Mikel led them out of the Septumvirate’s chamber and read the question off Hans’ face. “It could go either way,” he said. “You seem to have convinced Ansgar Leifsson—the old man,” he clarified. “He’s the senior member of the Septumvirate. … Continue reading
The Septumvirate seemed to be content to allow the old man to speak for them for the time being. To Anja, it looked as though they’d regained their studied impassivity. She couldn’t read a thing in their faces. She glanced … Continue reading
“We come now to Anja Grevdarsdottir,” the clerk announced. Every person in the room was on the edge of his seat. Eirik had, by way of whispered conversations with nervous colleagues, discovered that they were almost uniformly uninformed about the … Continue reading
Eirik harbored the belief that Baltasar might have been a bit too hasty in his judgment of Anja Grevdarsdottir. The girl had been through a lot, Eirik would allow, but the very fact that, by all appearances, she hadn’t died … Continue reading
Rakel Magnusdottir: I hope your preparations are going to your satisfaction. I understand you’re still staying at the Hammer and Anvil, if my agent is to be believed. He says you took the table for more than a crown, … Continue reading
Rakel woke to the clatter of metal on metal. She had halfway unsheathed the dagger beneath her pillow before she realized what the noise had been. She climbed out of bed, sheepishly buckling the sheath at her side, and groped … Continue reading
Something sprang from the stone on Anja’s palm. It was eye-watering to look at, an insubstantial shape which called to mind the great predators of the south not by their shape but by how they moved together, and at the … Continue reading
Eirik followed Baltasar out of the main hall, and they walked in silence until they reached the compound’s outer wall. They turned to walk along the path that ran in its shadow, and only then did Baltasar speak. “The letter … Continue reading
The Hall of the Guild of Aendemancers was not as blatantly ostentatious as many of its counterparts. It was a walled compound, a couple of smallish outbuildings surrounding the main hall. The latter was the most impressive of the buildings … Continue reading
Eirik would have found it very difficult to explain the way the world looked to him right then, particularly to someone who had never consciously used magic, and even more particularly to someone without a solid technical idea of what … Continue reading
