For a moment, silence descended, broken only by the hissing of the Death, as everyone considered this.
“I don’t see how,” Tobas said at last. “It’s not a thing, it’s a place. Certainly wizardry couldn’t move it, since wizardry doesn’t work there.”
“Witchcraft does,” Sarai pointed out. Karanissa had demonstrated as much.
“Yes, but Lady Sarai, it’s a place,” Tobas insisted. “Even if, say, moving that entire mountain would be enough to move it, how could you bring it eighty leagues to Ethshar? Witches couldn’t do it, not unless you had thousands upon thousands of them, probably more witches than there are in the World. Warlocks could, perhaps—if they were all willing to accept the Calling. Sorcery, demons—I don’t think so.”
“Not sorcery,” Kelder of Tazmor agreed.
“Nordemonology,” Kallia confirmed.
“Then can you create a new one?” Sarai demanded. “A new dead area, here in the palace?”
Tobas hesitated and looked at Telurinon.
“No,” the Guildmaster said, quite emphatically.
“The spell is lost,” Tobas agreed.
Intending to make a point, Sarai turned to look at the Seething Death and involuntarily found herself backing away—the wall of seething ooze had drawn visibly nearer while she argued. Shaken, and after having moved several feet farther down the corridor, she turned back to Tobas and demanded, “You’re sure of that?”
He nodded. “The only Book of Spells that ever held it was burned, over four hundred years ago—in 4763,1 think it was.” He added helpfully, “They hanged the wizard who used it.”
“But it was done by wizardry in the first place?” Sarai asked.
Telurinon glared at Tobas.
“Yes,” Tobas said.
“And the spell was written down?” Sarai asked.
“By Ellran the Unfortunate, in 4680,” Tobas said.’ “That was when he discovered it.” He smiled wryly. “By accident. Just the way Tabaea made the Black Dagger by accident. Ellran never used the spell again, but his apprentice did, and got hanged for it. And the book was burned.”
“You seem to know a lot about it,” Sarai remarked.
“It’s a sort of specialty of mine, if you’ll recall—I told you that,” Tobas said. “It’s why I was brought here in the first place. As you know, I have a personal interest—or at least, I used to.” “If you know that much about this spell,” Vengar asked, “can’t you recover it somehow?”
“If you know the true name of the apprentice, and when the spell was used,” Mereth volunteered, “the Spell of Omniscient Vision ought to let me see the page it was written on. We never knew enough about the countercharm for the Seething Death, but this one...”
“No! ”shouted Telurinon. “Mereth, I forbid it! Stopandthink what you’re proposing! The overlord’s palace, dead to wizardry? The Guild could no longer...”
He stopped, abruptly, looking about wildly, as if realizing that he was about to say far too much in front of far too many people. Then he shouted, “No! We’ll try the Black Dagger, and if that doesn’t work we can evacuate the city...” Lady Sarai, moving as quickly as she could without her cat abilities—rabbits were quick, but not as fast in their reactions as cats—stepped up and, with her left hand, grabbed the front of Telurinon’s robe. The Black Dagger, in her right hand, pressed against his chest.
“Listen to me, Guildmaster,” she said. “You and your stupid spells are destroying the overlord’s palace— and maybe the rest of the city, maybe the rest of the World—and you’re worrying about saving your Guild’s secrets, your Guild’s power? You’re worried that maybe you won’t be able to eavesdrop any more, won’t be able to threaten the overlord with your spells and curses? That you might have to really give up meddling in politics? Well, I’ve got a real worry for you, Telurinon—this dagger. I don’t intend to try it on the Seething Death, Telurinon—I intend to use it on you. It’ll eat your soul, you know—it sucks the essence right out of you, doesn’t even leave a ghost.”
She didn’t know whether this was truth or lie—but right now, she didn’t care. She pressed the point harder against the old wizard’s chest, piercing the fabric of his robe.
Telurinon gaped at her. “You can’t do this!” he said. “The Guild...”
