Within a minute the ten young Theiwar males had gathered before their master. Willim looked the group up and down and was not displeased. Each of the dwarves had demonstrated keen intelligence and the kind of ruthless purposefulness that indicated the clear potential for the Order of the Black Robes. They were young, but they were learning.
Tarot, the most experienced of the group, stood erectly at attention at the end of the line. He had already mastered the spell of the lightning bolt and was a natural at finding the subterranean-based components-including fungi, mineral, and animal-that were necessary for developing the most potent toxins. Beside him stood Ochre, not as clever as Tarot but big, strong as an ox, and utterly loyal. A stolid, if plodding, researcher, Ochre had demonstrated a dedication to his master that Willim had rarely encountered.
Of course, the others of the group of ten had shown similar, if less advanced, dedication. It was a good class, he reflected, realizing with some surprise that it had been more than a year since he had been forced to put one of his apprentices to death.
“You have labored well for me this past year,” the wizard began, clearly surprising the young dwarves with his praise. “I have asked much of you, and you have responded. You know I expect all of you to serve me well, but you will be well rewarded when we are ready to strike at the new king and all of his fanatical fools on his council of thanes.”
“Thank you, Master,” Tarot said, replying for the group. “We ache with eagerness for the day we may assist you in claiming that lofty throne.”
“I know you do,” Willim said. “But patience. That day remains well in the future. Of course, we could kill him in a moment, if that was our only goal, but you should know that my aspirations are higher. We must do more than merely assassinate the king; we must prepare the dwarves of Thorbardin for a new king, so that they will accept, even embrace, a Theiwar wizard on the high throne. For that to happen, they must learn to hate and fear their current ruler.”
Willim turned to his table and snatched up the bottle labeled Midwarren Pale. Holding it reverently, he turned back to his apprentices.
“This is a new creation,” he said, watching without surprise as their eyes widened in appreciation. “It is a potion, but a transformative, not a magical spell. It will embed in the one who drinks it new powers, advantages that will, I suspect, be not only permanent, but will continue to grow with the passage of time. I would like one of you to volunteer to test it.”
“I will, Master!” came the reply from ten throats, each apprentice immediately taking a step forward then turning to glare warily at his rival colleagues.
Willim held up his hand. “I knew you would all reply in the affirmative, and I am grateful for your zeal. Tarot, you have earned the right to test this, by your performance. But you are my best and brightest pupil, and I do not care to risk losing you.”
That apprentice, who had brightened at the sound of his name, looked suitably crestfallen-even to Willim’s power of true-sight, which had been watching for any carefully concealed sign of relief that the apprentice was relieved of the dangerous test. The wizard was pleased to note that Tarot’s disappointment was genuine.
“Ochre,” he continued smoothly. “I have chosen you to test my elixir. You have proved your allegiance many times, but you will never be the spellcaster that Tarot is expected to be. Therefore, it might prove useful to enhance your power in other ways.”
“Thank you, Master!” cried Ochre, lumbering forward with his long arms swinging at his sides. If he felt any slight by his teacher’s assessment, Ochre gave no sign. Instead, the apprentice bowed before the wizard then watched excitedly as Willim poured a small amount of the potion-about the equivalent of a shot of rotgut-into a small glass. When the Black Robe extended the vessel, the apprentice took it from his hands and, upon seeing the mage’s gesture of encouragement, drank it down in one swallow.
Immediately he began to cough. The glass fell from his nerveless fingers, shattering unnoticed on the floor. Rigid, Ochre leaned back, quivering in all his limbs.
“Catch him-quickly!” Willim snapped, and two apprentices stepped forward to break Ochre’s fall as he toppled over backward. “Lay him on the floor, and do not be concerned. The magic is working as I anticipated.”
His apprentices did as they were told, though several looked askance at the quivering Ochre, who by all appearances seemed to be suffering the effects of a powerful seizure. His jaws clenched, his eyes rolled back into their sockets so only the whites showed, and a froth of foam appeared at his lips. All the while his limbs trembled uncontrollably.
But that was the price of magic, and Willim silently watched those who appeared unduly worried; their lack of faith would be remembered.
Then his eyeless face turned from right to left, looking beyond the robed apprentices, noting the cages in the back of the laboratory where the miserable elves and dwarves huddled in silent misery. His magical vision fell upon the newcomer, the pathetic gully dwarf all alone in his large cage, and the Theiwar’s mouth wrinkled into a cruel caricature of a smile.
He gestured casually to the bottle of black liquid, the new toxin he had just created. “This is a poison, I believe, that will allow us to fell a great number of our enemies with a single blow. It, too, remains to be tested, of course.”
“With Reorx’s blessing, you will smite all of our foes,” Tarot pledged zestfully.
“Precisely,” Willim replied. He turned to the table and picked up the vial. “Now bring me the Aghar, and let us watch to see if the poison does its work.”
Tarot and another apprentice hastened over to the cage, while Willim cradled the precious bottle of elixir in both of his hands. He could actually feel the poisonous power of the concoction. Not only was it crafted to be lethal, even in the dose of a single drop, but it had been tailored to create fiendishly cruel effects the Theiwar wizard was certain to enjoy.
If his calculations were right, the first effect would be to completely paralyze the victim, leaving him incapable of action or speech even as he remained completely aware of all that was going on around him. The second effect would be to heighten the stricken target’s sensations, so that every sound, every spark of light, would flare with excruciating intensity through every one of the stricken fellow’s nerve endings. Thus, the dying victim would not only understand what was happening to him, but would experience all taunts and tortures, the slightest prick of his skin, with searing agony. Willim could picture his ultimate victim one day-the new king, helpless at his feet-imagining the delight he would take with the application of a small dagger or perhaps a tiny spark of flame to the paralyzed king’s hypersensitive flesh. Of course the king’s remaining eye would have to be plucked out very slowly.
Then, after perhaps an hour of helplessness-Willim hadn’t settled on the duration, which depended partly on the poison-the victim’s flesh would begin to dissolve. It was his intent that the dissolution would begin at the tips of the extremities, and take an extremely long time to reach the vital organs, and only when the heart or lungs failed, finally, would death provide the doomed king with blessed relief.
His thoughts blissful, the black-robed wizard uttered a high-pitched giggle. The poison augured a truly inventive way to kill, and he had hopes of masking the potion in a keg of stout bitters, allowing it to be consumed by a banquet room full of his enemies. But just as he didn’t know the details of the agony’s duration, he was not certain how long it would take for the initial symptom, the paralysis, to manifest itself. It could not be too quick, or some of the targets would observe the effects in their comrades before they had quaffed their own drinks.
Hence, the test.
Willim watched as the two apprentices dragged the quivering Aghar from his cage. The abject wretch bawled and struggled. Then in the space of an instant, both apprentices were hurled backward, Tarot crying out in pain as he fell to the floor.