Adventure of Sarah Tempest 1

Sarah Tempest reaches the farmyard beneath a smoke-stained sky. A farmhouse burns behind the split-rail fence, its orange glow throwing little warmth across the churned earth.

At the center stands a gaunt middle-aged man with wind-tangled gray hair, a patched brown robe, and a crooked ash wand clenched in both hands. Blue sparks crawl over his knuckles.

A ring of embers shudders around him, flaring whenever a gray wolf tests its edge. Beyond it, the pack spreads through the weeds, silent except for low growls.

Near the wizard's boots, a parchment writ lies pinned beneath a black-handled knife. The seal bears a crude likeness of his face and a promised bounty.

His barrier gutters. One ember dies, and three wolves advance together, their eyes fixed first on the wizard, then on Sarah.

Sarah raises her hand, and stormlight gathers around her fingers. A white-blue bolt tears across the farmyard toward the lead wolf.

The lightning strikes its shoulder in a blinding flash, then leaps from fur to fur, branching through the clustered pack with a thunderclap.

Each wolf is caught in turn. The chain races across the weeds, illuminating snapping jaws and startled eyes before the pack collapses in stunned silence.

The surviving embers of the circle steady as the wolves lie scattered beyond it, smoke curling faintly from the scorched earth.

Sarah lifts her hand toward the burning farmhouse. Clouds coil overhead, dark and swollen, as thunder rolls across the smoke-stained sky.

Rain breaks in a sudden silver sheet, hammering the roof and walls. Steam billows from the flames as water races through the doorway and over the blackened beams.

The fire gutters beneath the downpour, collapsing into hissing embers until only wet smoke rises from the farmhouse. The yard turns to mud around Sarah's boots.

The spell's strain snaps a sharp pain through Sarah's casting arm, and a thin line of blood slips from one nostril before the storm begins to ease.

The hedge wizard lowers his crooked ash wand. With the fire gone, the steady rain reveals the bounty writ beneath the black-handled knife, its ink running at the edges.

Sarah steps beneath the wavering ember circle, rainwater dripping from her light purple cloak. Her casting arm still aches, and blood stains the edge of her sleeve.

He nudges the soaked parchment free with his ash wand. The ruined seal peels away, revealing a second mark beneath it, stamped in dark red wax.

Thunder mutters beyond the fields. Orlan folds the softened writ and offers it across the circle, while his wary gaze remains fixed on Sarah's bloodied sleeve.

Orlan places the softened writ in Sarah's hand, then draws the ledger from beneath his patched robe. Its leather cover is blistered, but the pages within remain dry.

Rain dwindles to a fine mist. Beyond the ruined farmhouse, the muddy road bends east toward distant hills, while smoke fades from the soaked fields.

The ledger's dry pages stir beneath Sarah's grasp, and a loose folio slips free. A water-smeared map unfolds across the mud, marked with a hidden route into Veycross.

Orlan stares from the map to Sarah, his expression changing from wary calculation to open astonishment. Even the surviving wolves remain motionless beyond the ember ring.

At the map's edge, a faded symbol matches the dark red wax beneath the writ. Someone inside the courthouse has prepared this escape route, and expects Pell's fall.

Sarah leads Orlan from the farmyard before dawn, following the faded marks through wet orchards and between low stone walls. The hidden route bends toward Veycross.

The map guides them through a collapsed root cellar and into a narrow passage under the town. Sarah's keen senses catch every drip, scrape, and distant footfall.

At a rusted grate, Orlan forces the warped bars aside. The metal shrieks through the quiet, and lanternlight immediately shifts somewhere above them.

They climb into a shadowed service corridor beneath the old courthouse. Sarah's sleeve catches on a jagged stone, tearing the fabric and reopening the ache in her casting arm.