Stained Glass Monsters (20 page)

Kendall went.

-oOo-

The stable yard of the Houses of Magic
was full of horses and coaches. After Rennyn found them the right
coach to put their bags in, she disappeared into the Sentene's
barracks. Kendall went to collect her dictionaries, which she'd
left on her bed with her smock and a snippy little note resigning
from the Arkathan.

Sukata Illuma was reading it. She gave
Kendall a long look when she came in the door, then handed the note
over. "What changed your mind?"

Kendall hesitated. She liked Sukata, so
far as it was possible to like someone who kept herself separate
and hardly ever spoke. It wasn't so much explaining that was the
problem – it was convenient that someone was around for her to give
a message to – it was just that it was Sukata. Not only was her
mother probably going to be in danger on this trip, but the offer
of personal tutoring from Rennyn Claire was something Kendall
suspected most would-be mages would value a good deal more than she
did. And that wasn't even counting how strange the Kellian were
about the remnants of the Montjuste-Surclere family.

"Guess I saw the sense of not cutting
off my nose to spite my face," Kendall said slowly. She chewed her
lip. "Sukata – why do you stay over here if your mother lives in
the next building?"

"That is a rule of the Arkathan. Few are
granted an exception, though of course many have now been given
leave to return to their families for the duration of the Grand
Summoning. And while the building is repaired."

"Are you going to go into the Sentene
when you've finished with the Arkathan?"

"Perhaps. Sentene mages need to learn
how to apply their knowledge in trying situations. It's a good
proving ground."

"Proving what?"

With rare physical expression Sukata
lifted one shoulder. "Whether I am capable of more."

More. Just as Kendall had guessed,
Sukata wanted to be a real mage. "Walk back with me," she said,
picking up her uniform. "I don't think I've much time left."

Kellian could be deceptively obliging.
Even though Kendall had barely spoken to her before today, Sukata
had answered her questions and followed along now quite as if she
would do whatever she was told. But that, Kendall would bet, was
because she was more than curious about what was going on. Kendall
went back to the stable yard, reaching it just before Rennyn, who
was carrying a funny-looking crystal and metal thing attached to a
chain.

"Wait here a moment," Kendall told
Sukata, and followed her would-be teacher around the other side of
the coach. "You can lecture two people as easily as one, can't
you?" she hissed.

Rennyn glanced in the direction where
Sukata waited, hidden by the coach. For a moment there was the
faintest hint of – dismay? – on her face, but then she shrugged.
"True enough." She moved so that she could see Sukata, whose wide
eyes and frozen stance made clear that Kendall had spoken too
loudly. "Though, unlike Kendall, I expect there's people you'll
want to ask permission of before going on tours of Tyrland."

"I – yes." Sukata recovered rapidly,
making a smart little bow. "Thank you, my Lady. I will be quick."
She vanished through the increasing tangle of Sentene and
Ferumguard getting ready to depart.

"Nice gesture," Rennyn said, when the
Kellian girl was out of sight. "I didn't expect it of you."

"I knew it would really matter to her,"
Kendall said, ducking her head. "I couldn't just tell her where I
was going, knowing that."

"Troubling to have a conscience, isn't
it?"

That was the sort of comment which made
Kendall remember that this woman was a descendant of Black Queen
Solace. Rennyn climbed into their coach and sat fiddling with the
crystal thing, fixing a thick bracelet around her wrist, but
Kendall stayed outside watching the Sentene and Ferumguard organise
themselves. Sukata must have run at full Kellian speed, returning
clutching a small bag just as Lady Weston showed up flanked by
Captain Faille and Captain Illuma.

"Well, child. You do have a talent for
attracting would-be teachers." Lady Weston's wry tone acknowledged
that she herself had failed to teach Kendall anything. "It is good
of–" She broke off, looking into the coach, then shook her head,
smiling. Rennyn Claire was curled up on one of the seats, deeply
asleep. "I will save my speeches, then," Lady Weston continued in a
lowered tone. "Take care, you two. Follow the orders you are given.
I need not warn you of the dangers, since you have already
witnessed what you may face. Most of all, listen. Make the most of
this opportunity."

