spells she hadn't thought of in tendays crowding into her memory, waiting to be spoken-but evaporating as quickly as they surged forward.
She pressed the burlap more firmly against her face.
Son of a barghest, she thought. The smoke was a magic enhancer.
A minor class of intoxicants, but one that made for interesting study-magic enhancers made it easier to cast spells and gave one access to more power. Usually short-lived, usually overflowing with side effects, they were hard to obtain. And hard to hide.
The confusion of the moment was rapidly subsumed by anger.
She was the one unsuited to the Art? She was the one who couldn't properly do magic? Rhinzen Halnian, Master of the House of Wonder, was enhancing his spells and calling her a waste of time. Telling her it was for the good of the city that she be released from study.
Gods, what a mess, she thought, glaring up at the ceiling. What an utter mess.
The sound of his breathing slowed, shuddering in and out of him as if his lungs were trembling.
Tennora longed to gasp in air for him. But it meant he was asleep or entranced, or at the least unconscious. She moved very carefully to her feet.
Rhinzen lay insensate, his eyes twitching feverishly beneath their lids. Blood flushed his cheeks, and his lips were slightly parted, drying on the wind of his breath. He didn't react to Tennora's movement, but she stood watching the rise and fall of his chest for as many breaths as she could bear before turning back to the case.
She took a deep breath through the cloth and held it, before dropping the bag and pulling the picks out of her belt.
The cabinets were locked, but not warded-no one could enter the tower without passing through the wards at the doors. Master Halnian's only concern would be overzealous students. The locks were well made and sturdy, but Tennora worked quickly and quietly.
The gorget's moonstone sparkled lavender, indigo, and silver. She lifted it gently off the stand. Nothing went off-no alarms, no traps-and she breathed a sigh of relief.
She had it.
Master Halnian stirred, grazing consciousness enough to mumble half the words of a spell. Tennora froze, but the magic sputtered and the spell failed. Master Halnian twitched and slipped back into sleep.
With the drug in him, Master Halnian was as good as a trap. The longer she stayed, the more likely she was to get caught by his mumblings. Gorget still in hand, Tennora crept back out of the room, easing the latch shut with the softest of clicks.
Just like that, she was out. A grin tugged at the comers of her mouth, unbidden. She had done it. She yanked the opening of the bag wide.
Footsteps raced up the stairs. Tennora spun around and threw her back against the slight recess of the door. She winced at the thud, but Master Halnian didn't stir.
The slap of sandals came closer, and Cassian appeared before her. He skidded to a halt, looking guilty. Then he seemed to realize Tennora didn't belong there.
'Tennora?' Cassian said, looking her over, bewildered. 'What are you wearing? What are you doing here?' He looked down at the gorget, halfway into her haversack. 'Is that…?'
'Cassian,' she said in warning tone. 'This isn't your concern.'
'Tennora, whatever you think you're doing, it's a very bad idea.' Cassian reached for the sack. She pulled it out of his reach and stepped into the hall.
'This isn't your concern.'
'Cassian?' a third voice called. A slim young woman, an elf with black hair to the middle of her back, came up the stairs with a bottle of zzar in her hand. Another apprentice-Shava. 'What are you-' Spotting Tennora, she froze. 'Oh.' 'Oh indeed,' Tennora said. 'Looks like I'm not the only one breaking rules.'
Shava hid the zzar behind her back. Cassian blushed. 'There is a world of difference between taking some drink and taking a priceless artifact. Give me the sack.'
Tennora took a step back. 'Not a chance. I need it.'
'Tennora, this isn't like you,' Cassian said. 'You're a good girl. You don't steal from Master Halnian. You don't keep up with people like that… that Nester woman. What changed? Where's the old Tennora?'
Tennora laughed, mostly at herself. 'Cassian, please. I have an appointment to keep.'
When she started to leave, Cassian moved in front of her. 'I'm better than you at spells,' he said. 'Don't make me stop you.'
'I'm not going to make you do anything,' Tennora replied, and kept walking. Cassian grabbed her arm.
'I'll tell your aunt,' he said.
Tennora looked down at his hand on her arm, appalled that she'd ever thought highly of him. 'Are we in the nursery? So you'll tell my aunt-who do you think she'll believe? Who do you think she'll want to believe?' She shook him off. 'Let me tell you something about noble families, Cassian, because it might come in handy someday when you're a wand for hire. When it's our business, we can be at each other's throats. When it comes from outside, we're a wall you can't break. She won't believe you because it's better you're a jealous liar. Besides'-she smiled bitterly-'who'd ever believe poor, sweet Tennora was capable of anything like robbery?'
Behind him, Shava had set the bottle of zzar down, moving with slow care. She brought her hands up and started the movements of a spell-not one Tennora knew, but an attack spell, clearly. Tennora was careful not to let on that she'd noticed, and counted the beats of Shava's casting.
Wait, she thought. Wait.
Cassian stepped back. 'You won't get away with this.'
She sighed. 'And you'll probably never forgive me for this. Sorry, Cass.' She grabbed him by the arm and swung him between her and Shava just as the spell went off. Shava shrieked and tried at the last moment to redirect the force, but it was too late. Cassian took the brunt of the concussion of sound, though its edge crashed into Tennora. Her legs quivered, her ears throbbed, and she felt as if moving would pitch her forward through the floor and down into the Abyss itself. She edged toward the stairs as Shava rushed to Cassian, who lay even more dazed and shaken on the floor.
By the time Tennora had gotten one foot balanced on the top stair and shaken the sensation that she would fall, Shava had managed to get Cassian to his feet. He leaned heavily on the elf girl.
'Tennora-' he started.
The door banged open. Master Halnian, eyes wild and body swaying, took in the three of them. His face was flushed, and his eyes focused on spots that held no one and nothing. His robe was torn open at the collar, and the muscles on his pale and fine-boned chest stood out, sinewy and taut as ropes.
'Master Halnian,' Cassian said, 'thank goodness. We have a very serious problem-'
Master Halnian answered with a howl like a beast's that collapsed into a string of nonsense. 'Never never and the blood of the moon is so black!' he cried. All three students took a step backward, away from the master.
'Master Halnian?' Shava asked. 'Are you-'
'Stop the fires! Stop the burning!' he cried. The air between his hands burgeoned with a spell that shivered and wavered. 'You'll not needle me, devils! I have the body and the blood and the might of the goddess! Don't drink me! Don't needle me!'
The spell flashed blue. Master Halnian raised his hands over his head. 'You'll not needle me!'
'Get down!' Tennora shouted, and pushed Shava and Cassian to the ground just before a ball of lightning exploded out from Master Halnian's hands. As with Nestrix's breath, the lightning threw her backward.
She pulled herself to her feet. Her ears were ringing, and she fought to find her way away from the drug- addled spells of her former eladrin.
Master Halnian sprang at her with a scream and knocked her back down, driving the wind from her lungs. His slender hands gripped her by the shoulders as fiercely as an eagle's talons. His gaze seemed to meet the middle of her head.
'Selune, give me back my powdered power!' he pleaded, tears forming in his bloodshot eyes. 'The devils take the broken blood!' He shook her violently, jarring her against the marble floors. He was stronger than he looked. 'The devils take the innocent! They eat his mother's heart!'
Tennora brought her knee up and forced him off her, to the side. His bony fingers clung to her, leaving bruises, but her kick pushed him away.
