The Spirit Thief

The main hall of the servant level was even more crowded than the dining room. Alarm bells were ringing up and down its length, and the smell of wood smoke and burning tar hung heavy in the hazy air. Servants seethed from the dozens of interconnecting hallways like ants out of an overturned hill, shouting and shoving as they rushed the exits. Eli let them surge past him, nimbly working his way upstream along the wall. Only when a platoon of guards carrying buckets appeared at the far end of the hall did he change course and duck down one of the small connecting corridors.

“I can’t believe it!” Miranda whispered fiercely as they half walked, half ran down the narrow hall. “You started a fire just so you could get past some guards? Do you ever consider the consequences of your actions!?”

“We didn’t start a fire,” Nico’s voice said calmly.

Miranda jumped and whirled around. At first, she saw nothing but the empty hallway filled with hazy smoke, dark except for the sputtering wall sconces set at wide intervals. Then, Nico appeared from the shadows a foot behind them, as if she had emerged from the wall itself, looking very pleased with herself.

Miranda refused to be intimidated. “What did you do?”

“Nothing bad,” Nico said. “I just let the furnace know what I was, and now it’s trying to burn down the castle.”

“You deliberately terrified a fire spirit?” Miranda gasped. “That’s horrible!”

Nico crossed her arms over her chest, her brown eyes perfectly calm. “I didn’t terrify it. I introduced myself. It was the furnace’s decision to try and kill me by burning everything. Don’t worry, though; it’s a slow, fat spirit. The servants will have no trouble holding it back, if they can get over their own panic.”

“Don’t you dare blame the furnace,” Miranda said. “Spirits are panicky by nature, fire spirits especially. It’s our job to protect them from things like this, not scare them witless.”

“Your job, you mean.” Nico turned away. “Don’t assume that everyone thinks like you.”

Miranda’s face reddened, but before she could retort, Nico vanished into the shadows as suddenly as she had appeared.

“How does she do that?” Miranda said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“She’s always been like that,” Eli said, giving the Spiritualist a little push down the hall. “Didn’t I tell you she didn’t need a costume?”

Miranda shook her head and let him jostle her down the corridor. They had gone only a few steps when Nico popped back into view, making Miranda jump again.

“I forgot to tell you,” she said to Eli. “Renaud is in the treasury. I overheard the valets complaining about it when I was getting in position. He’s been in there since last night, apparently.”

Miranda’s eyes went wide. “The treasury? You’re sure?”

Nico shrugged. “That’s what I heard. Apparently, he’s been spending all his time staring at a support pillar.”

“Well, there’s no accounting for taste,” Eli said. “Maybe he’s never seen one before. I don’t think he got out much.”

“You’re sure it’s a pillar?” Miranda’s voice was pleading. “Are you sure you didn’t mishear?”

“I don’t mishear,” Nico said flatly.

Miranda clenched her hands together. “Oh, dear.”

Josef, who had been quiet all this time, stepped forward to block her way. He planted himself in front of the Spiritualist, looking down at her with a stony expression. “Why is a pillar bad?”

“I’ll have to explain later,” Miranda said, pushing past him. “We need to get to the-”

“No,” Josef said, grabbing her arm. “You’ll explain now.”

He looked up and down the corridor. Behind them, in the main hall, servants were still running madly for the exits. Josef shook his head at the panic and marched Miranda in the other direction. He tried the first of several small, inconspicuous doors. When it opened, he shoved Miranda inside. Nico and Eli followed suit, cramming themselves into the small closet.

“What are you doing?” Miranda hissed, fighting Josef’s hold.

“You haven’t been open with us,” Josef said, tightening his grip. “You were the one who asked for our help, Spiritualist. You don’t get to string us along, telling us whatever you think we need to know. I’m not going a step farther until you tell us why Renaud being in the treasury is enough to make you go white.”

Miranda briefly considered lying, but Josef’s face was murderous in the dim light filtering through the warped cracks in the closet door. She swallowed against her dry throat and decided it was time to come clean.

“It’s not like I was hiding it,” she said, slumping against the back wall. “I just didn’t think it would be an issue.”

“Obviously it is,” Josef said, releasing his grip. “Talk.”

“Fine,” Miranda said. “I wasn’t just wandering through Mellinor when I found out you three had stolen the king. I was sent here by the Rector Spiritualis.”

“Figures,” Eli said. “That old windbag probably couldn’t stand having a country in the Council that didn’t buy into his Spiritualist mumbo jumbo.”

“Ignore him,” Josef said, cutting off Miranda’s retort before she could open her mouth. “Why did the Rector send you?”

Miranda shot Eli an icy glare. “We received a tip from Coriano that Eli was in this kingdom.”

Josef arched an eyebrow. “Coriano works for you?”

“Worked,” Miranda corrected him. “We couldn’t let someone”-she glared at Eli-“continue to ruin our good reputation, so the Spirit Court paid Coriano to tip us off since he was following your trail anyway. Everything was fine until I got here. Then Renaud bought Coriano out from under us.”

“That’s the problem with mercenaries,” Eli said. “They always live up to their name.”

“Stop interrupting,” Josef said flatly. “What about the pillar?”

Miranda shook her head. “When Master Banage sent me here, we didn’t know the king was the target. He thought Eli was after an obscure wizard artifact that has been in Mellinor’s possession since its founding, Gregorn’s Pillar.”

“Obscure?” Eli looked insulted. “Why would I want to steal something no one’s heard of?”

“Gregorn,” Josef said and frowned. “I’ve heard that name before.”

“I’m not surprised,” Miranda said. “Gregorn was Mellinor’s founder, and, despite their current rhetoric, he was actually quite a famous, and quite a nasty, enslaver.”

“What does Banage care about the pillar then?” Josef asked. “He’s not an enslaver. Why would he want something that belonged to one?”

“To keep it away from other wizards who want to follow Gregorn’s path,” Miranda said.

“What’s it do, then?” Josef asked. “Does it amplify powers somehow, or call spirits to you?”

Miranda began to fidget.

“I’m not actually sure,” she admitted at last. “Master Banage never told me exactly. All I know is that it’s bad news for everyone if a wizard gets his hands on it.” Master Banage’s exact words had been ‘soul-imperiling danger for both the human and spirit worlds,’ but after Eli’s earlier comments, she didn’t think they would appreciate the gravity of that statement.

Eli scowled at her. “I thought the Spirit Court was around to keep stuff like that under control.”

“We do,” Miranda snapped. “Why else do you think Master Banage sent me to keep the pillar from being stolen? I’m a fully initiated Spiritualist! I’m not exactly an errand girl.”

“So why let it sit in Mellinor all this time if it’s so dangerous?” Josef scratched his chin. “Seems awfully irresponsible.”

“We’re a neutral power!” Miranda threw up her hands. “We can’t just waltz in and demand a country’s national treasure! Besides, in case you forgot, Mellinor hates wizards. Gregorn’s Pillar is perfectly harmless to normal people; so leaving it in a country where wizards are deported on sight seemed like an acceptable risk.”

“Let me get this right”-Josef bent down to look her straight in the eye-“you think that Renaud, an enslaver, is trying to get this pillar, which is named after another enslaver, and is, in your words, ‘bad news’ if a wizard gets his hands on it.” He arched an eyebrow at Miranda. “Don’t you think you should have told us about this earlier?”

“I’m sorry!” Miranda sputtered. “I really didn’t think it was going to be an issue! Renaud grew up right above