Mistress of the Night - Don Bassingthwaite [114]
"Hurry!" he implored the stone animals. "Hurry!"
It took only a moment before the dogs relaxed. It seemed like forever. He pushed the door open. The entrance hall was empty, but Fourstaves House was alive with shouts and commotion. Up in the family wing and down along the warded corridor of workshops, doors were banging as the Thingoleir wizards prepared for battle. Keph darted across the hall and threw himself into the shadows of a parlor. Pressed up against a wall, he tried to stifle his panting gasps.
Scant thundering heartbeats later, he heard Strasus's voice call, "Are we ready?" A small chorus answered him in the affirmative. "Then may Mystra ride with us!"
Keph held his breath as footsteps raced down the grand staircase and across the entrance hall. The door opened-outside, the stone dogs whined in greeting at their master-and closed again. Keph released his breath, slid over to a window, and twitched aside a heavy curtain. Out in the courtyard, Strasus held out his hand and spoke a word of magic. Mist and faint glimmers of light swirled into the form of a silver-gray horse. Dagnalla cast the same spell and the two elder wizards mounted while their children and son-in-law worked magic of their own and rose up into the air.
Strasus urged his phantom horse around to face the mansion. In the window Keph froze, but his father just raised his staff and uttered another magical word-and a command: "Let none enter!"
For an instant, green light shone bright enough to illuminate the courtyard. Lines of magic laced across the window in front of Keph's face then faded-a new ward. He swallowed. Strasus touched heels to his mount's side and pulled on shadowy reins. The apparition reared silently and began to gallop up into the night as if climbing a hill. Dagnalla rode at his side, with Malia, Roderio, and Krin soaring around them both.
The five wizards of Fourstaves House raced off like heroes. Keph turned away from the window and slunk back out into the entrance hall.
Halfway across the hall, an underbutler stopped, startled. "Sir!" he said in surprise. "I didn't realize you were here."
The man's eyes were wide. Keph realized what he must look like-but then again, he'd come home more than once looking much worse. He forced back a grimace and feigned a lazy, drunken sneer.
"I was asleep in the parlor until all the racket happened." He strutted across the hall and turned up the staircase. "If anyone asks, do me a favor and tell them you haven't seen me."
The underbutler swallowed and said, "Sir, your father did leave instructions for all of us-the next time we saw you, we were to tell you that he would like to have a word with you at your convenience."
"Did he?" Keph turned to look back at the servant. An angry retort started to roll off his lips out of pure habit. "Well, you can tell the old man that-" he caught himself and bit his tongue-"you can tell him that I send him my respect."
"Sir?"
"You heard me," Keph growled. "Now don't you have something to do? Be about your duties!"
Keph leaped up the stairs two at a time without looking back. It would look strange if he were to turn down the north hall toward Strasus's study. At the top of the stairs, he turned south instead, toward the family quarters. As soon as he was out of sight of the stairs, however, he stopped and sagged against the wall. Too close, he thought. That was all too close. He closed his eyes for a moment. His limbs were shaking and weak after his run, but he couldn't stop yet.
Forcing his eyes open, he creeped back out to the end