A Plague of Wizards

A PLAGUE OF WIZARDS

By Wesley Allison

Smashwords Edition

A Plague of Wizards

Copyright © 2016 by Wesley Allison

Revision 11-29-17

All Rights Reserved. This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If sold, shared, or given away it is a violation of the copyright of this work. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual people, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Cover design by Wesley Allison

Cover Image Copyright © Armin Burkhardt | Dreamstime.com

ISBN: 9781370495429

For Vicki, Becky, & John

Senta and the Steel Dragon

A Plague of Wizards

By Wesley Allison

Chapter One: Vesterdein

The first thing that Senta noticed was that she had a headache. A second after that came the realization that her jaw hurt and the understanding of just why it hurt. There was something stuffed in her mouth, forcing it open. She felt the foreign object with her tongue. It felt like a rubber ball. There was no forcing it out either. A strap around her head was holding it in place. Then her tongue found something else. There was a large sore on the inside of her cheek—hard, with a painful dimple on the top, like a bee sting. She slowly opened her eyes.

She was in a small dark room. The walls were metal, with long streaks of rust running from the ceiling down the sides. A metal door was directly in front of her. She was seated on a chair, also metal, her hands fastened with steel manacles to rings on the sides. The entire room suddenly pitched to one side. She was aboard a ship. She tried shifting her weight and felt a sharp pain in the small of her back. She must have been seated for a good long while. The chair didn’t move however, and glancing down to her side, she saw that it was bolted to the floor.

Back among the living, are we luv?

She turned her head both directions but couldn’t see the owner of the voice somewhere behind her.

Not to worry. One of them two will be down directly. I’d give you a little splash of water if I could, but theys said not to take your gag out under no circumwhences.

Senta suddenly realized how thirsty she was.

Yes, one of them two will be down soon. Theys never gone from you for more than haft a moment. You gots tem all jittery, that you do luv. And them’s two high magical mucketies. You must be all that, to get thems in such a state.

The door suddenly opened and a tall, thin man stepped inside the room, closing the door behind him. He wore a brown suit with a bowler hat and spectacles, and had long, pointed chin whiskers. Senta winced at the brightness coming off of him, though it wasn’t a light that anyone else would have seen. It was the magic that clung to him.

I told you to contact me as soon as she was awake, he snarled.

What’s to bother, guv. Yous down here all ta same, ain’t cha?

Hello, Miss Bly, said the man turning his attentions to his prisoner. My name is Wizard Durham. I’m sure you’ve heard of me.

Senta didn’t nod or shake her head. She simply glared at him.

I understand. You’re not only angry, but embarrassed as well. How did someone of your power come to this? Well, you needn’t feel that way. Your magical wards were unassailable, even better than mine. I’ll go ahead and admit it, and I’m a fourth level master. No one could have harmed you with either physical force or magic. But you see, there was one vulnerability. He leaned down and smiled into her face. Yes, you know now, don’t you? The idea came from our naturalists. Did you know that ants are at eternal war with termites? It’s true. But the ants can’t kill the termites, because they are protected by their armor. So what are the ants to do? They hold open the termite’s jaws and sting them inside their mouths. That’s what we did. You were shot with a tranquilizer dart, right inside your pretty mouth. And so, like the lowly termite, was the Drache Girl, the world’s most powerful sorceress, brought down.

That’s herself then? asked the voice from the back. That’s who she be? You shoulda told us what then. We deserve ‘azard pay in such cases, eh?

Oh, there’s no hazard here, said Wizard Durham. I’ve so many magical protections on me that a dozen wizards couldn’t cause me harm. I’m sure I’m even protected from Miss Bly’s most devastating art. What do you call it? Epic pestilence, I believe.

Oi, fine for yous and the other himself. What about little old Dick then? What happens to me? I ain’t gots no magical protections.

Oh, you have nothing to worry about. The wizard leaned back and rubbed his palms together as an oily smile took charge of his face. As long as she’s gagged she can’t speak, and as long as she can’t speak, she has no power. Isn’t that right, Miss Bly? If you had your mouth, you might give us ten or twenty arcane words and bring about the most furious devastation, or call forth God-only-knows-what to do your bidding. But you can’t. I know how badly you want to utter those four little syllables. Those four syllables give us all our power, but without them, no magic… no magic at all, no matter how gifted we think ourselves.

Is that so? thought Senta. Let’s test that hypothesis. That and your magical wards.

Durham leaned over at the waist and looked into her eyes.

Uuthanum, thought Senta, concentrating with all her might on his face—his obnoxious gloating face. Uuthanum, uuthanum, uuthanum, uuthanum. Uuthanum, uuthanum, uuthanum!

Wizard Durham stood up straight. For a split second, a look of surprise overtook him. And then his head exploded, sending blood and brains in every direction, coating the walls, the floor, the ceiling, and everything else in the room. Tiny little bits of brain hung in the air like pink snowflakes.

