Call of Wizardry, page 20
Again Sienne couldn’t think of a response. Alaric bowed his head as if he couldn’t support its weight anymore. “We should sleep,” he said. “Maybe things will look better in the morning.”
“Will not the Niskanen find us?” Perrin asked, standing and dusting himself off.
“Right now I don’t care if they do,” Alaric said. “But no, I don’t think they’ll roam this far tonight. We’re safe, for now.”
He strode into the forest without waiting to see if they followed. Sienne muttered cat’s eye under her breath, and the world brightened as if the moon had suddenly grown to five times its usual size and seeped past the thick canopy of leaves. She could see clearly how Alaric’s back was hunched and despondent, and her heart ached for him. “I can cast cat’s eye,” she said.
“I can see well enough,” Alaric said, not stopping.
“Not me,” Dianthe said. “Alaric, we can wait for this.”
Alaric sighed and came to a stop, but didn’t turn around. Sienne quickly cast the spell on all of them, ending with Alaric. When she finished, she put a hand on his arm. “Alaric,” she said.
“There isn’t anything left to say, Sienne,” he said. “Please, let’s just get through the night.”
She could see clearly how dull his eyes were, how deep lines that hadn’t been there before dragged down the corners of his mouth, and she nodded. When they continued, she walked beside him rather than behind him, thinking obscurely that if he could see someone he cared about, he wouldn’t fall quite so deeply into despair. Whether or not that was true, she didn’t know, but it was all she could do for him.
They walked for about half an hour before Alaric said, “This looks good.” It was a clearing about fifteen feet on a side where an ancient oak had fallen thanks to—Sienne shuddered—a lightning strike. Moss grew over its bole, which crossed the clearing, discouraging saplings. Ferns still dripping with rain from the earlier storm grew along its sides and at the bases of the living trees. Alaric scuffed up damp, dead leaves that made a thin film over the earth. “It’s better than nothing, anyway,” he added. “Let’s each watch for an hour, just in case.”
Sienne lowered herself to sit on the ground. She felt as weary as if she’d walked a thousand miles without stopping. The shivering had started again, and she wrapped her arms around herself and tried to still it.
“Are you cold?” Alaric asked. He knelt beside her and put one hand on her cheek. His touch burned. “Your skin feels like ice.”
“I never got really warm after the river.”
He scooted closer and drew her into his arms, then lay them both down in the shadow of the dead tree’s trunk. “I don’t think it matters anymore where we sleep.”
He radiated warmth better than the noonday sun, and she began to relax almost immediately. “Thank you.”
He laughed quietly, and a little bit of her despair vanished. “As if I needed thanks for holding you. I can’t tell you how frantic I was to see you disappear down the river. I nearly broke Dag’s neck, poor fellow. He wants to be on our side.”
“Interesting, because I would think force-blasting me is a sign he doesn’t.”
“He could have done something far more fatal. Not all the Niskanen are blindly obedient. We just can’t afford to assume any of them aren’t.” Alaric wriggled into a more comfortable position, not that the hard ground was comfortable. “If we had their support—the ones who side with us—that would be some help.”
“There must be something we can do. I don’t want to give up.”
Alaric kissed the side of her face. “All I want right now is to hold you while you sleep, and let go of this problem for a few hours. At the moment I see nothing but failure.”
She turned in his arms to face him. “It will pass. You’ll figure it out. I know you will.”
His smile was sad, but it was still a smile. “I love you,” he said. “You have such faith in me.”
“Earned faith.”
He kissed her, his lips lingering on hers until she tingled with something other than cold. “I hope I live up to that.”
“Of course you will. I love you, and we’ll get through this, and go back to Fioretti and get married.” That thought made the despair retreat further. Married. It was so far in the future she could barely see it, but knowing that future awaited her gave her another tingle.
“You really do have faith.” Alaric kissed her again, then tucked her into his chest and tightened his arms comfortably around her. “Try to sleep. No matter what the morning brings, we’ll need it.”
