Out of the Darkness

Pekka cut a bite from her reindeer chop. Chewing and swallowing gave her time to think. “It’s not the same,” she said at last. “That won’t be an emergency. And”-she looked around the refectory before she went on, making sure none of the mages they’d worked with was in earshot-”and I won’t be trying to get through to so many stubborn dunderheads. Some of the people we tried to teach must still be sure the world is flat.”

“I ran into that, too,” Fernao said. “You wouldn’t expect it from mages-”

“I thought the same thing at first,” Pekka broke in, “but now I’m not so sure. Mages know the world is full of sorcerous laws. When we showed them the ones they thought they knew weren’t really at the bottom of things, some of them didn’t want to hear that at all.”

“They certainly didn’t,” Fernao agreed. “Some of them didn’t want to believe the spells I was casting actually worked, even though they saw them with their own eyes. But even so, the ones we did manage to train went out and stopped the Algarvians as if they’d run into a wall.”

That was true. Pekka couldn’t deny it, and was glad she couldn’t. “Have you read the interrogation reports from some of the captured Algarvian mages?” she asked.

“Aye.” Fernao nodded. His smile might have belonged on the face of a shark: it was all teeth and no mercy. “They still haven’t figured out how we did what we did. They know we did something they couldn’t match, but there are about as many guesses as to what it is as there are mages.”

“And not very many of them are even close to what we really did,” Pekka said. “That makes me happier, too, because it’s likely to mean the Unkerlanters aren’t close to figuring it out, either. I hope they’re not.”

“So do I.” Fernao said. “As long as they don’t figure it out, we still hold the whip hand. The longer we can keep it, the better.” He took another sip from his mug, then asked, “Anything new from Gyongyos?”

“Not that I’ve heard,” Pekka answered with a mournful shake of the head. “If they don’t decide we meant that warning demonstration, we’ll have to show them it was real. I don’t want to do that. So many people. .”

“It will end the war,” Fernao said. “It had better, anyhow.”

That made Pekka drain the rest of her ale in a hurry. The notion that the Gongs might try to keep fighting even after having horror visited on them had never crossed her mind. No one rational would do such a thing. But, were the Gyongyosians rational, wouldn’t they have quit already? They’d surely seen by now that they couldn’t hope to win. . hadn’t they?

“What would we do if they didn’t quit?” she muttered.

“Smash another city of theirs, I suppose,” Fernao answered. “Better that than invading-or do you think I’m wrong?”

“No.” Pekka waved to one of the serving women and ordered more ale. “I don’t want to have to cast this spell once, though. Twice?” She shuddered. When the new mug of ale got there, she gulped it down fast, too.

Her head started to spin. Fernao wagged a finger at her. “Am I going to have to carry you up to your bedchamber?”

She laughed. It sounded like the laugh of someone who’d had a little too much to drink. “Ha!” she said, feeling very witty-and slightly tongue-tied. “You just want me defenseless”-she had to try twice before she could get the word out-”so you can work your evil will on me.”

“Evil?” Fernao raised a gingery eyebrow. “You thought it was pretty good the last time we tried anything.”

As best she could remember-none too clearly, not at the moment-he was right. “That hasn’t got anything to do with anything,” she declared.

“No, eh?” Fernao said. “I-”

A commotion at the entrance to the refectory interrupted him. “What’s that?” Pekka said. Kuusamans didn’t commonly cause commotions. She got to her feet to see what was going on.

So did Fernao. Since he was a good deal taller, he could see more. When he exclaimed, Pekka couldn’t tell whether he was delighted or horrified. A moment later, he spoke two words that explained why perfectly well: “Ilmarinen’s back.”

“Is he?” Pekka said, in tones identical to his.

Back Ilmarinen was. He somehow contrived to look raffish even in the uniform of a Kuusaman colonel. Catching sight of Fernao, who stood out not only on account of his inches but also for his red hair, the elderly theoretical sorcerer waved and made his way toward him, shaking off the mages and servants clustering round. A few steps later, Ilmarinen caught sight of Pekka, too, and waved again.

Pekka waved back, trying to show more enthusiasm than she felt. What’s he going to say, seeing the two of us together? she wondered. It was a question whose answer she could have done without.

What Ilmarinen did say was, “I was very sorry to hear about Leino. He was a good man. I’d hoped to see him in Jelgava, but I got up to the front just too late.”

“Thank you,” Pekka answered. She couldn’t find anything exceptionable in that.