plans and let out before noon. Jomei held Eliora back after the others filtered out.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking in regards to our mystery mage?” he asked in a low voice.
She nodded. “You think it’s the ShadowWalker. I think you may be right, but then again, there are a lot of mages who may not be entirely worried about breaking the Arcane Covenant.”
“But the ShadowWalker wouldn’t be bound by it, nor would the mages necessarily be looking to a non-mage to break it.”
“I know, I know. I already thought of that. When we find out who’s been hired, I’ll have the Hunters look for someone matching the ShadowWalker’s description.”
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they do find that. But then what do we do about it?”
“Well, that’s why I’ve made arrangements with your brethren for the equinox.”
“I still don’t know if it’s a good idea.”
“People have got to know. The ShadowWalker’s greatest weapon right now is secrecy. Once people know about us, maybe they’ll start thinking a little bit more about this mage they’ve hired, right?”
“It might make him even more important,” Jomei said, “once people know how powerful he is.”
“That depends on where and whom he’s working for.”
“There’s a bit more I didn’t want to bring up in front of the Council.”
“What?”
“My contacts in the Order of Light tell me that the Order of Darkness in Renfrew has sent envoys to the Charred Lands.”
She looked surprised. “What in the world for?”
“My guess is that’s where the Guilds will find their mercenaries. They are desperate people, Eliora, and desperate people are easily manipulated.”
“True enough. But why didn’t you want to tell the Council?”
“They already aren’t too fond of your friend Davin. I didn’t want to make things worse for him. Hialmar is the type to demand he join the Hunters and return to the Charred Lands to spy on those clerics.”
She knew exactly how well that would be received. “Thanks, Jomei. I know you aren’t too fond of him either.”
“Well, I’m trying to be fair. I don’t know his story, and it’s not right to judge him badly just because he comes from the Charred Lands.” He sort of smiled. “I know I warned you away from him when you came here, but I think your friendship is good for him. I shouldn’t have discouraged that.”
“Everyone makes mistakes.”
“Yes, but I’m especially ashamed since I’m supposed to be a cleric of Light. Such a thing isn’t very enlightened.”
That night, Davin was at dinner and offered to play chess with her while Aidan did a bad job of hiding his jealousy. She made sure the game took a long time. Aidan got bored and finally went off to bed.
Davin gave her a curious look. “My playing has not improved this much. Were you trying to delay the game?”
“Well, I wanted to talk to you.”
“But not in front of Aidan?”
“I’m trying not to play favorites or make it seem like I’m playing favorites.”
“So you’re trying to keep him from feeling left out?” he asked, betraying none of his own feelings on the matter.
“Yes.”
“Alright. What do you want to talk to me about?”
“Could we take a walk?”
“Sure.”
When they were well out of earshot, she told him what the Council and Jomei had gathered about possibly hiring mercenaries. His face got hard and expressionless. “I just want to know if you think your people would do that kind of work. I don’t mean to offend or anything.”
He was silent for so long she was sure she had offended him. “Do you trust the Hunters to give you good information?” he asked at length.
“Yes, I do. It doesn’t mean they have all the information they need. But they do the best they can.”
“I need to consider this. Goodnight,” he said, and abruptly turned for his own cottage.
“What in the world was that about?” she thought.
She got her answer in the morning. She was just about to head to breakfast when there was an unexpected knock at her door.
“Davin?”
“Can you get me to the Charred Lands?” he asked bluntly.
“I don’t really know. I’ve never opened a proper portal before and certainly not to the Light Realm. I guess I could though. Why?”
“Come to my cottage after lunch, please.”
“What? Why?”
But he had already turned and walked quickly away.
She did go to his cottage as he requested. When he called for her to enter, she found him packing a large backpack. “You’re leaving?”
“To go home. I thought you’d have figured that out.”
“But you never said you wanted to go home. You ran away from there so I thought you’d never want to go back.”
“I don’t want to go, but I need to go back.”
“Why?”
“Remember what you told me yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why,” he said shortly.
“Davin, I don’t understand why this news means you have to go back.”
He sighed and ceased in his packing. “Some of my people might join with the Order of Darkness, and if they do, the Order is going to get more than just some paid fighters.” He lowered his voice. “You can keep a secret, right?”
“Sure.”
“Eliora, my people are mages.”
“What?” she asked blankly.
He sighed and ceased in his packing. "I suppose you should know the history. You are the LightBearer, after all. You won't understand unless you know the story."
"What story?"
"The history of the Charred Lands. This is the first story every child of every clan learns because it is so fundamental to who we are and why we stay. Starting six days before the last full moon of the year, we recognize the Days of Shadows. The first Day of Shadow was the first day of the final battle which took place in the Charred Lands. The mages had built up a mighty fortress and supplies to last decades. But the revolutionaries had a few mages in their numbers, and many of them had turned to the gods, both of Them. The battle began and the mages used their most terrible spells. They summoned wraiths and raised the dead to fight for them. They sent illusions of ghosts and specters and things so horrible it made people mad to look upon them. They even summoned the servants of the Dark One Itself to fight for them, creatures so dark that even moonlight and starlight is painful to them. Everything the undead touched wilted or rotted. Objects caught in the madness illusions were twisted into bizarre machines that sometimes took on a life of their own."
