“You could be dead, or worse, insane!”
Will sighed. “Don’t be dramatic. It wasn’t that bad.”
“You said one of the books you saw was named Wisdom of the Void, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Just opening that one drives some men insane.”
“Is there some sort of curse on it? Or a spell?”
“Not at all,” said the ring. “It’s simply the fact that some knowledge is so corrosive, so detrimental, that simply being exposed to it can undermine the foundations of decency and sanity. They should have had that volume chained up. Better still, it should be burned.”
“What about the other books I mentioned?”
“Most of those are just fucking dangerous. I hope you didn’t do more than read the titles.”
“I skimmed a few pages in some of them,” admitted Will, telling a half-truth. “Have you read them?”
“One or two,” said Arrogan. “Most of them aren’t particularly useful if you’re looking to continue existing in a world full of healthy, living, breathing human beings. Some of the information is handy if you wish to be forewarned. You shouldn’t even think of approaching most of those topics until you’ve fully matured, and maybe not even then.”
“I’m eighteen now,” said Will.
“You were seventeen before,” said Arrogan suspiciously. “When did this happen?”
“A couple of weeks ago.”
“Well happy belated fucking birthday,” said the ring sourly. “And no, when I said matured, I meant as a wizard.”
“How long does that take?” asked Will.
“Considering how much stupid you have to work out of your system, you might be mature by the time you’re a hundred, but I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on going back,” said Will reassuringly. “I do have some questions, though.”
“Such as?”
“Are vampires real?”
“Not anymore, as far as I know.”
“So they were?”
“Sorcery isn’t the first magic to nearly ruin humanity,” said Arrogan. “Necromancy leads down some very dark paths. Some, like liches, aren’t too bad, at least not for humankind as a whole.”
“I’ve never heard of liches,” said Will. “So vampires are worse?”
“Yes and no. A lich is a singular entity, essentially a type of undead wizard. They’re powerful in the extreme and usually evil beyond belief. Vampires don’t have anything on liches, but the problem with vampires is that they’re infectious, like a disease.”
“Ahh, I see,” said Will. He moved on to his next question, “What’s a ley line?”
“You rotten little shit! You did more than just skim. Don’t even think about getting involved in anything that manipulates ley lines. You’ll either kill yourself, or kill a lot of other people. The former possibility being the best outcome.”
“So they’re bad?”
“No, but they aren’t often used for anything that isn’t bad. Not these days anyway. They’re like rivers of magic that flow beneath the earth. Wizards used to tap into them to empower vast spells or rituals. Imagine someone trying to put a ward around an entire city. They’d need to tap into a ley line to do that. Most of the time, however, it’s some crazed maniac trying to create a plague or wipe out a city. Either way, you don’t need to think about things like that for a long, long time.”
“What about necromancy?” asked Will, changing topics again. “Can it really be used for healing?”
“I swear to the all the gods, boy, if I wasn’t dead already, you’d put me in an early grave. Did you read every book in there?”
“No, but I saw this one titled Modern Necromancy, Bringing Light from the Darkness, and I looked through it a little. The first half seemed to be mainly about healing,” explained Will.
“Healing is necromancy, though most healers hate hearing it described that way,” said Arrogan. “Healing and necromancy are two sides of the same type of magic. I haven’t heard of that book before, though.”
“It was interesting,” said Will mildly.
“You didn’t copy anything out of it, did you?”
“No, of course not,” Will lied.
“Will!” growled the ring.
“I didn’t!”
“I hope you’re telling the truth. Stick to whatever watered-down bullshit they teach at Wurthaven on the subject. The risks aren’t worth it. I haven’t wasted all this time listening to you cry about that girl to have you run off and become a necromancer trying to raise an army of the dead, or worse, try to turn yourself into a lich or something equally distasteful.”
Will didn’t say anything.
“Are you listening to me?” demanded the ring.
“I am. I was just distracted.”
“Devote yourself to mastering the point-defense spell. The sooner you can instinctively cast it, the better. That’s when it really begins to shine.”
Will pursed his lips. “It’s pretty simple. I think I could cast it in just a second or two with a little practice. Would reflex casting really make it that much better?”
“Infinitely,” said the ring. “Force spells are tied to your will. I think I mentioned that before. That makes them different in a few key respects.”
“Yeah, you mentioned it. I can’t have more than one active at a time.”
“That’s not the important thing here,” said Arrogan. “Because they’re tied to your will, they can’t be taken or altered by another caster. They’re essentially immutable. Did I ever give you the talk? About your stick?”
Will snickered. “Mom told me about the birds and bees a long time ago.”
“Not that stick.”
“Yeah, you did, then you beat the crap out of me.” He could still vividly remember the day Arrogan had given him the lesson about taking spells away from other magic users when it was advantageous. He had illustrated the point by using sticks and had subsequently chased Will around with one.
“Good,” said the ring. “I wish I could repeat that lesson every day. Anyway, the point here is that force spells are excluded from that lesson. If someone fires a force lance at you, you won’t be able to absorb any of it. Or if they put a shield in front of you, you won’t be able to wrest it from their control. Force spells are intimately tied to the caster. They also, pay attention to this part, they also manifest and operate at the speed of the soul.”
