The Sorcerer's Legacy (50 page)

“Yes, ma’am, especially when I saw the wolf. He had big yellow eyes and I thought he was going to eat me,” Missy said excitedly, nodding her head emphatically.

“That was probably Ghost. He’s nice too and only half as wild as Wolf, the boy that he’s usually with,” Ellyssa clarified.

“A boy has a wolf for a pet here?”

“More of a friend really. Personally, I think they’re probably related somehow,” Ellyssa laughed.

“Can I stay here? I don’t want to go back to the bad place, please don’t make me,” Missy pleaded, on the verge of tears.

Colleen held missy tightly to her chest. “Of course you can stay. Why is your home so bad?”

Missy did not want to talk about it. Right now, all she wanted was for the nice woman to hold her, pet her hair, and tell her she was going to be all right. It was almost like having her mother back again, what little she could remember. She was so young when her parents died and her uncle sold her and her brother to those men who sold them to the bad man.

After breaking their fast, Ellyssa took Missy around to see most of the kids, skipping classes, with Allister’s permission, and even found Wolf and Ghost sitting in their favorite clearing. Wolf was actually sitting up against the stump reading one of the books Ellyssa had given him.

“Hi, Wolf, I can’t believe you are actually reading!” Ellyssa said as they drew near.

Wolf jumped up startled then glared at Ghost. “I told you to warn me if someone was coming!” he berated the wolf. “Yeah, please don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin the savage image I have worked so hard to cultivate.”

“You could cultivate potatoes in your ears there’s so much dirt in them,” Ellyssa replied. “But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you are actually civilized.”

“You take that back! Just because I can read doesn’t mean I’m civilized! Who’s the girl?”

“This is Missy. She walked all the way here from the city last night.”

“Oh, you’re the one Ghost saw last night on the road. He said he was watching out for you,” Wolf told the girl.

“Really? Can I pet him?” Missy asked.

“Sure, he won’t bite unless you’re a bad guy and then he’ll rip your throat out,” Wolf said morbidly.

Missy worked up her courage and stroked the big black wolf’s soft fur. Sitting as he was with his big puppy dog eyes and wagging tail, he certainly did not look like he ever bit anyone although he was certainly capable of it. Even sitting on his haunches, he was as tall as Missy was and outweighed her by at least eighty pounds.

The three kids and the wolf played in the woods for most of the day. Wolf and Ellyssa showed Missy all of their favorite places and just spent their time running, jumping, and exploring, enjoying the feeling of total freedom, and for Missy, a rare day without fear. Hunger finally drove the two girls back to the keep. Wolf stayed behind so he could plan his own raid later on when the cooks were not likely to expect it.

Later that evening after the supper meal, Ellyssa and Missy were up in Ellyssa’s room along with Roger and several other children playing games and talking about school. Missy was amazed and delighted at the colored balls of light they made fly around the room but she soon started crying.

“What’s the matter, Missy, why are you crying?” Ellyssa asked, laying a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that everything is so great here and I think about my brother and the other kids having to stay with that bad man,” Missy said sadly.

“Your brother is still in that terrible place? Why didn’t he come with you?” Ellyssa asked.

“He was supposed to. He spent a long time cutting through one of the bars over the window. Every day he was able to cut a little bit more with a saw he made. The night he finally got it cut all the way through, he bent it up and held a bed sheet while I climbed down but the bad man came in the room and saw us. Derran told me to run away. I think he hit the bad man. I could hear the man hitting Derran really hard over and over but he just kept yelling for me to run so I did.”

“Could you find the house you lived in again if we took you?” Ellyssa asked.

“Yeah, but why? You won’t make me go back will you?” Missy asked in a sudden panic.

“No, of course not. I say we go and rescue your brother and any other kids that are still there,” Ellyssa said with certainty.

“We can’t!” Missy exclaimed with dread. “He’s a bad man and big. We’re just kids.”

“We are not just kids, Missy, we are wizards. We can take care of the bad man and any guards he has. Trust me,” Ellyssa assured her and several of the other children added their support as well.

“Don’t you thing we should tell the grownups first? Maybe they would help,” Missy asked tentatively.

Ellyssa shook her head. “Azerick probably would but Magus Allister and Rusty probably wouldn’t do anything to break the law. They would probably just tell the magistrate, and if he is a rich man or a noble, they probably wouldn’t do anything. This is something we have to do ourselves. Who is this man anyway?”

“His name is Lord Potsworth. He is big and really fat and he smells like bad cheese. He likes to wear these big rings on his fingers that really hurt when he hits you,” Missy went on describing the man in detail.

“It sounds like the man that tried to buy me and got mad when Azerick bought me instead,” Ellyssa said after Missy finished describing him. “Azerick would definitely help us if he was here and I bet he would like it if we rescued the other kids from him. He did not like that man at all. In fact, Azerick blasted him that night and sent him flying.”

Missy’s face suddenly drained of color. “That must have been that night he came home so angry. None of us had ever seen him so mad before. He beat us all really bad that night.”

