like using the bathhouse. Not only did it cost money that he couldn’t afford, but he didn’t want to explain his injury. So, as he had done so many other days over the past two weeks, he used the personal bathing spell.

  The scream that ripped free from his throat probably scared his nearest neighbors. Afterward, Will hopped around the room, intermittently swearing and gasping for breath. Apparently, the personal cleaning spell hadn’t been designed with injuries in mind. While his body was now clean, his shoulder throbbed with hot agony and blood dripped from the puncture wounds. The spell had removed the scabs and dirt in the un-gentlest way possible.

  “Why am I always goddamned stupid?” Will swore at himself. He could hear footsteps outside. Someone had probably gone to fetch Dianne. He had to hurry.

  Ignoring his pain, he cast another spell to clean his clothes and then stored his brigandine in the limnthal. When a knock came at his door, he was ready. “Mister Cartwright? Are you in there?”

  Will opened the door wide, making sure Dianne could see his empty room. No bodies here, he thought. “I’m sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I stubbed my toe.”

  “They said it sounded like someone was being murdered,” said Dianne suspiciously, her eyes roving across the innocent-seeming
interior of his room.

  “I overreacted,” explained Will. “I’m not very good with pain.”

  Dianne’s eyes met his. She seemed unconvinced. “Somehow, I doubt that, William.” She turned away. “Try to keep it down.”

  He shut the door and sank to the floor with relief. Blood was already seeping through the fabric of his hastily donned tunic. He’d have to clean it again. Fortunately, he’d kept his left side away from Dianne while she looked in. He removed the tunic and re-bandaged his shoulder.

  With that done, he removed the purses he had taken from the street bravos and examined their contents. There was a mixture of coins that when added up didn’t quite total ten crowns in value. He also counted the purse of gold his buyer had given him, and he was happy to see that it did indeed contain a hundred gold crowns.

  Adding up everything he had, plus the remaining gold he could make from selling blood-cleansing potions to the college, he would need to earn another two-hundred and seventy crowns to pay the blood-price. “And I’ve got the rest of this week, plus next week, in which to do so,” he muttered. “How hard could it be?”

  A year before he couldn’t have imagined having ten crowns, much less a thousand. If he could just get past his current difficulty, he could easily make enough money in the future to take care of his family indefinitely. It was a sobering thought.

  The ring’s plan was looking more appealing the closer he got to the deadline. But do I dare? There were good reasons that no one tried to do what he was considering.

  “Then again,” he muttered. “Very few people are willing to make powerful potions anymore, given the cost to their futures. If there were more people like me, there might also be more who were willing to risk going to Muskeglun as well.”

  Will tried out the demon armor spell before going to bed. It wasn’t particularly difficult for him now, though he still needed practice to ensure he had it memorized. “Damn, this looks wicked,” he said to himself, watching as red and orange flames flickered over his body. Hopefully he would never need it for its intended purpose, but he could see himself using it to intimidate someone. It might have even been handy during his fight earlier, if he’d been able to cast it without referring to the book first.

  Practice and repetition. Aislinn had been right. A wizard’s greatest asset was knowledge, and Will was determined to do his best to make it his own.

  He didn’t wake in time for his classes the next day. The sun was shining through his window at a steep angle by the time Will turned his head to look, and a shiver ran through him as his blanket fell away. He was freezing.

  “It can’t be that cold,” he said, sitting up. The ache in his bones confirmed that idea. It wasn’t cold—he had come down with a terrible fever. Will checked his arm and saw that the flesh was red and inflamed. “Great,” he said dourly, “just great.”

  With some effort, he got to his feet. He needed to relieve himself, but a trip outside was too much, so he slid the chamber pot out from beneath the bed. His urine was a pink color as it emerged. Definitely bruised my kidney too, he observed.

  He drank some water, courtesy of a jar stored in the limnthal, and then he returned to bed. His sleep was troubled by fever dreams that were only interrupted when his shivering got so bad that it woke him. At some point during the day he drank some more water and made use of the chamber pot again, but the rest of the time he stayed in bed.

  Someone was beating a drum, but the beat was inconsistent. “They’ll never make good music like that,” he mumbled. It was a while before he realized the sound was actually that of someone knocking on his door.

  “Will, are you in there?”

  “No,” he croaked, feeling amused by the genius of his humor. He must have stumbled to the door, for he found his hand on the door handle. Opening it, he looked out. Janice stood in the hallway. “Hi.”

  “Holy Mother! What happened to you?” she asked.

  “Just the usual,” he said. His teeth chattered as he waved his hand dismissively. For some reason the floor swayed beneath him, as though he was at sea. Will smiled. “Don’t worry. I’m an excellent sailor. Watch.” He navigated back to his bed despite the rolling of the waves.

  When he opened his eyes again, he was on the bottom bunk. Someone leaned over him. “Are you awake?” asked a feminine voice.

  It was Selene. Will stared up at her, feeling grateful for her presence. “You have to stop coming here,” he muttered. “You’ll get in trouble.”

