The Choice of Magic

by Michael G. Manning

  She held up a hand. “Not family, an outsider—a sorceress?”

  He was impressed. “You can tell all that with your nose? Maybe I’ve been focusing on enhancing the wrong senses.”

  His grandmother nodded. “Tailtiu told me of your success with her type of magic. Who is the sorceress?”

  Will knew not to trust the fae, even Aislinn, but he needed advice. Deep down he needed Arrogan, but that need sprung from a desire to find support from someone older and wiser. After hearing Selene’s conversation the night before, he felt betrayed—and more importantly, alone. Starting from the beginning, he shared everything he knew about Selene with his grandmother, including his most recent discovery. He finished with a smile that failed to hide his pain. “Honestly and without deception. Was that an answer worthy of our bargain?”

  Aislinn frowned. “It was far too much. If you deal with my kind like this in the future, you will surely die.” Then her eyes softened. “But I’m feeling motherly today. Perhaps I won’t use it against you. What would you like to know?”

  Motherly? That bordered on a lie. She’s pushing the limit today, thought Will, but it gave him an idea. “If you were still human,” he began, “if you truly could feel motherly, what would you tell me? What would your advice be then?”

  “Since you were so forthright, I will give you two answers, since I am not entirely sure what I would really do if I were human. First I’ll tell you what I would advise as a fae, then I will guess at what my old self might have said.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Kill her,” said Aislinn, her eyes cold. “Her kind don’t deserve to live under the best of circumstances, and she has betrayed you, so she is doubly damned. Or trade her to me, in exchange I will—”

  Will interrupted, “I’m not going to do that, so let’s move on to the second part.”

  His grandmother sighed, closing her eyes as if in deep meditation. “Give me a moment.”

  Is it that hard to remember being human? he wondered.

  A few seconds later, she opened her eyes again and her entire demeanor changed. The alien stillness of her stance vanished, and her face showed such concern that he could almost believe it wasn’t an act. “William, you’ve been hurt. Don’t let your pain cloud your thinking. Do you have feelings for this girl?”

  “What? No!”

  Reaching down, she grabbed his ear, pulling him painfully to his feet. “Tell the truth.”

  “I think you’re overdoing this human thing,” he protested.

  She glared at him. “Human does not mean nice. You should have listened better to what your grandfather told you about me.” Then she twisted his ear. “Now, the truth.”

  “Ow, ow! Yes! Maybe? I don’t know!” She released him then, and he could see Tailtiu laughing silently in the background.

  “That’s better,” said Aislinn.

  “So, you have feelings, and now you think she’s using you. What you need to consider is—”

  “Think? I know she’s using me,” corrected Will.

  His grandmother’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t interrupt me again, William. I didn’t misspeak. You think she’s using you, and that may well be the truth. The words you overhead seem to indicate it, but they could have different interpretations. From this point forward you need to be cautious, but not stupid. Don’t let your prejudice color your judgment. Stay in her good graces, discover the truth, but don’t give away your heart until you know what that truth is.”

  Her human-like façade faded away after that, replaced by the cold, alien gaze of the fae. “I’m done,” she said. “But also, I would like to add that you should kill her.”

  “You really are bloodthirsty, aren’t you?” said Will dryly.

  “The rise of sorcery and the war that followed have a lot to do with my current condition,” said Aislinn. “Beyond that, the crimes they committed go far past my personal grievances.”

  “I need her help to destroy the Darrowan supplies in Barrowden,” insisted Will.

  “Easy enough,” said Aislinn. “Trade her to me. In exchange, I will do everything she would have and ten times more.”

  “I already said no. I’m not a warlock.”

  His grandmother smiled. “You’re beginning to think, learning lessons you haven’t been taught yet.”

  Will was growing impatient. “You had some reason for wanting to talk to me. Thus far all we’ve done is discuss my problems.”

  “I have a gift for you.”

  Accept no debts. Will shook his head.

