Judith quirked one side of her face up into a smile. “You may be right. I sure don’t seem to be having much luck finding that quality outside of me.”
“But you have it inside, Lady. That is better than not having it at all.”
“I guess you’re right,” Judith said, fumbling a well-used handkerchief from her gown’s sleeve. “Thanks.”
“You are mor than welcome, My lady. Just stay out of the aeries, please.”
As the days dragged on Wiz came to know his pursuers well enough that they developed distinct personalities. There was the fat one who hated to exercise and who searched perfunctorily and never a place that was hard to reach or might be dangerous. There was the one who was addicted to laying in ambush, but whose fondness for onions and persistent flatulence gave him away. There was the lean one with the long arms who seemed to delight in rooftops and other high places.
And then there was Seklos. Seklos of the keen nose, who never seemed to rest and who searched relentlessly, who poked into every nook and cranny and who checked everything.
This couldn’t go on. He would slip sooner or later. So far only more luck than any mortal deserved had kept him alive and free. But that couldn’t last.
Meanwhile, the longer this murderous game of hide-and-seek went on, the more likely it was that there would be a war. It wasn’t just his life that was on the line here—although that is a major consideration, he thought, it was the fate of the entire World.
Well, if he couldn’t run forever and he had to survive, there was only one thing to do. He didn’t want to fight the Dark League, but they would not rest until he was dead. He had no way out so he had to fight them to the death.
Yeah, but whose death? He shook the thought off and began to consider methods of fighting back.
This place was odd, Wiz thought. It was a tower in the shadow of what had obviously been a major palace. But the tower was squat and ill-proportioned with doorways big enough to drive a truck through.
The peculiar proportions were emphasized by the fact that the top was missing, blasted away during his attack on the city. But it was sound up to the fourth level, which was where Wiz was standing now.
The room was large and roughly circular, with a single large French door that led out onto a tiny balcony overlooking the street below. It gave a wonderful view of the city, but aside from that seemed useless.
So did the contents of the room. It had either been stripped or hadn’t had anything in it to begin with. Just a few stone benches around the walls and some miscellaneous trash on the floor.
He was about to leave when he heard voices outside. Someone was coming up the street below and it could only be wizards of the Dark League.
Normally Wiz would have run away, but his new resolve made him step out on the balcony to check out the situation.
The situation could not have been better. Laying on the balcony were several large blocks of stone which must have fallen when the top of the tower went. Coming up the narrow street were two wizards of the Dark League and one of them was Seklos!
Wiz picked up one of the blocks of stone and rested it on the carved stone railing. Then he watched the wizards get closer and closer and smiled.
” . . . dragging me all the way up here,” the other wizard said as they came closer. Wiz recognized him as the cautious one.
“Because this is where he must be,” Seklos said. “Fool, do you not see that the quicker we catch this most troublesome bird, the sooner we can leave this place?”
Wiz put both hands on the block and held his breath.
“But why me?” the other wizard asked.
He never got his answer. At that moment they came under the balcony and Wiz shoved the rock over the edge.
Wiz watched with a sinking heart as the stone smashed into the pavement and shattered a good arm’s length behind his intended victim. He scuttled back from the edge dislodging a shower of pebbles in the process.