Westeven be buried in the Wings of Adom cemetery. I’m sure Lady Winceslav would agree.”
Tamas lay a hand on Sabastenien’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he said. Such a thing was the greatest honor. The Wings of Adom were tough ranks to join living, harder to join dead.
Sabastenien left Tamas alone with the body. Tamas lay his hat on Westeven’s chest and took a deep breath.
“A poor scrap to go out in,” Tamas said. “I’m sorry, my friend. Yet you went out fighting for what you believed. I’ve got the Kez to deal with next, and how I wish I had you by my side for that.”
Chapter 13
She’s here,” Julene said.
Taniel frowned at the Privileged mercenary. She wore a wicked small smile, tugged up farther on one side by the scar on her face, and her eyes were unnaturally wide. It reminded Taniel of a cougar he’d once seen at a circus. They stood at the front gates of Adopest University. The walls surrounding the collegiate town were little more than crumbling relics beyond which flags waved in the brisk breeze on the towers of the university buildings. Taniel could hear the sound of students laughing. This was not a good place to confront a Privileged.
Yet far better than the crowded city.
“You sure?” Taniel asked. He’d not opened his third eye in days. The last time, he’d nearly collapsed. He told himself it wasn’t because he’d been in a powder trance for four weeks running. He wasn’t powder blind. He wasn’t addicted.
He snorted a line of powder off the back of his hand and shivered.
Julene ignored his question. “Well?” Taniel asked Gothen.
The magebreaker nodded. “She’s here,” he confirmed.
Taniel looked around for Ka-poel. She was studying the gargoyles above the gate. A group of male students were studying her. Taniel glared at them, setting a hand on the butt of his pistol.
“Is that a real savage?” one of them asked.
“You have to have a permit to carry a weapon on university grounds,” another informed him.
“Sod off,” Taniel said. “Wait. Where can I find a map of the university?”
The boy—Taniel thought of him as a boy, though he might have been the same age—sniffed. “Sod off yourself.”
Taniel turned toward the group until they could see his powder keg pin.
“That supposed to impress us?” the boy asked.
Taniel grinned. “It will when I beat your teeth in.” He snatched his pistol from his belt and flipped it around until he held it by the barrel. He flipped it again, then spun it around his middle finger until he held it the right way.
“Fancy,” one of the boys said with a laugh. “Administrator’s office. Head through the gate, take a right. You’ll run into it eventually.”
“Thanks,” Taniel said. “And yes, she’s a savage. My savage.” His grin disappeared when he turned to find Ka-poel glaring at him.
He cleared his throat. “Let’s find a map of the university. Julene, how close can you get to her without her sensing you?”
“I don’t care if she knows I’m coming.”
“I do,” Taniel snapped. “Don’t be a damned fool.”
Ka-poel tapped herself on the chest, then walked a pair of fingers through the air.
“You can get close?” Taniel said.
Ka-poel rolled her eyes.
Of course she could. Ka-poel could practically walk up and poke a Privileged without being noticed. Taniel wondered where his mind was at. It was the damned powder, he decided. When this was over, he’d go a month without touching the stuff.
“All right. Pole, find the Privileged. I want to know exactly where she is, down to the building and the room. You two,” he said, pointing at the mercenaries. “Wait for Captain Ajucare.” The captain had been trailing them for a week at Tamas’s orders. Far enough to stay out of the way, and close enough to be there if he was needed.
A quick glance down the road gave Taniel a glimpse of men on horseback in the distance. “Tell him to begin evacuating the university. We’re going to take this Privileged here, now. Gothen, will you be able to cut off her access to the Else?”
“Of course.”
“No problems this time?”
“None,” Gothen said. “I won’t make the same mistake I made last time.”
All that was needed was for Gothen to be able to get close enough to cut off her sorcery. If bullets and blades weren’t enough to kill her, it would give Julene the chance she needed to use her own sorcery.
“An evacuation will tip our hand,” Julene said.
“I’m not going to let a bunch of students get killed in