Page 82 of A Tower of Half-Truths

Mavery plucked the book from his hands before he could toss it aside.

To her eyes, the pages still existed, though not in any form that was readable.

They hovered like wisps of dark smoke from a recently extinguished fire.

She caught the same aroma that she’d Sensed back at the cottage.

She looked closer. The pages were made of some sort of untamed black arcana.

“They’re not fake,” she said. As she described what she Sensed, Neldren and Ellice gawked at her. Alain had produced a notebook and pen, and he listened on while scribbling feverishly.

“Sounds like they were transmutated,” Alain said. “But into what, exactly? And for what purpose?”

Mavery shrugged. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Your guess is as good as mine.”

Alain grabbed a book from the pile at Ellice’s feet. Just as she and Neldren had done, he opened it, tossed it aside, then grabbed one from the shelf. With each book he discarded, he became a bit more agitated. All of the pages had been transmutated into the same strange substance.

Mavery searched the other shelves and found plenty of books that had been spared the fate of the others, though she couldn’t discern any reason why.

It certainly hadn’t been for their entertainment value.

One row was devoted to tax codes that were so ancient, they’d been obsolete even in Aganast’s time.

Another consisted of a half-century’s worth of farmers’ almanacs.

And another housed dozens of copies of a Dyadic devotional for children.

All of these books had been printed on cheap paper, not vellum or parchment.

Judging by their publication dates, these had to be some of the earliest mass-produced books on the continent.

“Don’t mourn these books too much, Alain,” Mavery said. “Nothing here is even remotely related to magic.”

“Why would a wizard fill his library with so many useless books?” Ellice asked.

She and Neldren looked to Alain, who shrugged. “Just because I’m a wizard, doesn’t mean I can explain every other wizard’s eccentricities. Perhaps we’ll find an answer downstairs.”

The next level down contained another library. Here, every book had been cleared from the shelves and lay strewn across the floor in heaps of smoldering arcana.

The smell made Mavery’s empty stomach sour.

While the other three crossed the room, she hung back and leaned against one of the barren shelves.

She breathed deeply, clutching her stomach in an effort to calm it.

After today’s events, she could stand going without magic for a few days, if not longer—an idea she’d never imagined herself entertaining.

Alain, noticing she’d lagged behind, doubled back.

“This strange magic is doing a number on you, isn’t it?”

“That’s putting it lightly,” she said through bared teeth. “What about you? How are you holding up?”

“Me? Oh, I’m fine.” He placed his hand on her shoulder. “Just worried about you, is all.”

She frowned. “Don’t lie to me, Alain. You’re a terrible—”

Across the room, the shadows shifted. Her breath hitched, and Alain’s grip on her shoulder tightened.

“What is it?” he whispered.

“I thought I saw something just now.”

She raised her hand and sent her orb to where she’d glimpsed movement. But as her light dispersed the shadows, it revealed only another tower of discarded books.

“Nothing,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be too certain about that. Let’s stay close.”

She nodded, and they walked side by side to join the other two. Once again, by instinct, her right hand stayed close to the sheathed dagger on her left hip. Alain clenched his staff, knuckles whitening. They rejoined Neldren and Ellice, who were picking through the books.

“Bad luck,” Neldren said. “No pages in these, either. All these books are worthless.”

“Shh!” Ellice whispered. “Over there—something’s moving.”

Mavery hadn’t been seeing things. She didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse.

“Let’s move,” Neldren said, “and hope we find a way out of this godsforsaken tower.”

With him leading the way, they left the library and descended what would have been another pitch-dark stairwell, if not for the twin orbs of light. There wasn’t a single candelabra attached to the walls.

Mavery had expected to find yet another library, but they instead entered a high-ceilinged kitchen. Living in isolation for long stretches of time wasn’t the only thing Alain and Aganast had in common; the kitchen also doubled as an alchemy laboratory.

A few steps from the stairwell, Alain stumbled.

“What in the—”

He brought his orb of light closer, then yelped. A pile of bones lay at his feet.

“Well, that’s a great omen,” Neldren said.

Alain prodded the remains with the butt of his staff. Then, to Mavery’s horror, he bent down and rifled through them with his hands.

“Are you out of your godsdamned mind?” she hissed.

