The Wizardwar - Elaine Cunningham [112]
"Wizard fighting wizard," muttered the man wearing captain's braid. "This is a dark day, the first of many."
"The tower was besieged," Matteo retorted. "Basel's apprentices merely defended it. The law allows any man or woman to defend their lives and homes.
Do not make this into something it was not."
He spoke with the guards for several minutes more. Finally they left to deal with the captured wizards and send messages to western Halruaa. Those who escaped would be rounded up and brought to trial.
When at last the militia left, Mason belted on a sword and began to gather up glowing vials.
"What, precisely, do you intend to do with those?" Matteo inquired.
The apprentice shot him a quick, grim look. "Basel is dead. I'm going after the Noor family."
"Put those vials down before you drop them," the jordain said sharply. "If you haven't the vision to see how far these flames could burn, at least consider the practical details. How far do you suppose you'd get in your quest for vengeance? You have not yet been absolved of Farrah Noor's murder. If you've an hour to spare, I’ll list all the spells that could track you down in less time than the recitation of them would take."
The young man's eyes shifted briefly to the smoking, blackened garden.
"So I'm to stay here."
Matteo's visage softened. "Come with me to the palace. You'll stay in guest chambers under guard until this matter is settled. Tzigone?"
"Go ahead. I’ll follow you in a while."
The jordain hesitated, but he apparently sensed her need to be alone. The two men left the tower.
When all was quiet, Tzigone went to the window and leaned heavily against the sill. The charred gates stood open, and the magic that had encircled the tower was gone.
The interrupted fireball had melted rock and soil into a sheet of dark glass.
In it was reflected a slim, shining crescent. She glanced up. The smoke still rising from the garden cast shifting patterns against the waning moon.
Tzigone stood there as the moon crested the sky, saying a private farewell to the man who had been her father, if just for one brief day. There would be no somber rites for Basel Indoulur, no formal funeral pyre such as honored Halruaa's great wizards. She suspected Basel would probably prefer matters as they were.
A soft, furtive sound pierced her reverie and sent her spinning around. She drew back, astonished, as her gaze fell upon Dhamari Exchelsor.
The wizard looked equally startled to see her. "What are you doing here?" he blurted out Her chin came up. "I'm Basel's apprentice, and by Halruaan law, his heir as well. I have every right to be here. You don't."
"Basel had no business in my tower, either," he spat out.
Tzigone lifted one brow. "Your tower? When you divorced Keturah, you forfeited legal rights to it. It's mine. Your belongings have been sent to the Exchelsor vineyard estates."
"Not all of them. I'm come to reclaim what Basel stole from me."
Her eyes narrowed. "You just happened to show up now. You were surprised to find anyone still alive in the tower."
"Unpleasantly surprised," he said, his eyes burning with hatred and his hand slowly drifting to a bag hanging at his belt.
"Did you know about this attack?"
"It was not a subtle thing," the wizard countered. His hand dipped into his bag and flashed toward.
Instinctively Tzigone threw up both hands. Magical energy coursed from her, ready to ward off the spell.
But the wizard knew her magic almost better than she did. No spell flew from his hand, but a tiny winged creature.
It exploded into full size, filling the room with rustling wings and thick ropes of topaz and emerald scales.
The starsnake flew at Tzigone, its jaws flung open for attack. She sang a single clear, high note, and the winged snake veered away, circling up toward the ceiling.
She kept singing, instinctively finding a strange, atonal melody that somehow matched the snake's frenzied, undulating flight In moments she felt the magic that entrapped the creature melt away. The starsnake shot out of the