The Heir Chronicles: Books I-III

  “I only need one wizard,” said Leicester. “And I will sign. Everyone else is expendable. Our experiment in representative government has come to its conclusion.”

  At a gesture from D’Orsay, every door into the hall slammed shut.

  Several members of the council came to their feet. “What do you think you’re doing?” Wylie demanded furiously.

  “This.” Drawing on the strength of the alumni in the gallery, Leicester cast an immobilization charm that smashed down on everyone in the room, paralyzing them and pinning them to their seats. Save Claude D’Orsay and Adam Sedgwick and a woman Seph didn’t know, who had thrown up shields prior to the launch of the charm. And Seph and Jason, who had retreated deep into the fireplace.

  D’Orsay took his place next to Leicester. Sedgwick and the woman wizard joined them, smiling.

  “Who’s the woman next to Sedgwick?” Seph asked Jason.

  “Nora Whitehead. Bad news,” Jason replied.

  D’Orsay spoke. “Esteemed colleagues, members of the Council of Wizards, I would like to thank you all for attending this little gathering. It has made our task that much easier.”

  He smiled. “Did you really think I would go to such lengths to appease the servant class?” He shook his head. “However, it was a perfect excuse to assemble the most powerful members of the Wizard Guild in one place.

  “We wizards can no longer afford to debate endlessly and fight among ourselves. You see, we’ve grown weak over the years. Toothless. How else to explain this rebellion of the underguilds? It should have been put down immediately and ruthlessly. We believe it’s time to unite under a new and simpler covenant with clear rules of succession.”

  Leicester unrolled the parchment, flattened it against the walnut surface of the podium, cleared his throat, and began to read to his captive audience.

  It was all there. Reinstatement of the guild hierarchy. Codification of the subservient status of what Leicester called the lesser guilds. Abolition of the Sanctuary. Implementation of a warrior-breeding program with eventual resumption of the tournaments.

  However, under the new regime, the tournaments would be held for tradition’s sake, for entertainment purposes only. Their role in allocating power would no longer be necessary. Gregory Leicester and Claude D’Orsay would be established guildmasters for life with control over the magical artifacts of both wizard houses and lineal descent to their male children. The alumni would form the core of a disciplinary force bound to Leicester and D’Orsay. They would adjudicate any wizard disputes and mete out discipline to other wizards as they saw fit.

  When Leicester finished reading, he looked around the room. “Are there any questions?”

  One of the council wizards spoke, an older man wearing a coat embroidered with red roses, someone Seph did-n’t know. “Yes. I have a question. Are you two out of your minds?”

  D’Orsay nodded to Leicester, and Leicester incinerated the old man on the spot. There were no more questions.

  “So,” Leicester said. “Let’s proceed with the signing.” He returned his attention to the seers, Aaron Bryan and Blaise Highbourne. “Mr.... Bryan, is it? I see you have the pen in your hand. Mr. Hays?” Bruce Hays shoved the parchment in front of him.

  Bryan dropped the pen on the table and shook his head stubbornly, looking around at the others at the table for support. Hays gripped his shoulder, pushed power through his hand. The soothsayer gasped with pain, the blood leaving his face. Hays leaned down and spoke softly into his ear. It only took a few minutes. The seer signed.

  Leicester smiled. “That wasn’t difficult, and it doesn’t have to be painful. It’s up to you.”

  They moved on to the Sorcerers’ Guild, and Hays focused his powers of persuasion on Kip McKenzie rather than Mercedes. Trinity had been a focus of rebellion for a long time. Leicester and D’Orsay apparently hoped the other representatives would be easier to intimidate.

  Kip didn’t hold out for much longer than Aaron Bryan. Anyone could see it was a hopeless cause. The illusion of power that they had all enjoyed so briefly was dissipating like the soft breath of the lake. It was just wizards, once again, making all the rules, pushing people around.

  Hays carried the parchment to Akana Moon. But Leicester shook his head. He walked back along the table until he stood behind Linda Downey. He rested his hands lightly on her shoulders, as if formally taking possession.

