Iskondra awoke to a painful brightness that, after she had a chance to adjust to it, proved to be more of a painful dimness. Thin rays of grayish sunlight slanted through cracks in heavy wooden shutters. Her eyes’ sensitivity was the first sign hint she received that she had not, in fact, just closed them for a moment when the last spell hit her.
She turned her neck to try to look around, and was rewarded with a flash of pain and the beginning of a swoon. She let out a long groan.
“Wordy to final breath,” Tauri said from behind her. She tensed up and tried to wrench herself around, then realized that she was bound to a chair… and that he likely was, too. It certainly didn’t sound like his muzzle was at her ear.
“How long have you been conscious?” she asked him.
“Total? Or this time?”
“Do you have anything useful to say?”
“Likewise.”
A big heavy door creaked open, spilling light into the room. Iskondra barely had time to lower her outer eyelids against it when green light orbs set into the wall came on. She turned her head as quickly as she could without setting off her vertigo, and just barely caught sight of a blue cloak or robe vanishing to the side.
“Well,” a velveted voice said. “Well, well… well! Isn’t this interesting? Isn’t this just utterly fantastic? I would scarcely believe it if I hadn’t seen it for myself… I don’t believe it. A blade-bonded magus and a disciple of the nail. I’ve never seen the like of either of you on the north side of the Inner Sea… and that’s to say nothing of finding you all the way out here.”
“Wise policy,” Tauri grunted.
“What is that?” the man asked. To Iskondra’s irritation, he’d padded around to Tauri’s front, robbing her of any view of her captor.
“Saying nothing.”
The man laughed, a rich, bassy laugh.
“Oh, aren’t you a tight-lipped one,” he said. “In my private study, I will say as I please… and eventually, you will say as I please, too. It may take a while, but we have nothing but time. The city of Montport and the guild have a friendly arrangement, you see. We help them out with such issues of enforcement as prove to be beyond their handling, and in exchange, they grant us occasional courtesies. No power in Montport will interfere with my questioning of you, and I expect that none from outside it will, either. I’ve heard all the stories about your order, but we are a long way from your power center,” he said.
“Six inches,” Tauri whispered.
“I beg your pardon?” the wizard said. “I’m afraid didn’t quite catch that. ”
“Six… inches,” Tauri repeated, at exactly the same level.
Iskondra, who had heard the utterance, found herself simultaneously hoping that the man would be so stupid and that he wouldn’t. Things got complicated when the enemy of your enemy was still your enemy.
She couldn’t see what was happening, but she pictured in her mind the man shuffling ever so slightly forward as he said, “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I still…”
Tauri’s chair lurched backwards, making Iskondra’s pitch forwards. The momentum stopped, leaving them tilted at a crazy angle. Tauri was still bound to the chair… Iskondra could only imagine he’d managed to get his feet free. It took only a little effort to picture them gripping the wizard’s neck.
“Six inches from my power center,” Tauri growled. “Were. No longer.”
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