by Victor Poole
"Ossa," she said.
"Ossa's gone," Chad said, reappearing in the stairs with Ocher in tow. "She went out to get some ointment," Chad added, "for the little boy."
"That's Coren," Ajalia said, rubbing her shoulders against the frame of the door to loosen the muscles that had knotted up against the blue fragments of wings that still lay down against her back. "He's Delmar's youngest brother."
"I know that," Chad said, looking annoyed. Ajalia was sure that Chad had not realized that this Coren was that same boy until she had said so, but she let it pass.
"You ran away," Ajalia said to Ocher, who looked a little abashed. Ocher glanced at Chad; the bearded man looked as though he was determined not to notice the presence of Daniel.
"I'm sorry," Ocher said, "but you were a little frightening. You had fire coming out of your face."
"Did I?" Ajalia asked, interested.
"Um," Ocher said, "yes." He looked, Ajalia thought, like a little boy who stands in the presence of some powerful being. "I'd like to say," Ocher said, "that I do believe in the sky angel now. And that you are the sky angel." Ocher met her eyes briefly, and Ajalia saw that the man was blushing.
"Thanks," Ajalia said. "I've got the last witch in there," she added, pointing at Esther, who was looking annoyed, and had folded her arms. "I want to keep her alive," Ajalia told Ocher in a low voice, "and I want to teach the boys to work magic on her."
"That sounds like it might be a good idea," Ocher said. "Can they do magic?"
"Show me some story magic," Ajalia told Ocher. Ocher looked at her as though she were insane, but he lifted his palm, and put the picture of a great castle made of clouds into the air. "Now," Ajalia said, sighing, "take that light that you used to make the image, and picture it travelling through the air in a straight line towards that witch's head."
Ocher, again, looked at her as though she were asking him to do some silly thing, but her looked at the white castle, and the lines of the image began, very slowly at first, to drive through the room towards Esther's head, which was turned away from them. Ocher frowned in concentration, and soon the whole white image of the cloud castle was trailing in long, skinny lines towards the young witch's short hair. The white lines of light reached into Esther's head, and the little boys, who had looked up at the white lines when they drew near the witch, let out a collective gasp. Esther's back arched, as though she had been struck with a hammer, and her arms flung out to the sides. A stream of purple sparks burst out of the top of Esther's head, as though some dark plug were being forced out. Ajalia looked at the witch's head, and she saw that a similar cut-off piece was at the top of the witch, just as was at her feet. Ajalia saw that Ocher's lines of white light had wormed from the witch's lights that rested in her head, and gone up, through the empty space, towards the air above. Ajalia saw that Ocher's white threads of light were seeking to reconnect the witch to the power in the sky. The white lines faded away, and Esther's body relaxed. She looked suspiciously at the boys, and her whole face was twisted in dislike and mistrust. Esther rubbed at her temples, and glared around at Ajalia.
The little boys murmured; some of them pointed at Esther's face, and Ajalia heard, from their comments, that some of them were beginning to see the light inside the witch.
"I think I can see her soul," Ocher said, sounding disturbed. He turned to Ajalia. "Does it look like that to you?" he demanded, his mouth drawn into a fierce frown.
"Purple and orange?" Ajalia asked. Ocher nodded.
"I've never been able to see that," Ocher said, his fingers flashing open and shut. "Can you see it?" he asked Daniel. Daniel nodded. Ocher made a tight line with his lips, and he glared at the witch.
"The story magic," Ajalia told Ocher, "is like what I used to take Beryl out of you." Ocher's face was puckered in stern distaste.
"That power is for children," he told her. "We only let the little boys use the lights. They are punished, if they use then when they are older."
"You could see all of that when you were a boy?" Ajalia asked. Ocher frowned.
"Only in the air, above our palms," he said. "We are taught that it is impossible to see otherwise. If the children do see, they conceal it. It is seen as a weakness."
"Well," Ajalia said. She was not sure what else to say that would not sound condescending and harsh. "I don't know what to do with all the dead bodies downstairs," she said. Ocher smiled at her.
"I will practice with the story magic," Ocher told her humbly, "until I can see and control it, as you do."
"Good," Ajalia said.
"I will take care of the downstairs," Ocher added. The bearded man looked grim, and fierce. "We have not had open wars for many years," he said. "I had hoped it would not come to this."
