“I might be able to do something about that in the meantime,” said Thero.

“I’m going with you.” Alec was not about to take no for an answer.

“You’re not even healed up yet,” said Seregil, but he knew it was a losing battle.

“I’ll be fine as long as I don’t go down the corridor.”

“That’s certainly a precaution we need to take,” the wizard replied.

“What about tying a rope around him and one of us, just to be sure?” asked Micum.

“Also a good idea.”

“What about me?” asked Mika, who’d been silently taking all this in. “Please, Master Thero, can’t I come with you this time?”

Seregil could see the boy holding his breath as Thero considered the request.

At last the wizard gave a grudging nod. “I suppose so, as long as you stay close by me. No wandering off this time.”

Solemnly Mika covered his heart with his left hand. “By Illior’s Light, I promise. Thank you, Master.”

“We’ll see if you feel so thankful once a ghost starts chucking eyeballs at you,” Micum said with a grin.

“We’ll go tomorrow morning,” said Thero.

Mika looked crestfallen. “But there won’t be any ghosts then.”

“There could be,” Alec told him. “And you’ll be able to see them better in daylight.”

“Really?”

“Tomorrow,” Thero said, settling the matter.

Neither Rhazat or Lady Zella appeared at breakfast the following morning, but the table was set and delicious smells rose from the covered dishes arranged there. The food was again to Klia’s taste, as if Rhazat had once more pulled that knowledge from her mind.

Left to her own devices through the morning, Klia reconnoitered at will and soon knew every inch of the tower’s three floors. Apart from her bedchamber and the dining room, the first two floors were empty. She met no other servants or prisoners and couldn’t find a way down to the cellars.

Climbing to the third floor, she discovered what looked very much like Thero’s tower workshop. It was a spacious curved room with a row of windows on the outer side. Astrolabes, crucibles, and mortars stood in a row on one long table. Another was covered with huge tomes and scrolls, but she didn’t recognize the language, or most of the writing. More books and scrolls filled bookcases on three walls, together with chests of all sizes and several cabinets with many drawers. Moving on, she opened a door and discovered an airy, sumptuous silk-bedecked bedchamber. Rhazat was there, gazing out one of the windows.

“Didn’t your mother teach you to knock, Highness?” the necromancer said with a chuckle.

“I’m afraid your hospitality hasn’t improved my manners.” Klia looked around. It was a chamber worthy of a queen, apart from the lack of metals and mirrors. Her golden gorget lay warm against her ribs inside her shirt.