“What are you talking about?” lelurinon demanded. A soldier thrust the point of his sword toward the wizard’s throat, and Telurinon belatedly and begrudgingly added, “My lady.”
“I am talking about what appears to be deliberate subversion of the criminal-justice system of this city,” Sarai explained. “You wizards have been withholding information from the Minister of Investigation, refusing to speak with her, while using undue influence on her employees to obtain the results of her own efforts.”
“Aren’t you the Minister of Investigation?” someone asked. Sarai nodded. “That’s right,” she said, “but right now I’m here as Minister of Justice—since you all chose to ignore my invitations as Minister of Investigation.”
“What’s going on?” a white-haired wizard asked. “I thought we were all here because some rogue was using wizardry without our leave; I want no part of treason.”
“You are all here,” Sarai said, “because someone, or some group, is responsible for killing half a dozen innocent citizens of Ethshar, most of them magicians. It’s my belief that this is the work of some sort of cult or conspiracy, one that is based on magic, and because of that I formally requested the assistance of the Wizards’ Guild to help me find those guilty of these crimes, so that they may be stopped. My requests were ignored.”
“Why don’t you find them yourself?” Algarin shouted. “You claim to be the overlord’s investigator— investigate it yourself, then!”
“I have,” Sarai replied angrily.
“From what I’ve heard so far, you’ve hired a bunch of magicians to investigate, you haven’t done anything yourself!”
“And just what would you suggest I do?” Sarai demanded.
“I don’t know,” Algarin replied. “I’m a wizard, and while I may have worked for your father a few times, I don’t pretend to be an investigator!”
“Then don’t tell me how to do my job,” Sarai retorted. “I’ve investigated this. We’ve questioned everyone connected with the victims, everyone who was involved; we’ve looked at all the evidence we can find.”
“Ha! You’re just taking credit for work that was done by magicians—wizards, mostly!”
“I’m not taking credit for anything,” Sarai answered. “There’s no credit to take—we haven’t caught the people behind these killings. And that’s why I’m asking everyone here to help, to tell me anything you can that might help.” “Why should we?”
“Why shouldn’t you?” Sarai put her hands to her hips and shouted angrily, “This conspiracy, if that’s what it is, killed one of your own Guildmasters! Don’t you want Serem the Wise avenged? Aren’t you worried that you might be next? Or with all this talk about credit, are you worried that wizards might get the blame for these killings? It’s wizardry that’s at the heart of them, as far as we can determine—is the Guild covering something up?” “You ’re the one who’s covering up!” the wizard shouted back. “ You ’re the one who isn’t getting her job done! And it’s because it’s magicians getting killed, because you want the Wizards’ Guild to take the blame!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” another wizard asked, before Sarai could reply.
“It’s true!” Algarin insisted. “She’s jealous of us all, jealous of our magic! We solve far more crimes with our spells than she does with her so-called investigations, and she’s jealous!”
Telurinon, who had stood silently during this argument, spoke again. “I believe I see the reason for this baseless charge of treason. She’s Lord Kalthon’s daughter; he’s ill, probably dying, and we’ve refused to heal him— the Guild does not heal aristocrats, as you all know, and perhaps Lady Sarai resents that. I’ve heard these nobles claim we’re all playing at being gods and getting above ourselves when we make such rules; maybe the lady would like to put us back in our place.”
Captain Tikri’s ringers were closed on the hilt of his sword, but Sarai put out a hand and stopped him before he could draw it. “No violence,” she whispered, “not with so much magic here.”
With Lady Sarai thus distracted for a moment, Mereth tried to speak in her defense; other voices rose in protest against
Telurinon’s words as well, and in seconds the entire room was a chaos of shouting and arguing voices. Fists waved in the air; none, so far, had been aimed at anyone.
“You have no right to blame us because you can’t find the people responsible!” someone shouted at Sarai.
“I’m not blaming you!” Sarai shouted back. “I’m just asking you to help me find them!”
She let the bickering continue for a moment longer, but when it showed no sign of reaching any conclusion, Sarai shouted over the hubbub, “Guildmaster Telurinon! Whatevermy reasons, the charge stands and requires an answer—why did you refuse my request for a meeting and the Guild’s assistance in this?”
Telurinon turned back to face her, abandoning his argument with other Guildmasters.
“Because, my lady,” he said, “this is a matter that the Wizards’ Guild wishes to handle on its own. Someone has killed a Guildmaster; we cannot allow that person to be brought before the overlord’s courts, or thrown in the overlord’s dungeon— whoever it is must die, as horribly and publicly as possible, as a direct result of our Guild’s actions.”
“Well, damn it,” Lady Sarai shouted, “why didn’t you meet with me and soy so?”
The argument died away, as the wizards turned to listen.
“I have no problem with recognizing the Guild’s claim to vengeance,” Sarai said. “The overlord’s government makes no claims to priority in these matters. I would be delighted to arrange terms whereby, in exchange for the Guild’s cooperation, I would, as Acting Minister of Justice, turn the guilty parties over to the Guild for execution.” Telurinon blinked stupidly at her.
“Well, there, Telurinon,” Heremon called. “I told you you were being hasty.” Several other voices murmured agreement.
“You barged in here, accused us of treason...” Telurinon began.
“I had to get your attention,” Sarai retorted. “You were ignoring me.”
“You brought all these soldiers...”
“I can send them away. If you’ll agree that we’ll all sit down together and pool our information, and that henceforth I am to be kept informed of everything the Guild learns about this matter and every action it takes concerning it, then I’ll send the soldiers away.” She smiled at Telurinon. “What do you say, Guildmas-ter?”
Telurinon turned helplessly to the other wizards; a moment later, with Telurinon abstaining and only Algarin dissenting, they had agreed to do as Sarai suggested.
Swords were sheathed and the soldiers dismissed, all save Captain Tikri and two others who remained as Sarai’s assistant and bodyguards. Mereth, Sarai, Teneria, and Tikri found seats, and the meeting began.
The discussion started well enough; Sarai gave an account of the known crimes to date and let Mereth report on what her spells had shown her. Then Sarai spoke again, mentioning that both wizardry and warlockry had been involved.
“We were aware of that, my lady,” Telurinon said chidingly. Sarai ignored him and recounted the other meetings she had held with Okko and the witches and warlocks; Mereth confirmed what she said. The wizards seemed to be especially interested in the evidence that the Council of Warlocks knew nothing about the killings and had no magic that could help.
For their part, the wizards reported that they knew little about the actual killings beyond the fact that the murders had involved magic. A necromancer by the name of Thengor reported that his own studies indicated no theurgical or demonological involvement and that the souls of the victims were nowhere in the World, while some of the others expressed doubts about the accuracy of any necromantic reports.
“We did discover,” Heremon said, when Thengor had finished, “that whatever magic was involved is a sort of negative wizardry—it appeared to counteract any wizardry used in its presence. Guildmaster Serem did not come by his cognomen ’the Wise’ entirely without earning it; while he was notoriously careless about the usual wards and warning spells, he had cast several personal protective spells upon himself. The murderer’s weapon seems to have instantaneously nullified all of them when it struck.”
That was interesting, and something Sarai had not known; she leaned forward attentively.
“That’s why we sent for Tobas,” Algarin said.
Sarai looked at him questioningly, but it was Heremon who explained, “Tobas of Telven is a young wizard who has made a specialty of the study of counterwizardries, of spells that prevent other spells from functioning. He lives in the Small Kingdoms, but Guildmaster Telurinon has invited him to join us here in Ethshar, to see if he can tell us anything about the magic this killer uses.”
