Read Brightly Woven for Free Online Page B

who you are!” I said. Genet grabbed for me again, but North was between us.
    “I did not say that you could leave.” Genet flicked his cloak back dramatically, revealing a multicolored rope hanging like a tamed snake at his hip. North looked as if he’d love nothing more than to strangle the other man with it.
    “Who in the seven hells…,” I heard North mumble as he pushed me behind him yet again.
    “I am Renald Stonewall Genet, wizard of the much esteemed patron Mr. Orvilley of Orvilley and Orvilley Sea Shipping, ranked one hundred twenty-two of all wizards. I’d prefer not to use my magic, so if you, young sir, would kindly wait here while I escort this young lady back to my residence…”
    “Can’t you do something?” I asked North desperately.
    “Syd,” North began warningly. “Don’t—”
    “You’re a wizard, too, right? Make him—” I stopped, seeing the pained expression on North’s face. That had not been the right thing to say.
    “A wizard?” The smile crept back up the side of Genet’s greasy face. “No wizard I’ve seen. Dressed as you are, I doubt you have a patron, but if you do, I would like to know his name as well, so I can write and tell him of your inferiority. I’ll have to know your rank before we duel, as well.”
    “Duel?” I asked, looking back and forth between them. I knew about wizard duels; everything I had read pointed to bloodshed and destruction.
    I looked around the tavern to faces that were both startled and intrigued. The man in the pale overcoat with a pipe hadmoved to stand near the door, as if anticipating the need to run—or perhaps just to get a better view of the fight. But the wizards couldn’t fight here, not when there was a chance others could be hurt. North appeared to have a similar thought.
    “You want to duel? Right now?” North asked. “Right here?”
    Genet nodded, a smile stretching across his face. “Don’t be frightened, friend; you get the first attack. It’s only proper for the challenged wizard to go first. If you’d be so kind as to tell me your rank…?”
    “North!” I hissed. “Let’s just go! Don’t forget—”
    North silenced me with a wave of his hand, smiling as though he were about to eat the other wizard whole. He stood like a statue, the perfect image of self-confidence. Genet looked just as sure, maybe even more so now that his braided whip was in his hands, the split tip dragging lazily on the ground.
    “Hey!” the barman called. “I don’t want none of this in—!”
    I will never forget the sound North’s fist made as it connected with the other wizard’s skull. Genet’s nose crunched sickeningly, and a large spray of blood flew up before he slumped to the ground, motionless. George rushed forward, dropping to his knees next to his employer.
    North leaned over the other wizard’s unconscious body. “I win.”
    “Did you kill him?” I asked as the tavern roared with laughter.
    “Oh, hardly.” North snorted. “I barely hit him, and he went down like a daisy.”
    I looked down at the unconscious wizard and shook my head in disgust. Genet may have been the scum of the world, but it didn’t change the fact that North was little more than a drunken brute.
    The crowd in the tavern showered him with applause and cheers, and North took it in like a conquering hero. He stepped over Genet’s prone body and was welcomed back to the bar with a tankard of ale.
    “Fine!” I said to no one in particular, and turned to go back up the stairs.
    As I pushed through the crowd, a hand caught mine, and I felt the touch of warm, wet air against my neck. I tried to shake free. It wasn’t North.
    “That’s not magic,” a quiet voice said in my ear. “Watch closely…”
    The man in the pale overcoat gave me a smile as he pulled away and lifted his hand to his lips. With a single breath, he blew a cloud of blue powder from his palm, which expanded and grew around me like a thundercloud. I saw the man’s face flash