The Exile and the Sorcerer Read online

  After the evening meal, Derry was put to bed inside one of the wagons, and Alentris sat first watch on top of the rocks. Leaving the lowlands had lifted the traders’ spirits. The lighter mood kept the group talking around the campfire, well past the time they normally went to sleep.

  Marith was affecting a comic burlesque of indignation. She tapped the ground with a forefinger. “Right. Who’s pinched the last of the cinnamon biscuits?”

  “Would I do a thing like that?” Cade asked, pretending to sound hurt.

  “From the way you wolfed down the rest of them, I’d say it’s more than likely.”

  “But the guild guarantees my honesty.”

  “So we’ll put in a claim.”

  Verron laughed. “I can just imagine the response if I submit a claim for one cinnamon biscuit.”

  “Three!” Marith corrected, mock-righteously.

  “The honour of the guild demands that I confess.” Alentris’s voice drifted down from above their heads as he joined in the performance. “It was I who took the biscuits, but if you forbear to submit your claim, I will make good the loss when we get to Serac.”

  “You see, Marith? It pays to hire mercenaries with two swords,” Verron said. He caught sight of Tevi’s puzzled expression. “Their tattoos. Junior mercenaries only have a single sword. It’s not until they’ve proved trustworthy that the guild gives them the second sword. After that, the guild guarantees to refund any losses if they prove dishonest.”

  “Which is why they feel they can charge such an exorbitant fee,” Marith concluded.

  “We’re excellent value for money.” Cade spoke with heavy irony.

  “What stops thieves from tattooing their hands to pass themselves off?” Tevi asked.

  “We do,” Alentris said. “If ever you’re in Dresinton, you can see the remains of a couple that tried it.”

  Cade grinned up at his colleague. “Are the skulls still there, then?”

  “Oh, yes, they’re wedged in. They’ll never—” Alentris’s voice stopped. Something about the arrested speech instantly drew all eyes to him. His attention was fixed on the bottom of the hill. Cade scuttled to the side of the wagons and stared down the slope.

  “By the bushes.”

  “I see them.” The two mercenaries spoke in taut whispers.

  Without a word, Marith leaned forward and doused the fire. Water hissed furiously for a second, then suddenly, it was very dark. The moon was low, lighting the hillside but not touching the campsite in the shadow of the rocks. Alentris scrambled down. The scuffing of his feet was the only sound.

  The traders slipped into a wagon. Verron reappeared immediately, carrying two crossbows. Tevi’s mouth was dry as she drew her sword and joined the mercenaries, shielded by the wagons but with a clear view down the hillside. Her eyes ached from staring into the dark. Nothing was moving.

  Marith was whispering quietly to Derry. She emerged and took the second crossbow from Verron. A tap on her shoulder made Tevi look back. Kimal held up her hunting bow with an unspoken request on his face. She nodded her consent; Kimal strung the bow and then stood by his parents in the shelter of the wagons.

  Alentris and Cade were conferring quietly. “About a dozen of them, do you think?”

  “Maybe less.”

  Tevi bit her lip. “So what now?”

  Alentris spoke grimly. “If they’ve got any sense, they’ll realise we’ve spotted them, and they’ll give up and go away.” At that instant, there was a shout from the bottom of the hill and nine figures burst from the undergrowth. “Damn. They’re idiots.”

  Cade caught Tevi’s arm and hissed urgently. “There may be more in the bushes with bows. Stay back until this lot are close enough to shield you.”

  Tevi nodded to show she had understood.

  The bandits continued their charge. To Tevi, it seemed as if they were running in slow motion. A succession of twangs erupted as the traders started shooting. One of the figures fell with hands clasped against a thigh. As the attackers got within twenty yards of the wagons, Alentris shouted, “Right!” and leapt forward with Cade close behind. Tevi took a deep breath and followed.

  The nearest bandit took a defensive stance, planting both feet on the ground. With no attempt at subtlety, Tevi swung her sword down hard. Her opponent’s blade rose, but the bandit was completely unprepared for the force. The attempted block was knocked aside, barely deflecting Tevi’s sword, and the sharp edge sliced into flesh. With a cry, the bandit staggered backwards, then slipped and stumbled down the slope.

