Scholar of Magic (Art of the Adept #3) - Michael G. Manning Page 0,146

lesson at the warehouse the night before. The patrollers and the sorcerer gathered around him. “You were damn quick with that spell,” said the lieutenant gratefully. “He might have ripped my head off before I even saw him coming.”

“I just stopped him for a second,” said Will modestly. “It was your force-lance that took his head off.”

“Force-lance? I haven’t heard of that spell before,” said the officer.

Will stared at him for a moment, reviewing the fight in his mind. Did I cast the force-lance? He hadn’t had one ready. If he had done it, it meant he had finally reflex cast the spell for the first time. Looking down the alley, he picked a target and tried to will a force-lance into being. Nothing happened. He held out his hand and constructed the spell in the normal way. He’d been practicing the spell regularly for over a year, so it came together in just under a second. It felt faster than it had been a few days before, but it wasn’t instant.

He couldn’t be sure. It had been just as confusing when he had started reflex casting the point-defense shield. First it had been unconscious and then later it started responding to more deliberate attempts as well. Either way, it was a good sign.

“Sir?”

He shook his head. “It’s a combat spell. I’m sure they’ll teach it to you when you start your battle training.”

“I wish I knew it right now,” said the sorcerer enviously. “Or that light spell you used, that would be even better.”

You should learn the point-defense spell first, thought Will, hearing his grandfather’s voice in the back of his mind. The memory made him smile. The ring had been right. The point-defense shield had saved his life a dozen times over by then. Even so, he didn’t feel right putting the man off. Not when any bit of knowledge might be the bit that saved his life.

When they reached the gates of Wurthaven, Will asked the lieutenant to wait for him. Then he went to the guardhouse. The guard recognized him and greeted him with a quick nod, which Will returned. Then he summoned a journal and a charcoal stylus he used for sketching. The spell was simple, and ink would take too long. He quickly wrote out the diagram for the force-lance, then ripped the page out of the journal. Dismissing the book, he hobbled back over to the patrollers. “Here,” he said, holding out the page. “The spell I used. I’d teach you the light spell too, but it’s too complicated for the time we have.”

“Thank you, sir!” said the officer, sincere gratitude in his eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? Even with that bad leg of yours, I think we might feel safer if you did.”

Will smiled. “I wish I could, but I have too many other things to attend to.” He left them there, heading directly for the Alchemy building. The campus had always felt like safe ground to him—usually it was the city outside the walls that threatened him—but he couldn’t relax as he worked his way down dark lanes and across well-trimmed lawns.

He knew quite well that the walls were no obstacle to vampires, and the campus was nearly deserted at night. Will swiveled his head constantly, trying to watch every direction as he painfully made his way to his destination.

Chapter 33

Unlike the buildings that only held lectures, the Alchemy building, much like the Healing and Psyche building, always had a few people manning the front entrance. There were quite a few staff as well as some students who used the facilities late into the night, especially since the hours didn’t conflict with their daytime classes.

That wasn’t to say that the building was always busy at night. On the weekends it was nearly deserted, and on most nights the place was almost empty after midnight. It was still just the beginning of the night, and it wasn’t a weekend, so there were several people at the front desk, and Will saw a number of lights from the windows on various floors.

His crutches drew a few looks as he signed in and made his way to the stairs, but he was a