The Name of the Wind (71 page)

I leaned back in the chair, fighting the urge to smile like a tomcat in a dovecote. “If I know what Mauthen found up there, I can take steps to make sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again. I know it was a secret, but someone in town is bound to know more. Spread the word, and have anyone who knows anything come talk to me.”

I came to my feet smoothly. It took a conscious effort not to wince at the various twinges and aches. “But have them come quickly. I leave tomorrow evening. I have pressing business to the south.”

Then I swept out the door, my cloak trailing rather dramatically behind me. I am a trouper to my bones, and when the scene is set, I know how to make an exit.

 

I spent the next day eating good food and dozing in my soft bed. I took a bath, tended to my various wounds, and generally took a well-deserved rest. A few people stopped by to tell me what I already knew. Mauthen had dug up barrow stones and found something buried there. What was it? Just something. No one knew more than that.

I was sitting beside my bed toying with the idea of writing a song about the draccus when I heard a timid tapping at my door, so faint I almost missed it. “Come in.”

The door opened a crack, then wider. A young girl of thirteen or so looked around nervously and scurried inside, closing the door softly behind her. She had curling, mousy brown hair and a pale face with two spots of color high on each cheek. Her eyes were hollow and dark, as if she had been crying, or missing sleep, or both.

“You wanted to know what Mauthen dug up?” She looked at me, then away.

“What's your name?” I asked gently.

“Verainia Greyflock,” she said dutifully. Then dropped a hurried curtsey, looking at the floor.

“That's a lovely name,” I said. “A verian is a tiny red flower.” I smiled, trying to set her at her ease. “Have you ever seen one?” She shook her head, eyes still on the floor. “I'm guessing no one calls you Verainia though. Are you a Nina?”

She looked up at that. A faint smile showed itself on her stricken face. “That's what my gran calls me.”

“Come sit, Nina.” I nodded to the bed, as it was the only other place to sit in the room.

She sat, her hands twisting nervously in her lap. “I seen it. The thing they got out of the barrow.” She looked up at me, then down at her hands again. “Jimmy, Mauthen's youngest boy, he showed me.”

My heart beat faster. “What was it?”

“It was a big fancy pot,” she said softly. “About this high.” She held her hand about three feet off the ground. It was shaking. “It had all sorts of writings and pictures on it. Really fancy. I haven't ever seen colors like that. And some of the paints were shiny like silver and gold.”

“Pictures of what?” I asked, fighting to keep my voice calm.

“People,” she said. “Mostly people. There was a woman holding a broken sword, and a man next to a dead tree, and another man with a dog biting his leg….” she trailed off.

“Was there one with white hair and black eyes?”

She looked at me wide-eyed, nodded. “Gave me the all-overs.” She shivered.

The Chandrian. It was a vase showing the Chandrian and their signs.

“Can you remember anything else about the pictures?” I asked. “Take your time, think hard.”

She thought about it. “There was one with no face, just a hood with nothing inside. There was a mirror by his feet and there was a bunch of moons over him. You know, full moon, half moon, sliver moon.” She looked down, thinking. “And there was a woman….” She blushed. “With some of her clothes off.”

“Can you remember anything else?” I asked. She shook her head. “What about the writing?”

Nina shook her head. “This was all foreign writing. It didn't say anything.”

“Do you think you could draw any of the writing you saw on it?”

She shook her head again. “I only saw it for half a moment,” she said. “Me and Jimmy knew we'd catch a beating if his da caught us.” Her eyes welled up with sudden tears. “Are demons going to be coming for me too, cause I seen it?”

I shook my head reassuringly, but she burst into tears anyway. “I been so scared since what happened out at Mauthen's,” she sobbed. “I keep having dreams. I know they're going to come get me.”

I moved to sit next to her on the bed and put my arm around her, making comforting noises. Her sobbing slowly wound down. “Nothing is going to come and get you.”

She looked up at me. She was no longer crying, but I could see the truth of things in her eyes. Underneath it all she was still terrified. No amount of gentle words would be enough to reassure her.

