The Master Magician

Saraj lay lifeless on the floor.

“Emery,” she breathed. She inched closer to Saraj, watching his chest, waiting for it to rise with air . . . but it remained still. The Excisioner’s eyes stared up at the ceiling, half-closed.

She hurried to Emery and threw her arms around his waist. He dropped the pistol and embraced her in turn.

She pulled back, glancing toward Saraj. “I didn’t know you were such a good shot.”

“I’m not,” he said, wincing as he moved to hand her the bag.

Ceony returned the charm necklace to her neck and grabbed Emery’s hand. “We need to go. The police are searching for him; if they haven’t seen commotion through the window, they’ll be here when—”

“Wait,” Emery said, jerking back.

Ceony paused.

“The lights,” he said, glancing to the floating eyes. “When an Excisioner dies, his spells become void.”

Ceony stopped breathing. She turned back to Saraj’s prone form, which began to shake with convulsive laughter.

“Too true, too true,” his accented voice said. He rose from the floor, each wheezing breath wet and heavy. He moved like a rag doll in a child’s hands, hunched and loose.

He turned toward them and, with glowing fingers, plunged his hand into his own chest, removing a beatless heart.

Bile returned to Ceony’s mouth.

“A benefit of having two hearts, Thane,” he gurgled with a laugh, dropping the organ at his feet as the cavity in his chest stitched itself together. “My regards to Magician Cantrell.”

Emery growled and ran from Ceony’s side, his coat flying behind him like a cape. The burst spell from the school flung out from his hands and began vibrating wildly in the space between himself and Saraj.

Ceony ran back toward the windows, shattering one just as the burst spell exploded. She caught sight of Saraj in the corner of her eye and sent the shards raining toward him. She had to keep him busy, keep him moving, or he would cast another spell on her body. On Emery’s. The moment the Excisioner had time to think, she and Emery would be dead.

She ran back for the stairs, hand flying over her necklace as she uttered the words to become a Smelter. She reached for the pistol Emery had dropped on the floor—

The room warped around her, dizzying her, causing her to stumble. Not the result of an Excision spell—this was Emery’s doing. A distortion spell. The jellyfish-like paper bobbed in his hand.

She took two more steps before falling onto her hip. The floor rippled like an angry ocean. Her pistol wavered like oil on water.

She reached for it, clasped it. The room froze back into place, a thin mist of blood spraying over Ceony—remnants from a spell aimed at Emery.

Shaking off the effects of the distortion spell with only moderate success, Ceony stood and, holding out her pistol, called, “Attract!”

The spell radiated out from the metal of the pistol, calling forward anything and everything made of metal alloys. Buttons from Saraj’s shirt cuffs ripped from their stitches; needles lost between floor tiles rose into the air. Even the charred hospital beds zoomed across the room, hitting Saraj in the back of the knees and forcing Emery to duck behind a pillar to keep from being run over. At the last second Ceony dropped the pistol and darted for the corner, narrowly missing being hit by the hospital beds herself. The needles and buttons rained onto the pistol, clinging to it.

Saraj vanished in a swirl of red smoke and reappeared behind Emery.

“Behind you!” Ceony cried.

Emery spun and dropped to the floor, missing Saraj’s outstretched arm by inches. Saraj’s hand hit the pillar instead, leaving a bloody print, and Emery slammed his foot into the other man’s shin, knocking him over.

Grabbing one of the hospital beds, Ceony dragged it across the room with her. Emery got to his feet; Saraj clawed at his pant leg, murmuring under his breath. His hands began glowing red.

Ceony didn’t need to call out for Emery to see the spell. The paper magician grabbed Saraj by the hair and slammed his fist into the Excisioner’s cheek.

“Throw him against the pillar!” Ceony shouted.

Emery hit Saraj again and grabbed the man’s collar, heaving him against one of the stone pillars. The instant he was in place, Ceony shoved the hospital bed against him and shouted, “Bend, circular!”

The charred bones of the bed creaked as they wrapped around Saraj and the pillar, pinning him in place.

Saraj began to laugh.

Emery grabbed Ceony and pulled her back, then reached into his coat, bringing out handfuls of paper spells. To Ceony’s surprise, he commanded them, “Shred!”

The spells tore into hundreds of pieces, ruined.

“Gather, forward!” Emery commanded, and the pieces of paper collected into a cloud and stormed toward Saraj, floating about him and clinging to him like leeches.

“Lacerate!” Emery shouted. A command Ceony had never before heard.