The Sorcerer's Legacy (4 page)

“I hope that I will not have to use much magic but it is possible. It is possible that there could be a great deal of danger involved, especially to you. I will protect you as best I can but there is still a risk,” Azerick told her frankly.

Ellyssa furrowed her brow and chewed her lower lip, which she always did when there was some heavy thinking involved. “Ok, what do I need to do?”

Azerick looked at her with surprise. “Don’t you want to know what it is first?”

“Nope, I trust you,” she quipped as she shook her head sending her long blond hair whipping about. “Besides, I belong to you so I have to do what you say, right?”

Azerick’s face turned red, partially in shame and partially in anger at himself. “Absolutely not. You are not my property, you are my apprentice and a free person to make your own decisions and decide your own fate. You are not a slave. I will advise you and try to teach you things as is my responsibility as an adult and your guardian, but you are not a slave.”

 “I still trust you. What do I need to do?”

“Honestly, just be as cute as you can be. And be very brave.”

“No problem, cute I can do,” she replied and batted her long lashes at him.

Azerick smiled broadly at the precocious child as he picked out one of the dresses he had bought at the clothier’s just for this purpose. The cuffs were lace and the bottom flared out in a frilly design that had been around for ages and never truly gone out of style. He also took out a colorful silk neckerchief that he used to tie back her long hair.

Ellyssa cooed over the dress and silk ribbon. It was a dress that she never thought she would ever get to wear much less own.

“If our mission hinges on me being cute, this is gonna be a piece of cake!” she said as she admired herself in the mirror.

Azerick had to smile again at the little girl’s assuredness but sobered quickly as they prepared to leave. Peck brought Horse around and blushed deeply when he saw Ellyssa. Azerick double-checked the bridle and saddle, tightened up the cinch strap, then lifted Ellyssa onto Horse’s broad rump to ride sidesaddle. Azerick mounted and the unlikely pair rode through the city and out the gates.

After a short ride, they arrived at the same place Azerick had tied Horse up the other night when he had visited the ruins. He slid out of the saddle, helped Ellyssa down, and tied Horse up to the same branch with the same instructions to stay put. Horse did not need to be ordered to stay, the grass was long and green here and so long as it was here this was where he would stay.

The moon had waxed to just over half full, when it was visible at all through the dark, scattered clouds. Azerick held Ellyssa’s hand as they walked up the hill towards the keep. She squeezed Azerick’s hand tighter as a chill sent goose bumps crawling all over her skin. She wanted to turn and run away but she had promised Azerick that she would be brave and that was what she was going to do.

Azerick stopped and turned to look at her. “I am going to cast a few spells to help protect you even though I hope you don’t need them, all right?”

She nodded and Azerick cast his spells. She could not see anything different but her skin prickled for a moment with each spell he cast.

“The other spell I am going to cast will keep all sound from reaching your ears but I am not casting it on you, I am going to cast it on the staff so we can walk in or out of its area of influence. If something goes wrong, you grab the staff and run away as fast as you can. Do you understand? Grab the staff and run away.”

Ellyssa swallowed hard. “I understand, grab the staff and run away. I got it. This is the haunted place isn’t it?”

“Yes it is, but I hope to make it not haunted.”

“Are we going to see a ghost?”

“Most likely,” Azerick nodded his head.

“Have you seen the ghost before?” she asked.

“Yes, a couple nights ago,” Azerick answered.

“Were you scared?”

“I guess you could say that. I ran, but mostly because I did not want to kill the ghost.”

“How can you kill a ghost, it’s already dead,” she stated with her child-like logic.

Azerick chuckled at her. “Just be brave and do what I say and everything will be just fine.”

They walked through the large opening where the main gate once stood and Azerick stopped and planted his staff. He cast a globe of silence upon it and all sound instantly ceased. Not even the wind that blew his cloak about made as much as a whisper. Azerick took Ellyssa by her small hand again and walked forward until they could hear once more.

“I want you to take a step back so you are within the area of silence and I want you to stay there. I expect the ghost will come out any moment now and I want you to be brave and just stand still unless something happens to me. Then you know what to do right?”

“Grab the staff and run,” she answered with more courage than she felt.

Azerick took several steps forward as soon as Ellyssa stepped back. “Lady, I wish to speak with you.”

For a moment, only the howling of the wind blowing through the open windows and crenellations along the top of the central tower and walls could be heard. A flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He watched as the spirit rose out of the ground just before the tower. Azerick recalled that that was where she had appeared the last time as well. He wondered if that was the exact spot that she and her children had met their deaths.

“Where are my children?” the spirit cried.

“Here, spirit, one is here though she is not yours. Your children are gone, Lady, but I will bring the voice and laughter of a child back to these halls if you will depart and allow us to live here.”

The banshee looked past Azerick and directly at Ellyssa. Azerick motioned for her to be brave and stay where she was.

