Through the Darkness

Leofsig recounted the meeting with Brivibas. When he’d finished, his father said, “I’d heard they’d brought the Kaunians from Oyngestun to Gromheort. I wondered if Ealstan’s... friend had any relatives among them. He had nerve, coming out of the Kaunian district.” He clicked his tongue between his teeth. “I hope I would have done the same for my kin.”

“Ealstan didn’t much like him,” Leofsig said. “I can see why--he thinks he knows everything there is to know, and he’s one of those Kaunians who’ve never forgiven us for coming out of the west and turning Forthweg into Forthweg.”

“And now he’s got a Forthwegian in his family,” Hestan said musingly. “No, he wouldn’t much care for that, would he? No more than a lot of Forthwegians would care to have a Kaunian in theirs.” He left himself out of that group, and after a moment continued, “I’ll have to see what I can do for him, poor fellow. I’m afraid it may not be very much, though.”

“If the Algarvians put him on a caravan and send him west--” Elfryth began.

“I can’t do anything about that,” Hestan answered. “I wish I could, not just for him, but I can’t. Once I find out where he’s staying, I can send him money. If he has any sense about such things, he’ll be able to pay off the redheads. They can be bought.” He glanced over to Leofsig. Several Algarvians had been bought so they wouldn’t notice his unauthorized return to Gromheort from that captives’ camp.

“I’m just glad most of the redheads you paid off are out of Gromheort these days, Father,” Leofsig said. “But I don’t know how much sense this Briv-ibas has. Not a lot, maybe, if his own granddaughter and Ealstan both wanted to stay clear of him.”

Hestan sighed. “You may well be right, but I can hope you’re wrong.”

“I hope I’m wrong, too,” Leofsig said. “He can put us in danger, not just himself.”

Vanai sprawled across the bed in the cramped little flat she shared with Ealstan, reading. The flat, which had had only one abandoned romance--and that a piece of hate translated from Algarvian--in it when they started living there, now boasted a couple of rickety bookcases, both of them packed. Ealstan brought home several books a week. He did work hard to keep her as happy as he could.

But, trained by her grandfather, she’d cut her teeth on the subtleties of Kaunian epics and histories and poetry. Forthwegian romances struck her as spun sugar: straightforward, all bright colors, heroes and villains sharply defined. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy them; she usually did. Still, at least half the time she knew all the important things that would happen before she got a quarter of the way into a book.

The slim little volume in her hands now wasn’t a romance at all. It was called You Too Can Be a Mage. In the preface, the author--who didn’t say what rank of magecraft he held, or if he was a ranked mage at all--didn’t come right out and promise that anyone who finished the book would end up a first-rank mage, but he certainly implied it.

“A likely story,” Vanai muttered. If magecraft were so easy, everybody would have been a mage. But using sorcery and performing it on your own were two very different things.

Despite her doubts, she kept reading. The author had a sprightly style, and seemed convinced he was telling the truth, regardless of how improbable Vanai found that. You can unleash the power within yourself, he insisted.

Back in Oyngestun, she’d tried magic--a cantrip lifted from a text belonging to her grandfather that dated back to the Kaunian Empire--to try to get Major Spinello to leave her alone. A little later, Spinello got posted to Unkerlant. Vanai still didn’t know whether the spell and his departure had anything to do with each other. She didn’t know... but she hoped.

She wondered what had happened to Spinello after he got to Unkerlant. Nothing good was her dearest wish. Many, many Algarvians had met their ends in battle against King Swemmel’s men. Was one more too much to ask?

She doubted she would ever learn Spinello’s fate. She hoped with all her soul she would never see him again. If she didn’t, who would bring word of him to her? No one, if she had any luck at all.

With a deliberate effort of will, she pushed Major Spinello out of her mind and went back to You Too Can Be a Mage. The author concentrated on spells that might bring in money and on those that might lure someone good-looking of the opposite sex, neither of which areas inclined Vanai to trust him very far. But, he insisted, using these same principles can get you anything--aye, anything!--your heart desires.

“What does my heart desire?” Vanai asked, rolling over and looking up toward the poorly plastered ceiling. She’d never had a lot of money, and had got very used to doing without it. She wasn’t looking for anyone but Ealstan. What did she want, then?