“You certainly came to the right place. We have a real restless spirit atop the hill outside of the city, but I do not recommend going there myself. She’s not much for tolerating trespassers. The few folks foolish enough not to listen came back in various levels of insanity, if they came back at all. You could ask Allister about her, he was probably there when she died!” the old man laughed again and slapped his knee. “Seriously though, don’t you be going up there yourself. Let me show you where you might find what you’re looking for.”
Azerick followed Morvic across the library where he pushed one of the rolling ladders past several rows of shelves then stopped. “Up there on the third shelf from the top. You’ll have to climb up yourself; I don’t get on the ladders much these days.”
Azerick scaled the ladder and read the titles printed on the bindings while Morvic gave him directions.
“That blue one there next to your right elbow. That’s it, and the one next to that. You might want to look at the one with the dark green binding as well,” Morvic pointed out.
Azerick descended the ladder, carefully cradling the three books Morvic had directed him to. He thanked the old librarian and sat at one of the many tables set up in the center of the vast library chamber.
The sun was setting when Azerick thought he finally found what he was looking for. The book, written by a cleric of Solarian, stated that many spirits, although not necessarily malevolent by nature, often haunt a place or person due to a traumatic experience that, until resolved, will not allow them to pass beyond the veil between the living and the afterlife.
The Lady’s spirit refused to pass on because her children were murdered and are gone. The murderers are long dead so it is impossible to avenge them, Azerick thought to himself. There is no way to bring them back to her. Were her children’s remains buried somewhere else and she wants them properly entombed on the keep grounds?
Even if their remains were still around, it is doubtful anyone would know where they were interred, and given the fact that pyres were more often used to send on the dead than tombs or graves back then, there may not be any remains left.
It was getting late, so Azerick returned the books to their rightful place and left so Morvic could lock up for the night. He bid farewell to the ancient librarian and promised he would likely be making many return visits. Lost in thought, Azerick was oblivious to much around him. He was passing the darkly shadowed side of a building when a man called out to him.
“Sir, a moment of your time, please.” The man beckoned him to come nearer.
Azerick saw there were two men and a young child wearing a worn, homespun dress that she was outgrowing. The girl was standing next to a nondescript man in patched, shabby clothing. They were definitely not the type of people who lived in this part of the city. The other man was fat, bordering on obese, but his clothes were of the highest quality and he carried himself with an air of superiority—exactly the type who lived here. It was the poor man with the child who had called out to him.
“Sir, a moment, please,” the man repeated when Azerick drew closer. “You could use a girl around to help you with the daily running of your home, couldn’t you?” The man practically begged and his eyes darted between Azerick and the fat man.
“Are you trying to sell me this child?” Azerick asked incredulously.
The fat man made to move between the father and the newcomer. “Here now, we were in the middle of a business transaction! You cannot just stop negotiations and bring in a third party to drive the price up!”
The father tried to ignore the wealthy man’s protests, sidled sideways with a hand on the girl’s boney shoulder, and continued to make his pitch. “Milord, she can cook, clean, and she’s smart as a whip.”
“Can she read?” Azerick asked, though what compelled him to do so, he could not say. The last thing he needed was a child. Although, he would have had a child of his own right now if he had been able to rescue Delinda. His heart ached at the renewed memory of his loss.
“Yes, milord, her mother teaches all our children to read, and she’s the best reader of the bunch!”
“I don’t give a damn if she can read or even speak for that matter! We had a deal on the table, and you will damn well honor it, or I’ll have you whipped for a cheat and a scoundrel,” the wealthy man swore and gestured hostilely with his decorative walking stick.
Azerick saw the look of fear in the father’s eyes, and it was not because of the threat of a beating. In one look, Azerick could see the cruel and sadistic sort of person the fat man was. Rage boiled up within him as he drew from the Source and sent a blast of raw force that sent the grotesque man tumbling into a heap several paces away. Renewed fear showed clearly on the father’s face as he now faced a man who obviously practiced magic, and like most common people, he had a deep fear of the unknown powers of magicians.
“How much did that,” Azerick pointed to the fat man blubbering on the ground, “offer you for the girl?”
“Thirty pieces of gold, m-milord,” the man answered.
“I’m afraid I have only twenty to offer. It would appear he is able to outbid me.” Azerick studied the man’s face and eyes to gauge his reaction.
“You would give her a good home and treat her well and fairly?” the father asked, casting a look at the bloated form still cowering on the ground.
Greed overcame the fat man’s fear. “Here now, I made the higher bid! You must sell to me by rights!”
Azerick took two long strides and glared down at the man, pointing a shaking finger, barely able to keep from rendering him into a pile of congealing offal. “You fat disgusting slug! If I ever hear of you trying to purchase another human being, I will take great pleasure in turning you into the pig you really are! A sow at that, then I will pen you up with an amorous boar so he can give you precisely what you deserve for the rest of your days!”
