Prologue

The Golden City was on edge.

Inquisitor Cass could feel it as she strode through the streets, her long black robes spinning out around her, marking her as an Inquisitor to all who cared to stare. The handful of people on the streets were careful not to stare, even though she was morbidly certain they would have ogled her if she’d been wearing something – anything – else. She’d left the Peerless School a full year ahead of her contemporaries and looked ridiculously young for her position. But then, being underestimated was always an advantage.

She smiled to the guards as she reached the walls surrounding the Golden Palace, then stepped through the wards, feeling the waves of magic protecting the Grand Sorceress shimmering against her personal protections before they parted, allowing her to enter the complex. The guards nodded respectfully to her – they had no magic and were really only there for show – and stood back, trusting in the Grand Sorceress’s wards to keep out the really dangerous threats. Cass kept walking forward, allowing the magic surrounding the Golden Palace to guide her steps. Slowly, inch by inch, it led her through a long corridor and into the antechamber, outside the Throne Room. There were more guards standing there, watching the long line of petitioners who had somehow managed to slip into the building in hopes of seeking an audience with the Grand Sorceress. Judging from the looks some of them aimed at Cass when they thought she wasn’t looking, their persistence wasn’t getting them anywhere.

The stone door swung open, allowing her into the Throne Room. As always, the sheer magnificence of the room took her breath away. The walls were covered in gold, while the floors were solid marble, engraved with golden images of the great heroes of the Necromantic Wars. In the exact centre of the room, surrounded by silver runes of power, was the Golden Throne itself. Cass felt the tug of the magic shimmering around the Throne and had to force herself to pull away. When there had been an Emperor in the Golden City, she was sure, his presence had been enough to dominate the chamber. Now ...

The Grand Sorceress, Lady Light Spinner, sat at a small table, positioned neatly in the shadow of the Golden Throne. Her face was hidden behind a veil, as always, but her posture was tense, while her hand signed documents in a swift, almost frantic manner, suggesting she too was on edge. It was hard to blame her, Cass knew. During her elevation, a Dark Wizard had done significant damage to the Golden City, while only scant days ago several Great Houses had collapsed into chaos. The Empire was weaker than it had been for centuries.

“Wait,” Light Spinner ordered.

Cass went down on one knee, then forced herself to remain calm, despite her puzzlement at having been summoned to the palace. Junior Inquisitors were rarely called before the Grand Sorceress unless they had done something truly spectacular ... or fallen flat on their faces, embarrassing both themselves and their trainers. But Cass knew that she had done neither, not recently. She’d done her duty ...

The Grand Sorceress looked up at her, suddenly. “You may rise,” she said. “And speak freely.”

“Thank you,” Cass said.

She wondered, absently, what the Grand Sorceress made of her. At twenty-five, she was the youngest Inquisitor on active duty – and certainly the prettiest, with long blonde hair that framed a heart-shaped face. The Grand Sorceress wouldn’t have hidden her face, Cass was sure, if there hadn’t been a good reason to hide. But why? Even the Inquisition didn’t know why the Grand Sorceress chose to wear the veil.

“You swore your oaths to the Grand Sorcerer,” Light Spinner said. “Did you not?”

“Yes,” Cass said. “I did.”

She frowned at the question. Light Spinner, the Grand Sorceress, knew she’d sworn the Inquisitor Oaths. Cass couldn’t have entered the Watchtower without having sworn the oaths and bound herself to their service. And, as Grand Sorceress, Light Spinner was entitled to her obedience. Cass could no more have disobeyed a direct order from the Grand Sorceress than she could have chosen to ignore a magic-abusing fool in the streets.

“I have a specific task for you,” the Grand Sorceress said. “It will require you to be released from your oaths, should you accept.”

Cass blinked, genuinely shocked. The Inquisitors were all powerful magicians – and very well trained. Their oaths kept them from being anything more than the Grand Sorcerer’s enforcers, rather than joining other magicians in the endless battle for supremacy. For the Grand Sorceress to release her from her oaths ... it made no sense. Cass could have carried out almost any order the Grand Sorceress chose to give without being freed from her sworn words.

