“No, she was the last person who attempted to clean this room.” Coralis allowed a rare chuckle at Gretchen’s stricken reaction. “Not really. In truth, Sallie has always been just as she is—a beautiful yet very deadly krait. I found her in my sleeping bag while camping in northern India—just before she found me. Isn’t that right, my dear?”

The snake looked up at Coralis and appeared to smile. He continued to stroke the narrow head, much as one would a cat or a dog. For its part, the snake truly seemed to enjoy it, but rarely took its eyes off Gretchen.

“What is it about reptiles that is so unnerving?” she asked rhetorically. “And what of the Leach boy?” If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was avoiding the subject.

“Humpf,” Coralis growled. His frown returned. “Do you recall ever reading about a rather vicious earthquake that took place in San Francisco at the beginning of the twentieth century?”

“Ja. As I recall, it destroyed the entire city,” she answered, wondering what the connection might be.

Coralis lapsed into silence while gloom gathered around him like a thundercloud. When he finally spoke, his dire tone sent a shiver down Gretchen’s spine.

“There have been many times throughout history when bad things happened despite good intentions. Such was the case with the earthquake. While I was otherwise occupied, a conclave of Wandbearers convened in San Francisco. They had noticed signs of activity of a very dark nature. Henry Leach the Fourth, the great-great-grandfather of our young letter writer, was the Monarch of that conclave, and unfortunately he was up against a very powerful foe. A Wand Master named Dai She.”

“I am not familiar with this name,” Gretchen remarked, slightly confused, as she knew the Guild’s history well.

“We don’t like to talk about him.” Coralis moved slowly past shelves filled with bottled specimens, tapping idly at jars as if coaxing the dead back to life. “As you know, I am the last of the direct descendants of the Aratta Wand Masters. I have always upheld their vow to protect the world. But throughout time, as more were trained in the ways of the Guild, there have been … defectors. Those who chose to follow the misguided teachings of a nefarious Wand Master named Malachai. They call themselves the Scorax. Dai She is Malachai’s only offspring, and by 1906, he had gained considerable power.”

Coralis hissed in a way that only Sallie could understand. Her head perked up and she followed his command, slithering into his robe and retrieving a small twiglike wand. It was pure white and no longer than his pinkie finger. “To find Dai She, the Wandbearers had to focus their combined energy through highly specialized wands, such as this one. Look closely,” he told Gretchen. “You can see it pulse.”

She leaned forward and opened her eyes wide in astonishment. “Why, it has a heartbeat!”