Magi'i of Cyador (29 page)

The air is still, cool but warming as the sun climbs.

Sensing someone approaching, he turns to see the round-faced servant-Sylirya-carrying a small basket. She inclines her head to him.

"Good day, Sylirya."

"Good day, ser."

Lorn peers at the basket.

"Brushes and caustic, ser. To clean the tiles on rear portico."

"That's a hard job. Mother used to give it to us when we were children." Lorn half-smiles at the memory, then adds, "Well... I won't keep you."

He steps back to let Sylirya pass and get to her duties, then turns and begins to walk back toward the stairs down to his chamber. The door to his father's study is open, and Kien stands there, a polished white oak walking stick in his hand.

"Oh... I thought you would have been in the Quarter," Lorn says.

"I was about to leave." The older man gives a self-deprecating smile. "At my age, I have some small leeway. Vernt left much earlier."

"Are you all right?" Lorn studies his father, but can sense nothing overtly wrong-except that the core of order-chaos that sustains each individual does not seem so strong as he has recalled.

"I'm fine except that I'm not as young I once was."

Lorn senses the shading of the truth, but lets the words pass.

"You're still seeing that merchanter woman, aren't you." Kien'elth's words are not a question.

"You know the answer to that, father. Why do you ask?"

"I worry. All parents do, even when their children are grown."

"She has been most helpful and supportive." Lorn's lips twist. "As a lancer, I'm not exactly sought after by those families with whose daughters I grew up."

"There are many honorable lancer families," Kien points out. "More than a few women have talked to your mother."

Lorn shrugs. "I think it best that any such talk wait for a successful completion of my next duty assignment."

"Perhaps... a successful consorting might prove useful."

Lorn's stomach twists, but he offers a smile. "That might well be, but that would present merely another set of dangers in years to come."

"Your... friend... has done well, Lorn, but she's not from an established house, and all she has gathered could be scattered in an instant. There is no house to back her."

"That is true."

Kien's eyes narrow before he speaks. "You will break off the relation. After you return to duty, of course."

"I can only do as I sense best, father."

Kien'elth winces visibly. His arms move, as if to raise the walking stick, but instead he but taps it on the floor tiles. After a moment, he says, "Vernt is seeing a lovely young woman."

"I wish him well." Lorn smiles. "He deserves a lovely young woman."

"You are treading a dangerous path, Lorn."

The lancer captain offers a lazy smile. "How dangerous is doing my duty as a lancer? Or seeing a woman who is a talented merchanter?"

Kien clears his throat, once, twice. Then he shakes his head. "Your mother and I have tried to follow the path of prosperous chaos, following the Light, and setting an example."

Lorn holds a sigh. How can he explain without giving away what he dares not put in words? "I appreciate that, and all you have done for me, and all that you have done that you do not think I know or understand. You gave me an extra year at the Academy for Magi'i, one others would not have gotten. You allowed me to grow in ways that were necessary and that you doubted. You respected my opinion about Myryan." He pauses. "Please do not think that I do not understand, nor that I do not appreciate all that."

Kien looks at Lorn for a long time before speaking, as if he, too, must consider his words most carefully. "I can sense your appreciation, and for that I also am grateful. Yet, as a senior Lector who has been privileged in my life to see and to hear much, and to serve Cyador to the best of my poor abilities, I cannot but worry about your not being able to use your talents where they will be most accepted and appreciated in the years ahead."

Lorn nods. "I, too, would like that, and in my own way, I will be striving for such. Perhaps I should be even more judicious in my conduct over the seasons to come." He smiles. "But I would hope, with the strain of the duties that face me, none would gainsay my poor efforts to take some comfort while on my home leave."

A wry smile crosses Kien's face. "I will suggest to any who inquire that after three years fighting barbarians, you do indeed merit some comfort. You are young for a lancer captain, and many will appreciate your words when that is pointed out. On your next leave, then, we will look forward to seeing a consort in keeping with your achievements and honor."

Lorn returns the smile. "That would be most acceptable, father, most acceptable."

Kien frowns, then shakes his head. Finally, he laughs. "Your lack of reservation is so honest that it takes me by surprise."

