The Sorcerer's Abyss (The Sorcerer's Path) (18 page)

Allister looked at the ceiling and breathed out a slow breath. “I cannot know for certain until I use the stone, but the evidence is rather damning.”

“Allister, you know if you find the Codex Arcana, you must bring it to The Academy. That book must be safeguarded and its knowledge available to all who are willing to follow Academy law.”

“I do, Maureen. I do wonder if it would really be available to all. The council has not been terribly inclusive for some time.”

“The council is old and headstrong, but so am I. The Codex could advance our understanding of magic several fold, and in order for that to happen it must be available to those with the strength, experience, and discipline to use it. Obviously, we cannot let just anyone plumb its depths. Imagine the damage if someone of an inexperienced or foolish nature were allowed to use it.”

Allister buried his troubled expression inside his ample, white beard. “I can well imagine. Will you give me the stone?”

Maureen lifted a simple leather cord from around her neck from which dangled a faceted amber crystal the size of a petite woman’s pinky finger. “You must promise me you will bring the Codex back here. I’ll have your word on it.”

“You have my word, Headmaster,” the sorrowful old wizard answered as he took the crystal.

Allister had to wait a full day before he found a ship to take him north. The winds were not as favorable, nor was the ship as swift as the courier vessel he had used to come south. Every hour dragged on like an eternity and it set his nerves on edge. The crew quickly learned to avoid the dour archmage.

It was five, stressful days before the ship finally reached North Haven’s port. Allister was so angry and impatient by this time he set the customs official’s hat on fire when the man tried to keep him from debarking before he had made his customs inspections. No doubt, Allister would receive a stern rebuke from Duchess Melina in the following days for his behavior.

He did not stop to speak with anyone when the coach deposited him upon the steps of the old tower. Despite his travel-induced exhaustion, Allister went immediately to the lab where the tome was always located. He found it perched upon the podium as always. He let out a sigh of relief as he half-expected it to be gone. Allister pulled the crystal from his pocket and stepped toward the book. If this were truly the Codex Arcana, the crystal would glow with a silvery light.

The old archmage held the crystal out and approached as if he expected the book to strike at him. He mentally berated himself and dangled the crystal directly over the open pages and—nothing. Neither a glow nor any other sign the crystal recognized the tome as the Codex. Allister felt such relief he did not even mind having wasted a month of his life researching this fool’s errand.

That was when he detected a slight vibration in the crystal. The tremor quickly increased and the stone began to dance wildly on its cord. It took Allister only a moment to realize what was happening. The Codex had tried to suppress the power of the crystal, and now the two forces were warring. The book did not want to be found. The crystal exploded in a flash and a spray of shards, cutting into Allister’s face and hand.

The archmage looked at the tome lying upon the podium. “Dear gods. You are why I did not return immediately and take you to The Academy.” The book lay silent upon the podium. “If you are able to influence my actions, what have you done to the girl?”

***

Ellyssa was in Azerick’s vault, searching for something to help her in her quest to eradicate the slavers and find Captain Jake. She had made several forays to the vault since her first battle on the slave ship, but she always turned around, unable to bring herself to take what she needed. It had to be done. The things she learned over the past weeks required more power. She had exhausted herself on the ship, and if dealing with Sonjay meant another battle like that one, she needed to be able to channel more of the Source with more efficiency.

She stood in front of the rack holding an assortment of objects, but she had been staring at two in particular for at least the last twenty minutes. Azerick’s silver ring and bracelets rested in a felt-lined box side by side. Just looking at the two objects that had been such a part of him caused a wave of anguish to crash down upon her.  They were his, every bit as much as his staff was, and she did not deserve to have them. But she needed them. She needed them in order to be strong, like him.

Steeling her resolve, Ellyssa slipped the ring onto her finger and snapped the bracelets around her wrists. The shame of wearing what was his burned as if they were fresh from the forge. She shuddered as the tingle of magic washed over her. Ellyssa instantly felt her connection to the Source grow significantly stronger as the ring created a magical link between her and it.

She had just steadied herself when a sound came from down the hall in the direction of the laboratory. Ellyssa ran from the vault and raced down the short passage to the lab. Through the open door, she spied Allister standing over the book and wiping at his face with his hands. All over the floor, tiny bits of what looked like glass sparkled under the glow of the lamps.

“What are you doing with my book?” Ellyssa asked.

