I didn't wind up breaking any records, but I still made pretty good time. It was late morning, not yet time for the noon meal, and most people were in their laboratories or workshops or classrooms, busily thinking and creating and inventing. It was one of the things I loved most about the Tower, this constant hum of industry and invention.

I tried not to think about what Osior had said, about Father running from Mother's laboratory. I wondered which servant had witnessed that, and made a mental note to ask Osior. Maybe if I questioned the servant myself, I'd be able to discover something Osior hadn't. I couldn't imagine why Father would run from Mother's laboratory; had she already been poisoned? But no, Osior had said that Father was seen an hour or more ago, and it couldn't have been more than twenty minutes since Mother was poisoned.

But something had happened while Father was in the lab, something which had caused him to leave in a hurry. Something Mother told him? Or...

I thought of our experiment, nearly done, sitting in his forge. Could something have happened that triggered an alarm, alerting him of a situation back in the smithy?

This whole situation made me deeply uneasy. I cursed myself for being careless about the experiment; we should have been much more careful. In the wrong hands, it could be extremely dangerous.

The smithy was a large room in one of the newer buildings on the Tower campus, designed to house labs and forges for the various smiths and their specialties. There was a perpetual ozone smell in the building, a side-effect of various experiments and processes, and normally I found the smell reassuring. This time, however, it left me feeling unsettled and anxious.

As I drew close, I could see that the door to father's lab was open, and I suddenly wished I'd thought to grab my staff from my room. Father never left that door open, especially now that our experiment was in there. I had no offensive magic prepared—why would I, in the middle of the Tower? All I had, then, were my cantrips—Mage Hand and Prestidigitation, not good for much more than helping in the lab or annoying friends—as well as a Cure Wounds spell, and a Disguise Self spell that I'd planned on using to prank one of my colleagues.

I slowed as I approached the open door, and paused just outside it. I closed my eyes and listened for any hint of movement inside.

It was no use, though. All I could hear was my own blood pounding in ears, and my mind refused to settle down.

I shook my head to clear it. This is ridiculous, I told myself. No one's lying in wait, here. Not in the Tower. Still, I couldn't help but remember my mother, lying poisoned on the floor of her own lab...

I took a deep breath and carefully peeked around the jamb. Everything seemed in order—the tools all hanging neatly on the wall, just as Father always left them. No overturned tables, no debris on the floor—

A leg poking out from behind the furnace.

Throwing caution to the wind I burst into the lab and raced to the far side of the furnace. Father! Even as I ran, though, I realized that it couldn't be my father on the other side of that furnace. My father was a large man, tall and thickly-muscled, and he was always clad in the leather leggings that protected him while at work in the forge. Whoever was lying on the other side of the furnace was wearing linen trousers, and a robe—very impractical garb in a smithy.

Still, it was with some relief that I rounded the furnace and saw that it was not my father.

No, it was Royston.

I dropped to the floor beside him. "Royston!" I shouted. "Royston!" I shook him by his shoulder, slapped his cheek, and then felt for a pulse.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt his pulse, strong and steady. He was okay, just...asleep? Could he be poisoned, too, like Mother? But no, I could see in his face that he wasn't; at least, not with the same poison used on Mother. I considered for a moment casting my Cure Wounds spell on him, but he didn't seem wounded, just...asleep. I wished I knew some counter-spell for enchantment.

I sat back on my heels and looked around the lab, trying to understand what was going on. Why was Royston in my father's forge? And why was he unconscious on the floor? Everything in the forge seemed in order...

My eyes fell on the recess in the far corner where we'd set up the experiment, and immediately my stomach fell. It was gone. I leapt up and ran to the recess, looking around madly, hoping against hope that I was mistaken, that it was actually there and I was just not seeing it, but no, no, no! It was gone. Gone!

I heard footsteps behind me at the door, and spun to see who it was.

"Mair!" I said as I saw her. She was a rail thin woman, with her face in a perpetually severe scowl. As one of the Tower's most active tinkers, she frequently had business with my father, requesting odd-shaped bits of metal for whatever project was her passion du jour.

