Casket of Souls

What is it?”
    “Some sort of sickness down in the port. People just fall down and lie there with their eyes open for days until they starve.”
    “Doesn’t sound like any magic I know of. Some form of epilepsy, perhaps. I haven’t heard anything of it up here.”
    “No one has, it seems,” Seregil told him. “It’s only affecting the poor in the Lower City.”
    “Ah, that would explain it, then.”
    “We heard a bluecoat talking quarantine,” Alec added.
    “That would certainly get people’s attention. Has Valerius looked into it?”
    “Not that I know of,” said Seregil. “It could be that the priests and healers down there are as worried about quarantine as anyone else.”
    “With good reason. It could cripple the whole city.”
    “And if it spread up here there could be a panic.”
    “I should think this is a matter best left to the drysians,” Thero warned. “See that you two don’t catch it.”
    Seregil raised an eyebrow. “Why, Thero, I’m touched by your concern.”
    “I only meant it would be inconvenient to find replacements for you,” Thero replied, but there was a hint of humor in his eyes that hadn’t been there a few years earlier.
    “By the way, when are you coming to the theater with us?” Seregil asked. It was becoming a bit of a game, trying to lure the wizard out to do something he clearly had no interest in doing. “We’ll stand you a good supper and the gambling houses afterward.”
    Thero gave him a long-suffering look. “Don’t you have someone to burgle?”
    “We’re dining with Kylith and her niece, Ysmay, at Wheel Street first, in celebration of my name day. At least join us for supper.”
    When Thero hesitated, Alec wheedled, “Grilled eel and leeks, spiced bluefish in jelly, poached pears with rosemary syrup, cakes …”
    “Your cook’s grilled eel? And her cakes?” Thero grinned. “For that, I’ll come.”
    Kylith and Ysmay arrived first and coaxed Alec into a show of archery while they waited for Thero. The wizard soon followed, and they sat down in the cool garden to enjoy the fragrant repast. Seregil poured the wine freely but he and Alec took little themselves, needing their wits about them for the night’s real work.
    Ysmay, a very pretty blond, flirted determinedly with Thero, but the wizard appeared oblivious while the others chatted about horses and hunting.
    “Do wizards hunt?” Ysmay asked.
    “Some do,” Thero replied, helping himself to more eel. “I did, growing up, with my father and brothers, but since putting on robes I really haven’t had the time or inclination.”
    “He’d rather putter about in his tower,” Alec teased. “We go by and dust him once a week.”
    “Well, I’m glad to have the chance to see you tonight,” Ysmay said warmly. “Tell me, why are wizards celibate?”
    “Not all of us are,” Thero replied, keeping his attention on cutting up his eel. “Those who are think it increases their magic to withhold from spending energy on the pleasures of the flesh.”
    “Nysander certainly didn’t agree with that,” Seregil said with a chuckle. “He was quiet about it, but he had quite a string of lovers.”
    “I always wondered about him and Magyana,” said Kylith.
    “Friends of the heart, but not the flesh,” Seregil explained. “But I think she was his true love.”
    “You believe in true love!” Ysmay exclaimed, delighted, glancing Alec’s way.
    Seregil pressed a hand to his heart and declaimed withmock-solemnity, “Dear lady, it’s the only thing that makes life worth living!”
    “Oh, you should be on the stage, my lord,” said Ysmay, flirting a bit with him now.
    “He had his chance,” Kylith told her. “Atre offered him a place in his company.”
    “I’d like to see that! You’re every bit as handsome as he is.”
    Seregil inclined his head modestly. “You flatter me. I doubt most of the women of Rhíminee would agree with you.”
    “Most, indeed!” Kylith noted with a slight frown. “Since you and I established him in style, he seems to be in a different bed every night. I’m rather piqued about that, and considering withdrawing my patronage. There are certainly enough others who’d put up with him.”
    “You’d do that?” asked Alec.
    “I most certainly will. I told him as much the other night, when he refused my invitation to dinner. Of course, he was very apologetic about it, but I heard the next day that he’d been with Duchess Arelia. To be honest, I’m