Abaddon's Call

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Trild pulled open his study door to Narmer, terrified, clutching at his iron necklace as he babbled. What Trild understood was Naena. That was all he required. He knew her schedule, and at that time of the day, she took Languages with Narmer in the library.

He was aware of a sense of unease as he walked through the school. The halls were empty and silent, not a body stirring. Even the classes he passed, doors opened just a crack, had gone deathly still.

His cane shivered under his hand. The scales hissed a soft warning even as the cane tapped out his telltale stride, his introduction and salutation. As he entered the library, he spotted Magi Yole at the desk.

"If you're about to start something, Lord Trild, you had best take it out and around," Magi Yole commanded.

The librarian knew Naena was in his library and at the back of the area. There were doors out the back of the library and into the gardens, but few used them. Those doors were armed with magic that only let mages out in cases of emergency evacuations.

There would be no parade through the front doors, not if Trild wanted to stay on Magi Yole's good side. He had been told in no uncertain terms not to upset the library, though the warning had hardly been necessary.

Either Magi Yole was still as spry as he appeared, and Trild would greatly regret the decision, or he would fail, and the conclave would use the confrontation as evidence to remove Magi Yole.

Something the Seven could not afford.

Trild made his way to the classroom and stepped through the doorway to two Kaulu standing with weapons levelled at Naena, whose hands were in the air. Her expression was very much the thief caught in the act with her treasure already secreted away. The woman was practically amused as Trild walked in. As if she were asking what he could possibly do to her.

Mages the world over made that mistake.

The cane threw them off.

"They were commanded to keep a body, not so much subdue it," Trild muttered as he leaned heavily on the cane. "What's occurred? Narmer only got out 'Naena.' I see no damage. Why are your weapons out and not your switches?"

"She used magic—"

"To stop Narmer from destroying my notes," Naena snapped back. "Defending oneself is a valid reason to use magic."

Technically, she was correct.

But as the family that stood against her, Trild had every right to bend the rules or ignore such exceptions. The rules said no magic. The Seven decided to forgive use to defend someone or something, but it had never been committed to ink.

Trild chose the same path he always chose.

The ice-cold, heartless bastard following the letter of the law.

"Stop speaking," Trild commanded, allowing the dragon out just enough to catch her off guard. "You," he motioned to the one she had interrupted. "You may speak."

"She used magic. I took my switch to her. She took my switch and made it disappear into a spell in her hand. When I told her to present the hand, she licked it. The spell was on her tongue, but she worked it so fast..."

The words weighed on Trild, both the content and the man's amazement. The boys would no doubt spread word of Naena's oral skills even as she fumed over the suggestion.

He had expected something small. A bit of magic use, Naena slapping someone or attempting to break the switch over her knee, not realizing it was an heirloom and couldn't be destroyed.