Mei opened her eyes to the green contours and dark shadows of an interior canopy she didn’t recognize. Then she blinked and the contours and shadows became the green drapes over the bed Dwayne and Rodion had put her in. Judging by the lamplight streaming in from the window, she’d slept till nightfall, probably because of the heavy lunch Fran had insisted on bringing to celebrate Mei’s “moving into society.”

Rolling out of bed, which took some effort as it was wider than her and her brother’s entire room in the Bilges, Mei planted stockinged feet on soft warm carpet and stretched her arms, completely failing to touch a wall as she. In addition to the huge bed and the wide space, the guardians of Sanford had provided a small warehouse of a wardrobe, two cushioned chairs, and a small table. These had delighted Fran to no end, which had convinced Mei to one day invite Mrs. Schofeld over as a thank you for all the good stew. At the moment, however, she had to hand Dwayne her painstakingly written progress report.

Over the past three days, Mei and Charlie had been searching city records and knocking on city doors in a process so excruciating that she’s found herself thinking fondly of the time she’d almost froze to death on a hunt last winter. It didn’t help that Mei had to rack back and forth from the Magisterium to Bradford to mediate Maggie’s persistent attempts to get Fran to work on the project again. Neither mage had asked Mei to do this, but without her, Fran finding some excuse to have lunch off-campus, which would cause Maggie complain and inadvertently extend the fight that neither she nor Fran actually wanted to have but were having anyway.

As a result, it was a relief that Charlie had called off the search to write on his own report and that Fran and Maggie were sleeping in separate rooms, the former at her aunt’s place, the latter at Tarpan, so nothing would be said to make the fight worse. Since it was Huan’s turn to guard, Mei could finally head to Boscage and continue her search for Juanelo on her way, by climbing rooftops and looking in windows.

Just as she finished donning her uniform, the door to her room burst open, and Huan ambled in. “Finally, you’re awake.”

Mei frowned at her brother, who was wearing his old tunic and scarf instead of his uniform. “It’s your turn tonight.”

“About that.” Huan leaned against her door. “I have a date.”

“So?” Mei strapped on her weapons. “I have work.”

“It’s not like that guy is getting any less dead. On a night like this, I bet that scrytive of yours is tossing back beers with his buddies.”

“He’s not.” Mei grabbed her report and Maggie’s sleep bomb. “I’m going.”

She tried to push past him, but her brother caught her by the elbow.

“Hey, wait,” he switched to soft commoner’s Tuquese, “look, I won’t be all night, just for a couple of hours. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Will you?” Mei’s own Tuquese sounded flat in her ears. “And why are you just leaving? Dwayne says that you do that all the time without telling him or Rodion.”

“Because,” her brother’s voice became a growl, “that steward of his is taking our little conversation from the other day very literally. Every time I’m late for my shift, every time I take a break, he docks my pay like I’ve committed some sort of sin.”

That hadn’t been Mei’s experience. That almost sounded like Rodion was suspicious of Huan, whose presence at Sanford did correspond with a cessation of thefts around Bradford.

But that had to be a coincidence. Mei cleared her throat and asked, in Souran, “Who is the date?”

“Does that mean you’re going to cover my shift?” asked Huan in Souran. “Because I’m planning to have a real good time.”

“I don’t need details.” Mei pulled her arm free. “Just be back soon.”

“I will.” He hesitated before leaving. “You’ll be watching the front door, right?”

Mei shrugged. “Sure.”

“Excellent. Wish me luck!”

He ran off, leaving Mei alone in the hallway.

This was fine. He should have swapped her for one of her shifts, but that would have been a hassle for such a short period of time. It was fine that that Dwayne didn’t mention Huan when Mei gave him her report, that Rodion didn’t mention that Huan when she stopped by the kitchen to grab a pastry, that Huan wasn’t at the front door to hand off his shift to her. It didn’t matter that Zelda had said that the thefts had stopped the last few nights, which were the same nights that Huan had been on night duty at Sanford. It didn’t matter that he never said “please” or “thank you” or “how are you?”

This was fine.

What wasn’t fine was how bright Sanford’s courtyard was now that Rodion had had the lamps fixed. Combine that with how high the courtyard’s walls were and the many, many windows of the house meant that the worst place to guard Sanford’s front door was Sanford’s front door.

