The Complete Seven Sorcerers Trilogy

by Julius St. Clair

  “And what?” Alicia asked. “Me and Remi are the muscle?”

  “Something like that,” Ember muttered.

  “Where are we going find this…Blade?” Remi wondered.

  “He won’t come to us, that’s for sure,” Ember replied. “His rebellious nature is too strong. He won’t want to work with any of us.”

  “Maybe you,” Remi replied. “But I’m sure I’ll be able to convince him.”

  “Good luck. He’s elusive. Even more so than the Dragon, but I might be able to get a general location.” She turned to Alicia. “I’ll give you his description and you tell me what I need to know.”

  “Screw that,” Alicia spat. “If you find him, you won’t need us anymore. Our main reason for being here is because we’re able to find the other Sorcerers and weapons and you’re saying he can do both! I’m not giving you anything more.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Ember guffawed. “Do you have any idea what I can do to you?”

  “Hey,” Remi warned, stepping forward. “We’re not fighting. Not when we have plenty of enemies down below.”

  “She’s going to give me what I want to know.”

  “Or what?” Remi aid through grit teeth. “What are you going to do?”

  “You’ve already experienced a little bit of it.”

  “We have a deal.”

  “Deals are nothing but words.”

  “Siding with evil never works,” a gruff, deep voice replied. Ember, Remi and Alicia began looking all around them, their heads swiveling so quick that Remi felt like she was spraining it.

  “Who said that?” Ember growled.

  “Me,” the voice replied again. Their gazes fell on a tall man standing in the distance with one hand in his pants pocket. He had long dreadlocks that extended down to his butt, and his black hair was adorned with gems and rings—his long ponytail beard was outfitted with the same jewelry. He looked middle-aged, and his skin was copper-toned. He was clothed in a long thin robe that flowed in the light breeze, and it was striped with dull colors, as if it had once been bright, but many battles and the woes of life had darkened their hues. At his side, sheathed and tied to a large sash that acted as his belt—a sword swung back and forth from his hip—a scimitar that was gigantic in size. It dragged across the granules of sand.

  “The Blade,” Ember whispered. “Why would he come here?”

  “I’m no longer afraid of you, Madre,” he replied. “Not anymore.”

  “Mother?” Alicia asked, raising an eyebrow at Ember. “Is that what he said?”

  “It’s because I’m the one that made him,” Ember sighed. “I’m his Sorcerer.”

  Remi stared at the Blade with wide eyes, examining him for similarities. In what way was he created? What part of Ember did she pass along? Or what did she lose? With this newfound knowledge, she was unsure if the Blade was dangerous or not, or if he could be trusted.

  “Why are you here?” Remi found herself asking, as if she had already taken Ember’s side. The situation couldn’t be farther from the truth.

  “I don’t want to fight you, Pedro,” Ember said.

  He closed his eyes and chuckled to himself. “It wouldn’t be much of a fight. I have improved greatly in the time we have been separated. Now I have come to retrieve mi hermanas. They are weapons like me, no?”

  “They’re working for me.”

  “Not how I see it,” Alicia said, rising to her feet. “She wants to control us.”

  “As she tends to do,” Pedro replied. “But do not worry. I have your back now. We are family.”

  “What’s the plan?” Remi asked.

  “Together, we will defeat the Sorcerers and put an end to this craziness. She, will be the first to go. A declaration of my freedom.”

  Remi glanced back at Ember who was fixated on Pedro’s loose hands, hanging by his hip and brushing up against his sword.

  “You can’t hurt her,” Remi said, already regretting saying it. “I’m sorry, but you can’t.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because we need her. She’s worked with us so far, and she’ll be an invaluable ally.”

  “She’s just biding her time, waiting for the right moment to strike you all down.”

  “But that time is not now. While we have the opportunity, we should join forces and have a better chance to take out the threats that really matter. Ember is crazy, yes, but she’s not the worst out there.”

