Ihesitated in the doorway, caught by indecision. Should I do something to silence Sciatheric—another stunning spell? His yelling had ruined my chances of taking another wizard’s mark tonight. Guards from the floor would be on their way to see why he had called out. The wizard at the end of the hallway had likely awakened, and if he wasn’t on his way to the hallway to offer assistance, he would at least be on alert for danger, his wand in his hand.
I had to consider how to best improve my odds of taking the rest of the marks tomorrow night. I needed to throw the wizards off my trail.
My gaze landed on Sciatheric’s moon pendant lying on the floor. In my hurry, I’d forgotten to put it back on his neck. It would do nicely as a false clue. I stepped back into the room and picked it up, making it vanish into my grasp.
Sciatheric knew what this meant. An invisible wizard was in his room. He lurched to his feet and hurled himself across the room at his bed. A moment later, he held his wand in front of him and furiously recited the words to a disclosing spell. It had no effect on me. He’d lost his magic.
I slipped out the door, shut it behind me, and hurried to Telarian’s doorway. By that time, Sciatheric had marched into the hallway, wand clutched in his hand. He arced it across the hallway, muttering a spell.
I opened Telarian’s door, paused for enough time that someone could have gone inside, then dropped the pendant in the room and closed the door again.
Sciatheric’s nostrils flared like a bull’s. “Telarian, you spider!” He stomped down the hallway. “What do you mean by sneaking into my room?”
A few moments later, Telarian’s door swung open and he stepped out, jabbing his wand in the air. “What game are you playing? It’s you who’s been in my room. Don’t deny it. I heard you leave just now. You knew I caught you and so now you’re putting on a show for the guards.”
I pressed against the wall to avoid any approaching soldiers and edged toward the stairwell. One guard strode over from the direction of the king’s chambers. A clatter from the stairs meant more men were on their way up.
I couldn’t go down the stairs while guards rushed up, especially not while carrying a bulky shield. I stayed flattened against the wall near the entrance to the hall, biting my lip and waiting for the men to pass by me.
Telarian held up the moon pendant, waving it like a flag before a battle. “This proves you trespassed in my room. You dropped it on the way out. The king will know of this.”
Sciatheric stormed over and yanked the necklace from his hand. “More webs you spin. What this proves is your thievery!” Sciatheric stepped away, lifted his wand dramatically, and boomed out an incantation of attack, one that called fire down upon an enemy.
Before Sciatheric finished speaking, Telarian uttered the counter incantation, a spell to deflect the fire toward the speaker.
Nothing happened, of course. Telarian screeched in indignation. “You wish to kill me? You make accusations to justify my murder!” Lord Percy hadn’t been jesting when he said the two men disliked each other.
Two guards from the stairs reached the hallway entrance, but instead of striding by me, they kept their distance from the wizards, standing in a spot that made it impossible for me to move past them. “Mage Sciatheric, Mage Telarian,” one of the guards ventured. “Please calm yourselves.”
The wizards ignored him. Telarian uttered an incantation I didn’t recognize. Probably something equally dark as bolts of fire.
The guards took a few wary steps backward. They were not about to get between fighting wizards.
At this point, the wizards must have realized their phrases had no effect. I thought their astonishment would douse their anger, but somehow it only increased.
Sciatheric went red with rage. The veins in his neck stood out like bright blue rivers traversing his face. “What have you done?” He lunged at Telarian, grabbing him by the throat.
I watched, horrified. When I’d thrown Sciatheric’s pendant into Telarian’s room, I’d expected a diversion, not this.
Telarian didn’t claw at Sciatheric’s grip. He moved his hand across his wand, as though coaxing out more magic. The wand grew—which shouldn’t have happened—and the new length fell to the floor, leaving the rest a short, bright silver. I didn’t comprehend what I was seeing until Telarian plunged his wand into Sciatheric’s chest.
All along, Telarian’s wand had been a blade, a long, thin one sheathed to hide its secondary purpose.
Sciatheric gasped in pain and lurched backward, his hands clutching at the wand. Blood bloomed through his nightshirt. The wound was close to his heart.
“Fetch the physician,” a guard yelled.
Sciatheric shook his head at Telarian in a reproachful manner, calmer than I’d expected for a man with a blade protruding from his chest. He staggered toward Telarian, blocking his escape. He looked like he would lean in and whisper something. Instead, he yanked the blade from his chest, and in one quick motion, he swiped it across Telarian’s neck.
Someone shouted, “Fetch a wizard!”
I needed to leave. I’d seen too much already. The blood on Sciatheric’s hand—had it come from his chest or Telarian’s neck? The noise, the gurgling scream, I wanted to block it out. I took a stumbling step backward, nearly dropping the shield. My stomach heaved and threatened to retch on the floor. A bad response since someone was bound to notice a pile of vomit suddenly appearing.
If the guards hadn’t been distracted by the two dying men in the hallway, they might have felt me fumbling with the shield as I passed by. I knocked into one of them. But they were rushing forward, finally prodded into action.
I ran down the stairs, not stopping at the third or second floor. When I arrived at the main floor, I ran, already breathless, toward the sitting room. My hands shook. I wanted to rid myself of the shield. Every moment that passed, I feared someone would come into that room and notice it missing. They would wonder. They would question. They would find me.
My panic wasn’t logical, but it burrowed into me. I reached the sitting room and rehung the shield. Sciatheric and Telarian. Dying in front of me. I took deep breaths. It didn’t help.