Be good and listen hard. Kendall
muttered something appropriate and climbed into the coach, deciding
that Rennyn Claire was just as good at taking people over as Ma
Lippon. Deciding how things should go, and getting her way by
pretending not to care whether you did what she wanted. Or, no –
more that she knew you'd do it, because her way was the right way.
Surclere arrogance.

Not that Kendall hadn't just done the
same thing to Sukata, who was sitting very upright gazing out of
the window not because she was interested in the stable yard, but
because she'd really rather stare at Rennyn Claire. Her face was
perfectly composed and her eyes were totally lit up. Happy beyond
words. Maybe this was why they did it, those people who tried to
take you over, who thought they knew what was best.

More likely they just wanted to make
themselves feel good.

"Like a mother duck and her
ducklings."

This made Sukata's eyes widen, and
Lieutenant Meniar laughed outright, then tried to pretend he
hadn't. It was true though. They'd stopped somewhere south of
Knifecliff, on a white road cut through rolling greenery. Rennyn
Claire had started walking about, dangling the big round crystal
which apparently held the Black Queen's focus, and a little
deputation of Sentene and Hand mages trailed behind her, while
everyone else watched. So serious they made Kendall's teeth
ache.

The road, overlooked by a farmhouse and
plenty of sheep, ran alongside an abrupt fall from pasture to a
sliver of sand edging the endless blackness she was told was the
Deridian Sea. It stretched further than Kendall could see, and she
was unable to resist standing close to the edge of the proper,
solid world, drawn and repelled by the mass of water.

Right now, she was betting the Sentene
wished they were anywhere else, as Rennyn Claire walked straight up
to the cliff's edge and, after the briefest pause, right over
it.

"Barin," said Lieutenant Meniar. "Go up
to that farmhouse and ask them about tides. Everything about
tides."

"Yessir," said one of the Ferumguard,
sounding just about as pleased as Meniar. Kendall watched her
supposed teacher walk from the narrow beach to ten feet out over
the water, then stop. She glanced back at the beach and with a
gesture brought a man-sized boulder flying toward her. It sank into
the dark water beneath her feet.

As Rennyn floated herself back to the
top of the cliff one of the Captains ordered most of the crowd to
setting up camp, leaving only a small group to stand about being
dismayed.

"You did say something about Sentene
mages and trying situations," Kendall muttered to Sukata, and then
scooted herself in at the back to listen to the senior Hand mages
yak on about whether their clever shields would work under
water.

Captain Illuma turned to Rennyn when she
set herself down beside Kendall. "Can you delay entering the Eferum
until this is settled, Lady Montjuste-Surclere? We may need your
advice."

"I'll be delaying entering the Eferum
until the last moment anyway," was the response. "Since it seems I
can't reliably conceal myself, it's the simplest way to limit my
exposure." She glanced restively down at the waves. "The cliff top
should be within range, so I'll set my circle up here, too."

"This is a situation we've not
encountered before, My Lady," said one of the Hand mages, a
twittery, dark-skinned woman who was a good deal sharper than she
made out. "We are aware that natural breaches open over water, of
course, but given the difficulty of studying them, we have little
information."

"Mm. The water's about ten feet deep
where I put that rock, and the bottom drops sharply." Rennyn's
attention had drifted back to the waves with a touch of the same
fascination Kendall felt. "I'd abandon any idea of that shield,"
she continued after a moment. "If you hadn't already. There's too
much confluence between deep water and the Eferum, which is why I
need to keep my circle at a distance. This breach will be very
large, its strength enhanced by the environment, and will form at
the surface, wherever the surface happens to be. Still, few
Eferum-Get do very well in water, so if there is another horde,
some of them may drown."

"We should look at nets," Captain Illuma
said. "Reinforced and cast over the area to drag them under. Use
the water to our advantage instead of taking it as an
obstacle."

