“Valera,” Gavin said, his eyes closed as he concentrated on the direction of the effect.
“Yes, Gavin?”
“Is there any reason someone should be casting a paralysis effect somewhere in the hedge maze?”
“What? What made you ask that?”
“I just felt an Enchantment effect from over there,” Gavin said, eyes still closed and pointing with his left hand, “and it felt like the paralysis effect Marcus had me try right before he left.”
“Gavin, I need you to go to the fourth floor of the Tower and knock on room N4. The Inquisitor assigned to the College will answer the door; her name is Reyna. Tell her everything you just told me.”
Gavin opened his eyes and turned to Valera. “Shouldn’t I go into the hedge maze?”
“You’re an apprentice, Gavin; it’s not your place.”
Valera pushed herself to her feet, and Gavin stepped to block her path.
“Valera, I’m not saying you’re incapable of handling this yourself. I just believe I’m better equipped to defend myself if there’s something bad happening in there.”
“Oh? Better equipped than a Magister?”
“When was the last time you used a Word of Interation, Valera?”
Valera looked at Gavin in silence. At last, she said, “I’ll get Reyna. Go.”
Chapter 24
The College’s gardens had a small area devoted to a hedge maze, about an acre in total, and Gavin’s concern grew when he traced the Enchantment effect to its entrance. Since leaving Valera, Gavin wracked his mind, trying to determine how casting a paralysis could be of scholarly value inside the maze, and he could think of none…especially on a day with no formal classes scheduled.
The hedge maze was designed to occupy a day’s effort to reach the center, and if one were to become lost, the maze possessed a ‘safe word’ that would open a path from the speaker direct to the maze’s entrance. Gavin remembered reading about the collaboration between the Council and the druids of the Sylvan Synod when the maze was constructed, some fifteen hundred years before. It was also through his voracious reading that Gavin knew the short-cut to the maze’s center, and he took that path, guessing the location of the paralysis effect’s source.
A short time later, Gavin stepped around the final curve of the path and stopped cold. A young woman lay across the block of stone at the maze’s center, partially obscured by a young man. A small pile of fabric already lay on the ground just to the side of the stone block.
“I just couldn’t help myself,” Gavin heard the young man say. “I’ve seen you around the College, these past few weeks, and you’re irresistible, just like all the others. I’m rather pleased with myself that I waited this long before arranging our little meeting. Too bad you probably won’t enjoy this as much as I will.”
The young man dropped his trousers and moved toward the young woman.
“Hello, there!” Gavin called out as he took off at a jog. As he moved, Gavin shucked off his robe and draped it over his left arm.
The young man let out a little screech and looked over his shoulder as he bent to pull up his trousers. Alas, he moved with too much haste and smacked the side of his head against the stone block. The impact dazed him, and he fell backward with his trousers just above his knees.
Gavin was drawing close to the stone block now. He saw that the young woman’s clothes were cut open and spread beneath her like a tablecloth, and she lay atop the stone with her arms and legs spread-eagled, held by the paralysis effect that had led Gavin here. The coloring of her skin was just slightly pale, as though she didn’t spend much time in the sun. What hair Gavin could see was the auburn hue he thought made Lillian Mivar so pretty. Then, Gavin closed enough to see the woman’s face, and he froze. It was Lillian.
Gavin’s path took him near the would-be attacker, who was starting to recover his wits, and Gavin directed a casual kick to the side of young man’s head as he passed, intent on keeping the young man diverted a few moments longer.
Reaching the stone, Gavin draped his robe across Lillian before he turned to the young man lying on the ground behind him. He didn’t recognize the young man, nor the House Glyph on his medallion. Like Roshan’s Glyph, this one had a horizontal line and centered dot in the upper- and middle-thirds, respectively. Unlike Roshan, though, two diagonal lines on the right side made up the lower third of this Glyph.
“The paralysis, how long does it last?” Gavin asked.
“You didn’t have to kick me,” the young man said, his speech slurred just a bit.
Rage slipped Gavin’s control, and it seemed to color his vision. He watched his right hand reach down and clamp onto the young man’s throat. The young man let out a garbled sound as Gavin hauled him to his feet, his trousers falling back around his ankles.
“Answer my question, you worthless cur,” Gavin said, “or my boot will be the least of your worries.”
“…can’t…speak…” the young man said, gasping out the words.
Gavin released the young man’s throat with a slight push backward. The young man let the momentum get the better of him, and he fell again. Gavin left the young man to sort himself out and turned back to Lillian. During his studies, there were mentions of Words that dispelled active effects as well as spells that duplicated that utility, but Gavin had yet to learn any of those Words.
Gavin closed his eyes and concentrated on his skathos, observing the ambient magic and the effects of the paralysis spell upon the ambient. The spell didn’t seem to be all that well anchored from what Gavin could sense. Gavin remembered Marcus saying at one point how wizards were fundamentally a part of the power they wielded, and he hit upon an experimental plan.
Stepping around to Lillian’s side, Gavin took her left hand in his and extended his right hand toward the sky. He closed his eyes and started drawing a small amount of the ambient power, just to start the process, and then focused his draw exclusively on the paralysis effect. To keep from building a dangerous accumulation of power he would have to expend in a very unpleasant invocation of the Art, Gavin pushed the power he drew through him and expelled it out his right hand to return to the ambient.
At first, it seemed like nothing was going to happen. Then, all of a sudden, Gavin felt the resistance of the paralysis spell break, and its power began flowing through him. A kaleidoscopic flame erupted from his right palm and lit up the area brighter than the noon-day sun. The longer the transfer occurred, the hotter Gavin felt, and he soon soaked his tunic and trousers in sweat. After an eternity that only lasted for five minutes or so, the paralysis effect dissipated, and Gavin leaned against the stone block, exhausted.
“That was amazing, Gavin,” a voice said from behind Gavin.
Gavin turned to find Valera, a grim-faced woman in the black robes with crimson trim that signified the Inquisitors, and a blond-haired woman wearing the burgundy mantle of the Battle-mages of Tel and a medallion bearing the glyph of House Cothos; they were standing about fifteen feet past the end of the maze. The blond-haired woman looked at Gavin with undisguised wonder on her face, while Valera’s expression held a smile and general expression of pride. The grim-faced woman glared in silence.
The young man on the ground shifted to look behind him and gasped, “Thank the gods! I found him trying to harm this woman, and I was afraid he was going to kill me.”