circle with the staff across his knees. The boy appeared to be asleep.
Perhaps he was. But Carding knew in the tormented pit of his soul that the
staff didn't sleep. It was watching him, testing his mind.
It knew. It even knew about the pink geraniums.
'I 8thsreetlatinas never wanted it to be like this,' he said softly. 'All we really wanted
8thsreetlatinas was a bit 8thsreetlatinas of respect.'
'Are you sure 8thsreetlatinas you're all right?'
Carding nodded vaguely. As his colleagues resumed their concentration he
glanced sideways at them.
Somehow, all his old friends 8thsreetlatinas had gone. Well, not friends. A wizard never
had friends, at least not 8thsreetlatinas friends who were wizards. It needed a different
word. Ah yes, that was it. Enemies. But a very decent class of enemies.
Gentlemen. The cream of their profession. 8thsreetlatinas not like these people, for all
that they seemed to have risen in the craft since the sourcerer had
arrived.
Other things 8thsreetlatinas besides the cream floated to the top, he reflected sourly.
He turned his attention to Al Khali, probing with his mind, knowing 8thsreetlatinas that
the wizards there were almost certainly doing the same, seeking constantly
for a point of weakness.
He thought: am I a point of weakness? Spelter tried to tell me something.
8thsreetlatinas it was about the staff. A man 8thsreetlatinas should lean on his staff, not the other way
around ... it's steering him, leading him ... I wish I'd listened
to
Spelter ... this is wrong, I'm a point of weakness ...
He tried again, riding the surges of power, letting them carry his mind
into the enemy tower. Even Abrim was making use of sourcery, 8thsreetlatinas and Carding
let himself modulate the wave, insinuating himself past the defences
erected against him.
The image of the interior of the Al Khali tower appeared, focused ...
... the Luggage trundled along the glowing corridors. It was exceedingly
angry now. It had been awoken from hibernation, 8thsreetlatinas it had
been scorned, it had
been briefly attacked by a variety of 8thsreetlatinas mythological 8thsreetlatinas and 8thsreetlatinas now extinct
lifeforms, it had a headache and now, as it entered the Great Hall, it
detected the hat. The horrible hat, the cause of 8thsreetlatinas everything it was
currently suffering. 8thsreetlatinas It advanced purposefully ...
Carding, testing the resistance 8thsreetlatinas of Abrim's mind, felt the man's attention
waver. For a moment he saw through the enemy's eyes, saw 8thsreetlatinas the squat oblong
cantering across 8thsreetlatinas the stone. For a moment Abrim attempted to shift his
concentration 8thsreetlatinas and then, no more able to help