CHAPTER 19
Teneria of Fishertown arrived the next day, a thin, solemn young woman Sarai judged to be not yet twenty.
Sarai had intended to arrange a meeting with representatives of the Wizards' Guild, rather as she had with the Council of Warlocks, but the witch's arrival distracted her from that; instead, she settled down in Captain Tikri's office and chatted with Teneria about the connections and differences between witchcraft and warlockry-or tried to.
"I understand you're a witch, but that you're supposed to be expert on the other sorts of magicians," Sarai said.
Teneria shook her head. "Not all magicians, my lady. It just happens that a little over a year ago I found myself in the company of a warlock for a time, and the two of us discovered some interesting things about our two varieties of magic. Where most magicks conflict one with another, we found that we could make ours work together, and thereby become more than the sum of their parts. So since then I've tried to study the interactions between witchcraft and the other magicks-but I haven't learned much, yet. I've been too busy earning a living and living my life."
Sarai nodded. "What became of the warlock, then?"
Teneria hesitated. "He went to Aldagmor," she said at last.
Sarai blinked.
"Went to Aldagmor?" Captain Tikri asked. "How do you mean…?"
Teneria shrugged, and Sarai waved Tikri to silence. "Went to Aldagmor" surely meant that he was drawn by the Calling, and was gone forever; no warlock ever returned from Aldagmor. If Teneria's interest in him had been personal, as well as professional, the subject was probably a painful one, and it didn't seem relevant to the matter at hand.
The conversation continued, and the two were just getting comfortable with one another when a knock sounded on the office door.
Tikri answered it, as Sarai and Teneria watched. They heard a woman's voice say, "Hello, Captain; I wasn't sure you were in, your door isn't usually closed."
Sarai recognized the voice. "That's Mereth of the Golden Door," she told Teneria. "She's a wizard specializing in divinations."
"What can I do for you, wizard?" Tikri asked.
"I just wanted to be sure that Lady Sarai wouldn't be needing me today," Mereth replied. "I have a meeting to go to…". Tikri glanced at Lady Sarai, who frowned. What sort of a meeting was Mereth talking about? "Bring her in," she told the captain.
Tikri opened the door and motioned for Mereth to enter; she stepped in, looked around the cluttered little room, and spotted Sarai and Teneria. Teneria rose from her chair.
"Oh, hello, Lady Sarai," she said cheerfully.
"Good morning, Mereth," Sarai answered. "I'd like you to meet Teneria of Fishertown; she's a witch who will be helping us investigate the murders. From Ethshar of the Spices."
"Oh," Mereth said, startled. "You're bringing in foreign advisers, too?"
"Yes, I thought…" Sarai stopped in midsentence. Something about the way Mereth had phrased her question had belatedly caught her attention. "What do you mean, 'too'?" she asked.
Mereth looked flustered. "Well, I mean the Wizards' Guild has been sending for experts as part of their investigations- there's a wizard from the Small Kingdoms called Tobas of Telven who's due to arrive any day now, and a witch who works with him named Karanissa of the Mountains."
"A witch?" Sarai asked. A witch working with a wizard? She glanced at Teneria.
Mereth shrugged. "That's what I heard. And they're trying to find Fendel the Great: they hope they can convince him to come out of retirement…"
Sarai started; even before she became Minister of Investigation and began seriously studying magic, she had heard of Fen-del the Great. She had thought he was long dead. "Wait a minute," Sarai said. "What do they want with these people? What do you mean, 'their investigations'?"
"Well, I mean their investigation of the murders, of course, Lady Sarai. After all, it involves wizards-someone murdered a Guildmaster, and that means that everyone responsible must die as quickly and horribly as possible, and then there's the fact that whoever did it used wizardry, and the Guild doesn't allow anyone to use wizardry except real wizards, and besides, the magic involved might be an entirely new spell, and the Guild…"
"And they didn't tell me!" Sarai shouted.
Mereth, cowed, blinking at her silently.
"What's this meeting you were going to?" Sarai demanded.
"Is it connected with this?"
Mereth nodded. "I'm supposed to meet the Guildmasters at the Cap and Dagger and tell them what I know from helping you," she explained timidly. "Ordinarily I suppose they'd use the Guildhouse, but they…"
"When?" Sarai demanded. "Noon."
"Where is this Cap and Dagger? That's an inn?" Mereth nodded. "On Gate Street, between Wizard and Arena," she said.
"Good," Sarai said, rising from her chair. "Captain Tikri, I want as many guardsmen as you can find to accompany me; Teneria, I would appreciate it if you would join us. Mereth, I am going with you to this meeting."
"I don't…" Mereth began uncertainly. "I didn't ask," Sarai snapped.
An hour later, as noon approached, Mereth walked up Gate Street with a burly soldier on either side; immediately behind her came Sarai and Teneria, and following the two of them came Captain Tikri at the head of three dozen uniformed men. The normal midday traffic stepped aside as this formidable party approached, and they arrived unhindered at the door of a large and elegant inn, where a signboard above the door displayed a silver dagger across a red-and-gold wizard's cap.
At Sarai's order, soldiers flung open the door of the inn and marched in with swords drawn.
Close behind them, Sarai marched into the common room and found a dozen astonished men and women in magician's robes looking up at this unexpected intrusion. She saw Algarin of Longwall, Heremon the Mage, and a few other familiar faces among them.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded an elderly man Sarai recognized as Telurinon, the senior Guildmaster. "You're interrupting a private gathering, young woman."
Sarai announced, "Guildmaster Telurinon, you will address me properly. I am Lady Sarai, Acting Minister of Justice, and you are all under suspicion of treason."
That created a stir, during which Sarai stepped into the room and allowed Mereth, Teneria, Tikri, and the other soldiers to enter, crowding the good-sized room.
"What are you talking about?" Telurinon demanded. A soldier thrust the point of his sword toward the wizard's throat, and Telurinon belatedly and begrudgingly added, "My lady."
"I am talking about what appears to be deliberate subversion of the criminal-justice system of this city," Sarai explained. "You wizards have been withholding information from the Minister of Investigation, refusing to speak with her, while using undue influence on her employees to obtain the results of her own efforts."
"Aren't you the Minister of Investigation?" someone asked. Sarai nodded. "That's right," she said, "but right now I'm here as Minister of Justice-since you all chose to ignore my invitations as Minister of Investigation."
"What's going on?" a white-haired wizard asked. "I thought we were all here because some rogue was using wizardry without our leave; I want no part of treason."
"You are all here," Sarai said, "because someone, or some group, is responsible for killing half a dozen innocent citizens of Ethshar, most of them magicians. It's my belief that this is the work of some sort of cult or conspiracy, one that is based on magic, and because of that I formally requested the assistance of the Wizards' Guild to help me find those guilty of these crimes, so that they may be stopped. My requests were ignored."