Extinction - Lisa Smedman [94]
It was possible, however, to see out from there, thanks to an enormous crystal ball that floated at the center of the room. Into the sphere had been magically bound one eye of the eagle that resided in a gilded cage just below the crystal sphere. As Gromph and Prath entered the room, the eagle flapped its wings and gave a screee of excitement, blinking its one remaining eye. The sphere above it turned, rotating to face the two drow. The eagle's second eye, which filled the crystal ball from side to side, fixed them with a hungry stare.
Or rather, it fixed upon Kyorli. Snapping its beak, the eagle screeed a second time and hurled itself against the bars of its cage. The rat, taunting it, sat back on her haunches no more than a pace from the cage and groomed her whiskers, ignoring the frenzied wing flapping of the eagle.
Kyorli, stop it, Gromph ordered. Come here.
Obeying the telepathic command, Kyorli dropped to all fours and scurried back to her master. Climbing swiftly up Gromph's piwafwi, she settled herself on his shoulder, tickling his ear with her whiskers. Prath, meanwhile, stooped to place the spellbooks he'd been carrying on the floor.
"The eagle is hungry," Gromph told Prath. "Find it some raw meat-but don't go slicing off any more fingertips. You're going to need them."
Prath grinned.
"I thought you might need more, Archmage" he said, reaching into one of the bags that was slung over his shoulder. "So I stopped by the kitchen on the way back from the components storeroom. The cook gave me this."
Pulling out a waxed rag, he unwrapped a fist-sized chunk of meat. At Gromph's approving nod he held it up against the bars of the cage. The eagle tore into it greedily, ripping off bloody chunks with its hooked beak and eventually wrenching a large piece inside. It settled upon that portion, content, and soon reduced it to no more than a smear of blood on the bottom of the cage.
Gromph, meanwhile, greeted the House Baenre wizards who straggled into the room, directing them to the circle of chairs that surrounded the cage and the crystal ball. He was pleased to see Julani, a Master of Evocation. His fellow instructor bowed, touching long, supple fingers against his chest. The next two to arrive were a pair of tenth-year students. Grendan was a handsome male with a natural flair for illusion. Gromph wondered how much of his good looks were natural and how much had been augmented by magic-especially since the smell of singed hair still clung to him. Judging by the burns in the hood of his piwafwi, the student must have been splattered by one of the duergar's incendiary missiles.
His companion, Noori, was equally beautiful-naturally so-with arched eyebrows and white hair that cascaded past her shoulders in soft waves. She was high-born, a cousin to Gromph and Triel, but she had eschewed the worship of Lolth to enter Sorcere and study divination magic instead. Remembering that, Gromph wondered whether or not Noori might have had a premonition, so many years before, of Lolth's demise. She certainly seemed to have been able to keep out of the way of any harm during the recent fighting. There wasn't a mark on her-not even a soot smudge.
The final mage to enter the room was Zoran, an irritating, second-year student who was continually making poor choices in class, using magic in frivolous, inappropriate ways. Gromph winced, seeing him-especially when he noted the wand of wonder in the boy's belt. Zoran was tiny, even for a male, and had a receding chin, made more pronounced by the fact that his hair was pulled into a topknot at the crown of his head. He must have been injured in the recent battle. Gromph didn't remember him walking with a limp before.
As the four mages settled themselves