Read Online Night of Madness by Lawrence Watt-Evans - Free Book Online Page B

mismatched dozen of the “war-locked” walking behind him, and three more flying overhead. The rest of the crowd in Witch Alley—the man in homespun who had been speaking to Mother Perréa, the old man in rags who had followed Rudhira from Camptown, and most of the others—had either denied being “war-locked” or had quietly slipped away rather than obey Hanner’s orders.
    But this group had accepted his authority. They were, he had told them, on their way to the Palace to volunteer their services to the overlord, and along the way they would confront any other war-locked magicians they found and stop them from doing any more damage.
    â€œDo you see anyone?” he called up to the airborne trio.
    â€œNo, my lord,” Rudhira called down in reply. Hanner quickly turned his gaze to avoid looking up her skirt as it flapped in the breeze.
    â€œHow can she fly like that?” the guardsman to Hanner’s left muttered. “I can barely lift myself a foot off the ground, and there she is, swooping along as if it were nothing!”
    â€œAnd I can’t get off the ground at all,” Hanner replied. “Obviously, this thing affected people differently.”
    â€œWell, it didn’t affect you at all, my lord,” the soldier said. “I can move things, as she can—but I can’t fly. ”
    â€œSo she got more of this … this warlockry than you did,” Hanner said.
    â€œBut why?”
    â€œMy guess would be random chance.”
    â€œMy lord!” One of the flyers, an older man in a fancy linen tunic, was calling.
    Hanner looked up and realized he ought to know the man’s name, but didn’t. “What is it?”
    â€œThere’s someone flying,” the man called down. “Off to the right, on Circus Street.”
    â€œI’ll take a look,” Rudhira said.
    â€œGo ahead,” Hanner said as the woman veered sideways and swooped up Circus Street. He broke into a run, into the intersection and around the corner.
    The other warlocks hesitated, looking at one another, unsure what to do. “Stay together,” Hanner called back over his shoulder as he peered into the darkness. There were no shops along this stretch of Circus Street, no lanterns, and all the windows in the half-timbered little houses were dark; only the torches at the corner gave any light.
    He saw Rudhira’s target now—a boy, scarcely old enough for breeches, hovering in midair above the center of the street.
    â€œStay back!” the boy called. He held up an arm warningly, but none too steadily.
    Rudhira stopped suddenly and hung motionless in midair where she was. Hanner did not think she had done so deliberately; the boy had stopped her somehow.
    â€œOh, you think so?” she said, and the boy abruptly dropped to the street, landing on his back on the hard-packed dirt with the wind knocked out of him. Rudhira swept down and landed beside him. She didn’t touch him, but Hanner could see the boy struggling unsuccessfully to sit up.
    â€œDon’t you try to push me around, boy,” Rudhira said.
    â€œDon’t hurt him!” Hanner called as he ran up panting. “We don’t know whether he’s done anything…”
    â€œI haven’t,” the boy gasped.
    â€œHe tried to knock me down,” Rudhira said. “I felt it.”
    â€œI was just pushing you away,” the boy said. “You frightened me!”
    â€œWhy?” Rudhira asked angrily. “Why should you be scared of me?”
    â€œYou were flying!”
    â€œSo were you!”
    â€œBut I … you’re bigger than me.”
    This was just barely true, given Rudhira’s rather small stature, but she was definitely an adult, while the boy definitely was not.
    â€œAnd my magic is stronger,” Rudhira said, finally letting the boy sit up. “Don’t you forget it, either.”
    As Hanner went down on one knee