This suggestion produced lots of
nodding, and a detachment was sent back to Knifecliff to wangle
some nets. Kendall followed Rennyn as, rubbing the back of her
neck, she wandered off to the coaches to ferret around in her bags.
Kendall had seen her eyes open more than once during the journey,
and wondered if there was anyone who could order the woman to go
back to bed.

For a group who usually travelled in
pairs, the Sentene acted like a well-drilled army. Or perhaps it
was mainly the Ferumguard, whose normal role was keeping villagers
out of the way and searching out any remaining traces after a
Sentene pair had taken care of whatever thing had been ravaging the
countryside. In any case, they had a small town's worth of tents
erected in little clusters, food cooking, the horses rubbed down,
and the local farmer soothed, all before Rennyn had finished
dissecting her luggage. A handful of mages were busy constructing
two temporary circles to keep out stray Night Roamers – those that
were stupid enough to come anywhere near a Sentene camp.

At least the meal, a salty mix of
buttered grains and vegetables, made Rennyn look a bit more alive,
to the point where, sitting in front of one of the tent clusters as
the afternoon started thinking about twilight, she turned her
attention on Kendall and Sukata.

"So, tell me what you know about
magic."

"Aren't you supposed to tell
us
?"
Kendall retorted.

"It helps to know where to start. You
know the differences between the three so-called spheres of
magic?"

"Force, Sigillic and Symbolic," Kendall
said, reluctant because there were at least half a dozen people
unashamedly eavesdropping. "Sebastian found me a book which
explained a bit. Far as I can tell, Clumsy, Complicated and Scary
magic."

"You're not far off," Rennyn said,
laughing. "Though that's more the usual outcome than the sphere
itself. Casting is just a mage trying to tell Efera to do
something, but you have a choice of approach. How have you been
going with the exercise Seb set you?"

Hunching her shoulders, Kendall glowered
at the small wooden bowl she'd recently set down. It jerked to one
side. "It goes everywhere but up," she muttered.

"And you, Sukata?" Rennyn asked. "The
first step of Thought magic – to lift and hold steady a light
object."

"The Teremic approach–" Sukata
began.

"Goes on interminably about the relative
uselessness of what they like to call Force Magic, and counsels
those who would use it be well-grounded in Sigillic before
attempting anything. You're a couple of years off summoning your
first focus, I presume?"

"Yes."

"Can you lift up that bowl?"

"I–" With more than a hint of reluctance
Sukata turned her eyes on the bowl, but it didn't do anything and
she shook her head.

"What about you Lieutenant Meniar?"

Meniar stopped pretending to be busy
watching for attackers. "Ah...I'd better not."

"The Teremic approach is like putting
off learning to walk or talk until you're twenty or so – an
excellent way of discouraging you from starting. Because you've no
magical strength yet, Kendall, there's a limit to how much damage
you can wreak while you're trying to find out how to order your
thoughts. Lieutenant Meniar has apparently reached the point where
he thinks he might kill someone if he tries."

Kendall was astonished. All this time
watching pebbles hop about, she'd thought she mustn't be
particularly talented at magecraft. "But – they can cast – why is
it possible for them to cast at all if they can't do that?"

"'Thought magic'. Telling Efera what you
want simply by thinking it. It's an exercise of will and mental
discipline. Sigillic magic puts a buffer between the Efera and your
thoughts, and uses an entirely different 'muscle' – as if you were
using your arms instead of your legs, for instance." Rennyn
searched about in her pockets and produced a small wooden box
containing sticks of chalk. Calling the bowl to her with a gesture,
she wrote a bunch of sigils on the curving wood, then pushed power
into them until the bowl rose a short way into the air and stayed
there. "Although mages usually think or even speak the name of the
sigils as they power them, they're not making any attempt to do
anything with Efera except run it through the shape of the sigil.
Whatever they've written shapes the result of the casting.
Complicated is a good description, since, because the casting is at
one remove from the caster, factors such as duration need to be
taken into account. You'll see few good Sigillics which don't have
some limit or cut-off mechanism – a word or a phrase. But that's
the structure of the casting. The act is the same whatever the
spell: push power to the sigils and let the sigils form the
outcome."