Choose Your Own Misadventure - 9

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Lorcan stumbled out of the still into the cold night air. He had never been drunk before and he was having a good deal of trouble walking.

“This will end poorly, mark my words. Commoners simply cannot handle their liquor,” Lord Cumberbatch muttered.

“If I’m so common how come I just had the best idea EVER?” Lorcan asked as he tripped over nothing and landed face first in the mud.

Cumberbatch scoffed. “I sincerely doubt that.”

“I’m going to bring Evie and Julian back from the dead! It’s a perfect plan!” Lorcan pushed himself up into a sitting position in the mud puddle.

“You have no idea how to even begin doing that. You are barely a toddler in terms of your magical knowledge.” Lord Cumberbatch sounded mildly disturbed by Lorcan’s suggestion.

“Nuh-uh! Vera said I could do it!”

“The fact remains that you do not know who to execute your moronic plan.”

“But you do!” Lorcan chortled triumphantly. “And we’re connected. I’ve got it all figured out! I can know what you know.”

Lord Cumberbatch was speechless.

“I knew it! I am the smartest man alive!” Lorcan felt that it was unfair that he realized at that particular moment that he was not sitting in mud, but chicken shit.

“You are an idiotic peasant fool and you have no idea what the consequences of what you’re proposing are!”

“Too bad, cranky-pants! I’m raising up some dead folks!” Lorcan lurched too his feet and staggered into the forest. He promptly hit his head on a low hanging branch and that was the last thing he remembered.

“Oh God, my head.” Lorcan groaned. He was lying on the ground, staring up at a tree, and soaking wet. It was raining and something nearby smelled very badly.

“Look who decided to finally wake up and reap his comeuppance.” Lord Cumberbatch sounded particularly uppity this morning.

“What are you talking about? And what is that horrible smell?” Lorcan looked around for what could be producing such a potent odor even though it was pouring down rain.

“I think I’m going to let you play a rousing game of Hungover Detective on your own. I want to be able to gloat later when you realize the enormity of your stupidity.”

“Huh? Cumberbatch, what the hell is Hungover Detective? Cumberbatch?” Lorcan heard nothing but the intense pounding inside his skull that had plagued him since he had woken up. “Fine, keep quiet.”

Lorcan stood up and surveyed his surroundings. He was under a fir tree and though he wasn’t completely sure, he thought he was in between the still and Lake Wanderer. Looking down at his drenched clothing, Lorcan discovered that the awful smell was his clothes. A closer sniff confirmed Lorcan’s suspicion that chicken feces was smeared all over his body. Lorcan’s stomach lurched and he threw up all over his own shoes.

“I am never going to drink again,” Lorcan vowed. He stripped down naked and headed to where there should be a creek, assuming he was where he thought he was. For a moment he thought a couple chipmunks were following him, but he assured himself that it was just his imagination.

The creek was right where Lorcan had hoped. He waded into the freezing water, rinsing his shirt, coat, pants, underwear, socks and boots. When he was done with his clothes he tossed them on a nearby rock. It was still raining so they wouldn’t dry off anytime soon, but at least they didn’t smell so vile.

Lorcan was scrubbing shit out of his hair when something light but pokey hit him on the back of his neck. He stood up and looked around. There was no one on either side of the creek.

Another pinecone hit him, this time right above the eyebrow. “Hey!” he shouted at…whoever.

“I’m loving the scars.” Lorcan looked up to see Vera lounging on a branch twenty or more feet up a nearby tree.

Lorcan glanced down at his bare torso. He had twenty-seven scars on his chest and stomach from his failed attempts to navigate Lord Cumberbatch’s crucible. He also had the symbols from his talisman burned into the palm of his right hand.

“You’ve been up there the whole time, haven’t you?” Lorcan asked.

“Long enough to see what a cold day it is.” Vera snickered.

Lorcan blushed. He was standing in icy water up to his waist. “What are you doing here?”