I stood and went over to my cloak. “Let me give you something,” I said, reaching into one of the pockets. I brought a piece of the sympathy lamp I was working on in the Fishery, it was a disk of bright metal covered with intricate sygaldry on one side.

I brought it back to her. “I got this charm when I was in Veloran. Far away, across the Stormwal mountains. It is a most excellent charm against demons.” I took her hand and pressed it into her palm.

Nina looked down at it, then up at me. “Don't you need it?”

I shook my head. “I have other ways of keeping safe.”

She clutched it, tears spilling down her cheeks again. “Oh thank you. I'll keep it with me all the time.” Her hands were white-knuckled around it.

She would lose it. Not soon, but in a year, or two, or ten. It was human nature, and when that happened, she would be even worse off than before. “There's no need for that,” I said quickly. “Here's how it works.” I took her hand that clutched the piece of metal and wrapped it in my own. “Close your eyes.”

Nina closed her eyes, and I slowly recited the first ten lines of
Ve Valora Sartane.
Not very appropriate really, but it was all I could think of at the time. Tema is an impressive sounding language, especially if you have a good dramatic baritone, which I did.

I finished and she opened her eyes. They were full of wonder, not tears.

“Now it's tuned to you,” I said. “No matter what, no matter where it is, it will protect you and keep you safe. You could even break it and melt it down and the charm would still hold.”

She threw her arms around me and kissed my cheek. Then stood suddenly, blushing. No longer pale and stricken, her eyes were bright. I hadn't noticed before, but she was beautiful.

She left soon after that and I sat for a while on my bed, thinking.

Over the last month I had pulled a woman from a blazing inferno. I had called fire and lighting down on assassins and escaped to safety. I had even killed something that could have been either a dragon or a demon, depending on your point of view.

But there in that room was the first time I actually felt like any sort of hero. If you are looking for a reason for the man I would eventually become, if you are looking for a beginning, look there.

T
HAT EVENING I GATHERED up my things and made my way down to the common room. The townsfolk eyed me and murmured excitedly among themselves. I overheard a few comments as I walked to the bar, and realized that yesterday most of them had seen me wrapped in bandages, presumably with terrible wounds underneath. Today the bandages were gone, and all they saw were some minor bruises. Another miracle. I fought to keep from smiling.

The sullen innkeeper told me that he couldn't possibly dream of charging me, seeing as how the entire town was in my debt and all that. I insisted. No no. Absolutely not. He wouldn't hear of it. If only there was something else he could do to show his gratitude.

I put on a thoughtful expression. Now that he mentioned it, I said, if he happened to have another bottle of that lovely strawberry wine…

I made my way to Evesdown docks and got a seat on a barge heading downriver. Then, while I was waiting, I asked if any of the dockworkers had seen a young woman come through here in the last couple days. Dark haired, pretty…

They had. She had been by yesterday afternoon and shipped downriver. I felt a certain amount of relief, knowing that she was safe and relatively sound. But other than that, I didn't know what to think. Why hadn't she come to Trebon? Did she think I had abandoned her? Did she remember anything we had talked about that night as we lay on the greystone together?

We docked in Imre a few hours after dawn, and I went straightaway to Devi's. After some spirited bargaining, I gave her the loden-stone and a single talent in order to wipe out my extremely short term loan of twenty talents. I still owed my original debt, but after all I'd been through, a four-talent debt no longer seemed terribly ominous, despite the fact that my purse was largely empty again.

It took a while to put my life back together. I'd only been gone four days, but I needed to make apologies and give explanations to all manner of people. I'd missed an appointment with Count Threpe, and two meetings with Manet, and a lunch with Fela. Anker's had gone without a musician for two nights. Even Auri reproached me gently for not coming to visit her.

I'd missed classes with Kilvin, Elxa Dal, and Arwyl. They all accepted my appologies with gracious disapproval. I knew that when next term's tuitions were set, I would end up paying for my sudden, largely unexplained absence.

Most important were Wil and Sim. They had heard rumors of a student attacked in an alley. Given Ambrose's smugger-than-usual expression of late, they expected I had been run out of town, or, at worst, that I was weighted down with rocks at the bottom of the Omethi.

