Fury of a Demon by Brian Naslund

Author:Brian Naslund [Naslund, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

* * *

They all dressed, and headed back to the burned-out library.

“Caellan still lives in Nisena?” Vera asked.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Caellan disappeared from this archive more than seven years ago,” Kyal said. “Her fate is unknown to any alchemist.”

“So, you’re both alchemists?” Vera asked.

“Correct,” Kyal replied, moving considerably faster than before, but still relying on the cane to stabilize his gate. “I am a master in the order. Salle is my apprentice.”

“An apprentice who can practically taste the rank of journeyman on her tongue,” Salle said with a little wink. Her Papyrian accent wasn’t quite as good as Kyal’s, but it was close, and she spoke it with a barely contained energy that made Vera homesick. She hadn’t heard someone speak her native tongue that way in a long time. Vera certainly didn’t talk that way anymore. Maybe she never did.

Kyal scoffed. “I don’t know any journeymen who still cannot complete the equation required to give me the correct diameter of the moon.”

“That’s the last thing, though!”

“And judging from the mess that was your last attempt, you still have a long way to go.”

Salle waved him away. “I’m closer than I seem.”

“Mm. Your calculus tells me a different story.” Kyal glanced at Vera. “Tell me, do you have close contact with Osyrus Ward?”

“Closer than most,” said Vera.

“What is your impression of him?”

Vera chewed on that a moment. “Highly intelligent. His ability to predict a person or group of people’s future actions is … intimidatingly accurate.” She paused. “He’s also insane.”

Kyal grunted. “A decent summary.”

“You know him?”

“Knew him. As a boy, we were both apprentices of a similar age, and our masters were friends, so we saw quite a bit of each other.”

“What was he like back then?”

Kyal considered that. “Intelligent, as you said. Also impatient. He couldn’t stand the rote learning that apprentices must endure their first year.”

“Neither could I,” Salle added.

“I found a comfort to the routine, myself. Memorization is a particular skill of mine. How is your memory, Vera?”

“Don’t answer that,” Salle warned. “Regardless of your answer, he’ll have you doing mental drills and techniques in no time.”

“My memory is fine,” Vera said. “So, Osyrus was trained as an alchemist?”

“Bah, not even half-trained. He was expelled from our order after three years.”

“Why?”

“He was torturing animals. Well, as I recall, he described it as experimenting with live specimens. But the order does not offer much leeway when they see that kind of behavior from a pupil. It is often a precursor to more problematic behavior later in life.”

“Ward’s behavior is certainly problematic now,” said Vera.

“Maybe they should have let him stay,” said Salle. “Guided him in the right direction, instead of allowing him to forge his own.”

“If he’d stayed, he would simply have been imbued with more tools with which to twist the world.”

“Not trying to be difficult, master, but he appears to have forged an adequate number of tools without our help.”

Kyal grumbled to himself.

“Come, let’s pick up our pace. Caellan’s chamber was on the second floor, where the fire was less severe.

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