The Sorcerer's Destiny (The Sorcerer's Path) (16 page)

Azerick grabbed his son as he took a couple stumbling steps back and guided him into a nearby chair. “Are you all right?”

Raijaun took several deep breaths before nodding. “I am very tired is all, but there is no pain.”

“You did very well. Go to your room and rest now. I am afraid I will need you again very soon.”

Raijaun was too tired to ask what it was and plodded up the steps to his room. Azerick knelt beside Sandy’s big, wedge-shaped head and stroked her brow. He dreaded waking her, and not just because he feared his preparations could prove inadequate, but because of her reaction when she sees what he did to her. What he did was far more than mar her brilliant scales. Sandy’s dragon name, given to her by her mother, translated as ‘Beautiful One Whose Scales Shine with the Glory of the Morning Sun’. Azerick’s solution destroyed not just her scales, but her very identity as a dragon and the only real connection she had with her mother.

With a deep sigh of remorse, Azerick removed the iron muzzle and laid his hand upon Sandy’s brow. “Awaken.”

Sandy’s eyes fluttered for just a moment before she leapt away and cast her head back and forth, her eyes wide with panic. The chains holding her in place clattered loudly and groaned in protest. Azerick took several hasty steps back and raised his hands.

“Sandy, it’s okay. You’re safe now,” he said calmly.

“The Scions, they called to me! They commanded me! I tried to block them from my mind, but they were so loud and their voices had so much power,” she wailed frightfully.

“Can you still hear them?”

“Barely, like the echo of a whisper.”

“I have blocked them from your mind as best I can.”

“How? What…?” Sandy craned her neck around and looked at the runes covering her body. “What have you done to me?” she asked in a whisper.

“I had to create a permanent magic to protect you.”

“So many?”

Azerick swallowed and took a deep breath. “No, but I wanted to make you stronger so you would be better able to protect yourself.”

“To make me a better weapon for you to use, you mean!”

Azerick dipped his head in shame. “Both statements have merit.”

“You had no right!”

“No, but I had great need. Sandy, I’m sorry. I should have expected this, but I thought of you like family, more like a daughter than a dragon.”

“If I was truly your daughter then you should have protected me!”

“I am sorry, Sandy. I failed you.”

Sandy’s jaw worked to form words, but her fury was too great to give them voice. She wanted to demand that he fix her scales. She wanted to ask if she had hurt anyone, but her pain crushed reason. She glared at the chains and summoned her magic. The steel glowed hot and she snapped them with ease. With a furious roar, she slashed at the empty air and tore a great hole in space. To Azerick’s eyes, it looked as though she were leaping straight for him, bent on tearing him apart, but she vanished through the gate halfway to him. Even from beneath the new tower, Azerick was able to hear her pain-filled bellow as she flew away.

It was with a heavy heart that Azerick made his way up the stairs. Although he was as strong as a team of horses, Azerick felt as though his feet weighed a thousand pounds each as he struggled to lift them to the next step. He found Miranda, Aggie, Allister, and Rusty waiting for him in the parlor when he finally emerged from the winding staircase.

“Azerick, are you all right?” Miranda asked fretfully.

Azerick halfheartedly returned her soft embrace. “I am well enough.”

“We heard Sandy make such racket before she flew off. We weren’t sure if she had attacked you again.”

“No, Raijaun and I were able to block the Scions’ influence.”

“She seemed mighty upset when she lit out of here,” Allister said.

“The methods we employed were unpleasant. She needs time to adjust. On that matter, I feel it urgent to make an adjustment as well.”

“What kind of adjustment?” Rusty asked.

“Sandy’s domination makes it clear that the Scions are very close to escaping. There is no longer anything Raijaun and I can do to stop or even slow them. One of our greatest weapons is the Source pool beneath the old tower. North Haven will be the first city to fall when the Scions and their minions attack, and we cannot lose the well when it does.”

“How do you propose we prevent it?”

“We must move it.”

“You want to move an entire tower and the single most concentrated source of magic in the known world?” Rusty asked incredulously.

“In a sense, yes. What I want to do is shift its existence so it is hidden, but we can still tap into its power.”

