The guard would not be outdone, however. He stepped before the intruders and announced to the baroness, “Your Ladyship, the wizardess Karleah Kunzay and her apprentice request—”
“I didn’t ‘request’ anything. I demanded,” Karleah interrupted the guard and stepped around him. Arteris made a dismissing gesture, and the guard returned through the door to his post outside. Karleah stepped forward, Dayin by her side. He cast Jo and Braddoc a quick smile.
“To what do we owe the meaning of this intrusion, crone?” Arteris asked. Her voice was colder than it had ever been to either Brisbois or Jo. “I should have you thrown out, but I am assuming this is important.” Arteris arched her brows haughtily.
“Where is the box?” Karleah demanded. The wizardess’s lanky gray hair seemed to stand on end.
“What box?” Arteris asked angrily.
Braddoc jumped to his feet and stood beside Karleah. “Your Ladyship,” he said, his eyes suddenly wide with alarm. “I know the box of which Karleah speaks: the iron box I took from Verdilith’s lair!” Jo stood and joined her friends. She noticed Sir Graybow’s eyes and pursed her lips. Her friends were more important than protocol.
“Its the key to this magical conundrum,” the old crone supplied.
Arteris turned on the mages, who had been silent all along. “Master Keller,” she said to the youngest, “did you not tell me that this … box was simply a puzzle box, an item definitely not magical?”
The mage stood and stared from Karleah to Arteris. He stammered, “Y-yes, Your Ladyship, I did.”
“You fool!” Karleah shrieked. She threw up her bony hands and advanced on the mage. “Don’t you know? The box is what’s drained away all your castle’s magic, and much of mine!”
The young man’s face blanched. “I—I didn’t know,” he stuttered.
“That box must be hidden far, far away,” Karleah said in a voice deadly serious. “That box must be dropped in the deepest gorge, the farthest sea, whatever! It must be removed from all sources of magic immediately! She gave the mage a push with her oaken staff. “Go, get the box. Give it to Braddoc, that unmagical dwarf who brought it here in the first place. He should take it away.”
The young man was shaking so badly he almost fell over on top of Karleah. “I—I—I can’t, old crone,” he said fearfully. “I can’t get the box!”
“What!” Karleah shrieked. Never before had Jo seen the old wizardess more upset. Why, it’s almost as if Karleah’s terrified, Jo thought suddenly. Can the box really be that powerful? “What have you done with it, fool?” Karleah roared. She raised her staff.
The oldest mage, Aranth, stepped forward and pulled young Keller away. He, too, was shaking, but he said with some semblance of calm, “The puzzle box was a disruption to my mages—they were fiddling about, trying to open it when they should have been working on restoring the castle’s magic. I sent it away so we could get back to work.”
“Sent it where?” Karleah asked, breathlessly.
“To a cousin of mine,” Aranth said. “He loves such puzzles, as do all those wizards up there in Armstead.”
Karleah’s face turned white, and Jo swore some of the woman’s hair did, too. “You … you sent the box to … to Armstead?” Karleah whispered. “You sent the box to the most … magic-filled place in the country … ?”
Karleah’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she crumpled.
“Karleah!” Dayin shouted as he knelt next to the wizardess’s fallen form. Jo knelt, too, and lifted Karleah’s head onto her lap. Jo looked up at Sir Graybow, but the castellan was speaking in Arteris’s ear.
“Karleah! Karleah!” Jo whispered as she stroked the old woman’s lined face, marveling at the deep seams.
The baroness’s voice rang out authoritatively, “Council members, please leave. This is a matter I would discuss with the mages. Guards, take Master Brisbois to the dungeons. Sir Graybow, attend the wizardess and her companions.”
Madam Astwood eyed the baroness sulkily. “Your Ladyship, it is inappropriate to make decisions concerning the Estate of Penhaligon without our counsel and knowledge.”
Arteris fixed her icy gaze on the mistress of etiquette. “In times of dire threat, security must come before freedom of knowledge,” the baroness said. She continued in a voice loud enough to carry to all the council members, some of whom were already at the door. “And should word of this leak out to anyone—anyone, mind you—I shall personally see that each and every one of you is removed from the council .” The council members cast quick glances at each other, then slowly filed out of the room.
The two guards had Brisbois by his arms when the knight called out, “Baroness! Please, I would remain!”
Arteris hesitated, then looked at the castellan. Sir Graybow rubbed his chin, then shook his head. “No,” the castellan said, “I cannot permit it. The security of the castle is my affair. If either Auroch or Verdilith is the cause of our troubles, Brisbois might reveal our plans.” Sir Graybow gestured for the guards to take Brisbois away. The man left without another word.
Jo and Dayin watched with trepidation as Karleah slowly recovered from her swoon. Out of the corner of her eye, Jo noticed that the majority of the council members had filed out of the room at a gesture from Sir Graybow.
“What … what happened?” Karleah muttered.
Jo and Dayin helped her rise. They settled her on a chair. The baroness and Sir Graybow stood nearby, expressions of concern filling their faces. The three mages tried to look equally interested in the old woman’s welfare, but were obviously anxious about their own. Karleah looked back and forth between Sir Graybow and Arteris. “Sending that thing to Armstead, indeed!” she spat. “Whose pea-brained idea was that?”
The castellan looked to the three huddled magicians, then turned to Arteris and whispered, “I know you wanted to discuss the matter with your magely advisors, My Lady, but I think we should dismiss them as well. Each is as suspect in this plot as Master Brisbois.”
The baroness gave each of the sorcerers a penetrating gaze, and Jo suspected that this gaze had been used to elicit the truth from lesser men many times before. After a moment, Arteris pursed her lips and nodded to herself. She turned to Karleah and said, “I cannot suspect everyone, Sir Graybow. I think these mages are more bunglers than traitors. Let them stay.”
The insult notwithstanding, the mages seemed to ease a bit.
“As you wish,” Sir Graybow said, then turned to the mages. “When did you send the box?”
Aranth answered, “It left with four guards almost a week ago. They should be in Armstead any day now. Are you saying that this—thing, will destroy the magic there as well?”
Karleah pursed her lips and sucked in her cheeks. Her face was suddenly gaunt and strained with fatigue. “Yes.” She bowed her head and nodded gravely. “But I don’t think the box simply drains magical energy: otherwise, why would Verdilith have kept it in his lair? The dragon obviously had the box for a reason—and he must have let us steal it for a reason, too. It must have another purpose.”
“Perhaps it needs to gather a certain amount of power before it can fulfill its true purpose,” Aranth suggested tentatively. “If the box arrives in Armstead, it may gather enough magical energy to … to destroy all of Penhaligon.”
“If Verdilith and Auroch created it,” Karleah finished, “I would agree.”
The baroness made a slight noise, and Sir Graybow put his hand on the woman’s shoulder. Arteris leaned toward the castellan minutely, the first time Jo had ever seen the woman display any weakness. “What can be done?” Arteris asked quietly.