Magic's Pawn (48 page)

All three of the adults were weary, and relief at finding both that Vanyel was intact and that the queen-drake was indisputably deceased had them just about ready to collapse. So they’d taken the settlers’ hospitality with gratitude; settling in beside the hearth and accepting tea and shelter without demur.

Vanyel had waited just long enough for them to get settled before launching into a full confession.

“So when I finally managed to acquire some sense,” he continued, “I figured the best way to find my way
back
would be to look for where all the mage-energy was. I did everything like you told me, Master Starwind, and I opened up - and the next thing I knew it was nearly noon. Somebody’d opened up a Gate - I think somewhere nearby - and it knocked me put cold.”

“Ha - I
told
you those things were Gated in!” Savil exclaimed. “Sorry, lad, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Then what?”

“Well, I didn’t think there was anyone around here but
Tayledras
, so I thought one of them had done it. I started to open up again to find the vale, and I heard a call for help. I got here, and when I saw that colddrake - kill the old man - I just - I just couldn’t stand by and not do anything. I didn’t even think about it. I wish I had, I think I overdid it.”

“With a colddrake, particularly a queen, better overkill,” Savil replied, exchanging a look of veiled satisfaction with Starwind. “You may have acted a fool, but it put you in the right place at the right time, and I am not going to berate you for it.”

“Aunt Savil, I,” he flushed, and hunched himself up a little, “I got here before the old man came out. I didn’t
do
anything until he - I mean - I was just hiding in the bushes. I guess,” he said, in a very small voice, “I guess Father’s right. I
am
a coward. I could have saved him, and I didn’t.”

“Did you
know
you could have saved him?” Moondance asked, quietly, his square face still. “Did you
know
that your mage-powers would work against the drake?’’

“Well - no.”

“You ran
toward
the danger when you Mindheard the call for help, right?” Savil asked. “Not
away?”

“Well - yes.”

“And you simply froze when you saw the strange monster. You did not flee?” Starwind raised one long eyebrow.

“I guess that’s what happened.”

“I think perhaps you have mistaken inexperience for cowardice, young Vanyel,” Starwind said with conviction. “A coward would have run away from a plea for help. A coward would have fled at the first glimpse of the drake. You were
indecisive
-
but you remained. It is experience that makes one decisive, and you have precious little of that.”

“M’lord Starwind?” One of the homespun-clad men of the settlement was standing diffidently at the
Tayle-dras’
elbow.

“Phellip, I
wish
you would not call me ‘lord,’ “ Starwind sighed, shaking his head. “You hold your lands under our protection, yes, but it is a simple matter of barter, foodstuffs for guardianship, and no more than that.”

“Aye, m’ - Master Starwind. Master, this drake - she just be chance-come, or be there anythin’ more to it?”

Starwind turned to look at him more closely, and with some interest. “Why do you ask that?”

Phellip coughed, and flushed. “Well, m’lord, I was born ‘n’ bred west a’ here. M’people held land a’ Mage-lord Grenvis -
he
were all right, but - well, when ‘is neighbors had a notion t’ play war, they useta bring in drakes an’ th’ like aforehand.”

“And you think something of the sort might be in the offing? Phellip, I congratulate you on your foresight. The thought had only just occurred to me - “

“Da?” One of the boys couldn’t contain himself any longer, and bounced up beside his father. “Da, there gonna be a war? With fightin’ an’ magic an’ - “

Phellip grabbed the loose cloth of the boy’s tunic and pulled him close. “Jo - I want ye t’
lissen
t’ what m’lord Starwind is gonna tell ye - m’lord,
you
tell ‘im; ‘
e
don’ believe ‘is of man that fightin’ ain’t good fer nothin’ but fillin’ up graveyards.”

“Young man,” Starwind fixed the boy with an earnest stare. “There is
nothing
‘fine’ about warfare. There is nothing ‘glorious’ about battle. All that a war means to such as you and I is that people we know and love will die, probably senselessly; others will be crippled for life - and the fools who began it all will sit back in their high castles and plot a way to get back what
they
lost. If there
were
to be a war - which, trust me, Phellip, I shall try most earnestly to prevent - the very
best
you could hope for, young man, would be to see these lovely fields around you put to the torch so that you would face a very hungry winter.
That
is what warfare is all about. The only justifiable fight is a defensive one, and in
any
fight it is the innocents who ultimately suffer the most.”

The boy didn’t look convinced.

Vanyel cleared his throat, and the boy shot a look at him. “Pretty exciting, the way that drake just nipped off that fool old man’s head, wasn’t it, Starwind?” he drawled, in exaggerated imitation of some of the young courtiers of his own circle.

The boy paled, then reddened - but before he could burst into either tears or angry words, Vanyel looked him straight in the eyes so fiercely that he could not look away.

“That’s
what you’ll see in a war, Jo,” he said, harshly. “Not people in tales getting killed -
your
people getting killed. Younglings, oldsters - everybody. And some fool at the rear crowing about how
exciting
it all is.
That’s
what it’s about.”

Now
Jo looked stricken - and, perhaps, convinced. Out of the corner of his eye Vanyel saw the farmer nodding in approval.

Out of nowhere, Vanyel felt a sudden rush of kindred feeling for these people. Suddenly they weren’t faceless, inscrutable monoliths anymore - suddenly they were
people
. People who were in some ways a great deal more like him than his own relatives were. They had lives - and loves and cares.

Their outlook on warfare was certainly closer to his than that of any of his blood relations.

