Havemercy. Part 22

HAL.

Two men died, and three women, making five in total since Iad come. This was why I refused to leave Royston; it was as if I thought that, by remaining at his side, I could ward off death simply with how fiercely I loved him. This was insane, but the room seemed to evoke that after a time in all its inhabitants, the close air laden with fever, the sickly smell of epidemic, of sweat, of unclean bodies tossing and turning without relief.

On the first day, Royston was so certain that we would be the ones to break the riddle of the fever and find its cure that I could do nothing but believe him.

aYou must find those who are still capable of using their minds against this,a Royston told me, holding one of my hands with both of his. aI would suggest trying Alcibiadesa"heas the blond man who keeps grunting at usa"as well as Marius, if you can coax him into opening his eyes. You remember, I spoke with him at the party? And then thereas . . . ah, Marcelline, the redhead. Over there, do you see her?a I lifted a cup of water to his lips, and he drank greedily. aYes,a I told him. aI do. Iall try my best.a I had no trouble in coaxing Marius to come, though he insisted first on checking the condition of a pale woman with blonde hair. She was the same woman with the fluttering fan that Royston had been flirting with at the ball, though I hardly recognized her now. Alcibiades and Marcelline agreed to come, as well as a small young man who overhead my conversation and told me his name was Caius. Iad known all along that Caius Greylace was a real person, of course, and not a character from a roman like so many of the others Iad read about, but it was strange to see him living and breathing in front of me. It was almost like encountering Tycho the Brave under the golden dome of the Basquiat. The fever seemed to have struck one of his eyesa"the left onea"which was gray and filmy as death, but the other was so crystal clear an emerald color that it unnerved me; he reminded me of an old statue with one of its jewel eyes missing.

aThe rest are bemoaning their fate,a he told me in a high, easy voice. aI donat think youall find much help among them, only I did manage a game of High Kings with Berhane earlier this morning. You may ask after her.a He paused, noting my confusion, and added helpfully, aThe blonde. With the curls. She may, however, vomit on you; itas what she did when I won.a I gathered Berhane as well, as per Caiusas suggestion, though she required my aid in helping her over to Roystonas cot, where our small group of the bedraggled and feverish was gathered.

aAh,a Caius said, making way for the fifth and final addition. aCome sit here by me, darling; if you feel the need to exile your lunch in the same manner in which you exiled breakfast, feel free to do it once more in my hair.a aHave you seen your hair lately?a Alcibiades asked wearily. aThis isnat the place for vanity.a aDonat tell Berhane that,a Marius said in a quiet voice, holding out a hand to steady hers while she settled. aShe considers it still the highest of priorities.a Somewhere far off in the corner of the room, the same young woman began yet another fit of coughing, and as I took my seat at Roystonas bedside we were all momentarily sobered by the sound. It strengthened Roystonas resolve, however, and he even sat up with minimal aid from me.

aFirst,a he said. aCaius. What do we know?a Caius pushed limp, pale blond hair back from his eerie eyes. aWhat do I know, you mean,a he said.

Berhane pursed her lips, leaning her head against Mariusas shoulder. a Rumors are rampant,a she said. aI donat know if a single one of us here knows a d.a.m.n thing about whatas happening. Youare closer to the Esar than all of usa"or were, in any case.a aBefore I began to go blind,a Caius said, without a hint of anything more than cheerful acceptance. aYes, that is true. I was working on devising some sort of cure, in fact, before the fever took me.a aWell?a Royston demanded. a Caius, now isnat the time for tangents, and of the two of usa"I believe, though I cannot be surea"Iam the better equipped for knocking sense into you than you are for escaping.a Caius sighed. aVery well,a he said. aIt was a snake.a aA snake,a said Alcibiades.

aThatas preposterous,a Marcelline added.