Lorn spreads his hands helplessly. "I do listen."

"When you wish." Another headshake follows. "I must go, but I am relieved that we have talked."

"So am I."

Lorn walks down the steps with his father. Then standing on the steps outside the privacy screen, he watches as the older magus walks briskly westward toward the Quarter. A faint smile plays across Lorn's lips as he thinks about the consort who he knows is appropriate to his needs and accomplishments.

XLVIII

In the warm air of the sparring room, Lorn lowers the exercise sabre, blots his forehead, and glances at the red-headed Tyrsal.

Tyrsal's exercise tunic is dark with sweat. He lowers his own blunted exercise sabre and shakes his head. "You're barely sweating, and I'm dying. I haven't sparred this hard in years. Not since you left. You could have killed me three or four times."

"Once maybe." Lorn grins.

"And... you were doing it left-handed. Don't think I don't remember which side you used before."

Lorn shrugs. "I've been working on it for a time." He grins. "For three years. Against the barbarians you have to be able to use whatever hand's free."

"Knowing you, you did more than that. You work on everything. That's why I never understood..." Tyrsal frowns and lets his words die away.

The two walk toward the open door, through which a cooling breeze blows, but stop perhaps ten cubits from it.

"I don't want to get too chilled." Tyrsal looks at Lorn. "There's really no one to spar with any more. Even Vernt..."

"I know." Lorn laughs. "All he thinks about is chaos transfers and the way of the Magi'i... and finding the right consort."

"You haven't found one," Tyrsal points out, again blotting his forehead.

"Lancer captains aren't supposed to consort. Not until after their second tour of duty, anyway, and preferably not until they're overcaptains or even sub-majers. Now you..." Lorn raises his eyebrows. "What excuse do you have?"

"Me? I'm not a second-level adept with a generous stipend, and I don't come from a prosperous old-time Magi'i family. Remember, my father was the first Magi'i ever in my lineage, and he was the grandson of a clanless trader." Tyrsal rolls his eyes.

"There are Magi'i daughters who would have you. You're talented, and good-looking, and cheerful." Lorn pauses, and adds, "And loyal." He grins before going on. "And don't give me those words about poverty. You may have come from merchanters, but they were most successful ones. There are many young women who would like a young magus who would inherit what you will."

"You have someone in mind?"

Lorn shrugs, then pulls a scrap of gray cloth from his belt to wipe the sabre before replacing it in the battered exercise room sheathe. "Not particularly. I remember my father parading names past me." He frowns. "There was one... Aleyar, Liataphi's daughter. Blonde, very pretty. Well-spoken, and 'it certainly wouldn't hurt, Lorn, that she is the daughter of the Third Magus.'"

Tyrsal laughs at Lorn's imitation of Kien'elth's pedantic tone. Then the red-haired mage shakes his head. "There were two, you know. Syreal is blonde and sweet. She was older. Dett's age, at least. And she wouldn't consort with anyone, Lorn. Not anyone her family liked.... There was something there, rumors about a merchanter... but I didn't know what. If their father had sons, no one would care."

"What of the other daughters? Doesn't he have a bunch?"

"Salsyha-she's the oldest... she consorted with a Lancer commander. His first consort died of the flux when he was the port commander in Biehl years ago. Gives him some status, but she's got a tongue like a sabre, or so I've heard tell. The second daughter... she was to be consorted to a second-level adept-but she died suddenly. No one ever said why, but there were rumors that his rivals..."

"Too much influence from Liataphi?"

Tyrsal grins wryly. "You see why I'm not terribly interested in pressing a suit upon an unwilling lady?"

"What about the younger two?"

"Aleyar's sweet like Syreal, but she's younger than she looks, if you know what I mean. The other's too young, nine, I think." Tyrsal adds dryly, "Besides, being the consort of Liataphi's daughter might do little for my desires to live a long and uneventful life."

Lorn laughs.

"I have been looking, not urgently, you understand, for a quiet girl from a modest Magi'i family without ambitions."

"I wish you had been more interested in Myryan."

"I was. She wasn't interested in me."

"I'm sorry. I had hoped."