They were the only ones that got a real explanation of what had happened. Though I didn't tell them the entire truth about why I was interested in the Chandrian, I did tell them the whole story, and showed them the scale. They were appropriately amazed, though they did tell me in plain terms that next time I would leave a note for them or there would be hell to pay.

And I looked for Denna, hoping to make my most important explanation of all. But, as always, looking did no good.

I
N THE END I found Denna as I always do, through pure accident.

I was walking hurriedly along, my mind full of other things, when I turned a corner and had to pull up short to keep from running headlong into her.

We both stood there for a half-second, startled and speechless. Despite the fact that I'd been searching out her face in every shadow and carriage window for days, the sight of her stunned me. I'd remembered the shape of her eyes, but not the weight of them. Their darkness, but not their depth. Her closeness pressed the breath out of my chest, as if I'd suddenly been thrust deep underwater.

I'd spent long hours thinking about how this meeting might go. I had played the scene a thousand times in my mind. I feared she would be distant, aloof. That she would spurn me for leaving her alone in the woods. That she would be silent and sullenly hurt. I worried that she might cry, or curse me, or simply turn and leave.

Denna gave me a delighted smile. “Kvothe!” She caught up my hand and pressed it between her own. “I've missed you. Where have you been?”

I felt myself go weak with relief. “Oh, you know. Here and there.” I made a nonchalant gesture. “Around.”

“You left me dry in the dock the other day,” she said with a mock-serious glare. “I waited, but the tide never came.”

I was about to explain things to her when Denna gestured to a man standing beside her. “Forgive my rudeness. Kvothe, this is Lentaren.” I hadn't even noticed him. “Lentaren, Kvothe.”

Lentaren was tall and lean. Well muscled, well dressed, and well-bred. He had a jawline a mason would have been proud of and straight, white teeth. He looked like Prince Gallant out of a storybook. He reeked of money.

He smiled at me, his manner easy, friendly. “Nice to meet you, Kvothe,” he said with a graceful half-bow.

I returned the bow on pure reflex, smiling my most charming smile. “At your service, Lentaren.”

I turned back to Denna. “We should have lunch one of these days,” I said blithely, arching one eyebrow ever so slightly, asking,
is this Master Ash?
“I have some interesting stories for you.”

“Absolutely,” she shook her head slightly, telling me,
No.
“You left before you could finish your last one. I was terribly disappointed that I missed the end. Distraught, in fact.”

“Oh it's just the same thing you've heard before a hundred times before,” I said. “Prince Gallant kills the dragon but loses the treasure and the girl.”

“Ah, a tragedy,” Denna looked down. “Not the ending I'd hoped for, but no more than I expected, I suppose.”

“It would be something of a tragedy if it stopped there,” I admitted. “But it depends on how you look at it, really. I prefer to think of it as a story that's waiting for an appropriately uplifting sequel.”

A carriage trundled by on the road and Lentaren stepped out of the way, incidentally brushing up against Denna as he moved. She took hold of his arm absentmindedly. “I don't generally go in for serial stories,” she said, her expression momentarily serious and unreadable. Then she shrugged and gave me a hint of a wry smile. “But I've certainly changed my mind about these things before. Maybe you'll convince me otherwise.”

I gestured to the lute case I carried slung over my shoulder. “I still play at Anker's most nights if you'd like to stop in….”

“I will.” Denna sighed and looked up at Lentaren. “We're already late, aren't we?”

He squinted up at the sun and nodded. “We are. But we can still catch them if we hurry.”

She turned back to me. “I'm sorry, we have a riding appointment.”

“I would never dream of keeping you,” I said, graciously stepping to one side, out of their way.

Lentaren and I nodded politely to each other. “I'll come find you before too long,” she said, turning to face me as they walked past.

“Go on.” I nodded in the direction they'd been heading. “Don't let me keep you.”

They turned to go. I watched them walk through the cobbled streets of Imre. Together.

 

Wil and Sim were waiting for me by the time I arrived. They had already claimed a bench with a good view of the fountain in front of the Eolian. Water flared up around statuary nymphs being chased by a satyr.

