The Sorcerer's Plague bots-1

by DAVID B. COE

  "I've never heard of this happening before," S'Doryn said. "But even if you're right, what does it have to do with Jynna and her plea for help?"

  "The risk is too great," the old woman said. She looked at Jynna. "Forgive me, child. I can't begin to imagine how you've suffered in these past few hours. I'm sorry for you. Truly I am. But surely you can see that I have to protect my people, to keep them from suffering as you and yours have."

  Jynna met the woman's gaze, but she neither nodded nor shook her head. Eventually the old Qirsi looked away.

  "Jynna and her people are Qirsi," T'Noth said. "Haven't the Fal'Borna sworn an oath to protect all Qirsi, even those of enemy clans?"

  T'Kaar and the other man who'd spoken of the Y'Qatt faith shook their heads. "Her kind stopped being Qirsi the moment they stopped using magic," the man said.

  The old woman frowned at them. "Nonsense. That's the coward's way out. If you fear going to Tivston, as I do, then just say so. But don't pretend that she's not Qirsi simply because of her faith."

  T'Kaar looked genuinely abashed. "Yes, A'Laq. Forgive me."

  Jynna stared at the woman. A'Laq? Was she the leader of the village then? If so, then her word would be final, and there would be no help for Tivston.

  The woman appeared to notice Jynna's gaze. "Yes," she said. "A'Laq. I lead the clan council in Lowna. My name is U'Selle."

  Jynna bowed to the woman, drawing smiles from nearly everyone in the room. "Forgive me, A'Laq. I didn't know."

  "There's nothing to forgive, child. You're not Fal'Borna. You owe me no obeisance."

  It came to Jynna so quickly that she barely had time to think it through. She just spoke, and hoped it would work.

  "But I am Fal'Borna. At least I am now. S'Doryn has said that if my family is gone, I can live here in Lowna with him. Doesn't that make me one of you now?"

  The woman narrowed her eyes, a sly smile on her wizened face. "Perhaps."

  "In which case, I wouldn't be an outsider asking for help. I'd be one of your own. Doesn't that change things?"

  "Now, see here-!" T'Kaar broke in.

  But U'Selle raised a hand, silencing him, her eyes fixed on Jynna. "The Fal'Borna are warriors. True, it's the men who ride to war, but all of us would gladly die to keep our people free; men and women, adults and children alike. Will you die for us as well?"

  "Yes, A'Laq."

  "An easy promise to make," T'Kaar said. "But keeping it-"

  "Silence!" U'Selle said, casting a dark look his way. She faced Jynna again. "We use our magic every day, in violation of your faith and all that you've been taught since the day you were born. Will you use your magic when the need arises? Will you heal an injured comrade if Qirsar gives you the gift of healing magic? Will you raise a wind to stop a fire if it threatens the homes of your neighbors?"

  "Yes, A'Laq."

  "She'd say anything-"

  "Be silent, T'Kaar! Or leave! I will not tolerate another interruption!" T'Kaar glared at Jynna for an instant and then stormed out of the house.

  "He may be right, you know," the a'laq said, eyeing Jynna. "You would say anything to get us to help you. I know you would. I've been desperate before. Perhaps not as desperate as you are now, but desperate enough. A person in your circumstance will tell all sorts of lies, promise all sorts of things to get her way. That's why T'Kaar doesn't trust you. Can you give me one reason why I should?"

  The words were hard, but Jynna sensed that U'Selle wanted her to give a good reason, that in the end, the a'laq wanted to help her. She wasn't certain what the right answer was, but a response came to her, and with nothing more to offer, she gave it voice.

  "Because I have no one else, A'Laq. Because you're right, I am desperate. I'm alone. And if my family is dead, if my village is gone, I have only the Fal'Borna. Why would I risk lying to the only family left for me?"

  For several moments the woman just looked at her, and even when she began to nod, she didn't smile. "A good answer, Jynna. Good enough at least." She turned her gaze to S'Doryn, and Jynna exhaled. U'Selle might have been old, but there was power in her eyes. "You'll take her back to Tivston. You and T'Noth. Normally I'd send four of you, for luck. But I fear there isn't enough good fortune to help in this endeavor, and I'm reluctant to risk more lives."

  "Can we take horses?" S'Doryn asked.

