The Prodigal Mage: Fisherman’s Children Book One (38 page)

But there was no point moanin’ over that now. They were here. Fernel Pintte and Rodyn Garrick and them other fools, they were set on muckin’ about with fire. And when they got their fingers burned… when dead and dusted Morg burned ’em…

Sink me bloody sideways. I should’ve stayed at home too.

Rafel wondered, just for a moment, whether he should risk Da’s wrath and step between him and Fernel Pintte before they came to blows. Snatches of their heated brangle blew to him on the lively breeze, words like
fool
and
dangerous
and
arrogant
. Fighting words. Jabbing fingers. Waving arms. Any ticktock they’d be rolling on the pier like tomcats, surely.

But Da won’t thank me for sticking my nose in. Da ain’t interested in anything I’ve got to say. I wasted my time traipsing all the way down here. I should’ve stayed in Dorana and helped Goose make his ale.

Temper simmering, he glanced around the pier. Behind him, Mama stood with Deenie, who’d done nowt but sigh and mope ever since they’d reached the coast. Arlin Garrick and his da, and the other Doranen mages, they were huddled whispering and pointing out to the reef. Making their plans to see it broken once and for all. Westwailing’s mayor and his followers milled about like lost sheep, casting anxious glances first at the Doranen and then at Da and Fernel Pintte, still arguing. The other Olken on the pier, the fishermen, ignored everything save the task of getting their smack ready to brave the distant reef.

The rest of Westwailing’s fishing fleet floated at rest, tucked safely out of the way of the upcoming magework. Rafel frowned at it. Funny. The family had visited the coast a handful of times in his life. He’d even been out on a fishing boat once, with some of the cousins he counted practically as strangers. Hadn’t much cared for it. Found it hard to imagine Da living that life, fish and stink and guts and hard work, scales and blisters and calluses and salt. Da still talked of moving back down here, leaving the City and coming to live beside the ocean.

He can if he wants. Mama too, and Deenie. But I won’t. That’s his dream, not mine. I’ve got my own dreams and no matter what he says I’ll live them. Whatever he says, I will be a great mage
.

“Rafe…”

Mama. He shoved his hands in his pockets and kept on staring at the moored fleet. He didn’t want to hear her defending Da, again. Taking his side, again.

Once, just once, I wish she’d take my side.

“I could do it, y’know,” he said, letting his gaze stray from the tethered smacks to the reef. If he squinted, hard, he could just make out the waterspouts dancing beyond it. “I wouldn’t disgrace you in front of Rodyn Garrick and his friends.”

“
Disgrace
us? Rafe—” Mama took hold of his arm and pulled him round to face her. Her eyes were shocked. “This has nothing to do with Rodyn Garrick or any Doranen, or with us fearing you’d let us down. This is about doing what’s
right
.”

“What Da thinks is right,” he muttered. “But Mama—”

Her fingers tightened on his sleeve. “No, Rafe. Not again. And you should know better. There’s not a mage in this whole kingdom, Olken or Doranen, who understands the way your father does that
some
things are best left alone. How can you pretend not to know that? You’re his
son
. And you’ve been told things denied to everyone else.”

“Even if that’s true,” he said, “I still don’t—”

“
If
it’s true?” Mama echoed. Shock was burned away by anger. “You puff and preen yourself a fine mage then stand there and say
if
? D’you mean to tell me you don’t feel what’s out there? What your father feels, and Deenie?”

No. He couldn’t tell her that. The tangle of magics in Dragonteeth Reef was
bad
. It tasted rotten in his mind, like maggot-ridden meat. And worse than that, it was strong. Twenty years, his whole life, and it hadn’t grown weaker by even a breath. No doubt on it, the task of breaking it was dangerous.

But I don’t care. I could do it. I know I could. The power’s in me.

He tugged his arm from his mother’s grasp. “I don’t reckon this is about what’s risky. This is about Da. He won’t let me help Garrick and the others ’cause he doesn’t want to be shown up as wrong about the reef.”

Mama gasped. “
Rafel
—are you
blind?
Your father doesn’t care about being wrong, he cares about people dying for no reason! He’s come here against every opposition to try and save Fernel Pintte and the Doranen from their overweening arrogance, which puts
all
of us in danger!”

