The young sorcerer was a little concerned when his master informed him that he would need to build his concentration to the point that he could take an arrow or a cut without losing focus. Azerick hoped his master would not take his to that level, but he was not certain given Devlin’s methods.
Rusty and the other students returned to the Academy and he and Azerick spent the day catching up. Azerick told Rusty about his studies and the spells he had learned, which impressed his friend quite a bit. Rusty told Azerick about his summer and how he and Colleen had shared kisses by the fountain at his home.
Travis and his goons wasted no time in harassing him once they returned. Azerick had thought that the petty rivalry would pass now that he had established himself at the school but it seemed only to make Travis hate him even more. The pranks and fights went on week after week, month after month. Azerick developed something he liked to call a sundering spell. He used it in class to weaken the legs of Travis’s chair so that it broke apart when he sat down.
Travis caught him in one of the lesser used hallways a short time later and he and his friends proceeded to punch and kick him.
“Remember what I said, peasant. One day I’ll be bored of you and then you are finished. I’ll tell you this much, this is the last year you will be attending this school. I suggest you leave on your own, but if you persist in this stubbornness, I will make you leave. Dead or alive, you will leave this school.”
“I’ll take your suggestion under advisement,” Azerick answered sarcastically.
That remark earned him a few more kicks before they left him lying in a darkened alcove. It was hard to keep away from such places, as there were a lot of darkened halls and alcoves. The Academy was huge but it boasted barely a hundred students. He read in one of the history archives that it once had an attendance of over a thousand several centuries ago, but for the last few hundred years, less and less people were being born with the talent to become wizards, and sorcerers were nearly extinct in the western lands.
He picked himself up and limped back to his room.
“Got you again, huh?” Rusty observed.
“Yeah, I have to give them credit, they are getting better. I think Hugo would even let them tag along with him and his pals.”
“This can’t go on, you know. Something has to be done to end this some time,” Rusty said.
“It will, when one of is dead it will be over. In fact, Travis said that this was the year I would leave or he would kill me.”
“You have to go to the Headmaster and have him put a stop to this. Travis will kill you if he gets the chance. You know he will get away with it too!”
“I will just have to make sure I don’t give him the chance then,” Azerick said confidently.
“How are you going to do that?”
“It will be a lot harder for him to kill me without this,” Azerick replied pulling Travis’s wand from his sleeve.
“How did you get that?” Rusty shouted excitedly.
“I swiped it when they jumped me.”
“When he finds out you took his wand he will kill you for sure,” Rusty warned, concerned for his friend.
“He won’t find out, I’m going to make sure he gets it back.”
“If you’re going to give it back why did you bother taking it in the first place?”
“Remember his chair leg?” Azerick asked as he began casting his sundering spell on it.
“Do you think it will work?” asked Rusty.
“I think so, although it is harder to set on a magical item. I can feel it resisting me, ah there, got it. Well, time to go put this back where I found it.”
With his work done, he limped back down the Academy halls until he found the site of his most recent fight and carefully placed the wand behind a pedestal that held a bust of some long-forgotten wizard.
“Where is my wand?” Travis demanded the next morning at breakfast.
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Travis,” Azerick replied, feigning innocence.
“I know you took it, you must have taken it when I was pummeling you yesterday.”
“Did you try looking for it there? I don’t have your wand, maybe you dropped it.”
“You better hope I find it, peasant, or I swear you will not live out the week,” Travis promised before stalking off towards the site of their latest battle.
Winter festival came and went with almost an undeclared cease-fire. Azerick had to wonder whether Travis had given up trying to drive him off or if this was the lull before the storm.
CHAPTER
20
“Azerick, did you hear?” Rusty asked excitedly.
“Hear what?”
“We’re going to have a big summer ball before the summer break! I’m going to bring Colleen so you can meet her.”
“That sounds great, Rusty. It sounds like fun.”
“You don’t sound too excited. What’s the matter?”
“I don’t have anything to wear to something like that. It will show that I don’t really belong here even more than it does already,” Azerick answered, feeling slightly embarrassed.
“I have lots of clothes; you can borrow some of mine. You’re not as tall as I am but they should be fine with a bit of hemming,” Rusty offered.
“Thanks, Rusty, but I insist on wearing my own underwear; I’ve seen what you do to yours.”
“Very funny, maybe you should just go in your underwear then!” Rusty shouted indignantly then both boys fell into a fit laughter.
Azerick and Travis exchanged a few more attacks in the weeks before summer’s start and then the day of the ball was upon them. Rusty gave Azerick a white silk shirt with a crimson, crushed velvet doublet and black trews with a red embroidered pattern down the outside of each leg. Rusty wore a brilliant yellow shirt with lace cuffs under a royal blue doublet and a pair of blue trews with gold thread embroidery.
