The Magicians' Daughter, page 14
“But that’s just it. We are alone. Fornoch will turn all the apprentices. He will turn you, if you give him the chance. He will even turn Hubley, some day. We have to try a new approach. No more contact with the rest of the world. Just the three of us, here in Castle Grangore, preparing for the day we fight him. The day we can finally end the rule of Areft, which is all the rule of Wizards really is.”
Ferris’s face filled with sympathy. “You really are tired, dear, if you think that’s what we should do. You’re not thinking straight at all.”
“I am not tired. My understanding has never been clearer.”
Ferris shook her head. “You’re just feeling bad about Ahne, but you’ll get over it. You’ve always gotten over it before.”
“I will get over it, but only when it is finished. Mark what I say—I will have to slay Trier next, and she will be far more dangerous than Ahne because she is a better magician. One by one I shall have to kill them all. Better to slay them now, and not take the chance of failing later.”
Ferris gripped her husband’s wrist. “You can’t just kill them.”
“I certainly can. The only reason Trier isn’t dead already is because Giserre stopped me.”
Ferris let go his arm. “You tried to kill Trier?”
“I did. The next time I will do more than try. It will be better for them all that way.”
“Better?” Ferris gaped in disbelief. “How?”
“Better than if they go through what I did. Or Ahne. You cannot imagine how easily he confessed to me what he had done. How much he regretted his fall. It will only be a mercy if I prevent that from happening to the others.”
“You can’t punish people for what you think they might do. All this talk of not wanting to become Areft—can’t you see you’re acting just like him?”
Reiffen stepped back as if Ferris had slapped him. “Areft? How am I like Areft?”
“Are you listening to yourself? You’re talking about murdering people. That’s what Areft used to do. That’s why Issing and the other Ina came into the world. To stop him.”
“It’s not the same at all. I’m trying to prevent greater evil. What Areft did was wrong in and of itself. I did the exact same thing twelve years ago when I slew Ossdonc’s army in Rimwich. You just said so.”
“I did not. Our apprentices are not an invading army. You can’t kill them just because you’re afraid of what they might do. If they start acting like Ahne, I’ll be the first to help you. But you have to let them have their chance. You got yours.”
Reiffen rubbed his forehead wearily. Maybe Ferris was right. He really didn’t want to do this. “One does not drown kittens because one wants to,” he protested weakly.
“One doesn’t drown kittens at all, if one knows what’s good for one. Not around me.”
“It’s Trier I worry about the most,” he admitted. “She is much stronger than Ahne. The others know too little to cause any real harm. Perhaps we could simply stop teaching them.”
“First you have to get rid of this crazy idea about killing them. Then we can talk about the rest.”
Reiffen shook his head. “No. There will be no more teaching, regardless of what we decide. We have to defeat Fornoch first.”
She paused for a moment, looking at him. “Maybe I should take the apprentices away for a while. To Valing. We can discuss it when I come back.”
“No.”
Her tone became more challenging. “Maybe I’ll take Hubley with me, too.”
“No,” Reiffen repeated more sharply. “Hubley stays here.”
“Are you ordering me?”
“This is the only place any of us can be safe from Fornoch any more. He will be sure to go after you in Valing, especially if I am not there.”
Ferris pulled her cloak closer around her neck. “I don’t have time for this. We’ll talk about it when I get back.”
Their eyes met. Reiffen could see his wife was not going to back down. She could be so stubborn sometimes, and he was doing it all for her. And Hubley. But he could not stop her from taking her own road. And she might be right; slaying the apprentices might not be a good idea until they had actually been turned. Everyone would be against him then, and that was not what he wanted. He had fought the Three alone before, and knew how hard it was.
And would do so again, if he had to.
He knew he would have to act quickly. As Ferris stalked away, he traveled to Hubley’s room, surprising Hern at his sudden reappearance. She jumped back; the sock she was darning fell to the floor. Gathering his sleeping daughter in his arms, Reiffen disappeared.
