Scholar's Plot Read Free

floor of the tower looked to start about four feet above ground level — but with a bit of searching I found a half empty rain barrel, tipped it over, and rolled it back to the tower, as soundless as my steps on the well-cut lawn.
    I had little fear of being caught — a student prank can explain almost anything — but my heart still beat a bit faster as I tipped the barrel bottom up under the first window and climbed up to inspect it.
    Latched, from the inside. As was so often the case, the lock picks in my pocket were useless. Peering through the thick, bubbled glass in the dark was no help. I pulled out my pen knife and worked it into the seam between the window’s edge and the frame, trying to push the latch up. It didn’t budge, which probably meant it was the kind of latch that slid across instead of lifting, making that trick as useless as my picks.
    I jumped down, and rolled the barrel over to the next window anyway. I hadn’t much hope, but there was always a chance that someone had been careless.
    No one had.
    I wasn’t worried about running out of time. Most university lectures last at least two hours, and that’s before they start taking questions. My father would leave for a lecture after dinner and sometimes not be home till midnight. If I wanted to scramble up that tree, drop into the courtyard, and try my picks on the side door, I’d have time.
    What would happen if I walked up to the front door, said I was a friend of the jeweler, and asked to see him? In the morning, in my own clothes.
    I considered this as I rolled the rain barrel back to its place and tipped it upright. The Green Moon, which was almost full, was beginning to rise — not that there was moonlight on the grass, but the sky was bright enough to keep me from running into bushes.
    If the jeweler was being well-treated, they might simply let me in to see him. He was sort of a prisoner — no one could let a man that mad run loose, particularly one who could work magic. Even if he’d do no harm himself, which wasn’t guaranteed, he’d be prey to any villain who sought to use him — just as Tony Rose had.
    There was no reason he couldn’t have a visitor. If they weren’t treating him well they’d refuse to let me see him, and I’d have alerted them that someone was interested, which might mean … what? Two guards? I couldn’t get past one.
    The alternative was to climb the tree — and returning to try my luck openly sounded more practical.
    I was turning to make my way back to the lecture hall, to depart with the crowd as I’d come in, when I saw Michael walking calmly into a circle of lamplight.
    Michael. Here .
    He paused to examine the buildings around him, looking much as he had when we’d parted company. Taller and thinner than I was, with straight, light brown hair brushing his collar in a nobleman’s longer cut.
    He too wore a scholar’s coat, and he walked from one circle of light into the next as if he belonged here, as if he had nothing to hide.
    I had taught him that.
    I could hear his footsteps on the gravel, drawing nearer to the shadowy corner where I stood. Rage and excitement and pain swept over me, in waves that left me shaking.
    But mostly it was rage.
    How dare he turn up, just when I was beginning to be able to forget about our quarrel? At least I didn’t have to worry about how he was getting along without me — he was fine!
    That was a good thing, because it meant that all I had to do was to see the jeweler, and when he turned out to be fine too, I could ride out of this town in the morning. And this time I’d take off for the far north, instead of dithering around on the Erran river plain as I’d been doing for the last three months.
    The tree into the courtyard it was.
    Michael was walking away from the tower, but even after he’d passed out of sight I kept an eye out for him as I made my way around the buildings once more, then walked down the outer wall to approach the tower on the yard