Ghost Lock Read Online Free Page A

but could
sense it nonetheless.
    As I looked out the window, a wall of white mist
erupted from the ground, rolling across the garden to engulf the
mansion. I saw it sweep over two of the Imperial Guards, and both
men collapsed to the ground. Had the fog killed them?
    I could not tell if they were breathing before the
gray mist swallowed them.
    “It’s an alchemical spell,” said Caina. “Sleeping
mist.”
    “Get near me, all of you,” I said. “Right now.
Now!”
    Caina, Martin, and Markaine moved to obey, and I cast
a spell of my own. Blue light flared around my fingers, and as the
white mist erupted through the door and windows I thrust out my
hands. A shimmering dome of blue light appeared around us, and the
white mist washed over the dome, leaving us standing in a clear
island in a sea of mist. The entire room disappeared around us, and
I could not see more than a few feet past my warding spell.
    “That,” said Markaine without alarm, “is quite a lot
of sleeping mist.”
    “The Umbarians,” said Martin at once, drawing his
sword.
    “Are you sure? It was an alchemical spell,” I said.
“Cassander Nilas and the other Umbarian magi couldn’t do anything
like this.”
    “No,” said Caina, “they couldn’t. But the Grand Wazir
said he would expel the Umbarians from the city if they tried to
attack you again. So I wager Cassander has hired this one out.
Alchemists need money, too. Likely he bought a large volume of
sleeping mist from some penurious Alchemist and hired some
mercenaries to break in and steal the safe.”
    “Perhaps it would be best to leave the safe
unopened,” said Martin.
    Caina shook her head. “Too late for that. They know
it’s here. If we can remove whatever’s inside, we…”
    Suddenly the mist vanished into nothingness, and I
lowered my warding spell.
    “That didn’t last long,” said Martin.
    “It didn’t have to,” said Caina, crossing to the
window. “The Imperial Guards and your servants will be unconscious
for only a few minutes. But that will be long enough for them to
get the safe and get out again.” Markaine kept hacking at the side
of the safe, the gem in his dagger glowing. A wondered uneasily how
much heat that thing could store before it exploded. “Damn it.”
    I hurried to Caina's side and scowled. A dozen men in
chain mail and leather moved through the gate, running across the
garden. At their head strode a towering man in expensive chain
mail, with a thick mane of black hair and a long mustache, its ends
bound in brass rings in Ulkaari fashion.
    “Our friend Khardav,” said Caina. “Cassander must
have hired Khardav for this and supplied him with the sleeping
mist.”
    I started to say something, and then Markaine grunted
in satisfaction. He had carved a smoking hole into the side of the
safe, and he reached inside and withdrew a crystalline vial the
size of a man’s thumb. Within shone a purple liquid that gave off a
gentle light.
    “That’s it?” I said, casting the spell to sense
sorcery again. The vial in his hand was indeed the source of the
arcane aura I had sensed earlier.
    “That’s all that was within the safe,” said Markaine.
“Just that.”
    A crash echoed through the study as the mercenaries
took an axe to the mansion’s front door.
    “We’ve got to get you out of here,” said Martin to
me.
    “I agree,” said Caina. “That’s your child. Corvalis’s
nephew. We…”
    I felt a surge of irritation. That was how Caina
would view my child. Not as my child. Not even as Martin’s child.
No, as Corvalis’s nephew. I supposed it made sense. She could not
carry a child of her own, and Corvalis was dead. The unborn baby
and I were all that Caina had left of Corvalis.
    Perhaps I should not complain. If Caina thought of my
child as Corvalis’s nephew first and foremost…then my son would
gain an effective protector. For nothing enraged Caina, nothing
caused her to forsake mercy the way that a threat to the children
of her friends