“Everybody, this is Sandy. She is a young sand dragon who recently lost her mother and will be staying with us for some time.”
As Azerick quickly introduced everyone, Sandy committed all of their names to her formidable memory. Each person welcomed her warmly to her new home. Aggie strode through the crowd and stroked the dragon’s neck.
“You poor dear. What is your name?” she asked.
“Sandy,” she replied, wondering if the older woman was forgetful or something.
Aggie smiled and her eyes twinkled with mirth. “Sandy is hardly a proper name for such a beautiful creature as you, dear. What is your real name?”
Sandy hissed out the name her mother had bestowed upon her at her hatching.
“Now that is a lovely name, and quite apt I would say. You do have the most brilliant scales,” Aggie replied warmly.
“You speak dragon?” Azerick asked in surprise.
“Oh, I have picked up quite a few odd bits of knowledge in my wanderings.”
“The woman is so old she’s probably half dragon herself,” Allister teased with a mirthful snort.
Aggie turned toward the old mage and feigned crossness. “I would rather be half a dragon than a complete ass like you, you old goat!” Aggie hiked up her skirts to her thigh. “Look at those gams. I have the legs of a woman half my apparent age.”
“Half her age but twice her size!” Allister guffawed loudly.
His laughs were suddenly choked off by his beard that was now coiled around his throat and squeezing like a python. Allister clawed at his animated whiskers, trying to break their vice-like grip.
“Blast you, woman, can’t you take a little joke?” the magus demanded sorely as he untangled his beard.
“Of course I can. I’ve been putting up with one since I got here and quite frankly that joke was old when the elves were young,” she shot back.
“It is nice to see that you made it, revered grandmother, though you look considerably different than when we first met,” Azerick said with a small bow.
“Oh, still the polite one aren’t you? It’s just Aggie to my friends and that old, used up scarecrow that calls himself a wizard.”
“I take it you two know each other,” Azerick surmised from their banter.
Aggie slipped an arm through Allister’s who tried to glare at her but could not keep the smile from creeping onto his wizened face. “Oh yes, we go way back.”
“Did Joshua and the others make it all right?”
Rusty answered Azerick’s question. “Yes, he and several others arrived just yesterday. Three of them are quite talented and are willing to teach a class for the younger or less skilled students. Allister and Aggie will work with them to improve their skills.”
“That is very good to hear.” Azerick turned to Ellyssa. “Why don’t you and your friends take Sandy to get something to eat and then maybe get to know each other better up in your room?”
“Ok, come on, Sandy, let’s go raid the kitchen.”
“I heard that!” Wolf crowed and urged everyone through the doors of the dining hall.
When all of the youngsters were gone, Azerick turned back toward Aggie. “I wish I had a library worthy to replace the one you had at the Black Tower.”
“Oh that reminds me! In all the hubbub I completely forgot about my library. Let me see what I can set up.”
Everyone was forced to hurry after the wizard as she bounded youthfully up the stairs to the landing where the library was located. She stepped into the room and stopped.
“You call this a library? I have more books stacked next to my privy than this,” Aggie stated sourly.
“Yes, we have been meaning to greatly expand it, but with the construction and getting the classes together, none of us found the time to seek out more and make it a proper library,” Azerick explained with embarrassment as they all looked at the single bookcase that was only about three quarters full.
“Of course, each of the students has their own textbooks and materials,” Rusty added.
“Well this just won’t do at all,” Aggie muttered and began an incantation.
Several square objects appeared, hovering a few feet over the floor of the library and began unfolding themselves. When the two-dimensional items finished unfolding they looked like masterfully created paintings of bookshelves full of thick tomes and books. Another gesture placed them where she wanted them where they took on depth and settled onto the floor.
Fully stocked bookshelves now lined every inch of available wall space with several others standing in the open areas of the library.
“Wow,” was all Azerick was able to utter at the impressive display.
“I agree, wow.” Rusty concurred.
Allister hugged Aggie with one arm around her shoulders. “You are an amazing woman.”
“Of course I am. I’ve been telling you that for—a long time. It’s about time you realized it.”
“Oh I have known since I first saw you,” Allister told her. “I just did not voice it for fear of feeding your already overgrown ego.”
“Pfft, such a pittance could hardly make an impression on that beast,” Aggie dismissed with a grin and a wave of her hand.
“Cripes, Azerick,” exclaimed Rusty, “every time you leave you bring back something crazy. First it was a minotaur, then hundreds of orphans, now a dragon and a magus with an entire library in her pocket. What else have you dragged back with you?”
“You do not want to know,” Azerick responded with all seriousness.
Aw, come on. What’s the matter, you don’t want to introduce me to your friends?
Shut up demon. I can smell your breath even in my head.
Laughter filled Azerick’s thoughts until he pushed them deeper down.
“I thought Zeb was going to have you beat this time, but the dragon makes it too close to call,” Rusty was saying.
Azerick brought his attention back to the physical world. “What do you mean?”
“We have another houseguest you need to meet. Her name is Hati. Zeb found her when he was up north and brought her home so Allister could remove a mark of possession from her,” Rusty explained.