She was already drifting off, and heard his last words in a haze.
Sienne dreamed of the wizard’s tower again. It was still impossibly tall, but this time it was impossibly thin as well, no fatter than the stem of a tulip and as flexible. It bobbed in the wind, dodging her hand as she tried to grip it. In the dream, she was fifty feet tall and stepped over the surrounding wall with ease, and the crossbowmen plinked at her with their bolts that glanced off her thick skin with no effect. If she could grab the tower, she could drag the room perched atop it to her and reach inside to pull out the wizard, who stood at the window and laughed at her.
But he should cast spells, she thought, and immediately her dreaming mind tried to force reality into the dream. Kyros waved his arms and shouted nonsense words that streamed fire and ice, filling her with fear so she backed away and tripped over the wall. The fire and ice grew and grew, the fire a scorch big enough to engulf even her enlarged body, the ice freezing arrows with lethally sharp tips that weren’t melted by scorch.
Just as the ice caught fire and reached her face, someone shook her awake and the dream faded. “Someone’s coming,” Alaric said.
She rolled away from him and got to her feet. The night was still dark, and cat’s eye lingered, so she couldn’t have been asleep for more than a couple of hours. Memories of the dream lingered enough that when Alaric put a hand on her arm, she jerked away from him. “Sorry,” she said to his startled face. “Bad dreams.”
He nodded and put a finger to his lips, urging silence. Beside them, Kalanath and Perrin rose, brushing away damp dead leaves and dirt. Dianthe stood at the edge of the clearing, leaning forward in a listening pose. “One or two people,” she said. “We should hide. They might pass by, if they’re hunters or something.”
“Into the trees,” Alaric said. “Attack only if they see us.”
Sienne found a large oak to shelter behind. Its rough bark scraped her cheek where she pressed her face and body close to it. If only she could melt into it, disappear completely…but she didn’t even know the name of a spell for that, let alone have the ability to cast it. Kyros might know. She hated feeling so…so inferior to him. She was a powerful wizard. He was just more powerful.
Now she could hear the strangers’ approach. Whoever they were, they weren’t trying to be stealthy, and the third time one of them stepped on a fallen branch, making it crack, she wondered if they were doing it on purpose. She closed her eyes and breathed in the resinous smell of the bark, bitter and dry despite the heavy rains. The strangers continued to approach. Sienne commanded her heart to be still and ran through wizardry options. Force was still her most powerful targeted spell, even if it hadn’t worked on Kyros.
The footsteps stopped. A soft voice whispered, “Alaric?”
Alaric, hiding behind a tree near Sienne’s, tensed. His eyes were wide and startled. Without drawing his sword, he stepped into the open. Sienne quickly followed him. Even if the stranger knew his name, this could still be a trap. Her fingers went to her side and fell away as she remembered her spellbook was gone. She didn’t need it. She still wanted it.
A lone woman stood at the far side of the clearing. She wore a simple wool dress with short sleeves, cinched at the waist by a leather belt too masculine to match the dress. Her pale blonde hair fell in loose curls past her shoulders, a youthful style at odds with the lines on her forehead and at the corners of her eyes. Sienne guessed her to be in her forties. She stared at Alaric as if she’d forgotten, now that she’d summoned him by his name, anything else she might say to him.
Alaric took a few more steps forward and said, “Mother.”
18
“I know I sent Leaf after you,” the woman said, “and I knew she would find you. But that’s not at all the same as seeing you in person.” She walked forward, holding out her arms, and Alaric went to meet her, gathering her up and holding her close. She was tall for a non-unicorn, tall enough that the top of her head came past Alaric’s shoulder. Sienne revised her estimate of the woman’s age.
Leaf came to Alaric’s side. Gleam and Ember went to join the Pekkanen, she said in that hollow mental voice. I chose otherwise. I apologize if I chose badly.
“No. Thank you. It’s…” Alaric released his mother to arm’s length and studied her face. “You look just the same.”