As she listened, she could almost see the events unfold in her mind.
"The revolutionaries fought back using the great weapons of war they had created with alchemy and grease and metal. The mages and clerics that fought with them used force bolts and shields and massive dispells. So much magic was used that it was impossible to tell night from day or waking from dreaming. For six days there was no sun, there was no moon, there was no rest. And on that final day, the Day of the Dead, the mages in their fortress combined their magic and unleashed a terrible spell. We know not what they were trying to do; we only know what happened. There was an explosion of such force there are records of it in the histories of the jungle lands to the south and the continent to the east. Everything was laid to waste. The revolutionary forces were incinerated, but most of the mages perished. Those that survived surveyed the scorched land and finally understood the horror of their actions. To this day, my people believe that the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead was so damaged by that battle that on the Day of the Dead, in the light of the full moon, ghosts can be seen still fighting the final battle bound to the land they decimated even beyond their death."
"Why
do I need to know this?" she asked, horrified by the tale.
“My people are descended from the mages who survived the Mage Wars. As punishment for what they had done, they were exiled to the land they destroyed. In time, they came to see it as only proper penance for their crimes. Magical gifts usually run in families, and a fair number of my people are mages of some strength. We have sworn to stay in the Charred Lands until we can restore it to a livable area. The magical training given to the mages is dedicated to fulfilling our vow. Most of the clans hold to this vow, but not all. A few are resentful that they have to pay for the crimes of their ancestors and want to return to what they see as the glory of the Mage Era. If the clerics should run across those clans, they’d be all too eager to help, although those clerics would get far more than they bargained for,” he answered, speaking in a low voice and resuming his packing. “I have to return to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
“You don’t have to go. I’ll talk to the Light One and ask It to tell the clerics out there...”
He cut her off. “My people have no religion, Eliora; there are no clerics for the Light One to speak to. I must do this, or no one will. My people do not trust outsiders.”
“Then why would they trust the clerics?”
“They don’t have to trust them to get the information they want,” he said darkly. “Some clans teach their mages branches of magic that are not related to fulfilling our vow.” He resumed packing.
She was silent for a few minutes, processing this information. “When you say many of your people are mages, are you among them?”
“Yes.”
“This is going to be dangerous, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not asking you to risk your life. You don’t have to do this.”
“I know. But I am the only one. Will you take me to the Charred Lands?” he asked, hefting the backpack.
She nodded. “I will. But I don’t know where you need to be. I just have a general idea of the shape and size of the area from the maps.”
“Somewhere in the middle will be fine.”
“But when will you come back? How will you come back?”
“I’ll take care of that when I need to. Don’t worry, I can take care of myself.”
“Alright,” she said, but she felt very much not all right. She concentrated, which took more effort than usual, and opened a proper portal into the Light Realm. She took Davin’s hand and pulled him through.
The journey seemed to take some time, although it was always difficult to keep track of the passage of time with no external landmarks. The portal opened and they left the Light Realm to a bleak sight. The Charred Lands were farther north than Tallis Marrom and there were no signs of spring. The sky was heavy with gray clouds and the barren plains were covered in snow. Their breath crystallized in the air. The only sound was the howling of the biting, bitter cold wind.
“This is your home?” she said in disbelief. The desert seemed more hospitable.
“This is where I grew up. I wouldn’t say it’s home anymore.” He pulled his cloak more firmly around him. “I have to go now.”
“Go where?” she asked, gesturing to the empty land.
He smiled slightly. “I know where I am. You should go back to Tallis Marrom. You’ll be missed soon and I don’t know if you feel like answering any questions.”
“What do you want me to tell people?”
“Just tell them I left. You don’t have to tell them where. I don’t even think they’ll ask. I’m not very well-liked, if you hadn’t noticed.”
“I had noticed, actually, and I think it’s quite unfair.”
He shrugged. “I can’t say I’ve done much to help myself. But that’s neither here nor there. I have to be going, and so do you.”
She embraced him quickly.
He looked rather surprised when she pulled back.
“Please take care of yourself, Davin,” she said, feeling tears well up in her eyes.
“I’ll do that.”
“Come back soon.”
“I’ll try my best.” He gave her an odd look, then pulled her into his arms and kissed her square on the mouth.
She was so surprised she didn’t know what else to do except return the kiss. “Wha-what was that for?” she stuttered breathlessly.
“Well, this is dangerous, so I want as few regrets as possible,” he said lightly. “And it’s only fair you know I feel about you. Hopefully I’ll be back in a few months. Make sure Aidan stays humble, alright?”
“Sure,” she said vaguely, still surprised.
“You’ll be fine, Eliora. Just have faith in yourself. Until next time,” he said, and trotted off into the snow and wind.
She watched him disappear, and then shook her head. "Light One, please watch over him for me. What he's doing is dangerous. I don't want him to get hurt or maimed."
Just for a moment, the clouds parted to allow a feeble ray of sunlight to touch her face.
