The First Confessor (39 page)

“Be that as it may, there are larger issues at stake. You are a woman who also needs the protection of an important man.”

Magda was getting the distinct feeling that there was a hidden agenda that he was working toward.

“Protection?”

He shrugged. “Of course. Your being the wife of the new First Wizard will bring an end to the questions about your allegiance. It would put to rest the whispers about your apparent loyalty to Lord Rahl over the Midlands. It would help disassociate you from the irregular matters Baraccus was entangled in. It would also bring an end to suspicions about all the strange things you have been up to, lately.”

“Strange things I’ve been up to? What are you talking about?”

“You have been seen sneaking about, trying not to be seen, hiding your face.”

“In other words, you have people spying on me. It so happens that as the former wife to the First Wizard I simply want to avoid undue attention.”

“The fact remains that a virtuous woman, a woman with nothing to hide, would not do such things. It makes people wonder about you, wonder exactly what you may have been up to. Very unsavory behavior for someone of your standing.” He glanced at her short hair. “Or should I say, former standing.”

“If my loyalty to the Midlands and our cause is so suspect, why would you, as First Wizard, want to have a woman like that as a wife? More to the point, you are many things, but you are not stupid. You know what I think of you. Why would you be so interested in protecting my virtue?”

His smile widened. “Your virtue? You think I care about your virtue? I have use of you, that’s all. Saving your reputation, and perhaps your hide, is merely a plum I offer in return.”

“You have use of me? What use could I possibly be to you?”

He glanced back over his shoulder, then returned his gaze to her eyes. “Why don’t you show me the bedroom, Magda, and I will make clear to you one of your many uses to me.”

Magda could feel the blood rush to her face. She worked to control her voice. Yelling at him was not going to get her to the bottom of what this was really all about.

“You’re a powerful man. You can have your pick of most any women. A few of them might even be willing; the rest you can easily afford. You don’t need me for that.”

His grin remained in place. “That may be true, but I would rather have you. The most unobtainable of all flowers is the most desirable, don’t you think? It would prove me the most worthy of any men at the Keep to win the widow of Baraccus as my wife.”

“I wasn’t aware that your self-confidence was so shaky.”

His smile finally departed, leaving a grim expression. “Self-confidence is not my problem; how people perceive me is. You see, having you as my wife would give me credibility as First Wizard. It would put people in mind of Baraccus. It would put us on the same plane. I would be his equal, and as his equal, I would have the same woman at my side.”

Magda gritted her teeth. “You are not the equal of Baraccus.”

He chuckled. “My dear, you will reconsider that after our first night in bed together.”

“Get out,” Magda growled through gritted teeth. She pointed through the open doorway. “Leave.”

His humor vanished as his pinched expression took on a vicious cast. He jabbed a beefy finger against her shoulder.

“Now you listen to me, Magda Searus. You’ve caused a lot of trouble here in the Keep, trouble that has spread down to the city. I don’t know why, but there are a lot of people who believe in you. You got everyone in a fearful uproar with your bloody show before the council session when you put your wild theories about dream walkers out where people could hear them.

“Far worse, though, are your disrespectful and despicable accusations against me. Improbable as it seems, those insulting charges brought by a nobody have caught the attention of many. Those accusations have found support and created divisions within the Keep. They have disgraced and discredited me in the eyes of some. Your allegations have made people less willing to trust me, to follow me.

“We are at war and you have created speculation, divisions, and suspicion when we instead need to be united. Your theories and fanciful notions have shaken people’s trust in the council’s wisdom and especially in my authority. You have undermined faith in me!

“You, Magda Searus, have become a threat to order and therefore to our cause. If you care about the Midlands and the people, as you claim, then you would see that it is your duty to bring peace among them. You are the cause of the dissension and discord, so it is your duty to put an end to it.

“By marrying me, you will put to rest all the absurd theories flying around the Keep, absurd theories started by you. The gossip and speculation will end. You becoming my wife will calm fears and bring suspicion to an end. It will show people that your behavior was only your grief playing tricks on your weak, feminine mind.

“Marrying me will put an end to the whispers, about you, and especially about me. Marrying me will silence the dissent that is brewing. It will restore unity to the people.

“You are going to marry me in order to restore faith in my unquestioned authority, faith you undermined. You are going to do this for the good of the Midlands.

“I am not going—”

“This is not a matter open to debate! It is for the good of our people and you are going to do it!”

He smoothed a hand back over his bull neck and calmed his tone.

“Now, I will give you a chance to think it over. It’s a big step, remarrying, but it will do you good and give you a renewed purpose here at the Keep. I hope that you don’t make it any more difficult for yourself than it needs to be.

“Either way, I can assure you that, in the end, one way or another, you will be married to me and serve me as a good and loyal wife should serve her man and her leader, the First Wizard.”

He leaned close, his teeth clenched, as he jabbed his fat finger into her shoulder over and over, punctuating his words.

“That is the road of life you are going to travel. Don’t make that road any harder than it needs to be.”

Magda ignored the throbbing pain from his finger jabbing her shoulder.

“I told you to get out.”

He flashed her a cold, patronizing smile. “So you see, since you will be marrying me, you will be remaining in your apartment—or I should say, our apartment—surrounded by the luxury to which you are accustomed, living the privileged life of the wife of the First Wizard. Fears and doubts about the leadership of the Midlands will soon be forgotten when people see you faithfully at my side.”

“I asked you to leave.”

Magda’s heart was hammering so hard with rage she couldn’t think straight.

He gestured. “You will have to let your hair grow out, of course. It’s only fitting for the wife of the First Wizard to have long hair.”

“I told you—”

“Is there a problem, here?”

Magda turned. Merritt filled the doorway.

Merritt had Lothain fixed in a dangerous glare.

“No, there’s no problem,” Magda said. “Prosecutor Lothain was just leaving. He had a minor issue to ask me about, but as it turns out, I’m afraid that I’m unable to help him with it.”

Lothain stared at her for a moment, as if to say that it was already decided and he would have his way, before letting his icy look move to Merritt.

“What are you doing here, Merritt?”

The two men glared at each other like two stags unexpectedly encountering each other in an open meadow. She knew that she had to do something before one of them decided to.

“I asked him to come,” Magda said into the dangerous silence.

Lothain’s brow twitched as he looked over at her. “You asked him to come? Why?”

Before Merritt could say anything, Magda replied, in an offhand manner, “Baraccus was a maker.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Lothain asked before Magda had a chance to explain.

“Well, when the council told me that they needed the apartments for a new First Wizard,” she went on, “I told them that I would find a new place and move my things out. I’m in the process of packing them up. But I have no use for Baraccus’s old tools. I heard that Merritt is also a maker, so I offered him the tools. They aren’t of any use to me. I thought they not only might be of some use to Merritt, but it would save me the trouble of moving them. Besides, I won’t have the room for them in my new quarters.”

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.”

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.”