“You don’t,” she said with a smile. “You grew into your height. And you look so much like your father I can hardly believe it.”
“Where is he?”
“Providing a distraction. Did you attack the wizard? He recognized you and sent Niskanen to my house. He thought you would go there for a refuge. Karlen insisted on staying against the possibility you might still appear.”
The smile vanished from Alaric’s face. “Karlen.”
“Don’t be angry. He did what he had to do.”
“What he always wanted to do.”
“He’s protecting us the only way he knows how.” Alaric’s mother hugged him again. “It’s not important. Who are these people? I’ve never seen anyone as dark as they before.”
“These are my friends. My scrapper companions. Dianthe, Kalanath, Perrin…and Sienne. Everyone, this is my mother, Detlenda.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Sienne said. “Alaric has told us stories of his family. We’re glad you’re all still safe.” She managed not to burble anything about how she hoped Detlenda would welcome Sienne to her family. Now was not the time.
Detlenda nodded politely. “I don’t understand what scrapper means.”
“It’s what I’ve been doing for most of the time since I left. We search for ancient ruins and artifacts. They’ve helped me in my quest to free our people.” Alaric took Detlenda’s hand and drew her to sit on the fallen tree.
“You attacked the wizard, but you had to flee.” Detlenda’s tone was carefully neutral, the sound of someone who wanted to criticize but was restraining herself.
Alaric closed his eyes briefly before replying, “He was too powerful, and he had Sienne in his thrall. Two wizards against us…we were barely able to escape with our lives.”
Detlenda looked at Sienne. “You are a wizard?”
Sienne nodded. “I couldn’t…I barely broke dominate in time to get us all out of there.” The memory still burned with residual humiliation and fear.
“I didn’t think there were any other wizards.” Detlenda returned her attention to Alaric. “What will you do now?”
“I…don’t know.” The admission sounded like it cost Alaric a lot, and Sienne’s heart went out to him. “Maybe nothing. I don’t think we can do this.”
Detlenda raised an eyebrow. “You’re giving up? One defeat and you’re giving up?”
“I can’t ask my friends to die for nothing. Even if we could get past the Niskanen guarding the tower, we don’t have a way to defeat the wizard.”
“He’s not omnipotent, Alaric. There has to be a way to defeat him.”
“Mother, we’ve already discussed this, my friends and I. Not only do we have to reach him, we have to subdue him long enough to reverse the binding between him and the Sassaven or every one of them dies with him. And he’s immune to harm unless we kill Genneva. It’s just not possible.”
Detlenda rose and paced a few steps away, passing Sienne closely enough to brush her clothing. Detlenda didn’t seem to notice Sienne even when she stepped back to avoid the Sassaven. “Then you have given up,” she said coldly. “I didn’t realize I’d raised a coward.”
Alaric’s head snapped up. “What?”
“You heard me. You’re not thinking clearly, Alaric. All those things you mentioned, they’re difficulties, yes. Enormous ones. But they all have solutions. You survived a trip through dangerous mountains by yourself and you’ve stayed alive for eleven years under God knows what kind of conditions. If anyone can find those solutions, it’s you. But only if you don’t give up before you’ve even tried.”
Alaric shot to his feet. “Inspirational talk won’t win this battle, Mother!”
“Then what will?” Detlenda shot back. “Tell me what you need from me, and I will give it to you. We are in grave danger now. The wizard won’t stop looking for you, and he is unlikely to believe I didn’t help you escape. It is only a matter of time before someone thinks it’s their duty to tell him who your father is, and that will put Annegret and Viveka in danger as well. He might even decide Karlen is tainted and put him to death. We have to strike soon, before he strikes at us.”
Alaric turned away, his jaw clenched. Sienne risked laying a hand on his arm. “She’s right,” she said. “We’re committed now. We have to do something.”
He looked at her, his eyes haunted. “I won’t put you at risk.”