aI saw it with my own eyes,a Caius insisted. aA snake. Black as onyx, with eyes like two opals, sparkling and changing color in the light. It was dead, but there it was, curled at the bottom of the Well. The Sisters fished it out, but by then it was too latea"the color of the water was turning black as though someone had dumped a pot of ink into it. The only curiosity was that the inky color hadnat yet finished dispersing, as if the whole thing were paused in time and the clouds of murky black unfurling with very slow precision.a aA snake did that,a said Alcibiades.

aIam telling you what I saw,a Caius said. aThe Esar sent for a group of us. By that point, the Wildgrave and a few others had already taken ill.a aHe said that he had a fever,a Marius interjected. He sounded more angry than shocked.

aThis was the time of the ball,a Royston said grimly. When Caius nodded, I saw pleasure at having been right mingle in Roystonas expression with displeasure at what being right meant. I offered him water another time, but he shook his head slightly.

aThis was the time of the ball, indeed,a Caius confirmed. aThe ball was something of a rusea"I suspected more than a few would realize it. You may have noticed the incongruous lack of our esteemed Majesty at his own party. Grievous poor manners, and I told him as much, but he needed the time to show us what had happened. Then, of course, we set to torturing the Brothers and Sisters of Regina to find out which of the guards was responsible for this. We suspected foul playa"naturally, for it could be nothing othera"but we had no idea what sort it was, or why a snake, however clearly of magical origin, could poison the Well simply by crawling into it and dying there.a Caius paused for a moment, and without thinking I offered the gla.s.s of water to him. Unlike Royston, he took it gratefully, and I steadied his hands against the gla.s.s with my own as he drank deeply from it. aAh. Thatas better,a he said, voice indeed sounding much less dry and harsh. aWhere was I? Mm, the Brothers and Sisters, and how we tortured them for answers. Yes. As you might suspect, we went through a number before we came to one who knew anything at all.a I winced, and turned away. Royston covered my hand on his coverlet with his own, and I tried to force the image from my head. This was a problem that needed solving, and there was no time to let my emotions get the better of me. Yet I became this involved even in my romans, so telling myself it was aonly a storya did little good to erase the injustice of the innocent Brothers and Sisters undergoing such an ordeal.

aGo on,a Royston said quietly.

Caius nodded. aIt was one of the Brothers,a he continued. aHead been bribed into ita"at quite the exorbitant price, Iall have you know; he would have been a rich man when this was all over if I werenat so very good at my job. They must have offered to take the st.i.tches out of his lips and everything! In any case, the Ke-Han had reached him, and weare d.a.m.ned to bastion and back if we know how they did it, but he stole a sample for them. We can only a.s.sume it was the a.n.a.lysis of that sample that the Ke-Han employed in formulating their poison. When they had it perfected, they gave it tangible form in the guise of a snakea"itas a powerful thing, or was before it served its purpose and died there. And, when last I spoke of the matter, common theory was that it was the work of a great many Ke-Han magicians, since their Talents lie more in the natural realm than the subversion of nature. The snake, we have also surmised, was merely for the sake of function; it must have slipped in entirely unnoticed. That, too, was exceedingly clever. I should like to congratulate the man who thought of it.a aBefore you torture him to death, you mean,a Alcibiades said.

aCredit where credit is due,a Caius replied smoothly.

aAll this time, then,a Royston said, steering the conversation smoothly back to its purpose, ayou can a.s.sure us that the men working on the problem have been attempting to devise an antidote to the poison the snake released into the waters of the Well?a aExactly that,a Caius confirmed. aTheyave taken samples from the Well, in much the same way as the Ke-Han did to fas.h.i.+on the poison in the first place. Weave been seeking to combat this trouble from the same standpoint taken to begin it. I wonder if thatas the proper tack to choose, but Iam no longer, as you may see, on the team of scientists still working to find a cure.a aAnd theyave tested the snake,a Royston asked.

aOf course they have,a Caius replied.

aAnd theyave found no cure,a Marius said in a dull voice.

