Free Sourcethief (Book 3) by J.S. Morin

breath to do so with his voice.
    "Bah, letting you go will not make the helm
work. I am no fool," Xizix joked, his grin a forest of dagger-pointed
black fangs. He turned the helm over, inspecting it. It seemed like it might
barely fit over the demon's head if he was without his two pairs of horns—one
pair jutting up and curling back, the other pair curling about and framing his
face, resembling a beetle's pincers.
    Let me go and I will show you, Narsicann thought desperately.
    "How hard can it be?" Xizix asked. With an
easy twist of the wrist, he broke Narsicann's neck.
    As the demon lumbered back to his palace, dragging
Narsicann's corpse by the neck as he went, his head reformed, becoming smaller
and smoother. The horns shrank and withdrew within the creature's skull and he
placed the helm atop his head.
    * * * * * * *
*
    The rooms beyond the warded door were more than a
repository, but less than a home. There were rooms for storage and meeting, but
the remainder was given over to study and research. There were libraries and
laboratories, but neither kitchen nor larder. It was a place for the study and
practice of death.
    Jinzan had quickly browsed through each room,
finding small caches of unfamiliar magical items squirreled about, but had
settled in when he found Loramar's research library. There were a number of
tomes that the necromancer had obviously used for reference, but most were his
own works. Chioju and Aolyn took turns watching over him, for how long he knew
not, as he pored over the pieces to the puzzle. He hoped to discover what had
made the greatest opponent of Rashan Solaran so powerful.
    "Aolyn, fetch me something to eat. I just
realized that I'm famished," Jinzan ordered. Since breaking the wards, the
flippant attitude of the two acolytes had been replaced by extreme deference.
It seemed that neither had expected him to succeed in breaking Loramar's wards.
    "As you wish, Councilor Fehr." The young
Ghelkan sorceress departed, leaving him to the silence of the crypt. He was
content to read the personal diaries first, hoping they might guide him to
where to begin learning in earnest. It was slow going, reading in faded Ghelkan
script. His studies would quicken when he got to actual magical writings, since
they would be in the common rune language, which was used in some form by all
trained sorcerers.
    "I have something for you, Councilor
Fehr," Chioju announced, returning in Aolyn's place. The hollow-eyed
acolyte carried a wicker cage with a songbird in it.
    "I asked for a meal, not a companion, nor is
the air down here quite foul enough to need it as a warning. Go find me
a haunch of lamb or a bowl of stew, something substantial," Jinzan
commanded.
    "There are things you do not need these books
to learn. There are some things we can teach you. Tonight, I will show you how
to sustain yourself on a creature's Source," Chioju replied. He held the
caged bird forth with a grin.
    "No. Get gone and bring me food . You may
well know tricks I do not, and I may learn them in time, but tonight I
am tired and hungry, and I am more likely to kill you and the bird and decide
later which to eat, than I am to try to fill my belly with bird aether."
    What was that about bird aether? an echoing voice asked in
Jinzan's mind.
    Jinzan shooed the acolyte away with a hand gesture,
waiting until he was alone until he responded.
    That was a trivial matter. What
news, Narsicann? Jinzan asked, having expected to hear from his colleague as soon as there was
news from Azzat.
    Oh, I am afraid I decided to
simplify the lines of communication. I am the one you truly wished to speak to, the voice informed him.
    You are the demon who rules
Azzat? Jinzan
inquired.
    It is amusing how I can go
generations as a myth, but the emergence of another demon rekindles the belief.
Yes, I am Xizix, ruler of Azzat.
    Narsicann must have explained
then why we wished to speak with you.
    He mentioned two items of
interest to me. Rashan Solaran is one, and a