Page 173 of A Tower of Half-Truths
“That spell you used on me…”He grimaced, flashing his knife-like teeth.“Soudremancy does not agree with my kind.”
“Whatisyour kind, exactly?”
“Ktona. In your tongue, it means, ‘from below.’ ”
“Kuh-tone-ah,” Mavery repeated. “So, ktona are not at all related to demons?”
She winced as the creature growled.“Ktonic magic comes from belowground. Your churches spread lies that ktonic magic comes fromdeepbelow. The hells.”
As Mavery repeated what the creature—the ktona—had said, a faint scribbling resounded through the room. She turned to find Alain huddled over his notebook again.
“Don’t mind me,” he said, pausing only to wave his pen. “Just eagerly recording evidence of the churches’ misdoings.”
The creature grunted.“I had mistaken him for a church-sanctioned wizard. ‘Twould seem I was wrong.”
Mavery nodded. “We don’t belong to any churches.”
“What are your names?”
“Mavery, and this is Alain. I assume you also have a name.”
“Noxanthyan, but Master called me Nox. You may do the same.”
He rose, then stretched his back. He stumbled upon taking his first steps, but regained more control of his muscles with each one that followed. He paced around the room, then ascended the stairs to the upper library. Mavery rose to her feet and placed her hand on Alain’s shoulder. He flinched at her touch. Though the ktona had proven friendly, Alain was no less anxious.
“I think we can trust him,” she said.
“Youcan. You saved his life, after all. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve just earned yourself a lifelong companion.”
She smiled. “That reminds me of someone else I know.”
Alain returned her smile, but it faltered as he watched the stairwell. “As for me, I’m half-expecting him to come charging down those stairs and give me another swift wing to the chest.” He rubbed the spot where his head had collided with the cabinet downstairs.
Instead of returning in a rage, Nox descended the stairs at a trot. In his mouth, he carried a small book, which he placed at Alain’s feet. Alain hesitated, then slowly bent over and picked it up.
“Master’s first journal,”Nox said,“from when we first sought refuge in this tower. The one you pilfered from his desk was his second—and final—volume. How long has it been since that final entry?”
“About five hundred years,” Mavery said. “I assume your master died not long after that.”
“Yes.”Nox’s ears flattened as he hung his head.“That same day, I had chided him for carelessly wandering about the tower without sufficient light. He tumbled down the stairs. My arcana was incapable of saving him.”
Mavery hadn’t expected to learn that a notorious Necromancer had succumbed to such a mundane death. It would have been somewhat funny in any other context. But Aganast’s early demise meant that Nox had been completely alone for over five centuries.
“I can sense your concern. For my kind, a century is akin to a decade.”
“Still,” Mavery said, “that’s an awfully long time to be alone. And without seeing the sun.”
“Oh, to see the sun again. Did you manage to open the door?”When she nodded, his tail swished.“Then let us leave this place.”
To watch Nox run in circles on the cracked, sun-bathed ground, it was hard to believe he’d been the fearsome beast that had attacked them not even two hours ago. He lapped the tower while Mavery and Alain watched on.
Nox gained a bit more speed with each lap, and the scent of his arcana permeated the air. He ventured into the grass, and Mavery’s heart leapt as he neared one of the detonation wards.
“Wait!” she cried.
Nox bounded over an Ether-sensitive stone. But instead of setting off the trap, the red aura vanished. Mavery jogged closer, then gasped. The stone had transmutated into the same vaporous substance as the books and her Compendium. She tried to touch the stone, but her fingers passed straight through it.
“Did it disappear?” Alain asked.
