Барб Хенди - First and Last Sorcerer

He realized his mistake too late as someone gripped the back of his hair.

“What are you doing?” Wynn shouted.

Ghassan’s head wrenched back harder than he thought possible—and then forward and down. His forehead struck the tabletop, and everything blackened before his eyes.

“Chane, stop!” Wynn cried.

Ghassan barely kept his feet as he was ripped out of the chair and whipped in an arch. Snarls erupted from both dogs amid shouts from others. Before he could place any voice, he crashed face-first into a bookcase. His cheekbone struck a shelf, stunning him again, and the grip on his hair shifted quickly to his neck as texts tumbled over his head.

Something pointed, cold, and hard settled at the back of his neck.

“Do not move,” Chane hissed, “or look at anyone ... or I will ram this blade into your skull!”

Wynn turned frantic amid the chaos. She was about to rush at Chane when Leesil grabbed her arm, Shade ducked in her way, and Chap lunged around her.

“What is that thing doing?” Leesil snarled.

No doubt he was referring to Chane, and he’d already pulled the one winged blade still strapped on his thigh. Brot’an was on his feet, and then Chane’s voice pulled her attention.

“So this undead, Khalidah, is inside whoever interrogated Magiere. How?”

Chane had his older, shorter blade’s tip pressed against Ghassan’s neck, but the domin didn’t answer him.

“Chane, that’s enough,” Wynn admonished. “Back away and—”

Be silent and let him finish!

Wynn shuddered and dropped her gaze, though Chap had already turned his head back to Chane and Ghassan. She choked back her anger and sense of betrayal.

Even though Leesil had drawn a weapon, neither he nor Chap had attempted to stop Chane. And they hated him so much that either would have used any excuse to go at him.

What was happening here?

Listen to him ... carefully.

Again she looked down to find Chap’s eyes on her, and when she looked up again ...

“Wynn, think,” Chane rasped, eyeing the back of Ghassan’s neck. “All of those years, he and his sect kept this spirit trapped—but how? They would have had to study it, what it could do, and how it could push into another’s mind. And he claims he can protect us ... so how ?”

Chane glanced back when she didn’t answer immediately. Even worse, Wynn simultaneously heard Chap’s voice in her head echo Chane’s words in her ears.

“Through sorcery !”

And still Wynn couldn’t speak.

Leesil, and Magiere, and even Chap had each suffered a horrifying encounter with an undead sorcerer called Vordana. A long while back in Magiere’s homeland, that undead had trapped each of them in their own phantasm, where they’d lived out their worst fears. Now both Chap and Chane, regardless of hate for each other, had reached the same conclusion about Ghassan il’Sänke.

Before Wynn could think what to say ...

“What is ... sorcery?” Osha asked somewhere behind her.

Brot’an likely knew a correct translation in their language, but she wasn’t giving him a chance to complicate matters or take control. She knew only one similar word in their tongue.

“Tôlealhân.”

It meant will-craft .

Wynn heard Osha shift suddenly—along with the slide of something on cloth or leather. She didn’t dare take her eyes off anyone in front of her, and Shade, who hadn’t moved or said anything, still stood in front of her facing away.

Someone grabbed the back of her robe and jerked on it.

Wynn stumbled in retreat as Osha jerked on her again. Before she righted herself, he drew an arrow, fit it to the bowstring, and aimed it at Ghassan, though most of the domin was still blocked by Chane. That arrow had a white metal tip.

“Osha,” Chane rasped, “if he gets away from me—”

“He dead!” Osha answered.

Any uncertainty or shame Wynn had seen in Osha’s face was gone, and again he acted to defend her, along with Chane, with deadly intent. Even if she could stop one of them, she would never stop the other. And after all of this, Brot’an just stood there watching, which worried her more than anything else.

“Enough!” Ghassan shouted, still pinned to the shelves. “If I wished to act against you, then why endanger myself and others who helped free three hunters of the undead? And why again if I could get to the dhampir on my own ... without any of you?”

Wynn shook her head in confusion. “You broke them out to help you hunt this specter?”

“Magiere isn’t hunting anything!” Leesil cut in.

“And why did you come here?” Ghassan snapped back. “Think of the order of events. Wynn told me that Magiere came seeking the orb of Air, and yet your spouse and you were imprisoned. She faced someone with the skill to extract her secrets. One with such power would not need a host of any great importance to infiltrate the imperial grounds. But if need be, he will take such a host. And then do you think any of you will be free to seek another orb?”

Once again the room fell silent, and Wynn began to piece things together.

Whoever had helped Ghassan from inside the imperial grounds would have access to or control over prisoners. It might even be the one who had sentenced them, and yet the crime they were accused of should have led to execution in this land.

Just how high did the fallen domin’s connections reach within the imperial grounds?

And should the specter seize someone with that much authority ...

Wynn tried quickly to absorb all of this. She had been a naive fool again in not seeing the worst possibilities. Still, if what Chane claimed about the domin was even half true, Ghassan was as dangerous as Vordana or worse.

She believed he’d helped her friends because of their own friendship, yet he had gotten in her way more than once in their days at her guild branch. He had made the sun-crystal staff that had saved her several times since then, but he had also followed her in secret into a lost dwarven stronghold. He tried to beat her to the orb now hidden in the dwarven underworld. And he had provided this sanctuary that no one else could find.

Wynn’s skin began to crawl as she looked about this place that was hidden to all senses. No, not hidden, but rather it somehow got into the minds of those who came near it and blocked itself from their awareness, even by touch.

“Don’t listen to him,” Leesil whispered.

That frightened her as well. It was bad enough that Chane and Chap of all people were in agreement here. Then there was Osha, who could take deadly action by merely relaxing his fingers on his bowstring.

“Nothing can be done tonight.”

Brot’an’s sudden words almost doubled Wynn’s fright.

“Regardless of what action we follow next,” he stated flatly, staring at Ghassan, “it must wait until Magiere is well. Discussion must be paused, and he is not to be left alone. Two at least must watch him at all times.”

She looked away in time to see all the pale color drain from Chane’s irises. She had to do something fast.

Wynn slammed her shoulder into Osha’s side. As his bow veered and his big amber eyes widened in shock, she grabbed his drawn arrow with both hands and pulled it down with her weight.

“Chane, step away—now!” she ordered.

“Léshil? What is hap—?” And a gasp followed this, pulling Wynn’s attention.

Wayfarer stood peeking around the partition’s edge at everyone.

Even for her weakened state, the girl paled all the more at what she saw. The noise must have awakened her, as it likely had Leesil, and Wynn thought of Magiere also resting in that other room.