Concentrate, Giselle reminded herself, and began to work her magic. She needed to create that tunnel of air . . . but she needed it to stop about a foot or so from him, so he wouldn’t detect it. Yet.

And I’m using my magic to kill someone. No. Not just kill him. Murder him in cold blood. . . . She felt ice in the pit of her stomach, and not from the snow or the frigid air.

How would the Great Elementals feel about that? They had warned her against using her lesser allies to harm on her behalf. But what about using the magic itself? And not in self-defense, either. That was something Rosa apparently had never done; in every story she had told about destroying something, it had either pretty much been in a purely physical manner, or she had broken the renegade’s magic so that his own Elementals turned on him. This, well . . . I can’t do this without magic.

She could try, but she did not dare take the chance that this would fail. And to be certain, she had to use magic. She hadn’t mentioned this to the others, or they might have tried to talk her out of it.

I couldn’t let them do that. She watched Johann through the scope, she felt her insides twisting up with conflict. I’m the only one that has a chance of pulling this off. And Johann must die, or we will find ourselves facing the Frost Giant, the Breath of the Ice Wurm, or both. She had no doubt that Johann was conserving his magic and his strength, manipulating his parents and his brother to expend theirs on his behalf. He was the mastermind here. She had watched him prod and twist them with his words, keeping them all at each others’ throats . . . but except for Dieter, never really at his. And the father had Dieter firmly in check. He flattered his father and mother obliquely, yet with challenge, making them prove themselves by expending themselves over and over while he sat in his chair like a spider in a web, waiting, waiting. She reckoned that if he needed to, he could continue those two terrible pieces of magic all by himself.

Is he even still a cripple? She could not be sure. It certainly suited him to be thought one right now. But he was an Air Master, so . . . it was possible he was no longer as handicapped as he once had been. Air was not noted for being able to heal, but . . .

Who knows what he has been able to coerce out of the Elementals he has in his thrall?

She was probably going to get only one chance for this shot. When she touched him with her magic, he would feel it. He had to be suitably distracted at that moment, so that he would not react immediately.