“Checking in on you. I’m surprised Anna hasn’t found you yet. She went to your family’s house this morning and has been searching the woods for you ever since. She is not pleased that you have eluded her thus far.” Vera smiled at Luciana’s misfortune.

“Aren’t you worried she’ll find you and try to kill you?” Lorcan wanted to leave the frigid creek, but was not keen on letting Vera see his privates again.

Vera laughed. “Anna will be trying to kill me for the rest of her life. Which is unfair, really. After all, you were the one who killed her sister.”

“I did not!” Lorcan shouted back.

Vera shrugged. “Keep practicing your necromancy, the chipmunks turned out a bit off.”

“What chipmunks?” Lorcan scratched his head. Why did that seem familiar?

Vera looked highly amused as she pointed to the rock where Lorcan had left his clothes. The two chipmunks that Lorcan had thought were following him earlier were standing on the rock staring at him. Lorcan had to fight the urge to vomit when he realized that one of their skulls was caved in and the other looked to have been chewed on for a while and then spit out.

“What the hell are those things?” Lorcan gulped again. He did not want to throw up for a second time this morning.

“I believe now is the appropriate moment for me to gloat,” Lord Cumberbatch chortled jubilantly.

Vera swung down gracefully to a lower branch before hopping down to the ground. “Those are your first creations. I’m proud of you for turning to necromancy so early in your career as a sorcerer.”

“I made them?” Lorcan vaguely remembered wanting to resurrect Evie and Julian last night, but he had no memory of reanimating rodents.

“Oh yes. You must have figured out how to access Lord Cumberbatch’s memories. He did more than a bit of dabbling in the dark arts as a young man.” Vera pulled off her boots and waded into the creek.

“What are you doing? Don’t come any closer!” Lorcan tried to back away, but he slipped on the smooth rocks of the creekbed and tumbled under the water.

Vera pulled him to his feet with surprising strength. She had her arms around him in a tight embrace. Their bodies were pressed together and Vera’s hawkish nose was an inch from Lorcan’s. Lorcan found himself staring into her eyes, one blue and one brown. “I—I don’t understand,” he stammered.

She smiled at him. “You will. In time.” For the second time in as many days, Vera kissed Lorcan and – though he hadn’t meant to – this time he found himself kissing her back.

Lorcan was out of breath when Vera broke the kiss. “What…?” Lorcan silently berated himself for not having anything even remotely intelligent to say.

Vera ran her hand along Lorcan’s cheek. “Oh, sweetie, don’t try to talk when you’re flustered. You don’t know what to say and that that’s fine. Now shut your mouth before you start catching flies.”

Embarrassed that she was completely right, Lorcan closed his mouth.

“Did you notice my necklace?” Vera lifted the red and blue cone of crystal up for Lorcan to see. Upon closer inspection, Lorcan realized that it was not a red tipped blue crystal, but a piece of ice with blood staining the tip.

“Is that what I think it is?” Lorcan gawked.

Vera nodded. “The icicle you pierced my heart with. I broke off the end and put it on a chain. It’s preserved so it won’t ever melt.”

Lorcan found himself once again speechless.

“You have such a way with words, my dear.” Vera ran her hand across Lorcan’s scarred chest. “Tootles, sweetheart!”

Vera bounded fluidly out of the creek, snatched her boots, and disappeared into the forest with one last wink over her shoulder for Lorcan.

“God-dammit, Lorcan!” Luciana shouted angrily. “Why the hell are you naked?”

Lorcan turned to see Luciana striding out of the trees with a machete in hand. “I…um…well…”

“Never mind!” Luciana growled and turned her back. “Just get dressed. I need you in town.”

Lorcan climbed out of the creek and tried to shoo the undead chipmunks away from his clothes, but they just stared at him creepily. Lorcan pulled his soaking wet clothes on and followed Luciana back the way she had come.

The rain was coming down harder as they tromped along the muddy trails. Lorcan’s chipmunks were still following him, but Luciana was too angry to notice.

“I’m so sorry about Evie,” Lorcan said after a long silence.

“Don’t talk to me about my sister,” Luciana replied coldly. Lorcan could tell she was still furious, but she was back to speaking in her usual icy tone.