***
When Hern told Ferris what Reiffen had done, Ferris knew she had no choice. Her husband might be showing signs of madness, but there was no way he would hurt their daughter. Besides, she had no idea where he’d gone. Angry though she was, there was nothing she could for now to bring Hubley back.
The apprentices were another matter. The best thing would be to get them away from Castle Grangore as quickly as possible, in case Reiffen came back to finish what he had started. That he was serious about slaying them Ferris had no doubt, especially after she found Giserre tending Trier in the Apprentices’ Tower.
Plum and the others were already awake and wondering what was going on. They whispered to one another in the halls, fearful and confused. Ferris hushed them with a look and told them they were going to Valing for a few days. “We’ve all been working too hard. A change of scene will do us all good. Everyone, go pack a bag, then meet me here.”
Giserre wasn’t fooled. “You are doing the right thing,” she said after the apprentices left. “My son is not himself.”
“He’ll be all right in a few days,” said Ferris, as much to reassure herself as Giserre. “You’ll see. He’ll come back tonight once he knows I’ve taken the apprentices. I’ll come back too. But it may take a while. I’ll need two spells to get to Valing with so many people, and I’ll have to rest in Malmoret along the way.”
“I will remain here,” said Giserre. “Someone should be here to see to the child if you are correct.”
Not fifteen minutes later they were in the New Palace. Hern took Berrel and the apprentices off in search of breakfast while Ferris went looking for the king and queen. Although by this point she was in as much need of rest as Reiffen, Ferris still felt it was important to tell their majesties what had happened.
Wellin nearly spilled her tea at the news. “He tried to kill Trier?”
Brizen reached out to steady his wife as Ferris wrapped her hands around her own cup. She had only just noticed how empty and cold she felt.
“Yes. I think he’s completely overwhelmed. He worries about Fornoch all the time, and having to kill Ahne has taken him all the way to the edge.”
“How long do you think it will be before he recovers?” Brizen’s honest face furrowed with concern.
“Not too long, I hope. But I really can’t say.”
“And Avender?” asked Wellin, her composure restored.
“Reiffen refuses to bring him back. You’ll have to do without him for a week.”
“I can never do without Avender,” said the king.
The queen swirled her tea with a spoon, careful not to touch the sides of the cup. Despite everything else on her mind, Ferris found herself wondering just what had happened between Wellin and Avender in Castle Grangore. Her talk with the queen two days ago now felt like it had happened months before. Later, perhaps, Wellin might confess what she’d done but, if anything had actually happened, Ferris didn’t want to know. Especially not now. It was strange, though, the way both of their marriages appeared to be approaching a crisis at the same time. Though perhaps that was an exaggeration of her own situation. Reiffen would come back to his senses soon enough. The queen, on the other hand, might well have done something from which there was no going back at all.
“He just needs a good night’s sleep,” Wellin advised. “Matters would be far worse had he actually killed the poor woman.”
“I’ve already talked him out of that,” said Ferris more forcefully than she actually believed.
“Perhaps if we invite him to Malmoret for a few days he will be able to relax,” suggested Brizen.
“No.” Ferris set her cup back down on the breakfast tray, her thimble clicking on the saucer. “Leaving Castle Grangore is the last thing to suggest to him. He’ll think the Wizard put you up to it. Once I get the apprentices settled in, I’m going back to Castle Grangore to look after him.”
Her duty done, Ferris excused herself. Brizen went with her, his manner plainly showing he had something he wanted to say. The fact he didn’t get around to saying it until they were outside her door suggested it was personal.
“Please pardon me for bothering you with this now,” he finally began, tugging at his ear. “But, when things in Castle Grangore settle down a bit, I wonder if you might come back to Malmoret. In your capacity as a physician, of course.”
“Is something wrong? You look fine.”