  “Perhaps Linda Downey would like the honor,” Leicester suggested, emphasizing the name. “Since she’s played such an important role in today’s proceedings.”

  Linda stared straight ahead, her face a mask of indifference.

  She’ll die before she signs Leicester’s document, Seph thought. He glanced around the room. All the doors were magically welded shut. There was no way to put their plan into motion.

  “We’ve got to reach Madison,” he said to Jason.

  “We can’t walk through walls.”

  Seth peered up into the chimney and shook his head. Not even Jason’s slender body would fit through.

  At the table, Akana Moon looked from Leicester to Linda. She pulled the parchment toward her. “I’ll sign,” she said quickly. And did.

  And then there was just Jack and Ellen, the two warriors, both of the Trinity faction.

  “Who’ll it be?” Hays asked, grinning. Ellen and Jack looked at each other, as if establishing a pact of resistance between them.

  Hays looked from Jack to Ellen, debating. After a moment’s indecision, he chose Ellen and put his hands on her shoulders. Power crackled into her. She went rigid, gasping a little, eyes wide, but saying nothing. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. Jack, watching, looked like he might jump out of his own skin, but Ellen stubbornly shook her head.

  “Ellen,” Linda said tonelessly. “Please. There’s no point. You might as well sign.”

  Ellen shook her head, and Hays sent the flame in again. All the blood drained from Ellen’s face. She bit her lip until it bled, still saying nothing. It seemed to go on forever, and then he released her, and her head drooped forward, sweat dripping from her face onto the table. Jack let out his breath in a long hiss.

  Hays looked at Leicester, shrugging helplessly. “I’m afraid . . . if I do more, it might kill her.”

  Leicester sighed. “You’re handling it all wrong. Give the pen to the boy. Kill the girl if he won’t sign.” Hays seemed intrigued by the idea, but didn’t go very far with it, because Jack scribbled his name on the document and shoved it back to Hays. Ellen glared at him but he wouldn’t meet her eyes. And it was done.

  By now, Seph and Jason had walked the length of the hall, trying all the doors, just to be sure. All were secured.

  Leicester and D’Orsay meant to make sure no one slipped away from the party early. But when Seph looked up at the alumni in the gallery, he noticed that some of them were missing.

  After the constitution was “approved,” there was a brief pause while Leicester looked it over and then signed it with a flourish on behalf of the wizards.

  “Now, all that remains is to carry this new constitution to Raven’s Ghyll and have it consecrated,” Leicester said. “But first we have a matter of discipline to attend to.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Wizard Discipline

  Time passed slowly in the cellar room behind the fermentation chamber. There was no clear evidence of its progress, no clues as to weather, or events in the world outside. Martin had brought breakfast to Hastings the day before, but hadn’t appeared since. So Jason hadn’t been able to get to him.

  Hastings wasn’t hungry anyway. He was sleeping more and more, his body conserving its resources, resisting the draining of power from his stone.

  It took some getting used to, walking into traps. He’d spent a lifetime avoiding them. Still, Seph was safely out of harm’s way, for the time being at least. By now he would be back in Trinity. Hastings consoled himself with that. His was an ancient line, and it would continue through Seph. Throughout mor
e than a hundred years of risk and intrigue, that had never seemed important. Until now.

  A slight sound at the door alerted him that someone was coming. The bolt slid back, and then he was blinded as the switch was thrown and the bare bulb kindled.

  Someone came and stood over him, backlit by the fixture.

  “Mr. Hastings.”

  “Martin? What a pleasant surprise.” Those few words seemed to claim all his breath.

  Martin dropped to his knees beside him. “They’re coming for you. We only have a few minutes.”

  “They’re coming for me?” Hastings tried to show a spark of interest. “What for?”

  “To kill you. There’s two wizards dead already. And I think we’re going to kill some more people after you.” Martin stared at the floor.

  “Who’s dead?”

