Disciple of War Disciple of War (Art of the Adept #4) - Michael G. Manning Page 0,179

on the back. When it was finished, he sent the page floating toward Will. “There’s the spell I used, and on the back is the spell I used to write without a pen, since you seemed so fascinated by it.”

This time he took it out of the air, no longer worried it might be a trap. When he started to say something, the lich interrupted him with a warning. “Ask me for anything else and I won’t respond kindly.”

He had only one question. “Why?”

Grim Talek paused. “I’m not sure. I like you? It was a fun war? Take your pick. Farewell, William, and good luck with Madrok. I doubt we will meet again.”

And then he stepped outside and vanished from view. Will stared after him for a long while, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Then he looked down at the place where Rob had fallen and been tortured. The grass was torn up there, but he could see something white and angular sticking out from beneath a clod of dirt.

Cautious, he examined it carefully for any trace of magic but found none, so eventually he brushed the dirt aside. A small piece of folded paper was there. Opening it, he found a short note, presumably from Rob:

There is a spy among your officers.

Chapter 49

The next morning was quiet. Will slept in, despite the excitement that had interrupted his rest. When he finally woke, he could hear the normal sounds of a military camp outside, but no one had been allowed in to bother him. Apparently, Lieutenant Renly actually had a heart. Who knew?

He didn’t move from his cot, other than to adjust his position to allow for better blood flow. One shoulder had gotten cramped after being beneath him for too long. Instead, he stared around the interior, watching the light play through the flaps and beneath the bottom edges of the sides of his tent.

It looked like a frivolous moment of laziness, but Will’s mind was enjoying a moment of crystal clarity, the kind that only appears immediately after a solid sleep and before the urgency of life could spoil the mood with its hustle and bustle.

The goddamn cat had been right. That much was obvious, and because he was right, he wouldn’t be coming to save the day. Aislinn might be able to help, but the being that had visited him the night before was the only monster Will knew of that had frightened her and Arrogan enough that they gave up their attempts to eliminate it—and that same monster was too afraid to face Madrok.

“That does not bode well for you, Will,” he muttered to himself. It just figured that as soon as he’d finally reached the point of achieving the sort of power that might enable him to force his enemies to leave him alone that the world would go to hell. It’s never something I can handle, he thought sourly.

He spent a solid quarter of an hour feeling sorry for himself. Will reasoned that the world owed him that much at least, and then he started working through his options. The first and most obvious was making an escape.

That was the easiest course, but as he followed that train of thought, it got worse the further he went. He’d have to pick who he took with him, assuming he found a decent place to live, and also assuming he could learn enough to find such a plane. Thus far the only planes he’d ever traveled to were the fae realm and Muskeglun—and the ethereal, though he wasn’t sure if that counted.

Choosing the people he would save—that was an exercise in cruelty, and there was also the problem that many of them were likely to refuse. Laina, for example, was inordinately obsessed with her charity work. Will didn’t think she would be easily convinced to abandon Terabinia, much less the world itself. Selene was more pragmatic, but he worried she might choose similarly.

Soon enough, he abandoned the idea of running away. It might have been partly because the death of Eric had left him feeling somewhat fatalistic, but he preferred to think that maybe it was simply that he didn’t want to abandon humanity to such a dark fate. He suspected that Arrogan would have described it differently, accusing him of being suicidal. In the end, he didn’t care. I already knew something was wrong with me, he decided.

Will activated the limnthal and addressed the ring, “Back to our conversation about demon-lords…”

“I