“I don’t mink so,” Sarai replied. “I think that stuff will dissolve the dagger, just as it dissolved Tobas’s tapestry and everything else, magical or mundane, that it’s touched.”
“And what would vow suggest, then?” Telurinon sarcastically demanded. “Do you have some clever little counterspell that’s somehow eluded the attention of the Wizards’ Guild? We’ve tried everything we know; the warlocks, the witches, the sorcerers, they’ve all tried. The theurgists couldn’t even find anything to try; the demonologists marched a score of demons and monsters in there, and it consumed them all. Nothing stops it.”
“And the Black Dagger won’t, either,” Sarai retorted.’ “Look at it!”
“The dagger cuts all other wizardry,” Telurinon insisted. “We’ve never found anything else that stops wizardry so completely.”
Startled, Sarai glanced at Tobas and Karanissa, then announced, “That’s not true, Guildmaster, and you know it.”
Telurinon gaped. The rest of the party, soldiers and magicians alike, was suddenly absolutely silent, and Sarai could feel them all staring at her, giving her their full attention. Accusing a Guildmaster of lying, before such an audience as this...
“I saw it myself,” Sarai insisted. “There’s a place in the Small Kingdoms somewhere where wizardry doesn’t work; it brought down & flying castle, by the gods! That could stop the Seething Death!”
Telurinon recovered quickly. “Oh, that” he said. “Well, yes, there is such a place. We had hoped to transport the Seething Death there, in fact, but it turned out to be impossible.”
“It dissolved the Transporting Tapestry,” Tobas confirmed.
“It ate away the chunk of floor we tried to move,” a warlock added.
“It can’t be moved,” Vengar agreed.
Sarai looked from face to face, trying to think. “You can’t move the Seething Death,” she said.
Several voices muttered affirmation.
“Can you move the dead area?” she asked. “As the saying has it, if the dragon won’t come to the hunter, then the hunter must go to the dragon.”
For a moment, silence descended, broken only by the hissing of the Death, as everyone considered this.
“I don’t see how,” Tobas said at last. “It’s not a thing, it’s a place. Certainly wizardry couldn’t move it, since wizardry doesn’t work there.”
“Witchcraft does,” Sarai pointed out. Karanissa had demonstrated as much.
“Yes, but Lady Sarai, it’s a place,” Tobas insisted. “Even if, say, moving that entire mountain would be enough to move it, how could you bring it eighty leagues to Ethshar? Witches couldn’t do it, not unless you had thousands upon thousands of them, probably more witches than there are in the World. Warlocks could, perhaps—if they were all willing to accept the Calling. Sorcery, demons—I don’t think so.”
“Not sorcery,” Kelder of Tazmor agreed.
“Nordemonology,” Kallia confirmed.
“Then can you create a new one?” Sarai demanded. “A new dead area, here in the palace?”
Tobas hesitated and looked at Telurinon.
“No,” the Guildmaster said, quite emphatically.
“The spell is lost,” Tobas agreed.
Intending to make a point, Sarai turned to look at the Seething Death and involuntarily found herself backing away—the wall of seething ooze had drawn visibly nearer while she argued. Shaken, and after having moved several feet farther down the corridor, she turned back to Tobas and demanded, “You’re sure of that?”
He nodded. “The only Book of Spells that ever held it was burned, over four hundred years ago—in 4763,1 think it was.” He added helpfully, “They hanged the wizard who used it.”
“But it was done by wizardry in the first place?” Sarai asked.
Telurinon glared at Tobas.
“Yes,” Tobas said.
“And the spell was written down?” Sarai asked.
“By Ellran the Unfortunate, in 4680,” Tobas said.’ “That was when he discovered it.” He smiled wryly. “By accident. Just the way Tabaea made the Black Dagger by accident. Ellran never used the spell again, but his apprentice did, and got hanged for it. And the book was burned.”
“You seem to know a lot about it,” Sarai remarked.
“It’s a sort of specialty of mine, if you’ll recall—I told you that,” Tobas said. “It’s why I was brought here in the first place. As you know, I have a personal interest—or at least, I used to.” “If you know that much about this spell,” Vengar asked, “can’t you recover it somehow?”
“If you know the true name of the apprentice, and when the spell was used,” Mereth volunteered, “the Spell of Omniscient Vision ought to let me see the page it was written on. We never knew enough about the countercharm for the Seething Death, but this one...”
“No! ”shouted Telurinon. “Mereth, I forbid it! Stopandthink what you’re proposing! The overlord’s palace, dead to wizardry? The Guild could no longer...”
He stopped, abruptly, looking about wildly, as if realizing that he was about to say far too much in front of far too many people. Then he shouted, “No! We’ll try the Black Dagger, and if that doesn’t work we can evacuate the city...” Lady Sarai, moving as quickly as she could without her cat abilities—rabbits were quick, but not as fast in their reactions as cats—stepped up and, with her left hand, grabbed the front of Telurinon’s robe. The Black Dagger, in her right hand, pressed against his chest.
“Listen to me, Guildmaster,” she said. “You and your stupid spells are destroying the overlord’s palace—and maybe the rest of the city, maybe the rest of the World—and you’re worrying about saving your Guild’s secrets, your Guild’s power? You’re worried that maybe you won’t be able to eavesdrop any more, won’t be able to threaten the overlord with your spells and curses? That you might have to really give up meddling in politics? Well, I’ve got a real worry for you, Telurinon—this dagger. I don’t intend to try it on the Seething Death, Telurinon—I intend to use it on you. It’ll eat your soul, you know—it sucks the essence right out of you, doesn’t even leave a ghost.”
She didn’t know whether this was truth or lie—but right now, she didn’t care. She pressed the point harder against the old wizard’s chest, piercing the fabric of his robe.
Telurinon gaped at her. “You can’t do this!” he said. “The Guild...”
“The Seething Death is going to kill us all anyway if we stay here,” Sarai told him. “And besides, I don’t think your Guild is on your side in this one. Has anyone tried to stop me?”
Telurinon turned and looked.
Tobas and Mereth and Heremon were standing there, unmoving; Heremon at least had the grace to look somewhat abashed, and Algarin had turned away rather than watch. Further back, the other magicians were watching, but showed no signs of helping the Guildmaster. The soldiers were obviously ready to cheer Lady Sarai on.
“I don’t know what spells you people are talking about,” a soldier called, “but I’ve about had my fill of the Wizards’ Guild here. If anyone harms Lady Sarai, he’ll answer to me!”
Several growls of agreement, not all from soldiers, were enough to convince Telurinon.
“Very well,” he said, “very well. We’ll try the Spell of Omniscient Vision, as Mereth said, and if we can find Ellran’s forbidden spell we’ll try that. But if it doesn’t work, Lady Sarai, then we’ll try the Black Dagger!”
“Agreed,” Sarai said, stepping back and releasing the Guild-master’s robe.