All the Paths of Shadow

The staff’s movements were random and unfocused. If a spell had been released nearby, the staff would be repelled by even the faintest leavings, thus allowing Meralda to at least guess the spellcaster’s position and perhaps his skill.

Instead, she found nothing. Not that I expected anything different, thought Meralda. I can think of half a dozen ways to confound such a search. So, I’m sure, can others.

The captain stopped at the door and lifted his eyebrows at the sight of Meralda’s lazily swooping staff. “Anything?” he asked.

“Nothing yet,” she replied. The captain threw open the west doors, bellowed at the guards on the other side, and stepped into the throne room.

Meralda followed, holding the staff gingerly at its center as she passed over the threshold, feeling for even the slightest hint of steady pressure.

“Nothing,” she muttered. The Gold Room was empty. Tables and chairs were strewn about, some overturned, some in stacks, as though workmen had been called away in a panicked rush. A crystal pitcher of water sat on a table nearby, and the water still rose and fell slightly, lapping at the top as if recently disturbed. “Nothing at all.”

The captain grunted. Meralda halted. “Where was the king seated?” she asked.

“Over there,” said the captain, pointing across the Gold Room to one of the small, plain tables scattered about the northeast corner of the room. “The Highnesses had missed breakfast, what with all the goings-on, and Yvin had the porters set up a brunch here.” The captain frowned and raised his hands. “This wasn’t planned, Thaumaturge. No one knew where the king was going to be at nine of the clock today. And yet he walked right up-”

Meralda shrugged. “Even so,” she said. “But if one were looking for a king, the throne room seems to be a likely place to begin one’s search, does it not?”

“He may have wandered about for hours, if he was invisible,” said Tervis. The captain’s neck went crimson, and the color began to creep up his face.

“He was never invisible,” said Meralda, quickly.

“Then how did he just walk into the Gold Room?” said the captain.

Meralda wheeled her staff back and forth before her. “How many people were in this room, Captain?” she asked.

“Two hundred and eighty-six,” said the captain. “Not counting myself, the Highnesses, the Eryan ambassador who was seated with them, and forty-four of my lads, spread all about the place. They’re all being held in the big conference room on the second floor while we take their statements.”

Meralda slowly started for the table the captain had pointed out. The staff continued to wobble and float, though it detected no hint of sorcery, foreign or otherwise.

Meralda bit her lip. This isn’t going to work, she thought. “Captain,” she said, and then the staff swung about, as though struck. When it halted, the ends were level with the floor, the shaft lay in a straight line between the west doors and the king’s brunch table, and the wood was growing cold to Meralda’s touch.

The captain halted. “Thaumaturge?” he said.

“Hush a moment,” said Meralda. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and forced her perceptions out along the faint traceries of the faded spell she’d found.

The spell was faint. “Faint as smoke from yesterday’s fire,” Mage Fromarch had once said. Meralda found the phrase doubly fitting, as she tried to make sense of the twisting debris.

There, she thought. And there. Anchor points, and common enough. But what were those structures out along the periphery? Meralda frowned. The more she searched for the terminal ends of the operative functions, the more it seemed they looped back to the latching point.

Meralda pushed again, and her staff grew so cold the air about it steamed. The smoke-like remains of the spell vanished in a flash that Meralda saw clearly through her tightly shut eyes.

“Thaumaturge!” bellowed the captain, and at least one of the Bellringers. Boots thudded on the Gold Room tiles.

Meralda opened her eyes, blinked at the dots that swam before her, and dropped her staff before it froze tight to her hands.

“I’m not harmed,” she said, at the blurs that approached. “Don’t touch my staff.”

“What happened?” asked the captain. “Were you attacked?”

“I thought I saw a twinkling in the air,” said Tervis.

“Me, too,” said Kervis. “Ma’am.”

Meralda struggled to make out faces. “My bag, please,” she said, at what she hoped was Tervis. “Open it, if you will.”

Tervis fumbled with the latches. “Here,” he said. “What happened? Did you find something?”

“I did,” said Meralda. She fumbled in the bag’s recesses for a pair of heavy copper-lined gloves, blinking furiously while she decided which was left and which was right. “Someone cast a spell here, recently,” she said. “A very strange spell.”

The captain frowned. “Can you tell what it did?”

Meralda shook her head. “Someone didn’t want me to know,” she said. “They even left a surprise for anyone who looked.” She held up her right hand, anticipating the captain’s next words. “No, the caster is not still here. No, I can’t tell you if it was a Hang spell. Yes, it might have been a charm of concealment. And no, I’m not hurt.”

The dancing blobs of light were fading. She could see clearly enough now. The Bellringers stood close by, watching her intently, concern mirrored on their faces. The captain, too, watched Meralda as if expecting her to fall into a swoon at any moment.

Meralda pulled on the gloves and snatched up her staff. It still trailed steam, and its shaft was rimed with a thin layer of dull ice.

“Come, gentlemen,” she said. “It’s a big palace.”

Chapter Five

Meralda sat heavily at her kitchen table, a steaming mug of fresh coffee in her hand. Cool air breezed past, drawn in at the open kitchen window and leaving through the sitting room. A clock ticked softly in Meralda’s bedroom, and in the distance traffic hooted and clattered, but for midday in Tirlin, Fairlane Street was quiet. “It’s good to be home,” said Meralda.

From his perch in the kitchen windowsill, Mug spread his fronds to the sun. “Indeed, it is,” he said, his words slow and hushed. Ten of Mug’s eyes, the smaller brown ones, studied the thaumaturge intently from behind a screen of leaves.

Mug decided the thaumaturge looked tired, but not particularly angry. Her long red hair stuff was windblown, but not tangled into what Meralda called a fright, and the skin on her forehead wasn’t shiny with sweat. Her eyes were clear and bright, lacking the dark bands beneath them that so often appeared after a day at court.

The dandyleaf plant relaxed, his upmost leaves drooping in relief. At least that blockheaded king hasn’t insulted her today.

“Now that you’ve done your shopping and made yourself comfortable,” said Mug, “you can tell your poor neglected familiar what you’ve been up to, and why I see so many soldiers in the streets.”

Meralda relayed her day at the palace to Mug, who gradually turned all of his eyes upon the thaumaturge. “You found how many hidden spells?” said Mug.

“Eight,” said Meralda. “One in the Gold Room, two in the west wing, three in the fourth floor guest hall, one in the High Garden, and one just outside the Old Stair fifth floor landing.” Meralda swirled her coffee and watched the steam rise up. “Eight recently unlatched spellworks,” she said. “All of them set to discharge if discovered, all remnants of extremely powerful spells.” She took another sip of coffee. “All laid within the last two weeks.”