Fortunately, she could see a solution across the street.

***

“And lastly Miss Lucchesi has kindly provided us with a list of people she says can renovate this place.”

“Lucchesi?” Mei’s report went cold in Dwayne’s hands. “The Wind Sage came here?”

“Miss Lucchesi, not Sage Lucchesi, my lord.”

Oh, Magdala’s roommate. Dwayne returned his attention to Mei’s surprisingly well penned report. “Why was she here?”

“To have lunch with Miss Ma. Before she left, she gave me this.” Rodion placed a long list of names next to Dwayne’s box of matches.

Dwayne blinked at it. “Are these recommendations?”

“I believe so, my lord.”

“Must have been a long lunch. We should send her a gift as thanks.” Dwayne sighed. “Then we’ll see if any of these people will work with us.”

“Perhaps you could mention Miss Lucchesi?”

“Perhaps, but…” Dwayne squirmed in his seat. “I’m not comfortable with name-dropping.”

“Considering how new you are to the city,” Rodion refilled Dwayne’s tea, “they will need to know how you learned about them.”

“That makes sense. I’ll try it.”

“Very good, my lord.”

Dwayne hid a wince at the form address then lay back on the sofa and rubbed his temples. Even though he had more time with the Tower was locked up and Magdala working on the Resonance Theory proof, his headache seemed to be getting worse and worse. It was possible that his remaining work - preparing for practicals, attending that loathsome man’s etiquette class, and managing the correspondence among the people he’d interviewed about the robberies - was too much for him.

That last one had been Nicole’s fault. The earthhoist had returned to Sanford three days ago with questions about the fire spell, but because Dwayne was meeting with another robbery victim, she’d ended up demonstrating the spell to the victim, who had gotten very excited about the possibilities and told half of Bradford about it. Now, Dwayne was receiving and replying to regular letters, which was a very satisfying, and very time-consuming task.

At least, he had a full list of what the thieves had stolen.

“Perhaps you should take a break?”

Dwayne shot Rodion a glance. “No ‘my lord?’”

The steward kept tidying up. “I don’t know what you mean, my lord.”

Dwayne pushed past the familiar flash of annoyance and asked, “Are you manipulating me for my health?”

“My lord,” Rodion gave Dwayne a hurt look, “I am only here to take care of you and your house. Surely, that doesn’t require any manipulation on my part.”

“Good.” Dwayne sat back and closed his eyes. “I’d hate to think you believe it’s that easy.”

“Perish the thought.”

“Glad that’s clear.” Dwayne chuckled. “That said, I think I’ll take a break. My head is killing me.” His stomach grumbled. “And I’m starving.”

“I shall prepare dinner, my lord.”

Someone pounded on the front door.

“It’s late. Who is that?”

Dwayne moved to get up, but Rodion gently pushed him back down onto the sofa. “I’ll get it.”

When the steward returned, he was right on the heels of Thadden.

“Young Kalan,” the baron’s face was redder than Magdala’s hair, “what in Markosia do you think you are doing?”

“Good evening, Baron.” Dwayne made a show of collecting his matches to hide covering his bracer under his sleeve. “You’ll need to be more specific. I’ve been a busy.”

“Who gave you permission to peddle those flame talismans all over Bradford?”

“I did? They’re my and Ma- young Gallus’s work. I’ve been sharing them with the robbery victims in exchange for information. Turns out the thieve are after Gold-”

“You what?” Thadden stared at Dwayne. “You’re just giving them away?”

“Well, not exactly. Nicole won’t let me.”

“Who’s Nicole?”

Dwayne winced at the baron’s volume. “She was the first victim. Don’t you read the reports I send you?”

“My lord,” Rodion interrupted the baron’s next sonic explosion, “will the baron be joining us?”

Please no. “Of course, he’s invited,” said Dwayne.

“We’re not done here.” Thadden took a seat in the upholstered chair. “I shall take you up on that offer.”

As the steward left, Dwayne eyed the baron. “I don’t see what the problem is.”

Thadden’s nostrils flared. “The problem is that you didn’t consult me.”

“Why would I?”

