SORCERER (The Elemental Magic Series Book 1) (24 page)

"Nice trick but now you don't have a knife," said a man stepping from behind a tree with a sneer.

"I was thinking of walking over and grabbing it, then introducing myself," Alec told the man.

"I think we'll leave the first part out for now. I'm Merrill and this is my land and that was my road you were riding on earlier,” he said with a leering grin. “You forgot to pay your tax young man. I think the pouch and the horse should pretty much cover it. "

"I don't think I much care for taxes, so I'll just take my horse and knife along with my pouch and leave you in peace." He was fairly sure the shield in front of him was up, plus his steel skin shield was still up.

"Well young man I might have agreed to that but Timmy over there won't. See, this is his pay and he really likes the horse."

Alec looked to Merrill's right and saw Timmy crouched and holding a crossbow aimed at him.

"Why?" Alec asked. He was scared but still confident in his shields.

"Timmy, I think he needs some persuading."

At that Timmy shot his arrow. It hit the shield in front of him and stopped then dropped to the ground. Alec felt the shield dissipate a moment later.

Thinking he'd rather not get hurt or hurt anyone else he fed his power into a fireball over his hand. He was going to see if he could bluff his way through this.

"You made a mistake when you came to rob me. I'm betting you didn't know I'm a sorcerer who is out on a suspension."

Merrill's face turned white. "I think it might be best if we were to go collect elsewhere. The horse looks a bit mean spirited anyway," he said as they both backed away. Alec heard hooves pounding the ground a minute later.

He kept his internal shield up just in case, but let the fireball go. He was shaking, he just didn't know if it was from being scared or from excitement.

He unpacked his food and ate a quiet meal breaking out the book on etiquette. The two thieves didn't return and it was actually past lunch. After finally making it through the introduction and court manners, it was really dry reading but he kept at it. The next chapter was on obligations and rights of succession. It was rather enlightening and he could see logic to some of it.

Unable to force himself to read any more he mounted the horse after grabbing his knife and rode back to the city.

Chapter 25

Alec stopped at the gate and dismounting reported the attempted robbery to the guards.

They laughed at him thinking he was making it up, in that he still had his things. They stopped abruptly when he demonstrated the fact that he was a sorcerer by holding out a ball of fire that got their attention quickly.

He was asked to wait while they fetched their captain, in a very polite way. Alec stood next the guard house where he’d tied his horse to a hitching post waiting for the Captain. One of the guardsmen came back leading an older man around his late forties with a fair amount of gray and a look of no nonsense to him.

"Captain Mel. I'm told you need to file a report." He said holding a hand out for Alec to shake.

Alec took his hand giving it a good firm shake. "Yes sir, I was accosted just outside the city and thought you should know."

"Rightly so, let’s take a seat in the house and I'll take down your story son."

He led the way through the guard house to a room that was obviously their mess hall and pointed him toward a bench.

"What will you have, an ale or a spit of wine?"

"Ale please." Alec hoped it was the right decision having never had one not watered before.

Captain Mel sat a mug of ale in front of him and took a long pull of his own setting up a quill, ink and some parchment.

"So, let’s hear about what went on out there."

Alec told his story explaining that he was studying to be a sorcerer and why he was out by the river in the first place. He proceeded to tell the captain everything he could remember, being asked the occasional question or being asked to clarify something.

"Thank you son, we've been having a fair amount of trouble from that group of bandits. Now that we've their descriptions we can try to round them up. If we can round them up, would you mind identifying them for the magistrate?" Mel asked him, rolling up the parchment and knotting a string around it.

"Sure, no problem, sir."

"What's your full name and where you staying, just in case we get lucky?"

"Name is Alec Carter and I'm staying with the Countess Morton and her family. If I'm not there they will probably know where I am."

Mel showed him back outside and shook his hand again.

He made his way back to the house and cleaned up changing into one of the outfits he'd ordered and found left on the bed.

Alec made his way to the kitchen with a good three hours till supper. He began chopping the meat into very small pieces removing the fat on it as he went but leaving enough to give some flavor of its own.

The cook, Brian, showed up and complimented him on his skill with the knife. When he was done with meat he chopped the veggies while Brian busied himself getting out the things for his desert. After adding the juice from half a lemon to his mix of meat, beans and tomatoes he let it all simmer and turned to help Brian when he wasn't adding to his dish or stirring so it wouldn't burn on the bottom. He tasted his soup adding cumin till he could just barely taste it.

Brian asked Alec if he would mind if he took a taste. Alec was more than happy to have his opinion. Brian told him it was better than any bean soup he'd ever had but wasn't very spicy.

Alec thanked him and said he still had one spice to add yet. Brian pulled his cake from the oven with an hour till supper and Alec started adding his ground hot pepper he added and stirred over the next half hour then moved the pot off the hot coals to a warm stone giving Brian a final taste and covered it with a lid letting it sit and soak in its own juices.

Brian left the kitchen to set the table telling Alec to stay there and that he would be introduced with his soup to George.

Brian took some morning bread and butter out to the table and came back asking if he was ready. Alec said he was and carried his soup to the table as Brian rang the bell. Alec took the offered spot and stood beside a chair as Jessica and George came to the dining room.

George was a taller man with a fair amount of muscle on him with a little gut that said he enjoyed good food. He could see both Bill and Allen in the strong cheek bones of his face. George held Jessica's chair for her and sat himself. Brian served the bean soup to them while Alec stood by his chair like Brian had told him the plan was.