  “Ravenstock. And Hadrian Brennan, from the Wizard Council.”

  “From the Wizard Council?” Hastings’s sluggish mind tried to fit that into some scheme. “Why are you attacking them? What’s going on?”

  Martin’s eyes slid away. “Dr. Leicester wrote up a new constitution. Everybody just signed it. He and D’Orsay are kings for life. Something like that.”

  “I see. So, Martin. Why are you here?”

  “I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for everything that’s happened.”

  Hastings sighed. “If you’ve come to make confession, I can scarcely offer absolution.”

  But Martin rolled on. “I understand why you killed Joseph. It was a brave thing to do. Dr. Leicester was . . . was torturing him. Leicester is a coward. He was afraid of Joseph. Even . . . even with our help. That’s why he kept him doped up on Weirsbane. And he’s afraid of you. That’s why he had me place the torc.”

  And then, unexpectedly he smiled, the brown eyes lighting behind his glasses. “Only the wizard who places a gefyllan de sefa can remove it,” he said. He reached for the collar.

  Hastings held up a hand. “Are you sure you want to do this? It probably won’t make any difference in the end.”

  “It does to me.”

  “Leicester will kill you.”

  “I don’t really care.” Again, Martin reached toward Hastings, took hold of the collar around his neck, and manipulated the catch. The torc fell away, landing with a clang on the stone floor. It was sooty black, tarnished, and unrecognizable as the jeweled collar Martin had placed three days before.

  The immediate effect was anything but pleasant. The little power that was left in Hastings slammed back into his stone, protecting the source over everything else. For a moment, Hastings thought he might vomit all over Martin Hall. He leaned his head back against the wall, taking deep breaths.

  “It’s not that I’m not grateful, but it’s a pity you couldn’t have managed this a day or two ago.”

  Martin picked up the collar. “Now I’ll reverse the charm. But I’m afraid it will take some time to restore your stone fully. And . . .” He glanced toward the door. Hastings could hear it, too. Someone coming.

  Martin refastened the collar around Hastings’s neck, fumbling in his haste. It was all Hastings could do to sub-mit. He would prefer dying unencumbered. Martin muttered the countercharm as the door opened.

  Leicester had sent only three of the alumni to fetch him, a reflection of Hastings’s presumed diminished powers and the need to keep watch on those council in the chamber. The one in the lead, Bruce Hays, skidded to a halt when he saw Martin. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ve asked Mr. Hastings to forgive us for everything we’ve done,” Martin said, without hesitation. “I wanted him to understand we had no choice.”

  “Oh, please.” Hays rolled his eyes. “Do you realize how powerful we’ll be under the new constitution? We’ll be the enforcers. We’ll have all the toys at our disposal. Unlimited access to the servant guilds.”

  Hastings could feel the power returning, a faint trickle, like good brandy into his gut. So slowly.

  Hays unfastened the chains from the wall. They hauled him to his feet and propelled him toward the door, Martin Hall following behind. They half lifted him up the stairs, out of the cellar, and into the fresher air above.

  Hastings looked quickly about him when they entered the hall. The Weir representatives were seated around a large table at the center of the room, bodies locked in place. Thirty-odd members of the Wizard Council were ranged along the wall, similarly incapacitated.

  Linda was seated at the head of the table. Leicester was standing just behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders. She had her enchanter mask on, the carefully blank expression that could mean anything at all. Hastings could tell that it frustrated Leicester, and he smothered a smile.

  But then Linda saw Hastings, and the mask slipped a little. Her expression was complex: surprise, pain, a question. She thinks I killed our son, Hastings reminded himself. And realized that she might never learn the truth.

  The end of the room opposite the door was anchored by a huge fireplace. What looked like an executioner’s block had been placed just in front of the hearth. Leicester’s young wizards were milling around it. This, then, was their destination.

  Hays directed Hastings to stand just behind the block. The alumni arranged themselves in two arcs on either side of the fireplace with the stone at their center and the open end toward the conference table. The wizards along the perimeter and the other Weir at the table shifted and whispered like a class at dismissal time.

