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.Square jaw, sandy-brown hair, green eyes, small wire-rimmed glasses, and a tell-tale scar on his left cheek-this was Shadow.Though younger-looking than Cy had expected, this man matched the descriptions Lume had given him.The archwizard's attention was focused on a large stack of papers he had in his hands, and he was making marks on them with a piece of charcoal.Cy took a deep breath and held it.Raising his dagger up to his shoulder, he burst into the room, hurling the enchanted blade at Shadow as he did so.The wizard didn't even look up from his papers.He simply waved his hand, and the dagger stopped in midair.Worse, Cy stood frozen as well, unable to blink or even wipe the ever-increasing sweat from his forehead.For quite some time, Shadow simply continued to read his papers, leafing through them casually as if he didn't have an assassin magically suspended in his bedroom.Eventually, he finished with his work, straightened the papers, and turned his attention to Cy."Aren't you a little young to be an assassin?" he asked.Cy didn't answer.This had been his first assassination, so he really didn't know how the industry worked.He supposed he'd never get the opportunity to find out now."No matter," reassured the archwizard."Your age isn't important.What is, however, is the fact that you tried to kill me.So?" He looked Cy right in the eye."What do you suppose we should do about that?"Cy tried to spit at the man, to show his indignation and contempt for the wizards who mucked around with the powerful, otherworldly magic that he felt certain would be the doom of all the world, but he was stuck.He couldn't move his lips or even his tongue."Well?" asked the archwizard."Aren't you going to answer me?"The man chuckled, then he put his hands on his knees and stood up from the bed.He plucked the enchanted blade from where it was suspended in the air."Very nice, very good indeed," he commented."Don't have much use for these sorts of toys." He walked over to a chest of drawers and placed the dagger on top of it."I have a few I keep around as souvenirs of the assassins who have most interested me, but I generally don't like to use them.All that blood and such." Shadow wrinkled his nose."No, magic is much cleaner."He picked up a wand with a clear stone attached to the end of it by a leather band."And," he added, walking back toward Cy, "far more entertaining and punitive.Just think, if I simply poked you with your blade a few times, sure it would hurt, but in short order you'd die, and the agony you'd feel would be over.With magic-" he brandished the wand-"I can trap you inside this crystal.There you will die slowly as your predecessors sap your strength and tear at your skin."He smiled warmly at Cy who was still unable to move.The best part, however, is that once you've died, your punishment hasn't ended.You will awaken as a shadow, and you'll live out the rest of eternity as an ethereal creature, unable to affect the solid world around you.Doesn't that sound far more horrifying?"Cy grunted, trying everything in his power to simply move his fingers."Yes, I'm sure you'd agree, imprisonment is far worse than simple death."Shadow turned away from the doorway and started tidying up the room.Though I don't want you to think my trapping you in this wand is at all an easy feat."Cy continued to struggle, gaining a modicum of hope from the fact that he could now wiggle his toes and clench the muscles in his jaw."It's taken me years to be able to perfect this wand," continued the archwizard."True, the imprisonment spells are simple enough, as you are now, I'm sure, painfully aware."Shadow continued to fiddle in the room."No, it's the transformation from human flesh to the insubstantial that has proven tricky, though not impossible."Cy could feel warmth spreading through his aims and chest, and he was able to shuffle his feet a little.Shadow looked at the wand with reverent awe."This little device right here represents most of my life's work [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]