Caius said nothing at all, though he did gesture around the room. The woman began her coughing again, and our group seemed all too suddenly distracted by the sound.

aHow long have they been working to find it?a Berhane asked, wincing even as she did so.

aI would say itas been a month,a Caius answered. aPerhaps a little more than that. I am uncertain as to how long it had been before I was called to the scene, but I a.s.sume it was a few days to a little more than a week, and no more.a aSeeing as how they wanted you for all the torturing,a Alcibiades said.

Caiusas smile gleamed. aSomething to that effect.a aWe must read up on everything we know about the Ke-Han magic,a Royston interjected.

aWith what romans?a Marcelline asked. aWhom shall we send to fetch the relevant material? Who will be granted access back inside?a I feared at that moment Royston would ask me to do the job, and that I would have to refuse hima"for Marcelline was right, and once I left, Iad have no such luck returning.

aMy dear Marcelline,a Royston said, closing his eyes and leaning somewhat heavily against my side. aWe are in the Basquiat. Hal has two good legs, two good hands, and two good eyes, in case these facts have all escaped you, and there are in fact fifteen libraries within this building at our disposal.a aHe wonat be granted access to any of them, either,a Marcelline pointed out, but her dark eyes had been gifted with sudden light.

aThen heall just have to be devious,a Caius replied. aHeas small. He seems clever. He should be able to manage.a I didnat know whether to be touched at their faith in me or overwhelmed by the task now set upon my shoulders. Royston breathed against my side, rasping occasionally but a warm weight that hardened my resolve all the same. There was no time for hesitation, or my own uncertainty in the face of a foreign and somewhat terrifying authority.

Thom had faced down the Esar for me, after all. I could certainly fetch some romans.

Royston gave me directions to the nearest of the libraries, then the most thorough, and also the one that was likeliest to have a collection of all accounts of known poisons and their antidotes, until he had to stop halfway through at the perplexed look on my face and call for paper so that he could dictate as I wrote it all down. I was cheered by the smallest of things. That Roystonas voice was yet strong enough to pitch to a yell in order to be heard when many of the others were arguing lit a tiny spark near my heart. It stayed there, glowing and ebbing with Roystonas progress, and I found it harder than Iad thought it might be to actually leave the room with the golden dome to find the romans.

aHal,a Royston said, and though his eyes were closed, he was smiling at me. aWe canat do anything more without romans, do you understand?a aForget this mysterious bastion-forsaken snake plague,a said Alcibiades. He didnat sit up very often anymore, but his opinions were as strident as ever. aYou two are whatas going to make me ill.a I held very tightly to Roystonas hand, then forced myself to release it, stepping gingerly around the cots strewn haphazardly across the floor. The quicker I left, I reasoned, the quicker I could return, then give the romans to minds that would understand them, unravel this mystery, and take Royston home with me.

The first library I went toa"the one Royston had told me had the most extensive collection of publications on known poisons and antidotesa"was a room at the bottom of a spiraling staircase. The walls were fitted with high windows covered in metal filigree, and there was row upon row of impossibly tall stacks that seemed to reach from the floor to the very high ceiling. Hidden in the shadows against the left-hand wall there was a wheeled ladder, and scattered thoughtfully here and there were low, squat chairs with gold feet and small round end tables supporting stained-gla.s.s lamps. It was a room clearly designed for the access and reading of romans, and for one full minute I could do nothing but stand there in admiration and longing.

After a moment of wide-mouthed wonder I thought of Royston, and also of Alcibiades in the cot next to his; of Berhane, who could barely manage to move, of Marius, who looked gaunt as a skeleton, and Marcelline and her red-rimmed eyes, and of Caius, who had tortured people to come to the bottom of this mystery and was nevertheless going blind. I couldnat take the time to savor the view before me, I told myself rather angrily. There were people depending on my work here.

Thankfully, the sc.r.a.p of paper I held in my hand suggested the best place to begin, denoting organization of the romans as set by binding color, then by faded golden number on the spine.

