Warlock Apprentice, Black Lake Novel 4

Chapter Forty-Eight

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We neared the crest of the hill and a dozen humans ran into view. I stopped and sucked in a breath, tensin’ in preparation to run. But with one, wide-eyed look at Louisa, all of the strangers veered away, but didn’t slow down. They were clearly as afraid of what lay behind them as what danger they assumed Louisa presented.

Louisa’s hand pressed against my back but I was already lurchin’ into a run, with a renewed urgency to get to the manor. More men and women passed, fleein’ the battle below.

As the ground leveled, I hoped to get a glimpse of what was goin’ on in the valley, but the trees and smoke were too thick. I faced the north wall of the manor before I was even aware I was out of the orchard. Facin’ a tall wall leadin’ left and right, I paused, decidin’ which way to go. I searched for a door or gate, but couldn’t find one.

Should we even enter the compound? If the majical battle was still in progress, could place me and Louisa smack in the middle of our friends’ attack. I searched the sky east and west for the least smoke, but the swirlin’ air sat heavily within the valley.

“Ya gonna stand here all day?” Louisa asked.

I didn’t bother respondin’. My mind was already made up, and I sprinted to the right. The wall zigged to the left thirty feet later and continued another sixty feet until it blurred into the smoke. We had to have met the manor at the northern wing. I remembered the manor spread out east and west.

Instead of followin’ the wall, I veered right.

“Where ya goin’?” Louisa shouted.

But I ploughed into the thickenin’ smoke without answerin’.

It took me only seconds to reach the far end of the manor’s wall, where a door hung open. Shouts echoed inside, but I continued for the front of the manor. It drew eerily quiet and the air hung thick with majic that swarmed me like angry bees. I staggered from the onslaught, my back stiffenin’, eyes blurrin’. I blinked to see, but though the smoke thinned, my vision dulled further.

A pre-sight struck me.

Morgan flew backward from a bolt, arms and legs flailin’, Bacchus screamin’ in agony.

My vest tightened against my chest.

It took me a second to realize I was face down in the grass and Louisa was pickin’ me up, usin’ the vest as a convenient handhold.

“What’s wrong with ya, human?”

Propped upon my feet, I shook my head to clear the fog. “Morgan. Morgan.” A gasp of fear choked me. Was it sight of somethin’ that already happened, or gonna happen?

“What about him?” Louisa asked.

I shuddered, and searched about. The front of the manor was bashed in a half-dozen places as though a herd of elk hit it in full stampede. The broad front door hung at an angle from one hinge. Flames darted from the eves of the buildin’ in several places, but there were no water lines formin’ to battle any of the blazes. Actually there wasn’t a soul in sight.

Too quiet.

It reminded me of that day in the forest right before me and Morgan met Selene. Even the flames licked in silence.

The majic. Was doin’ somethin’ to my senses.

“Nice lookin’ place to leave as a bon fire,” Louisa mumbled. “Where’s the battle?”

I shook my head. Where are they all? I closed my eyes, to help me focus my mind’s eye. I gulped, and ran.

On the far side of the broad stairs leadin’ to the main entrance, a body lay crumpled among the red and yellow blooms of flowers. The man’s head bent awkwardly into his chest, the hilt of a sword still gripped in his lifeless hand. Not Morgan. Nor Selene, or Rutland.

“Ya have a desire to burn to a crisp?” Louisa shouted, pullin’ me away by my vest.

I hadn’t noticed the heat from the growin’ fire. I thrust outward again with my senses. There was no tight gatherin’ of ethereal force like that which drew me to the corpse. Every direction I turned, the majic faded.

The explosion of timbers crashin’ somewhere within the manor struck me an instant before the deluge of smoke and heat that plunged out the front door.

“Ach,” Louisa screeched, lungin’ toward the southern forest, draggin’ me with her.

“I don’t sense them. I don’t sense them,” I sobbed.

“Sense them? What do ya mean? I think ya’ve lost all yar senses.”

“I can—feel those like us, those who can reach the ethereal.”

“Ethereal? What are ya blubberin’ about?”

I was of no mind to answer her. Tears blinded me, and I gasped from the pain of loss. Could Morgan and Selene truly be gone? But where were their bodies? Where were those who killed them?

My head snapped.

