A Sorcerer's Fist Read online

  Mirano lay down on the turf and closed his eyes. Pira did the same, but Ricky was too wound up to rest. He munched on some stale bread and cheese as they waited for the city to go to sleep.

  “It is time,” Ricky said, nudging Pira and Mirano. “Have something to eat before we start.”

  They flew to a little garden on the northern side of the castle, following Pira. “There is a hidden passage into the castle that starts in that pavilion.”

  Ricky followed both of them to the covered structure. Pira found a decoration that sprung up a square stone enough to pull it open. They slipped down a steep, narrow stairway into the dark chamber.

  “We are going to the same dungeons?” Mirano shivered as he asked.

  “They are the only ones,” Pira said. “But there is a closer passage from this direction.”

  “Are all castles and palaces riddled with secret ways?” Ricky said.

  “All that I know. You told us that Samira had one leading from that kitchen storage room.”

  “I found one in the Applia Juvenile Home, too. I suppose it keeps the builders interested,” Ricky said.

  Pira led them up and over what must have been a corridor and then down a rickety spiral staircase. Ricky lit a sorcerer’s light and saw the pink brick of the same tower where they had retrieved Mirano.

  She stopped them at the top of another steep stairway leading down. “Are we close?” Ricky asked.

  “That door leads to the other side of the cells from the passages that linked to my rooms.”

  Ricky checked for the sheen of magic on the steps but didn’t see any. He took the lead and held his black steel wand in his hand, blade not yet extended.

  He cracked open the door and saw the back of a guard. Ricky put him to sleep and then quickly ran down the steps doing the same until they reached the cells. Duke Noacci was asleep on a cot. Ricky spelled the lock open and retrieved the prisoner.

  “Here, take him,” Ricky said. “I’ll create a diversion by putting the guards on the other side of the passage to sleep.”

  Mirano and Pira dragged the comatose duke out of his room. His fingers were mangled, bent, and bleeding. Someone had thoroughly beaten him. When they reached the passageway door, Ricky said, “Go ahead without me. I will catch up. We have to get Duke Noacci out of Sealio as soon as possible, so he can get treated.”

  Ricky made sure the door was secure before he set off towards the other stairway. There were fewer guards to put to sleep, but once he had, Ricky turned around to see sorcerers with wands standing in front of Noacci’s cell. He sang a shield around him.

  “What have you done with Noacci?” one of the sorcerers said.

  “I teleported the duke out of the castle,” Ricky said.

  “What?” The sorcerer looked at Ricky in disbelief and raised his wand.

  Ricky sang the spell to bring out his blade, but the other sorcerer’s spell came first. A ringing assaulted his ears along with other sounds. Ricky could feel the resonance disappear from his body and stared at the blade withdrawing back into its shell.