“Me personally, or all of us?” She shook her head. “Alaric, we’re at risk every time we head into the wilderness. Every one of us has nearly died at some point. This is only different because the stakes are so much higher. And you promised me you wouldn’t do stupid things to protect me. Don’t break that promise, or I’ll make you regret it.”
He smiled, and the distant look faded a little. “Does Sienne speak for all of you?” he said.
“She has the right of it,” Perrin said. “This is a cause worth risking our lives for.”
“You have a family, Perrin.”
“Cressida and I know the risk, and she agreed to what I chose to do.” Perrin shrugged. “But Averran is on our side, and that is no small thing.”
“We already agreed to this, Alaric,” Dianthe said. “We didn’t agree only to go until it got hard. We’re not children.”
Kalanath just nodded and leaned on his staff in the position he could maintain for hours. Sienne said, “We can do this. Just show us how.”
Alaric clasped Sienne’s hand. “All right,” he said. “We’re not giving up. So what next?”
“You said three things had to happen to defeat the wizard,” Detlenda said, eyeing their joined hands. “Tell me again what three things?”
Alaric held up a finger. “We can’t transport directly to the wizard’s tower, so we have to get past the Niskanen stationed in front of it,” he said, ticking the point off. “We have to break the binding between the wizard and the Sassaven. And we have to get him to reverse what he did to Gen.”
Detlenda’s expression went cold and hard. “Can you do that?”
“I don’t know. But we have to try.”
“Genneva went into Barholt to look for you,” Sienne told Alaric. “She’s not in the tower, or wasn’t when we left.”
Alaric rounded on her. “You saw my sister?”
“She…doesn’t look good. It’s like the wizard’s heart has leached away all her youth. She…” Sienne hesitated. “She said she doesn’t want you to save her. That your people are more important.”
“It’s not up to her,” Alaric said flatly. “I will save her. It’s no more impossible than any of the rest of this.”
“The only thing we’re certain we can do is break the binding,” Dianthe said. “If we can find the chain.”
“It was hanging on the wall of the central chamber,” Alaric said. “So you’re right, that part should be easy.”
“If we can subdue the wizard long enough,” Sienne said. “And I can’t guarantee that.”
“It just has to be long enough to gag him,” Alaric said. “He won’t break my hold if he can’t do wizardry.”
“But we cannot go through the Niskanen,” Kalanath said. “There are too many. And even the ones who do not like the wizard will die to protect him.”
“Yes,” said Detlenda. “You need an army. And I think I can get you one.”
They all stared at her. “An…army?” Dianthe said.
“The citizens of Barholt far outnumber the Niskanen,” Detlenda said. “The only reason the Niskanen can keep them in line is that they choose not to fight back. If they are united, the Niskanen can’t stand against them.”
“But aren’t they bound not to harm the wizard?” Sienne asked. The image of hundreds of maddened horses and unicorns charging the tower wall captivated her despite herself.
“The Niskanen aren’t the wizard,” Detlenda said, “and the proscription doesn’t extend to them. It’s a precaution in case a Niskanen goes bad—tries to beat someone up, or rape someone. We’re allowed to defend ourselves against them. We just don’t take it any further than that. And the Niskanen…they’re trained to keep the peace, yes, but they’re not fighters the way you all appear to be. I believe determined Sassaven could defeat them.”
“But you don’t have weapons,” Alaric said. “And you might have determination, but that’s not always enough.”
“You let us worry about that,” Detlenda said. “You worry about convincing Lothar to help.”
“Who’s Lothar?”
Detlenda took a seat on the log again. “He’s Barholt’s headman. If you want all the villagers to help, you need his support. Otherwise you’d have to spend a week convincing each person separately, and you don’t have a week. Lothar and Arris and Brigit…get them behind you, and they’ll build you an army.”
Alaric released Sienne and started pacing. “How soon?”
“Just after dawn. But we have to be able to reach them, and there are Niskanen patrols in the streets and a cordon around the village.” Detlenda said this matter-of-factly, as if these obstacles were nothing.