Aggie’s face went ashen. “Boy, you better not be proposing what I think you are.”

“We cannot afford to lose the well. Without it, our mages will fatigue too soon, and we will be defenseless against the dragons.”

“The elves failed in their attempt to do this very thing and nearly made themselves extinct in the process!”

“I witnessed what they did, and I understand the mistakes they made. The elves tried to move too much too far. We will only be shifting the tower a short ways outside of our reality. It will present far less of a challenge than what the elves tried. The elves also did not have a Guardian or a Source pool to aid them.”

“It’s still damned insane!” Aggie protested loudly.

“But I will make the attempt all the same. My chances are far better with you to help guide me through the passages between worlds.”

The old mage looked ready to slap him, but her shoulders slumped and she shook her head. “Damn us all for fools then. If you’re so set on destroying us before the Scions get here, then so be it. But mark my words, boy; you had best start listening to your elders. I don’t care how much power you can channel, it’s no substitute for experience!”

Azerick nodded. “I know, Aggie. It is why I ask for your help, and I would not try such a thing if I was not confident in our chances to achieve it. It will take several days to prepare. Raijaun should be recovered by then. I just hope the Scions give us that much time.”

CHAPTER 8

Heartrending rage inundated Sandy’s soul with an intensity she had never before felt. She beat her wings furiously, desperate to put as much distance between herself and the source of her misery as she could and as quickly as possible. But even as she left the school and Azerick far behind, she keenly felt the desecration of every rune etched upon her body, and there was no way to run from those.

Sand dragons were never built to be swift or agile flyers, and despite her strenuous efforts, she was not fleeing nearly fast enough. The young dragon focused her anger and willed her muscles to work harder, but they were already pushed to their limits. The more she demanded, the angrier she got as her body refused to obey. The harder she tried the more the runes itched and demanded attention.

Reaching the limits of her irritation, Sandy turned her thoughts to the hated sigils. She could clearly see the shape of every rune on her body and trace each line within her mind. Ancient dragon memories handed down from her parents and grandparents and every ancestor from the beginning of time floated to the forefront of her mind. Most of the runes tapped into the vast power of the elements, much like her innate dragon magic. She picked out a rune tied to the element of air and called to it. The rune answered eagerly, flared brightly, and a fierce wind struck her from behind. Sandy fought to maintain control, canting her wings and forcing her flight to straighten by using her tail like a ship’s rudder to correct her course.

Quickly gaining control, she caught the powerful blow with her wings and streaked across the sky. The feeling was exhilarating, and she marveled at the speed in which the ground retreated far beneath her. She was certain no sand dragon had ever flown so swiftly. Even the great cloud dragons, who rarely set a scaly foot upon the ground, would be hard-pressed to match her speed.

Sandy called out to the wind once more, another rune flared, and a gust came at her from the side. Banking her enormous wings, she dipped sharply to her left and raced for the ground with breathtaking speed. Despite her initial thrill, the cost of this new power quickly reasserted itself, and her rage renewed. Sandy desperately needed a release before the anger consumed her.

Runes flared all over her body, wreathing her form in a light so bright she looked like a meteor streaking across the sky.  Sandy unleashed the pent up energy with a furious roar. A massive sphere of crackling energy, fire, and electricity as big as her body raced ahead of her and struck the ground. The titanic assault incinerated trees, melted stone, and caused the earth to buckle and heave for hundreds of feet in every direction.

Sandy pulled up from her dive so close to the ground she could feel the heat of the scorched earth wash over her belly scales, the only scales on her body not ruined by Azerick. She released a massive jet of flame as she sped just a few feet above the ground, creating a line of fire nearly a quarter mile long before arcing back into the sky. The young dragon raced upward on magically conjured wind until the raging inferno beneath her appeared no bigger than a small campfire. At the apex of her ascent, she flipped over backward, tucked her wings close to her body, and plummeted once again.