“The Seething Death is going to kill us all anyway if we stay here,” Sarai told him. “And besides, I don’t think your Guild is on your side in this one. Has anyone tried to stop me?”
Telurinon turned and looked.
Tobas and Mereth and Heremon were standing there, unmoving; Heremon at least had the grace to look somewhat abashed, and Algarin had turned away rather than watch. Further back, the other magicians were watching, but showed no signs of helping the Guildmaster. The soldiers were obviously ready to cheer Lady Sarai on.
“I don’t know what spells you people are talking about,” a soldier called, “but I’ve about had my fill of the Wizards’ Guild here. If anyone harms Lady Sarai, he’ll answer to me!”
Several growls of agreement, not all from soldiers, were enough to convince Telurinon.
“Very well,” he said, “very well. We’ll try the Spell of Omniscient Vision, as Mereth said, and if we can find Ellran’s forbidden spell we’ll try that. But if it doesn’t work, Lady Sarai, then we’ll try the Black Dagger!”
“Agreed,” Sarai said, stepping back and releasing the Guild-master’s robe.
“I need my scrying stone for the Spell of Omniscient Vision,” Mereth said, “and I left the stone at home. Besides, I need a totally dark room, and I don’t know of any in the palace.”
“Then go home and do it there,” Sarai said. “I’ll come with you,” Tobas ofiered, “to write down Ellran’s spell. Besides, I want to see this.”
Telurinon started to say something, but before he could speak, Sarai said, “And I think it would be best if Guildmaster Telurinon returned to the Guildhouse, wouldn’t it, to see how things stand there?”
He glared at her, then looked over the crowd of magicians and decided not to argue. Sarai knew she had made an enemy for life of Telurinon, but just now she really didn’t care. As Mereth and Tobas headed down one corridor, circling around toward the northwest gate, while Telurinon and Heremon headed out toward the northeast and the others scattered in various directions, she just wanted to find somewhere to rest. She wondered whether her old room was safe; the Seething Death was nowhere near the southeast wing yet, where her family’s apartments were, but it seemed to be spreading quickly.
Someplace nearer a door would be better. She stopped into one of the little waiting rooms along the northeast corridor, where petitioners could prepare for their audience before the overlord.
The place was a mess; she stared around in dismay, unable to decide whether someone had lived here during Tabaea’s brief reign, or whether it had been used as a garbage dump.
Karanissa appeared behind her. “What are you doing, Lady Sarai?” she asked.
“I wanted to... oh, just look at this place, Karanissa!” She waved a hand at the disaster. The two little silk-upholstered benches had lost their legs and become crude beds; the pink silk itself was slashed and stained several places. The gilded tea table was on its side. Three rotting blankets were heaped on the floor, amid orange peels, eggshells, chicken bones, and other detritus.
Karanissa looked and found nothing to say.
Sarai picked up one of the blankets, holding it between two fingers, then used it to sweep a pile of trash out into the corridor.
“You shouldn’t bother with that, Sarai,” Karanissa said. “For one thing, the Seething Death may eat this room before we stop it.”
“Before the wizards stop it,” Sarai snapped, flinging the blanket aside. “Those idiots who started it in the first place! Wizards who showed Tabaea how to make the Black Dagger, wizards who started the Seething Death, wizards who wouldn’t help my father...”
“Wizards like my husband,” Karanissa replied gently. “And your friend Mereth.”
“Oh, I know,” Sarai said, peevishly. “Most of the wizards I’ve known have been good people, really. But sometimes they don’t know what they’re doing, and it can be so dangerous! And they talk about these stupid rules about not meddling in politics, and then that old fool Telurinon practically admitted they spy on the overlord...” She sat down abruptly, on the floor of the passage.
Karanissa settled down beside her, and for a time the two women simply sat, side by side. In the distance Sarai could hear footsteps and voices—and the hissing of the Seething Death. She looked down at the Black Dagger,
