The Sorcerer's Scourge (51 page)

Baneford spoke to his wizard. “Do you think he has the authority to make a real bid for these claims?”

“He should, he’s the King’s brother after all,” Krendall replied.

Azerick mimicked Devlin’s questioning facial expression to which the master sorcerer mirrored his apprentice’s grin and shrug.

 “All right, kid. If you can kill the Vila, I’ll have my people in place to move the instant they get the word of his death. But if this all goes to hell, you can damn well expect to be getting a bill. I’m a mercenary now and I’ll get paid one way or another. How much time do I have to get in place? It’s not as though I can just march over a thousand men through the gates one sunny afternoon.”

“It will take me at least two weeks to get my people to Bakhtaran and put in position. I should be able to get a few thousand right up to the northern gates. If you can hold them open for my people, you should have a large enough force to storm the palace and hold it long enough for us to convince Mushadan’s people that he is dead and that you can offer them a better alternative. At the very least, I should be able to get my people out, we all retreat back to my ships, and I will pay you in gold.”

Baneford did some calculations in his head. That gives me just under a week to filter my people inside after we reach the city. Shouldn’t be too hard. All right, kid, you have a contract.”

Azerick ended the communication and slipped the stone into his pocket.

Rusty looked at Azerick. “You have the battle figured out, but how are you going to get to the Vila in the first place? And even if you do, Devlin says there’s like thirty wizards, some of them full archmages, in there to stomp you flat. Not even you can take that many alone.”

Azerick looked at his friend intently. “I will not be alone. I am never alone.”

Allister looked at Azerick, his face ashen and grave. “Son, I have seen what that thing can do when you allow it too much control. Think about how much you might have to set it free to take on that many spell casters. If you let him loose, you might never reel him back in.”

“You people do not understand what it is like to be a slave. You have no idea what it is like to have someone else in control of you and your power, to force you to use it in ways that are horrible. I was a young but I was a man when Xornan enslaved me. I was strongly independent and numbed to certain emotional trauma through my experiences. Ellyssa is still a child and has never had to deal with the kind of pain from which I had learned to insulate myself. If this Mushadan is set to use his slaves to become King, she is not sitting around sipping juice and eating cake. He is training her using a device that controls her power and inflicts pain, just as Xornan did to me. Look at what that kind of treatment has done to me. How do you think it is affecting her? I will not leave her, Sandy, and probably Wolf in a place like that. No matter what.”

Zeb finally arrived while Azerick and the mages were discussing the best way to use their assets. “Nice to see you back, lad. Your man said you needed to see me and that it was urgent.”

“Zeb, have you heard about Ellyssa?”

“Aye. Foul thing that. My people have been asking about every ship they cross, but slavers and those that truck with them are a tight-lipped bunch.”

“I am going to go get her. I need you to ask every sailor and every man you know to help me bring her back. Every volunteer will be paid to include survivor benefits for the families of those that do not return.”

Zeb screwed up his face. “What are ya plannin’ ta do, boy, invade the whole of Sumara?”

“Just one city,” Azerick answered. “How many men do you think you can get and how many do we have room for on my ships?”

“Lad, you know most them men wouldn’t even ask how high if told them to jump. They’d just start jumping. Ships to move them is another story. We got nine readily available. Average three hundred men per ship. Anymore than that and it starts gettin’ real uncomfortable on a trip that far. I say we can move three thousand if we get cozy.”

“If you get more volunteers than that, I’ll commandeer some warships from North Haven.”

“Azerick, I told you, you cannot use any forces belonging to Valaria without risking a war,” Miranda reiterated.

“You keep telling me how I am the next Duke of North Haven. I never wanted that, but now that I am, I will damn well use it. I will strike the colors and fly my own. I have plenty of my own people to crew them. So unless your mother wants to gainsay me, that is what I will do and more if that is what it takes!”

Miranda knew Azerick would not be dissuaded and if she forced the issue, it would just create a rift in their family. Azerick would do whatever he felt he needed to do to protect those he cared about. Besides, she knew he was right. He needed to use everything he had available if he was to pull off this audacious plan.

“I suppose I’m to stay back and babysit once again,” Aggie grumbled.

Azerick turned to the elder wizard. “No, Aggie. I need everyone this time. The school can look after itself for a time. Jarvin will have the attention of any serious troublemakers pointed at Brelland. I need every good person I have, and you are one of my best.”

“Now there’s that young man I met at the Black Tower who knew how to speak to his elders,” Aggie said smiling.

Devlin asked, “Where would you like me? I am yours to command.”

“Master Devlin, I do not expect you to put yourself in middle of this,” Azerick said.

“Nonsense. I would not miss this for the world. My brother may not appreciate my involvement, especially if we lose, so we had best win.”

“Thank you. Thank you all. Let’s go find our volunteers.”

