Sex Wizards - Initiation Ch. 12-13

Despair creeps through me, sapping my strength. That's it. I've failed. Tears sting at the corner of my eyes as I reach for my necklace, fingers finding the spell Olbric and I cast without thought. Then my thumb brushes the one next to it, and an idea blooms like hope.

I grab the spell, releasing it just as I had in the courtyard with Arlon. My wolf appears in a flash of light. She looks at me with those intelligent gold eyes, expectant.

Behind me, a couple of the horses hate the shit out of what I've just plopped in front of them and make their displeasure known. Cancassi's rears with a scream of alarm, while a few others balk, legs braced to run. "Wooaah, wooaah, easy," Cancassi says as they get their mount back under control. When they do, the others seem to fall into an anxious sort of quiet. Cancassi lets out a sigh and brushes a wayward hair behind their ear. "Maybe warn us before bringing a predator into a herd of prey animals."

"Fuck, sorry," I say, even as I pray to whatever gods might be listening that this works. I walk up to my wolf and hold out the remains of Olbric's spell necklace. "Can you track this smell?"

My wolf looks at it curiously before she leans in, wet nose snuffling at the leather. She sticks her nose in the air, sweeping her head around before she puts it to the ground. She wavers for a bit, moving back and forth before she settles on one direction.

I take Mo's reigns and follow her, though Mo makes sure I stay a good distance behind. Ahead of us, my wolf moves more confidently now, which I hope is a good sign. We follow her for about a mile before the rocks start to fade back to dirt, and as they do, the three sets of prints re-appear. I lean against Mo's neck, relief making me lightheaded.

I turn back to the others who trail even further behind us. "This way!"

We don't stop for lunch, and it's like all of us can sense we're getting close. My wolf leads the way, her nose still to the ground. Around mid-afternoon, she stops abruptly. Her hackles raise, and she looks off to the left, baring her teeth.

I have my bow off my back and an arrow nocked in an instant. A twig snaps, and then something in the shadows moves. Whoever it is takes off at a run just as the others catch up.

"What's going on?" Arlon asks.

"Stop them," I say to my wolf. "Don't kill them."

She lunges into the woods, and it's not a second later I hear a shout of alarm before my wolf yelps in pain. Arlon and Galiva are off their horses in an instant. I move to follow them as they hurry into the brush, but Arlon rounds on me.

"Stay put, Dominai."

I swear, but do as I'm told. Through the brush, I see a flash of light. A voice I don't recognize shouts, "What the hell!"

"It's alright," Arlon calls back to us. Cancassi takes Mo's reins, and I hurry forward with Garrett and Thaddius to see what's going on.

Galiva has a glowing focus between her fingers, and on the ground in front of her is a woman. A shimmer of red surrounds her, keeping her arms pressed flat to her sides. She struggles against the magic before she shouts in pain and falls still, glaring up at us from under her hood. Beside her, my wolf lays dead, a bloody gash in her neck before she vanishes into a swirl of light. I glare at the woman, and the memory of her face makes my heart lurch unpleasantly.

"Who are you?" Galiva demands.

"A hiker," the woman sneers.

"It's her," I say. "The woman who put the knife to Olbric's throat."

Arlon reaches through the flowing red energy and searches her, pulling out three daggers from the folds of her dark cloak while the woman turns her eyes to me, head tilted curiously.

"Ah," she says. "Reinforcements have finally arrived."

"Where is he?" Galiva demands and the red energy around the woman intensifies.

The woman grimaces and I realize this must be the spell Galiva had cast with Olbric. I wonder if she was ever able to test it. Well, no time like the present.

"In the caves," the woman says through gritted teeth. "About half a mile up the hill."

Galiva rolls the focus between her fingers. "How many of you are there?"

"I'm not one of them," she spits. "They hired me."

Thaddius scoffs. "A mercenary."

"Doesn't matter," Galiva snaps. "How many are there?"

"Five," she snarls. "Though three of them are away."

"Where?"

The mercenary glares her hatred at Galiva. "Do I look like their fucking keeper?" she snaps. "They're away."

Galiva gives a long-suffering sigh. "Do you expect them back any time soon?"

"Who knows?" the woman says. "They come and go as they please. I'm just here to keep an eye out for anyone approaching."

Arlon glares down at her. "Who are you?" he demands.

"Isa," she says simply. "If you want your thots back, now's your time. I've already been paid. I got no stakes in what happens next, save for my own life."

Arlon's eyes narrow, and I see the barely contained anger simmering behind his expression. "We'll take her back with us to face the king's justice for kidnapping," he says at last. It's a mighty kind sentence, especially when Arlon undoubtedly has a couple dozen ways to kill someone hanging around his neck. "Thaddius?"

Thaddius grabs one of his focuses, and it winks out with a flash of yellow light. Though I don't see the spell, it slams into Isa like a physical blow. Her face goes slack, eyes going unfocused. "You're going to stay here," Thaddius says even as Galiva takes some of our rope and binds her to the nearest tree. "And you will not leave until we come back for you."

Isa gives a listless nod. "I'll stay here," she says, her words slurred. "And I'll not leave until you come back for me."

Arlon nods in approval. "We'll leave the horses here under illusion with her," he says.

We're quick to loosen cinches and tie the reigns off before Cancassi sets the spell and they all blink out of sight, as if they were never there. Arlon looks around at us, grim determination written in every line on his face. "Let's go."