They aren’t that much different than me. Except
-
except that I can do something they can’t. I can
-
I
can protect them when they can’t protect themselves. And they can do things I can’t. But I
could
learn to grow a carrot if I had to. It probably wouldn’t be a very good carrot, but I could grow one. They won’t ever be able to blast a colddrake
.

What does that
mean,
really? What does that say about
my
life? Why can
I
do these things, and not someone else
-
and what about the people out there who
-
who send drake-swarms out to eat Helpless farmers? If I can protect people like this from people like
them -
doesn’t that mean
-
that I really
have
to
?

He looked up and saw his aunt’s eyes; she was watching the children at their chores, cleaning and chopping vegetables for a stew. Her expression was at once protective and worried.

It’s the way Savil feels
-
it’s got to be. That’s why she’s a Herald
.

And suddenly Tylenders words came back to him; so clearly that it seemed for a moment as if Tylendel were sitting beside him again, murmuring into his ear.

“…
it’s a kind of hunger. I can’t help it. I’ve got these abilities, these Gifts, and I can’t
not
use them. I couldn’t sit here, knowing that there were people out there who need
exactly
the kind of help I can give them and not make the effort to find them and take care of them.’’
Now he understood those words. Oh, the irony of it; this part of Tylendel that he had never been able to comprehend -
now
it was clear. Now that Tylendel was gone -
now
he understood.
Oh, godsHe
closed his eyes against the sting of tears. Oh, yes -
now
he understood. Because now he felt that way, too. Too late to share it.

:Well
?: To all appearances, Savil was asleep beside the settlers’ stone hearth as she Mindspoke Starwind in Private-mode. In actuality, despite her weariness she was anything but sleepy, and was watching the fire through half-slitted eyes as she waited for the opportunity to confer with him. Her single word contained a world of overtones that she was fairly certain he’d pick up.

:Interesting, on several levels
,: he replied. He was lying on his back, arms beneath his head, his eyes also closed.

The settlers - Savil had learned before the evening was over that they were calling their lands “Garthhold,” and that there were seven loosely-related families in the group - had offered the
Tayledras
and their friends unlimited hospitality. All four of them were bone-tired even after rest and tea, and it was agreed among the three adults that it would be no bad thing to take them up on it. They refused, however, to put anyone out of his bed. So after a dinner of bread and stew, they made it plain that they intended to sleep by the fireside. The four of them were currently rolled up in their cloaks, on sacks of straw to keep them off the stone of the floor, beside the glowing coals of the kitchen hearth.

Vanyel was genuinely asleep. Savil wasn’t certain of Moondance; he was curled on his side, his face to the fire, as peaceful and serene as a child’s.

By all rights, he should really be asleep. There’d been several injuries related to the colddrake’s attack and the hasty escapes, and Moondance had had his hands full Healing them. Then he had delegated himself magical assistant to getting the stockade back up. It had saved the Garthholders no end of effort to have the logs spell-raised back into place. He
should
have been exhausted.

So Savil thought, until he Mindspoke both of them.
:May I enter the conversation? I assume there is one
.:

So much for Moondance being weary.

:Be welcome, but keep it in private
,: she replied,
:Among other things, we’re discussing the boy. Starwind, go on please.
:

:From the small things to the great
-
I
think
perhaps
you may cease to fear for the boy. I think he now feels the hunger you spoke of, and understanding has been attained. Herein the question is if the boy can conquer his fears
.:

.
I
wondered about that. He’s been wearing a very odd look on his face this evening, and I’ve
never
known him to be as friendly with common folk as he was tonight
.: She opened her eyes wide and stared at the glowing embers of the hearth without really seeing them.
-.Poor Van. If that dream of his
is
ForeSight
-
that’s a hell of a burden to carry around
.:

:It still may never come to be
,: Moondance reminded them, and the straw of his bedding crackled as he shifted.
:We still See only the thing most likely
at this moment.
And the moment is always changing
. I
would change the subject. We have a more urgent consideration. Those colddrakes were Gated here. That speaks of
-
:

: -
great trouble to come
,: Starwind replied, his mind-voice dark and grim. ‘
.There is no doubt in my mind at this moment that the drakes were sent to harry this area in advance of a fighting force
.: The fire popped once.
:This has gone beyond tampering. There was a village to the west of here under tacit k ‘Treva protection. I can no longer sense it; it is under a foreign shield
.:

:Someone moved in and took it over, hmm
?: Savil brooded on that a moment.
:What would you say to us organizing a little surprise for whoever sent those drakes? I doubt anyone is expecting k ‘Treva response this soon. By rights, dividing the swarm should have kept us busy for a week
.:

Starwind’s mind-voice was troubled. .
I
would say that you are not k’Treva
-
:

:And I would reply that I am Wingsister, which makes me just as much k ‘Treva as Moondance. I would say also that two mages tampering in this area is a very unlikely coincidence, ft is far more likely that this is the same mage who was hired by the Leshara of Valdemar. Which makes it the more my fight.:

More straw rustled, and Savil moved her head slightly; just enough to see Starwind’s ironic gaze bent on her for a long moment.

:And I
,: Moondance put in,
.-would say that my
shay’kreth’ashke
is unlikely to win a battle of wills with such a stubborn one as I know the Wingsister to be. I would also say that three Adepts are better in this than two
.:

Starwind sighed. .
I
fear I am defeated ere I begin. What do we do with the boy, then? We cannot leave him here, and I mislike taking the time to take him back to the vale. That
will
lose us the element of surprise
.: