Lothain smoothed a hand over his head as he considered what she’d said. “I see.”
Lothain’s legendary temper was balanced on a knife edge, and she knew that it could go either way. She was overwhelmed by what he had told her and she needed time to think, but if she didn’t do something to cool him off, or at least move him into another direction, there was going to be trouble.
With Lothain’s private army filling the hall, she knew that Merritt didn’t stand a chance.
“I’m glad that I was here and had the chance to show you the quarters,” Magda said before he could say anything. She gestured to the door. “If you’re finished inspecting them, then I will see to getting rid of Baraccus’s old tools and moving the rest of my things out as soon as possible.”
Magda had always thought of Lothain as a sizable man, but next to Merritt he looked almost puny. Still, one man was no match for all the soldiers in green tunics.
For whatever reason, Lothain took the opportunity to pass up an ugly confrontation. He flashed her a cold smile and a meaningful look.
“Of course.” He bowed his head slightly. “Thank you, Lady Searus, for listening with an open mind to my . . . proposal. We will be coming to an agreement on it very soon, I assure you.”
Lothain let his gaze turn to take in Merritt, from his long, wavy hair to his boots and back up again. It was a condescending examination.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you, boy, that real wizards don’t need swords?”
Magda expected the trouble to begin, but Merritt instead did something that surprised her. He grinned. As he leaned against the doorframe he shrugged with his other shoulder.
“I’m compensating for my many inadequacies.”
Lothain arched an eyebrow as he bulled the taller man out of his way. “I imagine you are.”
Merritt looked back over his shoulder, watching Lothain and the prosecutor’s private army depart.
“What did he want?” Merritt asked, his grin gone.
“A wife.”
“What?”
Magda waved off the question. “I’ll tell you later. What about James?”
Merritt sighed. “I got lucky. He was having a lot of trouble breathing. They thought his lungs had been burned when he inhaled the illumination from the explosion of the collapsing web. They just didn’t understand the reaction caused by the combination of spells involved. Those spells were still stuck together, I guess you could say, still reacting and suppressing his ability to breathe. Once I decoupled the elements of the spell-forms to cease the reaction, he could breathe again.
“He’s still hurting, but the others can heal him now. We have more important things to worry about.”
Magda let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”
Merritt didn’t look to share her relief. “There are still three other wives mourning the deaths of their husbands.”
Magda nodded. “Let’s go next door, to the storage room, just in case Lothain comes back. I told him that you were here for Baraccus’s tools. Let’s not give him any excuse to think we’re up to something.”
Chapter 61
As they walked into the storage room, Merritt swept an arm out to ignite the lamps. Since he was gifted, his presence also lit the half-dozen heavy glass light spheres in iron brackets on the walls. The closed shutters held back the night and the distant flickers of lightning at the horizon.
“So what’s this about Lothain wanting you as his wife?”
His tone betrayed his displeasure.
“We have trouble,” Magda said without answering his question.
“More trouble than Lothain wanting you as his wife?”
“Lothain has been named First Wizard.”
Suddenly speechless, Merritt stared at her, not unlike the way she had stared at Councilman Sadler when he’d first told her the news. The only sound in the storage room was the hissing sputters of the freshly lit lamps.
Merritt finally found his voice. “That is trouble. I’ve never trusted the man. He’s not half the man needed for First Wizard.”
“Believe me, I have a far lower opinion of him than you do, but he’s apparently a man with enough power to get himself named as First Wizard.”
“That’s true enough. A lot of people support him. His reign as head prosecutor has seen a lot of formerly respected people brought down. Many people hold him in high regard for so vigorously going after criminals and traitors. You have to admit, he has been able to prosecute a lot of traitors.” Merritt leaned toward her as they crossed the room. “I have to confess, though, that I’ve always had my doubts about the guilt of some of those he has prosecuted.”
Magda frowned over at him. “Like who?”
Merritt pressed his lips tight before finally giving in. “I knew some of the wizards on the Temple team. I’d always thought favorably of them. I can see that many on the team turned against our cause and betrayed us, but all of them? I wonder if some of them might not have been scapegoats. Charging someone and beheading them ends the investigation. It makes Lothain look like he successfully prosecuted all of the guilty. But I wonder.”
Magda was a bit surprised to hear Merritt say such things. She had thought that she was the only one. Being ungifted, she had assumed that she didn’t know enough about the whole thing to judge. She didn’t know that wizards had doubts about the guilt of the Temple team. Maybe Merritt was the only one.
She looked back over her shoulder at his eyes. “I’ve wondered as well.
“That’s not all of it,” she said as she reached the familiar workbench. “Right after you left me to go help James, I ran into Councilman Sadler as he was leaving the Keep. Besides telling me that Lothain was to be named First Wizard, he also told me that Lothain dismissed him from the council.”
“Dismissed him?” Merritt leaned in. “Can he do such a thing?”
“Apparently. Sadler put on a brave face, but I could tell that he was heartbroken about it.”