She didn't notice. "I'm still going to worry, so I should find something else to occupy my mind." The wind howled across the empty plains. "How can a place so far north that should get plenty of rain be so barren?" She melted the snow and scooped up a handful of soil. It didn't look or feel any different than the soil in the demian city, and yet something about it reminded her of sand. She returned to Tallis Marrom and put the soil in a jar for future consideration. She got yelled at by Aidan for not paying attention in her lessons, but she didn’t care. There were a lot of aspects of her future that required consideration.
Donnan soon found a new place to live. Alain was both pleased he was moving up in status, but displeased he’d be moving so far away.
“But you didn’t want to be too close to me,” Donnan had said angrily.
“Well, yeah, but I want to be close enough you don’t forget I’m there,” Alain had replied. “Anyway, this is a legit job, right, so I shouldn’t have to worry?”
He had muttered something vague and finally Alain made him promise to come over once a week for breakfast.
Blake, on the other hand, was quite pleased and not surprised about Adrie’s suggestion.
“Well, she doesn’t like the Order, does she?” he had said. “She owed us a favor and that’s how you got the interview. Of course, I think she may have gotten more out of us than she owed in the first place.”
“She’s that kind of woman.”
“Yeah, and don’t you forget it. She’s dangerous, Donnan, as dangerous as Dwyer for certain.”
He hadn’t found that very reassuring at all, but he put it out of his mind until Aolani brought it up one evening.
“Do you like working for Mistress Adrie?” she asked over dessert.
“Well, it’s better than other jobs I’ve had. The hours are long, but I get paid a lot better,” he replied.
“But do you like working for her?”
“I don’t know what you mean. I’ve never had a boss I really liked working for.”
“Do you like your job?”
“Sure, I guess. It’s not that hard even if I spend most of my days filing and, like I said, it pays pretty good.”
She stirred her coffee thoughtfully. “I’ve spoken with her before, and my father has had many dealings with her. She doesn’t seem like she’d be an easy woman to work for.”
He felt Aolani had more to say on the subject. “Hey, Aolani, if you have something you want to say, go ahead and say it. I’m not going to get offended or anythin’.”
“I’m glad to hear that, but that’s not why I’m hesitant. Mistress Adrie has quite an influence.”
Numerous guild meetings were slowly teaching him how to read between the lines of those kinds of statements. “Would you like to go for a walk?”
“Yes, I think so.”
Aolani was still silent even after they were well away from the coffee shop.
“What is it?” he prompted. br />
“I don’t wish to speak ill of anyone, especially not your employer, but I think you should be careful working with Mistress Adrie. I’m not entirely certain all of her dealings are completely ethical or legal.”
“That’s blunt.”
“Well, you said you wouldn’t get offended.”
“I’m not, I’m not,” he said quickly. “I just hardly ever hear anyone say what they mean anymore.”
“I don’t want to be misunderstood, not for something so important. I’m worried about you,” she said with a slight blush.
He smiled.
“I don’t want you to get into trouble because your employer has you doing something that may not be entirely right. I don’t know how much of the history of the guild you know, but it hasn’t been without scandal. She’s never been directly implicated, but more than a few people who worked for her have gotten in serious trouble for fraud, tax evasion, and breaking several of the trade laws.”
His smile faded. He hadn’t known that, but figured he was probably too low ranking in the guild to end up the scapegoat for anything like that, although on further reflection he realized his status as a mage could work against him.
She lowered her voice. “And the Salt Guild is doing quite well these days. Some laws have passed recently that will no doubt bring more money to them. It worries me. If my father can’t control the guild’s ambitions, he may soon be voted out of office.”
“The mayoral election isn’t for another two years,” Donnan replied.
“True, but the Elections Board can call for a vote of no-confidence and new elections if necessary.”
He suddenly had a much better idea of what sorts of goals Mistress Adrie had in mind and he wasn’t sure he agreed with them. “What do I care if her father ends up out of a job and Mistress Adrie ends up mayor?” he thought. “As long as I don’t get in trouble for whatever she’s doing, and Aolani is still going out with me, she can do what she wants.”
“Well, anyway, perhaps I’ve said too much. Just do be careful. I really don’t want you to end up in trouble for her unethical dealings.”
He felt a pang of guilt. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
"I certainly hope so."
"Come on, let's talk about other things. This is depressin'."
She smiled a bit. "Alright."
They chatted about lighter subjects until they reached the end of the long walk up to Aolani's house.
"Thank you for a nice evening," she said. "I enjoy talking with you. So many men my age tend to do nothing but talk about themselves and act as though any opinion I have is completely worthless."
"I'd never think that. You know lots more than I do. I mean, you're a teacher, after all."
"Not all teachers know a lot. Trust me on that. Most of us are just really good at pretending we know a lot."
"I'm sure you're not like that. You're too nice."
She laughed. "Have you forgotten how difficult my quizzes are?"
He smiled. "Oh, yeah, there is that. But that's just the job. I really like talkin' with you too. You're smart and educated and have never talked down to me. And you're beautiful."
She blushed. "Thank you."
"You act like no one ever told you that before."
"I have heard it before, but it's still nice, if maybe undeserved."
"You deserve to hear that all the time," he replied. Hoping he was reading the situation correctly, he