Found (6 page)

B
y
we can clean everything
Nevery meant that
I
could clean everything. I was the one who’d made the stupid mistake, he said. Then he pulled a sheet off a comfortable chair, got a book from the pile of books by the wall, and sat down to read. While he did that, I closed the window, brushed the soot-snow off the table, set out the materials again,
and carefully cleaned every speck of soot from the mortars and the stirring rods. When I was almost finished, Nevery put his book aside and came to the table to take the dock pendulum apart and recalibrate it.

We prepared the spell again. This time, when I stirred the metal jelly, it dissolved into a pile of red powder so fine, it swirled like blood in the bottom of the mortar.

Nevery’s aqueous solution had turned to powder, too. Now we had to wait fifty counts for it to cool. The dock pendulum ticked over,
tock
,
tock
,
tock
.

According to the description in the book, the finding spell would
manifest and point the precise location of the stone, so that the wizard must be prepared to pursue, and thus discover it
. “Nevery?” I said. I wasn’t sure what
manifest
meant, exactly.

“What, boy?” He picked up a length of copper wire and held it to the candle flame.

“How will the spell, um, manifest?”

Nevery glanced at me, then back at the wire.
“You only think to ask this now?”

Stupid, I knew. “Well, Nevery—”

“Yes, yes, I know, boy,” he said. “We’re at twenty-five counts.” Without taking his eyes off the candle flame, he went on. “The spell should manifest as a beam of light, which will extend from this room to the place in the city where your locus stone can be found. You know to be ready?”

“I’m ready,” I said.

“Count of five,” Nevery said. “Four, three, two—”

I picked up my mortar—it was heavy—and dumped my red powder into Nevery’s mortar full of blue powder. Even without mixing, the two powders swirled together, repelling each other. Setting the mortar down, I gripped the edge of the table, suddenly nervous again.

“Steady, Connwaer,” Nevery said. The end of his copper wire glowed.

I waited.

“Now,” Nevery said, and thrust the hot wire into
the mingled powders. Hot filament ignition.

The book had called what would happen a
glowing red wave front
, but I knew a pyrotechnic explosion when I saw one. The mortar filled with ember-gold light. I started the spell.
“Alasanliellielalas—”

“Louder, boy!” Nevery said.

The light burst out from the mortar. I shouted more spellwords—“
eventiensilaollentinumintia—
” The room filled with white-bright fizzing stars.

Nevery, holding up his hand to shade his eyes, went to the window and pulled aside the curtain. “Finish it!” he shouted.

The end of the spell was my name.
“Connwaer!”

The finding spell gathered itself into a crackling, spinning flower of light just below the ceiling. Vials and the dock pendulum and the mortars were swept off the table and shattered against the walls. Faster and faster the light-flower spun, flinging off sparks; then it slowed, finding its way. Slower, slower…

“Be ready, boy,” Nevery whispered.

I was ready.

The light-flower drew in its petals, gave a blinding flash, and blasted through the window; shards of glass flew outward, sparkling in the darkness.

Nevery and I leaped for the windowsill to see where the spell pointed.

It blazed a trail from the window, shedding sparks as it flew through the night. South. I got ready to follow it.

“Wait,” Nevery said. He grabbed my arm. “It’s gone wrong.”

The finding spell was supposed to point like a giant finger made of light. But this wasn’t a beam of light, it was a blazing knife that sliced through the dark city, cutting a wide scorch line south, through the wizards’ houses on one island, through the middle of Magisters Hall on the next island, boiling through the river water and then cutting through the Night Bridge. The spell kept going, blazing a path across a corner of the Sunrise and out of the city.

I saw a glow in the distance as the spell sped away. Then darkness.

For a moment, all was silent. Beside me, Nevery stared out at the city. Then came shouting, and lights blazing up in the sliced buildings. From the first floor of the academicos came the sound of doors slamming, and more shouting.

Nevery went to the door and flung it open. “
Lothfalas
,” he muttered, and at the sound of the spell his locus magicalicus flared. He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Go, boy,” he whispered, and swept-stepped away, his locus stone filling the stairway with light.

N
every went down; I went up.

The stairway was wide and built of soft stone worn down in the middle of the treads from academicos students going up and down to their classrooms. I ran on feather-feet, hearing shouts and running feet from below. Only guards
from the Dawn Palace were that noisy; Captain Kerrn must have them stationed nearby.

Up one floor, and I’d need to cut through to another stairway to get off the main level and into one of the towers. I came to a landing lit by a werelight lantern turned low. A door leading off it was locked. I snick-picked the lock and went through. Shelves of rolled-up papers—I was in the scroll room of the academicos library.

I was halfway across the dark-dim room, heading for the door on the other side, when somebody opened it and stepped in.

Plump, wearing a yellow robe, holding an egg-shaped locus magicalicus flaring with light. Brumbee.

I skidded to a stop and stared at him.

He stared back at me. “Oh, dear,” he said. “Is that you, Conn?”

Drats!

I whirled and raced back the way I’d come, slamming the door closed and locking it, then standing
on the dim stairway, listening. I expected to hear Brumbee shout for the guards, but he didn’t.

Quick as sticks I skiffed away, up a narrow, round stairway that snaked up to the very top of one of the four towers on the four corners of the academicos building.