Seeing me, her mouth tightened, but I'd come to realize that this was less about her expressing distaste, and more about her making a best-effort at a smile. "Reinold," she said, clipping the name off in her perfunctory style. "I'd hoped your father would be here. I sent Royston—"

As soon as she said the name, her eyes fell on the very same leg that I'd noticed, and I remembered at that moment that aside from her being a prominent Tower artificer, she was also Royston's mother.

She gasped and—I won't say ran, because Mair Beddoe never ran anywhere—she moved with surprising alacrity. In a few heartbeats she was at her son's side, feeling for a pulse just as I had.

"What did you do?" she demanded of me. There was no tightening of her mouth, now, only the full power of her accusation lashing me where I stood.

"It wasn't me!" I said, feeling guilty despite my innocence. "I got here just a moment ago and found him on the floor!"

"And yet you didn't call for help?"

"I—" Um. I couldn't tell her about the experiment; it was a secret I shared only with my father. Until I had some idea of what had happened to it, I wanted to keep it a secret. I coughed, to buy myself a bit of time, and tried again. "I mean, I saw that he wasn't hurt, or poisoned—"

"Poisoned?" she asked, her suspicions keener than ever. "Why would you suspect poison?"

I told her then about my mother, and how I had come here as quickly as I could looking for my father. She nodded once, curtly, after I told my tale, and turned to the door and snapped her fingers sharply. "Mariella!" she called.

I saw then that she hadn't come alone. Mariella stood in the door, looking bewildered and uncertain. "Yes, Mair?" she asked.

"Run and find one of the masters," she said. "It sounds like Osier was recently at Lady Koru's, but any of them will do. Run!"

Mariella ran.

"And as for you," Mair said, looking at me again. "Come here and help me get Royston situated."

I hurried over and did as she indicated, elevating his feet with a pile of spare rags. Mair moved efficiently, in the same clipped manner she used to speak. Once her son was situated, she looked at me again.

"So where is your father, Reinold? I sent Royston to check on a small order I'd commissioned, and expected him back straightaway. When he didn't come back, and when Mariella came looking for him, well, I had to wonder what had happened."

I shrugged. "I...don't know." I glanced at the empty corner. "My father should be here. I'm...worried."

She was continuing to minister to Royston, who showed some signs of coming to, finally. At my words, she glanced up sharply. "Worried? Why?"

I bit my lip, wondering how much to say, but settled on telling her about meeting Osior in my mother's lab, and what he'd said about my father being seen running from the lab earlier. "And now he's not here..." I couldn't help myself. I glanced at the corner again.

Mair nodded slowly, glancing at the corner herself. "He's not here, and—unless I miss my guess—there's something missing from his smithy."

I must have looked suddenly guilty, because Mair snorted as she turned back to her son. His eyes were fluttering open weakly, and she helped him sit up slowly. "Reinold," she said to me. "I'm not blind. You've been practically staring at that corner ever since I walked in. If I asked what was supposed to be there, would you tell me?"

I licked my lips, trying to think what I might tell her, afraid to lie. I must have taken too long, because she snorted again. "Never mind, I can see it's not something you're willing to share. So, I'm no alchemist, but let's see if I can boil this down to its essence. First, Kondrack—your father—was seen running from your mother's lab shortly before she was discovered, poisoned. Second, my son is found unconscious on the floor of your father's smithy, and third, some item—something of value, perhaps?—is missing from the smithy. Oh, and fourth: your father is nowhere to be seen. Does that about sum it up?"

I had to admit, her reputation for perceptiveness was well-earned. "Yeah, I think so."

Mariella returned then, panting from her run. "Master Osier is still tending to Lady Koru, but he told me where to find Master Ifor. He'll be here in a few minutes."

Mair nodded, satisfied. "Good, good. Ifor was a good choice." She motioned toward the water barrel father used for drinking water. "Go fill a cup from that barrel there and bring it here." When Mariella returned with it, Mair gently held the cup to Royston's mouth and watched intently as he sipped.