  “But you will have to pay for it,” added Aislinn, her lips curling into a faint smile.

  “What is it?”

  His grandmother waved a finger in front of him. “I will not tell you. I will only say that it is a thing of such vile knowledge and power as to cause weak men to faint and cry out in horror.”

  Tailtiu was standing behind her mother, nodding in agreement. “It really is. I can’t wait to get rid of it.”

  “Silence!” snapped Aislinn.

  “It doesn’t sound like something I would want,” said Will.

  Aislinn shook her head. “It is something only you would want, as our prior conversation has already proven.”

  For the life of him, Will couldn’t think of anything they had talked about that related to objects of vile power, but her statement that he would want it intrigued him. She couldn’t lie directly, only mislead. “What is the price you want?”

  “An elemental,” she said immediately.

  “I’m not a sorcerer either,” said Will firmly.

  “You don’t have to deliver it. As a service to me, I ask that you free one elemental,” she clarified.

  Will thought back to his previous fights but failed to get an exact count. “I’ve already done that several times.”

  “Did we have an agreement then?”

  He shook his head.

  “Then don’t pretend to be stupid, William. Free an elemental and call my daughter. I will give you my gift at that time.”

  “Well, if I don’t get killed, I would probably do that anyway. So you have a deal,” said Will. “Anything else?”

  “Do you know the elements humans are composed of?”

  Will was confused. “Do you mean like earth, wind, fire, and water?”

  Aislinn shook her head. “No, they are made of three things, mind, soul, and flesh. All magic relates to those elements.”

  “Where is this going?” His grandmother was beginning to remind him of Arrogan, which irritated him. It also caused him to stop and think. “Wait. How do they relate to magic?”

  “The mind represents the knowledge to create spells, the soul is responsible for the will that creates them, and flesh is the source of the turyn used for magic. When a person dies, these things become disconnected, but they are not necessarily destroyed. All mages are fundamentally the same, but they have their differences. Wizards focus more on knowledge than the amassing of power; warlocks deal mainly in things of the flesh to attain their goals.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” asked Will.

  “Because riddles are the way that the fae coerce mortals into doing our bidding when they won’t make a bargain. Teaching you to think is the only way you’ve left me to gain what I want. Think about what I’ve said.” She turned away, walking back toward the congruence. “Think carefully. The answers to more than one question lie in what I have said.”

  Will stared after at the place she had vanished for several minutes after she had gone. As always, he felt that he had more questions than answers, but one thing in particular stood out to him. She didn’t say what sorcerers focus on. Is it the soul? The will? Either way, it didn’t make much sense. From what he had seen, he had a will at least as strong as most sorcerers. Nearly all of Arrogan’s strange training practices had focused on it, though he hadn’t realized it at the time. In contrast, he was probably the most ignorant wizard in Terabinia.

  “Stupid fae,” he said. “Never a simple a
nswer when you want one.”

  Chapter 58

  Back at the house, Will found Selene in the garden with his mother and uncle. Together they were breaking up the hard soil to prepare the ground for planting. Since Arrogan had lived alone there was only one hoe, so Erisa and Selene were using sharpened staves to help.

  They hadn’t heard him arrive, so he stood just beyond the gate that led through the brambles, watching and listening. There wasn’t much to hear, though. The three of them didn’t have much breath to spare on idle chatter.

  What is she doing? Selene’s earth elemental could have probably done the entire job in a matter of minutes, but there she was, bent over and sweating in the still-cold air of late winter. He couldn’t imagine that she had ever done such labor before, and it wouldn’t take long for blisters to form on her soft hands.

  Then he noticed that Selene’s hands were wrapped with linen strips. Probably Mom’s idea, since we don’t have gloves.

  He didn’t have a good reason to watch. He wasn’t learning anything, but he didn’t move. Quietly, he admired her strength and stamina, as she sweated and pounded the earth with her stake. There was something bewitching about watching her movements.

