The Spell of the Black Dagger loe-6

by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Before the captain could touch the white-robed figure, however, Abran raised his hands, spoke a single strange word, and vanished.

  “Damn,” Tikri said, stopping short. Sarai bit her lip. This was magic, of course. Well, she had some of that available herself, just now. “Okko! Mereth!” she called. “Did you see where Abran went? Is he still here, invisible?” “Keep the doors closed!” Tikri called. Okko’s voice sounded from his hiding place. “I find no trace of him.”

  And no trace was ever found—a search of the room turned up nothing, a hastily summoned witch could detect no sign that anyone fitting Abran’s description had ever been hi the Great Council Chamber. A canvass of the inns failed to locate any such visiting foreigner.

  Okko and Mereth agreed that he had been there, however, and Okko said that there had been no sign at any time in the conversation that Abran was lying.

  When Sarai finally retired, late that night, she was unsure just what she had seen and spoken to, unsure whether to believe what he had told her—but all in all, she thought that he was most likely just what he said he was, that he had spoken the simple truth, and departed by means of a prepared spell of some sort. If so, then Demerchan was not responsible, nor, she believed, were any of the other magicians’ groups—except, perhaps, the Wizards’ Guild.

  CHAPTER 19

  Teneria of Fishertown arrived the next day, a thin, solemn young woman Sarai judged to be not yet twenty.

  Sarai had intended to arrange a meeting with representatives of the Wizards’ Guild, rather as she had with the Council of Warlocks, but the witch’s arrival distracted her from that; instead, she settled down in Captain Tikri’s office and chatted with Teneria about the connections and differences between witchcraft and warlockry—or tried to. “I understand you’re a witch, but that you’re supposed to be expert on the other sorts of magicians,” Sarai said.

  Teneria shook her head. “Not all magicians, my lady. It just happens that a little over a year ago I found myself in the company of a warlock for a time, and the two of us discovered some interesting things about our two varieties of magic. Where most magicks conflict one with another, we found that we could make ours work together, and thereby become more than the sum of their parts. So since then I’ve tried to study the interactions between witchcraft and the other magicks—but I haven’t learned much, yet. I’ve been too busy earning a living and living my life.”

  Sarai nodded. “What became of the warlock, then?”

  Teneria hesitated. “He went to Aldagmor,” she said at last.

  Sarai blinked.

  “Went to Aldagmor?” Captain Tikri asked. “How do you mean...?”

  Teneria shrugged, and Sarai waved Tikri to silence. “Went to Aldagmor” surely meant that he was drawn by the Calling, and was gone forever; no warlock ever returned from Aldagmor. If Teneria’s interest in him had been personal, as well as professional, the subject was probably a painful one, and it didn’t seem relevant to the matter at hand.

  The conversation continued, and the two were just getting comfortable with one another when a knock sounded on the office door.

  Tikri answered it, as Sarai and Teneria watched. They heard a woman’s voice say, “Hello, Captain; I wasn’t sure you were in, your door isn’t usually closed.”

  Sarai recognized the voice. “That’s Mereth of the Golden Door,” she told Teneria. “She’s a wizard specializing in divinations.”

  “What can I do for you, wizard?” Tikri asked.

  “I just wanted to be sure that Lady Sarai wouldn’t be needing me today,” Mereth replied. “I have a meeting to go to...”. Tikri glanced at Lady Sarai, who frowned. What sort of a meeting was Mereth talking about? “Bring her in,” she told the captain.

  Tikri opened the door and motioned for Mereth to enter; she stepped in, looked around the cluttered little room, and spotted Sarai and Teneria. Teneria rose from her chair.

  “Oh, hello, Lady Sarai,” she said cheerfully.

  “Good morning, Mereth,” Sarai answered. “I’d like you to meet Teneria of Fishertown; she’s a witch who will be helping us investigate the murders. From Ethshar of the Spices.”

  “Oh,” Mereth said, startled. “You’re bringing in foreign advisers, too?”

  “Yes, I thought...” Sarai stopped hi midsentence. Something about the way Mereth had phrased her question had belatedly caught her attention. “What do you mean, ’too’?” she asked.