“Because when I become Her Majesty’s Royal Sorcerer, it will be my duty to oversee all magical developments in the Queendom, and those talismans are profanities that should be kept under lock and key, not handed out like, like, Dunklenacht gifts!”

Before Dwayne could reply, a sharp crack and a crash tabled the discussion. The crack was Mei’s rifle and the crash had come from… The cellar. Na’cch was in the cellar.

Dwayne was already running.

“Where are you going?” shouted Thadden.

Dwayne made it to the locked cellar door, where an aproned Rodion was already fretting.

“My lord, what do you want me to do?”

“Help Huan.” Dwayne unlocked the door. “I’ll deal with whatever’s downstairs.”

“Perhaps-”

“I’ve faced down Revenants. I can handle a thief.”

As Dwayne raced down the steps, it occurred to Dwayne that while it was possible that it was a coincidence that the thief had gone straight to the cellar where Rodion had just moved the books, that wasn’t where he’d have started his search for books. Most cellars weren’t nearly as dry as Sanford’s.

Then something else crashed and there was only time for run, not though.

***

From her vantage point on the roof across the street, Mei had meant to fire a warning shot at the black clad, gold masked wind mage who’d alighted gracefully in Sanford’s sideyard, but she’d ended up firing at another figure in black. Her shot had gone wide, and she’d been forced to scramble back from her assailant’s attempt to stab her with a dagger length metal spike.

Now, they faced off, Mei with her dagger and unloaded rifle, her assailant with his form fitted black clothes and ridiculous gray mask and strange spike like weapon. Mei’s eyes widened. No, it wasn’t a spike. It was a stiletto, and her killers were Dwayne’s robbers. Gold Mask was the wind mage who’d chased Juanelo and Gray Mask had been their ground pursuit.

Mei should be scared, but she was relieved. Neither of them could be her brother; Gold Mask was a mage, and Gray Mask’s height and muscles and blue eyes didn’t belong to her brother. Finally, she had proof that Huan wasn’t involved in any of this.

Still, as Mei parried a chest-level jab from her assailant, sidestepped an attempt to perforate her heart, and then leapt out of range of a furious kick, she wondered how these two had passed through a single pane of glass. No human could have done that without magic, and wind magic wasn’t enough, Fran had made it very clear that that was impossible. There had to be something else.

First, she needed to end this fight.

Mei dropped her rifle and thrust her dagger at Gray Mask’s stomach. When he caught her attack on the guard of his weapon, she kicked him onto his back, pulled Maggie’s sleep bomb out of her pocket, and raised her arm to throw it, pausing only to hold her breath.

Clink. Something knocked the bomb out of Mei’s hand, and it fell down to the street below and went off to screams and shouts. Mei jumped away from Gray Mask, but his hands were covered his chest and face from her dagger. He hadn’t done this.

The one who had stood to her right, was twirling two black-handled knives, and was dressed in rough brown and gray clothing and a plain blue mask. The knives weren’t familiar, but the clothes reminded Mei of the roofrunners, and the mask somehow reminded her of Tiger, maybe because of the strange gold glint to the eyes behind it. Or maybe because, unlike Gold and Gray, Blue Mask’s build was very similar to Huan’s.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Ash.” Blue Mask’s Souran was flat and inflectionless. “Get up.”

Without a word, Ash flipped to his feet and started an argument that was conducted entirely in gestures, glares, and weapon flourishes. Mei didn’t bother to try to decrypt it since either both Ash and Blue Mask would come after her or she’d fight one while the other fled. Her priorities were, in order, to preserve her own life and to absolve her brother of her crimes. So when the argument ended and Ash headed east and Blue Mask west, Mei grabbed her rifle and chased the newcomer.

***

As he slid past a stack of beer barrels, Dwayne resolved to figure out how Magdala’s ancestor Berta Kalan made Sanford’s cellar so dry that all moisture had been out of his mouth. It certainly wasn’t because he was terrified of what he’d find at the other end of the room, where an icy blue light shook as crates were cracked open and books were sifted through. The outer cellar door lay in neatly cut pieces on the floor. Qe magic was rife with ways to cut, both indirectly using Water Qe and directly using Earth Qe, but since the floor was dry and the crash had been loud, the figure outlined in blue light had to be wind Qe.