When I reached the roof, I eased the trapdoor closed and stood up, catching my breath. The sky was just turning gray with dawn over the Sunrise part of the city. Where I stood was a flat, square roof covered by lead tiles, with a low wall and clusters of stone spires taller than I was all along its edges.

A black bird perched at the top of each spire.

“Go away, you birds,” I whispered. Captain Kerrn knew the magic’s birds followed me around. She’d know exactly where to look for me if she saw them up there. I waved my arms at them, but the birds didn’t move from their perches.

I edged into the shadows beside one of the spires and crouched down to wait. If I kept quiet, Kerrn and her guards might not find me. I peered around
another spire and looked out over Wellmet.

There, the spell-line, a wide burnt-black slash that led from the workroom in the academicos, across the courtyard, and through the islands and the city like a fat line drawn on a map with black ink, headed straight south. The spell-line still smoked.

Across the roof from where I hid, the trapdoor creaked open.

I held my breath.

A pair of black birds spiraled down and landed on the spire I was hiding behind.

“I know you are here, thief,” said a low voice.

Captain Kerrn. I pressed myself farther into the shadows.

I heard her climb out the trapdoor and the sliding
skff skff
of her footsteps on the roof.

I glanced quickly around. Nowhere else to hide. Unless…

Yes, at the very edge of the tower, between the spires and a five-story drop to the paved courtyard, was a narrow ledge.

Moving slowly, holding tight to the stone spires, I edged from behind my spire hiding place and out onto the ledge; it was just as wide as my foot.

Clinging to the spire, I looked down over my shoulder. The ground was very, very far away. I saw guards crossing the courtyard, and there was small, fat Brumbee in his yellow robes, and small Nevery with guards. None of them looked up.

Part of being a thief meant being good at climbing. I wasn’t going to fall.

A black bird landed on the ledge beside me. I kicked at it with my foot and wobbled a little.

Awk
, said the bird.

Drats, Kerrn was going to find me. I didn’t want her chaining me up in a prison cell and giving me phlister; I
had
to go find my locus stone.

Over the Sunrise part of Wellmet the very edge of the sun peeked up, sending beams of golden light across the city. The beams looked like long arms, reaching out from the sun.

Carefully I turned around until the spire was
at my back. My heels were on the ledge, but my toes rested on nothing but air. I looked down. Way below, the wide courtyard was empty now, except for Nevery. The guards and Brumbee had gone in, probably searching for me. Nevery stood still, gripping his cane, staring up at me. Then he pulled something from his cloak pocket—his locus magicalicus. He held it up, his lips moving, saying a spell, I guessed. He pointed the stone at me, and a flash of white light darted from the stone and over me, then reflected back to Nevery. He turned and pointed the stone at the courtyard stones and said the rest of the spell. An image of me, dark like a shadow, sprang up next to Nevery. He said another word, and the shadow-me started running across the courtyard toward the tunnel entrance.

At the same moment, Brumbee and the guards burst from the academicos door. Seeing the shadow-me, they waved their arms and shouted, and a couple of the guards started across the courtyard.

I heard footsteps clatter across the lead-tiled roof,
then just along the ledge from me, Kerrn poked out her head. If she turned just a little bit, she would see me. I held my breath. The bird on the ledge beside me didn’t move.

One of her guards shouted, and the shadow-me disappeared down the tunnel steps.

“
Flaet
,” Kerrn said, a curse word in her own language, I guessed, and then she was gone, her footsteps pounding across the rooftiles and the trapdoor slamming closed behind her.

Down in the courtyard, Nevery shoved his locus magicalicus into his cloak pocket and headed toward the corner of the building. He was going ’round the back.

Quick as quick I slid off the ledge so the guards wouldn’t see me if they looked up, and cat-footed over to the trapdoor.

I skiffed through the shadowy hallways and stairways and classrooms of the academicos to a window on the ground floor, unlatched it, and climbed out, and there was Nevery.

We were at the back of the academicos, a narrow strip of deserted courtyard leading to the steep stone bank that ran all around the edge of the island.

“Brumbee saw you, boy,” Nevery said.

I caught my breath. “I know.”

“I’ve signaled Benet.” Nevery’s cloak swirled as he turned away and started toward the stone bank.

“Nevery, d’you know why the finding spell didn’t work the way it was supposed to?” I asked, running to catch up.

He didn’t answer. “Hurry, boy,” he said. His cane went
tap tap
on the paving stones.

We came to the edge of the island. The stone bank where we stood was about Nevery’s height above the rough, gray water. Below us, Benet waited in the rowboat, holding on to an iron ring that was set into the side of the wall.

Nevery nodded at the boat. “In you go.”

I dropped down into the boat.

“Steady,” Benet said. He looked up at Nevery,
standing above us on the wall. “Tonight? Dory-down dock?”

“Yes. Make haste.” Nevery looked over his shoulder, back at the academicos.

“Nevery, aren’t you coming?” I asked, getting to my feet. The boat sloshed, tipping me back onto my seat. Benet pushed us away from the wall and set his oars in the oarlocks.

Nevery didn’t answer; he turned around and swept-stepped away, back toward the academicos.

What was he doing? He needed to come with us or he’d get into trouble. Brumbee had seen me. They’d know Nevery’d been with me. I stood up again.

“Get down,” Benet growled. “He can deal with ’em.” He pointed with his chin at the canvas tarp I’d hid under before, and took a stroke with his oars. We shot away from the island, headed downstream. I scrambled under the tarp and pulled it over my head. Hidden.