Scholar of Magic (Art of the Adept #3) - Michael G. Manning Page 0,142

than those vital workers, he saw no one else outside, which was unusual. Like most places, Cerria’s activity died when the sun was gone, but there was usually some traffic. The odd carriage, a few late-night workers, and the inevitable foot traffic back and forth to the public houses.

Tonight, there was none of that. The city seemed deserted.

Nervous, Will checked his prepared spells and adjusted them accordingly, one illumination spell, one wind-wall, and a chameleon spell. The light between streetlamps dwindled as the sky lost the glow of dusk, but that wasn’t a problem for him. He might have considered using the chameleon spell and sneaking the rest of the way back to Wurthaven, but his leg made that impractical. He had to move slowly and smoothly for that sort of thing, and there was nothing smooth about his hobbling gait presently.

Plus, he didn’t want to waste the time.

Fatigue sat heavy on his shoulders. “I guess being passed out drunk for four or five hours in a troll village isn’t a substitute for sleep,” he muttered sarcastically to himself. “I’ll have to be extra careful at the Alchemy building, or I’ll make a stupid mistake and ruin the whole thing.”

He turned a corner and found himself twenty feet away from a group of men, City Watch by the look of them. “Hold!” one of them shouted.

Damn it, he thought, but he stopped. There were six men in the patrol, an uncommonly large size. Normally the watch patrolled in twos. Then he noticed one of the men was a sorcerer.

The sorcerer stepped forward. “You’ll have to come with us.”

“Why?” demanded Will. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Defying the curfew,” said the officer.

“What curfew?”

“The decree was announced at midday and read out for everyone to hear,” said the sorcerer.

Will sighed. “I got back at sundown. How was I to know? Just let me be on my way and I’ll be off the street as soon as I get home.”

“You can talk to the magistrate about that—in the morning,” said the sorcerer, a malicious grin on his lips. Will knew his type, men who exulted in having the opportunity to exercise power over others.

Then again, maybe he was just biased, but either way, he couldn’t afford to spend the night in jail. He wished he had prepared a sleep spell, but he had been more worried about vampires than watchmen. He was tempted to try the ‘do you know who I am?’ trick, but as bedraggled as he was there was virtually no chance anyone would believe he was the king’s son-in-law.

He smiled. “I’ll be happy to cooperate—” but he wasn’t. Before the sentence was finished, he released the wind-wall spell, though he did so without putting much power into it. He wasn’t trying to murder anyone.

The air whipped up, and chaos ensued as the men were knocked off their feet. Before they could recover, Will caught three of them with a source-link. The two regular watchmen he had caught were paralyzed, and then he focused on the sorcerer. It was a brief struggle, lasting no more than a couple of seconds, and then the man was disconnected from his source and paralyzed.

The other watchmen had regained their feet, and two were already swinging at him with their truncheons. Will blocked each swing in turn with a point-defense shield, leaving the men with strange looks on their faces as they tried to figure out why their blows weren’t connecting.

Things were looking rather desperate, though. The sorcerer’s fire elemental had manifested and was now swelling up to full size. He still had three men to deal with, and if he was going to release the source-links on the three he had already stopped, he would have to either drain them or inject turyn to make them nauseous. He didn’t want to leave them helpless at night in a city filled with vampires, though, since he already had a good idea why the curfew had been created.

On the other hand, he had a bad leg and he wouldn’t be able to run away, nor could he keep blocking the watchmen’s attacks forever. Without having a sleep spell ready, he didn’t