A Sabbelah archmage can tear apart a company. Fools take this to mean that one or two soldiers could take them by surprise. The results are predictable.

  -Ali Rakim, former Dean of Evocation

  Komena and Kave stepped out of the Necromancer’s tower. Komena shivered, still feeling the invisible eyes of ghosts on her back. They found a queue of carriage waiting for them, down the alley, still well away from the tower. She sent out most of them in random directions and important seeming destinations, before climbing into one pulled by a common horse with a patchy black and grey coat, driven by heavily robed figure.

  “So, what’s our plan now?” Kave asked. “All we got out of any of them were excuses and denials.”

  Komena shrugged. “That’s all I expected to get, but some of them had better excuses than others. Plus, we did find Evocation’s laboratory.” She said.

  “Right, but there wasn’t anything there. Just broken equipment and ruined samples.”

  “That was enough. Our next move is to bring in Trin Rapoport for questioning. We need the Dean of Agriculture to get protection arranged for her so we can get her testimony. It’ll be best to do this all properly.” Komena said. The more procedures they followed, the safer they were when it came to make accusations.

  “We still don’t know who they are though. None of the Dean’s were useful for clearing that up. That or what the evoker’s project was.” Kave said.

  “No, but we did learn some things about how she operated from them, and there was enough that lab to work what kind of project it was, though not the specifics.”

  Kave leaned forward on to the edge of his seat. “If you know what kind of thing that sludge we found was, then you should have an idea which Dean wanted it.” he said. He had the self-control to keep his voice low.

  Komena leaned back, acting like she was sinking into the carriage seat comfortably. “I do. It really comes down to the kind of person who uses a demon that only they and a handful of others can summon to commit assassination.”

  “They’re all that kind of person. Specify.” Kave said. Smoke hissed from mouth and his eyes glowed. Komena shook her head.

  “I would love to, I really would, but if I did, then you would hop out of this carriage to settle things yourself.” She said.  Kave looked indignant but didn’t lose any of the signs of his anger.

  “I’m not a fool Komena. I’m not going to throw my life away.” He said. The effect was ruined by a quick glance out the window. A flicker of the eye, trying to work out the path to each faculty.

  “Damn right you won’t. You’re seeing this through and into that position Taim has for you. Whatever you think you owe Struth, I owe him at least that.” She said

  He backed down, crossing his arms sullenly. “That won’t happen. They don’t listen to the Mundane Faculty about anything. I won’t be an exception.”

  “You don’t get into his position without knowing your limits. If Taim says he can pull the strings needs to, then the question is if you trust him to.”

  Kave looked away from her, back out the window. There wasn’t much else to say beyond cliché, and those wouldn’t convince him. The next few minutes passed by quietly, before the boy turned back to her.

  “The wind’s rising.” He said.

  Rising wasn’t the term for it. It was an abrupt gale, coming up in an instant. She could hear the howling on the other side of carriage walls. She could see waves of dust and sand riding the wind like snakes, and in the distance could see a fast-approaching fog of the stuff, choking out the sun and walling off the views through building windows.

  This wasn’t enough to worry Komena. Sudden sandstorms weren’t uncommon, maybe twice a week in particularly bad times. The city was built to survive whatever damage they could do. The driver was already setting up a mask to protect their horse’s eyes from blowing grains. Worst case, they might find a sheltered alley, or even a stable to wait it out at. She simply needed to stay inside.

  Then she saw deeper shadows moving in the storm. They weren’t monstrous. There wasn’t the red tinge of fire in the air as they prowled. There were just people, coming down the street, slowly enough to stay covered within the storm.

  “Kave, those stories of Deans conjuring sandstorms in the city. They’re just stories, right?” She asked. Kave squinted into the storm.

  “No. That’s within their purview. What do you se- oh.” His eyes narrowed as he saw them. Komena was already checking the other windows. There weren’t any other people walking through the street. That didn’t mean that the ones in the storm were alone, just that the others were bothering with stealth. Worse, she could see the glint of a small pair of iron wings hanging from a roof.

  Komena pulled out and clutched the amulet that the Dean of Agriculture had given. She couldn’t complain, really. She had known that the amulet just kept things from being summoned directly to them. Nothing for stopping people from being hired to beat you in alley. She had relied on moving quickly and unpredictably, but that was strategy from when she was small time. Deans could afford more thorough thugs then she was used to.

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  “Kave, can you send a message to the Dean of Agriculture?” She asked.

  “Can’t we just make a break for it on our own?” He replied.

  “We will, but we need a backup plan. They don’t know what we know, so they’ll focus on catching us. we might be able to get something through.”

  “I can summon an imp to carry a letter, but it’ll take some time.” He said, pulling some chalk from his belt pouch. Komena knocked on the carriage front.

  “You need to go. Things are going to get messy.” She said, but the driver and horse were already gone. The carriage harnesses had been left untied but wrapped firmly in place to not blow away. Hopefully, this was just company policy. More likely, she should buy a flying carpet of her own when this was over. If she got the chance.

  As a positive, they only needed to focus on themselves. She yanked Kave’s pouch free from his belt as he worked, drawing a circle and runes onto the carriage floor. Digging through it, she pulled out some parchment, a quill and a small vial of ink. Pressing it against the window, she scrawled a few words on it. She could see the figures getting closer. They were keeping the same quick and easy pace. It would only take a few more minutes for them to teach the carriage.