  Her momentum carried Tevi some way after her foe until she regained her footing. Before she had time to turn, Tevi heard footsteps behind her. In her head, Blaze’s voice screamed, “ Duck!” By instinct, she obeyed, and a blade whistled harmlessly over her head. Tevi spun around on her knees. Directly in front of her face was a pair of legs. Tevi’s hand tightened on the hilt as she drove her sword up into her assailant’s body.

  Only then did she raise her eyes. It was a young man. Surprise on his face turned slowly to horror. His sword slipped from his grasp. His hands twitched towards his chest and then stopped. Slowly, he keeled over and hit the ground with a soft, dull thump.

  Tevi wrenched her sword free and looked around. Ten yards away, Cade was hard pressed by three attackers. The nearest did not even turn as Tevi ran towards them. Again, her sword swung in an arc, hitting the joint between shoulder and neck with enough force almost to sever the bandit’s head. The body collapsed with a sharp, guttural sigh—a sound that froze the other outlaws. Cade lashed out, severing the sword, and possibly a few fingers, from one of the stunned bandits. Suddenly, the battle was over. The two turned and fled, followed by their surviving allies.

  “Quick! Back to cover!” Cade cried.

  They raced up the hillside and skidded to a stop behind the wagons. In a second, Alentris joined them. The older mercenary ran his hand through his cropped hair and then slumped, hands on his knees, breathing deeply.

  “Are you all right?” Cade asked.

  “Not a scratch. They were amateurs. But I’m getting too old for this game,” Alentris said between gasps.

  “How about you, Tevi?”

  “Oh, I’m fine.” Yet she was aware that the right side of her face felt wet and sticky.

  Cade also noticed and reached over to wipe her cheek gently. He rubbed his fingers together. “That’s a lot of blood.”

  Alentris looked up. “Is it yours?”

  Tevi saw again the young man crumpling above her, blood gushing from his chest. “No. It’s not.”

  Alentris nodded. “Good. That’s the important thing.”

  *

  The crescent moon had climbed high. Tevi sat on the rocks and stared at it. She had volunteered for watch, knowing she could not sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the young bandit’s expression, his eyes wide open with astonishment and fear. Each time she relived the sight, he looked more like Sparrow.

  She heard scrabbling and then Cade’s head appeared. He climbed to sit beside her and offered a mug of hot soup. Tevi took it with a mumble of thanks and sipped in silence. Cade shuffled back, leaning against a rock.

  Cade let her finish the soup before he spoke. “Was that the first time you’ve killed someone?”

  Tevi nodded, not trusting her voice.

  “You know you had no choice?”

  Again, Tevi nodded.

  “No. I suppose it doesn’t help much.” Cade’s nose wrinkled. “Didn’t help a great deal when someone said it to me.”

  “But it didn’t put you off becoming a mercenary?” Tevi’s voice cracked.

  “It made me think long and hard for about a month. Still does, sometimes.”

  “Will tonight give you much to think about?”

  “No. I guess it gets easier after a while. And tonight was simple—it was us or them.”

  Tevi put down the empty mug and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I keep wondering what he was like, what his name w
as.”

  “That’s a bad game to start playing,” Cade said softly.

  “I keep thinking someone must have cared for him. Someone said goodbye to him as he went out tonight. They’ll never see him again. For the rest of their life, that person will hate me for what I did.” Tears were rolling down Tevi’s face. “He’ll have parents who fed him, washed him, watched him grow, dreamed of grandchildren, and now all that’s gone.”

  “Then they shouldn’t have raised him to be a thief and a murderer. Believe me, you can’t tear yourself up like this. At least tonight makes some sort of sense. You were saving the lives of your friends. As a hired sword, I’ve been in some nasty brawls.” Cade’s voice grew bitter. “At the end, you don’t know what it was about or what was gained or where the right and wrong of it lay. You just wake up in the morning, spare a thought for those who can’t and thank whatever god watches over you.”