“My Lady,” she said, carefully. “I ...”

The Grand Sorceress held up one gloved hand. “There are issues you need to understand,” she said. “Johan Conidian is alive.”

Cass felt an odd flicker of fear. There were ways to strip a magician of his or her magic, if necessary, but they required careful rituals and complex spellwork. Johan Conidian, on the other hand, had developed a form of magic that allowed him to take a person’s magic without the rituals, something that had terrified every magician who had heard about it. They lived in a world where magic was power, she knew. How could they be faulted for being terrified when they sensed that they could lose their power?

And that everyone they were mean to would be mean to them, once they were powerless, Cass thought, silently.

“I am sending him and Elaine, the Head Librarian, out of the city,” Light Spinner continued. “They will not be able to attend the Conference” – she gave an odd little chuckle – “but instead they will be carrying out a mission for me. You will accompany them and provide what assistance you can.”

“But not as an Inquisitor,” Cass said, slowly.

“No,” Light Spinner agreed. “You will go as an independent magician.”

Cass considered it, reluctantly. The Inquisitors were among the most capable magicians in the world – and she’d worked hard to join their ranks. It had been far from easy, not when the Senior Inquisitors had taken great pride in pushing the younger volunteers to breaking point, hoping to force out anyone who could break before it was too late. And it was always harder for a woman ... she’d survived, somehow, and gained her robe and staff. The thought of simply abandoning her achievement was horrific.

But she could see the Grand Sorceress’s point. The oaths she’d sworn would push her in a certain direction, once she was face-to-face with Johan Conidian. His magic was new and utterly unprecedented, as far as anyone could tell. She had a duty to take him to the Watchtower or simply kill him, before he fell into unfriendly hands. If the last few months had taught her anything, it was that the peace and stability of the last fifty years was proving to be an illusion.

And she knew her duty.

“I will, if you will release me,” she said. She hesitated, then took the skull ring off her finger and dropped it into her pocket. “Can I retake the oaths afterwards?”

“If you wish to return to the Inquisitors, you may retake the oaths,” Light Spinner said.

Cass bowed her head, then stepped forward when Light Spinner rose to her feet. The oaths were suddenly very prominent within her mind, sworn words that were woven into her magic by old rituals. Obey the Emperor – and the Grand Sorcerer. It was the only way to ensure stability, she knew, given how many magicians were prepared to fight for power. The Grand Sorcerer wasn’t just the most powerful magician in the world, as far as anyone knew; he or she was supported by a corps of other powerful magicians. It was hard for anyone to challenge the Inquisitors.

“In the name of the Emperor, wherever he may be, I release you from your oaths,” Light Spinner said. “I ...”

Cass barely heard her as magic suddenly shimmered around her. The oaths had been part of her for years, long enough that she’d forgotten what it was like to be free of them, to be free of a compulsion she had accepted willingly as part of her job. Now ... magic danced and twisted, reminding her that she was a powerful magician ... and that she was free. It would be easy, now, to do whatever she liked, to be the ultimate spoilt brat. Magic made it so easy ...

She reached into her pocket and took the ring. It burned against her flesh the moment she touched it, growing hotter and hotter every second. Only Inquisitors could wear the rings.

“I will take that,” Light Spinner said. “It will be held in trust for you. And I suggest you change or glamour your clothes.”

“Thank you,” Cass said, placing the ring on the table. It felt as if she had given up a piece of herself. Moments later, her black robes became a simple pair of trousers and a shirt. She’d worn plain clothes often enough, but this was different. She might never be an Inquisitor again. “Please give it to my superiors if I don’t return.”

She took a deep breath, then calmed herself. The job still needed to be done, even if she was no longer bound by her oaths.

“I thank you,” she said, formally. She had never heard of an Inquisitor being released from the oaths before, if only because they rarely lived long enough to retire. Now ... it was growing harder to remember why she had sworn the oaths in the first place. “And I will carry out your requests.”

“Good,” the Grand Sorceress said. She motioned for Cass to follow her out of the giant chamber, into a smaller office lined with giant bookshelves. “This is what I want you to do.”