He joined his laugh to hers and walked back to his chair. “I had nearly forgotten. What were you little monsters sneaking into the academy? A pair of muddy pigs? Please, take a seat.”
“Pigs? In Astrophell?” she asked. Her chair creaked. “It was only one, very clean, goat.”
“Whatever it was, you certainly can call me Shannon now that you may carry a grand wizard’s staff.” He settled into his chair.
“Well then, Shannon, I bring word of your granddaughter.”
Shannon ’s stomach tightened. Her tone was still playful, but her words marked the end of pleasantries, the beginning of politics.
“You do?” he said, forcing his smile to neither broaden nor wilt.
Amadi cleared her throat. “She married a wealthy Ixonian merchant last year.”
“Wonderful,” he heard himself say. “What else can you tell me?”
“Little more, I’m afraid. I’ve the merchant’s name written down somewhere.” She paused. “Forgive me. It must be difficult discussing the life exile took away.”
Shannon waved away her comment. “Bah, it was no exile; I accepted this position. Besides, wizards swear off family for a reason. In the beginning, it was difficult getting only fragmented news of my son. But now I’ve promising research and dedicated students. We are discovering such fascinating things. Just this morning I received permission to begin casting my primary research spell.”
Amadi’s chair creaked. “And you’re content with such a… calm life?”
Shannon raised his eyebrows. So she suspected that he still harbored political ambitions? That might be dangerous, especially if she were reporting back to Astrophell.
“Amadi, sometimes it feels as if another author lived that bustling career in the North. Starhaven is a smaller academy, and we’re so very far from civilization. But here…” He made a show of running his gaze across his books. “Here I enjoy a slower life.”
When she did not reply, he changed the subject. “I just moved into new quarters above the Bolide Garden. Janitorial is renovating the gardens; it’s not much now, heaps of dirt and clay, but it will be beautiful. I could show you.”
Amadi’s chair creaked again. “Some Astrophell wizards have been quoting your ‘Complaint to the Long Council.’”
His grin faded. “It was my best speech.”
“Many still find it inspiring.”
“I am glad to hear it, but that life is over. There’s no use baiting my appetite for it. I stay clear of Starhaven’s intrigue. As a researcher, I can’t be completely apolitical. But because of my past, the provost and his officers are happy to leave me out of most entanglements.”
Amadi said nothing. The parchment on the table began to crinkle, likely from a breeze coming through the window.
“But never mind me,” Shannon said. “How have you spent the past four decades? Studying diplomacy perhaps? Is that where this talk of my past comes from?”
“My hood has a purple lining.”
“A sentinel? Yes, you must be wonderful.”
She cleared her throat importantly. “I command Astrophell’s lead sentinel expeditions. In fact, I led the delegation down here. I even have a personal secretary: a young Ixonian named Kale-only a lesser wizard, but bright and capable.”
“Pardon the observation, but it seems odd that Astrophell should send sentinels to our convocation.”
“The journey from the North was long. And heaven only knows why our order ever occupied this gargantuan stronghold out in the middle of nowhere. Granted, it makes a fine sight from the Westernmost Road -the highest tower spiring up from the mountainside to dwarf the peaks behind.”
Shannon rested his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers. “But Amadi, why should Astrophell send sentinels with its delegation?”
“The diplomats needed protection.”
“I see.”
“ Shannon, is this room safe from prying ears?”
He nodded. “Quite safe. Do you bring news from abroad?”
“News from within.”
Shannon leaned forward. “Go on.”
Amadi shifted in her seat and half-whispered: “Murder in Starhaven.”
Shannon ’s heart began to strike. “Who?”
“This is a sensitive issue, one that must be hidden until the convocation is over. The delegates must renew the treaties.”
“I’m aware of that. Now will you tell me who has been killed?”
“Bear with me, Magister. Five hours ago a janitorial gargoyle working beneath the Spindle Bridge discovered what he thought to be a dying woman.”
“What he thought was a dying woman?”
“She was already dead, but her body was still filling itself with a virulent Numinous misspell. The gargoyle, having secondary cognition, assumed she was still alive and took her to the deputy provost of libraries. She, in turn, reported to the provost, who related the information to me.”
Shannon paused. “You said this woman fell from the Spindle?”
“So it seems. What can you tell me of the bridge?”
Shannon wondered how much information he should share. Amadi had leaped to the top of the sentinel ranks, and such a feat would be impossible without the support of several factions that despised Shannon. He decided to share only common knowledge until he knew more.
“You seem troubled,” Amadi said. “Is it odd that this woman was on the Spindle?”
“Surpassingly odd,” he said at last. “According to the historians, the Chthonic people built the bridge not long after they finished Starhaven. But it leads nowhere. Spans nearly a mile of air only to run into a cliff. The Chthonics did cut beautiful designs into the rock. Just north of the bridge’s end is a foliate pattern-ivy leaves, I believe-and south is a hexagonal pattern.”
“Any explanation for the carvings? Or the bridge itself?”
Shannon shrugged. “Folktales about the Chthonics building a road to a paradise called Heaven Tree Valley. Supposedly when the Neosolar Empire began to massacre the Chthonics, their goddess led them to the Heaven Tree and dropped a mountain on the road. Some say the Spindle once led to that road.”
“Any evidence to support such a tale?”
“None. But every so often, the historians probe the mountainside with text, trying to open the way to the Heaven Tree. They’ve found only rock.” He paused. “Do you think the murder is connected to any of this?”
The soft swish of moving cloth told Shannon that Amadi was shifting in her seat again. “Not that I can see,” she said and then sighed.
Shannon paused before he spoke again. “Amadi, I am shocked and grieved by this tragedy. And yet… please don’t think me heartless, but I don’t want to become involved. I must think of my research and my students. Helping you might drag me into political situations. As I said, I am a different man than I was in the North. But if you refrain from mentioning my name, I’ll give whatever advice I can. But I’d still need to know the victim’s name.”
A long pause. She spoke: “Nora Finn, the grammarian.”
“Sweet heaven!” Shannon whispered in shock. Nora had been the Drum Tower ’s dean and his fiercest academic rival.
Instantly his mind spun with the possible implications of the murder. It might be an indirect attack by old enemies. It might also be connected to the restless guardian spells and Nicodemus’s prowler on top of the Stacks. That would make the Drum Tower the focus of the intrigue.
Shannon fingered the asterisks on the spine of his journal. His enemies might hope to exact revenge by harming his students. His thoughts jumped to Nicodemus. The boy’s cacography had proven he was not the Halcyon, but Shannon ’s enemies in Astrophell might have heard his name and so marked him as their target.
Or, far less likely but more frightening, the boy might have some unknown connection to the Erasmine
