“Give him the money, Azerick, it’s ok,” Rusty pleaded, clearly frightened.
“Not going to happen, Rusty, remember what you’ve been taught.”
“Better listen to your girlfriend, rat, and give us the coin.”
“I have a better idea. How about I show you a magic trick,” Azerick suggested.
“What kind of magic trick? This better not be some kind of trick or you’re really gonna get it.”
“Just watch,” Azerick said, rolling his eyes at Hugo’s moronic statement.
He started moving his hands in a swirling and reaching pattern and in a moment, a glowing nimbus of swirling colors illuminated in his hands.
“Wow, would you look at that, Hugo! What’s he
doin
?” Carrot asked in wonderment.
“I don’t know, Carrot, but I don’t like it. What are you doing, street rat?” Hugo demanded.
The three thugs standing in front of them may not have had a clue what was happening, but Rusty did. He choked down his fear and started casting a spell of his own. A shimmering surrounded his body that would help deflect blows as if he was wearing armor. As Rusty completed his spell, he looked away from Azerick just as he completed his own.
A brilliant rainbow of colors erupted from his fingertips straight into the faces of the three hoodlums. Carrot stood motionless, his eyes rolling back up into his head until only the whites were showing, Rolly dropped to the ground and lay motionless.
“My eyes! What did you do to my eyes? I can’t see!” Hugo cried out in alarm and ineffectually lashing out with his knife.
Hugo blinked rapidly and lunged at Azerick just as Carrot came out of his momentary stupor. Azerick grabbed Hugo by the wrist as the thug blindly flailed at him with the knife. Hugo cried out once again, and the knife fell from his nerveless fingers and dropped to the ground as Azerick sent an electric jolt coursing down his attacker’s arm much like Allister had done to him when they first met, only to a lesser degree.
The moment Hugo resumed his attack Carrot’s eyes rolled back down as he shook off his stupor and charged at Rusty. Rusty brought his hands up, shouting out arcane words, and fire leapt from his fingertips into the top of Carrot’s head. Carrot let out a screech of terror so high-pitched that only girls under the age of ten could usually hit such a note as his wooly hat and red hair burst into flames.
Hugo clamored half-way to his feet, grabbed the wakening Rolly under one arm, and tore off out of the alley in a lurching, shambling stumble after the fleeing, flaming Carrot. The crowd parted almost like magic once the screeching Carrot broke out of the end of the side street. Many onlookers pointed and clapped thinking it was part of the show. Azerick and Rusty ran out of the other end and back into the street, the crowd of people thankfully thinning now as most had already made their way to the docks.
The two companions slowed once they were free of the crowds and caught their collective breaths.
“By the god’s, Azerick I can’t believe that just happened!” Rusty shouted as they came to halt, his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.
“You did well, Rusty. I’ve been fighting those three for years.”
“I set a guy’s head on fire!”
“Yes you did, congratulations, Rusty, you fought off your first bad guy using magic.”
“Wow, my dad’s never gonna believe this.”
They stayed and watched the fireworks from the roof of one of the buildings before making their way back to the Academy.
CHAPTER
16
The next day, Azerick sat in the classroom with his much younger classmates. A tension of anxiety filled the air as the younger children looked from one to the other. They did not wait long before the source of their anxiety made its appearance. Travis and a few of his friends strolled into the classroom wearing contemptuous sneers on their faces.
“All right, kiddies, time to give it up, let’s have it,” Travis demanded.
Azerick had gone over this with the kids. They all agreed that if they were going to stand up to their tormentors that they would have to initiate the rebellion themselves and not rely upon him to defend them.
“We’re not giving you anything, it’s ours so leave us alone,” Gerard stood and said defiantly.
Travis and his friends laughed at the young boy who glared at them boldly. Azerick looked around the room at the frightened faces of the other children and knew that he would have to provide a little motivator to get them to back the brave boy.
“You heard him, Travis; they’re not going to let you push them around anymore, so why don’t you leave them alone?” suggested Azerick.
“Do you think he can protect you, is that it? Even if his casting ability wasn’t pathetic, he’s still outnumbered by four to one. Now give us the candy or you know what’s going to happen," Travis ominously warned.
From somewhere across the room a girl stood and said no. Immediately, another child stood as well with cry of no, followed by a chorus of standing children all shouting NO, anger and revenge gleaming in their defiant eyes.
“It looks like you are the ones who are outnumbered now, Travis,” Azerick said in an amused tone.
“Do you really think that a bunch of novices can take us on? You’re going to pay for this, peasant,” Travis threatened then looked around the room, glaring at the children that dared to defy him. “Then you will all pay, just like before.”
“Do it,” Azerick said in quiet but firm voice.
The room the shouts and chanting of young voices filled the room and brilliant lights erupted into the faces of Travis and his fellow extortionists. Small balls of electrical energy stung them from a dozen different directions. Azerick added his own spell to those of his diminutive allies and the floor beneath the bully's feet was suddenly too slippery to stand on. All four bullies fell to the ground when they tried to move away from the numerous stinging attacks.
