“No, we follow a rather different tradition,” he replied slowly. “If a child proves to have magic in his nature, it is required by royal law that a mage tests his potential. If it is strong enough to train, the child must be apprenticed to an established wizard or be branded and confined.” With me, ’Gren and Sorgrad all looking expectant, Usara preoccupied with the implications of Sorgrad’s words and Darni, aloof as ever, slowly drinking his ale, Gilmarten was drawn into filling the silence.
“The kings of Solura have been rightly concerned at the potential dangers of rogue magic. No mage may have more than one apprentice of less than four years’ standing at any one time and he remains responsible for the conduct of all apprentices for life, whether they stay with him or look for advowson elsewhere.”
“Advowson?” Sorgrad was listening with more than a pretense of interest.
Gilmarten leaned his elbows on the table. “The most proficient of mages are retained by a Lord to work for the good of his fiefdom. Though, of course, a Lord is subject to severe penalties under royal law, if he misuses his wizard’s skills. Every other mage within the offender’s order can be set against him if need be.”
Usara looked up. “What is the significance of an order?”
“An order denotes the lineage of apprenticeship,” explained Gilmarten readily. “I am of the fifth order of Eade. Eade was a noted wizard admired by many. His apprentices were therefore styled the first order, those that they taught the second, their pupils in turn the third, and so forth.”
I had no interest in this and stepped in when the Soluran took a breath. “You and Usara will have plenty to talk about on the way to Hadrumal then. We’ll travel through the Great Forest with you, Darni, but after that you’ll have to manage on your own. The roads down to Col should be safe enough once the harvest’s underway. No bandit with any sense works the roads when they’re choked with wagons, even if he does see pullets ripe for plucking going by.” I smiled sweetly at Usara.
“You’ll be heading east, I think you said?” Darni wasn’t about to rise to my bait. “You’d better take care in Dalasor. There’ll be mercenaries raiding north out of Lescar at this season.”
“If they’re any good, we’ll probably know them.” ’Gren was unconcerned. “If not, it’ll be easy enough to leave them grinning up at the thistle roots.”
Darni turned his attention from the middle distance. “You’ve spent time in Lescar? Who with?”
“Wynald’s war band, the Brewer’s Boys, Arkady the Red…” Sorgrad ticked them off on one hand and frowned.
“Strong-arm’s Corps and the Ast Maulers,” supplied ’Gren with an air of happy recollection.
“When were you with Arkady?” inquired Darni suspiciously.
“We were at Seye Bridge, if that’s what you’re asking.” Sorgrad sat upright in his corner.
“On what side?” Darni similarly braced for action.
I looked for my quickest route to an exit; there was no room in here for bystanders as well as a brawl.
“Both,” grinned Sorgrad.
Darni’s sudden laugh was deafening in the low-ceilinged room. “I’d better pay for the ale then.”
With a free drink in his hand, ’Gren would rather swap tales of mayhem and booty than see if he could punch Darni’s teeth out through the back of his neck, so I relaxed on that score. Darni began explaining his own circuits of the endless circles of Lescar’s civil wars so I caught Sorgrad’s eye and jerked my head minutely toward the door. We needed to talk and since Usara had pointedly shifted his stool around to exclude me from his conversation with Gilmarten, this looked like the ideal time.
I drained my ale and stood up. “Time for the necessary.” Once outside I sat on a bench in the sunshine and closed my eyes. A shadow fell across me and I squinted up to see Sorgrad silhouetted against the bright sky. “So are you serious about going east or did you just want to knock Sandy onto the back foot?”
“Now that we know Sheltya really do have the knowledge we want, I’d say we try Gidesta.” He sat beside me.
“That woman throwing her weight about in Hachalfess won’t bother sending word that far.” Sorgrad looked grim.
“You really think she’ll be doing that this side of the Gap?” I was still not convinced.
“Oh, most certainly,” Sorgrad assured me. “That’s why we had no choice but to come back down to the lowlands. We’d have got no more help, not even shelter, once the word had gone around that we were to be shunned.” He smiled. “You didn’t think I was just doing it on Sandy’s say-so, did you?”
“Hah!” I vented my irritation loudly. “He’s been playing a double game all along. Do you suppose a wizard ever deals honestly? I was hoping he’d be able to make use of this for me.” I held out a little knife, the kind for paring nails or cutting string. Its scabbard was worn and tattered, the loop of leather at its top stretched and torn. You would have to look closely to even see that it had been cut through.
“That’s what you got off the Sheltya woman?” Sorgrad took it and studied it. “It’s been a while since you and ’Gren worked jostle and cut but you haven’t lost your touch, have you?”
“What was it he said to her anyway?”
Sorgrad chuckled. “He asked if she had any sisters. Said a woman with her kind of spirit gives a man more horn than a billy goat in rut.” He handed me back the knife. “So what did you think Sandy would do with it?”
“Listen in on her conversations, track her to some other Sheltya, I don’t know.” I shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Mages and magic are nothing but trouble,” Sorgrad reminded me. “Let’s roll for a new start in Gidesta. We can hand over what we find to this Messire of yours and he can have the pleasure of haggling with Planir.”
I sighed. “Do you think we will find anything back east? I feel I’ve wasted half a year chasing Eldritch-men in the shadows and got nothing to show for it.”
“It’s long odds but those pay off best.” But Sorgrad’s face betrayed his own doubts now that it was just the two of us alone. “If we can track down anyone who knows anything of Sheltya or their lore, I’ll do anything short of selling my arse to pin them down. I owe them a bad turn. I’ve lived with being driven from my home as a boy but Maewelin can drown me before I let them forbid me the whole of the mountains like that.”
I looked around at his grim tone but he startled me with a smile. “More importantly, I’d forgotten how tedious the Soluran borders can be.” He gestured at the sleepy little town, drowsing in the midday heat as it nestled beneath the overbearing walls of the castle. “Once he’s spent a few days reminiscing with that Darni, ’Gren’s going to be all fired up to get back to Lescar and some real action. We can’t do that without your Messire settling accounts with Draximal for us, can we?”
“No, that’s true enough.” The reminder that more people than me needed a decent pay-off from this game stiffened my wavering resolve. I groaned loudly with frustration all the same. “I would say this feels like slipping back two paces for every one you take, but given how far we’ve walked it’s more like a hundred leagues against ten!”
Sorgrad put an encouraging arm around my shoulders. “It’s only good-looking princelings in ballads who trot off down the nearest track and find gold waiting in a heap at the end of it. There’d be no fun if the game was all that easy.”
“I could stand a little less fun just at the moment,” I said dryly.
“If you want boredom, then you’re in the right place,” he replied critically. “Solura’s known for it, like its wool.”
“And its horses.” I sat up straighter. “If we’re taking the high road back, we’ll wear out some iron shoes rather than anymore boot leather. Usara should still have plenty of Planir’s coin and I’ll bet Darni isn’t traveling on copper and good will. The Archmage can buy us some horses, don’t you agree?”