Magda shrugged. “I don’t know. But maybe someone got in and stole the boxes of Orden and caused the other trouble that Baraccus spoke of. Maybe that’s why the moon turned red.”

Merritt ran a thumb along his jaw as he considered. “I suppose that’s possible.”

“Maybe it was the enemy. Someone Emperor Sulachan sent.”

Merritt looked over at her. “That’s a troubling thought.”

“Besides that troubling thought, as I told you, there are a number of troubling things going on at the Keep. I heard rumors of some of our wizards bringing the dead back to life. Do you know anything about such efforts?”

“I’ve heard that they’re working to try to learn about the weapons Sulachan has developed,” he said. “I think that Isidore was helping with just that sort of thing. She was dealing with matters from the spirit world.”

“Other strange things are going on. Enemy forces are harvesting the dead. They took all the dead from Isidore’s town of Grandengart. Reports I’ve heard say that they’ve taken bodies from other places as well, and from battlefields. Why would they do such a thing?”

Merritt heaved a sigh. “I don’t know.”

Magda went to the wicker couch and retrieved the bundle she had brought along. “Take a look at this.”

Chapter 54

Magda unfurled the wispy cloth bundle and held it up so he could see it the way it had looked when it had hung in the maze of hallways outside Isidore’s place.

Merritt set the sword back down on the red velvet and crossed the room, drawn by what he was seeing. She could make out his silhouette through the silky cloth as he ran his fingers over the spell-forms drawn on it.

“This is remarkable,” he whispered.

“I certainly think so. It saved my life.”

Merritt pulled the edge of the cloth aside to peer at her. “What do you mean?”

“The monster who killed Isidore came after me. He was no less intent on killing me than he had been on killing Isidore. He chased me through your maze. I was lost and trying my best to stay out of his reach. He finally trapped me in a dead end behind this cloth, but he couldn’t pass it to get at me. This cloth somehow stopped him.”

Merritt lifted the side of the cloth out so that he could examine all the symbols crudely painted on it.

“I can see why,” he said as he studied the symbols.

“Isidore told me that the spells she drew were derived from her work as a spiritist, and that they were both powerful and significant.”

He was still studying the drawings on the cloth. “There is no doubt of that.” He shook his head as his gaze wandered from one symbol to another. “I taught her the basics of these spell-forms, but she has added some very peculiar elements to them.”