The Mages of Bennamore

by Pauline M. Ross

  “Oh – I know this! Shannamar, Dristomar and… oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue…”

  “Dellonar. But Shannamar is the most important. The golden city.”

  “And Dristomar is the silver city, I know that. What is Dellonar, then?”

  “The black city. That’s where the mines are, and the furnaces, and the chimneys belching smoke every hour of the day. A dismal place.”

  “It sounds it.” He poured wine for me. Oh, the pleasure of drinking the best northern wine from a crystal glass in the middle of the day. I could get used to this sort of life.

  He must have seen my smile. “Do you like it? Is it good?”

  “The best I’ve tasted since—” I caught myself just in time. “—for years.”

  His eyes gleamed for a moment. I wondered uneasily whether he’d picked up my slip.

  I quickly changed the subject. “Guards must be very well paid in Bennamore if you can afford a meal like this.”

  “Ah, well, that’s where magic comes in handy. Kael has an unusual talent – he can transform worthless stones into diamonds and the like. We trade them for coins. You can get a lot of silver for one good sized diamond.”

  He said it so casually, yet I was stunned. I set my glass down carefully, so he wouldn’t see my hands shaking.

  “He – transforms things? Just stones? Not… metals? Or… or anything else?”

  “Metals? No, just stones.” He didn’t seem to notice anything odd in my question, rattling on without pause. “You give him something without much value – a garnet or topaz or some such – and he turns it into a diamond or emerald. That’s why he’s called a Stone Mage.”

  Interesting. And the fire from the fingers, too. Suddenly Kael was a man of some talent, if poorly controlled. I sipped my wine. “I didn’t know there were different kinds of mage.”

  “Losh is a Thought Mage. He can cast spells just by thinking them, when he wants to. Or just a single word, instead of reciting the whole spell. Not all mages can do that. Kael’s not very good at it. He wouldn’t have been a mage at all, except that the rules were relaxed a bit so we could send mages here.”

  “Oh, so we get Bennamore’s rejects, is that it?”

  He just grinned at me. “You look lovely when you’re angry, my beloved. You get a bit of colour in those pale cheeks and your eyes flash in the most enticing way.”

  He was lucky that the first dish arrived from the kitchens to distract me, or I might have thrown something at him. He could be good company when he tried, but he always reverted to his irritating ways.

  We ate in silence after that, as one dish after another appeared on the table. I hadn’t eaten so well since I arrived in Carrinshar, and I savoured every mouthful.

  “I like to see a woman with an appetite,” Mal said, when I finally reached my limit. “The first time I saw you eat, I thought you would be as fat as a pig within a moon, but it just vanishes on you. You’re still skinny as a spear. Can you pass the mutton? I can manage a little more.”

  He could, too. He was probably the only person, man or woman, who could out-eat me when I was in feast mode. He was big, but it was muscle, not fat. If I’d liked him more, I might have admired his body, but his relentless flirting and leering grin made too great an obstacle. Still, even though we were married now, I wouldn’t have to spend any more time with him than before.

  ~~~~~

  For a few days, life seemed normal and even peaceful. The mages had stopped grumbling about the servants and the food. Kael had stopped muttering to himself. My new husband was still stupidly annoying, but nothing is ever perfect. At least he kept to his own bed at night, and never so much as tried to touch me. I was pleased with that. And I had my wonderful tower rooms, with permanent hot water and fires blazing.

  The harbour-master’s sister’s child had recovered quickly from her malady. The mages received a large box of choice shellfish in gratitude, which impressed them not at all. I tried to explain that it was a gift from the depths, bringing the blessings of the Goddess, but they wrinkled their noses in disgust and sent the box straight to the kitchen. The servants enjoyed the contents, I’m sure.

  This success meant that they were now seen as healers, and received a number of invitations to cure other maladies. We sailed around the town to this or that grand house with a squad of Defenders in attendance, creating quite an imposing procession which stopped the traffic as everyone gawked at us. We were still the recipients of many dark looks, and muttering behind hands, but so many swordsmen kept any trouble at bay.

  Sometimes the family we visited paid the silver, and Losh did his hand waving and chanting. Sometimes, though, they baulked at the price and we returned empty handed. Holding folk, even wealthy ones, are frugal with their coins, and the suspicion of Bennamore trickery was hard to overcome.

