Undead

The soldier who'd spoken before wiped his mouth and stuck the stopper back in his waterskin. 'If we're worried about it, the army can just steer clear of them.'

'We can,' Bareris said, 'but only by leaving the road, which slows the march. The tharchions won't do that unless it's proven to be necessary. It's our job to determine whether it is.'

'Does that mean prowling around on top of the rocks?' another warrior asked.

'Yes,' Bareris said, 'but maybe not all of them. One of the larger fragments has a walled stone house on it, grander and more defensible than the buildings on any of the others. It's the structure I'd occupy if I were going to install myself up there, and it's where we'll begin our search. Up!' He kicked his mount in the flanks, and it spread its wings and sprang into the air.

They all climbed above the island, then spiraled down toward it. When they landed in the courtyard, symbols graven above the door became visible, stylized representations of a lightning bolt, a snowflake, and other emblems of elemental forces with a hand hovering above as if to manipulate them all. The place was, or had been, a chapterhouse of the Order of Evocation.

'This,' said Bareris, 'looks like an ideal place for necromancers to set up shop.' He swung himself off his griffon and his subordinates dismounted. Tammith changed to her human form.

Bareris climbed the steps to the sharply arched door and tried the handle. 'Locked,' he said.

'Perhaps by enchantment,' Tammith said.

'With luck, it won't matter.' He sang, and his magic set sparkling motes dancing in the air. Tammith remembered how amazed he'd been the first time he'd sung and produced not merely melody but a green shimmer and the scent of pine, the moment when he'd discovered he was a true bard. Once they realized what it meant, she'd felt just as elated.

She wished she'd died then, or during one of the happy times that followed. Any time, really, before he made up his mind to sail away and seek his fortune.

He twisted the handle and the door creaked open on blackness. He drew his sword and sang luminescence into the blade. The steel shined with a white light brighter and steadier than the flicker of any torch.

'Come on,' he said.

'Let me take the lead,' Tammith said. 'My senses are sharper, and I can withstand attacks that would kill a mortal.'

He scowled as if he found the suggestion distasteful, but he said, 'All right. Just don't range too far ahead. We're stronger if we stay together.'

Beyond the door was a spacious entry hall, its appointments reflecting the luxury Red Wizards took for granted. The walls rose the full three-story height of the house, to one railed gallery, then another, and finally to a stained-glass skylight.

Nothing moved-nothing but the intruders and their long black shadows flowing across the walls. The house remained silent. But Tammith smelled tears, mucus, sweat, and the sour stink of fear. It was the way her prey often smelled when they realized she was about to feed on them.

'Someone's here,' she said. She led her companions up two flights of stairs to the upper gallery, then opened the door to a small, sparsely furnished chamber with a narrow bed. A servant's quarters, or perhaps an apprentice's. The thump of a racing heart led her to the wooden chest by the wall.

The box wasn't very big. The lanky Mulan boy in the patched red robe surely hadn't found it easy to fold himself compactly enough to fit inside. When Tammith lifted the lid, he yelped and goggled up at her.

'Easy,' Tammith said, 'we're friends, here to help you.'

'It's true,' Bareris said, stepping beside her. 'We serve the council, not Szass Tam. Come out of there.' He reached to help the lad up.

Instead of taking the proffered hand, the boy pulled his own in closer to his chest. 'I can't. It isn't safe. I haven't heard them in a while, but I know they're still here.'

Bareris shot a glance at one of his men. The legionnaire nodded and positioned himself at the door.

'It's all right,' Tammith told the apprentice, 'we'll protect you. Please, stand up.' She locked eyes with him and stabbed with the force of her will.

The youth's resistance crumbled, and he suffered her to lift him out of the chest. Still, his eyes rolled and he trembled, so frightened her powers couldn't numb him.

'Tell us who you're hiding from,' Bareris said. 'Is it northerners?'

'Northerners?' The apprentice shook his head.

'Who, then?' Bareris persisted. 'Does this have something to do with the blue fire?'

The boy closed his eyes and tears oozed out from under the lids. 'Yes. Some of the folk ran away, but the wizards cast the runes and said the flames would miss the town. They laughed at the people who ran!'

'But the flames didn't miss,' Tammith said.

'No. I don't know if the wave split in two or what, but suddenly the fires were here. Some of the mages translated themselves away to safety, but most of us didn't know how. Travel magic's not a part of evocation. And those who knew didn't bother to carry the rest.

'It hurt when the wave swept through. It was like drowning in pain and glare. But afterward, everything seemed the same, and we laughed and cheered, even after we realized no one else was rushing into the streets to do the same. Because we'd survived, even if the rest of Solzepar hadn't. We decided the wards bound into the foundations of the house had saved us.'

'But they hadn't,' Bareris said.

'No,' the novice said. 'In time, it occurred to us that we ought to let our superiors know we were still alive, but that the rest of the town was likely dead. We had an enchanted mirror in our library that allowed us to communicate from afar, and we all gathered around it. And that was when the spells came alive.'

Tammith didn't understand. Judging from Bareris's frown, he didn't either. 'What spells?' he asked.

'The spells in the scrolls and books on the shelves,' the apprentice said. 'I don't know how else to put it. They jumped out all at once, crazy jagged forms whirling around us, all flashing or rimmed with blue. Then one of them, some sort of frost, poured itself into Mistress Kranna's eyes.'

'You mean it possessed her?' Bareris asked. 'That doesn't make sense. Spells aren't demons. They're just… formulae.'

'But it did,' the novice said, 'and as soon as she was a person and the spell both, she grabbed Master Zaras and he fell down. I think the shock of the cold stopped his heart. Then a shadow squirmed into his ear, and he got up again and reached to hurt someone else.

'Half of us were either changed or dead and changed in less time than it takes to tell it. I ran and hid. That's all I know.'

'What about this piece of ground, and the others like it, rising into the air?' Tammith asked.

'What? What are you talking about?'

She realized he truly had no idea. He'd been in the chest when the phenomenon began. 'You'll see in due course,' she said. 'For now, don't worry about it.'

'We're leaving,' Bareris said.

'Without searching the rest of the building or any of the other islands?' she asked.

'Yes. We've seen and heard enough to know what's happening here, and it's not the enemy laying a trap for us. It's the lingering effect of the blue fire tainting the earth. We'll tell the tharchions, and they can decide what to do about it. We don't need-'

'Something's coming,' said the sentry at the door.

Tammith rushed to his side and looked down the gallery. Most likely the sentry could only perceive a shadow shuffling in the gloom, but a vampire's eyes saw more clearly. It was a Red Wizard approaching, lurching and flopping as if half his bones were broken.

Yet somehow he contrived to hobble faster, even as he started to shudder. A whine arose, not from his throat, but from all of him. Tammith inferred that he had absorbed a sound-producing magic, and the power was manifesting. Tongues of blue fire licked around his body.

She stepped onto the walkway, stared into his eyes, and tried to stifle his will. It was no use. Perhaps he had some sort of sentience remaining, but she couldn't even feel his mind, let alone grab hold of it.

The droning abruptly swelled into a deafening roar. The gallery shook, and focused noise smashed into Tammith like a battering ram, flinging her onto her back.