“You keep saying that, Mama, both of you do, but—”

“Because we know a little about this, Rafel,” she snapped. “We’ve lived a few more years than you. I
know
your father, better than anyone alive. If he can’t stop those fools he’s going to blame himself for what happens because of them. It won’t be his fault, it’ll be theirs, but he’ll
still
blame himself. And if—no,
when
—things go horribly wrong out at that reef, Rafel, d’you know what he’ll do then? He’ll risk his life for them, though they sneer and jeer and call him coward behind his back.
Coward!
When he saved every life in this kingdom. Was prepared to
die
for it. When they howled for his blood, when they—and now you, his son,
you
—”

Her angry grief doused his temper. “I’m sorry,” he said, reaching for her. “I didn’t mean—Mama, I’m
sorry
.” He folded her against him, feeling the past shudder through her, feeling shamed and chastened. Feeling like a bad son. “Please, Mama, don’t fratch yourself. It was twenty years ago. Don’t—”

“It was
yesterday,
” she said, wrenching out of his arms. “For him and for me. You don’t know, Rafe. For all the stories Darran told you, trust me,
you don’t know
. What it cost him. What it
still
costs. What your father’s had to do since—”

“Mama?” he said, staring down at her. She was so
small
now. She used to be the tallest woman in the world. “What is it? Did something happen you never—”

“No. Nothing happened,” she said. There were tears on her cheeks. “Don’t mind me, Rafe. I’m tired, that’s all.”

And that was a lie. His parents were keeping secrets again. One of these days, soon, they’d have to stop treating him like a child. They’d
have
to.

Footsteps behind him. Slow. Almost hesitant.
Da
. And then a gentle hand came to rest on his shoulder.

“Rafe.
Rafe
. You think I don’t know how hard you want to be part of that mageworking?” Da asked. “I do. And I know right now you don’t care for me overmuch. But I can’t let that fret me. Better you alive and not likin’ me, than you thinkin’ me the best da in Lur as you die.”

His father was trying to wheedle him. He didn’t want to be wheedled. Shrugging free, stepping aside, he turned. “It ain’t certain I’d die.”

“It ain’t certain you wouldn’t,” Da retorted. Like Mama, his eyes were full of pain. “Reckon I’m about to risk you on a maybe?”

“What I reckon,” he said, through gritted teeth, “is that you’ve got to let me make my own choices.”

Da shook his head. “Not this time, sprat.”

Sprat
. “I ain’t a bloody sprat, Da! I’m—”

“I know what you be, Rafe,” said Da, his voice strangled tight. “You be the bloody heart beatin’ in my chest. You goin’ to stand there and look me in the eye and ask me to rip it out? With my own hands? Ask me to throw it on the ground at your ma’s feet and say,
‘There you go, woman. That’s how much I love your son
.
’
Eh? Is that what you’re goin’ to do now, Rafe?”

And what was he s’posed to say to that? He had nowt to say. Da was more than wheedling, he was playing dirty, like a gutter drunk, and there was nowt he could say.

Then he didn’t have to even try finding words, because there was a bustling behind them. Raised voices, boots scuffling on the stone pier. He and Da looked round to see Fernel Pintte and Lord Garrick and his poxy son Arlin and the other Doranen mages tromping down the pier towards the battered, fishless fishing boat as was set aside to take them out to the reef.

Pintte and Lord Garrick never missed a step or turned their heads. But Arlin, passing, slowed almost to stopping and smiled wide. He reeked of insolence and contempt. “Meister Asher. Rafel.”

“
Arlin,
”
said Da quietly. “Barl’s blessin’ on you.”

Arlin laughed. “As if we need it.”

“You need somethin’,” Da replied. “You need a bloody miracle.”
“Arlin!”
snapped Rodyn Garrick over his shoulder, and Arlin hurried to catch up.

Sarle Baden, Ennet Vail and Ain Freidin didn’t slow, or speak. They were trying to pretend Da wasn’t even here. That hurt. Did it hurt Da too?

Even if it did, he’d never let on. He’s my da but at times like this… I don’t know him.