Just like one of the murderers in Mei’s report.

Dwayne pressed his hand against his chest. “Qesuyit.” It was better to be prepared.

The whispered spell caught the attention of the thief, who spun to face him, her - even black windsong leathers weren’t bulky enough to hide certain curves - arms clutching a thick book to her chest.

“You’re, uh, in my house.” Dwayne couldn’t see the title of the book, but it was the right size to be Na’cch. “Look if you want a specific text, maybe we could-”

“lo!” A hard line crashed into Dwayne’s chest and knocked him into the beer barrels. “rut!” The thief fled the cellar on wings of wind.

Dwayne rolled to his feet, stepped over the shorn pieces of barrel ,and mentally sketched a line from the thief’s foot to Sanford’s courtyard wall. “Qethumlidug!”

The thief looked up. “aku!”

She rocketed up and then swung hard right into the courtyard wall. As the dazed thief slid to the ground, Dwayne entered the sideyard, his hand massaging the bright line of pain bisecting his chest. Whatever the thief’s prepared spell had been, it had been meant to cut him in two.

It was best not to let her try again. “Qesheffuf.” The ground beneath the thief sank. “Qesheffuf.” It wrapped itself over her, like she was a half-buried corpse.

“Let’s try this again.” Dwayne winced from a pain in his head, like nails being pounded into his skull. “Return that book and tell me who hired you.”

“Cups, what was that spell you cast?” drawled the thief, her voice muffled by her mask. “That was not canon.”

Noting that she had to be a Magisterium graduate, Dwayne edged closer to see the book. “Just comply and I’ll let you go.”

“You will not.” Thadden emerged from the cellar, his face sweaty from the effort of running to catch up to Dwayne. “That’s a criminal.”

“Baron,” Dwayne doused thoughts of ending this in flame, “I can handle this.”

“I will not entrust my security to someone who hires no guards.”

Dwayne frowned. Thadden had come through the front door and should have seen Huan. “My guard is dealing with this one’s associates.”

At least, he’d better be.

The thief giggled.

“What’s so funny?” asked Dwayne.

“See, even your captive thinks that’s ridiculous,” said Thadden.

“What the Wesen said was only ironic,” the thief’s eyes smiled behind her mask, “but what’s hilarious is that you think you matter, Baron.”

“I will not endure insults from a criminal.” Thadden turned to Dwayne. “And this martial use of magic does not become a proper Qe mage. You should have called the City Guard.”

“She would have gotten away if I’d waited, but if you want to, go ahead.” Dwayne could practically hear Thadden’s veins popping in his neck as he focused on the thief. “Miss, just hand over the book and you can go.”

“You’re no longer curious as to who hired me?” The thief giggled. “Well, no matter. My answer would have been no one, and you’re not getting this Natch book back.”

“Natch?” Dwayne blinked. “Oh.”

She meant Na’cch.

Despite the fury now licking at the edges of his conscious, Dwayne kept his voice very calm. “You will hand it over. It is a very important part of our collection.”

“Young Kalan, enough!” Thadden stepped between Dwayne and the thief. “As your future master, you will listen to me. Call the City Guard and let them handle this.”

“Get out the way,” Dwayne pushed past him, “and do what you will.”

“Oh,” the thief was no longer looking at Dwayne, “it looks like you’re out of time.”

Thadden rounded on her. “Criminals should be- Oof!”

Instinct made Dwayne drop to his knees, which meant he evaded the hand chop aimed at his neck.

“Qechireeut!” The spell jerked Dwayne left and away from a follow up kick, which would have cracked his ribs.

“Ash, stop!” shouted the thief. “You need him to free me.”

Dwayne rose to his feet and faced “Ash”, a gray-masked, black-clad brute who wielded a weapon that Dwayne had only seen in pictures. This was not good.

The brute pointed his stiletto at Dwayne. “Free her. Now.”

***

Mei chased Blue Mask across rooftops, between chimney stacks, over narrow alleyways, but, as with Sioned, her lack of familiarity kept her quarry just out of reach. Instead, they were getting farther and farther away from Sanford, and she was getting more and more tired with each jump and dash.

