Madame Sutton’s jaw grew tight with determination. “We have to kill the wizards, obviously.” Really, for someone who looked like she could blend in at a nunnery, the woman had a vicious streak. She stood and began her pacing again.
I pressed my lips together, trying for patience. “Do you realize how difficult it is to kill a wizard?”
“For a normal person,” Master Grey said, “I’m positive it’s quite hard, but wizards know how to accomplish such things, don’t they?”
“They might, but I don’t.” It was a lie. I knew a few ways to dispatch a wizard, but they were all dangerous. And besides, I’d already told Madame Sutton and Master Grey that I wasn’t an assassin, and in response, they kept adding bodies to their requested death count.
Alaric studied me. “Are you sure you don’t know of a way?”
We were too well acquainted. He could tell when I was lying.
I thought of the list Ronan had written once on the topic, and it appeared in my mind as though floating before my eyes. I ticked off the ways on my fingers. “You can trick a wizard into taking poison made by his own hand—which is why wizards are careful to destroy any unused poison they make.
“You can overcome their magic with a stronger force of your own. This is the common way to kill a rival, but most wizards don’t attempt it without securing help from other wizards, as an opponent’s strength might surprise him. I’ve no allies, and fighting a wizard outright would draw all sorts of unwanted attention to the event—you know, bolts of lightning, tidal waves, sea life flinging by, that type of thing. People would discover my identity, and the wizards would be so outraged by my existence that a pack of them would hunt me down.”
Master Grey held up a hand to stop my list. “Is there a safe option?”
Alaric rubbed his chin in mock thought. “I rather like the idea of flying octopi. If I’m discovered as a renegade, I hope a few air-squid are involved.”
I ignored Alaric and his ambitions of a martyrdom littered with sea life. “The safe option is to wait for old age to make awizard careless with his protections, but that won’t work when time is of the essence.”
I held up another finger, continuing with my list. “Unknown pestilence or deep wounds can prove deadly, but I can’t produce a pestilence or in all likelihood manage to overcome a wizard’s defenses to strike a blow. Or…” I’d forgotten about the last option until I read the list floating in front of me. “Or one can remove a wizard’s mark, rendering him magicless.” There would be no need to kill them if I accomplished that task. The wizard council would no longer have the power to protect the king.
Madame Sutton swished to stop. “How is that done?”
Most people didn’t know such a thing was even possible, let alone know the answer to that question. Mage Wolfson, who produced as many enemies from his apprentices as allies, certainly didn’t teach it. Ronan had said the procedure, on the rare occasion the king ordered it, was performed by a group of wizards acting in concert.
But I knew of another way. I knew it because Ronan had diligently uncovered bits of information about the process and pieced them together while he searched for a way to give me a wizard’s mark. Ronan had not only given me magic, he’d unwittingly given me the knowledge of how to take it from others.
The process, like most complicated spells, involved multiple incantations tweaked and strung in a sequence. Ronan was fond of saying that new spells didn’t need to be invented to produce new magic, just as new letters weren’t needed to form new words. And he was as good at finding ways to form magic to his will as a poet creating a sonnet.
But knowing the incantation and performing it on five of the most powerful wizards in the land was another matter.
“How is it done?” Madame Sutton repeated.
“As you can imagine,” I said, “people with magic don’t share those details.”
She cocked her head, birdlike. “Meaning, you don’t know how or you won’t tell us?”
My gaze flicked to Alaric. That was a mistake. He could tell I was checking to see how closely he was watching me, checking to see if I could get away with a lie.
He smiled. “She knows.” For someone who was supposed to be my friend, he had no compunction betraying the meaning of my gaze flicks. In the future, I wasn’t going to be nearly as open with him.
Madame Sutton made a trilling noise—either happiness or accusation. “We’ve people in noblemen’s estate. If they could remove the wizards’ marks?—”
“They can’t,” I cut her off. “Only another wizard can.”
“And you,” she clarified.
And me because I was, for all intents and purposes, a wizard.
“It’s perfect,” Alaric said. “The wizards will never suspect a woman can do them harm. You won’t have to kill them, just neutralize them. Then I’ll take care of the king.”
I held up my hand. “Let someone else act as the assassin.” I didn’t want to save Alaric from death in battle just to lose him to the king’s guards.
“Very well,” Master Gray said. “We’ll send a lady’s maid with you who is capable of the job. Alaric will go along to help as needed.”
Alaric grinned, happy with the arrangement.