The fat man quailed under the sorcerer’s furious gaze. Azerick turned back to the man and the young girl. The sorcerer looked into the girl’s hazel green eyes, which nearly matched his own, as she looked up at him. Her eyes held a hint of fear, but she did not flinch from his gaze.
“Tell me, why you would sell her to me when that, man, offered you considerably more?”
“Milord, I want her to have a decent home. Her mother and I both love her dearly, but this last winter was hard, and the next one promises to be even worse. I ain’t been able to find work in nearly a year, and if I don’t find a way to make some money soon my whole family will starve,” the man explained, weeping openly now. “Twenty gold crowns will be plenty to see that my family gets enough to eat for some time. I don’t believe in slavery, especially for my little girl, but my older boy can work and help provide for the family, and my other boy is just a babe still suckling on his mum. Please, milord, say you’ll give her a good home and treat her fair.”
Azerick looked back at the girl and studied her with more than just his eyes. He reached into the pocket of his cloak, pulled out a small crystal sphere the size of a plum, and put it in the girl’s hand.
“I want you to concentrate on the sphere, child. Imagine it giving off a glow like a candle or a small lamp. Inside your body, there is great energy you can shape and direct into the orb just as there is energy in everything around you. Find it and shape it into light. You can do it, just concentrate.”
The girl stared at the small glass globe and concentrated but nothing happened. She looked up at Azerick with plaintive eyes, but she would find no sympathy there.
“Come now, concentrate! If you cannot do something as simple as making the globe glow then I have no use for you, and that fat blob lying on the ground over there can have you!”
“Milord, please,” the father pleaded.
The girl squeezed her big hazel eyes shut, bit her lip in concentration, and focused all her will onto the orb as tears of anger, fear, and desperation streamed down her small face. The globe erupted in a brilliance that lit up the entire block lik
e a stroke of lightning that refused to flash out of existence. Closing his eyes against the powerful glare, Azerick knelt down, put his hand over the dazzling glass sphere, and gently took it from her where it once again dimmed to nothing more than a plain glass ball.
“That will do, child, that will do,” Azerick assured her and petted her long, wavy blond hair then stood up and addressed the father once more.
Azerick pulled out a small pouch of coins and tossed it to the man. “There is probably a little over thirty crowns total in that sack. I suggest you invest it in tools or whatever it is you normally do for a living. If I hear that you have squandered it on drinking, gambling, or other pleasures, I will come and take the rest of your family from you. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, milord, I swear I’ll do right. What will you do with Ellyssa?”
“That is no longer your concern is it?” Azerick replied harshly, but then softened as he realized the man truly did want what was best for his daughter. “She will be educated far beyond what she could have ever accomplished with you. She has a talent I will nurture so she can become what she is meant to be. Be warned however, she is now mine. You may see her about the city at times, but you will not approach her nor will you speak to her. In time, she may choose to reestablish contact with you, but that will be her choice. She is not a slave but my apprentice. When she comes of age, she can decide what she will do, where she will go, or what she shall become.”
The man nodded, took one last tear-filled look at his daughter, and walked away. Azerick guided his new apprentice past the fat lump of a man still cowering on the filthy, cobbled street, and they walked together back to the Golden Glade. Azerick looked down at his new apprentice and wondered what he had gotten himself into.
“So your name is Ellyssa?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied quietly.
“How old are you, Ellyssa?”
“Nine, sir.”
“Your father said you can read.”
She mumbled an affirmative and nodded her head.
“Do you like reading?”
She nodded again.
“Good, you will be doing a great deal of reading from now on.”
The girl did not bother to answer, and they walked the rest of the way to the inn in silence. The inn was filling up with the usual dinner crowd. Azerick motioned for the buxom older serving woman to come over.
“Mary, would you be so kind as to take this young lady and clean her up before dinner?” Azerick implored.
Mary was a kind soul would and would have helped regardless, but the fact that the young sorcerer was a good tipper did not hurt.
“Of course, come along, honey. Let’s get you presentable before setting you up with a real good meal, okay?”
Ellyssa followed the serving woman without protest. When they returned a short while later, the young girl had her hair washed out and brushed and her skin was free of dirt. With perfect timing, the meals arrived just after she sat back down across from Azerick. Azerick motioned that it was all right to go ahead and eat as he dug into his own meal.
The girl ate with delight but maintained respectable table manners. Azerick figured this was probably the first decent meal she has had in some time, and the thought that he was able to provide her with it warmed his cold heart. He thought back to the days when he often went to bed with an empty stomach and sympathized with the hungry child.
Azerick ordered another bed set up in his room as well as a couple of folding screens for modesty’s sake. Once they finished eating, Azerick took Ellyssa upstairs and showed her where she would sleep. He watched her eyes settle on the books he had stacked along a shelf. Azerick crossed the room and pulled out a book titled Elementary Magic and handed it to the girl. It was the same book that he had “borrowed” from Magus Allister what seemed a lifetime ago.
“You can read this anytime you like, but do not attempt any of the spells inside without my presence and guidance. This is the book I first used to learn magic.”
“Are you really going to teach me how to use magic?” she asked wondrously.
