Scholar of Magic (Art of the Adept #3) - Michael G. Manning Page 0,145

her, I don’t know what people would do.”

That was news to him. “I don’t understand.”

“Have you been living under a rock, sir? Lady Nerrow championed the Mother’s Widows and Orphans charity after the Prophet attacked, and she was only a girl then. She’s just barely reached her majority but she’s already famous. She’s out at every event in the city, shaming the rich into paying up to provide for the poor and disadvantaged. If it weren’t for her, a lot of people would have starved, and I don’t just mean those in the city. Hell, she was in Branscombe not long after the Darrowans attacked, bringing supplies and aid for the citizens of Barrowden and Branscombe.”

Will was flabbergasted, but there was no mistaking the tone of reverence in Dan Ramfeld’s voice. The man truly believed that Laina Nerrow was some sort of merciful lady sent to rescue the people from misery and squalor. Will remembered Laina’s visit to Branscombe, and as far as he knew her part of the trip had merely been as company for her father. How could he have been so completely unaware?

I was a little focused on not dying in the war, thought Will. Still, he hadn’t seen anything but a spoiled nobleman’s brat. Was it really possible that his half-sister was more than that? It was hard for him to credit, but it did explain why Laina had been a target for the vampires. She was sixteen when the Prophet’s army invaded Barrowden. How could she possibly have become a public figure and a driving force behind a widow’s charity?

Then again, maybe she had been Selene’s best friend for more reasons than the fact that they grew up together. Maybe his wife had known a different Laina than the spoiled asshole that Will had always interacted with. As far as he knew, Selene had always been big on helping people—was that trait what had connected the two women?

“Well fuck me sideways,” muttered Will. “It turns out I’m the judgmental asshole.”

“Beg your pardon, sir?” asked the lieutenant.

It was pure chance that Will happened to look over at the man at just that moment. Otherwise things might have gone very differently. They were walking along a dark portion of road, with barely enough light to see where to put their feet. Naturally, that wasn’t a problem for Will, but the lighting made it impossible for the men to see what was racing toward them from a side alley.

The vampire was mere feet from where the sorcerer stood to Will’s right, and it was moving at full speed, rushing toward the man like an evil wind. Will didn’t even have time to blink. His point-defense shield stopped the fiend in its tracks with the crack of bones breaking. His shield vanished, and a force-lance removed the creature’s head.

The thing wasn’t alone, however. Two of the watch patrollers went down at the same time, as they were hit from different sides. The vampires weren’t trying to feed, though; they knocked the men from their feet and turned to do the same to the others, clearly intending to disable their entire group before killing them.

Ethelgren’s Illumination put an end to that plan as searing white spheres spiraled out from Will’s upraised hand. Screams and hisses echoed through the dark as the monsters closest to them burned and died. Will’s eyes were closed, so he couldn’t be sure, but it sounded as though some of those farther away escaped complete annihilation, for their howls and footsteps moved away even as the spell moved farther out. As the light dimmed, he opened his eyes and went to help the men who had been knocked down.

“Were either of you hurt?” he asked, trying to see without bending down. His leg would make crouching and standing again nearly impossible.

One of the two patrollers had suffered nothing more than a bruise, but the other had a shallow cut along his arm. Before Will could offer, the man pulled out a glass vial and swallowed the contents. The shape of the vial was familiar to him. Did the king buy blood-cleanse potions from Wurthaven? If so, Will had probably been the one who made them.

Will began replacing the illumination spell immediately, having learned his