“Someone made her a mind slave up north?” Azerick ask incredulously, just the thought of which spiked his anger.
“Yeah and a lot of other stuff too. You’ll have to come downstairs and see.”
Azerick followed Rusty downstairs while Aggie and Allister checked out the library and made some final arrangements.
Colleen was sitting in a chair near the fire knitting near Lord Ebenezer Crowley who was in his usual immobile place just in front of the blazing hearth.
“Colleen,” Rusty called to his wife as he and Azerick descended the stairs, “have you seen Hati?”
Colleen looked up from her knitting and replied. “I think she was going out to the stables.”
“Ok, thanks.”
Hati stroked the muzzle of one of the horses as it stuck its large head out over the half-door. Eislanders had a few large draft breeds but they were used only as working animals since the environment they lived in simply could not support very many of them and she used every chance she could to get near them.
Being near the gentle but powerful animals and being able to touch them calmed her nerves and let her forget about her deformity for a time. The horses did not look at her strangely or judge her. She had not tried to fly yet, partly out of fear and largely out of self-consciousness. She was already so different from everyone else she did not want to stand out even more by flying around in the sky like a big mutant bird.
The ones who knew were always so nice to her, especially Colleen, but she was still ashamed and afraid of how she looked. No matter how nice everyone was, she could still see in their eyes that they knew she was different. She knew she was being paranoid but after a lifetime of being teased and ridiculed for being different, it was hard to feel any other way.
The horse suddenly grabbed the large cloak she always ke
pt tied around her shoulders and threw its head back, pulling it off her, and exposing her wings. She tried to snatch the cloak back before anyone saw her, but a gasp of surprise snapped her head around and looked at the small boy that tended the stables, his eyes as big around as saucers and his mouth gaping open.
Peck stared in amazement at her and she could only watch his face as the rudeness of staring conflicted with his amazement, but he could not take his eyes off her.
“It’s ok, I won’t hurt you,” Hati tried to reassure the stableboy as her face burned and her stomach twisted out of fear and humiliation.
She finally snatched her cloak back from the horse who probably thought it a grand joke to play on the woman and quickly tried to wrap it back around her shoulders and cover her wings. Her taloned fingers made it difficult and the horse had snapped the cord that tied it in place.
“Please don’t be afraid. I’ll go away.”
“I’m not afraid,” Peck finally said as he overcame his surprise. “Are they real?”
“Yes, they’re real,” Hati replied, looking at the floor of the stables.
“Can I touch them?”
“You want to touch them?”
Peck’s face burned bright red. “I’m sorry, that was probably really rude of me to ask.”
“No, that’s ok, I guess you can touch them if want,” Hati said, surprised that the boy did not seem frightened of her.
Peck walked over and tentatively stroked the huge feathers on the side of one of her wings. “They’re really pretty. I wish I had wings.”
“Why would you want that? You would be so different from everyone else. Wouldn’t you be afraid of people hurting you?”
“I’m already different. I’m small, I’d rather be with the horses than most people, and before I came here I was often picked on. But if had wings, I could just fly away whenever anyone was mean. That’s why I like riding the horses so much. I know it’s the closest I’ll ever get to really flying. Whenever something bothers me, I just jump on and ride real fast, leaving all the bad stuff behind.”
It was then that Hati truly realized why she had asked the old wizard not to take her wings. He had told her that he could not do it himself but it could probably be done and she had not pushed for it. She wanted to fly, to be able to leave any troubles she had on the ground far below her. She would be free, free to do anything, go anywhere and if someone did not like her or would not accept her she would just fly on and leave them behind.
“But if you kept flying away you would not have any friends,” Hati said.
“I have friends here. They wouldn’t care if I flew or not. If other people somewhere else didn’t like me I could always come home and they would be here for me,” Peck explained.
Rusty and Azerick strode into the barn at that moment. Despite the warning and everything he had seen before, Azerick could not help the look of astonishment that crossed his face.
“Hati, this is Azerick. He is the one that actually owns this place,” Rusty said as he introduced them.
Hati tried again to cover herself with her cloak but only managed to drop it on the ground when it slipped from her uncooperative fingers.
She managed a small curtsey and nearly choked on her words from fright and embarrassment. “Good day, sir, I am sorry for my intrusion to your home.”
Azerick smiled warmly and he picked Hati’s cloak up from the ground. “I’m just the owner, Hati. It is everyone’s home, including yours. It is very nice to meet you and it is no intrusion. You are quite welcome here.”
***
After stripping Rusty and Allister of every bit of information about what had happened while he had been away, Azerick spent the next several days simply resting, relaxing, and readjusting to the semi-chaotic life of being back at his school.
Sandy quickly made friends with everyone in the keep. Even the territorial cooks enjoyed it when she popped her head into the kitchen looking for a snack to feed her rapidly growing body.
It was late in the evening a few days after he had returned when strange sounds coming from the floor above his own caught his attention. Closing the book he was studying, Azerick crept up the stairs to investigate.
The noises were coming from Ellyssa’s room, followed by the sounds of children’s laughter. Azerick knew that anytime that many kids were laughing there was almost certainly some sort of mischief in the making. He cracked open the door and poked his head into the room.
