Wizard's Price

Prologue

Prologue

The sounds of men's screams filled the air to the inconsistent beat of bludgeons on flesh and the dissonant, bell-like ringing of clashing iron. The sun was nearly completely gone behind the far horizon, the ocean set ablaze by the long reaching light. That only meant that the fighting would be getting more intense. More desperate.

Those things always liked the cold darkness better.

With the river at their back, at least they could keep those things only on the one side. They couldn't swim. They couldn't even float. If their desiccated bodies tried to enter the water, they would be swept away by the large current and broken against the rocks at the bottom as the river fish feasted on their leathery flesh.

Lucius was accustomed to the sounds. To the fear of darkness. His people, those who weren't well enough to fight, huddled close together, surrounded by a half ring of weary warriors. The old told stories to the young to keep them from being too frightened by horrors that haunted their nightmares. The pregnant woman rolled bandages for the injured that would inevitably begin being carried in as the night wore on. The sick were all put to sleep by overworked alchemists and their singular hedge wizard so that they could focus on the injured instead of the fevered and chilled.

It was a hard choice to have to make. The ill ranged all of his people. Old to young, pregnant to warrior, and they needed all aid. However, the fighters would also need attention, and without the fighters there wouldn't be any other people. So the sick were put to sleep so they couldn't be a burden and the alchemists began preparing their tonics and tinctures for the injured that would be coming. Such was the normal nightly ritual.

These were Lucius's people. They were desperate and tired. They had all been ran out of their home valley, forced to follow the river through the dry, arid lands. They couldn't leave the water because it provided them with food and protection. That made it very easy for the things chasing them to keep on their trail.

They were out of room now. They had reached the mouth of the river and the estuaries were currently filled with water from the nightly high tide. They were not a river people, they had no idea how to cross the muddy flats. The things chasing them didn't either, luckily, but that still left them trapped at the beginning of the river mouth. They couldn't move forward, they had no supplies to build boats and cross the river, and they were quickly being killed off by those things.

Lucius, leader of these people, had been driven into a corner. He had made another hard choice. One he knew would cost him the love of his wife. One that would cost him more than that. He was left with no other alternatives.

Lucius was the leader, and he had done what leaders had to do.

He looked up at the two men that came walking down the main path of the temporary camp. The people sitting outside of their tents gazed up at the men with burning, desperate hope in their eyes. Those already walking quickly stepped out of their way. Both men kept their eyes forward, as though the people surround them meant nothing at all.

Lucius's jaw tightened. And he too stepped out of the way.

The two men lived here in the estuaries. They lived off of the shrimp and clams that could be found here. They even had a permanent residence. There was a tower, a tall tower, that they had claimed for themselves out in the arid desert. A ways away from the scent of the estuaries by a fair distance, but it meant nothing to them.

Wizards could simply appear wherever they pleased. The distance was negligible.

Wizard Easton and Wizard Regin paid no mind to the lost, helpless people all around them. They were both busy going over mental exercises. They needed to keep their minds sharp. Though they were strong, especially together, the things chasing these people were still a difficult fight, especially at these numbers. The wizards needed to have their spells prepared.