  ~~~~~

  When I had a free afternoon and the weather was mild, I made the rounds of my old friends to share a little gossip. I liked to keep on their good side, against the inevitable day when I would need to call on their favours again. My new husband insisted on accompanying me on this expedition, but I was learning to ignore his infantile chatter, so this wasn’t as troublesome as it might have been.

  Mistress Jast was in her kitchen, as always. We couldn’t talk freely about the mages with Mal there, but Jast was thrilled to meet him and he turned his charm on her as he did for any female. He teased and flirted, she blushed and tittered, chins wobbling. Half the afternoon passed without me needing to say more than a dozen words.

  As we left, Jast pulled me to one side and hissed into my ear, “You lucky girl! Now if I were twenty years younger, I’d make a contest of it…”

  “You can have him now, if you want,” I said, but she just laughed and winked at me.

  Mal’s effect on Master Tylk was rather different. Tylk was a big man in more ways than one, imposing in bulk and voice, but Mal somehow reduced him in stature. Now Tylk seemed ordinary, just a middle-aged man running to fat.

  Perhaps having to look up to Mal rendered him speechless, for Tylk was unusually quiet the whole time we were at his office. He congratulated us and slapped Mal on the back and kissed me on both cheeks, muttering, “How wonderful! My dear girl, how absolutely marvellous!” but his heart wasn’t in it, somehow. Poor Tylk. He’d never quite accepted that I would never, ever marry him, even if he was the last man on the coast, and now I was crushing those hopes entirely. He didn’t know that my marriage was a sham.

  ~~~~~

  As soon as we returned to the Red Hold, we realised something was in the wind. Several servants whispered together in a huddle. They scattered as soon as they saw us. Down the hall, raised voices emerged from Losh’s study.

  “Now what?” I muttered.

  “Let’s find out,” Mal said, and strode down the corridor, with me trotting behind. I would never have dared to walk in and simply ask what was going on, but he seemed to be on very easy terms with the mages.

  Losh and Kael were talking loudly, Kael in agitation and Losh trying to soothe him. They had some flap or other almost every day, but this seemed worse than usual. Corsell was there, too, holding a letter, and Lenya and her horse-master, all with anxious faces.

  “Ah, there you are!” Losh said to us, with a rather forced smile. “Good, good. Now we are all here. We have received news!”

  “Good or bad?” Mal said.

  “Good!” Losh said, but Lenya said “Bad!” at the same moment.

  “Well, yes, a little of both,” Losh conceded. “There has been… an incident at Dristomar Holding. One of the mages has gone missing and—”

  “Gone missing?” Mal said. “What sort of gone missing?”

  “Well… just vanished,” Losh said with a shrug. “Most likely gone home to Bennamore. There was a bit of trouble with the locals. You know what Hestaria is like, Mal, she was always temperamental. The other mage… hmm, let me see… ah yes, Gret… has gone after her. The Holder is making a fuss – the treaty and
whatnot, he was promised mages – so we have to fulfil the obligation.”

  “That’s the bad news, so where’s the good news?”

  “The good news is that we are going to Dristomar,” Losh said, emphasising every word as if speaking to a child. “It is…” He glanced at me. “Look, I am sure this is a fine town, but Dristomar will be more comfortable for us.”

  Dristomar. Of all places. I leaned against the wall to stop myself trembling.

  “Yes, plenty of comfortable trouble with the locals,” Mal said. “Gods, Losh, this is a stupid idea. These people don’t want us here, that’s clear enough. You can’t work without half an army to protect you, and now you’re being sent to a place that’s already driven two mages away. And what about Carrinshar? We have an obligation here, too, don’t we?”

  “Oh, someone else will be sent to replace us,” Losh said, with an airy wave of one hand. “In time. When someone can be spared. It is not as important as Dristomar.” He shrugged. “The Drashon orders it. What can I do?”

  “Refuse,” Mal said. My spirits rose. Yes, refuse to go. “Tell him to send the army back to finish what they started.” The army? He was surely not serious. “Someone has to beat these fishermen into submission. No offence, Fen.”

  “Oh, none taken, I’m sure.” Despite my acid tone, Mal gave no response, not a flicker. Bennamorians really don’t understand sarcasm. Or perhaps my guard husband is tree-like in his brain, as well.

  “We have to go,” Losh said. “Fen, what is it like, this Dristomar?”

  Dragon’s balls. He was quite determined. What could I say? I shrugged. “I’ve never been there.” They seemed to want something more. “It’s big, much bigger than Carrinshar. Flatter. Nice beach.”

  Mal laughed. “That doesn’t tell us much.”

  “Well, what do you want – shipping numbers, weight of herrings caught? The big industry is whaling. They have the only deep water port on the southern coast, and it’s ice-free all year round, so there’s ship-building, a big trawler fleet and all the rest of it. Good agricultural land along the river, sheep in the hills. Quarries, too.”

  “Food?” Mal asked.

  “Best lobster in the world. Salmon, trout and eels in the river. Fruit grows well there.”

  His smile broadened. He was teasing me, annoying man.

  “We will be sorry to lose you, Fen,” Losh said.

  That wiped the smile off Mal’s face. “Wait! She has to come! You will come with us, won’t you?”

  “She is registered here, Mal. We will find another recorder, I am sure.”

  “Yes, but I’m married to this one! What am I supposed to do now?”

  “We will find you another wife…”

  I shook my head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible, not until the year is up. And he has to stay here with me.” I laughed, I couldn’t help it. His face was a picture of panicky disbelief. “It’s all right, husband, you won’t be destitute. I’ll look after you.”

  He spluttered, speechless.

  “Now, Fen,” Losh said. “Let us talk about this. I am sure we can come to some arrangement.”

  That was more like it. I settled myself in a chair beside the desk. “What did you have in mind?”

  If I had to move to Dristomar, by the Goddess, they’d have to make it worth my while. It was only a year, after all. I knew how to keep my head down. Surely I’d be safe enough?