  Tevi’s head sank onto her folded arms.

  Cade slid over and put his arm around her shoulder. “Go on. Get some sleep. I’ll sit watch.”

  “I can’t sleep.”

  “You probably can. I put a spoonful of Marith’s best sleeping draught in your soup.”

  Even as Cade spoke, the effects of the drug hit Tevi. The stars spun in a wave of drowsiness. Without another word, she slithered to the edge of the rock and accepted Cade’s hand to help her down. She stumbled over to her blanket and was asleep before her head touched the ground.

  *

  In the morning light, the wreckage of the fight littered the slope. Apart from blood and dropped weapons, four attackers lay dead on the ground. As well as the two Tevi had slain, there were a woman with a crossbow bolt in her throat and a man cut open by Alentris. Their silent presences unsettled the travellers. People moved quietly about their tasks, preparing to depart as soon as possible. Even Derry was subdued.

  After breakfast, Tevi walked down to the young man she had killed. In daylight, he looked nothing like Sparrow. She stared at him for a long while until a call roused her.

  “Hey, Tevi. We’re ready to go.”

  “Aren’t we going to bury them or something?”

  “Haven’t got the time or the inclination. If their friends are concerned, they can get them once we’ve gone,” Alentris shouted back.

  “And if not?”

  “Then they’ll make some little furry animals very happy.”

  Tevi took a last long look around the scene, as if trying to impress it on her memory, then she turned and trotted up the hill to the wagons.

  Chapter Six—The Mark of the Guild

  Serac was a busy port, with wide streets full of traffic. The town was obviously prosperous and well ordered, but nothing about it seemed noteworthy—although Tevi was not quite sure what she had been expecting from her first sight of the Protectorate. Most of her time was spent sitting on the harbour wall, watching boats bobbing on the water and smelling the heavy, salt-laden sea air.

  The mercenaries were paid off. Alentris bid the group farewell, taking contract as a guard on an outgoing caravan. Cade, however, wanted to visit Lyremouth and would still travel with them, although no longer as an employee. At Serac, the traders also parted company with the horses.

  Marith explained, “You can always find a buyer for wagons among the people who’ve just arrived by boat. You don’t make much profit, but we’ll earn a fortune from the spice in Lyremouth, and the sea is the quickest way there.”

  “Couldn’t we take the horses with us?”

  “It would be too expensive.”

  Tevi was unhappy about saying goodbye to the animals. “Will they be all right?”

  “Oh, yes,” Marith assured her. “They’re too valuable for anyone to abuse.”

  The party boarded their ship a few days later. Like all islanders, Tevi was a born sailor and felt at home with the pitching deck beneath her feet. However, she had never been on a ship the size of the Aspen Rover. It dwarfed the boats of the Western Isles. Tevi realised her experience of fishing would not qualify her for a career as a Protectorate sailor, and the time to plan her future was getting close.

  *

  Nine days out of Serac, the northern shore hove into sight. In the warm afternoon, Tevi leant on the starboard rail, dividing her attention between the distant shoreline and the seagulls fighting over the pickings churned up in the boat’s wake. Kimal and Cade were beside her.

  “I was born in Lyremouth. It’ll be nice to see the old place again, and it’s about time I called in on my parents. They worry about me.” Cade sniffed reflectively. “Can’t say I blame them.”

  “What’s Lyremouth like?” Tevi asked.

  “Big,” Kimal said quickly.

  “Isn’t the Coven there? Do you see many sorcerers?”

  “A few.”

  “What do they do?”

  “Walk around, looking important.” Kimal was dismissive.

  “We don’t get sorcerers on the islands, just stories. I guess I’m hoping to see something spectacular.”

  “Then you’ll be disappointed. Sorcerers don’t do shows for people’s amusement.” Cade laughed.

  “So how can you tell them apart from anyone else?”

  “The amulets on their wrists. Witches’ are various colours, depending on rank. They’re all engraved with an oak leaf pattern. Sorcerers have a black amulet, and the Guardian’s is white, but there’s little chance you’ll see it. She rarely leaves the Coven buildings except for festivals.”