When I wanted to reach the higher stacks I had to first pile the romans neatly on one of the little round tables, then make my ascent, clutching tightly to the paper list and all the while praying I didnat fall off and break my neck or anything similarly embarra.s.sing and ruinous.

It was when I descended for the third time, having at last settled into something of a functioning routine, that I noticed I was no longer alone.

A woman sat in one of the low chairs, posture-perfect with her legs neatly crossed, making her seat seem more like a throne than a cus.h.i.+oned reading chair. Her dark hair was twisted back from her face in the same fas.h.i.+on as worn by the women in portraits of the old Ramanthine n.o.bility. Her dress was a deep, b.l.o.o.d.y crimson, and the hem brushed delicately against the floor as she tapped her foot. That was the only delicate thing about her, I thought, and though it was a strange thought to have, Iad never been quite so intimidated by anyone in my life, not even the Esar.

She was reading the topmost roman Iad left stacked on the table, one finger idly tracing the line of the words, as if she hadnat seen me yet. When I stepped off the bottom rung of the ladder her head lifted immediately, and I felt as though her black eyes would bore a hole right through my head and out the back if I couldnat escape the force of her gaze.

aYou arenat a magician,a she said. Her voice was like the wine Royston had bought in Bottle Alley, the same color as her dress.

aNo,a I said, knowing full well that I had no skill at lying, and that even if I wanted to try, now was certainly not the time to start. aIam not.a aYou are the Margrave Roystonasa"Hal,a she said, pausing to tuck away a curl that had fallen loose from her chignon.

I felt the blush before it came, staining my cheeks and throat, but she only smiled, full-lipped and amused, as though Iad done something particularly entertaining.

aSurely Royston must have explained to you the rules of the Basquiat and its libraries,a she went on. aThere is information here that cannot be read by anyone other than sworn magicians.a I drew a breath, thinking once again of that room with all the sick people lying jumbled together on their cots, and how I might very well be their best and only hope at this point to solve anything. I could see, tooa"and thought I might never forgeta"the looks of frustration in the magiciansa eyes at being able to do nothing. If I could help in any way, I knew that I had to at least try.

aWea"that is, Royston and I, and some others; Iam not sure of their t.i.tlesa"we believe that there might be an answer in one of these romans as to whatas making everyone sick,a I said at last, in a voice as a.s.sertive as I could make it.

She regarded me for a moment longer, and I had the most curious sensation of something soft sweeping in the corners of my mind.

aBerhane is a friend of mine,a she said at last. aAnd little Caius will need something to occupy his mind now that he is no longer the Esaras lapdog.a aIa"Oh,a I said. Then, I nearly jumped, for Iad realized all at once what her Talent wasa"or rather, what it had to be. I hadnat seen the badge on her chest that would have declared her status as a velikaia, but now, I no longer needed to. Shead taken what information shead needed from my mind with more precision than Iad removed the romans from their stacks, which meant that she was also a magician, though she didnat seem nearly as sick as the others.

She closed the roman and set it to rest on top of the pile with the others, and I saw then that her hands were shaking. As soon as she followed my gaze, she placed them in her lap as if there were nothing at all the matter, and I wondered just how much control she was exerting over her own mind in order to override whatever effect the illness was having upon her body. I wondered why she wasnat upstairs with everyone else.

aI remain in the library because the Esar keeps us here as though it is a prison, and not our own palace. A palace truly fit for magicians, and Margraves, and velikaia,a she told me. aI find my comfort among the books.a Then she smiled again, and her teeth were impossibly white against the dark of her face.

aaHang the rules,a I believe, is the expression Royston would use under these circ.u.mstances,a she said, and I felt hope bloom wild like a sunflower within my chest. aThough youad best be more clever about keeping yourself from view in the future.a aThank you,a I whispered, holding the romans Iad brought down with me off the ladder tight against my chest.

aAnd you might start with this volume,a she added. With one of her large, graceful hands she indicated a volume about halfway down from the top. aIt contains a few treatises on magical illness, though, sadly, not illness that attacks magic itself.a aThank you,a I said again, too overwhelmed to do anything but go on expressing my grat.i.tude to her repeatedly.

