Page 80 of Serpent and Shadow

It made sense he’d want at least some of that hierarchy in place first.

Which brought me to the “Great Ritual,” and Malefic’s so-called “Ascension.”

Those references might interest Forsooth and the others, but I couldn’t give them much there, either. I could guess what the ritual itself was, but I had no idea what “ascension” meant in this context. Malefic planned to “ascend” prior to performing his Great Ritual to collapse the human and Magical realms?

What in the gods did that mean?

The one mage had said it would happen “soon.” What was soon to Malefic and Dark Cathedral? Next year? Next week?

The most dire, immediate question lived in the attack tonight.

Where were they attacking? Who? For what purpose?

How could I warn anyone when I didn’t know anything useful?

“But how can we do this thing tonight without…” the first one began. He paused, and I imagined him looking up and down the hall, checking for eavesdroppers. “Surely, he won’t cooperate this soon? The traitor?”

I tensed.

They were still walking away. Their voices were already less loud.

Eye of Ra, someone answer him, before the voices disappeared completely!

A fifth person spoke up, one I hadn’t heard before now.

“Of course he will cooperate.” The new voice smirked through her words, her tone darkly humorous. “I don’t like his chances for this world, were he to balk. Anyway, he’s bound now, isn’t he? He has taken the vow. It cannot be broken.”

I bit my tongue hard enough to taste blood.

The voices were getting much quieter now.

I strained to hear the final words.

“I suspect you’re right about him not wanting to give the Magus or that prick, the Ethnarch, too much time to think, Calvarias…” a mage added, his tone deferential.

It was too far away for me to be certain who’d said it.

Even so, I stiffened.

Was Sirena Calvarias one of the witches I’d heard? Is that why that first voice sounded familiar? Or was her husband there, and that’s who the mage meant?

“Malefic’s right,” I heard faintly, the voice even more distant. “By Osiris, there’s no point hiding our numbers or magic now. It’ll only take a few demonstrations before they realize we can get to them even if they dig a hole in the ground and cover it in iron and spells. That little prick could probably get to them on the sun…”

“At least he’s good for something,” a witch muttered.

I strained harder.

They must be right by the portrait of Malefic.

“It’ll make for quite the headlines,” another witch said, cackling.

A male voice responded, but I couldn’t make out more than a few words.

“…waiting… plan… never… alone…final…”

I couldn’t make sense of it. They had moved too far out of range.

The echo of their footsteps on the tile cut off, and the soft swish of their cloaks, and the softer squeak of shoe leather.