“He’s occupied in his arcanium. I dare not interrupt him.” Nic tried to sound meek, but Sergio eyed her with contempt.

“Without his familiar?” he sneered. “You’ll have to lie better than that.”

“Surely you’re aware that Lord Phel is astonishingly powerful,” Jadren said smoothly, stepping up on Nic’s other side. “He can accomplish more without a familiar than most do with one.” He made a show of peering around. “Oh, but you don’t have a familiar yet, do you, Sergio?” He grimaced in false sympathy, tsking. “That Sammael infertility raising its ugly head in the next generation.”

“Jadren El-Adrel,” Sergio mused, as if trying to place the name. “I thought you were dead.”

Jadren smiled thinly. “Rumors can be so misleading.”

“I note you have no familiar, either,” Sergio sneered. “Mommy still withholding that particular treat to extort you into good behavior?”

“At least I’m not having to service every high-MP-scoring familiar that pops up on the market,” Jadren replied casually. “How many have you tried now—a dozen? More? Perhaps you should consult a Refoel healer specializing in whiskey dick.”

“Watch yourself, El-Adrel,” Sergio growled. “Someday, perhaps very soon, I will be Lord Sammael, head of a High, and you’ll still be a junior minion, at best.” Sergio made a show of looking around, unable to disguise his confidence, however. “And you won’t have even that once House Phel crumbles back to the ashes it belongs to.”

“Do you know something we don’t?” Nic inquired in a polite tone, though she deliberately omitted any honorific. “As Wizard Jadren notes, rumors can be so misleading.”

Sergio settled his sneer on Nic. “How the mighty have fallen. Veronica Elal, disinherited, outlawed, knocked up by a house-poor wizard too afraid to show himself to his betters.” He eyed her more closely, even scathingly. “Is he too impotent and incompetent to even bond you?”

“Lady Phel is duly bonded to Lord Phel,” Alise retorted for her.

“I witnessed the Convocation proctor determine it herself,” Jadren added. “As did we all, when Lord Phel commanded Lady Phel to take her alternate form.”

Well, not everyone here, but Nic discreetly kept that tidbit to herself. She had enough to worry about with the direction this inquisition was going without fretting that someone would pipe up that they didn’t see the proof. Gabriel and his reciprocal bonding nonsense continued to jeopardize them all. Unless his being so incapacitated had disrupted their bond. Supposedly only death could dissolve the wizard–familiar bond. But then, Gabriel was as close to death without being dead as anyone could get.

“She doesn’t look bonded now,” Sergio commented, speaking to Jadren and Alise. “Perhaps something else has occurred in the interim. You can confide in me,” he added in a silky tone.

“Your wizard senses deceive you,” Jadren replied on a yawn. “Not surprising, given your weak scores. Mostly sixes and sevens, aren’t they?”

“Enough to punish you,” Sergio spat, then recovered his composure. Eyeing Nic, he withdrew an envelope made of heavy, very expensive paper. Convocation stationery. “This discussion is moot regardless. I have here a directive to remand one Veronica Elal into custody, pending a decision by Convocation Center on her bonded status.”