Which was probably Blue Mask’s plan.

Guilty, Mei came to a stop. She really shouldn’t have let Blue Mask lead her out this far because, while Dwayne was more than capable of defending himself, she’d promised Huan that she’d guard Sanford in his place. She had to go back. Her need to absolve her brother wasn’t worth allowing Gray Mask to circle back and attack Sanford. She’d catch Blue Mask another day.

As she turned east, Mei reloaded her rifle. When she got back, she’d set up on the rooftop again and-

“Giving up?” Somehow, despite having been wirs ahead of her, Blue Mask was now standing in her way, three black-handled knives at the ready. “I thought you never gave up.”

Mei cocked her rifle. “Move.”

“Stay here with me.” Blue Mask spread his arms wide. “Take a load off. We’ll be done soon.”

The cadence sounded like- No, she wasn’t doing this now. Mei took aim. “Move.”

Blue Mask laughed. “My shoulder, really?”

He’d traced her aim.

“Oh, my side,” said Blue Mask when she shifted it. “I’m so scared.”

Mei grit her teeth. “Move.”

“No.”

This felt odd. While it made sense for Mei not to kill Blue Mask, it didn’t make sense Blue Mask not to kill her. Mei was his enemy, and yet he’d already wasted two changes to use his mysterious magic to sink a knife in her back. At any rate, it was clear he wanted her away from Sanford.

Mei shifted her aim from Blue Mask’s side to his head. “Move.”

The thief reeled. “No, no, no, no, you said she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t.” Those strange gold eyes met Mei’s. “You wouldn’t.”

She wouldn’t, so before she pulled the trigger, Mei relaxed her grip and dropped her shoulder. Her goal had been to miss by half a wir and then force her way through, but Blue Mask was gone before her bullet left her rifle.

“You buxing fool.” Blue Mask dodged Mei’s attack and danced up to the rooftop’s peak. After tucking a red-handled knife into his belt, he brandished his remaining knives. “He was so sure you wouldn’t.”

Then he threw two knives at Mei and charged after them. Mei dropped her rifle, slapped away the knives with her dagger, ducked into his guard, caught his wrist, and used his momentum to pull him through her. The added momentum propelled Blue Mask all the way to the roof’s edge, which forced Mei to scramble after him and grabbed his arm before he fell off the roof.

“Get off me!” Blue Mask elbowed her in the face and rolled away from her. “Why did you do that? Do you know?”

“Know what?” Mei backed away from the roof’s edge. “I don’t want you dead.”

Blue Mask bristled. “Then why. Did. You. Shoot?”

Two more knives, both black-handled, arced Mei’s way. She ducked under them, parried Blue Mask’s knife thrust with one hand, caught his punch with the other and twisted it to try and force him to his knees, but Blue Mask roared and shoved her away. Only luck allowed Mei to keep her footing when another two thrown knives came her way.

After slapping them away, Mei watched them tumble down into the alley. Including the knife he’d used to knock the sleep bomb out of her hands, Blue Mask had now thrown seven knives at her and hadn’t retrieved a single one of them. While his clothes were more than baggy enough to hide that many knives, she’d now grabbed him twice and had failed to feel any metal hiding in his sleeves.

Producing infinite knives. Magic. Appearing wherever he he wanted. Magic. Passing through a single pane of glass. Also magic. Assuming the third belonged with the first and second meant that Blue Mask was the thief Dwayne was chasing.

And he had Huan’s build.

Crap.

“Why did you shoot?” The thief stalked towards her. “Do you know or don’t you?”

Because he was still between her and Sanford, Mei didn’t have very many options. Running or fighting, both would either tire her out or force Blue Mask to do something desperate to keep her from getting away. And of course, neither option dealt with the lean figure standing to Mei’s left.

“Li Mei,” they bowed, “the Empire has questions for you.”

Mei stared at them. Their words had been Imperial Tuquese, a dialect that all Tuquese children were taught to understand, but never to speak, and hearing it now was almost as surprising as what the speaker was wearing: a black mask covered in gold stripes that resembled a certain large feline beast from the jungles of the Empire’s southern reaches.

“Go away,” Blue Mask snarled in commoner’s Tuquese. “We’re busy.”

