We traded stories on the way to
Rhoda’s camp. I told her about my quest, and she explained this Brochen guy.
From the sound of it, he was a witch–a human user of wild magic–and a
powerful one, at that. I’d never actually fought a witch, and Iason admitted he
never had either, but we’d both heard stories. They tended to be solitary,
living in mountains or forests or out on moors, places where wild magic is
strongest. Self-taught, mostly, but occasionally one would take an apprentice.
And their magic was… different. Instinctive, unpredictable, chaotic. They
didn’t weave their spells like I did–they just sort of tossed them out. So
less controlled, less refined, but faster.
Anyway, this Brochen guy apparently
visited a village to the north, looking to pick up a girl of all things, and
when everyone was too creeped out to deal with him, he threatened them: they
had one month to offer up their most beautiful maiden to him, or he would curse
their fields barren, their wells dry, the usual stuff. Fun guy.
By the time we got to where she’d
pitched her tent, we’d hashed out a deal: Iason and I help take down Brochen,
and Rhoda gives us the book. “I’ve got the main summons I use memorized
anyway,” she said. “And a ton of notes. I don’t really
need it anymore.”
“So what’s the plan?” I
asked her. “You must’ve been watching this Brochen guy, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah. He has a
house up in the hills. It’s got all kinds of magical traps and things around
it, but he’ll be leaving it tonight to head for the village. I know what route
he’ll take–he’s been back a couple times to remind them, and he always goes
the same way. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t expect us–he took out a couple of
lesser demons I sent after him, so I think he thinks he’s beaten me.”
The plan we came up with was simple.
Rhoda needed time to cook up her next demon , enough that it would be cutting
it pretty close to wait until she was finished, so she and I would ambush
Brochen to slow him down. While we were doing that, she would finish up the
summoning here at camp, with Iason staying with her just in case Brochen
slipped past us somehow.
Yes, I know. I spotted that small
logistical problem too. When I asked Rhoda about it, she answered, “Oh,
I’m sending a demon with you. Obviously I won’t be fighting personally.
I’m a warlock! I don’t know the first thing about combat magic.”
Is there anything you know the first thing about? I wondered.
Not demon summoning, clearly–the first thing you need to know about summoning
demons is NEVER SUMMON DEMONS.
But to be honest, I had no idea what
to expect from this Brochen guy. Curses are easier with wild magic than the
real stuff, for the same reason it’s easier to hurt someone with an explosion
than a sword, but still, cursing an entire village at once was pretty hardcore.
And while the Tin Islanders had no high magic worth talking about, who knows
what kind of wild magic nonsense they might get up to? And on top of
that, moors are definitely wild magic country–he’d be stronger and I’d be
weaker here, and I greatly doubted he’d be willing to move our battlefield to a
crossroads or temple or farm or something.
I mean, I’d be able to take him. No
matter what powers or advantages he had, he was just a witch, while I
was an elite, highly trained graduate of the greatest school of high magic to
ever exist. But it’d be unpleasant. Backup would be nice, and if it had
to come from a demon, I guess it had to come from a demon.
To be continued…
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