Found Read Free Page B

Underlord after him, didn’t he?”
    He’d tried to. But I’d run away from Dusk House to live on the streets of the Twilight. “I was never Crowe’s,” I said. “I’m a wizard.”
    “If you really are a wizard, maybe you’re making the magic do strange things in the Dusk House pit,” Embre said. “You’re making people afraid so they’ll accept you as Underlord.”
    I stared back at him. “Embre, this has nothing to do with Crowe, or any Underlord business. The magic’s doing strange things because it’s afraid. The city’s in danger. Both sides of it, the Sunrise and the Twilight.” The minions had done me a favor, I realized, bringing me to see Embre. Maybe he would help me and Nevery.
    “What kind of danger?” Embre asked.
    “A bad magic is coming here,” I said.
    He frowned. “ Bad magic? You’re going to have to do better than that.”
    Right. I’d have to start at the beginning. I went to the table and sat down on a stool, across from him. “Remember when I got pyrotechnic materials from you?”
    Embre nodded. “You and your friend, that red-haired girl. Sparks sold you blackpowder materials and I gave you a recipe for controlled explosions.”
    “That’s right,” I said. “I needed the blackpowder so I could do magic, because I don’t have a locus stone.” Most wizards hadn’t figured out what, exactly, pyrotechnics and magic had to do with each other. Neither had I, but I did know that the magical being of Wellmet liked it when things blew up, and that I could do magical spells if I created a pyrotechnic explosion at the same time. “When I did the controlled explosion, it didn’t work. I blew up Heartsease.” My home, and Nevery’s home. I’d hurt Benet, too, and even though he was all right, and Heartsease was being rebuilt, I still wasn’t sure as sure that Nevery’d forgiven me for it.
    “I know about this,” Embre said. “You were exiled. And now you’ve come back because you want to be Underlord.”
    “No!” I shook my head, frustrated. “When I was exiled I went to Desh, the desert city. It was being attacked by a magic called Arhionvar, and now that magic is coming here, to Wellmet.”
    “What d’you mean, coming?” Embre said.
    “It’s like a—” What was the word? “When an animal hunts another animal to eat it, you know?”
    Embre gave me a sharp smile. “A predator.”
    “Right. Arhionvar is a predator magic, and Wellmet’s magic is its prey. But we can’t get anybody to believe us about how dangerous Arhionvar is. The duchess is ill and won’t do anything, and the wizards can’t understand what the magic really is.”
    “What is it, then, really ?” Embre asked.
    I nodded. It was a good question, one I wished the magisters would think more about. “The magic is a being. It lives here. Every city is built on the place where its magical being lives, and the magic helps the city and protects it.”
    “Except for this predator magic, Arhionvar,” Embre said.
    “Right,” I said. “Arhionvar tried to kill the Desh magic, and it’s attacked the Wellmet magic before. If it comes here and we don’t defend the city, I think it’ll kill Wellmet’s magical being and the city’ll be destroyed. It will die.”
    Embre’s gaze sharpened. “The people will die?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know. Some of them might. They won’t be able to stay here if Arhionvar takes over.” I paused. “We’re trying to stop it, me and Nevery. He’s a wizard, and I’m his apprentice. We might be able to use pyrotechnics to set some traps, but we’ll need a lot of blackpowder and slowsilver.” I leaned across the table. “Wellmet’s in big trouble, Embre. Will you help us?”
    He looked down and rubbed at a patch of soot on the palm of his hand. “I don’t know.” He frowned. “Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll think about it.”

CHAPTER 4
    O n the way back to my attic room in the Rat Hole, I thought about skiffing off to pick a pocket or steal