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Eldeluc couldn’t contain his relieved chuckle, but Kessell esture fro 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 arch the vacated seat of Morkai the Red and holding the very gar when he was slain?"

Kessell thought about it for a reed

"Perhaps," Eldeluc continued, "you should not wear the red robe"

Kessell’s eyes squinted in panic His old self-doubts, which had haunted hian to bubble up within hie their htfully earned?

Eldeluc had used the auity 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, as 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 complireed, his fingers nervously twiddling

Dendybar suddenly grew tired of the farce Helittle wretch

Eldeluc obediently led Kessell back down the alleyway "Go on, now, back to the stables," he instructed "Tell thefor Luskan this very night"

"But what of the body?" Kessell asked

Eldeluc s nitaries from the south It willAnother murder in this part of the world will cause little exciteood people of Easthaven were to decipher what had truly happened, they are wise enough to tend to their own business and leave the affairs of wizards to wizards!"

The group froht on the street "Now be off!" Eldeluc commanded "Look for us as the sun sets" He watched as Kessell, like some elated little boy, scurried away

"How fortunate to find so convenient a tool," Dendybar noted "The wizard’s stupid apprentice saved us et at that crafty old one Though the gods alone knohy, ever did Morkai have a soft spot for his wretched little apprentice!"

"Soft enough for a dagger’s point!" laughed a second voice

"And so convenient a setting," remarked yet another "Unexplained bodies are considered nowenches in this uncivilized outpost!"

The burly Eldeluc laughed aloud The gruesome task was at last completed; they could finally leave this barren stretch of frozen desert and return hohtly as he e of Easthaven to the barn where the wizards’ horses had been stabled He felt as though becoe every aspect of his daily life, as if soth had somehow been infused into his previously incoled in anticipation of the power that would be his

An alleycat crossed before hilance as it pranced by

Slit-eyed, Kessell looked around to see if anyone atching "Why not?" he er at the cat, he uttered the coy The nervous feline bolted away at the spectacle, but no ical bolts struck it, or even near it

Kessell looked down at his singed fingertip and wondered what he had done wrong

But he wasn’t overly disest effect he had ever gotten from that particular spell