THE SORCERER HUNT

Chapter 1

"How can you be so calm when Edmund is gone and we do not know where he is?" Roger accused Carolyn. "Don't you care at all?"

"I know where he is. He is in a quest. I talked to the one who gave it to him and she gave me assurances that he is all right."

'Who did you talk to? And when?"

"It was in my dreams."

'Dreams? And you call me crazy!"

"There was a letter from Vicky, just as she promised."

"What has a letter from Vicky has to do with it?"

"It was a prophecy come true."

"I think that you never cared for him. Sure I am crazy, I am not? But I know that you got him to get back at Barnabas. Now that you are friends again, and you have Adam, what do you care?"

'You do not understand, Uncle. You do not know what is happening!"

'And Adam too is glad that Edmund is gone. No one cares about him. No one but me!"

Carolyn sighed, not willing to admit that Roger might have a point. Not much of one, but some... She had gotten Edmund as part of her battles with Barnabas and now... now, did she really think of Edmund as her son?

There were so many flaws in her character, and she was slowly learning of them. What Vicky told in her letter, while guarded, spoke of the childish, pettily cruel, spoiled young woman she had been.. Vicky was working hard on forgiving her... and she had to make herself deserve it...

"Uncle, you will see when he comes back Because Edmund will come back and explain."

Did she know where she was going? Frances now doubted it. She was following the same winding corridor with no end in sight. It was almost hopeless.

But she would not give up. It had seemed equally hopeless when she had gone look for Barnabas, not even knowing who she was seeking. Then too fear had hounded her.

She had to trust Amy's words. She had to trust the cards. If she was ever going to retune home, to Howard...

Did she want to return to Howard? Was he totally innocent of Roxanne's attempt on her? Even under the influence of magic, still there had been wishes in both of them, wishes brought forward..

She had refused to see it. She had to pretend that he marriage to Howard was OK... She had refused to hear George's warning. She had refused to listen to Derek's concerns..

Poor Derek. Such a nice man, stuck with that murderous Roxanne... He deserved better.

She deserved better than Howard...

"You are back." Amy said to Edmund.

"Yes. We did what you asked us to do. Are we sure that we can do nothing for Dr. Blair? I saw him and...

"I know. It is hurtful to see him as he is. You want to help him and so do I. We will help him. But not yet. If we try now, we will fail, and Blair will know what we are planning. We need to drain Blair's power before he move."

"But we will release Dr. Blair, will we?"

"Yes. We will."

Edmund looked at her with mistrusts.

"I do not promise what I do not intend to deliver." Amy said. "I am the Sybil. I predict the future, and should it not come true, then I should not be the Sybil, and all my power will leave me. I predict that either Dr. Blair will be set free or that I will lose everything, including my life. I do not intend to lose."

"I do not doubt you. It is just..."

"I know. You like him a lot. You care for him. And to see him reduced to that stage is more than you can bear. Yet you must bear it a little longer. He must bear it a little longer. All you can do is wait, and gather Nicholas' power into yourself."

"I will have his power, won't I?"

"Yes. All of it."

"I will be able to do what I want?"

Amy was alarmed at this. The seduction of power was taking hold of Edmund,..

"Be careful Edmund. You can do what you want, but you must know what is wise. Too many wizards were destroyed for not knowing it."

Edmund made a face. He did not like to think about that. Always some grown up telling you can you can or cannot do... what point was having power if they did not stop lecturing you?

"It is for your protection, Edmund. Power is like fire. You control it, and it serves you well. You get careless with it, and it consumes you. It can kill you. You must learn to control, and to control yourself."

"I guess so." Edmund said, but did not sound convinced.

"Ah, Edmund. You still think like a child, who thinks that when he is told no it is because of our caprice. But no, Edmund. You should learn to control yourself around power for the same reason that you should look both ways before crossing the street."

"I guess so." Edmund was still surly.

Amy sighed.

"Just remember. if you do not choose well, Dr. Blair will be doomed. You do not want that, do you?"

Barnabas still heard Petofi's laughter as he advanced... He imagined that it would be his constant companion...

Petofi must be afraid of him, and was seeking to weaken his resolve. It was important to him even as a severed head that he lose...

Because it touched his family's power? Because Vassily was one of the returning warlocks?

In any case, he had to go on..

Strange that he felt no hunger as he walked the corridors. Nor need to rest...

The rules here were probably different than the world outside...

"Why?" Angelique insisted to Megan "Why must I give her up? Why must I live by what you say?"

"Because you got into more trouble that you can handle, and I am doing my best to keep you and Julia in one piece."

"I do not want to."

Megan sighed. "Yes. You do not want to. And unfortunately your trouble was that for too long you did not have to accept limits. What for, since you had your powers? So you went ahead, cast spells, and when you crashed with reality, you used more spells, and crashed again, and used more spells, and that's how you ended up as Nicholas' slave."

"You do not understand."

"I understand. I told you what the ronin were, and how they were. That was a limit that you had to respect. Barnabas never got the message, because... well, because he is Barnabas. But you should have recognized it. And told Amy that you would not go along with it. That Barnabas should not go along with it. If she was so bent on having Hallie as a vampire, she should have done what you did, summon a bat. Not get a ronin in trouble with the others. And you two would have left immediately. Well, now Barnabas is under Amy's protection, and might never come back. And Verhoff is looking for an excuse to kill Julia."

"Why?"

"Why, you ask? Because she destroyed the very cozy situation he had. Verhoff is a pedophile. Was before he became a vampire. He kept it under control by taking as lovers vampire children who would never grow up, and who were mentally adults, even if their bodies were childish. But Julia took that away. Now the children have the way of growing into adult bodies, and Verhoff would not have so many available bed partners... He is scared that one day he may slip and attack a child, and turn him or her into a vampire... and then be subject to the penalties for it... He hates Julia for it, and if he can have his revenge on her, he will."

"So...:"

"So, that's a nice hornet's nest that you kicked... Look if you want to do something useful, try to come up with some cure for Verhoff, make her able to enjoy sex with grown women, and maybe he'll leave Julia alone. And may even cut Barnabas some slack. Give him a prison sentence, instead of death."

"And this has to do with Georgina?"

"Yes. Because I do not want her to be raised in the same house as a vampire. And I told you why."