“The children, where are my children?” the Lady wailed.

“My Lady, please understand that your children are gone. They have been gone for over three hundred years. I cannot bring them back but I will bring this child to live here if you will permit it,” Azerick pressed.

The spirit glided across the dark flagstone without disturbing the long blades of grass and weeds that sprouted between the stones and stopped just in front of Ellyssa. Azerick stepped closer to the frightened girl to reassure her. She shook from fear but she did not run and met the ghost’s stare. The Lady reached out a tentative hand and Azerick almost snatched Ellyssa away but he hesitated. The ghostly hand touched a wisp of Ellyssa’s golden hair as it fluttered in the evening breeze.

The lock of hair turned pure white at the banshee’s touch as an ethereal tear crept down her luminous face. The Lady smiled first at Ellyssa, who also had tears sliding down her face, and then at Azerick before gliding back and sinking into the ground. Almost immediately, the bumps on their flesh and the prevailing aura of fear disappeared.

Azerick turned towards Ellyssa and dispelled the globe of silence. “Are you all right?”

“She was so sad,” Ellyssa said with a sniffle and wiped away her tears with her sleeve. “She said she would like it if we lived here.”

Azerick looked puzzled at the statement. “You could hear her? I did not hear her say anything except to ask where her children were.”

“I heard her in my head and my heart, not with my ears.”

“Well, welcome to your new home,” Azerick said with a wave of his arm.

“You’re going to live in this dump?” a voice suddenly asked from behind him.

Azerick and Ellyssa both spun towards the direction the voice had come from. Sitting on top of the wall was Wolf and sitting at its base just below him was his huge wolf, Ghost.

“Wolf, what are you doing here?” Azerick asked, startled from being snuck up on.

“I wanted to see if you were going to run from the ghost again. That was hilarious. I’ve never seen a human run so fast!” laughed heartily.

“I thought that was you back where those bandits attacked.”

“Yep, so did you marry the princes or what? Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen when you rescue one?”

“She is a duchess not a princes and no, we are not getting married,” Azerick replied sternly.

“She wouldn’t take ya huh? She was too pretty for you anyway,” Wolf grinned. “So, you’re really going to live in this dump?” he asked again.

“Eventually, it is a fixer upper,” Azerick defended.

“Pfft, looks more like a faller downer to me,” Wolf shot back impishly.

Ellyssa was unable to contain herself at the exchange and the courtyard rang with her pleasant laughter.

“What do you know, you sleep under a tree!” Azerick shot back.

“I sleep under the nicest tree around, not some rotten piece of deadfall,” Wolf countered.

“All sorts of animals choose the nicest tree around—for a toilet.”

“So that’s what that smell was? And I was always blaming it on Ghost!” Wolf laughed so hard he almost tumbled off the wall. Ghost looked up at him, and Azerick would swear, rolled his big golden eyes at the half-elf.

“So am I going to be graced with your sharp witticisms from now on?” Azerick asked the half-wild boy.

“If you’re lucky. I like to stay where the food is and you still owe me,” he shrugged.

“I owe you for what?” Azerick demanded.

“For saving your life, remember?” Wolf replied as if he were talking to an imbecile.

“I saved your life first!”

Now Wolf looked indignant. “Giving a boy a biscuit and shooting a man in the neck with an arrow who is about to kill you does not balance out!”

“It was stew and a blanket, which you stole, and a chunk of meat for Ghost,” Azerick pointed out.

“It was two men, and I live under a tree not a fancy castle so I deserve the blanket, and I guess Ghost could have just eaten your mangy old horse. It probably would have been a mercy killing anyway after having to haul you and all your stuff around.”

“I thought it was a pile of junk not a fancy castle?”

“You said you were going to fix it up. Who’s the girl?” Wolf asked as if noticing Ellyssa for the first time.

Azerick had almost forgotten that Ellyssa was standing there. “This is my apprentice, Ellyssa.”

“Good, you need help. Watch his back, he gets himself into trouble a lot and needs sharp-eyed kids to bail him out,” Wolf informed her.

“I do not get myself into trouble all the time and I definitely do not need a child to help me out,” Azerick insisted.

“So what is she doing here in such a dangerous place in the middle of the night?”

Azerick refused to answer and glared at the boy perched upon the wall but Ellyssa answered for him. “He needed my help.”

“I thought so,” Wolf nodded. “I knew him for two days before he got in a fight with about twenty bandits.”

“That was not my fault, they attacked me!”

“You were on a horse, they weren’t. You could have just run away,” Wolf pointed out.

“I do not run away,” Azerick growled.

Wolf smiled—wolfishly—as the sorcerer fell into his verbal trap. “Oh, so you were actually charging the ghost the other night. I guess you were just going the long way around.”

Ellyssa was laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face. Azerick looked fit to explode as the grubby boy with the wolf pet repeatedly scored in their verbal jousting match.