“If Lord Dakon wishes it, I would be honoured to be Lady Avaria’s apprentice.”
Dakon smiled. “Though I would like to finish your training, Tessia, I think it is more important that your knowledge of assisting healing with magic be shared with others.”
The king smiled broadly and slapped his thighs. “Excellent!” He then turned to Jayan. “What are your plans now, Magician Jayan?”
“I will return to Imardin,” Jayan replied. “And, if you approve, begin work on forming a guild of magicians.”
The king smiled. “Ah. The magicians’ guild. Lord Hakkin is exploring this guild idea as well.” He nodded. “You may join him in the endeavour. Now.” He looked around the circle. “Who is going to stay and help Lord Narvelan and Lord Dakon rule Sachaka?”
A shock of cold rushed through Jayan. Lord Narvelan? Rule Sachaka? Is King Errik mad? He turned his attention to Narvelan. The young magician wore a smile, but it looked fixed and strange. It didn’t match the intensity of his gaze. As something distracted him – a slave tugging at his arm – a savage anger crossed his face, to be quickly smothered behind the smile again.
Jayan heard Tessia catch her breath.
“Hanara,” she breathed. “It’s Takado’s slave!”
Looking closer, Jayan realised that the slave now prostrating himself before Narvelan was the man Takado had left in Mandryn. Whom Lord Dakon had freed. Who had betrayed the village to Takado.
“I told you, no throwing yourself on the floor,” Narvelan said to Hanara, as the conversation of the magicians continued. “No wonder you get so dirty so quickly.”
“Yes, master,” Hanara replied.
“Hanara is Narvelan’s slave?” Tessia choked out.
“Yes,” Lord Tarrakin said. “Though apparently he’s told the man he is free now, but he won’t pay attention.”
Tessia shook her head. She glanced at Jayan, then as Hanara hurried away to do Narvelan’s bidding she strode forward to intercept him. Jayan followed. She caught up with the slave near the side wall of the room. When Hanara saw her, his eyes widened and he froze.
“Tessia,” he whispered. Jayan could not decide if his expression was one of horror or amazement.
“Hanara,” she said. Then she said nothing, her mouth slightly open and her eyes suddenly tortured.
Hanara dropped his gaze.
“I am sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything. I thought if I went to him he might leave. But I also knew he’d learn from me that Lord Dakon wasn’t there. But...he would have worked that out anyway. I...I am...I am glad you were gone.”
The slave’s babble was about Mandryn, Jayan suspected. I ought to want to throttle him, but for some reason I don’t. The magician who had dominated his life had returned. I don’t think anyone could have acted out of anything but fear at that moment. And now he’s serving Narvelan. I’m not sure whether to think of it as a punishment he deserves, or to pity him. Or to worry at the combination of an invader’s former slave and a ruthless, mad magician.
“I forgive you,” Tessia said. Jayan looked at her in surprise. She looked relieved and thoughtful. “You’re free now, Hanara. You don’t have to serve anyone you don’t want to. Don’t . . . don’t punish yourself for your master’s crimes.”
The slave shook his head, then looked around furtively, bent close and whispered: “I serve him to stay alive. If I didn’t, I would not live long.” He straightened. “You go home. Get married. Have children. Live a long life.”
Then he hurried past them and disappeared through a doorway. Tessia turned to look at Jayan, then let out a short laugh.
“I suspect I’ve just been given orders by a slave.”
“Advice,” Jayan corrected. He moved through the same doorway, glanced up and down the empty corridor, then shrugged. “Good advice. Add teaching magicians to heal to it. And helping me set up the guild.” He shook his head. “I’m going to have to work with Lord Hakkin. I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
“Yes,” she agreed as they started walking along the corridor. “I noticed you didn’t mention to the king that I’d worked out how to heal with magic.”
“No. It didn’t seem the right time. And now that I think of it... I’d rather the teaching of healing didn’t begin in Sachaka. It should start in Kyralia, and be part of our new guild.”
“Incentive for magicians to join?”
“Exactly.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You know, for a moment there I was worried you were going to offer to take on my apprenticeship.”
He blinked in surprised. “Worried? Why? Don’t you think I’d be a good teacher?”
“A reasonable teacher,” she replied. “But I suspect Kyralian society would frown upon a master and his apprentice being . . . well... romantically entangled.”
He smiled. “Depends how entangled you want to be.”
Her eyelids lowered and she regarded him in a way that made his pulse speed up. “Very entangled.”
“I see.” He looked up and down the corridor. It was still empty. Reaching out, he drew her close and kissed her. She tensed, then relaxed and he felt her body press against his.
Footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor and he felt someone brush past him. Belatedly, he and Tessia sprang apart.
“I’m going to have to keep an eye on the two of you, aren’t I?” Lady Avaria said, not looking back as she strode away.
Tessia smothered a giggle, and then her expression grew serious. “Where are you going to live?”
“I don’t know.” Jayan groaned. “Not with my father!”
“Well, we have plenty of time to work these things out,” she said.
“Yes. And plenty to sort out here, first. Like eating. I’m starving. Though I suppose we should find Mikken first.”
She nodded. “That’s what we’ll do next. We’ll do what’s needed, one thing at a time, until there’s nothing left to do and we’re old and grey and we can leave it to someone else to fix.”
He reached out and took her arm. “Come on. The sooner we start, the sooner we get to the good parts.”
Stopping to catch her breath, Stara looked up at the steep slope of rock before her. Like the one she and the women who followed her had just climbed, there were angled creases in the surface that a climber could shuffle along to get to the top. This slope was larger than the previous one, though. It ended at a jagged crest some way above her. Beyond that she could see the top of another sheer wall of stone, and another behind it. Past them, the peaks of the mountains loomed over all with cruel indifference.
Chavori was a tougher man than he looked, she thought for the hundredth time. He must have climbed all over these slopes to take his measurements. And he must have had assistance. Definitely slaves. Possibly also other magicians or free men. We’ll have to keep watch, in case any ever return.
As the other four women caught up, panting and gasping, Stara decided they could all do with a rest. She shrugged her pack off her shoulders. Strapped to it was a tube made of a hollow reed – much lighter than Chavori’s metal tubes. She unstoppered it and drew out the map.
Spreading it out over the flat rock face before her, Stara held the corners down with magic. The women crowded close to examine it. She could smell their sweat. Only the fittest of them had joined her for this exploration, after it became clear what the path to the valley demanded. She’d left the others in Vora’s capable hands at a camp further down the mountain.
One of the women, Shadiya, pointed to the zigzag path they were following.
“I think we’re nearly there.”
Stara nodded in agreement, then rolled up the map and stowed it away. “Let’s have a drink and a bite to eat first.”
The women were quiet as they rested. With backs to the rock wall, they gazed out at the Sachakan plains, stretching into the haze of the distance. Stara stared at the horizon. Somewhere beyond it was Arvice. After two months, how had the city fared under the rule of the Kyralians? Was Kachiro still alive? She felt a weak pang of sadness and regret, then a vague guilt for not feeling more. I would if I wasn’t so tired, she told herself, though she knew it wasn’t true. It wasn’t as if we married for love. But I did like him and hope he survives. She wondered if he’d received news of her mother. I’ll have to send my own messenger, once we’re settled. Perhaps she can come and live with us.