Through the Darkness

“You are too generous,” Fernao said. The waited brought him salmon then, and a roll and butter for Siuntio. The Lagoan mage waited till the man had gone, then continued, “You folk here have a two years’ head start on the rest of the world. I hurry along as best I can, but I know I am still behind you.”

“You have done very well,” Siuntio said. “Even Master Ilmarinen has told me as much.”

“He has not told me as much,” Fernao said after a bite of smoked salmon. When he chose to show it, he had a wry grin. “Of course, I am only a Lagoan.” He ate some more of the salmon and onion. “You have no idea how much better than roasted--half charred, really--camel hump that is.”

He was right; Pekka had never tasted camel, and had no great desire to do so. In something else he’d said, though, he might well have been wrong. “We may have a two years’ start on you,” Pekka told him, “but are you sure we have a two years’ start on the Algarvians? I wish I were.”

Fernao’s grimace suggested he’d taken a bite of camel after all. “No, I am not sure of that,” he admitted. “I have seen no Algarvian journals dating from since Lagoas declared war, and Mezentio’s mages may not be publishing any more than you were.”

“My belief is that the Algarvians are not traveling quickly down this ley line,” Siuntio said, not for the first time. “They have put so much work into their murderous magic, I think it occupies most of their mages.”

“That makes good sense,” Fernao said, “but not everything that makes good sense is true.”

“I am painfully aware of it,” Siuntio said. “Were I not, Ilmarinen’s work would be plenty to prove the point.”

“He will be waiting for us at the university, I suppose?” Pekka said.

“Aye, unless he’s gone off in a fit of pique,” Siuntio answered. Pekka bit her lip. With Ilmarinen, that was anything but impossible. But Siuntio went on, “I do expect to find him there.”

Fernao ate fast, as if afraid an Algarvian mage might start experimenting while he savored his smoked salmon. Getting up out of his chair was an even more awkward process than sitting down in it. Pekka signed the chit for all three breakfasts. The Seven Princes could afford it.

She and Siuntio had to help Fernao up into a cab. He sighed, saying, “I have not got used to being a burden to everyone around me.” Pekka and Siuntio both assured him he was nothing of the sort, but he didn’t seem inclined to listen. He sat glumly for some little while as the cab horse clopped through the streets of Yliharma. At last, he remarked, “I had heard the Algarvians struck you a heavy blow, but I had not realized it was as heavy as this.”

“It could have happened to Setubal, too,” Pekka said.

“It nearly did,” the Lagoan mage answered. “Mezentio’s men had set up a murder camp across the Strait of Valmiera from our city, but we raided it and freed most of the Kaunian captives there. We keep close watch, lest they try again.”

Thinking aloud, Pekka said, “If they work out the proper spells, I wonder if they have to be as physically close as they seem to believe. Could they not transmit the force of the magic along a ley line?”

She sat squeezed rather tightly between Fernao and Siuntio. Both men sent her looks full of consternation. Fernao said, “They started using their magecraft in Unkerlant, where ley lines are few and far between. It may well be, we have the powers above to thank for that.”

“And what do the sacrificed Kaunians have for which to thank the powers above?” Siuntio asked. Fernao looked as if he’d bitten down on one of the sour citrus fruits Jelgavans used to flavor wine. He made no reply.

When they reached the sorcerous laboratory the Algarvian attack had almost destroyed, they did find Ilmarinen waiting for them. He tilted his head back so he could look down--or rather, up--his nose at Fernao. “Come to see how it’s done, have you?”

“Aye,” the Lagoan mage answered equably. “After all, what else am I but a thief?”

Ilmarinen started to come back with something sharp. Before he could, Siuntio took him aside and spoke to him in a low voice. By the way he suddenly stared at Pekka, she was able to make a good guess as to what Siuntio told him. Ilmarinen said, “That’s a nasty thought, my dear. I’m the one who should have come up with it.”

Pekka smiled her most charming smile. “I’m sure you would have, Master Ilmarinen, if you hadn’t been too busy fuming about Fernao here.”

They’d all spoken Kuusaman, but the Lagoan mage caught his name. “What was that?” he asked. Pekka translated for him. He said, “You need not defend me, Mistress; I can take care of myself. And I have spent some time fuming about Master Ilmarinen, too, so he is entitled to fume about me.”

“Don’t tell me what I’m entitled to,” Ilmarinen snapped; like Siuntio, he could use classical Kaunian not just to get ideas across but almost as if it were his birthspeech.

“Shall we proceed to the experiment?” Siuntio said. “In every moment we quarrel among ourselves, the Algarvians gain.”