  Ricky knew how to use the wand as a weapon and approached the sorcerer, but not before he felt a blow to his head.

  ~~~

  Chapter Twenty

  ~

  D arkness seemed to smother Ricky like a blanket. He tried to sing a sorcerous light, but his body didn’t respond to his singing. The last few moments before he blacked out hadn’t been from his imagination.

  “You finally came to?”

  He felt a stinky, lumpy straw mattress beneath him. He didn’t sleep on the cots in one of the cells beneath a Sealian Tower. Ricky looked towards the darkness and made out a dark shape. “Where am I?”

  “Outside of Sealio, if that is what you ask. We are in an old army fort. King Leon is keeping all the battle sorcerers here,” the man said.

  “Are you a sorcerer?”

  “Was,” the man said. “Someone comes through here three times a day and spells the resonance right out of our bodies.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  The man paused. “Two months, maybe? I’m kept in the dark except when they feed me.”

  “What did you do to deserve a cell?”

  “I should ask the same of you. I’m a battle sorcerer who didn’t like what was happening to King Leon. He was acting erratically, giving bad orders. I overheard him order some Duterian woman to Tossa to convince Duke Bariani to change the city. Convincing meant a compulsion spell that I’d never seen before. I spoke up and ended up in here. I learned about the battle sorcerers being stored here later.”

  Ricky nodded but smiled, since the man couldn’t see him. “I ran afoul of King Leon in my own way.” He rubbed the back of his head and felt a soft spot. “I think someone threw a stone or something at my head and connected while I was distracted by a loss of resonance. My shield must have failed.”

  “You are a sorcerer, then?”

  “I am,” Ricky said. “I’m surprised I wasn’t killed on the spot.”

  “Maybe they think they left you for dead. You slept for quite awhile before you woke.”

  Ricky thought a moment about it, but couldn’t think of what use King Leon would have for him alive. He only hoped that Pira and Mirano got away with the duke. He rose to his feet and began to pace the cell.

  “Have you found out the shape of the room?” Ricky asked.

  “Irregular,” the sorcerer said. “There is a tiny stone alcove. It might have been a closet of some kind. Other than that it is pretty much a rectangle, and there are no windows. Everything is covered in stone, even the ceiling.”

  Ricky didn’t have to close his eyes, but he did anyway, trying to imagine the room. He hummed and felt a trace of resonance move through his body. He chanced a small sorcerous light, but it was faint and only lasted a minute or two before it faded.

  “You are young!” the sorcerer said. “You wouldn’t be the Valian who stole Princess Pira from the castle?”

  “I am, and I didn’t steal her. She came on her own. There is a conspiracy going on. You discovered a piece of it.” Ricky told him about the Botoyans and their long-term campaign. “But they couldn’t wait, so—”

  “They decided to take over Paranty, first.” A light came from a grill in the door. “Quiet. Lie back down,” the other man said.

  Ricky accommodated him. The same sound that robbed him of his resonance hit him again. He felt what little power he had accumulated vanish. The Botoyans had succeeded where Ricky had only started. No wonder they could afford to put battle sorcerers in a single facility if they all had to endure having their powers stripped.

  The door opened, and two trays were slid into the room, but not before a torch was brought in to check on Ricky.

  “He hasn’t died?” the guard said.

  “Not yet,” the sorcerer said.

  “He won’t make it long, one way or another.” The man turned around and left them in darkness. Ricky watched the glow of the torch fade.

  “What is your name?” Ricky asked.

  “Zaria Laccia.”

  “Ricky Valian is mine.”

  “That’s what you said. You know Siria Lonsi, then?”

  “I do.”

  “We go back a ways.”

  “Are you as competent as she?” Ricky asked.

  Zaria laughed. “It doesn’t take much. Don’t get me wrong, she is a decent battle sorcerer, but there are better in this prison.”

  “Would you be interested in fighting King Leon?” Ricky didn’t know if Zaria was a plant of King Leon’s or not, but it didn’t matter. King Leon knew who he held in this cell.

  “In a heartbeat,” Zaria said. “I have no love for a man who allows sorcerers to rule through him.”

  “But you are a sorcerer yourself.”

  “You didn’t hear them talk. The way the sorcerer so casually dismissed Duke Bariani as the ruler of Tossa gave me chills.”

  “If we get out of here, would you be interested in
joining us?”

  “I don’t know how I can help. The other sorcerers can disarm us at will.”

  “Not if we disarm them first. I have a Tower sorcerer working on it back in Naparra.”