I laid my lute case down beside the bench and absentmindedly flipped open the lid, thinking my lute might enjoy the feel of a little sun on its strings. If you aren't a musician, I don't expect you to understand.

Wil handed me an apple as I took a seat next to them. The wind brushed though the square and I watched the spray from the fountain move like gauzy curtains in the wind. A few red maple leaves danced circles on the cobblestones. I watched them as they skipped and twirled, tracing strange, complicated patterns in the empty air.

“I'm guessing you finally found Denna?” Wilem asked after a while.

I nodded without looking away from the leaves. I didn't really feel like explaining.

“I can tell because you're quiet,” he said.

“Didn't go well?” Sim asked gently.

“Didn't turn out the way I'd hoped,” I said.

They nodded sagely and there was another moment of silence.

“I was thinking about what you told us,” Wil said. “What your Denna said. There is a hole in her story.”

Sim and I looked at him, curious.

“She said she was looking for her patron,” Wilem pointed out. “She was traveling with you to look for him. But later she said she knew he was safe because he—” Wil hesitated significantly, “—met with her as she was heading back to the burning farm. It does not fit. Why would she hunt for him if she knew he was safe?”

I hadn't considered that. Before I could think of a response, Simmon shook his head. “She was just making an excuse to spend time with him,” he said as if it were plain as day.

Wilem frowned a little.

Sim looked back and forth between us, plainly surprised he had to explain himself. “It's obvious she has a thing for you,” he said, and began counting on his fingers. “She finds you at Anker's. She comes to get you that night at Eolian when we're drinking. She makes up an excuse to wander around the middle of nowhere with you for a couple of days….”

“Sim,” I said, exasperated. “If she was interested I'd be able to find her more than once in a month of searching.”

“That's a logical fallacy,” Sim pointed out eagerly. “False cause. All that proves is that you're lousy at finding her, or that she's hard to find. Not that she's not interested.”

“In fact,” Wilem pointed out, taking up Simmon's side, “since she finds you more often, it seems likely that she must spend a fair amount of time looking for you. You are not easy to track down. That indicates interest.”

I thought about the note she had left me, and for a moment I entertained the thought that Sim might be right. I felt a faint hope flicker in my chest, remembering that night we lay atop the greystone.

Then I remembered that Denna had been delirious out of her mind that night. And I remembered Denna on Lentaren's arm. I thought of tall, handsome, wealthy Lentaren and all the other countless men who had something worthwhile to offer her. Something more than a good singing voice and manly bravado.

“You know I'm right!” Simmon pushed his hair out of his eyes, laughing boyishly. “You can't argue your way out of this one! She's obviously stupid for you. And you're just plain stupid, so it's a great match.”

I sighed. “Sim, I'm happy to have her as a friend. She's a delightful person and I'm glad to spend time with her. That's all there is.” I forced the proper amount of jovial unconcern into my voice so Sim would take me at my word and drop the subject for the time being.

Sim looked at me for a moment, then shrugged it off. “If that's the case,” he said, gesturing with his piece of chicken, “Fela talks about you all the time. Thinks you're a hell of a guy. Plus the whole saving her life thing. I'm pretty sure you have a chance there.”

I shrugged, watching the patterns the wind made in the fountain's spray.

“You know what we should…” Sim stopped midthought, staring past me, his expression going suddenly blank.

I turned to see what he was looking at and saw my lute case, empty. My lute was gone. I looked around wildly, ready to spring to my feet and dash off searching for it. But there was no need—a few feet away stood Ambrose and a few of his friends. He held my lute loosely in one hand.

“Oh, merciful Tehlu,” Simmon muttered behind me. Then at a normal volume he said, “Give it back, Ambrose.”

“Quiet, E'lir,” Ambrose snapped. “This is none of your concern.”

I got to my feet, keeping my eyes on him, on my lute. I had come to think of Ambrose as taller than me, but when I stood I saw that we were eye level with each other. Ambrose seemed a bit surprised as well.

“Give it to me,” I said, and stretched out my hand. I was surprised to see that it wasn't shaking. I was shaking inside: half fear, half fury.