  "Yes. Take several, in case there are other survivors. Don't tarry there. Look around. Learn what you can. Then leave. But I don't want you to return here for eight days. If you're all still well after that, you can come back. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, A'Laq," S'Doryn said, bowing to her.

  U'Selle and the rest of the clan council rose and filed out of the small house, leaving Jynna with T'Noth and S'Doryn. When U'Selle and the others were gone, the two men looked at each other.

  "I didn't mean to get you into this," S'Doryn said.

  T'Noth shrugged. "I was in it when I brought her into my house." "Your brother won't be happy."

  "He rarely is."

  "Your brother?" Jynna said. "You mean T'Kaar?"

  "Yes."

  "I thought you looked alike." She turned to S'Doryn. "And are you their father?"

  As soon as T'Noth began to laugh, she knew she'd said the wrong thing. She felt her color rising.

  "No," S'Doryn said with a grin. "I'm just a friend. An older friend." "Much older, it would seem," T'Noth said, and laughed again.

  "I'm sorry," Jynna said.

  But S'Doryn shook his head. "It's nothing, child. He's just a foolish, small-minded man. If it wasn't this, he'd find some other way to make my life miserable." He said it all with a smile, giving Jynna the sense that T'Noth was far closer to S'Doryn than he was to his brother. "Pack some food," he said to the younger man, growing serious once more. "I need to speak with N'Tevva. She should know that I'm going away." He glanced at Jynna. "She should also know that I've offered to let Jynna live with us. I'll get the horses, too. I'd like to be on our way before midday."

  T'Noth nodded once. "Right."

  S'Doryn put his hand on Jynna's shoulder and looked her in the eye. "I'm going to leave you here for a time. Do what you can to help T'Noth. We'll be on our way to your village before long."

  She nodded and made herself smile, though it took a good deal of effort. Strange. Until yesterday, she'd always thought of herself as being quick to smile. Not anymore. Not ever again.

  S'Doryn opened the door to leave and nearly collided with T'Kaar. S'Doryn stood in the doorway, eyeing the man. Then he stepped aside and let him into the house before leaving. The two of them didn't exchange so much as a nod.

  "You heard?" T'Noth asked, as he began to pile food on the table- dried fruits and bread, salted meat and a block of cheese.

  "You're fools, both of you," T'Kaar said. But he didn't sound angry. Rather, he seemed resigned to their decision. "This undertaking would be folly, if it weren't so dangerous." His eyes flicked toward Jynna. "Forgive me," he said, surprising her. "Despite what you must think of me, I am sorry for all that's happened to you. You're awfully young to have seen such things."

  "So you believe me now?" Jynna demanded. She could hear the bitterness in her voice, but she didn't care. She liked T'Noth and S'Doryn quite a lot. But this man she already hated. "I thought I was just a liar who'd say anything to get what she wants."

  A faint smile flitted across his features. He wasn't as handsome as T'Noth-his face wasn't as square, his cheeks were a bit too fat-but he would have been nice-looking if he smiled more.

  "I suppose I deserved that."

  Jynna looked away. She'd been sure that he did deserve it, but now she wasn't quite so certain.

  "I should come with you," T'Kaar said, turning back to his brother. T'Noth frowned. "Why?"

  "Because neither you nor S'Doryn has healing magic. You might need it."

  Jynna hoped T'Noth would tell T'Kaar that he couldn't come, but he didn't. He stared at the floor for several moments before nodding. "You're right. If you wan
t to come, we'd welcome the help. But we're not to return here for eight days. Are you sure you want to leave A'Vinya and the baby alone for so long?"

  "No, I'm sure I don't. But I think I should."

  "Fine, then," T'Noth said. "We'll need more food, and S'Doryn wants to be on our way before midday."

  T'Kaar took a breath. "All right. I'll be back soon." He let himself out of the house.

  T'Noth continued to stare at the floor, as if lost in thought. At last, he shook himself and looked up at Jynna. He gave her a small smile, but he said nothing. She thought it best to do the same.

  It wasn't long before S'Doryn returned with several horses, all of

  them far too large for Jynna to ride. He must have noticed how she eyed the beasts, standing on the stairs outside T'Noth's door, because he walked over to her and said quietly, "Don't worry. You're going to ride with me."

  "Good," she said, still watching the animals. She'd seen horses before, of course, but never the mounts of the Fal'Borna. They were not only the finest horses she'd ever seen, but also the largest. Though she thought them beautiful, Jynna was also frightened by them.