Mei’s astonishment switched targets.

“Irrelevant.” The other masked figure drew a long double bladed sword. “Black Tiger has come to see this through.”

“Black Tiger?” Blue Mask looked down at his hands. “No, I’m… There’s no Black Tiger!”

“Li Mei, I recommend you that you comply.” When Black Tiger pointed their sword at Mei, the characters for strength and determination glinting in the city lights. “Otherwise, we will have to use force.”

“We?”

Unlike Blue Mask, Mei had already noticed the wide shouldered man in speckled gray furs, whose short bow was already aimed at her, its string pulled taut. Bows like that were favored by hunters because they could be fired quickly. By the time Mei had taken ten steps, she’d have taken five arrows.

There was good news though. Whoever Black Tiger and their archer were, they probably didn’t have Blue Mask’s magic. All she needed was a distraction.

Black Tiger gestured with the tip of their sword. “Li Mei, your reply?”

“Back off.” Blue Mask drew the red-handled knife. “She’s mine!”

“Whoever you are, we have no quarrel with you. You may go.”

“I said,” Blue Mask threw his knife, “back off!”

That was her chance. In the time it took Black Tiger to slap Blue Mask’s knife out of the air, Mei had thrown her own blade at the archer. When he shot it out of the air, she dove, grabbed her rifle, and rolled right off the roof.

“Li Mei! Li Mei, come back!”

“Don’t buxing ignore me, imposter!”

Mei had seen someone manage to use kicks and quick grabs to descend from great heights quickly. It was not a trick she knew. Instead, brute strength allowed her to kick herself between the alley walls, and sheer luck dropped her into a pile of trash, leaving her with scrapes, bruises, and an unbroken rifle. Not wishing to jinx her fate, she got up and fled into the street.

Her brother had picked an awful night for a date.

***

“Free her. Now.”

If the wind Qe hadn’t been enough to convince Dwayne that his thieves were Mei’s murderers, then the brute’s stiletto would have done the trick.

“Who are you people?” After checking that Thadden was breathing, Dwayne got to his feet. “Why are you doing this?”

“I don’t answer questions from savages,” sneered “Ash”.

Dwayne ground his teeth. That was a bit much coming from an actual murderer. “Where’s my steward?”

“Dealt with.” The brute pointed at the thief. “Free her.”

A crack of thunder sounded in the distance. Mei’s rifle. If Rodion and Thadden were down and the Ma siblings were preoccupied with the brute and the thief’s alies, then Dwayne’s best bet was to free the thief and hope they didn’t hurt him when they left.

But then they’d have Na’cch. “Tell her to leave the book, and I’ll let you both go.”

“Ash,” the thief called out, “this book could advance our master’s plan.”

“Ash” stiffened. “No deal, savage.”

“All right, all right.” Dwayne put his hands up. “I’ll free her go.” Just imagine “Ash” as a hapless moth. “Qechireeut!”

The spell slammed the brute into Sanford’s outer wall, but he quickly recovered and charged Dwayne.

Another one then. “Qechireeut!”

“Ash” jumped right and made Dwayne’s spell tear off a sleeve, allowing him to closed the distance. Dwayne only had time for a quick “Qesuyit!” before the brute’s stiletto punched into his stomach.

“That’s that then.” The brute tossed Dwayne aside. “Now, let’s dig you out.”

“Is he dead?”

“He blocked it, but he won’t be getting up.”

“Where’s Sky?”

“Distracting his… you know who.”

His head pounding, Dwayne opened his eyes and looked around. If Qesuyit only prevented penetration, then the hard hit to Dwayne’s diaphragm probably would have put him down, but what the spell actually had done was turn his entire shirt into one stiff makeshift breastplate, which had turned the heavy blow into more of shove. As it was, he’d been thrown into the front yard.

Rodion lay slumped on Sanford’s threshold.

Dwayne scrambled over to the steward and held the back of his hand up to Rodion’s face. When he felt steward’s breath, Dwayne swallowed his relief. His friend wasn’t dead. Now, he just needed to get Na’cch back, and he’d be complete.

Cups, his head hurt.