“Asher,” said Mama, joining them, Deenie at her side. “We don’t have to stay here. We can go back to the inn. We can pack, and go home.”

Da shook his head. “I can’t, Dath.” He took one step after the Doranen mages and Pintte. “Dath, I—”

Mama’s fingers caught hold of his green-and-bronze striped sleeve. “No, Asher. It’s too late. They’ll not let you join them now. Not even if you begged. They’d
let
you beg, and then they’d laugh in your face.”

The look in Da’s eyes when he turned to Mama near broke Rafel’s heart. “I should’ve found a way to stop ’em, Dath.”

Mama captured Da’s shoulders with both hands.
“Don’t
,
”
she said fiercely. “What they’re doing? It’s their choice. The Innocent Mage warned them and they wouldn’t listen.
No
blame falls on you.”

As Da held on to Mama like a desperate man, Deenie whimpered and pressed a fist against her chest. Tears filled her eyes. She was such a watering pot. “I don’t feel good. Da, make them change their minds.”

Letting go of Mama, Da stared at the fishing boat. Its crew was all aboard, and its passengers were climbing in after. “Can’t, mouse. Your ma’s right. It be too late. Dath… take her back to the Dolphin.”

Mama’s face was all pinched. Sunlight gleamed and glittered the silver strands in her hair. “What about you? Asher—”

“Don’t start on me, Dath. Just get Deenie away from here.”

“Come, Deenie,” said Mama, her voice still hard, but her face gone crumply. “You too, Rafe.”

He opened his mouth to protest, even though he knew it wouldn’t do him a mite of good. But Da spoke first.

“No,” he said. “I want Rafe with me.”

Stunned, Mama stared at him. “What? Asher, no. Rafe can’t—”

“He’s right, Dath. He ain’t a sprat,” said Da, so grim. “And when this goes bad I’ll need him. I can’t do it alone.”

“You’ll have to,” said Mama, her eyes terrible. “He’s not ready. He’s not
trained.
He—”

“I weren’t trained neither,” said Da. His eyes were terrible too. “I got pushed in the deep end. Was you did the pushin’, as I recall.”

“
Asher
—
”

“The magic’s in him, Dath,” Da said roughly. Deenie was shivering. Da
never
spoke rough to Mama. “It’s in him just like it’s in me. And I need it. He’ll manage.”

“Mama—” Rafel reached for her. “Don’t fret. I can—”

But she knocked his arms aside. “You’re just a boy, you don’t know anything! Asher, he
can’t
.”

Da and Mama stared at each other. Something was going on; they were brangling without words now. He looked at Deenie, who shook her head. She didn’t understand either.

“Dathne, I’ll fix it,” Da said, his voice soft again. Sorry. “He’ll have what he needs. He’ll be safe. I promise.”

“And the Doranen?” Mama demanded. Her eyes were full of tears. She was nearly weeping.

Da sighed, then pulled a face. “Looks like I were wrong. Looks like we can’t keep him secret forever.”

And Mama gave up. Just like that. She gave up, so
heartbroken
… “Fine.”

“Mouse,” said Da. “You sit tight. Me and Rafe’ll see you soon.” Deenie flung her arms around Da’s neck, and Da held on to her like they were both drowning, then released her.

“Be careful, Rafe,” Deenie whispered, and patted his chest. “Look after Da.”

He tried to smile at his spratty, bratty, watering pot sister. “I will. Mama—”

“You,”
she said, glaring. The tears were spilled on her cheek now. “
Both
of you.” Stepping close, reaching up, she pulled his head down and kissed his brow. Reached for Da, and kissed him hard on the lips. Then she took Deenie’s hand and they walked away, past the Mayor of West-wailing and his cronies, with Deenie looking back over her shoulder.

Rafel lifted a hand. Waggled his fingers at her, just once, then frowned at his father. Something was niggling.
Dathne, I’ll fix it
. “Da, what did you mean, you’ll fix it? Fix what? Fix
me?
”

With its yellow sails flapping gaily and its broad, light blue hull cleaving the harbour’s gentle waters, the fishing boat headed away from the pier. Da stared past it towards the ruined, malevolent reef.