  "T'Kaar is coming with us," T'Noth said, tying the satchel of food to one of the saddles.

  S'Doryn looked at the younger man, saying nothing for a long time. "That right?" he said at last.

  "He says we may need a healer."

  "What about A'Vinya?"

  T'Noth shrugged. "He's willing to make the journey, and he knows that we have to wait before returning."

  "All right." S'Doryn looked like he might say more, but at that moment T'Kaar came into view, carrying two travel sacks.

  I don't like him, Jynna wanted to say. Tell him he can't come. But she kept these thoughts to herself, and within a few moments they were on their way, T'Noth riding in front, followed by S'Doryn and Jynna, and then T'Kaar.

  Jynna rode just in front of S'Doryn, who kept an arm around her and occasionally let her hold the reins. It was a bit scary being so far off the ground, but the horse responded with alacrity to S'Doryn's commands and she never once feared that she might be thrown. It was a glorious day, clear and warm, and a soft, cool breeze blew across the lake, rippling its waters.

  The distance between Tivston and Lowna had seemed impossibly great the night before, but on this day, carried by the great Fal'Borna mounts, they came within sight of Jynna's village in only a couple of hours. Actually they saw the smoke first, well before even the largest buildings-the silo and the sanctuary-came into view. But aside from the shifting cloud of black smoke that hung over what was left of the village, and the large flock of crows and kites that circled low over the houses, they saw no movement at all.

  "Jynna, maybe you should wait here," S'Doryn said, his voice low.

  She stared at the village, trying to spot her house, searching desperately for someone-anyone-who might have survived the night. "No" was all she said.

  They rode on, advancing on the village, all of them silent now. Jynna wondered if the three men were as frightened as she of what they would find.

  It was the birds-the carrion eaters-that first drew her eyes to the bodies. The first one made her stomach heave, and she clenched her teeth to keep from being ill. Then she spotted another, and a third. By the time they steered the horses onto the lane leading through the marketplace, she could see so many that she lost count. Already they had started to grow rank, and flies buzzed everywhere. As they rode among the buildings the kites flew off and began to circle overhead, complaining loudly. The crows, though, weren't so easily driven off. They'd flutter away as the mounts stepped past, but would quickly return to their feast.

  Jynna tried not to look at the corpses. She kept her eyes moving, scanning for survivors, occasionally glancing in the direction of her house, hoping against hope that she'd see her parents or her brothers walking toward them. But all was terribly still. Occasionally she'd point in the direction she wanted them to go, and always S'Doryn steered them as she commanded. For the moment at least, he seemed content to let her lead the way.

  When at last they came to what was left of her home, Jynna let out a stifled cry and buried her face in her hands. Every one of them was there. Mama, Papa, Delon, Blayne. All of them dead, the three men horribly disfigured by their healing magic. How could something as good as healing power do such damage?

  "Your family?" S'Doryn asked.

  She merely nodded.

  "I'm sorry, Jynna."

  They stayed there for some time, until at last S'Doryn must have given a signal for them to ride on, because the horse she was on started to turn.

  "No!" Jynna cried, opening her eyes and struggling to break out of S'Doryn's grasp.

  "Jynna!"

  But she fought her way free and fell from the saddle, landing hard on the dirt just beside her mother's body. She scrambled to her feet and ran toward the house.

  "Stay out of there!" T'Kaar shouted after her.

  She didn't stop. Instead she climbed the stairs and made her way to her room. Most of the house was in shambles. But her room remained relatively undamaged and she dove onto her bed and began to sob, clutching her blanket to her face. After several minutes she heard a footstep at her door. S'Doryn. She expected him to tell her that she had to leave. Instead, he tossed an empty carry sack onto the bed next to her.

  "Anything you want to keep you should put in there. I don't expect you'll want to come back again."

  "Thank you."

  "T'Noth and T'Kaar are going to have a look around the rest of the village. I can stay with you if you like."

  "No, it's all right."

  "Then, we'll come back for you soon." He glanced around briefly. "This is a nice room. We'll have to make certain that your room in Lowna is just as nice."