"Come to what?" Ajalia asked. Ocher looked at her, and she rubbed again at her eyes. She was having difficulty staying awake, and hearing everything that he said to her.
"War," Ocher said. Daniel nudged Ajalia.
"Go to bed," Daniel whispered. "I will see that things are done as you would like."
Ajalia nodded. She could no longer keep her eyelids properly open, and she admitted to herself the futility of doing more now. Her whole body ached, and there was a deep itch all along her shoulder blades.
"You said you had a job for me to do," Chad reminded her helpfully, and Ajalia grinned at him.
"I do," she said. "I have looked inside that witch, and I think I know what she can become. I need your help to babysit her, and keep her from running away. She will try to do magic on you," she warned. "Don't get her on your own. Keep one of my boys with you at all times. You will have to outsource the management of the other boys, in the crews. I want you with Esther now."
"Her name's Esther?" Chad asked curiously.
"Have you got any boys who are a little older, who can work the crews?" Ajalia asked. Chad nodded.
"If we are going to have a war," Chad said eagerly, "they will all pitch in and be very good without me. The boys like fighting," he added, unnecessarily. Ajalia tried to smile, but her cheeks were heavy.
"I will be honest with you, Chad," Ajalia said. "If Esther turns wrong, I will kill her. If she turns out well, I will talk you into marrying her." Chad, to her surprise, did not bridle at this news. He looked around at the short-haired witch, and a thoughtful twist was in his mouth. Chad, Ajalia told herself, was growing up quickly.
"She's a servant," Chad observed. Ajalia waved a hand at him. Ocher was watching this exchange with curious eyes. Ajalia knew that Ocher was thinking of his own marriage, which Ajalia had arranged with Clare. Well, Ajalia told herself, Clare had done most of the arranging, but Ajalia had brought Ocher to the dragon temple, and promised to get him a wife from among her girls.
"If she is not dead soon," Ajalia told Chad, "she will earn her way free by working for Delmar, and exposing the other witches in Slavithe."
"Oh," Chad said. He wandered into the room, his hands thrust into his pockets.
"Chad," Ajalia said, and Chad turned. "Arrange your boys first. You will not be able to let her out of your sight, when you come back." Chad's eyes brightened, and he nodded, and turned to go back down the stairs. "Esther," Ajalia said. Ajalia put an arm out, and stopped Chad in the doorway. The young witch, who had been glaring suspiciously at the boys ever since Ocher had put threads of white light through her head, looked around at Ajalia.
"I don't want you to do magic on me," Esther said clearly. Ajalia saw that Esther thought she was the one who had made her body arch, and her arms spread out.
"I thought you said what I was doing wasn't real magic," Ajalia said. "But that wasn't me. That was Ocher." Esther looked over, and saw the great bearded man for the first time. Ocher had been standing a little in the hall, and was not openly in the doorway. Esther's eyes widened, and her mouth snapped closed. Ajalia thought that she could see the witch taking an inner determination never to speak anymore. "This is Chad," Ajalia told the witch. Chad lifted a hand, and wiggled his fingers in a friendly manner. Est
her glowered at Chad. "Chad is going to go and run an errand," Ajalia said, "and then he is going to come back and watch over you. If you turn out to be evil, like Vinna," Ajalia said, "I will see that you die."
Esther's cheeks, which were already pale, drained of whatever color they had held. Ajalia could see that Esther wanted to defend Vinna, and to tell Ajalia that neither she nor Vinna were evil at all, but Ocher seemed to choke back the young witch's desire to speak at all. Esther nodded curtly, and folded her arms.
"Go on," Ajalia said to Chad, and Chad grinned at Ocher, and ran down the stairs.
"I want to know," Ocher said to Ajalia, "what is going on with the glowing house out there." Ajalia blinked a few times before she remembered the old Thief Lord's house, and the walls that she had spread through with white magic.
"Um," Ajalia said, blinking to clear her eyes. "Rane tricked me. He's dead now. He died like the priests did," she added quickly. "I didn't mean for him to die. He and another Talbos spy were trying to trap me in Simon's house. I lit the walls up, and then he died." Ocher was staring at her. "The other man ran away," Ajalia added. "He was disguised as a Slavithe guard."
