The Choice of Magic

by Michael G. Manning

  “Samantha, would you like to do the wash a day early?” warned Erisa.

  Sammy ran out the door. “Nope!”

  Johnathan rubbed his beard. “There is one other option. There are some women in the camp. If we dress her like one of them, she might not seem out of place.”

  Erisa shook her head. “I still have a dress that would probably do, but trust me, even if they didn’t suspect her, she would draw far too much attention that way.”

  “What women?” asked Will. He’d never seen any in the Terabinian camp, aside from Selene and Lord Nerrow’s daughter.

  There was a brief silence, then his uncle answered, “The comfort women.”

  “Comfort women? I don’t think we had those at the camp I was in. What do they do?”

  “That’s because Branscombe was right there,” said Johnathan.

  “And how would you know that?” asked Erisa sharply.

  His uncle held up his hands. “Don’t look at me! I’m a married man. I’d never do that to Doreen.” He stopped then, a look of pain on his face as he remembered he wasn’t married any longer. “I’ll go make sure Sammy isn’t getting into trouble out there.”

  Will felt bad for asking. He’d figured out the general meaning from his uncle’s remarks, but it was the reminder of who they had lost that made him guilty. Erisa patted his shoulder. “It’s not your fault. These things just take time—a lot of time.”

  Chapter 59

  They left soon after that. Night was falling, and the sky dimmed rapidly after the sun dropped behind the mountains. Will was wearing his mail, and he stopped as soon as they were out of sight of the house.

  “Don’t stop,” said Selene. “I won’t be able to see my feet in a few minutes. We need to hurry before the light gives out and we’re lost in these woods.”

  “I can see in the dark,” Will reminded her.

  “I thought you were bluffing. You know the spell?”

  “There’s a spell?”

  Selene sighed. “Yes, but I don’t know it.”

  “I thought you trained at Wurthaven for years,” he replied, putting on a posh tone.

  Selene hid a faint smile. “We don’t sound like that. I told you your acting was terrible. And no, I don’t know the spell, it’s a complicated one. I’d have to study it a while.”

  “But you memorized the cleaning spell?”

  She put her hands on her hips. “Which one do you think is used more often? I have yet to need a night vision spell, until today. Living in that army camp I needed the cleaning spell every day.”

  “What do you do in the dark then?” he asked.

  Selene put one hand out, and a brief collection of runes rushed together. A second later a gently glowing ball of golden light replaced them. She extinguished it a second later. “A simple light spell, but we can’t risk that tonight, can we?”

  “Definitely not,” he agreed. “But don’t worry, as I said, I can see. I’ll guide you. There’s a game trail here, but the terrain is tricky.”

  “All right,” she said after a second.

  The path they took sloped downward—sharply in places—as it twisted and turned through brush and trees. Once the light had gone, Selene began to have trouble. She tripped several times and began to slide on particularly steep spots.

  Will caught her wrist and anchored them by grabbing onto a scrubby bush. “Careful.”

  “Can’t you teach me the trick to whatever you’re doing?”

  “You just concentrate some of your turyn around your eyes and then shift its phase until you can see properly,” he told her.

  She stared blankly at the spot she thought his face would be, though he was actually a few inches farther to the right. “How do you concentrate turyn in a particular part of your body?”

  “The same way you do near your hand when you’re forming runes for a spell.”

  “But…” She didn’t finish her sentence. Instead she remained silent, and he could see a look of concentration on her face, though her turyn didn’t seem to be moving. “I give up,” she announced.

  “You might have to go through all the other weird shit he put me through first before you can do it,” Will theorized.

  “Did he teach you that?”

  “No. One of the fae did.”

  “Are you going to explain that?” she asked. “In fact, we still haven’t talked about how we got here, or what that thing in the cave was.”

  “Are you going to tell me who you were talking to the other night?” Selene remained silent. “How about this, are you going to report anything I tell you to whoever that was?”

  In the dark, he could see her biting her lip. “Yes.”

  “Then we’re done talking about those other things, but thank you for being truthful—this time.”

  She growled, “I’d smack you if I could see where your face is.”

  “At least we’re being honest with each other now,” he said brightly. “I don’t share any of my secrets, and you don’t tell me a thing about yourself.”

  “You don’t trust me at all, do you?”

  Will helped her around several bushes. “Actually, I trust you a little—now that we’re being honest—but I don’t trust whoever is pulling your strings.”

  “You would trust him, if I could tell you.”

  “Then tell me!”

  “I can’t.”

  He wanted to shake her, but he restrained himself. They had a mission to accomplish, so he held his tongue and continued leading her down the game trail. A few minutes later she spoke again. “I can’t tell you for two reasons. One, I’m bound by an oath, and two, once you know we won’t be able to be friends anymore.”

  “You said I would trust him. Trusting and being friends goes hand in hand.”

  “Not where I come from.”

  He could see the lights from Barrowden beginning to show through the trees, though they were probably still too far away for Selene to see. Will stopped. “We’re close. You said you could make my armor quiet, right?”