  Mereth looked flustered. “Well, I mean the Wizards’ Guild has been sending for experts as part of their investigations— there’s a wizard from the Small Kingdoms called Tobas of Telven who’s due to arrive any day now, and a witch who works with him named Karanissa of the Mountains.”

  “A witch?” Sarai asked. A witch working with a wizard? She glanced at Teneria.

  Mereth shrugged. “That’s what I heard. And they’re trying to find Fendel the Great: they hope they can convince him to come out of retirement...”

  Sarai started; even before she became Minister of Investigation and began seriously studying magic, she had heard of Fen-del the Great. She had thought he was long dead. “Wait a minute,” Sarai said. “What do they want with these people? What do you mean, ’their investigations’?”

  “Well, I mean their investigation of the murders, of course, Lady Sarai. After all, it involves wizards—someone murdered a Guildmaster, and that means that everyone responsible must die as quickly and horribly as possible, and then there’s the fact that whoever did it used wizardry, and the Guild doesn’t allow anyone to use wizardry except real wizards, and besides, the magic involved might be an entirely new spell, and the Guild...” “And they didn ’t tell me!” Sarai shouted. Mereth, cowed, blinking at her silently. “What’s this meeting you were going to?” Sarai demanded. “Is it connected with this?”

  Mereth nodded. “I’m supposed to meet the Guildmasters at the Cap and Dagger and tell them what I know from helping you,” she explained timidly. “Ordinarily I suppose they’d use the Guildhouse, but they...” “When?” Sarai demanded. “Noon.”

  “Where is this Cap and Dagger? That’s an inn?” Mereth nodded. “On Gate Street, between Wizard and Arena,” she said.

  “Good,” Sarai said, rising from her chair. “Captain Tikri, I want as many guardsmen as you can find to accompany me; Teneria, I would appreciate it if you would join us. Mereth, I am going with you to this meeting.” “I don’t...” Mereth began uncertainly. “I didn’t ask,” Sarai snapped.

  An hour later, as noon approached, Mereth walked up Gate Street with a burly soldier on either side; immediately behind her came Sarai and Teneria, and following the two of them came Captain Tikri at the head of three dozen uniformed men. The normal midday traffic stepped aside as this formidable party approached, and they arrived unhindered at the door of a large and elegant inn, where a signboard above the door displayed a silver dagger across a red-and-gold wizard’s cap.

  At Sarai’s order, soldiers flung open the door of the inn and marched in with swords drawn.

  Close behind them, Sarai marched into the common room and found a dozen astonished men and women in magician’s robes looking up at this unexpected intrusion. She saw Algarin of Longwall, Heremon the Mage, and a few other familiar faces among them.

  “What is the meaning of this?” demanded an elderly man Sarai recognized as Telurinon, the senior Guildmaster. “You’re interrupting a private gathering, young woman.”

  Sarai announced, “Guildmaster Telurinon, you will address me properly. I am Lady Sarai, Acting Minister of Justice, and you are all under suspicion of treason.” That created a stir, during which Sarai stepped into the room and allowed Mereth, Teneria, Tikri, and the other soldiers to enter, crowding the good-sized room.

  “What are you talking about?” lelurinon demanded. A soldier thrust the point of his sword toward the wizard’s throat, and Telurinon belatedly and begrudgingly added, “My lady.”

  “I am talking about what appears to be deliberate subversion of the criminal
-justice system of this city,” Sarai explained. “You wizards have been withholding information from the Minister of Investigation, refusing to speak with her, while using undue influence on her employees to obtain the results of her own efforts.”

  “Aren’t you the Minister of Investigation?” someone asked. Sarai nodded. “That’s right,” she said, “but right now I’m here as Minister of Justice—since you all chose to ignore my invitations as Minister of Investigation.”

  “What’s going on?” a white-haired wizard asked. “I thought we were all here because some rogue was using wizardry without our leave; I want no part of treason.”

