He’d lost this one. He’d never expected it. He’d never thought Lenamare capable of such a feat, let alone willing to destroy his own castle. Had he destroyed all his own people? Exador had stationed patrols in key locations in case people tried escaping from the school. So far he hadn’t heard anything, but he’d have to check for himself first thing tomorrow. He didn’t think Lenamare would kill all of his own people, not if he ever wanted to get anyone else’s aid. If he could just get a hold of some of those people, he could find out for sure what Lenamare’s plans were.
For now though, all they could do was clean up the mess and treat the wounded. He had a few master healers left and they were analyzing the sick victims, apparently, there was some sort of sickness spell associated with the explosive spell. Tomorrow he would search. Tonight he had to sleep. His powers were drained lower than they had been in centuries, if not a millenia. If he ever got that sludgeworm Lenamare in his grasp, he’d certainly have to wring the secret of that spell from him. Damn effective.
Chapter 31
Once they’d finished eating, Jenn began saddling her horse and preparing for the day’s journey, Tom had flown up to see if anyone was following them, so Rupert had a few minutes to himself. He felt better today than he had in a long time. He was still a little nervous, but happier than he could remember being in the last several years.
After all the walking yesterday his feet ached a bit, so did his back for some reason. He reached up to scratch his head which had been itching him all morning, and felt a slight swelling above his temple. He was slightly surprised, apparently he’d relaxed more last night than he’d thought. He’d have to be careful. He still wasn’t completely confident. True, Tom had given him a part of his name, but he hadn’t said anything to him. He’d really been scared, when it had looked like Tom might leave. He didn’t know what he’d have done then.
When you want something all your life, which in his case was only about a decade, and then to almost have it in your grasp and lose it. Scary, he still hadn’t figured out exactly what Tom was doing, maybe testing him. Last night, though... maybe, Tom seemed to care about him. He gave a hasty prayer to whoever managed such things, then turned as Tom descended.
“No one in sight, I didn’t look very far, but it seems clear for a while.”
“Fine, shall we go then. Rupert, have you changed your mind about riding?” Jenn asked hopefully.
“No, I’ll walk,” Rupert said to both of them.
“Are you sure, we’ll be going all day, not just for a few hours?”
“I’m sure,” Rupert said as Tom simply looked on without saying anything. Jenn gave up in despair and pointed her horses toward the trail. Today she’d switched and was riding Timber Leaf. She’d still saddled Bitterwhite though, since she’d hoped Rupert would ride, and she didn’t have anything else to do with the gear. At this rate it would take a long time to reach Freehold.
Gastropé searched through what was left of the wagon train. Unfortunately, not much useful was left. True some rather nice things in and around the front wagon, such as live horses, but nothing very useful. The horses were paralyzed, and after a half hour of fiddling, he was sure he couldn’t remove the spell. He was mainly thankful that they had left a little food. Not a lot, but enough to last him a few days. He also managed to dig up some new clothes; he’d had to mix and match, so much had been burned. His old clothes, though, were simply ruined. The fine clothes he’d been wearing just couldn’t stand the roughing they’d had, especially his soiling them. He also had no way of cleaning them, the only stream he’d found was too small, and he also needed drinking water.
When the demon tossed him, he had run as far as he could. He’d finally collapsed in exhaustion. When he woke up, he’d realized that he’d need a few things if he were to survive. He’d snuck back to the wagon train just before dark. He hadn’t seen anyone or thing, but he waited till morning nonetheless, just to make sure the demon was gone. He didn’t know where the survivors, if there were any, went; but since all the bodies were gone, he assumed there had been some. He actually didn’t care, as long as that demon was gone.
He still couldn’t believe his luck. To actually have been so close to an enemy demon of such power and live... through no fault of his own. He had no idea why the demon didn’t kill him, normally its master would surely have ordered it to kill all of the enemy. Still, it was best not to question good fortune.
He’d gone around the valley and seen the handiwork of the demon. Goddess that thing was nasty. There really wasn’t much left anywhere. Martel’s was the only body recognizable, and that probably only because he’d interrupted the demon’s rampage with his own foolish summons. It was one thing to see the little first order demons in lessons, and even conjure one. This thing though, had been unimaginable. The biggest thing he’d ever seen was a second order his master had summoned, it was nasty enough. Naturally, he’d heard about third order demons, and even the higher ones; but whoever expected to meet one?
The thing that made him perhaps the maddest was that Exador was sending out men to confront people who controlled fourth order demons. It was like sending a flea to kill a lion. There was no way Exador could not have known what he was doing. Exador was a damn good wizard; he didn’t make that kind of mistakes. No, it must have been a setup. Which was why he was not going back to Exador.
It was that which presented him with his problem. Where could he go? If he went east, he’d surely run into Exador. Not only was that where his army was, but, since these people were fleeing the army, Exador would be pursuing them. If on the other hand, he went west, he’d run into the people with the demon. It wasn’t a good choice. He couldn’t go over the mountains, so he had to follow the trail, which mean east or west. Which way did he want to go?
If only he could do a teleport spell, but he wasn’t anywhere near good enough. He might manage to cast it, but he’d just as likely end up in a solid object or twenty stories up, or somewhere random, as his destination. The other problem was what to do when he got some place. He’d used the last of his money to buy those fancy clothes to get hired by Exador, and Exador wasn’t going to pay until the job was done, which didn’t seem to be soon, if ever, especially considering that Gastropé had no intention of seeing Exador again.
Jenn was upset with herself; she’d fallen asleep almost immediately last night. She hadn’t intended to sleep at all, and then she was out like a light. How could she be so incompetent? The demon could have worked any mischief it chose on them during the night. For some strange reason it hadn’t, as far as she could discern, but that was probably just because it hadn’t found the right time. It was surely just waiting for the perfect opportunity to cause the maximum possible damage. She had to find out what its game was.
“Demon,” Jenn called. The demon flew over the yawning chasm on their right and up beside her slowly walking horse, trying not to get within its view. Unfortunately, he came within the view of the following horse, and it started having fits. “Would you mind?” Jenn asked, annoyed.
“What?”
“Casting a glamour to keep the horse from spooking.”
“Me? Sorry. I don’t know how.”
“Sure. Be that way then, I’ll do it.” Quickly she cast a spell, hiding the demon from Bitterwhite’s senses. In short order the horse calmed down, unable to see Tom.
“Neat trick,” commented Tom, honestly.
“Yeah, you’ll do anything to cause trouble.”
“Look, you’re the one who called me up here to talk,” Tom pointed out.