“Wow, you almost look like a gentleman,” Rusty teased.
“Be careful, I have a reputation to protect.”
They made their way to the formal banquet hall where the Academy set up for the ball. Rusty went to find Colleen amongst the huge crowd of girls invited to attend the ball from an all girl’s school. Because the Martial Academy was almost exclusively male, the three headmasters agreed that it would be a good idea to invite them.
Azerick went to the long table that held dozens of trays of small finger foods and two massive crystal punch bowls. He reached for a glass and the large crystal ladle resting in the crystal bowl at the same time another hand grasped for the same ladle.
“Oh, pardon me, sir,” begged a delicate feminine voice as the hand withdrew.
“No please, it I who must beg pardon from a fair maiden,” Azerick replied using charm he did not know he possessed. “Please, allow me to get that for you.”
“Thank you kindly, my gallant sir,” the young woman replied with a giggle.
Azerick filled the proffered glass with the soft red beverage before filling his own.
“My name is Azerick, by the way.”
“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Sir Azerick, I’m Loranna,” the lovely blond girl answered, offering her hand.
Azerick gently took her hand by the fingertips, bent at the waist, and brought his lips to within a whispers brush of contact.
“Which school do you attend here, Sir Azerick?”
“I am in the Magus Academy, Lady Loranna.”
“Oh pooh, let’s drop the formals shall we, Azerick, I find it so tedious. I hope you don’t think me too presumptuous.”
“Not at all, Loranna, I thank you for your forthrightness. Formalities are something I am definitely not used to,” Azerick returned with a small laugh.
“So you are a wizard then?”
“Basically yes, I’m actually a sorcerer.”
“A sorcerer, what does that mean?
Before he could answer, sudden appearance of the last person Azerick wanted to see tonight interrupted them both.
“Forgive me for my tardiness, Lady Loranna, but there are so many people here. Fortunately, your beauty glows like a star amongst the blackness even in this crowded room. Let us be away from here, you are far too noble to be conversing with a peasant,” Travis said with a viperous tongue.
“Sir Azerick was very much the gentleman, I assure you, Sir Travis.”
“I once saw a play where a man played a very convincing King Thomas, but I assure you he was no royal. A commoner in velvet is still a commoner,” Travis explained in his most pompous voice, guiding Loranna away with a small push to the small of her back.
She looked briefly over her shoulder with a look of apology showing on her face.
“How dare you presume to speak to my date, peasant?” Travis hissed once Loranna was out of earshot.
“We were just talking, Travis, let it go,” Azerick suggested, not in the mood to fight.
“Insult me again with your presence at your own peril. Remember what I told you at the beginning of the year. Time is almost up,” he threatened.
“Yes, you have been promising my death for quite some time now, haven’t you? It seems to me that you are all threat or you would have done something more than a few childish pranks and weak drubbings,” Azerick shot back, sounding bored with all of the blustering.
“You will regret this night, peasant, I promise you!” Travis hissed then stalked off after his date.
Azerick knew he should not have pressed him, but he was tired of putting up with the constant threats. Besides, Master Devlin had declared that his skills allowed him to advance to the rank of journeyman and Azerick was confident that he could defend himself against Travis and maybe even his friends too.
Rusty and his date interrupted his thoughts.
“Hey Azerick, this is Colleen, Colleen, this is my best friend, Azerick.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Azerick,” Colleen said in greeting giving a small curtsy.
“The pleasure is mine. Rusty talks about you all the time. You are very lucky, Rusty is a good man.”
“Oh I’m the lucky one, Azerick, believe me,” Rusty insisted.
“I know; I was just trying to be polite. She is far too pretty for you.”
“Very funny, true, but funny,” Rusty agreed while Colleen blushed.
“We’re going to go dance, you should find someone to dance with too,” his friend recommended.
“I will. I may even steal Colleen from you for a dance or two,” Azerick promised as Rusty led his girl away.
Azerick did dance a few dances but mostly just walked around, speaking briefly to a few people that had heard of the sorcerer and were curious about him. He thought about his studies and Travis’s threats. He knew this was not the place for him, but he needed to continue his studies under Master Devlin.
He decided to get away from the noise and the crowd by taking a walk in the enormous garden behind the Magus Academy’s main building. He was enjoying the cool evening air when a muffled cry a short distance away broke the tranquility of the garden. Azerick threaded his way through the maze of hedgerows. He found his way through the labyrinth of hedges and into a small clearing. Even in the wan moonlight, he could clearly see the look of surprise on Travis and his friends’ faces.
Azerick quickly took in the scene and quickly deduced what was happening. He saw Loranna pinned under Travis’s weight with his hand covering her mouth, her dress torn, and tears streaming down her face. Travis’s friends were a short distance away, whether as voyeurs, lookouts, or simply waiting their turn he knew not and cared even less.