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.nothing.“No magic,” she said, puzzled.Rudolf came over to stand behind her.“Is that a bad thing?”“I don’t know,” Emily confessed.“The skull was once home to a magician’s personality, but it doesn’t seem to have endured.”She looked down at the skull, contemplatively.Was it a fake? Or something Mother Holly had been trying to make work? Or had the personality sunk into Mother Holly, leaving the skull empty? It was possible, wasn’t it? But all the cautionary tales she’d read had suggested that the skull would remain dangerous indefinitely.Rudolf swore.Emily turned and followed his gaze, staring into another corner.A body lay on the ground, one too small to be anything other than a baby.Sickened, Emily crept closer, directing the light globe to hover over the child’s body.The most obvious wound was a stab to the heart, but there were several others, all of which might prove fatal to a baby.Dark magic surrounded the corpse, clinging to the dead body like a living thing.“I thought we could save the child,” Rudolf said.He sounded stunned, as if he didn’t quite believe what he was seeing.His voice was almost plaintive.“But why did she need a child?”Emily swallowed.The answer was obvious; Mother Holly hadn’t been looking for magical power, but life force.A trained magician would be the most promising source of the former, yet a newborn baby would be the best source of the latter.After all, a baby had his or her entire life to enjoy.She shook her head, unwilling to discuss the possibility.Lady Barb had been right, again.In the long run, transferring life force might be even more dangerous to the Allied Lands than necromancy.“I don’t know,” Emily lied.The skull’s face seemed to mock her as she looked at it.Had it decanted something – or someone – into Mother Holly’s head.or was it just a repository of information?“So,” Rudolf said, as she returned the skull to its hiding place.“What else can we do? Where else can we go?”Emily hesitated.There was no trace of Mother Holly – or Lady Barb.She briefly considered releasing the snake again, then realized that she already knew where to look next.“The castle,” she said, softly.Throwing caution to the winds, she stood in the middle of the hovel and cast a powerful magic detection charm.The skull showed no reaction, while some of the potions ingredients glowed faintly – and a bright glow could be seen from a hidden drawer.Emily opened it carefully, disarming a nasty protective hex as she moved, and swore aloud as she produced the book.Like some of the grimoires preserved in Whitehall’s library, it was made from human skin and written in blood.The magician who’d written it, she suspected, might even have used his own blood.Once he was dead, the book would be bonded to his family line.No, that couldn’t be right, she told herself.Mother Holly wasn’t related to a magician, was she? But there was no way to know.She picked up the book, carefully, and opened it.There was no table of contents, forcing her to inspect each spell one by one.Some of them were surprisingly common, used at Whitehall; others were deadly dangerous.One of them was a compulsion spell so powerful that the victim wouldn’t have a hope of resisting, once the magician had obtained a sample of his blood.It reminded her of the spell Shadye had used on her, years ago.Others told her how to blind a disobedient child or turn him into a toad; make a woman permanently barren or nothing more than a slave; cripple a man or give him permanent bad luck.the writer, she realized, had been filled with hatred and malice towards the world.The evil the book could have caused was terrifying.And most of the people in the mountains would be absolutely defenseless.And, when the writer had finally died, he’d meant his malice to live on.The final spell was alarmingly familiar.It was the basic necromantic rite.“We have to take this with us,” Emily said, placing the book under her arm.“And we have to go to the castle.”Rudolf gave her a sharp look.“Are you sure?”“I don’t know where else to go,” Emily said, simply.Had Lady Barb gone to the castle after searching the hovel? There was no sign of a fight.But somehow Emily doubted that Lady Barb would have missed the grimoire.“If we can’t find her there.”She refused to consider the possibility as she led the way outside, into the slowly darkening sky.Clouds were gathering overhead, threatening to pour rain on their heads.Emily cast a protective charm over the book, wondering if she should destroy it.But she couldn’t bring herself to destroy any book, no matter how evil.Instead, she kept it under her arm, despite her fears.The book was surrounded by magic that might seek to do her harm.Rudolf followed her outside.“And what if we can’t get into the castle?”“You go back to your father and alert him,” Emily said, nettled.She didn’t want to consider the possibility of failure.“I go down to the Allied Lands and call for help.”Moments later, the first raindrops started to fall.Chapter Thirty-FiveEMILY HAD INTENDED NOT TO RISK using magic to shield them from the rain, but within moments she realized that she had no choice.The downpour grew so rapidly that their clothes were drenched within minutes, while visibility fell so badly she could barely see more than a foot or two ahead of her and thunder crackled in the sky overhead.If she hadn’t been so determined to reach the castle, she would have found a place for them to hole up and wait for the storm to end.She cast another protective charm on the grimoire, then looked over at Rudolf.He looked like a drowned rat – she knew she probably didn’t look much better – but was grimly determined to follow her to the castle.Emily briefly considered suggesting that he took the book back to the guesthouse, then reminded herself that Rudolf wouldn’t be able to get through the wards and into the building.Bringing him with her was risky, but she suspected he wouldn’t go quietly if she asked him to go back to the village.The rain grew stronger, beating against her wards and washing against her feet.Any tracks that might have been left would be obliterated, she realized numbly.There was no proof that Lady Barb had actually reached the castle.Coming to think of it, she thought sourly, there was no proof Lady Barb had ever entered the hovel.She might have been waylaid somewhere just outside the building.“She could have rebuilt the wards,” Rudolf pointed out.“And then gone to the castle.”Emily had her doubts.Lady Barb was far more skillful with magic than Emily, but rebuilding Mother Holly’s complex series of wards would be very difficult – and besides, she’d left the grimoire in place.And there had been no trace of her magic in the wards.No, Emily decided, Lady Barb had not gone into the hovel [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.nothing.