The Sorcerer's Abyss (The Sorcerer's Path) (10 page)

“Of course I do. We all love to hear your poems.”

With encouragement from the adults at the table, Daebian straightened and cleared his throat.

“Lying at peace and feeling lazy,

I sit within this field of daisies,

I look upon this glen of beauty,

And begin gathering them all to me,

I pluck one bloom after another,

But not a single one is as beautiful as mother.”

The adults clapped and Miranda pulled her son close. “Thank you, that was lovely.”

“Did you see me at sword practice today?”

“I did. You did very well,” Miranda said.

“Alex says I could be the best swordsman he’s ever seen if I practice really hard,” Daebian said excitedly.

“Then I am certain you shall be.”

Allister cleared his throat. “Speaking of practicing hard, and returning to our original subject, has anyone seen Ellyssa today?”

“I know she spent most of the day in the laboratory,” Colleen answered. “I think I spotted her leaving the grounds a couple hours ago.”

“I think she does some of her practicing in the woods to the east,” Rusty put in.

***

Ellyssa studied the dozen or so dummies spread throughout the clearing and hidden in the trees from her vantage point atop a rocky outcropping some twenty feet above the ground. It was obvious she has been using the clearing for some time given the amount of damage evident. The ground was bare and scorched. The surrounding trees all showed serious signs of abuse from large chunks of missing bark, stripped limbs, burn marks, and smaller trees ripped in half or completely uprooted.

Satisfied, Ellyssa took a deep breath then pulled the Source into her body and shaped it into a spell. Powerful, azure streaks of light sped out and struck down three of the mannequins, blasting them apart and setting some of the straw and cotton stuffing aflame. She formed another spell, leapt off her rocky perch, and hurtled toward the ground.

She disappeared into the magical gate and instantly reappeared at its exit point high in the treetops at the opposite end of the clearing. This was her most dangerous move as the gate travel made her dizzy and queasy, which was a bad condition to be in when flying through the air thirty feet above the ground. Ellyssa fed a trickle of the Source into the length of rope wrapped around her waist. The stout cord snaked out as if alive and wrapped around a thick limb ahead of her. Ellyssa held onto the knotted end as the rope guided her onto another limb several feet below its anchor point.

Another thought and trickle of power made the rope release its grip on the branch overhead and return to its home wrapped around her narrow waist. Shaping the Source into another spell, thick frost covered everything for several yards around two more of the dummies. The cold was so intense, loud pops echoed across the clearing as the trees caught within the icy spell split and cracked.

Ellyssa opened another gate and practically ran along the tree limb like a squirrel before disappearing into the glimmering portal and depositing herself back atop her rocky bluff. The young mage turned her attention to several fist-sized stones scattered around her. They floated up and began orbiting the girl with increasing speed.  The rocks quickly became little more than a blur until Ellyssa redirected their force outward and sent them hurling one after another into the effigies. She enervated the stones with the Source so they struck with more than simple kinetic force. Each rock exploded violently when it struck and sent shards in every direction, decimating whatever they hit.

“Hey, watch it!” a voice cried out from the nearby woods.

There was no hesitation and little thought as Ellyssa struck out at the unexpected voice. With a flick of her hand, the rope uncoiled and slashed across the clearing. The voice came again in a startled yelp as the rope yanked him from the foliage, hoisted him into a tree, and left him dangling by one foot.

“What are you doing out here, Roger?” Ellyssa shouted crossly across the field.

Roger wriggled around until he faced Ellyssa’s direction. “Oh, you know, just hanging around.”

Ellyssa stepped off the ledge and used the Source to lower herself gently to the ground. She stalked across the clearing and looked the upside down Roger in the eyes.

“You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“Yeah well, hanging around you has always posed a certain amount of danger,” Roger replied.

Ellyssa stumbled back and nearly doubled over. Roger’s words caught her like a punch to the stomach, but she recovered quickly and silently commanded the rope to release. Roger crashed heavily onto the ground and looked abashed as he got to his feet and dusted himself off.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that,” he said.

“What are you doing here?” Ellyssa reiterated.

“You haven’t been coming to class, so I wanted to see what you were up to.”

“What I’m up to is called practicing,” Ellyssa responded waspishly. “Is there something wrong with that?”

