Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (5 page)

Leesa pictured the vanquished black wizard in her mind. Wrapped up in the struggle, she hadn’t realized it at the time, but Josef did look a bit like Dominic, with the same sharp features and pointy beard.

“Okay. Thank you.
I’ll keep a sharp eye out for them.
”

“Plus, Rave would
sense their power,” Dominic added, “the way he did with me when I first appeared at your door. Hopefully, he will detect it in time for you to avoid them completely.”

“I’
ll be alert for it, then,”
Rave assured Dominic
.

“
And now, I really must be going,
” Dominic said. “
I will head n
orth, away from your college. Eventually, I will reach somewhere
I can get a bus. I’
m hoping
the
amount of
magic I used here will distract t
hem from the much smaller amount
I used to save you from the car.”

Leesa bit her lip, trying to hide her disappointment. She had thought Dominic would
at least
return to Middletown with them and catch a bus
from
there. She
wasn’t ready
to say goodbye.

“Is there that much of a rush?” she asked. She knew Dominic used normal transportation, but that was to avoid using his magic and giving himself away. The black waziri would have no such constraints. “How fast can those black wizards get here? You wizards can’t, like, magically transport yourselves from place to place, can you?”

Dominic shook his head. “Only over very short distances—a
hundred feet, perhaps. T
he energy expenditure to do even that is enormous. No, they will have to travel like everyone else does. It will be at least a day, maybe more
, before any of them can
reach Connecticut.
”

“Then why can’t you come back to Middletown with us and leave from there?”

“For the next few weeks, wherever I go, my aura will leave a trail the traitors can follow
as clearly as footprints in soft dirt
. I do not want to do any
more than I have already
done
to draw their attention to Middletown.”

Finally, Leesa understood. Now that Dominic had used active magic, she knew the black waziri would be able to sense his location
wherever he went
, but she hadn’t realized he would be leaving an actual magical trail behind him.

“
I see
,” she said. “Please be careful
.
”

“
I will. And y
ou
need to be careful
as well, e
specially for the next few days.
O
ur foes may spend some
time searching the area
where I used the shield spell. We know now they cannot detec
t your magic, but I think it
best not to take any chances.
”

“What about Rave?” Leesa asked. “Will the black waziri be able to sense that a volkaane killed their friend?”

Dominic shook his head. “Not after I destro
yed the ashes with my magic. I’
m sure they will wonder how I bested Josef, but they will detect only the remnants of my magic and his.
Rave should be safe.”

Rave extended his hand to Dominic, who took it and shook it once.

“Until we see you again,” Rave said.

Leesa moved forward and wrapped Dominic in a tight embrace. She pressed her cheek against his chest for a several long moments
, then pulled her head away and looked up into his face.

“You had better come back,” she said sternly.

Dominic kissed Leesa on the forehead and then eased out of her embrace.

“That is my plan,” he said.
Without another word, he turned and headed off into the trees.

Leesa and Rave watched him until he disappeared from sight.

“Would you like a ride back to campus?” Rave asked. “Or would you rather walk?”

Leesa smiled. Being carried
effortlessly
by Rave
at impossible speeds
was her second favorite thing in the world. Only kissing him was better, but his inner fire allowed little enough of that.

“Ride,” she said, leaping up into his arms
.

Flying h
igh above the treetops, the owl could barely keep pace
with the racing volkaane
.
The bird
had a lot to think about, but there would be time for that later, after it was done gathering i
nformation. Ordinarily, the owl
would have followed the most powerful of the trio—the wi
zard—but the conversation it
overheard made it clear
t
he
wizard
was
going far away. The owl
alread
y knew where the volkaane clan
dwelt, but
thought
it might be useful to
learn
where this
most
unusual girl
lived
as well
.
Knowledge was power, and the bird liked to collect as much of both as it could.

2
. DARK COUNSEL

T
housands of miles away from where Leesa and Rave said their goodbyes to Dominic,
five
shadowy
figures sat
in
a large, dimly lit room, gathered
around a
dark,
round table
at least
ten feet in diameter.
The
table’s
smooth surface
was
fashioned out of
a special, highly polished material that looked almost like
black glass. Candles flickered
in brass sconces on the
chamber’s
stone walls, but
strangely,
none of the light reflected off the top of the table.
T
he dark surface
seemed to swallow
any illumination that struck it.
In addition to the f
ive occupied chairs,
four
more sat vacant
.

One of the
seated
men was significantly larger t
han his fellows, in girth more so than
height. His
high-backed chair
—more of a throne, really—
was
larger and more ornate t
han the others as well. Intricate carved runes covered much of the chair’s dark wood surface. The special chair left little
doubt
that
this man was
the leader of the group.

His body seemed almost misshapen,
with a huge bulbous belly and a round, hairless head.
In the dimness of the room, t
he skin of his face and hands
seemed
al
most white—a milky, deathly white
more reminiscent of a corpse than a living human being.
He had
thick lips, a broad, flat nose
,
and no eyebrows at all.
As hideous as the rest of his countenance was, his most frightening feature by far was his eyes. No eyeballs floate
d within their confines
—no iris, no pupil, nothing.
Just a
flat, pinkish film.
Despite his
empty eyes,
the man could see as well as anyone, though anything brighter than candlelight hurt his eyes.

Over the centuries, the man’s
true name had become all but forgotten. Now, to those who knew of his existence—and they were few—he was known simply as the Necromancer.

Though it did not show on his face, the Necromancer was angry. One of his most valuable servants had just been destroyed. Somehow, Dominic had bested Josef. The Necromancer had sensed the immense expenditure of magic deployed
by both wizards as they fought. Until
a short while ago, he had expected to sense the end of Dominic’s life force, removing the biggest obstacle to his plan to break the seal between the world of the living and the world of the dead. But that had not happened. Instead, Josef’s energy had vanished. After more than a century, Dominic had
suddenly
reappeared, apparently wielding magic powerful eno
ugh to vanquish a black waziri. The Necromancer was anxious to learn how Dominic had done it.

The other four men
at the table
were dressed in black, hooded robes. Their faces were expressionless, though a close examination of one would have revealed a trace of sadness and loss in his features.
These four were novitiates—the chosen disciples of each of the black waziri, who ha
d imparted their magic into the novitiates
the same way Dominic had with Leesa. Mastering the black arts was not easy—despite
having been at it for several decades, the men were only
part
way through their training. Still, they were very dan
gerous wizards and not to be trifled with
.

The Necromancer edged his immense bulk forward in his chair. He stretched his thick arms out
over
the table, fleshy palms facing down, and began to chant
softly
.
His
voic
e was deep and gravelly; the rhythm of his incantation was slow and repetitive.
The others watched closely.

In response to his spell, the black surface of the table began to change. Hundreds of dim, tiny white ovals began to appear
, seemingly
floating
with
in the depths of the glass. As
t
he
Necromancer
continued his
summoning
, the shapes grew brighter and
clearer. They were not
merely
ovals
of light
—t
hey were pairs of eyes
, trapped within the table
!