The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

why
Sevana used it first was simple—she wanted to see if the princess was still
alive. Searching for a living being was different from searching from a corpse
after all. It would also give the girl’s family time to either accept her death
or hope that they would be able to get her back alive. The location itself was
important, but not as much as finding out the girl’s status.
    Sevana waited
for the image to appear in the facet of the crystal, then waited some more, but
nothing appeared. It remained glowing in a smoky white color, flickering,
searching, but not finding anything.
    She stared at
it for several long moments, unbelieving what she was seeing. Never, in the
entire time that Sevana had been using magic—not even in her student days—had
this happened. In fact, before this moment, she’d have sworn this was
impossible!
    Firuz hovered
at her elbow, eyes flickering back and forth between her and the crystal.
“What’s happening? What does that mean?”
    “I now
understand why your magicians are maintaining that she must have been spirited
away,” Sevana said slowly, shutting off the spell. “That has to be the strangest
result that I have ever seen.”
    “What does it
mean?!” he demanded in growing agitation.
    “I don’t know,”
she admitted, making a sour face as the words left her mouth. She hated saying that, it was the one phrase she hated most in the world.
    Firuz gulped,
expression going ashen. “Is she dead?”
    “No,” Sevana
corrected immediately, putting the crystal back on the table. Bracing her back
against the table’s edge, she tilted her head back towards the ceiling, trying
to think and explain at the same time. “The crystal doesn’t differentiate
between ‘alive’ and ‘dead,’ it simply searches for the object that I name.
People or things don’t make any difference to it. I used it first because I
wanted to see if she was still alive, maybe give me a hint of her location. But
it didn’t find anything to report to me. It literally could not find her,
living or dead.”
    The king’s brow
furrowed as he puzzled his way through that. “But she must be one or the
other.”
    “Until a minute
ago, I’d have thought the same thing. But that isn’t what the crystal is
telling me.” Sevana could think of two possibilities off the top of her head to
explain why, but she wasn’t about to say either one of them in front of a
doting father. Not until she had some hard evidence to back it up with. “Firuz,
I’m going to have to do some pretty elaborate spells to try to figure out this
result. Grydon’s nose just became a really good option to use as well. I need
full reign of your country.”
    “You have it,”
he promised her instantly. “I’ll assign someone to aid you in whatever way you
need. But…you’re sure she’s not dead?”
    “Not dead,” she
responded, shaking her head. “I can’t give you a quick solution or promise
immediate results either. This might take a few weeks to unravel. Whoever got
past your daughter’s magical protections is very crafty and did a very good
job. I won’t be able to solve this overnight.”
    He looked
disheartened, but as a king, he was used to things not always going as planned.
“Please…find her quickly. Whatever help you need, you have.”
    “I’ll use all
of it.” Sevana might put in a call to Master later if she couldn’t get to the
bottom of this on her own.
    Farah burst
back inside the room, a cloth lion in her hands that had seen better days. “Her
favorite toy.”
    “Perfect.”
Sevana took it and held it out to Grydon, letting him get a good sniff. “Go
hunt. I have to get back to the workshop. The tools I brought will not be
enough for the job.”
    Grydon, happy
to have something to do, bounced out the door.
    Sevana, envious
of his energy, paused before heading for the clock. “When I get back, I’ll need
to see the area where she last was.”
    “I’ll guide you
there myself,” Firuz