The Burning City (59 page)

Everywhere outside of the Burning City, elders remembered when evening's dinner could be
summoned.
Where civilization grew dense, surviving animals learned to avoid people. Some learned to fight back. In these days of dwindling magic, seeking meat became an adventure. Meals were often vegetarian at the New Castle. But twice a year, birds would overfly the land….

There was nobody to greet Whandall's return. Men, women, children were all over the landscape, all swinging slings, sowing a hail of rocks and reaping birds. Green Stone and Whandall arrived in time to share the plucking.

The evening was spent stripping feathers and roasting and eating pigeons. Everyone gorged. They all reached bed very late.

Late breakfast was cold roasted pigeons. Whandall and Willow spoke of mundane matters.

Green Stone had been days away from his new bride. No need to disturb
them.
As for the wedding, plans had firmed up; most of the arguing
had stopped. With the caravan away, not much could be done to prepare. If only Hawk In Flight would stop blurting out new ideas!

Morth would be no bother until next spring. “He'll be on a mountain,” Whandall said. “If we can pick a wish…”

“Something?”

“Mm?”

Willow said, “You were talking and you just trailed off.”

“I can find him ‘when I decide what I want,' Morth said.
Maybe
he meant the wish he owes us.
Maybe
he still thinks I'll come with him.”

“You wouldn't.”

She looked so worried that Whandall laughed. “He's off to fight a water elemental on
my
home turf, but that's okay, he's got a
plan
, only he can't tell
me
because the fire god won't like it!”

“So you won't—”

“But if I'm willing to make the effort, I could be standing
right next to him
when it all happens!”

“—won't go.”

“Dear one, I will not go. A Lordkin's promise. Now, what shall we wish for? Something a magician can reasonably be expected to accomplish? Nothing outrageous.”

“We have most of a year—”

“I don't think so. There was something in his voice. Willow, he won't wait. He's thought of something. Maybe Stone knows.”

“Why would he tell Green Stone?”

“Well, we generally ate with Morth and Twisted Cloud, and told stories.”

“We'll catch him at dinner,” Willow said. “And now, Lordkin, will you go to encourage the kinless at their work?”

“In my dreams,” Whandall said. He went out naked. It was appropriate for the work, and the weather was warm.

Where passenger pigeons had passed, every human hand was needed to clean the droppings from every human artifact. Women worked inside, men outside. Whandall Feathersnake in his youth had learned to climb. He spent the day scraping roofs alongside those few who didn't fear heights.

The New Castle men and boys spent day's end in the pond, trying to get each other clean.

But Green Stone wasn't there.

The household was in an uproar again. Whandall's impatience died when he saw his wife's face, and Lilac's.

“I almost followed him alone,” Lilac said. “We have bison and another wagon, why not? But I don't know enough. He tried to tell me it was for the children! I called him an idiot, and he packed and left. Father-found, what happened at Road's End?”

“For the children?
What
for the children?”

“He's off to see the wizard! Morth of Atlantis is going to the Burning City, and Green Stone will go with him!”

“Whandall,” Willow demanded,
“what happened at Road's End?”

“Ah.”

He must sound like he'd been punched in the gut, the way they looked at him. And now the hard part was admitting his mistake.

“Green Stone was with me the whole time. Morth wants
me
to go with him back to Tep's Town. Didn't I leave anything there? Unfinished business, family, debts, grudges, buried treasure, live enemies? Some crying need for what a trader's wagon can carry? He can't tell me why he needs me. Can't tell me any of his plans. I am to take some wagons into Tep's Town and find a way to get rich, and Morth is to come along.
Right.

“Willow, I've been an idiot. He was talking to Green Stone!”

Lilac said, “We'll get him back!”

“He's a grown man, you know.” He was still speaking to Willow. “If I force him to stay, he's a kinless.”

“What could Morth have offered him?”

Think! “At Road's End he learned enough to firm up his plans.
Then
he tried to get me involved…. Stay here. I want to show you something.”

He needed a lantern by now.

The droppings-covered roof had been stripped off the wagon and was soaking. There was no trapdoor in the wagon's floor, but with the wagon empty, the boards would slide out. Whandall set aside the bags of gold in the hidden well to reach the glazed black bottle and stopper, then brought it inside.

“Cold iron,” he said. “It must be for holding something magical. The one Morth took is just like it.”

They looked at it, and him.

“He went to Road's End. He needed a glassblower. I have
no
idea why he wants it. All right, let's just
guess
that Morth also wants
me.
Thirty years ago he saw lines in my hand. He looked at Stone's hand too—”

Lilac's hard hand closed on his wrist.
“What did he see?”