  “You weren’t in class for two days,” she replied. “And from what I heard, you missed your afternoon classes the day before that. I was worried.” She removed a towel from his forehead and replaced it with a fresh one. “Your fever isn’t getting better.”

  “That’s all right. They were going to kill me anyway.”

  “Is that how you injured your shoulder? Were you in a fight?”

  He shook his head. “Not a fight really, more of a slaughter. I killed one, maybe two. The others are probably alive, cursing me somewhere. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the demon we fought.”

  “Demon?”

  “Yeah, remember? You killed the priest and then the demon attacked me. You nearly died saving me.”

  Selene’s expression grew worried. “Will, do you recognize me?”

  He smirked. “No. You won’t trick me that easily.”

  “You aren’t making any sense. Do you know who I am?”

  “No,” he said stubbornly. “If I did, I couldn’t love you.” Reaching out, he tried to pull her closer for a kiss, but she slipped his grasp and pulled away.

  “You’re hallucinating. You need a doctor.”

  “Love isn’t a disease,” he responded sagely. “Don’t believe what your father tells you. Besides, I took a blood-cleanse potion. I’ll be fine.”

  She held up a glass vial. “Is that what this is?”

  He nodded. “I made a bunch of them.”

  “There was only one on your desk, and it’s still full.”

  “I’m pretty sure I took it,” he argued.

  She gave him a serious look. “You need to take this.” She unstopped the vial and put one hand behind his head to help him sit up.

  Will was feeling petulant. “Not without a kiss.”

  “I’m not kissing you, Will. You don’t even know who I am,” she told him.

  He chuckled. “I’ll pay. I have money.”

  She was glaring at him. “If I didn’t know you were out of your gourd, I’d make you regret saying that.”

  He grinned. “That’s the going rate, six clima for a kiss from a princess.”

  “I can’t decide if you’re delusional or whether you’ve got a story to tell. I’ll be asking for an explanation when you’re better.” She held the vial up to his lips. “Here, drink it.”

  Will closed his mouth stubbornly. “Uhn-uhn.” When she pulled her hand away, he insisted, “Kiss, or no medicine.”

  She seemed uncertain, then her eyes filled with determination. “You’re going to be embarrassed later, but you asked for this.” Her head leaned in and her lips met his.

  He took the potion after that and she helped him back down. He couldn’t help but note the flush on her cheeks. “I won’t tell your father,” he added reassuringly. “There’s money in my pouch.”

  “I appreciate that,” she said dryly. After a second, she asked, “Wait, you really paid her for kisses?”

  “You paid me first, thief,” he shot back. Something seemed different about Selene, though. “Did you change your hair?”

  Her eyes narrowed, and she sighed. “More than that.”

  Chapter 24

  “Wake up, Will. You need to eat.”

  He sat up with a start. His clothes were damp with cold sweat. Seth sat in a chair beside the bed, a steaming bowl in his hands. Will stared at his old roommate suspiciously. “How long have you been here?”

  “A while.”

  “What day is it?”

  “Friday. You were rantin
g and raving all night.”

  Will felt his cheeks blush. “Did I do anything—unusual?”

  “Aside from talking about fighting demons and thinking I was a girl, no.”

  Will grew still. “That’s it?”

  Seth nodded. “That’s it. Don’t worry.”

  He doesn’t want to embarrass me, Will realized. “You’re a true friend, Seth. Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me too much,” said the other boy. “I’m not moving back in. Besides, it was Janice who found you.”

  “Janice?”

  “She came to bring you her class notes and said she found you out of your mind,” Seth explained. “She asked me to watch over you today.”

  Which one did I kiss? Will wondered, Seth or Janice? He decided it didn’t matter, either way he had embarrassed one of his friends. Sitting cross-legged, he accepted the warm soup and began to eat.

  Seth stayed for another hour, then left. That evening Janice returned, bringing more soup and a pitcher of watered pear cider. Seeing that he was getting around and that his mind was clear, she didn’t stay very long.

  Will made it to the dining hall for every meal over the weekend, and by Sunday afternoon he was feeling much more himself, though his shoulder was still stiff and sore. What worried him most, however, was that he had lost a significant amount of time. He had to appear before the magistrate on Friday, either to show proof that he had paid the fine, or that he had the means to do so.

  He hadn’t even had a chance to confer with Professor Karlovic regarding the regeneration potion. If the professor didn’t have a copy of the old formula, or if there was no way to sell the potion, Will would be in serious trouble. But he didn’t have time to wait.

  Will put on his brigandine and the one of his intact tunics, then he left the dormitory and headed for his favorite wall-crossing spot. The climb wasn’t as painful as it had been the last time, but it was still uncomfortable. From there he made his way to the southern gate. Unlike some of his previous destinations it was easy to find. He merely had to follow the road outside Wurthaven until it met the main street that bisected the city and follow it southward. The walk took almost two hours, but soon enough he was outside the capital and heading into the open countryside.