  Golden runes appeared over her hand, flowing together into a spell composed of around fifteen parts. Once they had connected, she reached out and pressed it against his chest, where it immediately fizzled out. As far as Will could tell, it hadn’t done anything. “Can you please stop doing that?” asked Selene.

  “Oh, sorry.” He made a conscious effort to stop absorbing turyn. “Try again.”

  She repeated the spell, and this time it sank into his armor and clothing, spreading out over his body. “It will last about an hour,” she told him. “During that time your clothing won’t make any sound. That includes your boots but doesn’t include your hands or any other part of your body that’s exposed.”

  “Why not?”

  “So you can talk, for one,” she replied, “though I’m starting to doubt the wisdom of that part. It was the simplest way to make the spell practical, but the upshot is that if you break wind, sneeze, cough, or yell, it can be heard.” She repeated the spell for her own clothing.

  “Too bad we can still be seen,” Will muttered. “Can you make a mist?”

  “I can,” she told him. “Syllannus, my water elemental, is good for that, but he can’t cover the entire town, just a hundred yards or so. A mist that small would be suspicious, and any mages in the town will recognize the magic. Besides, we couldn’t see through it.”

  Will grinned, an expression that was wasted since she couldn’t see his face. “Make some mist. Just a little.”

  She gave him an odd look but did as he asked. Her elemental’s mist was thicker than what Tailtiu had produced, blocking his sight of everything beyond a few feet. Will began adjusting his vision until he found the sweet spot, and the mist vanished. “That’s enough,” he told her.

  “What was that about?” she asked.

  “I can see through your mist. If things go wrong, make as much mist as you can and grab my hand. I’ll be able to lead us out.”

  “A night vision spell won’t d
o that. Is this more fae magic?”

  Will shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it fae magic. It’s the same way they do it, but I think you would call it wild magic since I’m not fae.”

  They continued on until they were about fifty yards from the dimmest area of light that Will thought the patrollers could see in. He expected they would find the perimeter patrols about twenty yards or so closer in, but there were none in sight from where they were at the moment. He pulled Selene down to sit beside him. “We’ll wait here.”

  “Why here?”

  “You see the lanterns in town?” he said, pointing. “Closer to us from those is a dim region. The patrollers will be walking at the edge of that, where it’s hard for them to be seen and where they won’t spoil their night vision. Anyone that approaches without figuring out where the patrollers are will probably be caught, and once they’re in the better-lit region, the patrollers can catch them easily. We wait here a while, and after I’ve got a feel for their timing, we can enter the town in between patrol sweeps.”

  “Shouldn’t we find a higher point to observe from? We’re in a dip here, aren’t we?”

  He nodded. “That would be nice, but they probably have sentries posted any place we would choose for that same reason. So we have to choose a shitty spot like this, where it’s harder to see as well as to be seen. Fortunately, my eyes are good enough to make up for that.”

  “How long do you think we’ll wait?”

  “Until I see the same guards come by twice. Probably an hour or two.”

  Half an hour passed, and the cold began to eat at them since they weren’t moving. Selene moved closer until their shoulders were touching. With little to do, Will began to think dark thoughts. “Hey, Selene.”

  “Yes.”

  “If something happens and I don’t make it back, will you do me a favor?”

  She gave him a sly look, though she couldn’t see him well. “Wouldn’t that put you in my debt?”

  “I’d be dead, probably.”

  “Then you have to pay in advance. Your credit is no good.”

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “Tell me your favor first.”

  He sighed. “My cousin Eric is still in the army. I haven’t thanked you properly, but this mail saved my life a couple of times. Could you do something similar for him?”

  “I don’t know,” she said reluctantly. “That was a lot of coin, and you’ve made me regret spending it several times.”

  “Please?”

  “Keep me warm.”

  “Huh?”

  “That’s my price,” she explained. “Keep me warm until we can get this over with.”

  He stood and spread his cloak so she could slip inside it, then he eased back down into a sitting position so the two of them could huddle together. His arm was around her shoulders, and he didn’t trust himself to speak.

  After a while, she asked, “Are we friends?”

  I would love to know the answer to that myself, thought Will ruefully. Over time he had become intensely attracted to her, but that wasn’t friendship. It was lust. Friends should trust each other. There was some sort of warmth between them, both literally and figuratively, but he didn’t trust her much. He decided to be truthful. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “Oh.” There was something sad in the way she said it.

  “You have other friends, though,” he told her cheerfully. “A peasant from Barrowden wouldn’t be much to brag about.”

  She shook her head, tickling his ear with her hair. “No. I have family, that’s it.”

  “What about Lord Nerrow’s daughter, Laina?”

  “Mark Nerrow and his two daughters are like family to me,” she said. “In fact, he’s been more of a father to me than my own father.”

  Will laughed bitterly. “Then he’s been more of a father to you than he has to me.”

  She looked up, and he saw her eyes glittering in the darkness. “You knew?”