  “Did you kiss her?” asked Sammy from beside him. Will nearly yelped with surprise. He had been so focused that he hadn’t noticed her walk up. “Is that why she’s so mad at you?”

  The exact opposite, he thought. “No, it’s nothing like that.”

  “I think she likes you,” said Sammy. “Like a lot, a lot, a lot.”

  “She doesn’t,” said Will firmly. “And even if she did, she’s nobility.”

  “They always find a way in the stories.”

  “Real life doesn’t work that way. In real life the princess puts the hero in chains and forces him into slavery.”

  Sammy’s eyes went wide. “Is she a princess?”

  “No. Just a spoiled brat who wishes she was.”

  “She’s working awfully hard for someone who’s spoiled,” noted his cousin.

  “Don’t let her fool you. She has magic that could do that entire job in a matter of minutes. She’s just trying to make herself appear honest and sincere. It’s all a façade.”

  “Maybe she’s just being polite.”

  “Huh?”

  “Well, if she just snapped her fingers and finished everything, how would it make us feel? I don’t know about your mom, but my dad would probably feel kind of useless. He’s always been very proud of what he could do with his hands,” observed Sammy.

  “Don’t let your prejudice color your judgment,” Aislinn had told him. Maybe he was being too harsh. Then again, maybe she was just trying to fool them. Will was surprised at the depth of his cousin’s thought. He had always thought of her as a pest, and more lately as rambunctious and sometimes funny. Now he knew he hadn’t been paying close attention to her. She was growing up.

  And maybe I haven’t paid close enough attention to Selene either. Turning away from the garden, he went into the house. “Come help me clean up so I can cook,” he told Sammy.

  The midday meal earned him overflowing praise from Sammy and a meager ‘it’s good’ from Selene. He didn’t blame her though. Whatever her deeper motivations were, he understood she was truly angry with him for what he had said the night before. He needed to find a way to get back in her good graces. Otherwise I’ll have no chance of ever figuring out the truth.

  As everyone was getting up from the table, he grabbed Selene’s wrist, pulling her toward the door. “Come on.”

  She tried to pull away, but he held on. “I don’t want to go anywhere with you.”

  He released her, mainly because his family were giving him disapproving looks. “We need to talk.”

  Silence reigned for an awkward span of time before she finally relented. “Fine. Let’s go.” Selene took the lead, striding out the door with the pride of a thoroughbred horse. Will followed, and they she stopped when they were around fifty yards from the house. She whirled to face him. “What would you like to say?”

  “First, that I’m sorry. Not for rejecting you, but for how I did it,” said Will.

  “Apology accepted,” she answered primly. “Are we done?”

  Will frowned. “Don’t you have anything to say?”

  “I’ve already told you I don’t apologize, and even if I did, do you think you deserve one?”

  He waited, fixing her with an even stare while trying to keep his expression neutral. When she didn’t say anything, he finally asked, “Don’t you?” Selene still didn’t reply, but he could see uncertainty in her eyes. A full minute passed, and he turned around to go back into the house.

  “Yes!” she shouted at his back. Will turned back. Her face was red. “But I can’t give you one.”

  “Why not?”

  “You have your stupid rules about debts and whatnot, but so do we. Never apologize. It’s been drilled into me since I was a girl.”

  “It’s a good rule for sorcerers, I guess. Never apologize. They’d never be able to stop if they started.”

  He hadn’t thought about what he was saying, but he realized immediately that his words could only make matters worse; yet Selene didn’t look angry—there was something else in her eyes. “Is that why you were angry?” she asked. “Because you hate us so much?”

  “No,” he said flatly. “It’s because you lied.”

  “I hadn’t even said anything,” she protested.

  “The kiss was a lie. You were covering up what you were doing.”

  “You did hear then,” she stated bluntly.

  He nodded. “Care to explain?”