  “I’d still like to see some real magic.” Tevi’s voice was wistful.

  Kimal whooped. “You walk around with the strength of five and complain you don’t see any magic!”

  “I grew up with the potion on Storenseg, so it isn’t anything unusual for me.”

  “Don’t you have any other magic?” Cade asked.

  “No, and we only got the strength potion from a shipwrecked sorcerer ages ago.”

  “How about dragons or werewolves?”

  “No. A dead sea monster washed onto the beach when I was a child, but it was half eaten and not very impressive.”

  “And no magic users at all?”

  “None.”

  Cade’s eyes travelled to the horizon. “It would be nice to be rid of them all.”

  “Don’t you like sorcerers?” Tevi asked with surprise.

  “I don’t like thunderstorms, but they’re unavoidable. It’s the same with sorcerers. You have to put up with them. But given the chance, I’d happily ditch the lot.”

  “What’s wrong with them?”

  “They’re not like us. They’re too bloody powerful, and they give me the creeps. Though don’t get me wrong—as things stand, I’d die supporting the Coven. It’s still a damn sight better than any of the alternatives.” Cade’s tone was resigned rather than bitter.

  “You sound like Papa,” Kimal said. “He says folk complain about the Coven and the taxes, but if it disappeared, they’d soon change their tune.”

  “The places we’ve seen get on okay without it,” Tevi pointed out.

  “Only because we haven’t been too far from the Protectorate, and the Coven won’t tolerate trouble on its borders. The non-Coven sorcerers with evil plans move farther away so they’ll have a free hand to do whatever they want.”

  “Evil plans?”

  “Building empires. Enslaving people. Using them for experiments,” Cade spoke angrily. “Throughout history, they’ve destroyed millions of ordinary folk who wanted nothing more than to get on with their own lives in peace—farming or hunting or whatever.”

  “Couldn’t people resist?”

  “A sorcerer is so powerful compared to ungifted folk like us. The only person who can do anything to stop one is another sorcerer, and the gods alone know how many have died in wars between them. They make the nastiest brawl I’ve ever seen look like a lover’s tiff. And all for nothing. Once the sorcerers die, their empires collapse into anarchy.”

  “Couldn’t their children take over?” Te
vi asked.

  “They don’t have the ability. Maybe one person in a hundred has limited magical gifts, but only one in a hundred thousand has enough to be a sorcerer. I don’t think anyone knows what makes a sorcerer, but it’s not inherited. A sorcerer’s children are no more likely to be gifted with magic than a labourer’s.”

  “The empires all rise and fall in the space of a lifetime,” Kimal added.

  “Verron told me the Protectorate has lasted for hundreds of years,” Tevi said.

  “The Protectorate is different. It’s not dependent on any one sorcerer.” From his tone, Kimal was more sympathetic to the Coven than Cade. “The Coven also leaves us alone as long as we pay our taxes. They even do useful things, like training healers and weather witches. We don’t—”

  Any thoughts about the other advantages to the Coven were lost as a bucketful of water landed on Kimal’s back, followed by a giggle. Tevi looked around in time to spot Derry disappearing into the hold. Kimal had also identified the culprit. He shouted and chased after his brother, but there was a smile on his face.

  “They’re nice lads,” Tevi said, putting aside the conversation about sorcerers.

  “True,” Cade agreed. “Will you be staying with the family for long?”

  “Marith and Verron have invited me to spend the winter with them.”

  “Any plans for what you’re going to do after?”

  “Not really.”

  “You should join a guild.”

  Tevi shrugged. “I’m a bit old to start an apprenticeship.”

  “You wouldn’t need to if you already had the skills for the trade.”

  “I’m not sure I have any worthwhile skills.”

  Cade chewed his lip for a while. “Would you be interested in joining the mercenaries?”

  Tevi gave a humourless laugh. “My old weapons trainer would be dumbstruck to hear you ask that. Back home, I was considered to be the worst warrior of all time.”

  Cade looked surprised. “There’s a gang of bandits outside Villenes who’d disagree.”