“No magic,” she said, puzzled.Rudolf came over to stand behind her.“Is that a bad thing?”“I don’t know,” Emily confessed.“The skull was once home to a magician’s personality, but it doesn’t seem to have endured.”She looked down at the skull, contemplatively.Was it a fake? Or something Mother Holly had been trying to make work? Or had the personality sunk into Mother Holly, leaving the skull empty? It was possible, wasn’t it? But all the cautionary tales she’d read had suggested that the skull would remain dangerous indefinitely.Rudolf swore.Emily turned and followed his gaze, staring into another corner.A body lay on the ground, one too small to be anything other than a baby.Sickened, Emily crept closer, directing the light globe to hover over the child’s body.The most obvious wound was a stab to the heart, but there were several others, all of which might prove fatal to a baby.Dark magic surrounded the corpse, clinging to the dead body like a living thing.“I thought we could save the child,” Rudolf said.He sounded stunned, as if he didn’t quite believe what he was seeing.His voice was almost plaintive.“But why did she need a child?”Emily swallowed.The answer was obvious; Mother Holly hadn’t been looking for magical power, but life force.A trained magician would be the most promising source of the former, yet a newborn baby would be the best source of the latter.After all, a baby had his or her entire life to enjoy.She shook her head, unwilling to discuss the possibility.Lady Barb had been right, again.In the long run, transferring life force might be even more dangerous to the Allied Lands than necromancy.“I don’t know,” Emily lied.The skull’s face seemed to mock her as she looked at it.Had it decanted something – or someone – into Mother Holly’s head.or was it just a repository of information?“So,” Rudolf said, as she returned the skull to its hiding place.“What else can we do? Where else can we go?”Emily hesitated.There was no trace of Mother Holly – or Lady Barb.She briefly considered releasing the snake again, then realized that she already knew where to look next.“The castle,” she said, softly.Throwing caution to the winds, she stood in the middle of the hovel and cast a powerful magic detection charm.The skull showed no reaction, while some of the potions ingredients glowed faintly – and a bright glow could be seen from a hidden drawer.Emily opened it carefully, disarming a nasty protective hex as she moved, and swore aloud as she produced the book.Like some of the grimoires preserved in Whitehall’s library, it was made from human skin and written in blood.The magician who’d written it, she suspected, might even have used his own blood.Once he was dead, the book would be bonded to his family line.No, that couldn’t be right, she told herself.Mother Holly wasn’t related to a magician, was she? But there was no way to know.She picked up the book, carefully, and opened it.There was no table of contents, forcing her to inspect each spell one by one.Some of them were surprisingly common, used at Whitehall; others were deadly dangerous.One of them was a compulsion spell so powerful that the victim wouldn’t have a hope of resisting, once the magician had obtained a sample of his blood.It reminded her of the spell Shadye had used on her, years ago.Others told her how to blind a disobedient child or turn him into a toad; make a woman permanently barren or nothing more than a slave; cripple a man or give him permanent bad luck.the writer, she realized, had been filled with hatred and malice towards the world.The evil the book could have caused was terrifying.And most of the people in the mountains would be absolutely defenseless.And, when the writer had finally died, he’d meant his malice to live on.The final spell was alarmingly familiar.It was the basic necromantic rite.“We have to take this with us,” Emily said, placing the book under her arm.“And we have to go to the castle.”Rudolf gave her a sharp look.“Are you sure?”“I don’t know where else to go,” Emily said, simply.Had Lady Barb gone to the castle after searching the hovel? There was no sign of a fight.But somehow Emily doubted that Lady Barb would have missed the grimoire.“If we can’t find her there.”She refused to consider the possibility as she led the way outside, into the slowly darkening sky.Clouds were gathering overhead, threatening to pour rain on their heads.Emily cast a protective charm over the book, wondering if she should destroy it.But she couldn’t bring herself to destroy any book, no matter how evil.Instead, she kept it under her arm, despite her fears.The book was surrounded by magic that might seek to do her harm.Rudolf followed her outside.“And what if we can’t get into the castle?”“You go back to your father and alert him,” Emily said, nettled.She didn’t want to consider the possibility of failure.“I go down to the Allied Lands and call for help.”Moments later, the first raindrops started to fall.Chapter Thirty-FiveEMILY HAD INTENDED NOT TO RISK using magic to shield them from the rain, but within moments she realized that she had no choice.The downpour grew so rapidly that their clothes were drenched within minutes, while visibility fell so badly she could barely see more than a foot or two ahead of her and thunder crackled in the sky overhead.If she hadn’t been so determined to reach the castle, she would have found a place for them to hole up and wait for the storm to end.She cast another protective charm on the grimoire, then looked over at Rudolf.He looked like a drowned rat – she knew she probably didn’t look much better – but was grimly determined to follow her to the castle.Emily briefly considered suggesting that he took the book back to the guesthouse, then reminded herself that Rudolf wouldn’t be able to get through the wards and into the building.Bringing him with her was risky, but she suspected he wouldn’t go quietly if she asked him to go back to the village.The rain grew stronger, beating against her wards and washing against her feet.Any tracks that might have been left would be obliterated, she realized numbly.There was no proof that Lady Barb had actually reached the castle.Coming to think of it, she thought sourly, there was no proof Lady Barb had ever entered the hovel.She might have been waylaid somewhere just outside the building.“She could have rebuilt the wards,” Rudolf pointed out.“And then gone to the castle.”Emily had her doubts.Lady Barb was far more skillful with magic than Emily, but rebuilding Mother Holly’s complex series of wards would be very difficult – and besides, she’d left the grimoire in place.And there had been no trace of her magic in the wards.No, Emily decided, Lady Barb had not gone into the hovel [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]