~10~
“Jadren,” Gabriel growled,stepping away from her and tugging down her skirts as he did.Nic allowed herself to whimper a little at the loss.“On my way,” he called to Asa.Taking her by the waist in his big hands, andnothow she’d been fantasizing he would, he lifted her off the window seat and set her on her feet.“Will you come with me, in case I need your help?”
“Of course,” she replied without hesitation, giving him her hand and not reminding him that he didn’t need to ask.Gabrieldidneed to ask, for his own sake, and she was learning to respect that.“Dare I ask what this has to do with Jadren?”
Holding firmly to her hand, Gabriel strode across the library.“I gave him the key to the workshop not a quarter of an hour ago—and expressly warned him away from the pit.”He yanked the door open to a worried-looking Asa, Laryn at his side.“Why areyouthe messenger?”he demanded of the Refoel wizard.
“I’m told there are injuries,” Asa answered, hastening to catch up, as Gabriel hadn’t paused in his angry strides.“But the door is locked and no one can get in.”
“How did he get a message out, then?”Nic asked over her shoulder, as Gabriel still had ahold of her hand, pulling her along beside him.
“He’d taken a few apprentice wizards inside with him,” Asa explained, “and sent one out to fetch me.”
“Idiots,” Gabriel snarled, circumnavigating the long table in the dining hall and charging through the adjoining receiving room to pass through the open door to the arcade.“Disobedient fool.”
Nic took a depth breath—partly because she needed it with Gabriel rushing her along, her shorter legs no match for his stride—and partly to enjoy the sweet, spring-fresh, and sun-warmed air streaming through the gracious arched open windows of the arcade.She was glad she and Sage had decided not to glass these windows in yet.The glass wizard had pointed out that the deep outer eaves of the windows seemed to be designed to shelter the interior from all but the worst downpours, and that the parquet floors made from the water-resistant tectona trees should withstand damp.In point of fact, they already had survived full immersion, being underwater for decades until just recently.That they’d recovered fully was partially Gabriel’s wizardry at work, but some might be from enchantments embedded in the architecture by his Phel ancestors.
Regardless, the lovely arcade deserved to be open to the elements.They could always glass it in come autumn, if necessary.If they survived that long.Still, it occurred to her to ask Gabriel, “Does it ever snow here?”
He glanced at her with consuming irritation.“What does that have to do with rampaging swamp monsters?”
“We don’t know that it’s a swamp monster,” she pointed out pedantically.
“I should’ve sensed that the water surface had been disrupted,” he growled under his breath.
“You were preoccupied,” she pointed out with a sweet smile, rewarded by a magical caress from him.“And you need to calm down.Be Lord Phel, in control of everything.You can be justifiably angry, but not panicked.Your minions will look to you,” she added hastily under her breath as they passed from the sunny arcade into the mirror receiving room of the north wing.
Sure enough, most of the junior wizards, new apprentices, and assorted familiars were gathered in the unfinished, echoing hall they intended to make into a gathering space and study area.Han and Iliana stood nearby, hand in hand.An air of frantic excitement greeted them, one junior wizard sitting on a table, bleeding through what looked like a hastily tied bandage.Costa, Wolfgang Ratisbon’s familiar, looked up from bandaging another young wizard Nic didn’t recognize.“The bleeding has slowed, Healer Asa.I believe you’re all right to defer treatment for now, but my first-aid skills are basic ones.”
“Check that he’s correct, would you?”Asa asked Laryn, and Nic marked that the Refoel healer asked it of his familiar when he would’ve ordered without thought only days before.“Then join me in the workshop.”
“Everyone else stay here,” Gabriel ordered.“You…” He pointed at the bleeding apprentice, who blanched visibly.“How many people are in there?”
“Five, Lord Phel.”The apprentice swallowed hard.“We talked Wizard Jadren into letting us accompany him.We didn’t mean to—”
“Later,” Gabriel bit out.
Alise came running into the room.“Can I help?”
“We could use her help,” Nic told him with quiet urgency before he could turn her away.“And Iliana’s.”
Gabriel quirked a brow at her but told Alise and Iliana to come along, doing an admirable job of making it sound like his idea.Han followed Iliana.Since he wore his sword and Gabriel didn’t mark the young familiar’s disobedience, Nic said nothing.By the fiercely determined expression on Han’s face, it would be impossible to keep him from defending his lover.Nic allowed herself a mental eyeroll for that.
“Why Iliana?”Gabriel asked under his breath.He clearly had misgivings about bringing the delicate, bright-eyed redhead into a potential battle.They charged down the long hall, a small parade of herself and Gabriel, followed by Alise and Asa, Han and Iliana bringing up the rear.Light and shadow flashed with the speed of their near run as they passed doors, both open and closed, that gave onto the various living spaces of the ground floor of the north wing.Most of the open ones showed rooms in their original dilapidated, barren state, their windows not yet glassed in.
“Stop thinking of people in terms of the manual chop-chop method,” Nic retorted.“You saw her MP scorecard.”
“I’m still not good at deciphering those things.”
Nic decided that meant he’d barely glanced at it.“She’s very strong in Ariel magic, much more so than I am.Her magic will be useful to have when attempting control an unknown rampaging beast.”
“Even if she’s not a wizard?”
“Even so.Think of yourself as a warrior pulling the correct weapon to hand.Sometimes you need a sword.Sometimes you need a long bow.”
“I don’t know how to use a long bow,” he muttered.
“A crossbow, then.Any idiot can use one of those.”