Ellyssa could not help feeling guilty but she was angry even more so.

“I say we go get him tonight and rescue everyone,” Ellyssa said with determination.

“I’m in,” Roger said and put his hand in the center of the circle they were sitting in.

“I’m in too,” Stephanie said and added her hand.

All of the children quickly added their own small hands the circle, one atop the other. Once they were all in, the kids pumped their hands one time and prepared for the mission.

The children all went and grabbed their jackets and exchanged their slippers for shoes or boots. Ellyssa went into the vault and looked through the magical scrolls Azerick kept down there. He had given Ellyssa several classes on reading and using magical scrolls which would allow her to cast the spells written on them even if they were spells that she could not normally cast given her current skill.

She plucked out a couple scrolls she thought she might need and closed up the vault. She turned to run back up the stairs but stopped when she found Grick looking at her from down the hall.

“What is troublesome girl doing in Master Azerick’s vault?” Grick asked.

“I was just looking for something,” Ellyssa replied evasively.

Grick looked at her shoes, the quiver of darts on her hip, and the way she was dressed. “Look more likes you be going rat whacking to me.”

“Yeah, me and some of the other kids were going to go rat whacking tonight—outside.”

Grick nodded suspiciously. “Must be big rat. Maybe big rat like Grick kill in master’s bedroom eh? You be careful, big rats be tricky sometimes, bite hard.”

“We’ll be careful, Grick, thanks.”

Ellyssa ran up the stairs to her room where the rest of her gang was waiting. Ellyssa told them they would wait until it was later when the rest of the keep went to sleep. While they waited, they went over their plan. Ellyssa’s biggest fear was getting past the guards that now walked along the wall and around the outside of the keep.

She hoped that she had found the solution to that problem in one of the scrolls she took from the vault. Ellyssa made frequent trips down the stairs to see if everyone was asleep yet. It was mostly the kitchen staff that she needed to be gone since that was where they would sneak out.

The troop of six children crept down the stairs, cut through the dining room, and into the kitchen.

Ellyssa lifted the crossbar out of the brackets, gently set it aside with Roger’s help, and opened the door. The kids crept past the new extension where the new kitchen had been built and behind the building where the kitchen staff slept.

The wall was not far from the kitchen billets but farther than it used to be. This section of the wall hand been torn down and moved several hundred feet out from where the old wall had been. Ellyssa picked a spot in the wall near where it butted up against the shear granite cliff that towered hundreds of feet over the keep grounds.

Ellyssa flipped through the scrolls and found the one she wanted. Her face was illuminated by the runes as they flared up and burned out as she read the spell from the scroll. A shimmering hole opened near the wall making it look as though there was a large breach. Ellyssa waved to her gang hidden next to the kitchen billets. Roger led the troop through the magical portal with his shambling gait where it dumped them out at the edge of the woods three hundred yards from the wall.

Ellyssa stepped through the gate as the last child ran through. It snapped shut behind her as she stepped through and stopped for a moment trying to shake off the disorienting effects of the spell. She saw Roger sitting against a tree surrounded by the others, holding his nose.

 “Roger, what happened?” Ellyssa asked.

“When I ran through the portal—I hit a tree,” Roger said, embarrassed.

“What’s everyone doing out here?” Wolf asked, startling the others as he stepped from behind one of the larger trees.

“We’re going into the city to rescue some kids from a mean fat man,” Ellyssa said sharply, aggravated at her own jumpiness. “What are you doing out here?”

“Ghost said you all probably needed my help,” Wolf replied.

Ellyssa looked at the large black wolf that cocked his head and looked back innocently.

“Do you want to come with us?”

“Sure, sounds like fun,” Wolf replied.

The squad of children and one big wolf walked a large half circle through the woods to avoid being seen by whoever was on the walls. Almost all of the martial students were boys except for Roger’s sister, Melissa, and three other girls. It was a dark moonless night so it was very unlikely anyone would have seen them even at half the distance but Ellyssa was not taking any chances.

It was well after midnight when they finally reached North Haven’s outer city wall. Ellyssa did not have another long step scroll and it was highly unlikely that they could sneak past the guards. The main gate was closed and the guards would have to open the sally port to let anyone in or out of the city. Ellyssa figured it was best not to even try to sneak past and strolled boldly up to the gate with her retinue in tow.

“What are you kids doing outside the city this late?” the guard standing in front of the sally gate asked, leaning on his spear.

“My father won a bet with a man in the city and he sent us to collect it,” Ellyssa said confidently.

“What kind of bet? What are you supposed to collect and why so late at night? And why did he send you kids and not come himself?”

“Please, sir, let us through. Pa’s been drinking and he gets real mean when he drinks. He told me to come get the hog he’s owed or he would take a strap to me,” Ellyssa whined, letting tears come to her eyes. “I’m afraid to walk at night so my friends came with me so I wouldn’t be scared.”

The guard looked at the group of children, his eyes lingering on Wolf and Ghost. “Is that a wolf?”

“No, sir,” Wolf spoke up. “He’s a wolfhound!”