As soon as the question formed, I knew the answer. A powerful wizard, one who’d just been appointed to the king’s council, wouldn’t call for guards simply because he’d been wakened by a sound. He had too much vanity to tell guards he’d been frightened by a noise in the dark. Right now he was assuring himself he could take care of whatever had caused the noise.
A bony hand pushed aside the bed curtains a few inches and, wand raised, Mage Saxeus poked his face out. He squinted, searching the room.
Ah, the downfall of vanity. I hit him with the stunning spell.
His body went limp, and his wand clattered onto the floor and rolled underneath the bed.
Without wasting any time, I went to the bed and turned him into a tree. He was thick of trunk with reaching branchesthat were nearly bare. Perhaps a person’s tree reflected his personality, and I was seeing the craggy nature of Mage Saxeus’ soul. I chiseled out his mark with swift angry strokes and considered leaving him to his wounds, the way he’d left Gwenyth.
Instead, I begrudgingly performed the spell to speed healing and poured some sleeping draught down his throat. Mage Saxeus wouldn’t stir until morning.
To hide my method of killing the scorpions, I deposited the contents of the bucket down the garderobe. Let the little metal beasts sink to the bottom of the moat where they’d never be found.
Instead of going downstairs to retrieve the wooden shield, I decided to save time and use the washing tub to fend off any serpent strikes. My arm slid through the handle well enough to hold it in front of me.
I reached the wizards’ wings and hurried to the chamber that adjoined Mage Telarian’s and Mage Sciatheric’s empty rooms. This wizard would be the safest of the lot to attack because if he made noises before I stunned him, there was less chance of anyone hearing.
I dispatched the snake easily, but when I opened the door, I found the room cold and dark. Not even the bones of a fire glowed in the hearth.
Was the wizard absent or was the darkness some sort of trap, a way to keep intruders blind? I stepped inside and shut the door. Darkness. Silence.
I tossed a charmed firefly in the direction of the bed. If the wizard uttered a spell to strike at the light, I’d know where he was and send a stunning spell that way.
The bug flickered about, lighting one small piece of the room and then another. No sign of a wizard. The man was either hiding in the room, or he’d chosen a different place to sleep.
Judging by the chilly temperature, I guessed the latter, but to be certain I changed into my canine form. Without moving further into the room, I could smell that it was empty of humans.
Becoming a wolf had other advantages. In that form, I could tell by scent that the room belonged to Redboot. With any luck, I’d be able to find where he’d taken himself off to. I couldn’t take the washing tub with me, so I placed it in the servant’s stairwell, knowing someone would find and return it to its proper place.
Then I roamed the fourth floor, this time as an invisible wolf. The double spell was harder to maintain, one layered on the other, but it was necessary to get by the guards. I prowled the hallway, nose to the stones, sifting through the smells of everyone who’d recently walked by.
Ronan’s scent, strong and sweet like the incense of saffron, was somewhere in the king’s chambers. He would be my last stop of the night.
I trotted down the hallway on the other side. I went to the room that must belong to Mage Zephyr. With my muzzle pressed near the crack underneath the door, I could tell the room was cold. No fresh scent. Mage Zephyr hadn’t been there for most of the day.
I had two hidden men to find, and this when I needed to preserve my strength. Working double spells to be both a wolf and invisible might prove too draining. I’d have to improvise.
I maintained the invisibility spell until I passed the guards, then searched the third floor visible as the wolf. No one should be walking around the hallways at this time of night who might see me. Even the servants who waited in the hallways, lest any guest have need of something during the night, were fast asleep on their mats.
I made my way through the third-floor hallways, hunting for the scent of either Mage Redboot or Zephyr. Each door brought me more frustration. The men weren’t here. I trotted down thestairs to the second floor and roamed those hallways, growing more anxious with each door. The wizards had disappeared.
The servants had their own chapel on the second floor. Although it was dark and deserted, I checked it as well … and detected Mage Redboot’s scent by the wall near the entrance.
A tapestry hung there and warm air drifted from the bottom. Something was hidden behind it: a secret room or passageway. I surveyed the area, this time seeking for whiffs of incense, smoke, or metal, some smell indicating the presence of traps. Nothing seemed amiss.
I returned to my human form and lifted the edges of the tapestry. A small door waited there. I unlocked it and ever so slowly pushed it open a crack. The room—more of a closet, really—was heated not with a hearth, but by a bit of purple magical fire in a cauldron in the corner. Its glow revealed Redboot sleeping on a thick down mattress that took up most of the space. A blanket lay in tangles at his feet, and his clothes and hat hung on hooks on the back wall. In nothing but his nightshirt, he reminded me of a plucked chicken. Pale, wrinkly, and scrawny.
A string of bells lay beside him, although for what reason I couldn’t tell. At least, I couldn’t tell until I lifted my wand. They began traitorously ringing.
Redboot’s eyes flew open, and he reached for his wand. By the time he was halfway through an incantation to call down fire, I’d finished uttering the stunning spell.
He collapsed onto his mattress with a thud. I slipped inside the cramped little room and knelt beside him. I needed to hurry. I’d already spent too much time ferreting out his hiding spot, and I still had to find Mage Zephyr.
With quick words, I performed the incantation that changed him into a tree. He was a gnarled and twisted thing with leafless branches that looked like claws. In the small space, they grabbed at me and caught on my sleeves and hair. I avoided them the bestI could and took the chisel to his mark. Removing the others had taken a quarter of an hour, but Redboot’s tree was softer. The mark came out as easily as wood that had rotted away.
The ease of the task ended when I tried to heal the wound. He responded so slowly and took so much effort, I decided I had no choice but to leave him with a small injury. I didn’t have time to completely speed his healing.
I uttered the spell to return him to human form, my eyes fixed upon his neck. If he bled too badly, I’d turn him into a tree again and try the healing spell again.