“No, nothing like that. Nor is it anything that needs looking into right away. Whenever you have time. Only I’d just as soon you not say anything to Wellin. No need to bother her with what will probably turn out to be nothing at all.”
She forgot Brizen’s request as soon as he was out of sight. Although her mind was racing, and she was more worried about Hubley than she cared to admit, she still fell into a deep sleep that lasted well into the afternoon. She woke suddenly, not remembering where she was and feeling as if she had forgotten something important. Thin rain spattered on the windows; the curtains veiling the room made the day seem later than it was. Jumping up, she found her parents waiting for her outside.
Gathering the apprentices, she cast the second spell. With such a large crowd, Ferris took them to the Tear, where there was less chance of running into someone. Finding the strain of the second spell even greater than the first, she lay back on the musty cushions as Hern hustled everyone else off to the Manor for hot chocolate and making beds. What she really wanted was to just go home. Her uneasiness had been growing all day, and wouldn’t be quelled until she spoke to her husband and child. With any luck, they had probably returned the moment Reiffen learned Ferris and the apprentices had left. It might be a good idea if she went up to the house and tried calling them on her parents’ mirror. But the Tear, though cold, was comfortable once the dust on the pillows had settled. The thrum of the gorge rushing below lulled her.
Still, she grew cold without a fire. She had almost made up her mind to move on to the house when the double doors at the top of the room opened and a tall man stooped to enter.
Not a man at all, she saw, but Fornoch.
Chapter 9
A Hundred Arefts
“There is no need for magic,” counseled the Wizard as Ferris reached for a thimble. “I have only come to talk.”
“You and I have nothing to talk about,” she answered, not letting go her finger.
“Oh, but we do.” Warmth filled the room as the Wizard spoke, one giant breath seemingly enough to replace the Tear’s cold air. Unless it was Ferris’s dread that warmed her. “Reiffen is about to embark on a most dangerous course. I fear you are the only one who can stop him.”
“Why would you care?”
“I have always cared about Reiffen. My brothers would have killed him more than once had I not been present to intervene on his behalf.”
“That was only because you wanted Reiffen to kill them instead.”
The Wizard smiled, his black eyes empty. “All families have their disagreements,” he acknowledged. “I expect you know that. And I do sometimes feel like a father to him.”
He lifted his broad hands in a gesture of resignation, his back still bent uncomfortably beneath the ceiling. “Would you mind if I came down to the center of the room? I am quite cramped here. You could retire up and around to the entrance as I descend. Unless, of course, you do not mind being so close to me.”
Ferris thought about pulling off her thimble then, but her curiosity about what the Wizard had to say overcame her apprehension. For twelve years there had been no sign of him, and now here he had shown up twice in two days. Careful to face him the entire time, she retreated up the broad ledges that ringed the Tear as the Wizard made his way down.
“Excellent,” he said when she was standing by the door. His head was now on the same level as hers. “Is this not much better?”
“Reiffen said you’d come looking for me if I left the castle. I should tell you right off, there’s nothing you can tempt me with I’d possibly want.”
“Really? Not even another child?”
The fact that Fornoch had hit the mark on the first try stunned her. Reiffen had often described the uncanny way the Wizard appeared to understand his deepest thoughts, but this was the first time Ferris had felt that insight herself.
“What is it you want?” she demanded.
Fornoch slipped his large hands into his gray sleeves. He looked much less threatening that way, more like a scholar than a Wizard. “As I said, only to help your husband. He has not been himself, lately, has he? All those dreams, and his increasing distress about your daughter. I would speak to him myself, but he is unlikely to listen to me. So I have come to you instead. I imagine your concern is even greater than mine.”
“You know about his dreams?”
“Certainly. They are the natural recoiling of his better nature against everything Usseis forced him to do to prove his loyalty.”
“Usseis? What about you?”
“I played my part,” Fornoch confessed.
“And now you want to help him.”
The Wizard regarded Ferris closely. “Are you certain there is nothing with which I can tempt you?”