  “Not Applia?”

  “No,” Ricky said. “By now I’m sure it’s not a secret. I have sorcerers and troops training south of Firali. Troops are being trained in Tossa and in Applia.”

  “So you can put a big squeeze on Sealio if you chose.”

  “The time isn’t right, but I don’t know when it will be.”

  “Time is on your side, the way I see it,” Zaria said. “You can train more troops. I will tell you that King Leon does not have total command of his forces, even within Sealio.”

  “You know who those commanders and troops are? I only know of one.”

  “Who is that?”

  Ricky didn’t know if he should expose General Farlotti, but looking at Duke Noacci’s beating, he might have talked. “General Farlotti.”

  Zaria laughed. “Everyone knows about General Farlotti. That’s one reason he hasn’t stepped foot in Sealio for more than five years. King Leon doesn’t trust him, but he’s too competent to fire. The Dimani invasion? They trained outside Sealio for that very reason.”

  And that explained why King Leon sent troops to Naparra to see what the general was up to, and why Nemo Mattia was out of Sealio training troops for the Dimani invasion. Zaria’s comments made sense.

  “Neither of us can do anything if we can’t get out of here,” Zaria said.

  “Have you tried to evade the spell?” Ricky asked.

  “Evade? This is a cell. How can I evade anything?”

  “What if you stood in the closet when the sorcerer came? Perhaps you could even pull up your mattress to stop some of the sounds.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Zaria said.

  “It’s all about staying out of the way of the spell, I think.”

  “Why don’t you try?”

  “Because they are checking on me, not on you,” Ricky said.

  ~

  The two of them waited. Ricky could feel a trace of resonance when he hummed. “I can sense some of my power returning. See if you do, too.”

  Zaria sang, but all Ricky heard was a sigh. “Not me.”

  “All the more reason for you to recover first. Both of us will need our powers to escape.”

  “I see light coming,” Zaria said.

  “Into the alcove,” Ricky said.

  Zaria said he crouched down. Ricky could hear his voice muffled. “After the spell, get back on your bed.”

  “You don’t have to tell me that.”

  “Good, then I won’t worry about you.”

  Zaria muttered something. All he heard clearly was the word ‘kid.’ Ricky was a kid, in his eyes, but there wasn’t anything wrong with that, Ricky thought.

  Ricky put his hand over his ears, and burrowed into his covers before the sorcerer stood outside their door and administered the spell. The spell didn’t penetrate as it had before. The insulation from the sound had done some good, Ricky thought. He unbundled himself and could hear Zaria lie on his bed.

  “The boy is better?” the guard said.

  Ricky said. “I’m alive, barely, if that is what you mean.”

  The guard looked at the tray with empty plates. “You ate well enough.” Ricky didn’t like the man’s laugh. They waited for the torchlight to recede.

  “Did it work?”

  “I think so,” Zaria said. “The spell seemed to penetrate before, but it didn’t seem to do anything when I was in the closet.”

  Ricky smiled. “The test will be if you are able to resonate.”

  “So it will. We will have to wait.”

  Zaria became talkative. Ricky carefully asked questions so that he could truly understand the way battle sorcerers acted. They both fell asleep.

  Ricky could feel his power return. He lit a sorcerer’s light and woke up Zaria.

  “Try to make a light,” Ricky asked.

  Zaria smiled as he sang and produced a bright light. “Power’s back,” he said. “That won’t help us get out of this cell.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that.”

  The light approached.

  “Quickly. We will both hide,” Ricky said.

  They ran to the closet. Ricky grabbed his mattress so they would have two layers of sound protection. The sorcerer sang, and Ricky felt no ill effects. They both ran to their beds and tossed their mattresses on them just before the guard came.

  Ricky sat on his mattress half on the bed, rubbing his neck.

  The guard took the tray and replaced their food. “Not much longer for you,” he said.

  The light traveled down the hallway.

  “If I had known you wouldn’t take care of him, I would have,” Zaria said.

  “And run right into that sorcerer?” Ricky shook his head. “We need to leave this place.”

  “But we will leave my fellow sorcerers without help.”

  “That’s not true. I have some people coming this way. They need to be warned.”

  Ricky shook his head. He should be able to link, now. Hemo first.

  Hemo, this is Ricky. Are you close to the battle sorcerer compound?

  Ricky! What happened to you? Hemo said. Concern came through the link.