Once more, she commanded the runes to summon a colossal amount of elemental power and unleashed it at the hapless ground below, creating a gigantic crater of scorched earth beneath her. A powerful wave of fatigue washed over her, and fear replaced her anger as the ground rapidly rose up to meet her. She desperately sought out the power of her glyphs and received only a feeble reply. Adding her own innate magic to that of the rune, she summoned an anemic wind. Spreading her wings wide to catch the updraft, her body slowly began to level out, and the approaching ground slowed. Her muscles ached, and the bones in her wings felt ready to snap as they fought against the wind pressure. Her bones held, and she managed to regain some altitude, but she was exhausted now and her stomach vehemently demanded sustenance. It was apparent her new power was far from limitless.

Far in the distance, she spied a herd of elk sprinting across an open glade, likely spooked from her assault on the valley. Even as tired as she was, it did not take her long to reach the bounding animals. It was a big herd, and Sandy killed and partially cooked half a dozen of the creatures with her fiery breath in a single pass. She set down lightly amongst the charred remains and began eating voraciously. There was well over a thousand pounds of meat lying smoldering in the clearing, but she did not doubt for an instant her ability to consume every bit of it.

With her belly full, sleep became the dominant voice demanding her attention, so Sandy curled up in the open glade with two elk unconsumed and fell asleep. They would make a fine breakfast in the morning. Unwanted faces and voices filled her dreams that night. She woke to find her body twisted and deformed. Azerick stood over her with a face bereft of emotion.

“What have you done to me?”

“It is for the best, Sandy. I needed to make you stronger so you were more useful to me.”

“You ruined me!”

“I made you better.”

“You have no right!”

“Right is whatever I deem necessary for the survival of my people.”

“What about my people?”

“Your people are the enemy.”

“They are an unwilling enemy!” Sandy defended.

“It does not matter. Had I not been able to block the Scions’ control, I would have destroyed you too.”

“You did,” she whispered,

Sandy leapt into the sky and flew as fast as her wings could carry her. She raced south toward her desert home, the Scion’s horrible voices commanding her to kill all the while. She ignored their whispered demands and pushed them to the back of her mind. A new voice, soft and loving ascended to the forefront of her consciousness.

“Mama?”

“Come home, child”

Sandy commanded more speed, and the forests of northern Valeria flew past and became the massive fields of the Habberback Plains before turning into the red stone and sand of the Great Sand Desert. Her homing instincts took her straight to the cave she and her mother called home burrowed within the Bloodstone Mountains.

“Mama?” Sandy called out as she hesitantly stepped into the cavern.

“Come inside so I may see you. It has been so very long.”

Sandy followed the sound of her mother’s voice to the large cavern at the rear of the cave. Her mother had spent years carving out the sandstone to create a good home for her beloved daughter. She looked upon the deep claw marks in the stone and gently ran her muzzle over them.

“Who are you?” Sandy’s mother demanded as she entered the cavern.

Sandy’s voice quavered and caught in her throat. “It’s me, mama.”

“No, my daughter is beautiful! You mock the name I gave her. You are not my child!”

“Mama, it
is
me!” Sandy cried.

“Be gone. The sight of you injurers my heart and wounds my eyes!”

“Mama!”

“Go!”

“Mama!” Sandy shouted as she started awake.

She peered across the meadow wavering through her tears. The sun was just an arcing sliver peeking over the horizon. Sandy glanced at the two elk carcasses, but she had no appetite. She laid her head back down, praying for the ground to swallow her up and make her just another mound of earth and grass. She thought her dreams had returned to haunt her as another voice intruded on her mind, but this one was deep and soft and held no malice.

Come to me.

Fear ran through her body. The voice felt so much like that of the Scions, only this one was not commanding her to kill.

“Who are you?”

Come to me.

“Where?”

Follow my thoughts, and I will show you the way. You know how. It is in your blood, child.

Sandy did not know to whom the voice belonged and wanted to ignore it and push it from her mind, but it continued to coax her with its deep and sonorous timber. It felt like the reassuring words of a beloved grandparent, and she desperately needed reassurance now. Gripping the two remaining elk in her powerful hind claws, Sandy pushed into the air, summoning a helpful lift of air with her runic power. Carrying two adult elk would have been a challenging task, but the aid of her new magic made it almost easy to manage. She liked this new power, and it infuriated her to acknowledge it. It was an abomination. It made her an abomination, but it came so easy, and she hated herself for it.