Ectomancer's Torment: Book VII of 'The Magician's Brother' Series by HDA Roberts

Author:HDA Roberts [Roberts, HDA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-23T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

I staggered back into Clarion Hall. Wow, had I had a day... and a night, actually.

It was the middle of the afternoon, but not too late; there was enough time for a brief nap before dinner and I needed one if I was going to be able to operate cutlery without making a mess. I started lurching in the general direction of my bed, but Demise turned me towards the drawing room instead, where Hopkins was standing in the doorway.

I hadn’t even noticed she was there.

She was smirking. Not smiling, smirking.

She beckoned and vanished through the door.

I smelled a rat and turned to Demise. She was doing her best to appear innocent. I harrumphed and started walking.

I found Palmyra, Kron, Cassandra and Tethys waiting for me. They were very reserved, very quiet. Cassandra wouldn’t look at me, resolutely staring at the ceiling; Tethys was bright red from crown to chin, trembling like a steam engine that had built up too much pressure.

“What?” I finally asked.

“Nothing,” they said. In unison. It was creepy.

I looked at them one after another, but none of them would say a word. Tethys started biting her lip. Her mask began to crack, revealing the evil smile that was desperately trying to escape.

“Oh, I’m getting the hell out of here...” I said, backing towards the door.

“Yes, it’s just like you to weasel out of a situation,” Hopkins replied.

And that was all she wrote. Tethys exploded into a helpless squealing-gurgling laugh that quickly set off the rest.

“Alright, get it all out of your systems,” I said with a sigh, dropping onto an empty sofa.

“That’s more w-easily said than done,” Palmyra said, which caused Hopkins to convulse and slide to the floor, laughing so hard that she could hardly breathe.

“Really?” I asked, giving the little Life Mage a long-suffering look.

“Sorry, it was the lesser of two weasels,” she replied.

I groaned.

Believe it or not, those were the good jokes. They got steadily worse from there.

And it took them a while to shut up, too; long enough that I considered Hexing a couple of them. Alas, the Hexee would almost certainly have beaten the snot out of me. There were no weaklings in that room.

Kron came out of it first.

Unfortunately.

“Would you like to know what my Spirit Guardian is, Weasel-boy?” she asked, a very smug look on her face.

“Please don’t start calling me that,” I begged.

“Tyrannosaurus Rex,” she continued. “But rodents are interesting too, I’m sure...”

“A gigantic, bad-tempered, meat-eater, who’d have guessed?” I muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing!”

“Damn right. Now, shall we discuss what other Magicians got for their Guardians?”

“I’d really rather not.”

“Top choices include,” she said, taking a deep breath, “tigers, lions, panthers, brown bears, grizzly bears, sabre-tooth tigers, various kinds of carnivorous dinosaur, eagles, Phoenixes-“

“Alright, I get it! I throw in the towel!” I complained.

“-Dragons, Salamanders, wolves, Chimeras-”

“And I wouldn’t trade my weasel for any of them,” I interrupted firmly.

And I absolutely meant that. He may not have been the most intimidating-looking Entity, but he was perfect for me. It was as simple as that.

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