"When you can, Royston," she said to him. "Reinold and I would l very much like to know what happened here."

He nodded weakly as she took the cup away. "I can talk," he said. "But, I'm not sure what happened. I came here, as you asked me to. Kondrack was here, looking at something in the corner there. I couldn't see what it was; he turned around when I came in, blocking it with his body. I knew it wasn't my place to be curious about it, so I started to ask him about the commission, and then his eyes got wide and he started to shout something...and that's all I remember."

Mair glanced at me. "Kondrack didn't attack you?" I bristled, but held my peace; it was a fair question.

Royston shook his head. "No. At least, I don't think so."

I looked at Mair. "Sounds like someone else came in, unexpectedly. Someone he hadn't wanted to see, perhaps."

She nodded. "It might be wise to look around. Perhaps whatever happened next left some sign."

I started moving around the forge, looking for...anything, I guess. The entire space was just as Father usually left it, tidied and clean, with nothing out of place. There was no sign of a struggle, not even a tool knocked askew on the wall.

Something wasn't right, here. The experiment gone, Royston unconscious, no sign of struggle...

"Royston?" I asked. "You said my father started to shout something, and then that's when your memory stops. Yeah?"

"Yeah, that's right." Royston was still seated on the floor, rubbing his temples. His mother was poking around the room as well, but paused to listen to our exchange.

"You don't remember getting knocked on the head? No blow to the back, nothing like that?"

He paused, thinking. "No," he said at last. "Nothing like that. It's like...a blank. One moment Kondrack is opening his mouth, and the next I'm waking up on the floor."

Mair and I shared a look. "Magic," she said.

I nodded, hesitated, and then shook my head. "But what does that actually tell us?" I asked Mair. "There must be dozens of artificers and wizards in the Tower alone who are capable of casting a Sleep charm." I looked around the room. "If only there were some kind of note, or..."

My hand went immediately to my pocket, where I felt the solid square of folded parchment I'd taken from my mother's lab. Mair saw the expression of surprise on my face. "What is it?" she asked me.

I didn't answer her immediately, but removed the parchment from my pocket and inspected the seal more closely. I could see the letter had already been opened, carefully, and without breaking the wax seal. I unfolded it and began to read.

My Lord, the letter began. My contacts in Tinker's Tower have alerted me to the fact that there is something extraordinary happening there. Kendrack Fogg, one of the blacksmiths there, has been working on something in secret, but one of my contacts has been able to glean sufficient evidence to suggest that immediate action may prove extremely lucrative. Time is of the essence, however; I can afford to wait one day, after which I must move, lest we lose this opportunity. If, by so doing, I go against your illustrious will, may I crave your pardon in advance. However, it is my strong suspicion that you will be quite pleased with this "acquisition".

The letter was signed simply with an ornate letter "B".

Mair had crossed the room and was reading the letter over my shoulder. She took it from me when she saw I had finished. "Where did you get this?" she asked urgently.

I told her about the scene in my mother's lab, and how I'd seen the letter on the counter. I didn't say outright that I'd pilfered it, but I can see from the sour expression on her face that she could easily infer the truth. "But who's it from?" I asked, trying to deflect her disappointment.

She pursed her lips and considered. "Without knowing exactly where it comes from, it's impossible to say for sure. But if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say this was written by Baron Brychan's own hand." She tapped the letter thoughtfully. "Which means the 'Lord' he refers to would be none other than Duke Ynyr, himself."

I goggled. "Duke Ynyr?" The thought of the Black Duke knowing my father's name made me physically ill. More than that, they'd found out about the experiment. They'd stolen the experiment.

"I think," said Mair, "that it might be time for you to tell me about this 'secret' your father was working on."

I nodded. If it had been taken from the tower by agents of the Duke, there was grave danger to the king. Maybe if my father were here...

"It's a sword," I said. "But a very special sword. A few years ago I thought I could see how to imbue a weapon with intelligence..."

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