"I know, Lorn. She's not really interested in anyone. I could have, I suppose, and she would have been sweet to me, because she is...."

"But you didn't want a consort merely to be nice to you?" The lancer captain nods. "I understand that."

"You know that. I don't know as my mother does."

"Is she pressing you?"

"She's never said a word." Tyrsal lifts his eyebrows and rolls his eyes.

"That's worse." After a pause, Lorn asks, "Are you working on that project for the chaos towers?"

"Which one?" Tyrsal snorts. "There's one for the Accursed Forest, some sort of new way to constrain its black order, and one to try to strengthen the barriers on the fireships, and a couple of others that no one even talks about."

"I presume you are continuing to ensure that the firelances are charged and that the firewagons cross Cyador in speed and comfort?"

"Absolutely! What else are unknown third-level adepts good for?" Tyrsal frowns. "I'd better get back. Exercise over a mid-day meal is approved, but excessive exercise..."

"Especially with a lancer?" Lorn grins.

"Who else would give me a decent workout?" The redhead walks toward the racks where the practice weapons are kept and replaces the sabre.

Lorn does the same, then turn to his friend. "Tomorrow, then?"

"Of course."

"And you're still coming to the house for dinner on fiveday?"

"I wouldn't miss it."

After Tyrsal leaves, Lorn walks slowly back along the Road of Perpetual Light toward his parents' dwelling, a pleasant smile fixed upon his face, as he considers what he must yet accomplish.

XLIX

From where he sits on the edge of the settee, Lorn takes in the main room of Ryalth's quarters-the low ebony table before him, the straight-backed black oak armchair where Ryalth sits, and beyond that the green ceramic brick privacy screen that protects the door from the inside. Behind him and to his right is the alcove that contains the circular eating table and two armless chairs, and the door to the small balcony. To his left is the narrow archway to the bedchamber, and beyond that, the small bathing chamber. Lorn finds it hard to believe that two eightdays have already flown by.

His eyes light on the painting-the portrait of Ryalth as a young girl- wearing a high-necked blue tunic, and a thin golden chain. He has admired it every time he has come into her quarters, but never said a word. "Your parents had that done?"

"Just before they died," she affirms. "I was supposed to take the ship, too, but I got so sick that mother insisted I stay with my aunt Elyset. She was really my great-aunt, but I always called her 'aunt.' She died just before I met you." Ryalth gestured around the room. "Most of this came from her house-the things Wynokk didn't want. I did get to keep my bed, but everything else went to pay father's debts. He lost everything when the ship went down."

"You don't like to spend coins on yourself."

"Father did, and on us." Her smile is mirthless. "There was nothing left."

Lorn nods, then asks gently, "Why did you give Myryan the pin and the coins for the house?"

"I should have known you'd see that." She barely shrugs. "You love her, and you couldn't do anything. I didn't want you to be upset when you returned."

"And Kysia... you pay her to watch what happens in the house?"

Ryalth shakes her head. "How did you find that out? She's never laid eyes on you."

"Because someone has been watching me, and it wasn't the cook or Sylirya. I never have seen Kysia, except from behind or at a distance, and that means someone who knows about the Magi'i and doesn't want to be discovered. Besides, there was no other way you could have known what you needed to know to help Myryan." He lifts his hands helplessly. "No one else would have cared."

"You helped me... when no one cared, and you kept helping me. There wasn't much I could do to repay everything. I helped Myryan." The redhead looks down at the ancient blue wool carpet that displays a border of what appear to be interlocked ropes, surrounding a trading ship under full sail.

"Your father's ship?" Lorn points to the blue-hulled vessel portrayed in the carpet and partly obscured by the low table before him.

"No one wanted a carpet showing a sunken trader. I got to keep that, too."

"And that's why you invest in cargoes carried on many ships?"

She nods. "The profits are lower, but the houses will take our golds because it lowers their risks. I choose carefully. So far, we have lost but one cargo."

"You're a careful woman."

"Except with you."

Lorn is not sure exactly how to respond. "I suppose I am a risk."

"Not nearly so much as I'd thought, and you have made us more than a few coins."