  “You are all here,” Sarai said, “because someone, or some group, is responsible for killing half a dozen innocent citizens of Ethshar, most of them magicians. It’s my belief that this is the work of some sort of cult or conspiracy, one that is based on magic, and because of that I formally requested the assistance of the Wizards’ Guild to help me find those guilty of these crimes, so that they may be stopped. My requests were ignored.”

  “Why don’t you find them yourself?” Algarin shouted. “You claim to be the overlord’s investigator—investigate it yourself, then!”

  “I have,” Sarai replied angrily.

  “From what I’ve heard so far, you’ve hired a bunch of magicians to investigate, you haven’t done anything yourself!”

  “And just what would you suggest I do?” Sarai demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Algarin replied. “I’m a wizard, and while I may have worked for your father a few times, I don’t pretend to be an investigator!”

  “Then don’t tell me how to do my job,” Sarai retorted. “I’ve investigated this. We’ve questioned everyone connected with the victims, everyone who was involved; we’ve looked at all the evidence we can find.”

  “Ha! You’re just taking credit for work that was done by magicians—wizards, mostly!”

  “I’m not taking credit for anything,” Sarai answered. “There’s no credit to take—we haven’t caught the people behind these killings. And that’s why I’m asking everyone here to help, to tell me anything you can that might help.” “Why should we?”

  “Why shouldn’t you?” Sarai put her hands to her hips and shouted angrily, “This conspiracy, if that’s what it is, killed one of your own Guildmasters! Don’t you want Serem the Wise avenged? Aren’t you worried that you might be next? Or with all this talk about credit, are you worried that wizards might get the blame for these killings? It’s wizardry that’s at the heart of them, as far as we can determine—is the Guild covering something up?” “You ’re the one who’s covering up!” the wizard shouted back. “ You ’re the one who isn’t getting her job done! And it’s because it’s magicians getting killed, because you want the Wizards’ Guild to take the blame!”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” another wizard asked, before Sarai could reply.

  “It’s true!” Algarin insisted. “She’s jealous of us all, jealous of our magic! We solve far more crimes with our spells than she does with her so-called investigations, and she’s jealous!”

  Telurinon, who had stood silently during this argument, spoke again. “I believe I see the reason for this baseless charge of treason. She’s Lord Kalthon’s daughter; he’s ill, probably dying, and we’ve refused to heal him—the Guild does not heal aristocrats, as you all know, and perhaps Lady Sarai resents that. I’ve heard these nobles claim we’re all playing at being gods and getting above ourselves when we make such rules; maybe the lady would like to put us back in our place.”

  Captain Tikri’s ringers were closed on the hilt of his sword, but Sarai put out a hand and stopped him before he could draw it. “No violence,” she whispered, “not with so much magic here.”

  With Lady Sarai thus distracted for a moment, Mereth tried to speak in her defense; other voices rose in protest against

  Telurinon’s words as well, and in seconds the entire room was a chaos of shouting and arguing voices. Fists waved in the air; none, so far, had been aimed at anyone.

  “You have no right to blame us because you can’t find the people responsible!” someone shouted at Sarai.

  “I’m not blaming you!” Sarai shouted back. “I’m just asking you to help me find them!”

  She let the bickering continue for a moment longer, but when it showed no sign of reaching any conclusion, Sarai shouted over the hubbub, “Guildmaster Telurinon! Whatevermy reasons, the charge stands and requires an answer—why did you refuse my request for a meeting and the Guild’s assistance in this?”

  Telurinon turned back to face her, abandoning his argument with other Guildmasters.

  “Because, my lady,” he said, “this is a matter that the Wizards’ Guild wishes to handle on its own. Someone has killed a Guildmaster; we cannot allow that person to be brought before the overlord’s courts, or thrown in the overlord’s dungeon— whoever it is must die, as horribly and publicly as possible, as a direct result of our Guild’s actions.”

  “Well, damn it,” Lady Sarai shouted, “why didn’t you meet with me and soy so?”

  The argument died away, as the wizards turned to listen.

  “I have no problem with recognizing the Guild’s claim to vengeance,” Sarai said. “The overlord’s government makes no claims to priority in these matters. I would be delighted to arrange terms whereby, in exchange for the Guild’s cooperation, I would, as Acting Minister of Justice, turn the guilty parties over to the Guild for execution.” Telurinon blinked stupidly at her.