Roger looked around at the oft-abused clearing. “It looks like practice with intent.”

“So what if it is?”

“So do you remember what happened last time you got yourself into trouble? A lot of people died coming for you, Wolf, and Sandy. It’s something you need to think about before you do something stupid—again.”

Ellyssa’s face reddened in a conflicting state of shame and anger. “I’ll tell you what I told Allister: I don’t want anyone’s help. Whatever problems I find, I will deal with on my own.”

“You can pretty much bet that won’t be a problem.”

“Good!”

Roger let out an exasperated sigh. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that you’ve become so unpleasant to be around.”

A thunderous roar cut off Ellyssa’s response and the small glen grew darker as an enormous shadow partially blotted out the sun. Sandy raced by overhead and released a thunderous clap of lightning into her own clearing half a mile away. Even from where Ellyssa and Roger stood, they both felt the shockwaves as the dragon released spells of elemental fury.

Sandy had undergone a breaking very similar to Ellyssa. They had beaten her with chains and forced her to kill. Like Ellyssa, they had stolen her innocence and replaced it with determination born of fear of ever being another victim. Since regaining her freedom, Sandy devoted her time to learning the magic of her draconic heritage, flight, and fighting. She was big now, nearly the size of a draft horse in the body alone. Her neck and tail easily doubled her length.

Using the knowledge she attained from delving into her egg memories, and from what Allister was able to find in Azerick’s big book, Sandy frequently practiced in a larger clearing to the east. Its level of destruction was far greater than what Ellyssa had inflicted upon hers. Sandy had torn entire trees from the ground, set large swaths of forest aflame only to extinguish it by summoning torrential storms.

Roger looked toward the flashes of lightning and fire to the east.

 “She’s almost as bad as you when it comes to obsessive practice.”

“Maybe she wants to make sure anyone who tries to hurt her again will regret it. Maybe she wants to be strong enough so they can never hurt anyone else ever again.” Ellyssa’s visage grew dark, and she began walking in the direction of North Haven.

“What are you talking about, Ellyssa?” Roger called after her in frustration. “You sound like you mean to do something preemptive. Didn’t you learn anything from your capture?”

Ellyssa shouted back without looking. “Yes. I learned to kill!”  She ducked her head and whispered, “Without remorse.”

It was a long walk to the city, but Ellyssa’s legs had gotten used it. She had made the trek many times to scout out the streets in search of slavers and those with whom they cavorted. It was a lot harder these days as the entire operation was forced to go deep underground ever since King Jarvin required all officials to enforce the law against abductions and slavery. It did little to lessen the cases of abduction and made it more profitable for those willing to risk imprisonment and even death if caught trafficking humans. The King even had a sizeable navy now patrolling the seas to combat the worsening pirate situation, but they rarely caught slavers. The slavers simply tossed their precious cargo overboard and let the chains carry them to the sea floor long before the King’s ships could board and investigate.

They were still here though, and Ellyssa knew how to find them. It was not difficult for a lone girl to find a slaver if she knew where to look. All too often, a girl found them without looking. Her plan was simple. Walk the streets where she had spotted several suspicious characters. It was not hard for her to pass herself off as a homeless girl just looking for a doorway to protect her from the rain.

The slavers were getting wary as well. It was why she had been wandering around these parts every night for the past several weeks. New faces were looked upon with suspicion. Twice she had been accosted by thugs and degenerates, but neither had been slavers, and she sent them on their way with some painful lessons regarding the treatment of women.

Once she formulated her plan and began practicing with intent, her nightmares had lessened substantially. This fact alone convinced her she was on the right course in her life. As long as slavers, Captain Jake and Sonjay in particular, hunted the streets, Ellyssa would never find peace. The solution was simple; she would kill them all.

Ellyssa huddled under an awning outside of a shop missing so many cedar shingles it only kept off about half the falling rain. She used a tattered canvas sack, like one a sailor may have discarded in favor of one in better shape, to ward away the chill and the rain that inevitably found its way through the leaky roof. She looked sick and half-asleep, but the reality was that she was very healthy and alert. Her diligence looked to have finally paid off as two groups of men, maybe five in all, approached her from two different directions.