  “She has probably tortured you,” Pedro declared, striking a nerve with Remi. “Of this, I am sure, because she once did it to me, along with many, many others. It is her way. If she cannot figure out a way to handle her emotions, she explodes on others. We suffer, because she is incomplete. Why would you want a person like that on the battlefield? Imagine if you do something she disagrees with? Do you think you would be able to control her? Do you think she will be able to listen to you? I doubt it, hermana.”

  “She can dig her own grave, if she so chooses, but I say we give her a chance. Yes, she…tortured me, but it’s because she’s never been taught other ways of thinking. In a lot of ways, the Sorcerers are like children, playing a game in which we are the pawns. Now we have to play the adults, watching them carefully and making sure they don’t flip over the game board and kill us all in the process. Well, I can’t chaperone alone. I need all of you to help me.”

  “I cannot work with her.”

  “Then we can’t work with you,” Remi said boldly.

  He laughed out loud. “Then I have made a mistake in coming here. I thought I would find allies, but I have only discovered children. What about you?” he asked Alicia. “Would you come with me?”

  “If Remi’s not going, then neither am I.”

  “Don’t follow her blindly. You have your own thoughts.”

  “Remi’s who I’m siding with to the end. You’ll just have to accept that.”

  “My, my,” he said, crossing his massive arms from underneath his robe. “Remi, you must have made quite the impression.”

  “She’s not in my debt if that’s what you’re thinking, and she’s not under my control either. We work together because we trust each other.”

  “And you trust the Sorcerer?” he asked.

  “I’m not going to stand here and talk in circles. We don’t have time for this.”

  “No, we don’t,” Pedro said. “And that is why I challenge you.”

  “Huh?” Remi said in confusion.

  “If I defeat you in a friendly sparring match, then I will join you. You will be the leader and I will do as you say. But if I should win…you must follow me, and we will ditch the bitch. How does that sound?”

  “Don’t do it,” Ember whispered. “You will lose.”

  “Is he really that strong?” Remi asked.

  “Back when we were creating the weapons, I was under the impression that the Sorcerers themselves wouldn’t fight one another directly. I thought that the weapons would decide who won and lost. That’s why I placed a massive quantity of my power inside of him. He was nearly equal to me in strength when he escaped my grasp years ago, and I can only imagine how he has surpassed me since. In order to defeat him, you would have to be as strong, if not stronger, than me.”

  Remi didn’t like the sound of that.

  “What choice does she have?” Alicia asked and Ember rolled her eyes.

  “We can run.”

  “Dummy,” Remi said. “He can sense where you are, remember?”

  “Why do you care so much about me all of a sudden?”

  “Because you’re the only one that can go toe to toe with another Sorcerer besides him.”

  “We can attack him together,” Ember huffed.

  “But then he won’t honor the agreement.”

  “We don’t need him.”

  Remi sighed so heavily that her entire body moved up and down. “I accept the challenge.”

  “I’m sorry,” Pedro called out. “I didn’t hear you.”

  “Like I
said, we don’t have any more time to waste. Let’s get this over with.”

  “You have no chance!” Ember shouted as Remi cracked her neck. “If you’re going to fight, at least take it down to Terra where your new abilities will be stronger under the time difference!”

  “Easier said than done,” Remi said as she ran toward her opponent. She had no idea what she was going to do next or if whatever technique she planned on using was going to work. But she hadn’t been training for nothing. Ember was more powerful than she could ever imagine, and she had been under her tutelage. If there was ever a moment to prove herself, it was now.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Pedro laughed as Remi disappeared from his view. Pedro didn’t seem phased. But that was before he got a rude awakening.

  He unsheathed his sword, pivoted and pressed up against Remi’s throat—sure she was about to appear behind him. But the neck he applied his blade against wasn’t physical in form. It looked like Remi in every way, but the body had no substance. The Blade hummed in amusement as he spun around and looked in every direction. Remi was still nowhere to be found, but that wouldn’t change for long. After all, she still had the signature of a Sorcerer coursing through her veins.

