Nicodemus stepped back as it reached the top of the promontory. Its skin was pale gray, its long hair snowy white.
Its eyes were as wide as a man’s fist, their pupils slit vertically like a cat’s. Its beaklike nose bent over a soft chin.
It smiled to reveal flat teeth and then cast a Wrixlan sentence into the air. “You are correct: we are dead. Welcome, spellwright, to our final resting place.” It bowed.
After taking a deep breath, Nicodemus bowed to what could only be a Chthonic ghost.
CHAPTER
Thirty-three
A sharp knock woke Amadi in her cot. For a confused moment she stared at the stark white walls of her Starhaven cell. In her dream she had been wrestling a giant bookworm. Her now bandaged forearm ached.
The knock came again and she struggled up from her pallet. Outside her window the sky was still black. “Who knocks?”
“Kale, Magistra.”
“Enter,” she called to her secretary and pulled on a night robe.
The young Ixonian slipped into the room.
“Kale, I shudder to see you. I can’t have slept more than an hour. Has the bookworm infection returned?”
“No, Magistra.” The man’s eyes were wide. “Another death, one of the cacographers.”
Amadi drew in a sharp breath. “Shannon escaped?”
“No, he’s still imprisoned beneath the Summer Tower. Nicodemus’s female floormate, Devin Dorshear, is dead. Both Nicodemus and the big man they call Simple John are missing. Near midnight the young cacographers heard shouting. Until a quarter hour ago, they were too frightened to leave their rooms.”
Amadi swore. “But the wards. No one should be able to get in or out of that tower.”
Kale pressed a hand to his mouth. “I take full responsibility, Magistra. I was the one who suggested we leave the tower unguarded. It seems Shannon somehow slipped Nicodemus a key to lift the wards. I take full responsibility.”
“Nonsense,” Amadi snapped. “I had the command.” She turned to her bed chest. “Rouse the sentinels. Alert all the guards. I want a search begun before I’m fully dressed. I’ll personally go to the provost’s officers.”
Kale nodded and turned to go.
“But Kale, I’ll first examine the dead cacographer. I want two of our sentinels on hand. Where did the murder happen?”
The man paused at the door and looked back. “Drum Tower, top floor.I’ll send two spellwrights straight away. Nothing’s been touched…but the body, Magistra, it’s…gruesome.”
A QUARTER HOUR after being awakened with news of Nicodemus’s disappearance, Amadi found herself in the Drum Tower frowning at a dead lesser wizard.
The girl’s face had been crushed by blunt words. A puddle of drying blood surrounded her body. “The killer was a clumsy spellwright,” Amadi said to the sentinels behind her. “Must have used a leadshot spell or something simple.”
Amadi clenched her teeth. She was almost certain Shannon was guilty of some foul play. Surely the old wizard was in the pay of a magically illiterate noble. Why else would he have hidden so much money in his quarters? Why else would he be connected to the bookworm infestation?
However, now it seemed she was dealing with two murderers. “A cacographer did this,” she said. “Nicodemus or the big one.”
She wondered if Nicodemus had killed Nora Finn at Shannon’s behest. “You there,” she said to one of sentinels. “Go to the Summer Tower and rouse Shannon. I need some questions answered.”
With a nod, the man ducked out of the common room.
“Another strange thing is all this dust,” Amadi grumbled, now pacing about. Mostly the powder was scattered across the room, but next to the door lay a pile of the stuff covered by what looked like a white bed sheet. Even stranger, one corner held a small mound of splinters.
“You,” Amadi said to the remaining sentinel, a tall woman with gray hair. “Search the other Drum Tower residences. Tell me if you find similar dust or splinters in any other room.”
As the woman hurried through the door, Kale appeared. He was chewing his lower lip. A bad sign. “What is it, Kale?”
“Word from the librarians, Magistra. One of Starhaven’s most valuable artifacts is missing.”
“Destroyed by a bookworm?” she asked.
The secretary shook his head. “It was in a secure chamber and the Main Library was never infested.”
Amadi closed her eyes and took a long breath. “Let me guess: either Shannon or Nicodemus was the last one to use this artifact.”
Kale nodded. “There’s more. The artifact is a reference codex called the Index; it can access all text stored in Starhaven. And whoever has the artifact has looked up the touch spell.”