Allister turned at the sudden intrusion. “Your book? When did it become your book? The book is here for all of us to use,” the old mage said. The look in Ellyssa’s eyes made him speak calmly.

Ellyssa sidled around as if Allister were a dangerous animal that might attack. “I need it to make me stronger. You said yourself I needed to be strong. The book makes me strong.”

“Oh, my dear girl, you mistake power for strength,” Allister said. He shook his head sadly. “Power gives us the ability to destroy, but strength comes from within. Strength allows us to make the right decisions when the right thing is so very difficult to choose.”

Ellyssa positioned herself so the book was between her and Allister. “For my purposes, power suits me just fine.”

“Ellyssa, the men you have killed are not the ones who took you. They are not the ones who killed Azerick. What you are doing makes you no better than the slavers.”

“They will lead me to Captain Jake. I don’t need to be better, only more dangerous.”

Allister realized Ellyssa was beyond reason. The innocent, precocious little girl was gone. In her place stood a young woman so full of hate and grief, she would not stop until she was dead.

“Ellyssa, I don’t think you understand what the book is or what it is doing to you. It is dangerous and it is using you. You are not yourself right now. You must be strong and let go.”

Ellyssa sneered. “I know exactly what it is, and we use each other. The Codex wants to be used. It needs someone who is willing to use it and possesses the strength to wield what it shows. That is why it picked Azerick. That is why it picked me.”

“I’m sorry, but it is too powerful and too dangerous to stay here. I am taking it to The Academy where access to it can be controlled and its use properly monitored,” Allister said with finality.

“I cannot let you take the Codex, Allister.”

“You cannot let me?” Allister shouted, his patience finally having reached their limit. “You listen to me, child, I…”

Ellyssa struck so quickly and so powerfully, Allister barely had time to register the attack and bring a ward to bear before the wave of force struck him full on, hurling him through the open doorway and dashing him painfully against the wall. Another spell slammed the door shut and runes of warding flared all around it, sealing the portal closed.

Ellyssa grabbed the book from the podium and clutched it to her chest. She could hear Allister pounding at the door and trying to unravel the wards keeping it sealed. The book had shown her how to improve the ones Azerick had made years ago, but she knew even those would not keep the archmage out for long.

“I need to get out of here!” Ellyssa cried out in panic. “How? Show me.”

A section of wall slid into the floor, exposing a long, dark passageway appearing to extend far beneath the school grounds. Ellyssa did not hesitate. Clutching the book to her chest, she ran across the lab and into the gloomy passageway. The tunnel went completely black when the section of wall returned to its previous place and sealed her in.

Ellyssa conjured a light and ran. The passage extended hundreds of yards and opened in a cleft in the mountainside. The book urged her to keep running east along the base of the mountains. Once, she thought she spotted Sandy flying far to the south and hoped she did not turn her way. The dragon’s keen eyesight could easily pick her out from miles away.

The book guided her eastward for several miles. As the night grew long, Ellyssa began to feel the chill of the evening air. Her legs ached and her lungs burned from the punishing pace she set, but still the book pushed her to keep moving. When she could go no farther, she spotted a narrow split in the face of the mountain. Under the Codex’s guidance, she squeezed into the fissure and discovered a cave. When she brightened her light, she saw it had once been occupied, but not for a very long time. The rotted remnants of a table, chair, and crude bed indicated someone had once lived here.

Following the sound of running water, Ellyssa found a natural spring feeding a shallow pool. The pool disappeared in a crack in the rocks where it constantly drained off as the spring continually filled it. A flat slab of rock jutting from the wall made the perfect place on which to set the book. As soon as Ellyssa put the book down, it flipped open and the words crawled around the page.

Ellyssa read what appeared to be a sort of journal written by a wizard hundreds of years ago. He had come into possession of the Codex Arcana and retreated to this hideout when The Academy seemed bent on taking it away from him. There was more, but Ellyssa was too tired to read anything else. Lacking a bed, she managed to strip the limbs from several young pine trees and made a pallet that would suffice until she could get something better.   

Daebian spotted the black silhouette against the grey backdrop of the mountains from his perch atop the school wall. He watched Ellyssa run off into the night-shrouded forest, and his face split into a wry smile.

“Into the trees,

Ellyssa flees,

Trying to put her past behind her.

How many tears must she cry,

How many men must die,

Before she soothes her anger.”

CHAPTER 7