  He took a stab at the air, right where he suspected Remi’s abdomen to be, and he did hit his target, but not as intended. Remi appeared in full view, but she had parried his blade with one of her own. He examined the craftsmanship. It was exquisite. It wasn’t just polished steel—it was divided into three sections, in which each piece was bigger and more prominent than the last. The third closest to the hilt was the smallest and the mid-section overlapped it, as if it could extend out if it needed to. And last, the last third which was the tip of the blade was so sharp and polished that the glint from the sun blinded him.

  “A strange composition,” he commented, as his eyes met hers. They were full of determination and intent to kill. She wasn’t in the mood to play games.

  “Shut up,” she said as she pressed forward, trying to put him on the defense. He lifted his blade so that she was carried toward him off of her own momentum. He raised his blade and prepared to bring it down on her back, but she spun around in mid-air and he narrowly missed. She rolled into his blade and kicked up at the hilt. He kept his grip strong but she didn’t give up. With her blade secured in both hands, it began to hum as if something was powering it from within. His eyes went wide as a beam of energy shot out from the tip, cutting off a few of his dreads. He leapt back and Remi jumped to her feet.

  “That is no ordinary sword,” he said, but she didn’t respond in word.

  Remi sprinted toward him as fast as she could, ready to lob his head off when Pedro began tracing a circle in the air with his index finger. The moment she was within a few yards of him, he clapped his hands together (even with his sword held in one of them), and a gust of wind began pulling at her. Remi’s vision focused and she saw that the circle he traced was no manifest into something strange and terrifying.

  It looked like a vertical pool of water was in mid-air. The dark blue substance that lapped at the circle’s granite looking edges rippled and pulsed, and a unrelenting wind was coming from the center, pulling her toward it.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m coming too.”

  Remi grit her teeth as he found herself pulled into the circle entirely.

  After she blinked, she found herself on a narrow, but long set of stairs. The air was hot and unforgiving. It was dry, and the buildings in the distance looked small and rust colored. She squinted as sand brushed past her nose. Where was she? Had Pedro taken her there?

  “Hey there,” Pedro said from behind her.

  She swung her blade at him and he swatted it away with his hand as if it was a toy. Remi took a deep breath and continued her assault, trying to think of a way to get past his defenses. She was serious, but it was obvious that he wasn’t. It was all a game to him—to show his superiority. He really was a product of Ember.

  “Alright, that’s it,” Remi declared loudly. “We’re done playing around.”

  “Huh?” he said. He had thought that Remi had been serious the entire time, but either way, her declaration threw off his thoughts and dropped his guard. He found himself getting kicked in the stomach.

  Reeling backwards, Remi hit him again, this time slamming the palm of her hand into his chin. Though it caused him to stumble, it was apparent that he was in a whole different league than she.

  “Cut that out,” he said, as his head was still in whiplash. She stopped in her tracks and waited as he brought his head back down and glared at her. “I get it. You’re not going to stop unless I kill you, and that’s something I don’t want to do.”

  “I won’t follow your lead,” she said. “I won’t.”

  “I realize that,” he sighed. “You would rather die.”

  Remi glared at him, but out of the corner of her eye, far up the stairs she saw an imposing figure with broad shoulders staring down at them. A fortress stood on the top of the hill, and someone had emerged from it, curious to the two guests that arrived out of thin air on his doorstep. Her eyes went back to Pedro’s.

  “The deal is still on. I have a lot more techniques to use.”

  “I realize that,” he mused. “You’ve been testing me all this time. In a way, you still haven’t gotten serious.”

  “So what happens now? Because I’m not going to follow you.”

  “You’re annoying,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Okay, how about this? I concede. You can call the shots for now. But make no mistake, I have my agenda too. If you do something that I don’t agree with, don’t expect me to stick around.”

  “Why would you do that?” Remi asked, scanning his face. “Give me the reins?”

