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Randal felt the same mental snap that he did when he finished a complicated conjuration. The binding
spell must have been set to end if a wizard gave Nick permission to work magic, thought Randal.
At the same moment, Nicolas straightened, as if a weight had fallen from his shoulders. "That's done it,"
he said with a laugh. "Thanks, Randy-it looks like I've come back home as a wizard after all." The
one-time carpenter turned and faced the three who stood at the end of the street. "No use waiting for
them to start it," he said. He lifted his hand and began chanting. Randal recognized the shock spell that
Nick was speaking. He felt the magic build up and falter- Nick's skills had lain too long unused. Time and
practice would bring them back to what they had once been, but Nick didn't have time. Just as Master
Laerg had once done for him, Randal spoke the words of strengthening and steadying. Nick threw the
spell successfully, and one of the two hooded figures went down. At the same time, another figure broke
away from the shadows between two buildings behind the hooded men and ran forward.
The two cloaked and hooded ones cast a bolt of red fire. The other man, the one attacking from behind,
cried in Dagon's voice, "By the moon and the stars, wizards-face me!" Dagon swung his sword as he
shouted, and one of the two hooded figures crumpled to the street. But the red fire had already found its
target, and Nick fell, blasted backward, his body outlined in crimson light.
Randal threw a fireball at the one remaining wizard, and then he and Lys sprinted for the spot where
Nick lay. They dragged him around the corner, with Lys taking one arm and Randal the other. He's too
hot and limp, Randal thought, unwilling to look down for fear of what he might be forced to see. As soon
as they were out of sight of their enemies, they lowered Nick to the ground. Randal flung himself to his
knees beside Nick's unmoving body, feeling desperately for any trace of a heartbeat in his friend's chest
and finding none. He called out the words of one healing spell after another, drawing still deeper on his
own depleted strength. Nothing worked.
At last Lys crouched beside him. "Randal," she called out over the sound of the driving rain. "You have to
stop. He's dead, Randy-you can't do anything for him now."
IV The City and the Sea
RANDAL KNELT, looking down at his friend's body, and felt colder and lonelier than he had ever felt
in his life.
"Master Laerg was right," he whispered. "Being near me can be deadly."
You caused this, said the voice of the old woman from his dream, seeming to call out to him from the
statue he carried. You can still change it if you truly want to. Only take the power that I offer, and you
can strike down the ones who killed your friend, or smash this whole city into rubble...
"Lies!" Randal cried out, his voice breaking. "All lies!"
You could even bring him back.
Randal pressed his clenched fist against his mouth. This time, he knew that the statue spoke the truth. The
temptation to open himself to that limitless, tainted power pulled at him almost uncontrollably. For a long
time the young wizard knelt on the wet cobblestones, fighting back the words that would undo all that
had happened since he'd lifted the binding spell. I want my friend back, he thought. I don't want to have
killed him. I could use the statue, and Nick would get up from the street right now. But he wouldn't be
the same man that I knew before. There are some things that should never be done, no matter what the
reason, and calling the dead back to life is one of them. Still he did not move away from where Nick lay
silent on the cobblestones.
At last Lys pulled Randal to his feet. Tears ran freely down her cheeks, and her voice had lost all its
music as she said again, "There's nothing you can do for him, Randy-we have to run." He hesitated until
finally Lys dragged him away- and still he looked backward, stumbling as he ran, until Nick's body was
out of sight behind them. After that, Randal lost track of time and place, following where Lys led without
caring where they went. The storm raged all around them, and cold water ran in the streets. Then the
booming noise of the sea rose up again out of the darkness, louder and nearer than before. Lys halted
and laid a hand on his arm.
"Randal," she said, "stick by me. We'll head for the seawall and try to find the port gate from there." He
ran on a little longer, following the lute- player's slender figure in and out of the shadows. The street
turned into a series of stone steps, worn with use and slick with the driving rain. Randal mounted the
steps and found himself on the city wall overlooking the ocean-a place he had been before only in a
dream. He turned to Lys, but his friend was nowhere in sight.
"Lys? Lys!" he cried, but his voice hardly carried above the sound of the wind. He was alone on the
rainswept height. Then he heard the sound of laughter. "Give me the statue now. Or you will meet the
same fate as your friends." The tall, black-hooded master wizard stood before Randal, blocking his path
back down to the city. Behind the journeyman, the sea beat against the shattered rocks below. He had
nowhere to retreat. Randal looked around him. Lys was gone. The city walls were empty. The cold rain
soaked his garments to his body, and deep, bone-numbing fatigue crushed down on him. The statue in
the bag seemed the only real thing in the universe. And Randal's enemy stood before him, too strong and
cruel for him to fight. Randal stripped the leather bag away. The old woman looked at him, her face
turned up in the darkness toward his.
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