A Magic of Twilight

The war-teni glanced at each other, then several of them began to chant and move their hands, though they were obviously puzzled as the Archigos still made no command to Envoy ci’Vliomani to start his own spell. Finally, several breaths later, she turned to him. “Envoy,” she said.

“If you’ll begin your attack. .”

What happened then stunned them all. Ci’Vliomani spoke a single guttural word that sounded like the language of the Ilmodo but was no spell-word they knew, and he gave a casual flick of his hand. The word boomed thunderously in the stadia. Impossibly, a fire brighter than the sun glared in his hand and flared through the air, arrowing straight toward the Archigos.

But a moment after ci’Vliomani had begun his inexplicably rapid spell, Archigos Ana also spoke: again, a single word of spell-speech as she held up her hand. The flare of light spattered and exploded, as if it had struck an invisible barrier. The brilliant fury caused many of the war-teni to raise their hands, and the ball of fire shrieked like a dying animal as it expired.

A stunned silence wrapped the stadia as the war-teni stood, their own counter-spells-perhaps three quarters completed-forgotten.

Too fast: the whole exchange had been far too fast.

“You were all late. You all would have failed in your duty.” Archigos Ana spoke into the hush. She rose easily from her chair-neither ci’Vliomani nor the Archigos seemed unduly fatigued by the casting of their spells, and that was also strange-and walked onto the stage. “I know your thoughts,” she said. “When I first saw what the Numetodo were capable of doing with the Ilmodo, it shook me all the way to the core of my being. For a time, in my loss of faith, Cenzi punished me and I lost my own path to the Ilmodo, until He spoke to me again.”

She smiled briefly. “Or, let me be honest, until I was willing to listen to Him. I will tell you now what I came to realize: the Ilmodo was created by Cenzi, yes, and our way to the Ilmodo remains the most powerful. I know in my heart that this is the way of Cenzi. I will tell you, and Envoy ci’Vliomani will agree with me: the Numetodo might have the advantage of speed, but not of force. None of the Numetodo can match what the least of you can do on the battlefield with your war-spells. But. .”

She stopped and paced for a moment. “. . our way is not the only way Cenzi has created, and we are fools if we are not willing to learn from those other paths.”

She strode forward until she stood at the front of the stage, leaning forward toward the war-teni in the stands. Her gaze moved across each of their faces. “I tell you this: The Numetodo are a threat to Concenzia only if your own faith is lacking. ”

“That’s not what Archigos Orlandi believes.”

The challenge was loud, from a teni who stood abruptly in his seat.

Several of the war-teni around the man also rose, placing their hands on the speaker. “No!” Ana shouted at them. “Let him talk!”

The anger in her voice loosened the hands that had grasped at the war-teni, and he shook them away. He pointed toward Ana, toward Karl. “You’re the false Archigos,” he said. “Look who you consort with. The Numetodo mock the Divolonte. They mock the Toustour. They deny Cenzi. How can you stand there and say that we must learn from them?”

“What is your name?” Ana asked.

“I am U’Teni Georgi cu’Vlanti.”

“I know of your family, U’Teni. They’re good people and devout,

and I’m not surprised to find that at least one of them has chosen to serve Concenzia. If you think I’m the false Archigos, U’Teni cu’Vlanti, then it’s your duty under Cenzi and the Divolonte to strike me down. I give you that opportunity now. Pray to Cenzi to guide your hands and strengthen your spell, as I will pray to Him to guide mine.” Ana spread her arms wide. “Begin your spell,” she told him. She looked around the stadia slowly, especially to those on the stage with her. “I promise you that no one here will stop you.”

“Ana. .” Karl began, and she shook her head at him.

“No one here will stop you,” she repeated to both Karl and the war-teni. “The Divolonte is clear on this: Rip out the tongues and crush the hands of those who falsely claim they speak with Cenzi’s voice, for you risk your own soul if you listen. I make that claim, U’Teni cu’Vlanti. I say that Cenzi is speaking through me, as He does through each Archigos.

I say that the false Archigos is out there with the Hirzg. But if you believe otherwise, then the Divolonte demands that you strike me. Do it, U’Teni. Do it if you think that Cenzi will fail to protect me. Do it if you believe that ca’Cellibrecca should wear the shattered globe around his neck and that Jan ca’Vorl of Firenzcia should sit on the Sun Throne and end the long rule of the ca’Ludovici lineage.”

The man was standing silent, glaring at her with his hands at his sides. “Do it!” Ana barked, and he nearly jumped.

His hands began to move; he began to chant. A searing light flared between his hands. Ana did nothing, waiting, and the murmuring of the other war-teni rose. Cu’Vlanti finished the spell rapidly and spread his hands as Ana spoke a word and gestured-too late. Fire erupted on the stage, a raging, quick conflagration that submerged all gathered there in flame so that they couldn’t be seen from the stands where the war-teni stood. They knew the damage a full war-spell would inflict, and there were shouts of alarm and surprise and horror from the teni in their seats.

War-fire left behind only the blackened husks of charred bodies.

The flames vanished, their fury expended. The planks of the stage smoldered with great blisters of black ash; the hangings above dripped sparks as charred fabric fell away. But where the Numetodo ci’Vliomani and the Archigos stood, the wood was untouched. Archigos Ana was standing with her hands extended in a shielding spell- cast with impossible speed.

Karl Ci’Vliomani suddenly broke the tableau as he jumped with a curse and started beating at the folds of his bashta on his left side.

Smoke and tiny flames curled from where his hands struck. He looked reproachfully at Ana as he smothered the fire. “You were a little slow there, Archigos,” he said. “And a little too sparing of your shield.”

Someone out in the stands chuckled, and the laughter spread slowly, as Ana smiled herself. U’Teni cu’Vlanti had collapsed, exhausted, in his seat, but Ana stood as if the spell had cost her nothing.

“Cenzi has allowed me to do this,” Ana said to the war-teni. “And the Numetodo have helped show me how. In this time, we can’t afford to cast out those who offer to be our allies. I ask you to let the Numetodo stand with us. I ask you, like me, to learn from them what they can teach us.”

There were no cheers. There was no audible response to her plea at all. But Ana glimpsed a few grudging nods among the faces of the war-teni.

It would have to be enough.

Sergei ca’Rudka

The world flickered in and out, as if illuminated by lethargic, erratic strokes of lightning.

. . someone (he thought it might be ca’Montmorte) helping him down from his horse with a hiss of concern. “Fetch a healer. .” he heard ca’Montmorte say, and there were hands around him, and he screamed as they lifted him.

. . waking to pain and firelight. A face passed through his field of vision. He tried to speak through cracked and dry lips. “Where. .?”

“On the Avi,” he heard someone answer. “Maybe two days from Nessantico. Please don’t try to move, Commandant.”

He started to laugh at the thought of moving, but the laugh turned to a cough, and the cough took his breath from him and he left the world again.

. . the insistent saltiness of meat broth on his tongue. The taste was so wonderful that his hands grabbed the hands holding the mug to his lips as he gulped at the soup. “Gently, Commandant,” a voice said. “There’s plenty for you. Take your time.”

He tried to sit up, and found that he could do so only with great difficulty. It seemed to be night. His body was bound tightly, and his skin pulled all along his back. His vision was blurry and he couldn’t focus, but he could see the shifting light of a campfire close by and bodies sitting around it.