It was only when I reached the door, stack of romans threatening to topple unsteadily one way or the other at any moment, that I realized Iad missed one very important detail. I turned around precariously, and though I knew it was rudeness unimaginable to shout within the confines of the library, I called back to her.

aWhat is your name?a I was certain there was a more proper way to address a velikaiaa"I was certain Royston might even have mentioned it to mea"but countless nights without sleep had driven all but the most basic knowledge from my mind. I hoped she would forgive me.

aYou may call me Antoinette,a she answered, and though Iad heard her quite clearly, she didnat seem to have raised her voice at all.

When I came back to the sickroom, Royston was sleeping, and I was careful to put my load of romans down before arranging the covers carefully around him where head thrown them off in a fit of tossing.

aMy,a Caius remarked from his bed, waving an idle, white hand. His cot was aligned now with Roystonas; he must have moved it while I was gone on my errand. aYou would have made an excellent student of the aVersity. Or a pack mule, possibly, as both are p.r.o.ne to carrying disproportionately heavy loads.a The unsettling thing about Caiusa"or perhaps the most unsettling, as there seemed to be a consistently growing supplya"was that at times I was sure he could be no more than a few years above me in age, if that.

aAntoinette suggested we start with this one,a I said, holding it up from the rest.

A sly look pa.s.sed over his sharp-featured face. Next to him, Berhane stirred in her own bed and fought to sit up, hair clinging limply to the side of her face.

aAntoinette is here?a aWell,a I amended, anot here, but in the Basquiat. I saw her in the library, I thought she was going to tell me to leave. Only then . . . she didnat.a Marcelline coughed the way shead begun to that morning, and Marius began to stir in his bed, fighting his way free from the blankets to help Berhane into a more comfortable position on the little cot. It was then that I noticed the beds had been rearranged, and that our little group had moved to form a misshapen sort of circle to one side of the room. I felt the beginnings of hope fill my heart with warmth. We were going to solve this.

We had to.

aPa.s.s us the romans then,a said Marcelline, once shead had a gla.s.s of water and could speak properly.

They felt heavier as I pa.s.sed them out, and I was worried that some of the magicians might not be able to hold them up properly, but of course I had underestimated them, and even Berhane balanced her own text neatly against her lap with hands that didnat have the strength to hold it properly.

I sat on the edge of Roystonas bed as lightly as I could so as not to wake him, but soon enough I heard the sigh and felt the stirrings that meant Iad done so anyway.

aHal?a His voice was rough with sleep, and something deeper that I knew was the sickness rooted deep within him. I moved immediately to sit next to him, adjusting his pillows so that he could sit up and remaining close in case he felt the need to lean against me once more.

aShall we begin, at the behest of our dear colleague, with nature and the known magical plagues?a Caiusas one bright eye nearly sparkled. I tucked in close to Royston, and held his book open for the two of us. In some ways it was so like our earliest days in the country that I felt the change all the more keenly.

This was how our days pa.s.sed.

On the second day, as Berhane could no longer read, we began our work afresha"sometime, I judged, in the very late morninga"and I read loud enough for both her and Royston to hear. I noticed that Marius was more distracted by her condition than he would have liked, and he kept asking for theories to be repeated over, weariness and apology beat into every line of his face. By evening, shead fallen into fitful sleeping, and before I fell asleep, curled in at Roystonas overwarm side, he whispered softly against my temple, aWe cannot strain her by letting her join us tomorrow.a On the third day, both Berhane and Alcibiades were no longer capable of reading with us, the former asleep and the other intermittentlya"but very rarelya"offering sharp yet weary criticism. Wead still come no closer to a solution by the time Royston rested a shaking hand upon my arm and admitted to me that he could no longer understand the words I was speaking as a language he knew.

aWell,a said Marius, soft so as not to disturb Berhane. aI didnat want to be the first one to admit it.a aHal and I will continue,a Caius said, his voice never losing its keen edge.

aHal must alsoa"occasionallya"rest,a Royston suggested. I wrung out the damp flannel I kept in a basin of cool water by the foot of his cot and draped it over his forehead.