  Leicester faced his audience. “Under the new constitution, punishment for traitorous activity will be quick and direct, as it was in centuries past. This serves all of us.

  “For years, a traitorous wizard who styles himself as the Dragon has interfered with the administration of the Rules of Engagement and incited the servant guilds to rebellion against their lawful lords and masters. The fact that he has survived this long speaks to our lack of an organized enforcement entity.

  “Through our efforts, we have captured the Dragon and disabled the gift that he has dishonored and misused. We will now mete out justice before your eyes.”

  A rumble of excitement and dismay rolled through the crowd: muted excitement from the wizards on the perimeter and dismay around the table.

  Two of the alumni advanced, bearing an elaborate velvet robe that they settled about Leicester’s shoulders. Two more came forward carrying a long, jeweled case. They knelt before Leicester and opened the case. He lifted from it an elaborate staff that he held aloft in his two hands.

  “Leander Hastings, known as the Dragon, you have been convicted of treason and inciting of rebellion among the servant guilds. Do you have anything to say before your sentencing?”

  Hastings raised his brows. “I’ve been convicted? Somehow that got by me. By what court?”

  “You’re a traitor, Hastings. You don’t deserve due process.”

  Hastings looked him up and down. “You always did like to play dress-up, Gregory. Get on with it, then.”

  “And so for these crimes you are sentenced to death. Sentence to be carried out immediately.”

  “Leicester! May I speak?” It was Linda.

  Hastings swore under his breath. “Linda, no. Leave it be.”

  Linda ignored him. “I have something to say relative to this man’s crimes.”

  “Just get on with it, will you?” Hastings said to Leicester. “Don’t you have other murders to commit yet tonight?” He looked over at the wizards against the wall, and they shifted uneasily.

  Leicester smiled. “No, Hastings, I think she deserves to be heard. After all, you murdered her son.” He walked back to where Linda was sitting, yanked her to her feet, and led her to the front of the room, pointing her at the defendant. “Speak!”

  But Linda did not speak to Hastings. Instead, she turned and addressed the assembly. “Leicester and D’Orsay are to be commended. God knows, they are efficient. Risking life and limb, they kidnapped an adolescent boy so they could lure the Dragon here to Second Sister. They captur
ed the notorious Leander Hastings, locked him in a wine cellar, and within hours, convicted him of a capital crime. Now they propose to summarily execute him.

  “What are the Dragon’s crimes? He is known to be in the habit of asking difficult questions. He is a spymaster who turns over stones and exposes what’s underneath. He reveals secrets. On occasion, his followers have stolen magical objects and blown things up. Yet it seems to me the Dragon’s greatest crime has been revealing the truth about the guild hierarchy.”

  You could have heard the beat of a butterfly’s wing in the hall. The whisper of snow sifting into the treetops.

  D’Orsay shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  Linda went on. “Tyranny is the most efficient form of government. But I would suggest that due process has a purpose. That there is a difference between efficiency and justice. You see, Leander Hastings is not the Dragon. I am.”

  As soon as she said it, Seph knew it was true. From the elegant way she’d gutted Leicester and D’Orsay. From the look on Leander Hastings’s face. From so many mysteries finally explained.

  The solution to a puzzle seems obvious, once you know what it is.

  Jason nudged him. “So, Seph. Guess you’re the son of the Dragon after all,” he said dryly.

  Leicester and D’Orsay were staring at Linda as if they’d never really seen her before. And might never underestimate her again.

  “So,” Leicester said, attempting to regain his equilibrium. “We have here the brains and body of the rebellion. We are most thankful that you spoke up, Ms. Downey, in time to prevent a serious miscarriage of justice. It appears that two executions are called for, instead of one.”

  “Come, Gregory,” D’Orsay said hastily. “Surely not. Such a waste, I mean, an enchanter? Surely she can be rehabilitated.”