I finally looked at him fully, my face set. “And?”
“And we would have come up with something else. Together. With Dwale, and Mieka. There would have been a middle way.” His eyes were intensely green. “I came here to find you, didn’t I? To help?”
Milady was speaking again, and I shushed him.
“There are powerful wards on this,” she said, examining the book. “It is as I suspected. She wouldn’t want anyone else to be able to wield the power.”
“Then what use is this to me?” said the Pontiff, exasperated. “After all the time and coin we have invested in it! I would never have accepted your offer of an alliance if I had known you would be unable to cast it. You assured me—”
“I did not promise,” said Milady. “And I am also not saying that I cannot release her. Just that it will be challenging.”
“Well, get on with it,” said the Pontiff. “Either you or your niece must extricate her as soon as possible so that we canrelease our controlled Plague. The hour is perfect. The throne is unstable, enemies—pardon the term, Ban Morin—are at the gates, and the time is ripe for a savior.”
“I am surprised your One-Eyed God approves of such trickery,” Ban Morin said sardonically.
The Pontiff gave a sour smile. “We do not worry Him with such matters. We bring Him believers, and His reputation grows. Soon it will grow beyond Virelith. He does not trouble Himself as to our methods.”
“And yet you wish the people to have faith in him.”
“I wish for people to have faith inthe Temple,” he said sharply. “In our ability to protect them and guide them. They have been falling back into the old ways, and require a swift and decisive correction.”
The guard came running back into the room, panting. “Your Holiness, she is gone. She, and the other.”
“The other?” said Milady sharply. “Who is that? Could they have abetted her?”
“Gone?How?” said the Pontiff, not answering her.
“I found the doors unlocked.”
“That is impossible,” said the Pontiff. “The wards on those rooms are unbreakable.”
“By a regular mage, perhaps,” said Ban Morin drily.
“Impossible!” cried the Pontiff again. To the guard he said, “Go! Find them!”
Milady clapped her gloved hands together in sarcastic applause. “Excellent. So my niece has disappeared again, and we are no better off for it.”
“You had her in yourhands,” Ban Morin hissed at the Pontiff. “How could you have let her slip through them so easily?”
The Pontiff drew himself up to his full height, or what passed for it. “You will speak to me with the respect due to my station.”
“I shall speak to you however I please.”
“Well, we do not have Netta,” said Milady, and I flinched at the sound of my own name. “But we do have the next best thing.”
She stepped up to the book again and opened it. She bit her full lower lip prettily as she ran her eyes down the page.
“Well, get on with it, then,” said the Pontiff sulkily. “We have wasted enough time as it is.”
With great ceremony, Milady stripped off her gloves and hovered her palms over the book’s surface.
“And ifyoucan’t cast from it,” the Pontiff began, “then I suppose …”
“Hush,” she said without looking up. “I can feel her.”
The Pontiff spluttered a little, but fell silent.
“Sawl, the books,” she ordered.