"These things that you are saying," Ocher said slowly, "you know that they are not real."
"Everything Ajalia says is real," Daniel told Ocher sternly. "You said yourself that her face was on fire." Ocher looked down at the boy, and his mouth doubled into a grimace. "And she was flying," Daniel said quietly. Ajalia saw Daniel's eyes go towards the other boys; she was sure, by his tone, that Daniel had not told the other boys this part of what he had seen. Ajalia thought again that Daniel was quite a useful child.
Ocher looked annoyed. He looked as though he had never believed in fantastical things, and as though his mind was struggling to make these new fantastical things into a shape that his previous thoughts would accept.
"If you take a special silver-blue light from the quarry," Ajalia told Ocher, her mind beginning to reel with exhaustion, "and you wind it through the stone of the walls in Simon's house, the light will fade."
"I don't think I'll be able to do that by myself," Ocher said frankly. Ajalia stared at him; she thought that Ocher was probably right.
"Ajalia has to sleep for a while," Daniel told Ocher. "She can help you later."
Ajalia felt as though she were pressed against a great wall of urgent needs; she was absolutely sure that if she went out with Ocher, into the still-darkened streets of Slavithe, that five new problems would present themselves to her.
"I sent Hal out to handle Rane's body," Ajalia said. "I'll have to see about the glowing building some other time." Ocher opened his mouth to protest, but seemed to think better of whatever he had been about to say. "We have a lot of dead bodies downstairs," Ajalia reminded him, and then she remembered the great drifts of clear black stones that the giant worm had left behind. "Daniel," she said sharply, and her boy straightened up at once. "Take half the boys with you," Ajalia said, "and find some baskets, or shovels, or anything else. Take Pudge," she said, thinking of the small jennet who lived behind the temple now, in the small stables there. "Get those boys down into the hall, and gather up the clear black stones. We'll save them. There are a lot of them," she said. "And take only the older boys," she told Daniel. "Anyone you think will be able to stand the sight of death."
Daniel nodded efficiently; she was sure he would understand the importance of the black stones to her. Ajalia had thought, when she had first seen the red stone that gave off brilliant light when touched with the cords of power from the earth or sky, that she wanted an endless supply of the stones. Now, it seemed, she had gotten her wish. Daniel hurried to the long line of boys, who were all still conjuring different colors of sparks, and sending them, with varying rates of success, towards Esther, and gathered out seven of them. They all followed Daniel eagerly out of the room, and down the stairs.
"What stones?" Ocher asked Ajalia.
"The black worm exploded, just as you were running away," Ajalia said, without any unkindness in her voice.
"What black worm?" Ocher asked. Ajalia looked at Ocher, and she felt suddenly so tired that she wanted to cry.
"Daniel saw," Ajalia said. "Will you stay here with the witch, until Chad returns?" Ocher looked hesitant; Ajalia was sure that the bearded man wanted to go down the stairs, to begin arranging the disposal of the dead bodies. Ajalia could see, from the way Ocher looked at her, and at the way his skin strained a little around his eyes, that he was not used to taking orders. She could almost see him biting back the orders that he wanted to give to her. Finally, Ocher smiled.
"I have tried, many times, to outsmart you, Ajalia," Ocher said with a chuckle. "Perhaps sometime I will learn better."
"I hope you don't," Ajalia told him frankly. "I think you could do whatever I have done tonight, if you stopped thinking of the story magic as childish." Ocher frowned at Ajalia; she wished he would go away, but, she reminded herself, Ocher was a valuable ally, and she wanted him to be more valuable still.
"Are you finally flirting with me?" Ocher asked seriously. Ajalia blinked again.
"In what universe is it flirting, to tell you that you are a powerful man, and that I believe you will become more powerful?" Ajalia stared at Ocher, who looked both nonplussed and pleased.
"Clare thinks I am wonderful," Ocher admitted with a shy smile.
"That's because you are wonderful," Ajalia told him. "If you start mindlessly taking instructions from me, you will not gain the power that you can gain, if you try. Please don't stunt yourself in some mistaken attempt to worship my powers. I have no more power," she said firmly, "than any of those boys can have, if they learn to see. You have seen some things. Learn to see more. And please," Ajalia said, "for now, because I am very tired, and because I asked you, watch that witch for me until Chad comes back." She looked at Ocher, and Ocher looked back at her. Ocher smiled.