Very quickly after that, his breathing evened out, and I knew he was sleeping.

aDoesnat it trouble you, as well?a I asked Caius, softly, so as not to wake the others.

He shrugged, barely more than a disconcertingly pale shadow in the dark room. All the lamps were being kept at half-light, perhaps to avoid troubling the magicians whenever they wished to sleep, but the effect was such that, after all the squinting Iad been doing, I felt as though I, too, were going to go blind.

aAt certain hours itas worse than others,a he said. aHowever, I am uncertain of how much more time Iall have to work on the problem at hand. I thought it might be best to make the most of ita"aita being that short period of blessed wakefulness, while I still have one eye.a I took up a book wead not yet started and flipped it open, even as I moved to sit by the foot of Caiusas bed. It was the best position to take, I thought; this way, I could read a little more loudly and leave Royston undisturbed as he slept.

aShall we, then?a I suggested.

Caius frowned. aPoisons and antidotes,a he said, as though it were troubling him. aPoisons, poisonsa"weare getting nowhere.a I bowed my head. aItas true,a I admitted at length, though it pained me greatly to do so. Iad had such high hopes when wead begun, but wead effectively lost both Berhane and Alcibiades in the past two days, and we were no closer to understanding what was happening than we had been at the beginning.

aWe must lay it all out, from start to finish,a Caius said. aWhat we donat know is ruining us.a We were at the task for most of the night, until Royston began to cough very near morning and I returned to tend to him. When Royston was sleeping peacefully once more, so was Caius.

On the fourth day, Marius became delirious with fever, and Marcelline could no longer help us due to ceaseless coughing; then there were only the three of us.

What we didnat know was ruining us, I told myself, and while Royston and Caius slept, I repeated the list Caius and I had madea"half chart, half questionsa"over and over again, until I saw it every time I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. The Ke-Han had taken a sample of the magic waters from the Well; they had invented a poison to work against it, presumably also of magic; it was this magic that worked as a fever through Roystonas veins, this magic that brought a flush to Alcibiadesa cheeks, and this magic that was beginning to blind Caiusas good eye.

We had to undo the poison, but we had no idea how to proceed, as it took so many forms.

On the fifth day, Royston could no longer control his vomiting. He apologized profusely, which seemed to me a waste of energy, and then slept once more for much of the day. I continued to read on my own while Caius watched me. Under any other circ.u.mstances this would have daunted me, but I refused to be distracted.

At last I reached the same point Royston had just the other day: the words no longer seemed to be ones I recognized, though they had been not a moment before. I rubbed wearily at my eyes, my own head pounding and aching between the temples and behind my eyes. I could barely see at all.

aYouall drive yourself mad that way,a Caius said, and punctuated the statement with a crystalline laugh.

I sighed wearily, and for a long time I didnat speak at all. Then I asked him, aCaius, what is your Talent?a He smiled his snake-thin smile and breathed in deeply, almost reverently. aAh,a he said. aMy Talent lies in visions.a aVisions?a I asked.

aItas particularly useful when the Esar requires information from certain unwilling parties,a Caius explained.

aOh,a I said. aSo the . . . torture you mentioned earlier, that wasa"a aNot physical,a Caius confirmed. aNo. You are curious, perhaps, as to why the Esar banished me in the first place?a I nodded mutely, and whether or not he could see me, he took my silence as agreement. aI was too young for such a gift,a he continued, quiet, reminiscent. aI misused it. I drove a man mad for . . . private reasons.a aAnd you couldnat cure him afterward?a I asked, horrified by the ease of his admission.

aNo,a Caius replied. aThough, if I die before he does, the general consensus is that he will return to the state he was in before I tore his mind apart. He would be very pleased to see me in such distressa"would be, that is, if he were more than a drooling, wild-eyed mongrel.a I rubbed at my eyes again, too weary to offer him a reply. He didnat seek one, either, and I left it at that.