  ~~~~~

  It would take us half a moon to make all the necessary arrangements. Messages flew almost daily between Bennamore, Dristomar and ourselves. I had little enough to do, apart from saying farewell to my friends. A year, I told them, then I’ll be back.

  Jast didn’t believe me. “You’ll stay with that fine husband of yours,” she said, nudging me in the ribs. “If you do come back, you’ll be fatter than you were, I’ll wager.” She poked me in the belly with a lewd chuckle.

  “No danger of that,” I said sourly.

  Tylk said very little, just wrapped me in a suffocating bear hug for a long time.

  A few days before we were due to leave a parcel arrived for me, fastened with the elegant ties of the finest tailor in town. The house controller brought it to me in Losh’s study, where we were working through lists.

  “It can’t be for me,” I told the house controller. “I haven’t ordered anything.”

  “It has your name on it, Mistress,” he said, sounding offended by the idea that he might have made a mistake.

  “Open it quickly, Fen,” Losh said. “Let us see what it is.”

  I’m not given to excitability, but I admit to a squeak of astonishment when the wrappings came off. There in my hands was the most beautiful winter coat, a glowing brown, and so soft it could only be made from imported wool.

  “Put it on, put it on!” Corsell cried, clapping his hands in glee.

  It fitted me perfectly, soft and flowing under my fingers, blanketing me in its warmth. I couldn’t believe it.

  “I didn’t order this,” I said. I could never have afforded such a thing. “It will have to go back.” Yet I couldn’t bear to think of taking it off, packing it up and sending it away. It was mine, I wanted it so badly I could hardly speak.

  The house controller coughed. “There will be a card, Mistress.” He rifled through the layers of rustling paper. “Here it is.”

  ‘To my wife Fen, on the occasion of our marriage.’

  I couldn’t help laughing. Who would have guessed the guard had such a romantic streak in him? And I could keep it after all. It was really, truly mine. I could almost begin to like the man.

  Mal was terribly smug, of course. I found him in the garden, practising archery all by himself. He broke into a grin as soon as he saw me wearing the coat.