  “I have obligations,” she told him. “But they aren’t sinister. I think you could do a lot of good if you’re allowed to reach your potential.”

  “It sounded more like you were buying and selling horseflesh.”

  Selene stared at the ground. “I suppose it did, but I didn’t intend for it to. The person I was speaking to is blunt and direct.”

  “Who was he?”

  She didn’t answer.

  Will threw up his hands. “How am I supposed to trust you when I know almost nothing about you? You’ve lied about your name, kept your family a secret, and now I know you’re on some secret mission to—I don’t know what it is—enslave me?”

  “To win you over, to recruit you,” said Selene earnestly. “Not enslave you.”

  “Well you’re doing a piss-poor job of it,” he said sourly. “How do you expect me to trust you?”

  She stepped closer. “I’ve never lied to you. I’ve hidden a lot—because I had to—but I’ve never lied, not in word or deed. I would never do anything to bring harm to you or your family.”

  Will sighed. He wanted to believe her. He really did. He wasn’t even angry anymore, just tired. “Let’s just do what we came to do. I’ll trust you that far, but no farther, because you did lie and you’re still refusing to admit it.”

  “How?”

  He gave her the look Arrogan had often given him when he thought he was being particularly stupid. “The kiss.” Then he turned and headed back to the house.

  As he went, his sharp ears picked up a murmur from her lips. “But it wasn’t…”

  ***

  That evening as the sun began to set, they prepared to leave. It didn’t take long, however, since they had little to carry. Will put on his gambeson and left his mail in its bag. As he was belting on his sword, Selene pointed to it. “Are we having this fight again?”

  Will shrugged. “I’m not fighting with you. It’s too noisy.”

  “There are plenty of soldiers in the enemy camp, many of them wearing similar armor. You’ll fit right in,” she told him.

  “Where’s yours then?” he pointed out. “You expect me to go armored while you walk around like an archery target? How about you wear it?”

  “It’s too big for me. At least one of us should wear it.”

  “It’s still too noisy.”

  “I can fi
x that,” she countered, wiggling her fingers at him in a pseudo-mystical fashion.

  His mother stepped in. “You’ve got bigger problems,” she said, looking Selene up and down carefully.

  “Such as?” asked Selene.

  Erisa stared at her chest. “Maybe they aren’t too big. Come with me.”

  Selene blushed, and Will snickered as his mother shooed him away. “Go get your spare clothes from the other room,” she ordered.

  He did as he was told and then waited while the two of them worked on Selene’s disguise. When they called him back, he took one look at Selene and began to laugh. His clothes hung on Selene like an empty sack thrown over a fence post. His trousers had the cuffs rolled up and were belted tightly at the waist. The only part that was snug was her derriere, which he found fascinating, since ordinarily it was better hidden by her skirts.

  His mother gave him a sharp glance as she saw what he was studying. “William.”

  He reluctantly lifted his eyes. The shirt was almost as bad as the trousers, except it was loose everywhere. From the way it hung on Selene he guessed his mother had bound her breasts.

  “What do you think?” asked his mother.

  “From the neck down, she looks like a starving boy with an oversized b—”

  “William,” warned Erisa.

  He stopped with a grin. “From the neck up…” Selene’s hair had been tied up and was covered by a thick wool cap, but her slender neck, high cheekbones, and full lips were a dead giveaway. And her eyes—he stared into them for a moment as she stared back, and he felt his mouth go dry. Will felt his cheeks heat up, and he looked away. “Isn’t there some way to ugly her up?”

  His remark produced a smile on Selene’s face that in her current attire could only be described as goofy. Erisa took note of the expression but said nothing. Instead she asked her brother, “Johnathan, we need an independent opinion. What do you think?”

  His uncle studied her for a minute. “Will’s right. If anyone looks at her close up, they’ll know right away. Even at a distance, her walk will give her away.”

  “Because of her butt,” Sammy declared gleefully, wiggling her hips.