apprentice whose stuttering lips could barely call out the simplest of cantrips, possibly hope to profit from the death of the only man who had ever shown him more than basic, polite consideration?
Morkai the Red fell dead. It was one of the few questions he had never found the answer to.
Kessell remained against the wall, needing its tangible support, and continued to shake for long minutes. Gradually, the confidence that had put him in this dangerous position began to grow again within him. He was the boss now - Eldeluc, Dendybar the Mottled, and the other wizards who had made the trip had said so. With his master gone, he, Akar Kessell, would be rightfully awarded his own meditation chamber and alchemy lab in the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan.
Eldeluc, Dendybar the Mottled, and the others had said so.
* * *
"It is done, then?" the burly man asked when Kessell entered the dark alley designated as the meeting place.
Kessell nodded eagerly. "The red-robed wizard of Luskan shan't cast again!" he proclaimed too loudly for the likes of his fellow conspirators.
"Speak quietly, fool," Dendybar the Mottled, a frail-looking man tucked defensively within the alleyway's shadows demanded in the same monotonous voice that he always used. Dendybar rarely spoke at all and never displayed any semblance of passion when he did. Ever was he hidden beneath the low-pulled cowl of his robe. There was something coldblooded about Dendybar that unnerved most people who met him. Though the wizard was physically the smallest and least imposing man on the merchant caravan that had made the four-hundred mile journey to the frontier settlement of Ten-Towns, Kessell feared him more than any of the others.
"Morkai the Red, my former master, is dead," Kessell reiterated softly. "Akar Kessell, this day forward known as Kessell the Red, is now appointed to the Wizard's Guild of Luskan!"
"Easy, friend," said Eldeluc, putting a comforting hand on Kessell's nervously twitching shoulder. "There will be time for a proper coronation when we return to the city." He smiled and winked at Dendybar from behind Kessell's head.
Kessell's mind was whirling, lost in a daydream search through all of the ramifications of his pending appointment. Never again would he be taunted by the other apprentices, boys much younger than he who climbed through the ranks in the guild step by tedious step. They would show him some respect now, for he would leap beyond even those who had passed him by in the earliest days of his apprenticeship, into the honorable position of wizard.
As his thoughts probed every detail of the coming days, though, Kessell's radiant face suddenly grayed over. He turned sharply on the man at his side, his features tensed as though he had discovered a terrible error. Eldeluc and several of the others in the alley became uneasy. They all fully understood the consequences if the archmage of the Hosttower of the Arcane ever learned of their murderous deed.
"The robe?" Kessell asked. "Should I have brought the red robe?"
Eldeluc couldn't contain his relieved chuckle, but Kessell merely took it as a comforting gesture from his new-found friend.
I should have known that something so trivial would throw him into such a fit, Eldeluc told himself, but to Kessell he merely said, "Have no fear about it. There are plenty of robes in the Hosttower. It would seem a bit suspicious, would it not, if you showed up at the archmage's doorstep claiming the vacated seat of Morkai the Red and holding the very garment that the murdered wizard was wearing when he was slain?"
Kessell thought about it for a moment, then agreed.
"Perhaps," Eldeluc continued, "you should not wear the red robe."
Kessell's eyes squinted in panic. His old self-doubts, which had haunted him for all of his days since his childhood, began to bubble up within him. What was Eldeluc saying? Were they going to change their minds and not award him the seat he had rightfully earned?
Eldeluc had used the ambiguity of his statement as a tease, but he didn't want to push Kessell into a dangerous state of doubt. With a second wink at Dendybar, who was inwardly thoroughly enjoying this game, he answered the poor wretch's unspoken question. "I only meant that perhaps a different color would better suit you. Blue would compliment your eyes."
Kessell cackled in relief. "Perhaps," he agreed, his fingers nervously twiddling.
Dendybar suddenly grew tired of the farce. He motioned for his burly companion to be rid of the annoying little wretch.