Lorcan nodded before realizing that he was behind Luciana and she couldn’t see him. “Understood. What’s happening in town?”

“My father’s chief rival has found the other one,” Luciana told him without turning around.

“Other one?” Lorcan asked.

“Prophecy says there will be two men found in the Reach living with three witches. One will be our salvation, the other a warlock who gave away his memories in the Dark Bargain to pose as a sorcerer.”

“But if I’m not a warlock then doesn’t that mean that this fellow is evil?” Without realizing it, Lorcan touched the medallion hanging from his neck.

“We don’t know that you aren’t a warlock. We don’t think you are because you’re such an idiot, but that could be part of the personality the Last Sorcerer gave you to fool us.”

Lorcan gulped nervously. He glanced over his shoulder at the zombie chipmunks hopping along behind him. They walked in silence the rest of the way down the mountain to Ostfield. There was no sign that anyone here in town knew what had happened after the badger festival. Everyone was going about their usual business.

Luciana led them to the Elder’s Hall at the center of town. “We aren’t going to the inn?” Lorcan asked.

Luciana shook her head. “Senator Torgough sees that as my father’s territory since he has been there longer. He demanded they meet at a neutral location.” She pushed open the wooden doors and entered the large square meeting chamber that the town elders met in.

Everyone inside was waiting tensely and staring daggers at their counterparts on the other side of the room. “How much does your father hate this Senator Torgough?” Lorcan whispered.

“Their rivalry goes back to when they were small children,” Luciana replied softly. She made her way to stand beside her father. Lorcan followed.

Someone on the Torgough side of the room screamed and a ball of fire shot across the hall. Lorcan spun around just in time to see his chipmunks get incinerated by the miniscule blast. He hadn’t realized that they’d followed him inside. The chamber erupted in angry shouts and drawn swords.

“They were demons! Soulless abominations! I had to scourge them from the land! I had to!” A young man about Lorcan’s age flailed and screamed as Senator Torgough’s tried to restrain him.

“Control your potential sorcerer!” Senator Seafury bellowed at Torgough.

“Yours must have provoked him! I’m onto you, Seafury!” Torgough shot back.

After the other sorcerer had been calmed and the shouting died down, the senators addressed one another in a more civil manner. Lorcan finally got a good look at his counterpart on the Torgough side of the room. He was tall and lanky, like Lorcan, but he had his head shaved and he wore the blood red robe of a Marlon Fanatic. His bare scalp had a variety of tattoos on it. The Marlon Fanatics lived in a fairly large community to the north and outsiders rarely dealt with them unless they were forced to. Marlon Fanatics did not have a good reputation when it came to dealing with others.

“It is time for the Trials to begin,” Senator Seafury said somberly. “One of these boys will help us ensure that the Last Sorcerer’s plot to free his master fails and the other will unleash Death to walk the land once more.”

“Word has been sent to the Divinatrix,” Senator Torgough replied. “Emissaries of the Emperor will accompany her.”

Lorcan saw Luciana stiffen slightly at the mention of the Emperor’s emissaries, but he kept his mouth shut.

“This is Lorcan Moon, I officially present him as the New Sorcerer.” Luciana’s father gestured for Lorcan to step forward, he did so.

“This is Wexton Craine, I officially present him as the New Sorcerer.” Torgough waved Wexton forward.

Lorcan and Wexton stared at one another. Without warning, Wexton screeched, “Devil! Scourge it! Scourge this demonic creature!” He began hurling fire in Lorcan’s direction.

Acting purely on instinct, Lorcan froze the air around the fireball coming directly at him. It fizzled harmlessly. He locked eyes with Wexton. Wexton snarled back at him and created a fireball in each hand. Lorcan considered for a moment, should he try to subdue the obviously deranged Wexton or not risk pulling any punches and potentially kill him?

What does Lorcan do?

1)      Attempt to restrain Wexton without killinghim.

2)      Attack all out, there’s no telling what this lunatic is capable of!