Two parts of me tried to speak at the same time. The first part cried,
Please don't do anything to it. Not again. Don't break it. Please give it back. Don't hold it by the neck like that.
The other half of me was chanting,
I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,
like spitting out mouthfuls of blood.

I took a step forward. “Give it to me.” My voice sounded odd to my own ears, emotionless and flat. Flat as my outstretched palm. I had stopped shaking inside.

He paused for a moment, caught unaware by something in my tone. I could sense his unease—I wasn't acting the way he had expected. Behind me, I could hear Wilem and Simmon hold their breath. Behind Ambrose, his friends paused, suddenly unsure.

Ambrose smiled and cocked an eyebrow. “But I've written a song for you, and it needs to be accompanied.” He gripped the lute roughly and dragged his fingers across the strings with no thought for rhythm or tune. People stopped to watch as he sang:

Quite a few passersby had stopped to watch by this point, smiling and laughing at Ambrose's little show. Encouraged, Ambrose made a sweeping bow.

“Everyone sing!” he shouted, raising his hands like an orchestra conductor, gesturing with my lute like a baton.

I took another step forward. “Give it back, or I will kill you.” At that moment, I meant it in perfect earnest.

Everything grew quiet again. Seeing he wasn't going to get the rise he had expected from me, Ambrose affected nonchalance. “Some people have no sense of humor,” he said with a sigh. “Catch.”

He tossed it to me, but lutes are not meant to be tossed. It twisted awkwardly in the air, and when I grabbed, there was nothing in my hands. Whether he was clumsy or cruel makes not the slightest difference to me. My lute hit the cobblestones bowl first and made a splintering noise.

The sound reminded me of the terrible noise my father's lute had made, crushed beneath my body in a soot-streaked alley in Tarbean. I bent to pick it up and it made a noise like a wounded animal. Ambrose half-turned to look back at me and I saw flickers of amusement play across his face.

I opened my mouth to howl, to cry, to curse him. But something
other
tore from my throat, a word I did not know and could not remember.

Then all I could hear was the sound of the wind. It roared into the courtyard like a sudden storm. A nearby carriage slid sideways across the cobblestones, its horses rearing up in panic. Sheet music was torn from someone's hands to streak around us like strange lightning. I was pushed forward a step. Everyone was pushed by the wind. Everyone but Ambrose, who pinwheeled to the ground as if struck by the hand of God.

Then everything was still again. Papers fell, twisting like autumn leaves. People looked around, dazed, their hair tousled and clothes in disarray. Several people staggered as they braced against a storm that was no longer there.

My throat hurt. My lute was broken.

Ambrose staggered to his feet. He held his arm awkwardly at his side and blood was running down from his scalp. The look of wild, confused fear he gave me was a brief, sweet pleasure. I considered shouting at him again, wondering what would happen. Would the wind come again? Would the ground swallow him up?

I heard a horse whinnying in panic. People began to pour from the Eolian and the other buildings around the courtyard. Musicians looked around wildly, and everyone was talking at once.

“…was that?”

“…notes are all over. Help me before they get…”

“…did it. Him over there, with the red…”

“…demon. A demon of wind and…”

I looked around in mute confusion until Wilem and Simmon hurried me away.

 

“We didn't know where to take him,” Simmon said to Kilvin.

“Say it all to me again,” Kilvin said calmly. “But this time only one talks.” He pointed at Wilem. “Try to put the words all in a tidy row.”

We were in Kilvin's office. The door was closed and the curtains drawn. Wilem began to explain what had happened. As he gained speed he switched to Siaru. Kilvin kept nodding along, his face thoughtful. Simmon listened intently, occasionally interjecting a word or two.

I sat on a stool nearby. My mind was a whirl of confusion and half-formed questions. My throat was sore. My body was weary and full of sour adrenaline. In the middle of it all, deep in the center of my chest, a piece of me burned in anger like a forge coal fanned red and hot. All around me there was a great numbness, as if I were sealed in wax ten inches thick. There was no Kvothe, only the confusion, the anger, and the numbness wrapping them. I was like a sparrow in a storm, unable to find a safe branch to cling to. Unable to control the tumbling motion of my flight.