“Huh? You mean as fast as thought?”
“Faster than that, I said the speed of the soul.”
“What does that mean?” asked Will, utterly confused.
“It means that if you learn to instinctively cast it, you’ll be able to react to things faster than you can think. The shield will appear wherever you wish it to and far faster than you could ever decide to put it in place deliberately. Crucially, since it doesn’t rely on thinking, even a moron like you can use it with instantaneous speed even though the rest of you is as dumb as a stump.”
Will began to nod, though he was still uncertain. “So being able to cast it without constructing the spell does sound a little better.”
“I wasn’t exaggerating when I said infinitely better, numbskull,” shot back Arrogan. “Not just a little better, almost immeasurably better. Since the force effect is small, it uses almost no turyn, so you can cast it all day long. As a force effect there’s no travel time, so if you cast it in front of someone at the limit of your range, it appears there immediately, not a half second later. If you’re being attacked by a rapid succession of spells, you can stop each one, dismiss the spell, and recast it to stop the next one faster than your opponent can even decide what he’ll do next. The only thing you can’t do is stop area-effect spells, or multiple simultaneous attacks, like a hail of arrows.”
He was beginning to see the light.
“Now that you have it, you should practice it exclusively until you can use it instinctively. Forget about everything else until you can do th
at.”
“What about the force-lance?”
“Did I stutter?”
“Well…”
“The force-lance is wonderful, and once you can do the same with that, you’ll be dangerous as hell, but you have to stay alive first. It shocks me that I have to even say that. Keeping your body intact so you can keep breathing is always your first priority.”
“Fine. I understand. You don’t have to rub it in,” Will responded.
Chapter 47
Wednesday passed without event. Will practiced the point-defense spell every chance he got, and while he was reasonably quick casting it, he was sure it would probably be weeks before he was able to reflex cast the spell. In truth, he had no idea how long it would take, for he still couldn’t reflex any of the spells he had practiced previously.
On Thursday he continued working on it, but after a successful dance lesson with Dianne and Janice he was feeling anxious and too nervous to sit still in his room. The dance was the next evening, and while he was no longer worried about making a fool of himself during the ball, he still felt worried.
Rob had returned earlier in the day with his two new brigandines, so he put one on under his tunic and dressed to go into the city to get some fresh air. There wasn’t anything he needed, and he didn’t have any appointments, so no one would be expecting him to leave or to go anywhere in particular. He figured he would be relatively safe. Still, he used the chameleon spell and climbed the wall rather than leaving by the college gate.
Too much caution never hurt, whereas not enough had nearly gotten him killed several times in the past. Once he was away from the school, he slipped into a dark alley and dropped the chameleon spell so he could walk more easily among the crowds.
Will was still wary, though. He kept a close eye on the road behind him and made note of anyone who gave him more than a glance, and he had a sleep spell prepared in case someone did come after him.
It was refreshing to walk the streets openly. He had once taken the privilege for granted. He wandered through the market and examined the various wares for sale. While initially he was just idly browsing, it occurred to him that he had not once bought a present for his mother or Sammy. Or Selene, his inner observer reminded him snidely.
There wasn’t anything he could buy for Selene, though. As the daughter of a king, she had everything a woman could want. Even with all the gold he possessed, it was highly unlikely he could ever buy anything she would desire.
Sammy was easy, though. One seller had a variety of colored ribbons for decorating women’s hair. They could be tied into bows or woven into a braid. Will picked out a bright blue one to go with Sammy’s red hair and a yellow one for his mother. On impulse, he picked up a green one as well. He got the third one because he thought one of them might like it, not because he had a brief vision of how the vivid green would look against Selene’s dark locks.
Then he remembered Janice. “Should I get something for her too?” he muttered. It seemed only proper, especially since she was risking her own reputation by going to the ball with him the next day.
A ribbon didn’t seem appropriate for a formal occasion. It should be jewelry. She was relatively poor, so he doubted she had anything to wear with the dress she had bought. After Will asked around for a while, one of the vendors suggested he go look at the jewelers on High Street.
A bell on the door tinkled as he entered, and a prim looking older woman greeted him as he stepped inside. “Good evening, young sir. Can I help you?”
“I need something for a friend. She’s going to the Winter Ball but I don’t think she has any jewelry to wear.”
“A lady friend?” The woman smiled. “I can certainly help you with that. How about a ring, the eternal symbol of love?”
Love? He shook his head. “She’s just my partner for the evening. There’s nothing like that between us.” A vision flashed in his head of the diamond and gold roses that had adorned the ring he’d discovered in Selene’s bedroom. It hadn’t been a signet or some more officious type of ring. It had looked exactly like the sort of ring a man would give a woman. He closed his eyes for a moment. She’s a princess. She probably has a hundred rings. It could have been an heirloom from her mother or grandmother.