“Yes, you have the talent and a strong one if I’m not mistaken. I can get you started, but I will have to find someone else to teach you beyond the rudimentary. I imagine you will surpass my abilities before long.”
“Aren’t you a powerful wizard? You sent that fat man flying easily enough,” she asked, overcoming her initial shyness.
“I am not a wizard at all, I am a sorcerer. I cast magic in a different manner than a wizard, though it looks similar.” Azerick explained it to her before she could ask what the difference was.
Ellyssa sat down and read while Azerick lay on his bed pondering what to do next. He had an idea, the same idea he had gotten the moment the girl’s father made it clear he wanted to sell her, but it was dangerous. He wondered if he had the right to place the girl in such danger to accomplish his own ends. His conscience warred with necessity, but in the end, sleep won the battle.
Ellyssa stayed up reading long after the sorcerer fell asleep, so absorbed was she in the book he gave her. Her mother taught her and her big brother to read with a book of tales she had owned since she was a girl. Ellyssa knew she was a good reader, but there were many words in this book with which she was unfamiliar. She would have to ask about them later. It was late and her eyes were getting heavy. She closed the book with reluctance and crawled into the other bed. It was softer than her bed at home and the blankets were thicker.
She thought about her brothers and her parents. She missed them already. They were good to her, but she knew times were hard. There was never enough to eat, and the house was always so cold in the winter. She hoped the money the sorcerer gave her father would keep them fed and warm.
As much as it hurt, she understood her father had done what was best even though it hurt him to do so. She was just glad the fat man had not taken her. She could tell he was a bad man. She was not sure what to think about Azerick. He was quiet, and although he did not seem friendly, he did not appear to be mean either. Maybe that would change once they got to know each other better.
Ellyssa woke and found Azerick looking through the sack containing her clothes, a rag doll, and the hairbrush her mother had given her. She looked out the window and saw that the sun had already crested the horizon and heard the morning traffic out on the street. For a moment, she had thought she had dreamt everything that had happened last night. She was not sure whether she was glad or disappointed to find it had been real.
“What are you doing?” she asked when Azerick held up one of the dresses her mother had made her.
Azerick looked up at the sound of her voice. “I was looking to see what kind of clothes you had brought. What do you say we go to the clothiers and buy you some new ones?”
New clothes? She had never had new clothes in her entire life! Everything she had her mother had made out of spare materials and scrap pieces of cloth she had been able to buy or trade from the tailor’s shop. But her mother had made her clothes herself. She knew that love had gone into every stitch she sewed. Then again, love did not keep the cold out.
“Do I have to throw away my old clothes?” she asked.
“Not if you do not want to. You can keep them, or even wear them if you like. I just noticed that most of them are quite worn and might be a little small now.” Azerick realized that her clothes were the only link she now had to her family.
It was hard not to feel guilty over the harshness with which he had treated her father, but learning magic required enormous concentration. He felt it necessary to sever those ties with her family so her focus would be on learning and not divided between her studies and the people who sold her. Azerick also wanted to drive home the importance of what the man was doing and what he was losing by selling his child. Was it cruel, perhaps, but it was necessary. It was a cruel world, and the quicker Ellyssa learned that the better.
“I would like some new clothes if I may.”
“We will go
right after we break our fast. Meet me downstairs when you are ready.”
Azerick left Ellyssa to get dressed and went downstairs. He already knew where the clothiers shop was, so that would be easy to find. He ordered them both a good breakfast, and Ellyssa came down a few minutes before it was served.
She was wearing one of her better homemade dresses and had brushed her long, golden hair. She smiled at the sight of the warm meal, but sadness crossed her face when she thought of the thin porridge her family always ate, at least on good days. Then she remembered how much money Azerick had given her father. It was a lot of money. Now her family should be eating better too, and the thought helped ease her sadness. She smiled when she took a drink of cold milk from her cup. Milk was also something she rarely had when she lived at home.
Perhaps this would not be so terrible or frightening after all, she thought.
She set her cup down once she finished her milk and looked at Azerick across the small table. “Excuse me, sir, but is this where we are always going to live?”
“You can call me Azerick, Ellyssa, and no, we will not live here for long I hope.”
“I didn’t think people normally lived at an inn, except the innkeeper maybe. So where is your home, and when are we going there?”
Azerick sighed and thought for a moment. “It is not far from here, but I do not know how soon we will be able to go there. There are some things I must do first, things that you may be able to help me with.”
“What kind of things can I help you with? Does it need cleaned? I help my mother clean our house and darn stockings. I hope you have good stockings. I don’t like darning. The needle makes my fingers hurt.”
“No, I don’t need my stockings mended, and the home needs far more than cleaning. It’s rather complicated, and I am not sure how to explain it.”
Ellyssa looked at him quizzically. “But you are a sorcerer and I’m just a girl. If it’s complicated for you, what can I do? I don’t have magical power, even if I did make that ball light up.”
The Sorcerer's Path Box Set: Book 1-4 Page 67