Merritt scratched his cheek as he considered it. “Why would Lothain get rid of Sadler?”
“In order to reduce the council’s number to five so as to make it possible to carry any motion with three votes. There were six members, before, so the vote could be spilt three to three, preventing action. Now, with five members, the council can’t be evenly split anymore, as happened with difficult decisions. Now, no matter what, they are always guaranteed to have a majority to decide up or down on any matter.”
“That is troubling. I’ve never really had much to do with the higher powers running the Keep, but this doesn’t sound good to me. What I’m more worried about, though, is what does Lothain know about running a war?”
“He has his own private army.”
Merritt arched an eyebrow. “That doesn’t make him a general, it makes him a petty tyrant with muscle behind him.”
“Well, if I’m right about him, he may now become a bigger tyrant.”
Merritt considered silently for a moment, and then folded his arms. “All of this news is troubling enough, but what’s this about you marrying him?”
Magda took a deep breath. She hated the whole subject. “Well, Lothain says that I’m causing all kinds of trouble in the Keep. He says that the Keep has become divided and filled with discord and distrust. Apparently, a lot of people besides us don’t think he is the right man to be First Wizard.
“Lothain thinks that his problems with credibility are chiefly my doing. He thinks that because of the things I said about him I’ve undermined his authority and have made people doubt him.”
“You said something about him? What did you say?”
“When I was in front of a crowd in the council chambers, he accused me of making up the story about the dream walkers in order to get people to switch allegiance to D’Hara. I, in turn, accused him of chasing phantoms just to make a bigger name for himself. I said that he sees conspiracies lurking in every shadow, spies hiding around every corner, traitors behind every door. I said that he cared
only about inventing wrongdoing in order to advance his own personal fame and power.”
Merritt let out a low whistle. “You said that? Publicly?”
“I’m afraid so. In front of everyone I accused him of coming up with conspiracies that were only meant to promote his own status. I said that in order to elevate himself he was deliberately ignoring the truth about the dream walkers.”
“No wonder he blames you for tarnishing his credibility.”
“He also says that I’ve given birth to wild speculation about dream walkers. He says that my groundless accusations have turned people in the Keep against him. He says that such divisions are harmful to our cause.”
Merritt paced a few step away and then returned with heat in his voice. “Then why in the world would he want to marry you?”
“His solution to people’s doubts about him, doubts that he says I created with what he calls my baseless accusations, is to have me marry him. He thinks that if I were to marry him, it would convince everyone that I’ve reconsidered my views, views shaped by my grief and not any true failing on his part. He says that my consent to marry him would show people that I’m putting my faith and trust in him, and so they should as well. He thinks that it will banish any lingering doubts. He thinks that only in that way will people unite behind him and the war effort. He says that I need to do it for the good of the Midlands and our cause.”
Merritt, arms still folded, stared at her with an unreadable look.
Magda finally leaned toward him and said, “I’m not going to marry him.”
He let his arms drop. “Oh. All right, then.”
Magda turned to the familiar, worn workbench. She knew how angry the very idea of marrying Lothain made her, but she was a little surprised to see how upset it made Merritt. It made her feel good, though, that he cared that she didn’t make the mistake of marrying Lothain.
Shadow jumped out from the darkness among crates and supplies stacked on the floor and up onto the workbench. The silky black cat came close and rubbed against Magda’s hand.
As Magda stroked the cat’s back, Shadow lifted her hind end, hoping to have it scratched. As she enjoyed the attention, her tail curled around Magda’s wrist.
“Who’s this?” Merritt asked.
“This is Shadow. Isidore told me that cats have some small capacity to see between worlds. She said that black cats catch glimpses of the spirit world.”
Merritt held his hand out so that Shadow could get to know him. “Isidore would know.” Shadow inspected each finger in turn.
“Shadow detected the presence of that dead man that attacked us before we knew he was there. She definitely didn’t like him.” Magda smiled. “But I see that she really likes you.”
Shadow was rubbing against Merritt, purring in response to his touch. With his black shirt, the cat matched him, looked almost part of him. Magda wondered if Merritt, too, could detect the presence of spirits. The limits of the gift were often a mystery to her.
“I now sleep with the cloth from Isidore’s maze as a blanket, and Shadow curled up beside my pillow.” Magda scratched the cat’s head. “Don’t I, little one? But now you need to move.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Merritt said. “For someone ungifted, you seem to know how to use the things of magic at your disposal.”
Magda smiled as she lifted the cat and set her to the back of the workbench, where she lay down on her side, curled a paw under, and settled in to watch as Magda pulled a piece of wood out that covered a secret compartment in the bench top.
“I have something to show you.”
Chapter 62
“This is the note Baraccus left for me,” Magda said. “You asked before about its exact wording. I thought we had better check. I know how important such little details can be to a wizard.”
Suddenly alert, Merritt stepped closer. “Would you mind if I knew what the whole note said? Context can be important in such matters. Besides that, I might be able to pick up on something you missed. I mean, only if you’d be willing. . . . Would you mind?”
