The High Lord

smoothness of the ring.

- I asked him to stay silent, Lorlen said.

- Perhaps you didn't ask nicely enough.

Rothen dropped to one knee and swore the oath of truth. Standing up again, he looked at the Higher Magicians.

'Sonea told me that the High Lord practiced black magic over two years ago.'

The hall filled with whispers and murmuring. 'She had witnessed him taking power from his servant. Though she did not understand what she had seen, I did. I...' He looked down. 'I had heard much about the High Lord's strength and feared what he might do if challenged by the Guild. I hesitated to speak out. Before I could decide what to do, the High Lord learned that we had discovered his secret. He claimed Sonea's guardianship, and since then she has been his hostage, ensuring that I would not reveal his crime.'

As exclamations of anger and outrage filled the hall, Lorlen sighed with relief. Rothen had concealed Lorlen's part in it, and had risked nothing by mentioning his own. Then he saw why Rothen had spoken out. By revealing that Sonea had been Akkarin's victim, he might have given her a hope of reprieve.

Looking around the hall, Lorlen read shock and concern in the magicians' faces. He noted that Dannyl was staring at Rothen in open-mouthed amazement. He also noted that the novices now gazed at her in sympathy and even admiration. For a long time they had thought her unjustly favored by the High Lord. Instead she had been his prisoner.

Is she now? Lorlen wondered.

- No.

Lorlen looked from Akkarin to Sonea. He recalled the way she had obeyed Akkarin's every word when they were arrested in the underground room! He remembered her expression as she had joined Akkarin in the Entrance Hall. Something had changed her opinion of Akkarin. He felt a stab of impatience.

Lorlen raised his hand again. The magicians quietened reluctantly. He looked at Rothen.

'Do you have anything more to tell us, Lord Rothen?'

'No, Administrator.'

Lorlen looked up at the hall. 'Has anyone any further evidence to offer this Hearing?' When no answer came he looked down at Akkarin.

'Akkarin of House Velan, will you answer our questions truthfully?'

The corner of Akkarin's mouth twitched. 'I will.'

'Then swear it.'

Akkarin looked up above Lorlen's head, then dropped to one knee.

'I swear that all I speak in this Hearing will be the truth.'

The Guildhall was utterly silent. As Akkarin rose to his feet, Lorlen turned his attention to Sonea.

'Sonea, will you answer our questions truthfully?'

Her eyes widened. 'I will.'

She dropped to one knee and spoke the oath. When she had risen to her feet again, Lorlen considered all the questions he wanted to ask. Begin with the accusations, he decided.

'Akkarin,' he turned to face his former friend. 'Did you kill Lord Jolen?'

'No.'

'Have you studied and practiced black magic?'

'Yes.'

A murmur rose in the hall and quickly subsided.

'How long have you been studying and practicing black magic?'

The slightest frown passed over Akkarin's face.

'The first time... was eight years ago, before I returned to the Guild.'

A momentary silence followed that revelation, and then the hall filled with the buzz of speculation.

'Did you teach yourself, or did another teach you?'

'I learned from another magician.'

'Who was this magician?'

'I did not learn his name. I know only that he was Sachakan.'

'So he was not of the Guild.'

'No.'

Sachakan? Lorlen swallowed as foreboding began to grow in the pit of his stomach.

'Explain to us how you came to learn black magic from a Sachakan magician.'

Akkarin smiled. 'I was wondering if you would ever get around to asking.'

17 The Terrible Truth

Sonea closed her eyes as Akkarin began his story. He spoke briefly of his quest to find ancient magical knowledge, and how what he had unearthed led him to enter Sachaka. There was a self-mocking tone to his voice, as if he thought that young man he had been was a fool.

Then he described his encounter with the Ichani, Dakova. Though she had heard him recount this before, she had been too caught up in what he was telling her to notice the slight hint of remembered dismay and horror in his voice. Then bitterness crept in as he related the years he had been a slave, and the cruel ways of the Ichani.

She realized he had probably never told anyone about that time in his life until the day he had related the story to her beside the spring. He had hidden that part of his life for years, and not just because it revealed that he had learned and used black magic. It pained and humiliated him to recount what he had seen and endured.

Opening her eyes, she almost expected to see some of that pain in his face, but though his expression was serious, no emotion showed.

To the magicians in the hall, he appeared to be calm and in control. They probably didn't notice the tension in his voice. Neither would she have a few months ago. Somehow she had grown so familiar with his manner that she could see a little of what lay underneath.

She heard regret in his voice as he told of the Ichani who had offered to teach him black magic so he might murder his master. He explained that he did not expect to survive; that, even if he managed to kill Dakova, the Ichani's brother, Kariko, would hunt him down in revenge. He spoke of killing the other slaves, and then Dakova, with cold simplicity. Then he described his long journey home in a few short sentences.

His voice softened a little as he spoke of his relief at reaching the Guild, and how he had only wanted to forget Sachaka and black magic. He told how he had accepted the role of High Lord to keep himself busy, and so he could more easily keep an eye on the Ichani. He paused then, and the hall was utterly silent.

'Two years after my election I heard rumors of strange, ritual murders in the city,' he said. 'The Guard said the victims were marked in a certain way to indicate that they had been punished by the Thieves. I knew better.

'I followed the cases closely, and disguised myself so I could enter the slums, where the murders had taken place, to question and listen. When I found the murderer, he was exactly what I had suspected: a Sachakan black magician.

'Fortunately, he was weak and easily subdued. From his mind I read that he was a slave, freed and taught black magic in exchange for undertaking a dangerous mission. Kariko had sent him to gauge the strength of the Guild and, if the opportunity arose, assassinate me.

'Dakova had told Kariko much of what he had learned from me, including that the Guild had banned black magic and was much weaker than it had once been. But Kariko dared not attack the Guild alone. He needed to convince others to join him. If he could prove that the Guild was as weak as his brother had claimed, he would easily find allies among the Ichani.'