CHAPTER
21

Azerick was not surprised at the number of people who stepped forward to risk their lives for him and anyone that belonged to the school. As much as Ellyssa aggravated people with her stubborn hot-headedness, she, Sandy, and even Wolf were all family and everyone at the school looked at each other as such. So many of the staff and students volunteered, Azerick had to tell many of them that they had to stay behind. Zeb rounded up nearly three thousand men from North Haven; most but not all of whom worked for Azerick in some fashion. Even with commandeering three of the city’s ships, there simply would not have been room for everyone that wanted to go.

The northern seas rolled and churned with the coming of fall. Unlike the previous years, it actually behaved like fall and not early winter. It made for an unpleasant start to their journey aboard the twelve crowded ships, but as they neared Southport and sailed beyond, the ocean calmed considerably. Sped upon winds enhanced by the magicians aboard each ship, the small flotilla raced for Bakhtaran to show that city what happens when anyone threatens the extended family of the Orphans’ Academy.

Almost two weeks after setting sail, the ships practically beached themselves upon the sloping, sandy seabed at low tide less than a day’s march from Bakhtaran. It took what remained of the afternoon to shuttle everyone off the ships and onto the shore using the longboats. Once ashore, it took the combined magic of every spellcaster with them to veil their ragtag army under the illusion of several herds of goats, horses, camels, and their nomadic tenders.

The plan was to get all the illusionary critters and people to within a few hundred yards of the gate at about the same time Azerick would be in audience with Vila Mushadan. He had his speaking stone and would inform General Baneford when he was near so that one of his people could signal those outside the walls.

Eight of the spell casters were capable of opening magical portals so that they could instantly close the distance to the city. If the gates closed on them, they could then open another set of portals and bypass the walls altogether. They dared not get close enough to the city full of wizards to do it in a single casting for fear of being discovered. Even now, the wizards needed to be extremely vigilant in hiding their presence from both magical and mundane detection.

The small army marched south with the setting sun. That would put them within striking distance of the city by early evening the next day. The pace they set was brutal, and by the time they set up their fake nomadic camps, many of them looked back to the cramped confines of the ships with envy.

“We will rest for the night and then I will go in just after sunrise when the gates open for the trader traffic,” Azerick informed his core group of leaders.

Even Brother Thomas and his three Chosen came on this mission, knowing that their ability to heal wounds could save many lives. Jansen and Alex led the soldiers while the wizards were largely a force unto themselves. All were full wizards with the exception of Roger and three other adept casters that had proven their capability. Those four would stay very close to the Archmages as they all provided protection from the city’s wizards and soldiers.

Devlin approached his former student. “Azerick, I think it is a good idea if I enter the city with you. If you do take down Mushadan, my presence could go a long way into ending any violence from the common soldiers. They will recognize me as a legitimate authority and will set down their weapons for me far more quickly than for an outsider.”

Azerick listened and bobbed his head in agreement. “Sounds like a good idea. Even with the Vila dead, I doubt we could seriously overtake the city with the forces we have. It is simply too big, too crowded, and too unknown. I know I promised Baneford the chance to become the new Vila, but I think we should just flee as soon as I can get my people away.”

“You do not look as confident as you did when this started.”

The young sorcerer buried his face in his hands and ran them up through his hair as he let out a long sigh. “Even if this goes as well as it possibly can, a lot of people are going to die. I guess I am just getting tired. I am tired of always being at the forefront of every battle and every site of death and mayhem. It has been going on since I was a child. Sometimes, I just want to shout ‘why me’.”

“You feel like the world is resting upon your shoulders, and should your resolve fail, you might upset the balance and send it tumbling where it will shatter upon the ground.”

Azerick clenched his fists and looked at the sorcerer with intensity. “Yes! It is like it is up to me to solve everyone’s problems, and the only solution is built upon the bodies of those I must trod upon to achieve it!”

Azerick felt himself deflate as Devlin leaned back and laughed. “I remember thinking how the world revolved around me when I was young. True, you seem to find yourself in the middle of many desperate situations, but you choose to do so. You choose to come to the aid of others because you are a decent man and you believe in the right for everyone to live with a measure of peace and happiness. You chose to go to the Black Tower, you chose to depose Ulric, you chose to go to the aid of your King, and you are choosing to rescue your family.

“But do not think you are the only one. Many people have come forward to fight for the rights of others long before you were born and many will come after. Do you think your friend Allister or Aggie attained their power without having ever been put to the test? I was in Southport when the fog came. I walked the streets with the wizards from The Academy and the priests from the temples, slaying monster after monster beside them. I saw the streets littered with the bodies of men and women who fought or were dragged from their homes and killed.

“Did you end the fog that raised these abominations? No. Do you think it simply ran its course and expired on its own? I really do not think so. Someone else answered the call and put their lives on the line so that the rest of us could go on living. If you decide to leave your people to their fates so that those who follow you are not at risk, and if you do not destroy Mushadan, he will move against my brother. Sumara will be at war with itself, thousands will die in the fighting, and it will not be you who fights for the right of the people to live free. You are a good man, a man of character as well as power, but you are not the be all and end all of humanity.”

Azerick echoed Devlin’s earlier laugh. “Am I really that arrogant and self-centered?”