what?”
I heard Talisid chuckle. “Glad to see you’re not entirely immune to being surprised.”
“I thought you just said there wasn’t any need?”
“There wasn’t. I had the corpse analysed anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because you were curious.”
“And you thought you’d satisfy my curiosity?”
“No, I decided if you were curious, it was probably worth looking into. Consider it a compliment.”
I snorted. “All right, Sun Tzu. What did you find?”
There was the rustle of paper in the background. “Physically, the barghest was completely undamaged apart from minor bruises and lacerations. As far as nonmagical analysis can show, the creature was in perfect health.”
“Apart from being dead?”
“Apart from being dead. Magical scans also negative. Fatal life or death magic usually leaves distinctive evidence in the cellular structure, and the same goes for mind and charm magic in the brain. There was no evidence that living family magic had caused the creature’s death.”
I frowned. “So that means … what? It wasn’t killed by injury
or
by magic?”
“Not quite. There was no spell residue but there was something missing. The creature’s natural residual aura was only a fraction as strong as it should have been. Something drained the energy right out of the thing. The examiner thinks that was the cause of death, and I agree. Barghests are magical creatures. Take away their magic, no more barghest.”
“Huh.” I stood thinking. “That’s not a normal way to kill something, is it?”
“It’s not. What’s your interest in this?”
“Favour for a friend. Do you want me to copy you in if I find anything?”
“Please. Was there anything else?”
“Yeah. Know anything about a woman called Mere-dith?”
“Meredith … Dark, petite, late twenties to early thirties? Could cause a traffic accident walking down the street?”
“That’s the one.”
“Unaligned mage. Affiliated with several different Council mages over the years, but she’s always stayed independent.Probably got a few connections in the Dark camp as well, though nothing’s been proven. She dabbled in politics for a while and used to be a regular on the social circuit, but she got too close to that business with Dagon last year and had her fingers burnt rather badly. Haven’t seen her at the balls since then.”
I paced slowly up and down. “What type of mage?”
“Enchantress. Not too powerful but very skilled. Could twist men around her little finger.”
I stopped moving.
“Verus? You there?”
I was silent for a few seconds. “Yeah,” I said at last.
“Is there a problem?”
“No,” I said. “No problem. Any connections?”
“No master, no apprentices. Her name’s been linked with plenty of other mages, but the relationships never seem to last. They’re usually active in Council politics and always men. You can guess what the rumour mill has to say about that, but the truth is no one knows very much about her.”
I stood quietly on the roof. “Thanks for the help,” I said eventually.
“No problem. I take it you weren’t asking from academic interest.”
“No.”
Talisid sounded amused. “Well, consider yourself forewarned. You’ll have to tell me how it goes.”
“Assuming I’m around to tell you. I’ll be in touch about the barghest.”
“Good to hear. Until then.” Talisid hung up.
I lowered the phone and stared down at it. The cool wind blew over me, ruffling my hair and chilling my bare arms, and I shivered.
Enchantresses use charm magic, also known as emotion magic. Men who can use it are called enchanters, but they’re rarer and it’s always seen as one of the stereotypically female branches. They can’t affect thoughts and concepts in theway a mind mage can, but they’re masters of feeling and emotion. In terms of raw power they’re on the low end of the magical scale but they have one distinctive ability: their magic is incredibly hard to detect. It’s almost
I heard Talisid chuckle. “Glad to see you’re not entirely immune to being surprised.”
“I thought you just said there wasn’t any need?”
“There wasn’t. I had the corpse analysed anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because you were curious.”
“And you thought you’d satisfy my curiosity?”
“No, I decided if you were curious, it was probably worth looking into. Consider it a compliment.”
I snorted. “All right, Sun Tzu. What did you find?”
There was the rustle of paper in the background. “Physically, the barghest was completely undamaged apart from minor bruises and lacerations. As far as nonmagical analysis can show, the creature was in perfect health.”
“Apart from being dead?”
“Apart from being dead. Magical scans also negative. Fatal life or death magic usually leaves distinctive evidence in the cellular structure, and the same goes for mind and charm magic in the brain. There was no evidence that living family magic had caused the creature’s death.”
I frowned. “So that means … what? It wasn’t killed by injury
or
by magic?”
“Not quite. There was no spell residue but there was something missing. The creature’s natural residual aura was only a fraction as strong as it should have been. Something drained the energy right out of the thing. The examiner thinks that was the cause of death, and I agree. Barghests are magical creatures. Take away their magic, no more barghest.”
“Huh.” I stood thinking. “That’s not a normal way to kill something, is it?”
“It’s not. What’s your interest in this?”
“Favour for a friend. Do you want me to copy you in if I find anything?”
“Please. Was there anything else?”
“Yeah. Know anything about a woman called Mere-dith?”
“Meredith … Dark, petite, late twenties to early thirties? Could cause a traffic accident walking down the street?”
“That’s the one.”
“Unaligned mage. Affiliated with several different Council mages over the years, but she’s always stayed independent.Probably got a few connections in the Dark camp as well, though nothing’s been proven. She dabbled in politics for a while and used to be a regular on the social circuit, but she got too close to that business with Dagon last year and had her fingers burnt rather badly. Haven’t seen her at the balls since then.”
I paced slowly up and down. “What type of mage?”
“Enchantress. Not too powerful but very skilled. Could twist men around her little finger.”
I stopped moving.
“Verus? You there?”
I was silent for a few seconds. “Yeah,” I said at last.
“Is there a problem?”
“No,” I said. “No problem. Any connections?”
“No master, no apprentices. Her name’s been linked with plenty of other mages, but the relationships never seem to last. They’re usually active in Council politics and always men. You can guess what the rumour mill has to say about that, but the truth is no one knows very much about her.”
I stood quietly on the roof. “Thanks for the help,” I said eventually.
“No problem. I take it you weren’t asking from academic interest.”
“No.”
Talisid sounded amused. “Well, consider yourself forewarned. You’ll have to tell me how it goes.”
“Assuming I’m around to tell you. I’ll be in touch about the barghest.”
“Good to hear. Until then.” Talisid hung up.
I lowered the phone and stared down at it. The cool wind blew over me, ruffling my hair and chilling my bare arms, and I shivered.
Enchantresses use charm magic, also known as emotion magic. Men who can use it are called enchanters, but they’re rarer and it’s always seen as one of the stereotypically female branches. They can’t affect thoughts and concepts in theway a mind mage can, but they’re masters of feeling and emotion. In terms of raw power they’re on the low end of the magical scale but they have one distinctive ability: their magic is incredibly hard to detect. It’s almost
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