The stinkin’ ogre hen shook me like a soiled throw rug. “Stop yar blubberin’!” she screeched.

“Where are they?” I shouted.

“That’s what I wish to know, not that I know who ya’re talkin’ about.”

I cleared my throat and swallowed. “Shut up, hen. I need to think.”

The world jolted as though it collided with another planet. I shook my head. I was on my butt. Had she really hit me? I worked my jaw. Seemed hinged together okay, but it hurt, as did the whole side of my head.

“That was uncalled for!” I shouted.

“Seemed the thin’ to do,” she said. “Just came upon me.”

“Well! Don’t be come upon again!”

She reached down and grabbed me by my vest again and lifted me to my feet. Was fast becomin’ a trend. I might as well wear an ox collar. Ought to lose the vest. Too handy for the stinkin’ hen.

“Need to get farther away. Gettin’ hot,” she said, pullin’ me toward the forest. She held out my sword. “Ya might as well take this back.”

“The way ya hit me? Ya don’t have good timin’.”

She laughed, in that harsh, ogre manner.

“Ya don’t think I’m the enemy anymore?” I asked.

“Don’t think yar brain contains enough fodder to harm me, human.”

Oh. Hen. I stiffened my shoulders before grabbin’ the sword. Hefted it in a lame warnin’. “My name is Paul.” I shouted my name.

“What do we do now?” she asked, ignorin’ my outburst. She turned away and walked deeper into the trees.

I followed a few steps and stopped, closed my eyes and searched again for our friends. The majic surroundin’ the manor dispersed, slippin’ back into the ethereal. It seemed to pull at the air in my lungs as my own power swirled away. I gasped for a breath. Their majic thinned too quickly to get a bearin’. But they couldn’t have gone far, could they? They wouldn’t be lyin’ in the embers—right. Maybe if I hiked around the manor grounds I could sense their direction.

“Where ya goin’?” she hissed.

I hadn’t even meant to move, but found myself walkin’ due east, with my eyes still closed. Darts of fear plunged into me. Servants and field workers from the manor hid throughout the forest. Louisa’s runnin’ steps caught up to me. She worked her snout, the sniff, sniff, too loud, distractin’. She also placed the hidin’ humans, with her own best faculty.

“They mean no harm,” I said, eyes still closed. “They’re frightened nearly to death.”

“They leave me alone, I’ll leave them alone,” she muttered.

Northeast of the manor I got a hint, more an emotion than what I normally got from a majic-wielding wizard lately. Weak enough, I decided they hadn’t gone that way. But by the time we circled the estate and I hadn’t sensed anythin’ stronger, it dawned on me that they had been shrouded in one of those—I tried to remember what Selene called them.

A ward.

“They went northeast,” I mumbled.

“Then why did ya bring us back where we started?” Louisa asked.

I opened my eyes for the first time since I started my search, shock strikin’ me that I’d walked so far seein’ only with my mind’s eye. The sun had long set, even though minutes before it had been late afternoon.

“How long has it been—”

“What, human?”

“My name is Paul!”

“And ya’re very proud of it, eh?”

“Ya want me to call ya nothin’ but ogre?”

She kept her head movin’, searchin’ the dark shadows. She finally turned on me. “Fine. Paul. Paul. Paul! Are ya happy?”

“Indescribably,” I muttered. “What next?”

“Let’s get a bit deeper in the woods and camp for the night. Ya appear as though ya’re about to fall over.”

I almost argued. But even if I had the energy, stumblin’ around in the dark didn’t seem a good option. There wasn’t a sliver of moon in the sky. Good way to break one’s neck. Would I be able to find the remains of my friend’s majic—what did Selene call it?

The residual?

“Ya’re thinkin’ too hard,” Louisa mumbled. “I smell the gears in yar head grindin’.”

I clamped down my regular retort, to shut up. Last time she ’bout took off my head.

“I’m agreed, but let’s first find the trail again.”

“How— Confess I don’t know much about humans, or at least remember much about humans, but ya don’t have the snout for smellin’ out trails, so how do ya spose to do that?”

She must not have noticed I hiked around the entire estate with my eyes closed. “It’s a wizard thin’,” I answered.

She remained still for a moment. I wished I could make out her expression better in the dark. She motioned a moment later, and I led the way.

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