Sianim 02 - Wolfsbane

evening.”
    She smiled and kissed his cheek. “Fine.”
    He turned back to the Archmage. “Shall we walk?”

    Kisrah led the way to the frozen gardens, making no attempt to talk until they were out in the cold.
    “Cain, the Master Spells are missing—or rather half of them are.”
    “What?” Shock broke through Wolf’s preoccupation with the spell he would have to perform in order to free Aralorn’s father.
    “Haven’t you noticed?”
    Wolf shook his head, still feeling disbelief—the Master Spells held the fabric of wizardry together. “They haven’t had any effect on me for a long time.”
    “Without the spells, the position of ae’Magi is no more than a courtesy title. I have no way of controlling a rogue wizard, no way of detecting black magic unless I am in the proximity of whoever is working it. When I found them in Geoffrey’s library, the pages that contained the ae’Magi’s half of the rune spells were missing.”
    Ah, thought Wolf, as he said, “I don’t know where they are.”
    “I believe you,” said Kisrah, leaving Wolf feeling odd—as if he’d braced himself for an attack that hadn’t come. “You had no motive to take them. If anyone could have controlled you with them, Geoffrey would have done so a long time ago. Do you know where he would have hidden them?”
    “The only time that I saw them, they were in the ae’Magi’s grimoire in the vault in the library.”
    “They are no longer there. If you find them—”
    “I’ll bring them to you. It’s not rogue wizards that bother me; it’s what will happen if everyone realizes you no longer control them.”
    “Witch hunts,” agreed Kisrah grimly.
    Wolf nodded. “I’ll look out for them, but don’t be surprised if I don’t find them. Father wasn’t the only wizard who dabbled in the black arts—I know there were at least two others. It would be worth their lives to keep them from you.”
    Kisrah swore heatedly. “I hadn’t thought of that. Who are they?”
    Wolf shrugged. “I don’t know their names, and they kept their faces hidden. Do you still have the other half of the spells?”
    Kisrah nodded. “We hid them as soon as it was clear that something had happened to Geoffrey’s.”
    “I’ll look,” promised Wolf again, then turned away from the ae’Magi.
    “Cain,” Kisrah said.
    “Yes?”
    “Thank you.”
    Wolf swept him a low bow before heading briskly out of the gardens. He would look, but he suspected the spells were long gone, maybe destroyed. Not entirely a bad thing, he decided after a while. Geoffrey ae’Magi could not have been the only ae’Magi who used them for other than their intended purposes, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many black grimoires left after ten centuries.
    He had a library to visit with more urgent business. More than he needed his father’s books, he needed a quiet place.

    Aralorn waited until Gerem and Nevyn followed the other mages out the door before turning to the chicken in the crate.
    “Coming out, Halven?” she asked.
    The hen let out a startled squawk.
    She pulled the lid off the crate and shook her head. “Don’t give me that. If you wanted to remain anonymous, you could have made your clucks less pointed. Otherwise, I’d never have thought to check to see if the chicken was really a chicken. I never have been able to switch from one sex to the other.”
    The hen jumped to the top of the crate and landed on the floor as her uncle—this time in the form of a tall red-headed man wearing the clothes of one of the Trader Clans. “Having you around makes spying much more interesting,” he said, sounding pleased.
    “What would you have done if he’d been ready to unwork the spell and tried to sacrifice you?” she asked.
    He grinned. “I wouldn’t have let him slit my throat, but I was pretty sure that he’d want to consider the spells for a while.”
    “Be that as it may, I for one am glad you’re here. How much do you know about human magic?”
    Halven raised his eyebrows. “Less than Wolf, I imagine.”
    “He’s busy—and I’m not certain that it’s something I want to discuss with him right now. Just how powerful would a dreamwalker have to be in order to control a howlaa?”
    “Ah, dreamwalking is not just a human talent, and I do know a little something about it.” He scratched his chin. “Howlaas are magical creatures, much more difficult to influence than a half-fledged boy like Gerem. Dreamwalking is more common among us than