did not move, looked all about the room. He saw marks of blackness, supernatural shadows, on the floor beside the bodies of the dead assassins and sensed a brooding evil there.
The spirits were gone, and Cadderly got the impression their journey had been forced, that they had been torn away.
feuld they receive punishment in an afterlife?
The thought did not bring compassion to Cadderly. He stared hard at the puddles of residual blackness. He thought of recalling one of those lost spirits, to question it about Avery's spirit, but dismissed the notion as absurd. The fate awaiting these souls had nothing to do with what awaited the goodly headmaster.
With sudden insight, Cadderly reached with his thoughts beyond the parameters of the room, sent out a general call to the heavens for his lost mentor's departed spirit.
The answer he received did not come in the form of words, or even images. A sensation swept over Cadderly, an emotion imparted to him by Headmaster Avery - he knew it came from Avery! It was a calmness, a contentment beyond anything Cadderly had ever experienced, divine.
A bright light gave way to nothingness. . . .
Ivan and Danica helped the young priest to his feet. Cadderly, coming fully from his trance, looked at Danica with a most sincere smile.
"He is with Deneir," Cadderly told her, and the joy in his voice prevented any reply.
Cadderly realized that his headache had flown. He, too, had found contentment.
"What do ye know?" Ivan asked him, and Cadderly understood that the dwarf was not speaking of Avery's fate. Danica also looked at the enlightened young priest curiously.
Cadderly did not immediately answer. Pieces of this puzzle seemed to be falling from the sky. Cadderly looked over to the dead assassins, then looked to Brennan and Frede-gar, in the thick of an unabashed hug.
Cadderly knew where he would find more of those tumbling puzzle pieces.
The passing hours came as reassurance to Ghost, who sat quietly in his room, going about his day as routinely as he could. Massacres were certainly not a common thing in Carradoon, but these were troubled times and Ghost was confident that the news would grow stale soon enough. Then young Cadderly would become vulnerable to him once more.
Thoughts of abandoning the mission had crossed the assassin's mind soon after he had learned that Cadderly had escaped - and that many of his Night Masks had not. He dismissed those thoughts, though, choosing instead to personalize this kill even more. He would get Cadderly, get him through one of his friends, and the young priest's death would be all the sweeter.
Ghost was a bit dismayed when he saw Bogo depart, more because he wanted Bogo to serve as a scapegoat if Cadderly and his friends closed in on the truth than for any practical services the wizard might provide.
The wicked man looked out his window at the afternoon sun's reflection on quiet Impresk Lake. He saw the bridge to the island dearly, saw the masons huddled out there, in boats and on the structure itself, studying the wide break.
Ghost shook his head and chuckled. He had already contacted \&nder telepathically, back at the farm, and knew that Cadderly had precipitated that break. Four men had returned to the farm - four out of fourteen.
Ghost continued to stare at the gaping break in the great bridge. Cadderly had beaten them; Ghost was impressed.
But he was not worried.
Every detail of the battle scene - Avery's presence in the hearth room, where he should not have been; the curious, continued absence of Kierkan Rufo, who had come down from his room only long enough to identify Avery's body and answer the city guards' few questions; even the peculiar scorch mark on Pikel's tunic - registered clearly in Cadderly's mind, came together in the overall picture he was forming.
He spoke with Brennan, though the young man's recollections were foggy at best, dreamlike. That fact alone confirmed Cadderly's suspicions of what had happened to Danica. The young priest made a point of telling Brennan to keep out of sight, and bade Fredegar to not tell anyone that his son was alive again.
"\ftfe must press on quickly," Cadderly explained to his three companions, gathered around him in an out-of-the-way room. "Our enemies are confused for now, but they are stubborn and will regroup."
Danica leaned back in her seat and placed her feet on the table in front of her. "You are likely the most weary among us," she replied. "If you are ready to