Chapter 3

Chapter 3

     I still didn’t know how the wizards knew when they were wanted, but I ducked out of the way into a storage closet as the wizards rushed up the stairs and past me. I kept the door open a crack to watch what would happen.

     The sorcerers were astride pegasi, which explained their dramatic entrance to the top floor. I figured the pegasi were under held spells to keep them fairly docile.

     The wizards stopped short when they saw the sorcerers, and the sorcerer in the front, who I assumed was the leader, took the opportunity to speak.

     “We don’t wish to hurt you,” he said, in a loud, had-to-have-been-magykally-amplified voice. The group of enemy magykans snickered, rolling their eyes.

     “All right,” he went on. “We really do. But we won’t, yet, if you don’t resist us. So let us through!”

     One of the wizards glared up at the leader. “Never, Lymlock!”

     “Well, then, I guess you’re just going to have to die,” Lymlock responded. “Now!” he shouted to his comrades.

     Instantly, the whole front row of sorcerers yelled “Joqtlu!”

     The killing spell, the single spell that takes the most magyk, killed most of the wizards just like that. A few were left, and they fought hard. Shield spells up, they hit many of the sorcerers before running out of magyk.

     I finally understood the sorcerers’ – Lymlock’s? – plan. Because our wizards had been fighting off an assortment of magykal creatures for days, they had hardly any magyk left to defend themselves, let alone the king and queen.

     I stayed hidden and reached for my knife, searching the sorcerers for one – particular – face… There he was! Near the back, my previous captor and would-be murderer (I later found out his name was Renjin) walked, a condescending smile on his face, just like the rest of the sorcerers, as they pushed through the remaining wizards, killing them with ease. But I wasn’t focused on them anymore, as awful as it was.

     A few moments after the fight began, 37 wizards and about 23 sorcerers lay dead or unconscious on the ground.

     The sorcerers had all dismounted, the pegasi standing calmly under a spell.

     Lymlock pointed at one of the many bystanders pressed up against the walls, trying to stay out of the way. “You, come here,” he said.

     The small girl took a reluctant step forward. “Me?” she asked timidly.

     Impatiently, he snapped, “Yes, yes, you. Where is the throne room?”

     “It’s – um – it’s downstairs, on the first floor,” she finally stammered out.

     “It better be,” he growled. “Because you’re coming with us.”

     She walked in front of them, nearly tripping a few times, leading the sorcerers down the hall towards me. My chance was rapidly approaching. My heart pounded in my ears, so loud it seemed like everybody should have heard it.

     The sorcerers passed by me, though, laughing and talking among themselves as if this was just another day.

Knowing sorcerers, it probably was just another day. Maybe more interesting than most, but just a normal day.

     Renjin walked steadily forward, not knowing what I was gathering my courage to do. He walked past.

     I took a deep breath and threw my knife. It landed squarely in his back.

     I knew it wouldn’t actually kill him, not with the amount of magyk in that crowd. It was more a personal thing than something to actually help defeat the sorcerers.

     He shouted in surprise and looked around angrily for the person who had thrown the knife. The other sorcerers laughed when they saw what had happened to him, but Lymlock shouted for order and, I noticed, told someone else to heal him rather than doing it himself.

     “Who threw that?” Renjin shouted angrily to the surrounding castle people, who glanced around and shrugged. I backed into a corner of the room, suddenly worried, and felt the wall cave inwards.

     Startled, I managed to catch myself just before hitting the floor and ducked inside the secret room hidden there.

     It made sense; the castle had a lot of secret passages and stuff from a long time ago when it was built. Personally, I just think the castle had a really bored designer.

     But I digress. Apparently, the sorcerers had figured out that the weapon had come from the storage room I had been in just a moment ago, and they were barging in.

     I focused on what they were saying, and heard snippets of the conversation.

     “Nobody here,” one person said.

     “…come from nowhere?” That was Renjin.

     “Waste of…” another said.

     I heard the knife clatter to the floor and the door slam as the voices in the room moved out into the hall.

     I cautiously pulled the hatch back to the main room open and eased out of the secret space, brushing cobwebs out of my hair. Good thing I wasn’t scared of spiders.

     Picking up the knife from the floor, I pressed my ear to the door, trying to see if the sorcerers had gone yet. I didn’t hear anything, so I pushed the door handle down.

     I have really bad luck.

     It was locked.