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“I’d welcome that, in truth,” he growled but held himself back.
She gave him a brilliant smile over her shoulder.“Thank you for agreeing not to kill him.”
“Not on purpose, anyway,” he qualified under his breath, and she shot him a stern look, then proceeded onward.He truly would make an effort not to kill Elal, for Nic’s sake, but if it came down to it… Well, he wouldn’t grieve for the man who’d done so much wrong.
Nic might be preceding him, but he was significantly taller than her, so he could see that the spiraling silver door at the entrance to the arcanium also stood open.He set his teeth against the rising fury.Nic had told him long ago that no wizard allowed any other wizard inside their arcanium—something Elal would also know.He knew full well the kind of theft he attempted.It was, perhaps, not the greatest of his transgressions, but it communicated Elal’s lack of regard for House Phel.Even when Lord Elal had encouraged, even worked his guile to promote, the match between Nic and him, the man had never meant his words.When he’d told his daughter that Gabriel deserved the chance to rebuild his house, he’d only wanted to seize this very opportunity.
Gabriel would see to it that he choked on it.
They reached the round entrance, the arcanium luminescent beyond from sunshine filtering through the lake water.The light glanced through the domed room, gleaming off the silver struts, turning the glittering mosaic-tiled floor into a whirl of color.The built-in cabinets and drawers all stood open, clearly ransacked, and a bag by the door bulged with Elal’s scavenged treasures.
Nic gave a soft cry, and Gabriel saw what alarmed her—her mother slumped unconscious on the floor, crumpled in the shadows of the curving wall, along with other things that had been dug out and discarded.As for Lord Elal himself, he stood at the center of the tiled spiral, arms upraised to the moon window above, his body a rictus of effort.
He turned slowly at Nic’s exclamation, like a man in a daze.Focusing, he dropped his arms, his face a picture of offended incredulity that Gabriel found immensely satisfying.Stepping to the side, he nodded at Nic to tend to her mother and confronted the invader.“Elal,” he ground out.“You trespass unforgivably.”
Lord Elal goggled a moment longer, his black eyes going to the bloodied sword.“I don’t know how you penetrated House Sammael to reclaim my daughter,” he said, his gaze flicking to Nic.“Either way, you’re meant to be dead, Phel.”
Gabriel allowed a slight smile.“I elected to live—and to kill your lackey.”
Elal gathered his self-possession, very much as his daughters did, firming his chin.“Sammael was a poor tool, easily bent and broken.If you expect me to mourn his loss, you’ll be disappointed.You’ve actually done me a favor, ridding me of excess baggage.”
The wizard was stalling, gathering his magic for an attack.Gabriel had encountered Elal’s power once before, when he challenged the wizard over Nic’s absence, and he was quite certain it had been stronger then.The Elal wizard had clearly drained Nic’s mother to the point of unconsciousness and, though he’d managed to penetrate and loot the Phel arcanium, Gabriel very much doubted whether the man had gleaned much magic.
“Have you found yourself able to use water and moon magic?”Gabriel inquired silkily, following Elal as he pivoted, keeping the sword pointed squarely at him.
Lord Elal smirked.“Haveyou?”he retorted.“They’re not terribly useful magics, after all.”
“Useful enough for my purposes,” Gabriel replied, mentally assembling his own arsenal.“Not that I’d expect an outsider like you to understand.”
Lord Elal laughed heartily at that.Gesturing widely to the dome, he took on a condescending tone.“Young wizard,youare the outsider.And you have no idea what you have—or should I say,had—here.A tool like this is wasted on an uneducated buffoon.In a way, I’m doing you a favor by taking it over and tuning it to my own magic.If you’d attempted anything more than your trifling games, you could have released uncontrolled magics that would leave a bottomless pit where this lake and manse once sat.You, my dear boy, are like a monkey that discovered a magic sword: you’re more likely to kill yourself with it than make any use of it.”
“Is that so?”Gabriel followed Elal’s slight turning, keeping him squarely before him, edging slightly closer.“I think I’ll take my chances.You will leave, immediately.”
“Or what?”Lord Elal looked terribly amused.“I don’t take orders from low-level rogue wizards who wouldn’t qualify to be an apprentice anywhere in the Convocation.”He pretended to glance at the nearest window, turning ever so slightly with the movement, and Gabriel followed.
“I promised your daughter I wouldn’t kill you,” Gabriel replied easily, “but not that I wouldn’t make you suffer.Leave now, and you’ll escape with your limbs intact.”
Lord Elal produced a serene smile.“Oh, you really are a naïve fool.Pitiful, really.If you’d been identified as a lad, brought to the Convocation for training, we might’ve made a wizard of you.As it is, you’re the magical equivalent of a babbling idiot, blundering about and making fatal errors.”
“Final warning,” Gabriel said.“Leave, or I start carving pieces off you.”
Elal chuckled, folding his hands together.“Such a commoner that you think we’ll fight with blades.”He sobered abruptly, which was all the warning Gabriel got.A spirit manifested inside Gabriel’s reach, a suddenly physical blade slicing down his chest.With a snarl, Gabriel flung a hail of silver at Elal, breaking his concentration so the spirit vanished.Blood ran hot down his skin.
“An entertaining start,” Lord Elal declared, unbothered, the air around him whirling with tiny spirits deflecting the silver.“Too bad the ending will come so soon.”
A whirlwind of spirits surrounded him, slashing with blades that appeared and vanished with the speed of thought.Others sought to blind him, to thrust into his mouth and nose and smother him.But he’d faced fighters wilier than these, puppeted as they were, and didn’t fall for the trick of trying to fight them one by one.Instead he focused on the source, pulling water from outside the dome and surrounding Elal in a bubble of it.
The spirits disappeared as suddenly as they’d attacked, leaving Lord Elal flailing in the bubble of water.A swarm of water elementals arrived, piercing the surface tension of Gabriel’s watery creation, popping it so water abruptly gushed over the floor.Elal slipped a little as his feet hit the floor, but his wizard-black eyes held fury.His magic snapped out, and fire elementals leapt at Gabriel, air elementals spinning like tiny dervishes, fanning the flames that set fire to his hair and clothing.
Gabriel vaporized the water on the floor, drenching himself so the flames died away.At the same time, he flung a series of silver spikes at Lord Elal.Several spirit sentries intervened, batting them away with apparent ease.
“You’re tiring,” Lord Elal taunted, “and I have barely begun.”
“This is my arcanium,” Gabriel ground out, edging just a bit closer while Elal gloated.
“Itwas.”The wizard pulled a sad face.“It answers to me now.The benefit of training and experience you lack.It didn’t take long to attune it to me.Magic is magic, after all, and there is a nigh infinite amount stored here.I can go on forever whileyouhave made a critical erro.A beginner’s mistake.”He grinned in triumph.“I am between you and your familiar.You cannot reach her.Meanwhile, I’ll bleed you dry and finally rid us of your pestilent presence.”
“You’re celebrating too soon,” Gabriel informed him.Beyond the wizard, on the other side of the room, Nic stood, meeting his gaze with firm devotion.She nodded her readiness.“And your thinking is limited by your archaic Convocation traditions.I never went to House Sammael, because Nic and I don’t need to touch to combine magic.”