  “Call me curious,” he chuckled. “Besides, you’re the only one besides myself that has managed to find another weapon. I find that impressive. But…let’s not talk here. We’re being watched.”

  “Where are we?” she asked as he began tracing the air in front of him again.

  “Cimmerian. In front of one of the fortresses.”

  “Then who is that up there?” she pointed.

  “I don’t know. But we should go before he decides to call for an investigation squad. Ah, the portal is complete.”

  “Portal?”

  “We can see the whole world like this,” he said, giving her a bow. “Ladies first?”

  Remi leapt in and she found herself back on the island, with Alicia and Ember staring at her in awe. Remi glanced behind her and realized that there was no circle to announce her presence. It was as if she had popped into existence. Pedro arrived a couple seconds later, stumbling in the sand as if he had a running start into the portal.

  “It’s a little jarring,” he said, his eyes immediately searching and finding Ember. “But it’s not too different than how the Sorcerers get around. Their method of travel is a little less conspicuous and it’s nearly instant, but it’s in the same class.”

  Ember didn’t say a word.

  “Yes, of course that only scares you more, “Pedro laughed. “Knowing that no matter where you hide, I can be there.”

  “Alright, calm down,” Alicia said, shaking her head. “We get it. You and Ember have issues to work out. But that’s not important right now. Who won?”

  “I did,” Remi said flatly. Pedro’s lips parted as if he was about to say something, but then he kept silent.

  “Really?” Ember asked. It was the first time Remi saw fear in her eyes. She was a Sorcerer! And here were two weapons that were supposedly stronger than she was? How was this possible? How could she ever hope to compete?

  Remi patted Pedro on the shoulder and their eyes met once more. She glared him intensely, and Pedro nodded. He would keep her secret for now. If Remi was to truly be in charge for now, then they all had to believe that she had defeated Pedro, even if it was far from the truth. That way, Ember would follow along and be more obedient instead of l
ooking for ways to take the lead. She was at their mercy as long as the lie continued, and also, their enemies would think twice before attacking them. Including the Sorcerers themselves.

  “So this is it then?” Alicia asked. “We’re going after the Sorcerers now? We have everything we need.”

  “I find it convenient that we were talking about needing the blade and he just happened to appear,” Ember said.

  “I’ve always been keeping tabs on you, Mummy,” Pedro said to her with a wink.

  “I don’t trust him.”

  “That doesn’t matter!” Remi shouted at her. Ember immediately cowered in fear. It was a little mean of her to shout at the Sorcerer like that, but then again, she wanted to get her just a little bit for the crap she had been put through. “You’re going to play nice. Or else me and Pedor are going to put you back in line.”

  “Now that you’ve gotten stronger, you’re so arrogant,” Ember muttered.

  “Where to?” Remi asked Pedro, ignoring her. “Should we get the other weapons?”

  “Unfortunately, I can’t sense them anymore. I had found a couple of them and we were working together but I left them behind so that we could divide and conquer. I guess it didn’t go well because they’re nowhere to be found. I think someone must have gotten to them.”

  “The other Sorcerers,” Alicia said. “They might be imprisoned.”

  “But by who?” Remi asked. “Who could have gotten to them the most?”

  “It’s hard to say,” Pedro said. It was the first time Remi had seen him solemn. He must have spent quite a bit of time with them. “Any of the Sorcerers are capable from what I’ve seen.”

  “Then we’ll focus on the Sorcerers themselves for now, but definitely keep a look out. If you hone in on a weapon, we’ll change plans.”

  “Okay,” he said, giving her a weak smile.

  “There is currently a major battle going on in the forest near Delilah,” Ember said. “Seems like Delilah and Cimmerian forces are fighting each other.”

  “Yeah,” Pedro confirmed, closing his eyes. “And there’s definitely a Sorcerer down there. He’s keeping a low profile.”

  “What do you think he’s trying to accomplish there?” Alicia asked. “He won’t be to reveal his powers so easily.”