  He left her, and Jynna began to look around her room for things she wanted to keep. In truth, there wasn't much: her blanket, her clothes, a doll her parents had given her a few years back, a small wood carving of a deer that Delon made for her. She went to her brothers' room and found a shirt of Blayne's that she'd always liked. It didn't fit her, but she wanted something of his. And she found a wooden hair comb that had been her mother's. She took that as well. While in her parents' room she spotted the basket that the old Mettai woman had given her the day before-was it really only a day?-and she nearly took that, too. But in the end she decided not to. She wanted no reminders of yesterday.

  When the men returned, they had five survivors with them. All of them were children-boys and girls she knew and had played with at the sanctuary, in between lessons. Two of them were badly burned and one had lost a hand. But they were alive, just like her.

  Of the two who were unhurt, one was a boy her age, named Etan, and the other was a younger girl whose name Jynna couldn't remember, and who refused to say anything to any of them.

  Etan sat on one of the Fal'Borna horses, looking terribly small, and he watched as Jynna tied her carry sack to the saddle of S'Doryn's horse.

  "How did you find them?" the boy asked suddenly. "The Fal'Borna, I mean."

  She paused and looked up at him, shielding her eyes against the sun. "My father sent me for help. He told me to follow the lake north to Lowna."

  He looked over at S'Doryn and T'Noth, who were speaking quietly. "And now we're going to live with them."

  "Yes."

  "Do you think they'll let us be Y'Qatt?"

  She shrugged. "I don't know. Do you want to be Y'Qatt?"

  He didn't answer and a moment later S'Doryn called Jynna over and helped her back into the saddle.

  "It's only children who survived," she said, as he climbed up behind her. "Why is that?"

  "I don't know, Jynna. Maybe it has something to do with magic. One of the girls who was burned is older than you are, but not old enough to have come into her power yet. That's the only thing I can think of that makes any sense."

  "But does that mean it wasn't the pestilence?"

  "I'm not certain what it means."

>   They started riding out of the village. From what she had overheard of S'Doryn's conversation with the brothers, it seemed that they were going to stay in the low hills west of the lake until they were allowed to return to the Fal'Borna village.

  "Is there anything else you can tell me about what happened yesterday, Jynna?" S'Doryn asked after they had ridden for some time. "Anything at all unusual?"

  "Well, there was the old woman."

  He looked down at her. "What old woman?"

  "I saw her…" She was reluctant to mention her secret spot, until she realized with a pang of regret that she probably wouldn't ever be going back to it. "I met her in a dale near the village. She was working on some baskets to trade in the marketplace."

  "And did she seem at all ill?"

  "No, she was fine."

  He frowned and faced forward again. "Still, she might have gotten sick later. She was Qirsi, right?"

  "No. She was Mettai."

  "Mettai?" He sighed and shook his head. "That's blood magic. If this is a strain of the pestilence that strikes at Qirsi magic, it probably wouldn't have come from her."

  Again they fell silent, until Jynna said, "Her baskets were pretty. She gave me one."

  "Did you bring it with you?"

  She shook her head. "No. I was afraid it would remind me of yesterday. But now I wish I had."

  Chapter 10

  KIRAYDE

  Dreaming Moon, second day of the waxing, 1147.

  It's been more than half a turn since Licaldi appeared in our village, and I despair of knowing little more about her today than I did that first sunny morning. I was encouraged in those first few days, satisfied that I was learning more about the girl with each day that passed, but I realize now that all that I gleaned then were trifles: the mere fact that she could speak, her name, the fact that she was Mettai, even the knowledge that some terrible tragedy has befallen her and those she loves. Aside from her name, these details, while certainly of some value, tell me little that I couldn't tell simply by looking at her by recalling how she appeared that day she arrived-emaciated and filthy and haunted.

  She seems contented to follow me around day after day, as I attend to my duties as eldest and do all that I must to keep my house-our house-clean and the garden growing. I remain concerned for her and I try to remind myself each day that she has another home, perhaps a family who are searching desperately for her as I write this. Still, I have to admit that I enjoy having her with me. I've become quite fond of her for though she doesn't speak of anything that happened to her before she came to Kirayde-and in fact seems to take great care in avoiding any mention of her past-she speaks at length of other matters, offering her observations on the workings of our marketplace, on the ease with which I use magic (she has expressed admiration for my skill as a sorceress, and I have to admit that I'm flattered), and on the various people she's encountered in my company. Through all of this, she shown herself to be quite clever and possessed of a sharp wit. She laughs freely and at times strikes me as being a fine, normal young girl.