"I like you, Ajalia," he said, but this time he did not say it as a man who thinks of a woman and wishes her for his wife. "I will do as you have asked," Ocher said, and Ajalia bent her head in thanks. She settled her bag around her body, and went through the dragon temple to her own room. When she got there, and unfastened the door, she found Leed asleep on the floor.
THE
CONTENTS OF THE BOOK
Ajalia blinked at the little boy, who was curled up, fast asleep, on the floor, the slim leather book against his chest. Both the boy's arms were wrapped securely around the book, and the lighted stone was clasped hard in his hand. Ajalia found the wooden box lying to one side of the boy, and she gently untangled Leed's fingers from around the stone. The stone was shining just as brilliantly as it had when she had first touched the cord of power against its clear sides. Ajalia put the shining stone into the wooden box, and fastened the lid. She picked up Leed, and carried him to the bed.
Leed, she thought, must have traveled for a long time to reach her; he was so asleep that his head rocked back against her shoulder, and his mouth dropped a little open. Leed seemed to her now, as he slept, like an innocent baby. He had been abandoned, Ajalia thought, and he was, in a way, still a very small child in his heart. She laid Leed down on the bed, and tucked the blanket around him. She did not try to take the slim leather book out of his arms; she thought she would wake him, if she shifted the book, and the boy grasped the book as though it was a tender comfort to him. Ajalia sighed, and took the bag from around her body. She had put the falcon's dagger back into her bag at some point; the evening, to her, was beginning to seem like an endless montage of stress and magic, and she could not remember when she had done this. She felt at the curved dagger, and at the white stone flecked with purple.
Ajalia went to the door of her room, and locked it securely. She did not marvel much that Leed had gotten into her room; he could have come in through the balcony, she thought. He was lithe and light, and fearless, and she had no doubt that Leed could get into many places, if he was determined. She loosened the buckles of her knife harness, and got a
pillow from the bed. She picked up her bag, and arranged herself on the floor near the door, so that her back was against the door, and the balcony was in plain sight. She wrapped her arms around the bag with the precious dagger and the sky stone, and she laid her head down on the pillow and fell asleep almost at once.
Ajalia did not dream of Delmar, but she saw a bright figure, in the shape of a man, riding a shining blue horse with wings. Ajalia told herself, as she slept, that this was the first falcon. The figure was gold, and at the man's waist was a curved dagger that gleamed like a silver star.
Ajalia slept for a long time, and when she woke up, the light of the afternoon sun was streaming through the curtains that covered the balcony. She lay on her back for a long time, feeling the hard stone floor press comfortably against her shoulders, and she remembered that she had never untangled the cords of blue light that she had formed into wings. Ajalia closed her eyes, and imagined the tendrils of blue that she had twisted tightly around her spine and her shoulder blades. Slowly, as if with thick and swollen fingers, she began to untangle the tendrils of blue light. She began to breathe more easily, as she unwound the light, and the whole length of her back relaxed into the floor. Ajalia felt like a comfortable puddle, and she wiggled her shoulders, and sighed.
"You're awake now, aren't you?" Leed asked.
"How long was I out?" Ajalia asked, without opening her eyes.
"It's tomorrow," Leed said. Ajalia looked over, and saw that the boy was sitting on her bed with his legs crossed. The slim leather book was open in his lap.
"Is the book any good?" Ajalia asked, looking up at the ceiling. She told herself that Leed was thinking about rebuking her for putting him on the bed, when he could have slept quite comfortably on the floor himself.
"It's very good," he said finally. "It talks about flying, and doing magic."
"What does it say about flying?" Ajalia asked, rolling onto her hands and knees, and sighing with the ache that spread instantly through her joints. Only a day and a half left, she told herself, before Delmar would come back. Ajalia stretched out on the floor, her cheek flat against the white stone, and finished untangling the wires of blue light from around her bones. When the last tendril of blue had been unwrapped, she relaxed deeply into the floor. She felt as though she had not breathed deeply the whole time the blue had been around her bones, not because it was uncomfortable, but because she was thinking all the time of flying, and of how impossible it should be to have wings on her back.