  Kave finished drawing the summoning circle and began rapidly chanting, pouring energy into the it. From what she knew of the spell, it would take minutes of this before anything could be brought through. Whoever was attacking them would be here by then.

  “Alright, when you finish, give it this” she said, folding letter into a quick envelope and putting onto the seat beside her. Then, she opened the opened the door facing away from the storm. “I’ll buy you some time.”

  She tried to plan out the situation. This really should have been Kave’s job. Put him on top of the carriage and have him start throwing molten glass down the street, probably laughing and roaring all the while. No one would get near them then. But there wouldn’t be anyone to send the message. So, she explored alternatives.

  She couldn’t stand in front of the carriage, knife in each hand and fight of all comers. Even if she could cast spells and try Kave’s strategy, it wouldn’t work without his stamina. That left running away. She was just as comfortable with as Kave would have been defending them.

  Pulling her scarf up over her mouth and nose, she pressed herself the against the carriage. The wind was getting louder. The dust in the air thicker. Whoever was coming was close enough to see the clubs in their hands.

  If they were smart, they would have divided up the work. Keep the middle one focused on the carriage, the other two watching the flanks. These were not smart thugs. They had spread out enough, but all their heads kept moving like wind vanes. Either out of stupidity or paranoia, they were only watching their own backs. But if they were going to give her an opening, it would be rude not to take it, she thought, taking out the package old man Long had given her when she’s asked about the Dean f Evocation’s night life and lighting the fuse.

  The wind picked up as she threw it, but thing was packaged well enough, and the fuse dry enough, to stay lit. She always worried that using the things would seem like a sad, half-assed imitation of magic. It was a worry she had gotten used to pushing down by considering how useful the things were. They entertained children she liked, scared children she didn’t and were always good for these situations. Most thugs she needed to scare had never heard of fireworks.

  The package detonated before it hit the ground, a fair bit off to one side of the group. Long never gave full power explosives, since he knew she just threw them. He had once said that she didn’t deserve the full show if she was just going to throw them like a savage throwing rocks. Still, the red eruption of light and noise filled the street, making them snap around defensively, hands reflexively over their ears. They turned to attack the mage that interfered with their hunt, a mage that wasn’t there. It was enough of a distraction for Komena to bolt away from the carriage.

  Moving quietly and quickly was nothing new to her, not in her career. When the three thugs turned back to the carriage Kave was in, they didn’t suspect that their real quarry was already gone. With the curtains drawn and storm surrounding them, it was impossible for them to know what was inside.

  Their formation tightened as they approached. Two of them closed in on the door, while the third one hung back, a spell of some kind starting to dance in their hands. They were moving like they expected Komena and Kave to burst out, slashing blades and shooting lightening from their fingers. At best they could hope to catch them by surprise, sitting and waiting like they would be normally. What they would find, Kave with his back turned and mid summoning, would be much easier to deal with.

  Komena jumped out from around a cart stopped behind the trio. She tackled the spellcaster to the ground and sank one of her knives into his shoulder. His screams made the other two whip away from the carriage. They had an excellent view of her hammering their partner’s head with the pommel of another knife. His head bounced off against the cobblestone and into unconsciousness.

  There was a half breath where no one moved. The two just gaped at their downed conspirator. Komena let it stretch out. It was an important moment, giving time to let frayed nerves snapped. She held up her hand in a way her mother and aunts would have disapproved of. When shock turned to recognition, she hopped back to her feet and ran into to thestorm. She cackled as they chased after her.

  Running through a sandstorm was a miserable experience. The wind pushed against her every move. The sand was blinding her squinted eyes enough that she couldn’t see the street under her feet. She was even slipping on the stuff as it blew beneath her. None of that mattered. She had expected that before she had left the carriage. Even if she couldn’t see, she knew her way through the city.

  A hundred paces down the road, then it would be a sharp left turn. The route was already in her head. It was just a matter of counting to reach the Faculty of Agriculture The problem was pacing. Too fast and they would lose her in the storm and cut their losses by doubling back. Too slow and they’d catch her, beat her senseless, then double back for Kave.

  She ran a little faster. Just enough to hedge her bets. Their panting and stomping were close enough behind her to be heard over the wind. With all the racket they were making, Komena was confident she could put on a burst of speed at the last minute and them behind. It was just a matter of timing, to give Kave enough time to get away.

  Then something swung out, crushing her nose. The impact sent her running feet up into the air before she crashed flat on her back. The cobblestones beat the air from her lungs, before three figures surrounded her and beat the sense from her. She threw her arms up over her head and tried to roll away. What she achieved was opening her liver for a few strokes from their batons.

  Panic set her mind racing, looking for ways out. Experience told her it was a lost cause. Every fight that she had seen that reached this point was already settled. Instead of anything helpful, the clearest thoughts she had were memories of diving for eels. The trick to that was understanding the reefs they hid in. Then you sent a diver ahead to flush it out, while the others guarded it’s escape routes.

  The comparison wasn’t appreciated. It was almost a relief when one of them stepped back to cast a spell, snapping a collar of air around her neck. The pain washed away as it tightened. Unconsciousness was free from regret.