  “Suits you, my love. Turn round. Oh, yes, she did a fine job, very fine.” He’d found the tailor first, then had her send juniors to every other tailor in town to find the one who’d fitted me before and knew my measurements. Then he’d ordered the best winter coat money could buy. “You’re always complaining about the cold, my sweet,” he said with a smirk. “Besides, you won’t let me keep you warm….”

  I ignored that. “Thank you. It’s lovely. Should I buy you a present too? Is that a Bennamore custom?” He nodded. “Then I’ll have to think of something. I can’t afford anything as fine as this, though.”

  He lowered his voice, although there was no one around. “How about a present that costs you nothing?”

  I folded my arms, glaring at him.

  He laughed. “No, no, I’m not trying to get into your bed. You’ve made the rules of this marriage very clear. But one kiss wouldn’t hurt, now would it? That would be a very proper way for a wife to thank her husband for a gift.”

  In a heartbeat, he wiped out all the friendlier feelings I’d begun to attach to him. I was so angry I could barely breathe.

  “No!” I hissed. “No, no, NO!” He put out a hand, as if to placate me, but I spun out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me!”

  I tore across the garden and whisked up to my rooms. Insufferable man! The impudence of it! I paced up and down the sitting room, fists clenching and unclenching. How dared he even ask for such a thing?

  But after a while, I began to feel uneasy. Slightly guilty, I suppose. There I was, wearing the most beautiful coat on the whole coast, a fortune on my back, which he’d arranged all by himself to surprise me. And I, ungrateful girl that I was, couldn’t even give him a kiss in return. I disliked him a great deal, but it was a kingly gift, and a kiss wasn’t much to ask.

  But what sort of kiss? Not a peck on the cheek, that was for sure. And would I have to have his tongue in my mouth? Could I do that without being sick? When I thought about it, I realised I’d never had a problem with him physically. He was a fine man, in many ways. Good-looking, I supposed. Certainly not repulsive. Would it be so unpleasant?

  And that was the root of the matter. If it were unpleasant, I could do it and put it out of my mind. What if it were enjoyable
though? What if…?

  No point thinking about that. I’d kept my emotions in check for twenty years, they weren’t going to break free now, not with this man I disliked so much. Not with a single kiss.

  I took the coat off and carefully hung it in my wardrobe. Then I went in search of Mal.

  He was in the room the guards had commandeered as an armoury. It had been fitted with a lockable cupboard to keep the swords safe, and a table so they could clean and repair their gear. As I approached I heard a steady scraping sound.

  The door was open. I crept into the room. He was sitting on a bench at the table sharpening his sword, head down, focused, concentrating. Scrape… scrape… scrape. He flicked me a quick glance, then back to the sword. Scrape… scrape.

  I licked my lips, took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. That was very rude of me.”

  A longer glance. Scrape… scrape.

  “Am I forgiven?”

  “Nothing to forgive.” Scrape… scrape. “My impertinence. All forgotten.”

  He held the sword up to examine it, and it gleamed as it caught the light. Then he laid it down and began on the other side. Scrape… scrape.

  Another deep breath. “I should like… to give you something… a kiss, if you want that.”

  He looked up then, holding my eyes, unsmiling. “You don’t like me.” Statement, not question.

  What could I say? I kept my mouth shut, but my stomach turned over. Was he going to make this difficult?

  He set down the sharpening stone and rubbed the dust off his hands. “Won’t you sit down?” He waved me to a chair on the opposite side of the table.

  I perched on the edge of it, hoping my hands weren’t trembling. I disliked the jokey, lewd Mal, but I liked this cold, unfriendly incarnation even less.

  “Do you know why I tease you, Fen?”

  “Bad manners?”

  That brought a quirk to his lips. “Partly that, of course. I’m just an ignorant peasant who knows no better. But partly because I can see through you.” I raised my eyebrows. “Oh, you’re giving me that look again, the one that says I’m like something you trod in that stuck to your boot. But it’s true, I see what you are. You’ve curled yourself up tight and built a wall all round. You’re like one of those sea creatures, huddled inside your shell out of reach. I’m trying to draw you out of there, that’s all. I’m trying to make you smile, relax, enjoy life once in a while.”