Stifling a groan, Dwayne pulled himself to his feet and crept over to the sideyard, where “Ash” was having trouble digging the thief out.

“Can’t you free yourself with magic?”

“Do you want me to faint?” asked the thief. “I had practice all day today, and my capacity for high level spells is nearly spent.”

“Mine isn’t,” announced Dwayne. “All you have to do is give me back the book and I’ll free her.”

The brute spun to face him. “How did you- Ah, I knew that wasn’t canon. Do you use non-canon because you’re a savage who learned his magic from the beasts? Or is it that you just can’t do human magic?”

“Ri’mwe-” Dwayne bit down on the spell, which had tried to ride his fury out of his throat. “Remarkable. You’re very familiar with canon for a soldier.”

“I am not a soldier!” The somehow-taunted brute charged once again.

“Qethumlidug!” Dwayne’s spell caught the brute’s foot and made him face-planted into the yard.

“Cease with these primitive tricks.” The brute snapped the spell with a kick and got to his feet. “They are cowardly imitations of the warrior mages of old.”

The warriors mages of old probably didn’t have raging headaches after only casting eight Qe spells or have a Ri spell rattling around in their head.

Backing up further, Dwayne pointed at the ground. “Qesheffuf!”

“Nice try.” The brute vaulted over the bump in the ground. “Any more tricks?”

Dwayne’s back hit Sanford’s front wall. His only “trick” left was that Ri spell, but casting that would not only break his oath, it would also that was he a Ri mage, which a less than desired result. Of course, so was death, but there had to be a third option that wouldn’t result in Dwayne dying, or incinerating “Ash” to ash.

He did have matches, which everyone knew Qe mages needed to create fire.

When Dwayne pulled them out, the brute skidded to a halt. “What are you planning, savage?”

“Something not in the canon.” While Dwayne’s knowledge of Ri wasn’t nearly as expansive as his knowledge of Qe, he had learned both the spell his magic wanted to cast and the one he’d needed to keep the brute from dying at the same time. “You sure you don’t want to just give in?”

As the brute said “You’re bluffing,” Dwayne muttered “iki’iki’mwe’jie’mun” under his breath.

“What was that?” asked the brute.

Dwayne held up the matches. “Have you heard of Magdala Gallus?”

The brute’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

“Catch.” Dwayne threw the box, shouted “NQeoum!” and right before the brute was swatted the box away, he whispered, “tha.”

The matches burst into a white-hot flame.

“Argh, my eyes!” The brute flailed to get away, but the flame stayed near his face. “What did you do?”

“Ash?” called out the thief. “What’s happening? Ash? Ash?”

“It burns! Get it off!”

Feeling oddly satisfied, Dwayne just waited. He’d combined the fire ball spell with the heat shield spell using spell preparation. One kept “Ash” blind. The other kept him from feeling the heat. What neither did was keep the flame from eating up the brute’s air.

“You… savage…” The brute had fallen to his knees. “What…”

“Ash? What’s happening? Ash?”

“I…” The brute went supine. “You…” He went still.

Finally.

“Ri’t.” When the flame went out, Dwayne walked over to check the brute for burns, but his spell had worked perfectly. He’d only almost killed a man, a fact he’d deal with later.

Now, there was only the thief. The spell would work on her too and then he’d have captured the magic thieves and gotten Na’cch back. All that in exchange for a broken oath. Another thing he’d deal with later.

“Ash? Ash?”

“He’s fine.” Dwayne started to approach the wind mage. “You can talk to him in jail.”

“No! NQerikwem!” As her magic melted her dirt prison, the thief flipped to her feet and crooked a finger at Dwayne. “lo!”

A line of drew itself across Dwayne’s chest.

As he reeled from the pain, the thief shouted “aku!” and rocketed past Dwayne. She grabbed her partner and dragged out Sanford’s front gate.

“Come back!” With blood streaming down his chest, Dwayne ran after her. She still had Na’cch. “That’s mine!”

He chased her through the crowd of people gathered in the street and into an alleyway, where both mages’ strength failed them and they dropped.

“For a savage,” the thief hauled herself to her feet, “you’re extremely persistent.”

“Give me back my book. Qe-”

Dwayne’s headache came roaring back with a vengeance and darkness closed around him.