An heirloom left on the floor, as though it had been thrown there. He remembered the look on her face when she had put it in the drawer. What had she told him when he asked her about it? “Something unfortunate.” Will felt a tightness growing in his chest.
“Sir?”
Will’s eyes snapped into focus. The shopkeeper was looking at him curiously. “Excuse me?” he asked.
“I asked if you might be interested in a necklace or some earrings.”
“Oh! Sure.”
The woman seemed a little exasperated. “Which?”
A necklace might be too much. “Earrings I think.”
In the end he selected a modest pair of pearl drop earrings mounted with gold, which set him back a full nine crowns. The shopkeeper wrapped them in a box with a bow. He stored it within the limnthal the moment his hands were unobserved, pretending to tuck the box into his belt pouch. Then he thanked the woman and left.
It took everything he had to keep from heading to the royal palace. More than anything he wanted to sneak in, climb the wall, and ask Selene about the ring. I was so stupid! There had been a dozen hints. Someone had to have given her the ring, someone she didn’t care for. Was her father forcing her to meet with suitors?
The tension built within him until he wanted to jump and scream out his frustration. He didn’t have enough information and he’d look like a fool if he broke into her bedroom again. He had no right to even ask.
Looking up, he realized he had been wandering aimlessly again. Anxiety struck and he glanced back. Am I being followed? He’d let his thoughts carry him away. It was the sort of carelessness that could easily get him killed. He could just imagine what Arrogan would say.
He didn’t see anyone following him, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t. He hadn’t been watching faces for a while, which meant any of the seemingly random people moving in the same direction as he was could have been deliberately shadowing him.
Will sped up to surprise his imaginary tail, then ducked into the first alley that came up on his left. As soon as he was out of view, he cast a climb spell and went up the wall. A chameleon spell would have been better, but it took too long to cast the sixth-order spell from scratch. He wanted to be out of sight if someone looked around the corner.
Sitting atop the roof, he took a couple of minutes to cast the chameleon spell and then he breathed a sigh of relief. No one had explored the alley, and while watching the street he didn’t see anyone stop or act suspicious, as someone would if they had lost sight of their target.
Glancing down, he saw something dark on the roof slates. He stared at it for a moment before realizing it wasn’t an ordinary stain, then he adjusted his turyn sensitivity so he could see it clearly. It was a claw print composed of residual turyn, demonic essence.
Slowly he turned his head, surveying the rooftops around him in every direction. As he had learned previously, such a faint residual sign would only remain visible to him for a few hours at most, which meant the demon had been there recently.
He worked his way around the room, looking for more tracks, until he finally spotted what appeared to be one on the roof of the next building over. He climbed down and moved to that roof to examine it. He couldn’t make up his mind whether that one was newer or older, so he repeated the process until he found a mark on the next roof over.
That one was definitely slightly newer, so he knew he was heading in the correct direction. Will painstakingly made his way from building to building and then across the street to the next block. The traces were getting stronger, but eventually the trail ended. Will checked the nearest buildings but found no additional tracks.
It was dark now, so he readjusted his vision to allow him to see easily by starlight, then h
e studied the houses in the area. After a moment, he realized that Count Spry’s house was directly across from the building he was crouching on top of. A whole host of thoughts ran through his mind.
Could the count be the one behind the demon attacks? What if it had been him or one of his agents that had stolen the book from the vault in the Wurthaven library? The book had been kept among books on demonology. Could the man be so insane as to be dabbling in such an evil art to exact his revenge?
But why would he try to kill Selene? Was it because she and her father wanted him to give up on his revenge? That didn’t make a lot of sense to him. Killing Selene wouldn’t help the man, and the soldiers in the attack had worn Darrowan uniforms. It would make more sense that the perpetrator wanted to incite a war, but would Spry benefit from such a thing?
Will waited, trying to adopt the patience of a hunter, and an hour later his patience was rewarded. Something moved on the roof of Count Spry’s house, drawing his eyes. He watched carefully until it moved again.
Whatever it was appeared to be small and of an approximately humanoid shape. Will doubted a five-year-old child would be on top of the count’s roof. It’s positioned such that it can see the front entrance, he observed. If it was a demon, it was either guarding the house, or spying on it.
He continued watching, and by the time midnight arrived he had almost despaired of learning anything else, but then a second shape appeared. It hopped from roof to roof and passed within fifteen feet of where Will sat before crossing the road and climbing up to meet the demon on Count Spry’s roof.
Will got a good look at it as it passed by him. The thing was shaped like a small, reptilian ape. In some ways it resembled a bat, though it had no wings, relying instead on clawed feet and dexterous paws to climb and jump. After a few seconds, the one that had been on the count’s house left its position and returned along the same route. It’s reporting back to its master, he decided.
He waited until it was out of sight, then climbed down and began walking. He didn’t dare follow the thing closely, as he had no idea how acute its senses were, but he didn’t need to. Walking briskly, he returned to the place where he had found the first track hours before, then climbed to the roof. The demonic traces were fresh and easy to find. He began following them in the opposite direction.
Secrets and Spellcraft Page 41