  “Well, there, Telurinon,” Heremon called. “I told you you were being hasty.” Several other voices murmured agreement.

  “You barged in here, accused us of treason...” Telurinon began.

  “I had to get your attention,” Sarai retorted. “You were ignoring me.”

  “You brought all these soldiers...”

  “I can send them away. If you’ll agree that we’ll all sit down together and pool our information, and that henceforth I am to be kept informed of everything the Guild learns about this matter and every action it takes concerning it, then I’ll send the soldiers away.” She smiled at Telurinon. “What do you say, Guildmas-ter?”

  Telurinon turned helplessly to the other wizards; a moment later, with Telurinon abstaining and only Algarin dissenting, they had agreed to do as Sarai suggested.

  Swords were sheathed and the soldiers dismissed, all save Captain Tikri and two others who remained as Sarai’s assistant and bodyguards. Mereth, Sarai, Teneria, and Tikri found seats, and the meeting began.

  The discussion started well enough; Sarai gave an account of the known crimes to date and let Mereth report on what her spells had shown her. Then Sarai spoke again, mentioning that both wizardry and warlockry had been involved.

  “We were aware of that, my lady,” Telurinon said chidingly. Sarai ignored him and recounted the other meetings she had held with Okko and the witches and warlocks; Mereth confirmed what she said. The wizards seemed to be especially interested in the evidence that the Council of Warlocks knew nothing about the killings and had no magic that could help.

  For their part, the wizards reported that they knew little about the actual killings beyond the fact that the murders had involved magic. A necromancer by the name of Thengor reported that his own studies indicated no theurgical or demonological involvement and that the souls of the victims were nowhere in the World, while some of the others expressed doubts about the accuracy of any necromantic reports.

  “We did discover,” Heremon said, when Thengor had finished, “that whatever magic was involved is a sort of negative wizardry—it appeared to counteract any wizardry used in its presence. Guildmaster Serem did not come by his cognomen ’the Wise’ entirely without earning it; while he was notoriously careless about the usual wards and warning spells, he had cast several personal protective spells upon himself. The murderer’s weapon seems to have instantaneously nullified all of them when it struck.”

  That was inter
esting, and something Sarai had not known; she leaned forward attentively.

  “That’s why we sent for Tobas,” Algarin said.

  Sarai looked at him questioningly, but it was Heremon who explained, “Tobas of Telven is a young wizard who has made a specialty of the study of counterwizardries, of spells that prevent other spells from functioning. He lives in the Small Kingdoms, but Guildmaster Telurinon has invited him to join us here in Ethshar, to see if he can tell us anything about the magic this killer uses.”

  Sarai nodded.

  That seemed to conclude the exchange of information; the Guild had gotten no further in actually determining the identity of the killers than Sarai had. Accordingly, Sarai and Telurinon threw the meeting open to speculation.

  “Lady Sarai, you said it might be a cult,” a woman asked. “I know what Thengor told us, but do you think it might be demonologists after all? Maybe it’s the demons themselves using the other magicks—they can do that, can’t they?”

  “What kind of a cult?” another voice demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Sarai replied. “A cult of assassins, maybe...”

  “Demerchan!” The name was repeated by half a dozen voices.

  “No,” Sarai said, “I don’t think so.” She described her unexpected visit from Abran of Demerchan. Mereth confirmed her account.

  “Maybe it’s the Empire of Vond that’s behind the killings,” a woman suggested. “Wasn’t Vond himself supposed to be some sort of superwarlock?”

  “Call in the Vondish ambassador, Lady Sarai! Demand an explanation!”

  “No, it’s Demerchan!”

  Several voices chimed in with their opinions, and for a moment, chaos reigned.

  “What could Vond hope to gain by killing those six people?” “Fear!”

  “Magic!”

  “They knew too much!” “It’s a sacrifice to a demon!”

  “Not Demerchan, Vond! Vond is doing it to disrupt and weaken the Hegemony!”

  “Demerchan is killing them to prepare the way to take over the city!”