  They took me to the same place they are retaining the battle sorcerers. You can’t attack yet. The sorcerers have already developed a resonance-killing spell. They used it on me after Pira and Mirano took Duke Applia away. It only lasts a third of a day, but if they cast it, you are left unable to use your power. It can be defeated by deadening the sound. Another sorcerer and I were able to thwart it because there is a closet in our cell. Where are you?

  We are in a village not far from the old barracks. That’s what it is, an old stone barracks, Hemo said.

  I hope to join you within two hours. Wait for me. I have some teaching to do.

  Ricky’s next link was with Pira. His conversation was much like Hemo’s except he found out that she and Mirano had flown Duke Noacci to a remote village that Mirano had once visited. The duke needed a lot of help from the severe beating.

  I wish I could see you, she said.

  I haven’t been able to see anything for a few days, Ricky said. I’ll link again when I’m out of here.

  Ricky and Zaria practiced flying. The man was much more powerful than Siria, but right now he nursed a sore head from not exercising sufficient height control.

  “Deflection,” Zaria said. “I would have never thought of such a thing. Floating around using a flying spell not only makes you depressed on the battlefield, it also makes you dead. You can’t move fast enough to dodge arrows.”

  “Are you ready?”

  “I’ll finish the rest of this slop. You should, too.”

  Ricky, mattress in hand, used his power to unlock the cell. Zaria waited outside while he locked it up. They ran along the corridor. They were in the middle of a block of nine cells and headed up the stairs. Ricky saw lights flickering ahead. He guessed it must be night. That would be fortuitous.

  They ran through the barracks and out the door. Men and women alike gaped at them.

  “Up!” Ricky said.

  Zaria was already off the ground.

  “Get them!” they heard from below.

  Both of them turned and protected themselves from the spell as they ascended.

  Ricky heard the sounds of the spell, but it didn’t pierce him. If it had, Ricky would be falling to his death. Once they were well away from the barracks, Ricky linked with Hemo and received directions.

  He and Zaria descended into a stableyard and tossed aside the mattresses. Ricky found a water pump and both of them did some washing up in the darkness before heading into the inn.

  “They stink!” the woman behind the long bar said.

  “Two rooms and two baths,” Zaria said.

  “Za—” Siria said before putting her hand over her
mouth.

  “And za to you, too, madam.” Zaria laughed as the pair of them climbed the stairs.

  Two hours later, Ricky and Zaria walked down the stairs with ill-fitting clothes that the others had provided. The inn’s staff was currently washing the ex-prisoners’ stinky clothes.

  “I feel much better,” Ricky said. He joined the others in a far corner in the common room and told his tale as well as he could, discreetly using some misdirection in case his voice carried farther than he thought.

  “So your target is safe?” Hemo said.

  “Recuperating. When were you heading west?”

  “Tonight, of course.”

  “We have a little experimenting to do.”

  “Sound control?”

  Ricky nodded. “We don’t have time for an offensive solution.”

  “Someone can drop rocks from high above,” Zaria said. “I’d be happy to take that duty. The sorcerers who are applying the spell need to be taken out, or we’ll never get our people very far. As it is, we are going to have to rush them into flying. Not all learn as fast as I do.”

  Ricky looked at Siria, who shrugged and nodded. There had to be a reason why Zaria was locked up with him. He was probably the most powerful of the battle sorcerers. Ricky could believe that.

  “We need to know if a whole body needs to be protected or just the head,” Ricky said.

  “A muffled helmet?” Bocca said.

  “To keep the sound out. We can plug our ears with a soft cloth and then put on a padded helmet,” Hemo said. “It all depends if the sounds attack a body’s resonance or the hearing.” Hemo looked at Ricky. “We didn’t get very far before I had to leave Greda and Wedo.”

  “There are seven of us. We can’t risk all being affected by the spell. Two should stay outside the barracks,” Ricky said.

  Zaria looked at Ricky. “You are running this performance, young Valian?”

  “He is,” Hemo said. “Ricky is the youngest sorcerer to reach the Tower in Duterian history.”

  “Tower sorcerer? Figures. You can still count me in,” Zaria said with a grin. He rubbed his hands. “I have to mete out some serious payback.”

  Hemo went up to the innkeeper and told her about his lack of materials. Ricky joined him and listened to what Hemo said. They were going to practice performance sorcery, and some of the sounds would be disturbing.