Magda smiled. “No, of course not.”
She carefully unfolded the piece of paper and then held the note up in the light so that she could read it aloud.
“‘My time has passed, Magda. Yours has not. Your destiny is not here. Your destiny is to find truth. It will be difficult, but have the courage to take up that calling.’” She looked up. “I was right. It doesn’t say ‘find the truth.’ It just says ‘find truth.’”
Merritt was frowning, deep in thought. After a moment, he gestured to the note in her hands. “Is there more?”
Magda nodded and went on. “‘Look out to the rise on the valley floor below, just outside the city to the left. There, on that rise, a palace will one day be built. There is your destiny, not here.’”
She had to swallow and compose herself before she could read the last part. “‘Know that I believe in you. Know, too, that I will always love you. You are a rare, fierce flower, Magda. Be strong now, guard your mind, and live the life that only you can live.’”
The only sound was Shadow’s tail slowly, softly, slapping the top of the workbench.
“It’s a beautiful note, Magda,” Merritt said in a soft, compassionate voice as she stood staring down at the paper in her trembling fingers. “It’s clear how much you meant to him.”
Magda wiped a tear from her cheek. She hadn’t realized how shaken she would be to read it again. It brought back so much, and at the same time reminded her of how distant it had all become. Baraccus was gone. The world of life had moved on.
Magda cleared her throat. “Do you have any idea what he could mean about a palace, and my destiny being there?”
“Sorry, but I don’t. Baraccus was a prophet, though, so he must know something about the future. A possible future, anyway. Our free will makes the future sometimes uncertain, even for prophets. I think that what he means is the future is yours to decide and he is hoping you will make the right decision.”
Magda’s arm lowered. “When the dream walker was trying to kill me, I remembered what he said in this note. Alric Rahl told me that the devotion he created—the one you helped him create—is meant to guard our minds from dream walkers. When a dream walker had me, and was trying to kill me, those words in the note made me realize that I had to give the devotion to Lord Rahl in order to guard my mind and save my own life. Baraccus’s words made me choose my own future, choose life, and as a result his prophetic words proved true.”
“Prophecy is often like that,” Merritt said. He seemed to surface from deep thoughts. “It also says your destiny is to find truth, just like you said, not the truth, as I had thought when you first told me.”
“Does that mean something to you?”
Merritt gave her a meaningful look, then drew the sword at his hip. As it emerged from the scabbard, the blade made a soft ringing sound that filled the quiet storage room. Magda could see something besides the gift in his eyes when he held the sword. It was a kind of deep, distant rage, something almost alive with its power.
Merritt carefully laid the sword on the workbench. Shadow gazed with drowsy green eyes at the blade he laid before her. Merritt finally looked at Magda in a way that told her he expected something from her.
She looked from Merritt to the sword and back again. “What?”
Merritt gestured to the sword. “What does it say?”
She knew very well what it said. She hadn’t been able to get it out of her mind. Still, Magda’s eyes turned to the hilt. She let her fingers lightly glide over the raised gold letters.
“It says ‘Truth.’” She lifted a brow at Merritt. “Are you saying that Baraccus’s words in his note—‘Your destiny is to find truth’—are meant to say that my destiny is to find the Sword of Truth? You really think that’s what he meant? You really think it could be that obvious?”
Merritt shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m a maker, not a prophet. But I made the word Truth on the hilt, and you
came to me and found the sword with that word crafted into it. You are the one who named it the Sword of Truth.”
A jumble of thoughts tumbled through Magda’s mind. Was Baraccus saying that her destiny was to find Merritt and the sword with Truth on it?
Or was he saying that this was the beginning of the path to her finding truth, and that path had taken her to Merritt?
Chapter 63
Magda again ran her fingers over the letters as Merritt stepped up beside her at the workbench. His gaze scanned the tools off to the side.
“This is where Baraccus made things, then? This room, this workbench?”
Magda nodded as she gestured to the side. “I used to sit on this crate, here, and watch him work.”
Magda glanced to the ornately engraved silver box to the side of the table that held treasured memories. Baraccus seemed so distant, now. In some ways it was all like only yesterday, but in other ways it all seemed so long ago in her life. She missed him, but even that pain was gradually fading as she worried about all the immediate problems.
“Did he make that as well?” Merritt asked, gesturing to the silver box.
Magda nodded as she pulled it closer to show him. She ran her fingers over the top, much as she had done with the letters on the sword, and then opened the lid.
“It just holds some small memories of things he gave me.”
Magda lifted out the white flower to show him.
Merritt looked somewhat surprised. “That’s pretty rare. I’ve only seen one of those once before.”
Magda twirled the flower between a finger and thumb. “You know what this is, then? Baraccus said it was rare, but never mentioned the name.”
“It’s called a confession flower.”
Magda frowned. “Really? A confession flower? Why would it be called that?”
“Because a confession is a revelation of the truth. Truth is pure. White is pure. Thus the name.”
“That’s a lovely name, for a lovely flower,” she said as she replaced the flower and closed the lid.