“That can’t have been difficult for you, Magister,” said Bee with a sting in her smile.
He looked up so quickly I thought he meant to cut her with an edged retort. She braced herself, ready to give back what she got.
“For over seven years I worked to become the magister they would accept in Four Moons House, so I could prove I was more powerful than them, smarter than them, better than them. It was so easy to become him again. But I don’t want to be that man.”
Bee’s mouth parted in astonishment. Mercifully she said nothing, for above all things I could not imagine Vai accepting sympathetic platitudes.
“Then you won’t go back, love,” I said.
He looked away. “None of that matters,” he went on in a curt tone that another might have heard as a rejection but that I knew came from pride. “As I was leaving the parlor after getting rid of the women, I saw a messenger wearing the colors and badge of Four Moons House.”
“The courier I saw leave last night can’t have gotten there and back so quickly.”
He nodded. “Yes, it seemed odd to me. I followed, but I’m not a skilled spy. I never discovered what the messenger was there for because I was caught just as the steward was ordering the captain of the House guards to start a house-by-house search of Noviomagus to look for you, Catherine. I pretended I had come to insist on that very thing, and demanded to go with them. I slipped the laborer’s clothes inside my coat and changed in a tavern.” He laughed mockingly. “I pulled an old cap over my head and slouched out past them. They look only at posture and clothes. They didn’t even see me go past.”
Sleet hissed along the roof. He glanced at the window.
“I expect their magisters are bringing down a storm to keep travelers off the roads. It will take some time to search, but they’re bound to check hostels and inns first. We’ve got to go.”
“Very well,” said Bee decisively. “We’ll return to New Academy and demand refuge. The headmaster was singularly unhelpful, but we are owed that much, surely!”
“What about Rory?” I asked as I began collecting our belongings. “He went to the innkeepers’ chamber.”
Vai’s amused grin was so rare a sight that Bee actually stared. “Ah. I take it he is out prowling. I shall fetch him while you dress.”
As we dressed, he descended the creaking stairs. I heard the hard rap he gave on a closed door and his voice raised without the least embarrassment. “I beg your pardon, but I need Rory immediately, for we’ve had urgent news.”
The baby woke and began sobbing disconsolately. Rory made apologetic fare-thee-wells as Bee and I got everything ready. We had a lot to carry, a bag each plus Vai’s carpentry apron, which he wore under his coat. Foul weather dogged us as we strode miserably along the road beneath a biting sleet that made my nose go numb. Not a single soul braved the road except for us. The night lay as dark as if pitch had been poured over the world, but Vai’s mage light lit our path.
Wind tangled in the trees with a rush like wings. Between gusts I heard hoofbeats. Bobbing lights approached from the direction of town, not lantern light but cold fire. Mages pursued us, riding with soldiers. Ahead the impenetrable hedge gave way to the academy gates, where a real lamp burned. We reached the gates before the troop got sight of us. A burly guard with a bored expression slouched out from the gatehouse. The gate lamp burned steadily despite Vai’s standing next to it.
“You must let us in!” Bee cried.
“You can’t enter.” The guard eyed Rory with a look that made Rory curl his lips back. “The master is dueling the last challenger. After that, the winner will banquet on the remains. Go away, and be grateful I do not eat you, which I do not do solely because of the nasty stink of your flesh.”
“Who do you think I am, that you speak to me in such a dismissive way!” Bee exclaimed. “What of all those youthful hatchlings for which I am sure your kind ought to be grateful, lest you otherwise die out like ash on a dead fire? Do not condescend to me. Take us to Kemal at once.”
“That hapless worm!” He grinned to show his teeth. I could not help but think of Chartji, whom I liked so much better! “He is no man. Or I should say, he
Bee lifted a fist, ready to slug him. He hissed at her in a way that made Rory snarl and me grab for my sword.
Vai stepped between them. “If you do not wish your master to be disturbed, you do better to hide us than to let the soldiers find us. If they do catch us here, we will tell them everything. Then the entire mage House will descend upon you.”
This argument, delivered with Vai’s magisterial self-confidence, so struck the man that he hustled us into the gatehouse and out the back way onto the grounds just as the troop rode up. We hid in the dripping shadow of the hedge as soldiers tramped through the gatehouse and back out again while the guard complained vociferously at being rousted from his warm hearth.
Soldiers and mage continued south, still on the hunt. Without waiting for permission Bee ran down the drive toward the house. That the guard did not chase her made me hasten after.
“We must be cautious, Bee,” I called, trying to grab her sleeve. She could really run when she wanted to. She slipped out of my grasp as she put on a burst of speed despite the pack bumping on her back. Rory was lagging behind, reluctant to press on, and weighted down with a bag in each hand. Vai had dropped back to prod him forward. They faded into night’s gloom. Ahead twin lamps burned.
A large shape passed so close over my head that I ducked instinctively. An exhalation of smoky mist spilled fiery sparks above my head. A second shape, bigger than the first, swooped down. I tackled Bee. Rising to my knees, I twisted the hilt of my sword to draw it, but the weapon hung inert in my hand, as heavy as lead.
“Down!” I cried.
With a dreadful smacking thunk, the second beast slammed into the first one and smashed it to the earth a stone’s throw away. The impact shuddered through the ground.
Bee staggered to her feet. “We’ve got to get to the house!”
Thrashing and roaring, the beasts rolled toward the drive. Claws and teeth flashed as deadly daggers, moist with fluids. A scaly tail thwacked down on the gravel drive no more than three body-lengths from where I was gaping like a lack-wit. Coming from out of nowhere, hands dragged me backward.
“Run!” Vai shouted.
“Where’s Rory?”
“I sent him back to the gate. We’re cut off. Bee! Move!”
We abandoned our gear as we bolted for the safety of the building. A harsh shriek scraped the air, curdling my blood. So frightful was the sound of teeth crunching bone that I staggered, for the vibration of the noise ground through my own bones in sympathy.
Vai did not let go of my hand as he kept us running. A gusting trumpet cry chased us. A dark shape launched into the air and, twisting, landed with a ground-shaking thud right in front of us. Together we stumbled to a halt and stared down Leviathan. Rory stalked up beside us, trembling but determined to stand with us.
The dragon was now far larger than it had been on the lawn earlier in the day. Although clouds shrouded the sky, stars glimmered in its scales like a vision of unknown shores. The head lowered to peruse us. Eyes like emeralds spun in dizzying circles. Through those spinning eyes I watched as through a window into a hazy mist where shadows of figures shuddered into view and melted away. Was that my mother, staggering through a chaos of battle, one eye bleeding and her lower arm horribly shattered so bone stuck through the torn flesh? I swayed at the sight of her blood and pain.
“Lord of All!” Vai shut his eyes so as not to be caught in the whirlpool. “The creature has cut the thread of my magic. I can’t touch the ice.”
He tried to push me behind him so it would eat him first, but I twisted out of his grasp and stepped forward. Bee yanked me back.
