Hanner could not really counter that effectively, but he said, “I’m just asking you not to be too hasty. We don’t know how Vond’s magic works. Let’s give some other possibilities a try before we start harassing the emperor.”
“What other possibilities?” Edara demanded. “My old life is gone!”
“I don’t know what other possibilities,” Hanner said. “But you’ve hardly looked. It’s been what, less than a sixnight since we woke up in Aldagmor? Give it some time! Think about it! Some of you have skills from your old lives; maybe you’ve lost your homes and businesses, but you can start over. Maybe you do still have family, and just haven’t found them yet. I have three children, and they’re all still alive, but none of them live here anymore; they have their own places. Maybe your children, or nieces and nephews, or grandchildren, are still out there, and would be happy to see you if they knew how to find you.”
Most of his guests did not look convinced, but some of them appeared to at least be considering his words.
“And I think,” Hanner continued, “that other magicians might be willing to give some of you a hand. They’ve already gotten us all safely back to the city; they might be willing to do more.”
“Why would they do that?” Gita asked. “Wizards don’t generally do anything for free.”
“As a favor to their fellow magicians,” Hanner said. “The Wizards’ Guild and the Council of Warlocks always cooperated with each other. Besides, I wasn’t just thinking of wizards; theurgists might help out, as well. You all heard Piskor – the gods want us to help one another, and there might be dozens of theurgists who owe her, or some other god, a debt of service. Witches will often help out their neighbors without payment, too.”
“Without payment in coin, maybe,” Bardec said. “They usually find some way to make it worth their while.”
“Well, what’s wrong with that? Aren’t you willing to earn your keep?”
“What can we do, though?” Hinda asked.
“I don’t like counting on the generosity of witches,” Bardec said.
“Or wizards,” someone added.
“Or theurgists,” someone else chimed in.
“But you want mine?” Hanner asked, a little annoyed.
“That’s different,” Edara said. “You’re one of us.”
“Maybe Vond will help us out. After all, he’s a warlock, too.”
“Didn’t he take those others with him to the Small Kingdoms, and promise them things?”
“Did he really give them important positions?”
“Who knows?”
“But if he’s here, he’s not in the Small Kingdoms.”
“If he’s here, where are they?”
“Maybe they’re all in the Small Kingdoms running his empire for him.”
“Or maybe he killed them all.”
“Or maybe he taught them all to use this second source.”
“Where are they, Chairman? Did Vond bring them here with him?”
“No, he didn’t,” Hanner said. “I don’t know what happened to them.”
“So they might be warlocks again?”
“Or they might be dead.”
“We need to know!”
“Well, we don’t know,” Hanner said loudly. “Vond hasn’t said anything about them.”
Several people began to speak, but Hanner raised his hands for silence.
“For now,” Hanner said, before anyone could argue further, “you can stay here, but I am not responsible for anything that happens if you bother Emperor Vond. That includes anything that happens if you do learn to use the Second Source the way he does – just because he hasn’t yet heard a new Calling doesn’t mean there isn’t one, or perhaps there’s something different, something worse. For all I know, his new source isn’t in the World at all, and could suck him into some other universe at any moment. I know I’m not in any hurry to test it out.”
“He’s been using it for years, hasn’t he?” Gita asked.
Hanner shook his head. “Months,” he said. “Only a few months. At least, if you don’t count the fifteen years he spent in Aldagmor.”
Some of the others exchanged thoughtful glances.
“There’s no need to rush,” someone said.
Hanner held his peace for a moment while the others gradually fell in line; then he said, “Now, let me show you where you can sleep,” and beckoned them toward the stairs.
He had assigned rooms to perhaps half the new arrivals when the next group knocked at the door.
A rather bemused Rudhira was with them; she watched as Hanner welcomed them in and ran through more or less the same conversation, listening to them explain how they had nowhere else to go, then telling them that they could stay, but should be careful not to bother Vond. She looked past him, up the stairs at the guests leaning over the rail and listening.
Hanner noticed her gaze, and turned up an empty palm. He also saw that her arms were full of supplies she had brought from the markets. “Let me help Rudhira, then I’ll show you to your rooms,” he said to the others. Then he took the largest bundle from her arms and headed toward the kitchen.
“How many are there?” Rudhira asked when they were out of earshot.
“There were nine in the first two groups,” Hanner said, as he set the bundle on a table and reached for a cabinet door. “How many were there who arrived the same time you did?”
“Five, I think.”
“Fourteen in all, then.” He frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t want to use the upper floors, not until I have a chance to see what’s up there, but we can fit fourteen on the second floor. They won’t all get individual rooms, but if the furniture is still what it used to be, they can all have their own beds.”
“Are you counting Sterren and Zallin?” Rudhira pulled two heads of cabbage from a bag and studied the cabinets, trying to decide where to put them.
“And the two of us, yes. Eighteen. Not counting Vond – I don’t think anyone’s going to share his room.”
“Not unless she’s pretty.”
Hanner grimaced.
“It’s not so bad,” Rudhira said, pushing the cabbage into a tin-lined bin. “After all, you had thirty or forty people staying here when I was Called.”
“Did we? I’d forgotten. That was seventeen years ago for me.”
“It was only a few days ago for me.”
Hanner had not really thought about that, and was not comfortable with the idea. “I think we can manage, then,” he said, sliding a wheel of cheese onto a shelf. “Especially once I make sure the third floor is safe.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
Hanner didn’t have a good answer for that. Uncle Faran had kept the top two floors closed off for his own exclusive use, and had stored his magical devices up there, but Hanner had long ago disposed of most of the arcane paraphernalia and moved the remainder to the back rooms on the fourth floor. The third floor, and most of the fourth, should be perfectly suitable for guests.
“No reason,” he acknowledged. “We should be able to fit everyone easily.”
“For now,” Rudhira said. “But what if they keep coming? There were thousands who disappeared on the Night of Madness.”
“I don’t know,” Hanner said. “We can’t fit that many. They’ll need to find refuge somewhere else.”
“Where?”
That was an excellent question, and for a moment Hanner’s mind was completely blank, but then a thought struck him. He blinked. “I…might have an idea,” he said. “I’ll need to see if I can find a wizard named Arvagan the Gray.”
“Who?”
“You wouldn’t know him,” Hanner said. “I don’t think he came to the city until after you were Called. I met him about ten years after you left.”