He prised a ring from one of the finger bones, then showed it to her. She recoiled. It didn’t matter that the flesh had long since decomposed; the ring had still come straight from a corpse.

“It’s the Order of Asphodel’s emblem,” Alain said. “See these grooves? I think he used it as a stamp.”

Mavery nodded as her disgust subsided. “What do you think happened to him? Starved on his way back from the empty larder?”

“That, or he crossed paths with whatever was skulking about upstairs,” Neldren said.

“Gods, don’t even hex us like that,” Ellice groaned.

Alain pocketed the ring. Together, he and Mavery investigated the rest of the room.

The tables were piled high with alchemy equipment, though it was all too old to be of any use, too tarnished to be of value even to a collector.

Likewise, the contents of the glass jars were in various stages of decay, if they hadn’t perished entirely.

“I think this is the way out,” Neldren said.

He pointed to an iron door that was barred from the inside. All four of them gathered around it. Neldren gripped the bar, then groaned and grit his teeth as he tried to force it upward. Despite his efforts, the bar wouldn’t budge.

“Damn thing’s rusted to shit,” he muttered.

“I should have just enough magic to mend that,” Ellice said, “but it’ll take me a minute or—”

A low, guttural growl ripped through the room. Though it sounded like some sort of animal, there was an otherworldly quality to it. Goosebumps covered Mavery’s skin. Ellice squealed, then clapped her hands over her mouth.

They all remained frozen by the door. With the slightest movement of his hand, Alain sent his orb to the far side of the room. It revealed a sight that sucked the air from Mavery’s lungs.

“What on Perrun is that?” Ellice whispered, voice trembling.

Perched atop one of the cabinets was a giant catlike beast that could have been mistaken for a panther.

Its sleek tar-black fur melded into the darkness.

But its leathery wings—currently folded against its body—and piercing red eyes marked it as some variety of demonspawn, though it was unlike any Mavery had ever seen.

This monstrosity made even the most bloodthirsty hellhound look like a harmless pup.

With a rumbling snarl, it bared its long razor-sharp fangs.

If this beast had been locked up in this tower with Aganast…

And if Aganast had been a demon sympathizer…

Mavery’s blood chilled.

This was no demonspawn.

This was an actual demon.

It spread its broad membranous wings and launched off the cabinet. As it descended upon the four humans, Alain lunged forward.

“Quickly, Ellice!” he yelled. “I’ll hold him back!”

He pushed his free hand out at the same time he arced his staff overhead.

Mavery winced as an overwhelming scent of copper permeated the air.

She choked on the taste of metal, as though her entire mouth had filled with blood.

She then looked up and gasped. With only a ritual—without voicing a single syllable of Etherean—Alain had encased the four of them inside a shimmering blue dome.

The walls shook and glass jars rattled as the demon landed on the floor. It retracted its wings and raised one of its great paws. At the end of it were obsidian claws almost as severe-looking as its fangs. It swiped at Alain’s ward. The magic fractured for a split second before repairing itself.

“Oh, shit!” Ellice cried.

“Focus on the door, not the beast!” Neldren snapped.

“What do you think I’m trying to do?”

With a roar, the demon swiped at Alain’s ward again.

The force of it, combined with Alain’s already weakened state, made him stumble.

His ward began to splinter like a broken mirror.

Mavery leapt beside him, conjured her own protective ward, and raised her palms to the blue dome.

Her magic slithered through the gaps, reinforcing Alain’s.

The demon paused and tilted its head to the side.

It seemed to understand what Mavery had just done.

Instead of lifting its paw again, it retreated back a few steps.

It pivoted its body, then threw a muscular shoulder against the ward.

The magic fractured again, now becoming a vast spiderweb of fissures.

The ward wouldn’t hold much longer. Fear coursed through Mavery’s veins, along with a rising tide of fiery energy.

“Hurry up!” she yelled over her shoulder.

“I’m trying!” Ellice yelled back.

Mavery couldn’t blame her for panicking.

It was taking every bit of her focus to keep her ward aloft while her arcana thrashed beneath her skin.

Perhaps a surge would be useful against a centuries-old demon.

But she couldn’t control what the surge did once it escaped her body.

It was likely to ricochet off the ward and back into her own face—or Alain’s.

The demon lunged again, using its body as a battering ram. This time, even more of the magic chipped away.