"Your bean soup, Master George." Brian stated as he set the bowl in front of him.

He didn't touch it. Instead he looked from Brian to Jessica to Alec and settled back on Jessica. 

"OK, what's the joke? When I get back I hear my wife is walking the town with a good looking young man with his description." he said pointing at Alec with his spoon. "Then I'm served bean soup which is one of the blandest meals I know of, next to shoe leather."

Jessica laughed and George sat waiting. "Try it dear." She told him.

He took a spoonful hesitantly and his eyes opened wide, then a second which he savored the taste of.

"This is great." He told Brian keeping an eye on Alec.

"The meal was prepared by the young man, sir." Brian told him.

George stood and crossed over to Alec and extended his hand. "George Morton."

"Alec Carter, sir." He said as he took the offered hand.

"Have a seat please, son." He said heading back to his own. "So you’re the one Christi's been buttering me with in her letters."

George went on and on about the soup finally asking him to make sure Brian could reproduce it. He invited Alec to sit with them in the siting room where George pored each of them a glass of wine while Jessica sat waiting patiently with a smug little smile on her face. George took his seat and asked Alec how he liked the city so far and how he'd been occupying his time.

Alec told him he liked it fine and had met George's father and the elusive Marten. He went on to explain that he was continuing his studies.

"Which reminds me, I'm sorry, sir. I almost burned down your garden shed. I offered to pay for the damage but your lady wife wouldn't have it." Alec apologized then went on to explain exactly what had happened and that he took full responsibility for it.

"You mean that little shed in the back of the flower garden, you lit the thing on fire?" George had a smile on his face for some reason. "So is it ashes or not?" The excitement was clear in his voice.

"No sir, I was able to put it out."

"Damn it to hells. I don't suppose you'd try again would you? I'll pay you for it."

"Sir?" Alec was confused until George went on to say it was an item of contention between Jessica and him.

He wanted the eye sore gone but she refused to allow him to tear it down and build her a new one. 

George asked what he'd been about today and Alec told him he'd rode out of the city to the shore of the river to practice his spells where he couldn't damage anything.

"I'd be careful out there. Some bandits have been making a bother of themselves lately." George told him.

"So I heard. First hand even, sir."

At which point Jessica asked if he'd had a run in with them, seeing the look on his face. He confessed that he had and George demanded the full complete story.

Alec gave him the blow by blow and finished by saying he reported the incident to the guards at the gate. With the day having been a long one Alec told them he was heading to bed.

Back in his room Alec read more of the book. It said that most first born sons were commonly required to marry for the sake of bettering the position of the entire family and that it was not uncommon for a man of lesser status to be considered a full member of the woman’s family; however that was the decision of the wives’ father.

Any other children were to be considered as a fall back in case of unfortunate circumstances, be it death or disowning. Most families allowed children who were not the first born to marry as they saw fit so long as it did not lower the families reputation.

However it wasn't uncommon for a father to choose a woman’s husband for her if she didn't find one in a reasonable amount of time. It was the duty of an unwed man to get to know their prospective spouses family as well as possible before sending a go between. If the two lived a fair distance away from one another it was common for the bride’s family to house the young man in an effort to get to know him. Many families will include the young man they are in favor of in social and business functions.

Now Alec understood what Jessica had meant about putting him out there when they had seen Lady Hale. The book went on to explain everything from obligations to the crown to welcoming visitors.

At breakfast the next morning George told him he could go with him, as he had a few things to do around town if he liked. Alec accepted thinking the man was a bit abrupt and strait forward but found himself liking that about him.

The day turned into a question and answer session, with Alec doing the answering as George went to various businesses and checked if the owners need anything special. He knew most of the shop keepers by first name and would introduce Alec as “the young man staying with them from Christi's school.” From what Alec could tell George seemed to deal honestly with his costumers and genuinely enjoyed getting out and talking to them.

It was a long day for Alec but he found himself really liking the strait forward thinking man.  That evening he was so tired he went to bed without reading from the book or seeing the letters on the table in his room, falling asleep as his head hit the soft pillow.

The next morning he found the letters after his shower and took them with him, packing his book and a pouch of coins with him down to breakfast. He told the Mortons that he was planning to leave the city to practice his spells again. Jessica told him to be careful and George made a comment toward practice being the same as being successful and left after breakfast.

Alec told Jessica that he wouldn't be back in time for supper and not to hold it for him. He intended on finishing where he’d left off the other day.

He made his way out of the city picking up things for a lunch and supper this time. Alec quickly made his way to the little clearing by the river looking for signs that the bandits had come back. After putting his internal shield in place he found a sandy spot next to the river and sat reading his spell book. The next chapters detailed working with earth, water and air.

It explained how to push his power in to each and then his vision of what he wanted it to do and the difference of using a snap spell or a continuous spell in each. He found working with earth used a fair amount of power to do anything.

He tried forming it using snap spells and making it move with a continuous spell and was able to do them, they were just harder and they took more power than he expected. Water was easy to pull or push to a spot using a snap spell and he had fun moving it in swirls and spouts with a continuous spell. It barely used any power. He then tried it with air, he could make it blow out a flame he'd lit on the end of a stick and created little dust devils across the sand. It wasn't as easy as with water and fire but really didn't take too much power. When he was done testing his abilities his stomach reminded him it was past time to eat.