Ferris gripped her thimble a second time. Twice now the Wizard had offered her something she wanted very much. She hoped she could resist the third.
“Unfortunately,” he continued, “there is no easy solution to your husband’s difficulty. Magic is not an art that is particularly accepting of half measures. Reiffen must either accept what he has learned and everything with it, or renounce the craft altogether. Otherwise it will tear him apart. This teaching only what he thinks fit for you and your apprentices will never work. Ahne knew there was something missing. I imagine you feel it yourself.”
“Reiffen and I have no secrets.”
“Are you aware he knows how to fashion Living Stones?”
“Yes.”
“And that he once made one?”
Ten years of small doubts came together as Ferris wondered why Reiffen had never told her there was a fourth Stone in addition to the three Fornoch had fashioned. Had he never intended to give his up at all? Had he meant to replace it with the one no one else knew existed? Or was the Wizard just lying?
“I thought not.” Fornoch smiled sympathetically, but it was hard to find the kindness in his all-black eyes. Like mirrors, they revealed nothing of what lay behind them. “Some things Reiffen prefers not to discuss. With anyone. The Living Stone was his masterwork, the task that marked the end of his schooling, just as yours was the healing of that carter who nearly crushed himself to death trying to emulate Nolo on the Sun Road.”
“I’ve told Reiffen more than once I don’t want to know about the Stones. Their cost is too high.”
“Your self-control is admirable, but then you already have one. Ahne was much weaker. All I had to do was point out to him how many more people he could help, were he to delve a little deeper into his art. From there it was a short, quick step from taking what he wanted from a fox or squirrel to helping me take it from a child.”
“You only want Reiffen to give up magic so you can turn our apprentices without him getting in the way.”
“Are you saying you would not want him to give up his magic, even if it might be for the best?”
“It isn’t for the best. Magic is part of Reiffen now, good or bad. He can’t be just one thing or another. All this talk of what’s good for him is just you trying to confuse us. It’s not the magic that’s bad, it’s what you do with it. Swords or spells, it’s what you do that matters, not what you know.”
“You see the issue precisely. Unlike your husband, who thinks on a grander scale. But mark what I say. If Reiffen does not give up his magic, he will only get worse. He might even become so obsessed as to cut you off and seal himself up in his workshops in order to work unceasingly on my demise.”
Ferris reached for her thimble a third time. “I’ve heard enough. Everyone knows all you ever do is lie.”
The Gray Wizard smiled. “Actually, I rarely lie. Has Reiffen not told you? Since you humans tend not to trust me anyway, I find it much easier to tell the truth. That way your mistakes can always be your own.”
“There’s more than one kind of lying. Your kind is to tell just enough truth to lead people the wrong way. That’s what you did with King Brioss years ago, and I’m sure you did the same to Reiffen in Ussene. No wonder he’s confused. Don’t think I won’t tell him everything you’ve said.”
“By all means, tell him,” the Wizard agreed. “That would be best. It is always better to confess to people like Reiffen what they already suspect. Otherwise they end up mistrusting even more. Believe me, he will know we have spoken, whether you tell him or not. As Ahne unfortunately learned, my mark is difficult to conceal. But do make sure you explain to him that he cannot escape the consequences of what he has learned unless he does as I suggest. Killing my brothers changed nothing. Nor, I imagine, will killing me.”
Ferris knew Fornoch was trying to trick her, playing games with her mind. He had done it before, sending Mennon off to be slaughtered by Cuhurran and the Banking army in the Udrun fens, and he had done it again when he had persuaded Reiffen that his only choice was to return to Ussene and learn what he could of magic. But both times Fornoch’s cunning had proven too sly by half. Mennon had survived Cuhurran’s arrow and ended up discovering the Dwarves; Reiffen’s learning magic had led to the death of the White and Black Wizards. As long as Ferris followed her own mind, she was certain Fornoch’s trickery would trip him up again.