The sorceress closed her eyes, both in satisfaction, and because a bit of the wizard’s grey matter was dripping from her forehead down onto her cheek. A giggle, unable to make its way past her gag, escaped through her nose. Then something hit her on the side of the head, hard, and everything went black.

* * * * *

When consciousness returned, Senta found that a burlap sack covered her head. A small amount of weak light passed through, and she could hear well enough, but try as she might, she couldn’t remove it. And no one else removed it either. She was given no food and no water. With her mouth still gagged, she was unable to ask for either.

Days passed. She could hear voices somewhere around her, but she could identify none of them. She became weaker and weaker, her mental faculties diminishing until she seemed to exist only in some horrid nightmare state where she was deprived of nourishment and light, destined to wither away in semi-darkness. She was hardly aware enough to notice when she was finally unshackled and dragged from the room and off the ship. Blinding light stabbed at her brain, as her hood was removed. Only half conscious, she could barely make out the crowd of men surrounding her. But she could feel the cold wind whipping about.

Remove her gag. Kafira, she’s half dead.

Maybe we should keep her gagged. She killed Wizard Durham without even uttering the word.

So what you’re saying is, it doesn’t matter if she’s gagged or not. Right? It doesn’t matter here anyway. Where are we putting her?

Room 13J is prepared, Doctor.

"Good. She needs water and nourishment.

Senta felt herself being lifted and then carried. She closed her eyes and felt the darkness return.

* * * * *

Lift her legs up, please.

Senta felt her ankles being grabbed by rough hands and her legs being lifted up. She opened her eyes to find herself on a cot in a spartan white room. Two men had hold of her, while a woman stood close by. They were all dressed in white. The woman had a nurse’s cap on her short black hair.

What… what’s going on?

Nothing to worry about. The doctor’s ordered an enema because you are so dehydrated. Just hold still.

Like hell, she growled, kicking her legs. Uuthanum.

Hold her. You’ll want to remain still. You wouldn’t want this nozzle to break off in your bum.

Her legs held firmly, the sorceress felt the cold glass nozzle of the enema tube forced between the cheeks of her buttocks.

Ariana uuthanum sembor!

Nothing happened.

Erros uuthanum tijiia!

No magic appeared to save her. Tears filled her eyes as she felt warm liquid fill her bowels. The men unceremoniously dropped her legs.

Now you just hold that for a while, said the nurse. It’s not so much that you’ll feel the need to immediately expel.

Where am I? What is this place?

Doctor Sykes will tell you everything you need to know.

An hour later, after Senta had drunk three large glasses of water and expelled the enema into a bedpan, a clean-shaven man with thick glasses entered her room. He wore a white lab coat and black trousers.

Happy to see you awake, Miss Bly, he said, giving her a smile that was more of a wince. I’m Dr. Montgomery Q. Sykes.

Where am I?

Where do you think you are?

Schwarztogrube?

I can see why you would think so. Nurse Pyle told me that you tried to use your magic. Obviously you couldn’t. We have discovered that the distribution of magic throughout the world is very uneven. It’s particularly thick in Birmisia. No one is really sure why.

It’s because of the abundance of life there, said Senta, almost to herself.

Sykes scrunched up his nose in annoyance. No one really knows why, he repeated. In any case, this is Vesterdein, an island in the Bitter Sea. It, like Schwarztogrube, is completely free of magic. There will be no more ridiculous incidents like the one on the ship. But this is not Schwarztogrube. It’s not a prison at all. It’s a hospital. You’re here so that we can cure you, Miss Bly.

Cure me of what?

Why, the curse of magic, of course.

* * * * *

You’ve recovered enough that the doctor thinks you can begin your treatment, said Nurse Pyle.

I don’t want any treatment, hissed Senta sliding as far back on her cot as her bound wrists would allow.

Now don’t be difficult.

The nurse snapped her fingers and the pair of burly men in white scrubs stepped into the room. Each grabbed one of the sorceress’s arms and, unfastening her from the bed frame, dragged her up and toward the door. Planting her feet for a split second, Senta pulled her right arm from the grasp of the orderly. Pointing her finger at his face, she snarled Uuthanum! Nothing happened. Nurse Pyle stepped in front of her as the orderly regained his grip, and slapped her across the face.

We’ll have none of that!

Still struggling, she was dragged down the length of a long white corridor and into a room just as white and sterile as the one with her bed, but not nearly so empty. In addition to another cot, this one higher than the one to which she had been confined, this room held several large machines along the far wall.

The two orderlies lifted her up off the ground by her shoulders and slammed her down on the new cot, and quickly strapped her down with leather cuffs around her wrists and a leather belt across her middle. Dr. Sykes and Nurse Pyle entered the room and took positions on either side of Senta.

Now, Miss Bly, if you will quit your histrionics and cooperate, everything can be nice and easy.

It’s not going to be nice or easy, you bloody twat! screamed the sorceress.