“Early marriage, twin girls, then nothing. A blur.”

Her grip tightened. “Twins? But why would Stone's future fuzz out? Is
that death?”

“No! No, Daughter-found. A wizard can't see a lifeline that's tangled up with his. Curse! He really is going… or else he's going to handle raw gold. That can screw up a prediction too.”

You have less magical talent than anyone I ever met
, Morth had told Whandall. Could
that
be why the wizard wanted him?

“All right. Morth has my son. Is that because I might go along to protect him?”

“Dear, you have to,” Willow said.

“Haven't I heard that song sung with different words?”

“Whandall Feathersnake!”

“I know.
Curse
Morth!”

“Why are we standing here? We have to
catch
him!”

“Wait now, Lilac. It's too dark to load a wagon and take off. Did any kind of dinner get made?”

“We roasted another batch of pigeons,” Willow said. “Last night.”

“‘Course you did. So we can't leave until morning, Lilac, and that puts Stone a day ahead of us, but
that
doesn't matter, because Stone's on foot. He'll catch Morth. Morth is
two
days ahead in a wagon drawn by bison. You don't expect to
run
after them? Well, bison move at only one speed. We'd still be two days behind when our wagon gets to the Stone Needles.”

They went behind the big house, to the stream, where an army of roasted pigeons had been buried in mud.

They talked as they ate. Presently Whandall said, “I think we shouldn't chase him at all.”

The women waited.

“Let's give Green Stone's mind a chance to work. He's deserted his wife of, what, twenty days? A marriage blessed by a wizard. He's got fifty, sixty days to think about that, and then everyone he knows comes home and finds out what he did. You're pregnant, Lilac, and if he hasn't guessed that, Morth can tell him.

“Whatever Morth has in mind for Tep's Town, if he can't tell me, he'll
have
to tell Stone. Give Stone a few days to give Morth's intentions a hard look. They may be plain idiotic.

“In particular, I want Green Stone to feel good sense rushing back into his mind as he leaves a mountain-size love spell. It's unforgettable. On the mountain with Morth he'll be accepting everything he's told, but as soon as he gets to where they left the wagon…
heyyy!
Lilac, you've been there.”

“Yes, Father-found. I didn't realize. I just felt… like, we'd been married about a day. Making love in a scent of crushed spices,” Lilac said with a wonderfully lascivious grin that faded even as they smiled back. “But you try to share a blanket with him, when he rolls up there's nobody in there
but
him. And you'd have given me more than just a wagon, Father-found.”

Willow asked, “Lilac, is Whandall talking sense?”

“That part.”

“One more thing,” Whandall said. “We can talk to them. We've got the bird.” Whandall lifted an arm; the bird settled. Whandall said, “We should work out what we want to say.”

“Anything to get them back here!”

“My hope lies in your shadow,” the bird said.

Every message was sent after considerable argument. It helped that Willow could write.

“I don't want them
afraid
to come here,” said Willow, “with all of us waiting to jump him.”

“Let's not make it too easy. Curse it, the boy betrayed me too. Let's just leave it that Green Stone is on a journey and we need to work out details. And keep it
short.”

“Dear one, does it bother you that he doesn't obey?”

Whandall stared at his mate, then laughed immoderately. “Willow, can't you see I still have trouble saying ‘My son'? No, Saber Tooth is a
good
wagonmaster, and I can't break up the Feathersnake wagons unless I've got two directions to send them! So what is there for my second son? He'd
better
be able to find his own directions.”

She smiled. Then, “Does it bother you that he chose the Burning City?”

“Yes.”

“You do all the talking, then, and you talk only to Morth, right? We women aren't speaking to Green Stone. We're furious. You, you're talking business.”

Seshmarls, carry my words. Morth, my son is in your care. We need to know what you intend. Will you leave for Tep's Town this year? Message ends. Seshmarls, go.

The bird returned two days later with Morth's reply:
We hope to.

Whandall sent:
Return before his autumn wedding?

Three days later:
Hope to.

Stop at the New Castle. The boy's wife and mother are concerned.

Four days later:
I've lost my transport! May wait for spring. Will come to New Castle whatever happens.

“That's good!” Willow exclaimed, and made the bird repeat it.

Whandall said, “Let's keep up the pressure.”

I remind you, you blessed this marriage. Disrupting that spell could be perilous.

“Dear, couldn't he take that as a threat? Oh, you mean
magic!”

“I meant
both
, curse him!”

Four days later:
Understood. What we intend will make Green Stone and Lilac's children safe for a hundred years. Stone says Behemoth is on the Hemp Road?