On the sixth day, Berhane died.

It happened before I woke, but the murmuring of distant voices broke into my dreamless sleep and I sat up quickly, my heart pounding fit to burst. There were men gathered above her cot who covered her with a simple gray coverlet and carried her from the room.

aI did write to her,a Marius said, his voice still tinged with delirium and fever. He turned away from us and pulled the blankets up over his head.

aShe had such lovely hair,a Caius whispered, and for the first time, I thought I detected the s.h.i.+fting of emotions in his voice.

I turned my face against Roystonas shoulder and cried. If he was taken from me in the same manner, I was certain Iad never forgive myself.

I returned to reading, but it was no longer any use. I could barely concentratea"the words danced before my eyes, tantalizing but impossible to catcha"and the sound of Roystonas rough, ragged breathing interrupted every thought I might once have had. At last I could manage it no more, and I admit that I surrendered, closing the book, pulling my knees to my chest, and crying myself to sleep.

It was then that the idea struck.

Inspiration woke me with the same jolting, electric shock that the sounds of Berhane being taken away had done earlier that morning.

aRoyston,a I said, grasping his hand and shaking him. aRoyston. Royston, please, wake up!a He groaned with tired resistance and struggled to pull his hand from mine. I let him go, but only to grab his shoulder instead, shaking him harder. At last his face twisted into consciousness, and his eyes moved beneath their lids. A moment later he opened them blearily, staring at me for a long time without recognition.

aItas Hal,a I said, on the verge of crying again. aPlease, Royston, I need you to listen. I think Iave had an idea about the poison, Royston. Please, listen to mea"a His eyes snapped into focus, though I saw it was with considerable effort that he managed to follow my words from the first to the last. aTell me,a he said. His throat sounded rough enough as to pain even me; I could barely imagine what it must have felt like to him.

I ordered my thoughts into as much coherency as I could manage, and yet I still spoke them one after the other, jumbled and tumbling from my lips without any structure at all. aThe Well,a I said, aRoyston, itas nota"We canat cure the magic from the Well, thereas been no cure found yet, but Caius said that the man who went mad will be cured if Caius diesa"and what about the story of Tycho the Brave, who couldnat cure his lady of the curse, so he killed the magician whoad placed the curse in the first place? The chatelain had a copy of that roman, and we read it togethera"Never mind, itas just a story, only Caius saida"And wouldnat that be the samea"wouldnat ita"if the magicians who made the poison were killed? Itas possible,a I concluded, helplessly and breathlessly both. aItasa"It sounded better when I first thought of it, but wouldnat it be possible?a Royston stared at me, uncomprehending. When he grasped it, understanding rose on his face like the dawn. I could see it, almost as though it had a particular color, come sudden into his eyes. aThe Ke-Han magicians have a round, flat tower in the center of their great city,a he said, his voice trembling. But not, I thought, on the edge of fever. Rather, it was the edge of excitement. aItas too far in to have ever been destroyed by our dragons; besides which, the Ke-Han magicians control the very air around the dome. That is where they operate. They concentrate their magic, which is what makes them so powerfula"able to move the very rivers from their beds, roil the winds against our dragons and the oceans against their sh.o.r.es. But it also makes them . . . a giant blue target.a I pressed my hand against my chesta"as if somehow that could stop the wild, frantic pace of its beating.

aBut how?a I asked. aHow can we do it?a Looking all around me, I could see that it was hopeless. Without magic, we could never hope to get close enough to kill the Ke-Han magicians, much less every last one of them.

It was a shot in the dark, wild and desperate. I was certain it was the right answer. I was also certain it couldnat be done.

aIf the dragons are still flying,a Royston said.

aBut how?a I repeated. aHow can we even let the Esar know what we know?a aAh,a Royston said. aLeave that to me.a That was when he started screaming.