  “Mom told me a while back.”

  “Don’t judge him too harshly. He’s one of the kindest men I know,” said Selene. “I’m sure he never wanted things to turn out this way. That’s why he keeps trying to help you.”

  “I don’t know enough about him to have an opinion,” said Will, “and while I haven’t met my other half-sister, having met Laina doesn’t give me much hope. She seems thoroughly rotten.”

  “She isn’t as bad as you think,” offered Selene. “She just hasn’t seen enough of the world to learn more empathy yet. Her father has kept her sheltered.”

  “Yours certainly hasn’t sheltered you.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “You’re obviously from an important family, but they let you run around loose in the world like this. It doesn’t make sense. I was starting to think you were a princess for a while, but there’s no way a king would let his daughter put herself in such dangerous situations.”

  “My family isn’t like others.”

  “Do you have any siblings?” asked Will.

  “Not anymore,” she answered. “I had an older brother, but he died when I was small.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t be. He was much older. I hardly knew him.”

  “How did it happen?”

  “An illness. They wouldn’t let me see him, but that’s what I was told.”

  Even without names, Will was learning more about her than he had discovered in all the time he had known her. “What about your mother?”

  She shook her head. “She died giving birth to me. I have a step-mother, though.”

  Damn, thought Will. She’s had a tragic life. “So, it’s just you and your dad then.”

  “And the Nerrow family,” she added. “I was fostered to their household when I was eight. It was much nicer than mine.”

  “Fostered?”

  She chuckled. “It’s something the nobility does. Most children are sent to live with a different family when they reach a certain age. It helps to create connections between families of power.”

  “But Nerrow didn’t send Laina away,” observed Will.

  “He wouldn’t. Not with me there,” she answered. “Besides, he’s too soft. I don’t think he could stand to be parted either of his girls.”

  In the darkness, Will watched the first patrol he had seen pass by for the second time. He had a good grasp of the timing now. There were four groups of three men. Each group completed a full circuit of the camp roughly every twenty minutes. It would be six or seven minutes before the next patrol came by. Since they were bundled together, he held onto Selene, and they stood together. “It’s time.”

  Chapter 60

  They moved forward through the shadowy region beyond the lanterns of Barrowden, and soon they emerged into the light. It wasn’t that late, so there were still a few people moving about, but since it was a military camp there were fewer than if it had still been a village.

  “Shouldn’t there be more guards?” Will muttered.

  “I think since this region is so well protected by the pass they don’t think there’s much threat,” suggested Selene.

  As they walked, Will began to notice the difference in how much sound they made. Their feet were completely silent, and their clothes didn’t rustle, but their voices were completely normal. As many times as he had had to sneak around thus far in his career, he figured he should insist that Selene teach him the spell after they were done.

  Barrowden as he had known it was completely gone. The village homes and buildings had been razed, and whatever could be salvaged—along with a significant amount of new timber—had gone into constructing the new Darrowan base of operations.

  Unlike the Terabinian army camp and the Darrowan camp in the pass, Barrowden’s tents and new buildings had been arranged in a neat grid. Wide lanes separated the tents and intersected each other at ninety-degree angles. He supposed that the layout facilitated ease of movement and made everything easier to find.
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br />   The camp was also well lit, and though the lanterns weren’t that bright there were very few truly dark regions within it. Again, that made it easier for people to move about after dark, but it also made it harder to hide. Will and Selene both tensed when a few soldiers passed them in the street, but the men barely glanced at them.

  “This might be easier than I anticipated,” Will observed.

  Selene nodded. “Don’t get too comfortable, though. Eventually we’ll have to do something, and it won’t be so easy anymore.”

  They continued on in a straight line, following the lane they had first entered on. Most of what they had passed thus far consisted of pavilion tents with short, temporary walls that rose four feet high along their margins to create semi-permanent dwellings. As far as Will could tell, they served as barracks, and they seemed to go on forever. The first section they went through was occupied, but the next was empty. It must have belonged to the units that have already gone to the pass. What worried him most was that there were obviously many more such sections, and soldiers still occupied many of them. The Patriarch’s army was huge.

  They went by much larger tents occasionally, and by the smell Will figured they were mess tents, but they found nothing resembling the centralized stores that they were looking for. Still, they had only walked through a small fraction of the enemy base so far.

  Two men waited on one corner of an especially large intersection ahead that marked the center of the camp. Given the lighting, they had already seen Will and Selene, so there was no point in avoiding them, so they kept walking.

  As soon as they were within twenty feet, one of the pair stepped out and challenged them, “Show your pass.”

  Will scratched his head. “I didn’t realize it was that late. We’ll head back to our unit.” He made as if to turn back.

  The guard wasn’t going to let them off easily, however. “Stop. Which unit are you—”

  Will had already connected his source-link spell to both men, and he began rapidly draining their turyn. Unaware of what he was doing, neither of them made the connection between their fatigue and the newcomers until it was too late, and both slowly collapsed to the ground.