“What is going on in here? What were those noises?” Azerick asked.
Ellyssa, Roger, Sandy, and a few other children sat in a large circle on the floor, dressed in their nightclothes, and gave him guilty stares until Ellyssa finally confessed.
“We were having a burping contest,” Ellyssa answered with an impish grin.
“A burping contest,” Azerick repeated flatly.
“Not me, Azerick,” Sandy interjected. “I’m a lady and momma says that ladies don’t—oh hold on.”
Sandy stretched out her neck and tail until they were parallel with the floor and let out a ten-second belch that rattled the shutters and made the door handle in Azerick’s hand vibrate.
“Whoa! Did you hear that?” Sandy asked proudly. “What?” she demanded as she glared at Azerick, daring him to reproach her.
Azerick shook his head and returned to his room, gales of laughter following him all the way back down the stairs. As the evening grew late, Azerick set aside his book and dimmed the luminous glass globe that provided the light for his room. The howling winds of an approaching storm quickly lulled him into sleep.
“Azerick? Psst, Azerick?”
The sorcerer’s eyelids fluttered open and looked into the large green eyes set in Sandy’s wedge-shaped head.
“Are you awake?” she whispered tentatively.
“What is it, Sandy?” Azerick drowsily asked.
“There is a loud storm outside.”
Azerick turned his attention to the shuttered window, heard the high-winds, and the loud peal of thunder.
“I thought you might be scared so I came down here to see if you needed my company,” Sandy told him nervously.
“No, I’m fine, Sandy.”
“Oh, ok then,” Sandy replied solemnly.
Azerick saw the crestfallen look in the dragon’s eyes and understood what she was really asking. Sandy was frightened but her draconic pride would never allow her to voice it. Another peal of thunder rattled the shutters.
“On second thought, this is a bad one,” Azerick said as he looked at the window. “Would you mind staying here with me tonight?”
Sandy’s head perked up at the request but quickly resumed a nonchalant pose. “I suppose I could. Ellyssa is sound asleep and snoring so she should be fine on her own.”
Azerick’s bed groaned in protest as the not so little dragon climbed up and lay at the foot. Fortunately, Azerick’s bed was a large affair, constructed for him by a team of carpenters last year, and sported a huge, over-stuffed mattress. He could tell that Sandy had already grown some since he had first found her. She was at least a foot longer and several inches taller; the size of a very large dog but significantly heavier.
Sandy curled up at the end of the bed and tucked her snout under her tail. Azerick saw that she was shivering, but whether from cold or fright he did not know so he took an extra quilt and threw it over the top of her body. Times like these reminded him that she really was just a small child of her species despite her advanced learning and impressive mind.
Zeb, Toron, and Balor returned from Sumara with more than just young mages. They brought with them numerous soft and warm white furs, one big enough to cover even the largest of beds. Zeb presented Colleen with a long coat made of smaller, suppler white furs that she absolutely loved.
“I am surprised to see that you brought so many of the furs back for us this time. Not that I am complaining, but I thought they were your big money makers,” Azerick said to Zeb as they all sat around the dining table drink
ing tea and coffee.
“I wouldn’a had nearly so many but Southport had her port closed to all incoming ships and I wasn’t about to try and make my own overland caravan to get them to Brelland or Brightridge, what with all the stories of bandits prowling the roads,” Zeb explained.
“I saw that Southport had its gates shut and closed to land traffic, but the port as well? That seems mighty odd to me,” Azerick replied in consternation.
“Aye, what’s even stranger was we got close enough to see several large ships at anchor in the port before we were chased off by threat of attack. They were big affairs and heavily armed as if they were expecting an attack.”
“Or preparing to launch an attack of their own,” Toron put in.
Rusty asked, “Who would Southport want to attack?”
The minotaur shook his huge horned head. “I would not know, but if a nation or group is going to launch an assault, the last thing you want is for anyone to get away and warn the target.”
“That would explain the restricted gates and closed port,” Azerick responded.
“I know my dad said that Ulric has had his sights on the crown for a long time,” Rusty said.
Allister scoffed. “You can’t reach Brelland by ship.”
Azerick made up his mind. “We can conjecture all day long about Ulric’s intent but none of us knows what he is planning. Regardless, my instincts are telling me he is up to something. I want the guard doubled after dark and manned by grown men and older students. You can use no more than two of the younger ones to act as runners only. I know it is cold and miserable so let us put out plenty of braziers and fuel and erect some overhead covers.”
“Did you make any connection between Ulric, the assassin, or Dundalor’s armor during your recent escapades?” Allister asked.
Azerick shook his head. “No, Baneford said that a wizard from the Black Tower had him searching for the armor. The assassin that I believe murdered my father, and tried to kill me as well, was also connected to that same scorpion’s nest, but I could find nothing to indicate Ulric had any dealings with them. Travis’s father was the one who hired the Rook to kill me because of his son’s death and had nothing to do with the armor. It was purely personal.”
The Sorcerer's Vengeance (The Sorcerer's Path) Page 28
