At first, the wound was raised and red with only a bit of blood seeping in the middle. Well enough. He would live. I gathered my things to leave.
Then the wound grew and peeled back on itself. Larger, I was sure, than the area I’d chiseled out. This was wrong. I stared, unable to understand what was happening. Time was already short—and now this.
I placed my hand on his chest where his nightshirt hung open and began uttering my spell. As I spoke, the skin beneath my fingers rippled. Something warm and slick met my hands. My eyes flew open. Redboot’s face was melting as though made of hot candle wax. I jerked away from him, the rest of the words forgotten. Sinews withered away and Redboot’s skull appeared like an egg emerging in a bloody nest.
I screamed and leaped to my feet, horrified. Even as the sound left my throat, I knew screaming was a grave mistake, but the cry had a will of its own.
What had I done? What had gone so gruesomely wrong? My hands were wet with blood.
The flesh on Redboot’s head had completely dissolved and his skull gaped at me with hollow eyes. I bent to wipe my hands on the mattress—getting blood on my clothes would raisesuspicions—but even the blood on my skin vanished like dew in the sun.
None of this made sense. I needed to get out of this room before I started shrieking again. I grabbed my tools, every moment expecting his skeleton fingers to reach out and clasp my hair the way his branches had.
As I bolted to the door to escape, I cast one last look at Redboot. He was nothing but a skeleton in night clothes, his jaw slack in a chilling grin. I rushed from the room, leaving the door ajar and the tapestry swinging like an executioner’s ax.
I had the presence of mind to utter the invisibility enchantment and ran out of the chapel, taking startled, gasping breaths. In one of the rooms down the hallway, a dog barked. I heard the noise of people stirring. Someone called, “Who’s there? Who screamed?”
A man opened his door and peered outside. Then another.
I kept running, afraid the lot of them would pour into the hallway and block my way, trapping me there. I’d been so stupid. My scream had woken people and soon guards would be searching the halls. Why had Redboot dissolved that way?
The mission was over for tonight. Perhaps for good. Even if Mage Zephyr slept through the commotion, roaming the hallways as a wolf to find him was out of the question. I’d failed—and this time because of my utter stupidity. Of all the ways I might possibly be caught, of all the obstacles that might have prevented me from carrying out my task—I’d screamed. The whole awful business could’ve been over tonight, but instead, something had gone amiss with the spell, and I’d let my nerves get the best of me.
What had I done wrong? I couldn’t have forgotten any of the phrases. My perfect memory allowed me to read them word for word from the page. I’d performed the same spell on three other wizards, with no awful surprises.
By the time I reached the staircase, guards were thundering down them.
I stayed at the bottom of the second-floor landing, pressed to the wall, waiting for the way to clear.
After the guards passed by, I started up the steps. I was halfway to the third floor when I heard voices, two people coming down.
“Most likely one of the maids had a nightmare,” a man said, “and she’s too embarrassed to admit she yelled loud enough to wake half the wing, but none of the servants will rest well until we check the floor. Otherwise, they’ll believe some poor maid’s been stabbed, and the murderer is loose among them.”
I couldn’t let them find me. I turned and began down the stairs to wait again. When I heard Ronan’s voice answer the first man, I nearly stumbled.
“I wasn’t faulting your diligence,” Ronan said. “Of course, we must reassure the servants, but as I was the wizard stationed in the king’s chambers tonight, you should’ve contacted another mage.”
“We tried but not a one of them opened their door.”
“Not even Mage Saxeus? He was assigned to handle any magical needs that arise tonight.”
“Not even Mage Saxeus. If you don’t mind me saying so, not a good start on his first day as a council wizard.”
I was nearly to the second floor. If Ronan swept the area with a disclosing spell, I’d be caught. How would I explain that I was lurking about in the middle of the night cloaked in invisibility? Was it better to drop my invisibility and pretend I’d been unable to sleep and had come downstairs to check on Gwenyth?
I glanced over my shoulder. Ronan was a dozen steps away, speaking to an older guard whose uniform emblems announced his high rank. Ronan held his wand loosely, not the grip ofone who was performing any spells. He seemed to believe the problem on the second floor didn’t require magical intervention.
I was safe for the moment. All I had to do was wait for them to pass by. I pressed myself to the wall near the landing and took slow measured breaths.
Ronan walked with an air of easy confidence. “Perhaps Mage Saxeus didn’t understand the nature of his duties. Redboot will give him a tongue-lashing for his negligence.”
The guard grunted in reply. “Mages Redboot and Zephyr also didn’t open their doors. Did they celebrate to the point of drunkenness?”
Ronan and the guard were now so close, I could’ve reached out and touched Ronan’s robe. As he passed, his gaze swung in my direction.
I froze, a breath lodging in my throat. Somehow, he knew I was there.
But then his gaze returned to the guard, and I realized he’d just been surveying the area. “Mages Redboot and Zephyr,” he said dryly, “are so spooked by the events of last night their caution drove them into mouse holes.”