Betilivatis jerked the book back. “This book cannot leave my possession,” she said.

Jorick scowled and leaped from his chair. Before he could shout more rants into the library’s rafters, Evin placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Well, thank you for the information you could give us, Betilivatis,” he said. “We really appreciate it, don’t we, Jorick?”

Jorick kicked at the hard wood floor.

“But I don’t understand why you’d say we need the book and then not let us borrow it,” Evin went on. “If what you say about gnolls is true, I don’t think that whoever they’ve allied with can keep them in check for much longer. They could start eating the villagers any moment now and we need to hurry.”

Betilivatis leaned back, crossed her legs, and steepled her slender fingers in front of her face.

“Like I said earlier, you two haven’t the first idea what you’re doing,” she said. “Rushing out to face a monstrous horde with even less sense than you have weapons.”

Slowly, Betilivatis rose from the chair to tower over Jorick and stand eye to eye with Evin. “It’s been boring in this tower all these years,” she went on. “And I could really use some field practice with my magic.”

“And what does that mean?” Jorick asked.

Betilivatis leaned forward and patted Jorick on the cheek.

“It means,” she said, “that I’m coming with you.”

Chapter Eight

Gnolls enmur fawel upwo.”

Betilivatis stood atop a boulder near the fallen northern gate of Curston. As she spoke the strange words of magic, she pointed the tip of her wand at the ground and let blue sand fall from between her fingers.

The sand snaked through the air and hovered above the swaying grass of the northern plains. It swept above the undulating weeds, as though searching. Then finally, it stopped swirling and fell to the earth. Where it landed, a soft blue glow emanated among the blades of grass.

Brushing away the remaining sand in her hands, Betilivatis spun around to face Evin and Jorick.

“There,” she said. “That’s our trail. The gnolls appear to have stomped through Curston and kept on heading north.”

“Impressive!” Evin offered Betilivatis a hand off the boulder. She accepted with a grudging smile, then hopped down. “Do you think you could show me how to do that?” Evin continued.

“No.” Betilivatis turned her back to him and collected her supplies from where they lay spread out on the boulder. She placed the vial of blue sand back inside a leather satchel that she had filled with many other magic supplies and books, including Zendric’s A Practical Guide to Monsters.

Evin scowled despite himself.

Betilivatis sighed. “Wizardry isn’t just a bunch of parlor tricks. It takes years of study. So no, I can’t just show you how to do it.”