Azerick shoved a writing desk at Travis. It slid across the slick floor and slammed into him, knocking him back down as he tried to get to his feet. Other children started hurling books, quill and scroll cases, and anything else they could get their tiny hands on to enact their revenge against the boys that had tormented them for the last two years.
Azerick and his miniature minions broke off their attack and bolted from the room en masse; heading for the stairs before Travis and his cohorts could regain their composure.
“Get up, go after them, you idiots,” Travis commanded, slipping and crawling towards the door. They managed to make it out of the classroom, gained the hallway, and bolted after the fleeing novices as Azerick and the younger students bounded down the stairs.
The fleeing squad of children ducked into a room at the bottom of the stairs as Azerick drew upon the last bit of arcane power he could muster. He repeated the same spell that had caused Travis and his gang to lose their footing in the classroom and waited at the bottom of the steps. He could hear the pounding footsteps coming down the stairs in pursuit and watched as the four poured out onto the landing above.
“You’re dead, gutter filth!” Travis shouted down at him as the boys surged down the stairs after their quarry.
The charge turned into tumult as they stepped upon the sabotaged steps below and tumbled into a heap at Azerick's feet.
“Now!” Azerick shouted at his troops.
The children came running from the room and fell upon their attackers with a vengeance. Tiny feet kicked out at the struggling tangled mass of bodies while others bombarded the prone forms with opened bottles of ink.
“Stop this, stop this at once! Break it up!” came the command of Magus Allison Bauer who was Azerick’s and the children’s instructor.
She waded into the chaotic mass of children, pulling and pushing the younger children off the bruised, ink-stained, and humiliated group lying on the floor. She dispelled the slippery effect coating the stairs with a simple command and gesture, grabbed Travis and Azerick by the upper arm, and proceeded to frog march them upstairs.
“The rest of you follow me to the classroom so I can get this sorted out,” She ordered the rest of the students.
She dropped the arms of the two apprehended boys as she surveyed the damage to her classroom, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.
“What have you all done to my class?”
“They attacked us, all of them on his command!” shouted Travis.
“They came here to steal all of the kid’s candy, I just told them how to defend themselves,” Azerick said, defending his actions, which several of the younger students echoed.
“Nonsense, Travis is from a very influential family and would never have to stoop to something so far beneath him. All of you, let’s go see the Headmaster and see what he thinks of your slander,” Magus Bauer said. “The rest of you children are to clean up this mess before I return.”
Once again, Azerick found himself before Headmaster Dondrian. However, this time he was not alone. Seated to the right of the Headmaster sat Magus Allister, a severe and disapproving look upon his countenance. Magus Bauer stood behind the miscreants as they awaited judgment.
“Now tell us exactly what happened,” Headmaster Dondrian said.
Travis stepped forward before Azerick had a chance to explain and began to speak.
“Sir, my friends and I had gone to see the younger pupils to see how they enjoyed the festival and if they all got to see the men on stilts passing out candy. We thought we also might see if any of them, including the peas…, uh, Azerick needed any tutoring, but when we asked how the kids made out he attacked us. I guess the younger kids were caught up in the excitement, maybe they thought it was a game or something, and started casting cantrips and throwing things at us,” he smoothly lied.
“Azerick, did you incite the younger pupils to attack Travis and his friends?” the Headmaster asked.
“Yes, sir, but…”
“Did you cast an offensive spell at them?”
“Yes, sir, but…”
“Did Travis or any of his friends attempt to take anything from the other students?”
“They were going to.”
“Are you an
augurist
, Azerick?”
“No, sir, but…”
“Then you cannot tell me what they
were
going to do then. So, on your command you incited several students to attack another student without provocation,” Headmaster Dondrian looked at Travis. “Did you or any of your friends cast an offensive spell or attack any of the other students in any way?”
“No sir, we didn’t cast any spells or hit any of them, they’re just little kids, and Azerick was hiding behind them where we couldn’t get to him to try and make him stop,” Travis said, once more using half-truths.
“Headmaster, they told the kids to make sure they all brought in their candy a just few days before the festival, or else.”
“I was just telling them to look for the stilt walkers because they give out candy and I didn’t want them to miss it,” Travis continued in his lying.
“Ask the other students, they’ll tell you that they were bullying them and taking things from them,” Azerick insisted.
“Of course they will, Azerick is older and they are very impressionable. They look up to him and he uses that to confuse them into mistaking our intentions so that he can remain in control. He’s a dictator and he’s drunk on power,” Travis said, his lies gaining momentum and coming more and more easily.
“I’ve heard enough,” Headmaster Dondrian said. “Azerick, you will be moved to an age appropriate class; you will just have to make an effort on your own to catch up. You will also clean the stables every day after class for the next two weeks. Travis, you and your friends are not go into the novice’s classroom or area again. Is that understood?”