A Magic of Twilight

“No sword,” he told her. He unlaced the belt around his waist and and pulled from it a soiled leather scabbard holding a double-bladed knife with a jeweled hilt. He displayed it to her. “This is a knife Hirzg Karin, your great- vatarh, gave me when I was about your age.” He didn’t tell her that it was one of the few things the Hirzg ever gave Jan, or that the same day he’d given Ludwig, little more than a year older, a full suit of armor and a sword. “I give it to you now, and I’ll show you how to use it. For now, though, keep it in a pocket of your tashta.”

Allesandra took the knife and clutched it as if it were the most precious gift he could have given her. “Thank you, Vatarh,” she said.

“Thank you so much. I will learn. I will learn everything you have to teach me.”

“You will,” Jan said, almost sadly, “whether it’s what you want to learn or not. Markell, summon O’Offizier ci’Arndt. We have an additional assignment for him.”

Karl ci’Vliomani

“I didn’t expect to see you so soon, Ana,” he said. “In fact, I wondered. . well, no matter. I’m truly glad for the chance to speak with you again.” He smiled at her, taking her hands in his.

He thought she would pull away immediately; she did not, and he let his hands linger. He enjoyed the touch, enjoyed looking at her face, at the eyes that stared into his. You can’t, Karl. You can’t. There’s Kaitlin, waiting for you back in Paeti. . He released her hand with a quick, uncertain smile and went to the window, glancing down at the teni-driven carriage waiting in the street below. “I’m surprised you’d be so open about meeting me, Ana, I have to admit. But I’m glad you came.”

He saw her face relax slightly at that, but the determination in her face remained. “I’m tired of everything being hidden. I don’t want to hide anything,” she told him, and there was heat and anger in her voice that seemed to emanate from somewhere else. “But you need to know that I’ve kept my promise to you from the other night, and I’ll continue to keep it.”

“I know you will,” he told her, “or I wouldn’t have made the invitation in the first place. I knew when I saw you. .” He stopped, shaking his head. He gestured to a chair without saying more. “Would you sit?

I could have someone bring up refreshments. .” She shook her head, and he could see the agitation in her: in the way she paced the room, in the shine that touched her eyes, in her quick breath. She went to the fire and held her hands out to the flames. He could see her trembling, and he came to her, touching her gently on the shoulder. “Ana, what’s troubling you? What’s happened?”

She gave an odd bark of a laugh that turned into a choked sob, turning to him. “Everything.” She spread her arms wide, her teni’s robes flaring with the motion as if she were giving Cenzi’s Blessing. A single tear tracked its way down her cheek, and she brushed at it. “I’ve lost my ability,” she told him. “The Gift I had. Since you showed me what the Numetodo do. . I can’t. .”

She began to cry fully then. He watched her, wanting to go to her but not daring to, until the pain and sorrow in her made him take a step, then another. She made no resistance when he folded her into his arms. She leaned into his embrace, burying her face into his shoulder. He held her silently, one hand stroking her hair. He pressed his lips into the fragrance of her hair, touching his lips to the strands. She felt. .

She felt as if she belonged there. Guilt tore through him for the thought.

After a few moments, she sniffed and pushed away; he released her as she wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I. . we. . I shouldn’t have. This isn’t what I came here for.”

He wanted to embrace her again. Her sorrow and distress pulled at him. Fool. You can’t afford this. Think of what you’re here for. What about Kaitlin, who said she would always wait for you, always be faithful, and you told her the same. . He forced himself to remain where he was.

He tried to think of Kaitlin, but he found that he couldn’t remember her face; it was hazy in his memory, a ghost that seemed to belong to another person’s past. You’ve been away for a year and more already; you haven’t heard from Kaitlin in months and months. She may have found someone else. .

Ana was here, though. She’s your enemy. She’s a tool you intended to use. But the reminder didn’t convince, not when he saw her this way.

Not when she pulled at him the way she did.

“What do you mean, you lost your gift?” he asked.

Haltingly, she told him. “I noticed when. .” She stopped, pressed her lips together, and he realized that she was holding something back from him. “I noticed the next time I tried to use the Ilmodo. I couldn’t.

I called to Cenzi, but He wouldn’t come, wouldn’t let me shape the Ilmodo as I used to. I felt like an apprentice again, stumbling through the simplest spell.” She looked at him, and he thought he saw both accusation and hope in her eyes. “Did you do it, Envoy?” she asked. “An enchantment, a Numetodo spell. .?”

He shook his head. “No,” he told her softly. “I wouldn’t do that to you, Ana. I don’t expect you to believe that, but it’s the truth. Even if I could manage that-and I can’t-I wouldn’t have done that to you.

No, I’m afraid you did this to yourself.”

That sounded cruel even to his ears, and he brought a hand up both against her protest and in apology. “Ana, let me explain. With the Numetodo, everyone finds their own individual path to the Scath Cumhacht. Each of us uses a slightly different technique, our own words and gestures. That’s where we’re different. You teni use your faith to open the Second World; we use a standard routine, one that we must discover ourselves, no different than an herbalist who mixes the in-gredients of her potions in the same quantities each time so that the effects are always the same. Your faith. .” He shook his head. “I think it’s just another formula. A routine. What you saw, well, it shook that faith, and so. .”

“No!” she shouted at him. “Stop. I know what you’re saying, and I don’t believe it. I still believe. I do. Cenzi is punishing me.”

“I told you the other night that I could show you our path,” Karl said. “I still could. Your gift isn’t gone, Ana. It’s still there-and it doesn’t matter whether you believe in Cenzi or not. It’s still there.” He took a stride toward her, taking her hands in his. She didn’t resist, didn’t pull away. He could see that she wanted to believe him. He brought her to him. Their faces were close. So close. Kaitlin. . “I can show you, Ana. I will.”

As he said the words, he heard the creaking of the door behind them. Ana’s eyes widened and her gaze shifted. “How touching,” a voice said drolly, and as Karl started to turn, releasing Ana’s hands so his own were free, the voice tsked in caution. “Now, Envoy ci’Vliomani, what did I tell you the last time we met? There’s no need for violence here.”

Commandant ca’Rudka stood at the door, his sword still in its scabbard and a sardonic grin on his face. In the hall beyond, Karl could see the woman who owned the building cowering against the

far wall with her keys in her hand, and two gardai in the uniform of the Bastida, both holding crossbows with bolts nocked and ready.

Ca’Rudka motioned to the two, and they lowered their bows slightly.

“O’Teni cu’Seranta,” he said, bowing slightly and giving her the sign of Cenzi. “Your driver said you would be here. Evidently the envoy’s dancing at the Gschnas impressed you more than the Archigos

believed.”

Ana’s face, when Karl glanced at her, was pale, all the color gone from her cheeks. “Commandant,” she said. She took a breath, drawing herself up. “The Vajiki and I have been discussing religion. I had hopes of making him see the error of the Numetodo.”

“Indeed, that’s a noble exercise,” ca’Rudka said. He entered the room, the two gardai following, closing the door on the landlady’s curious face. “But somehow I doubt that the Vajiki is convinced of the greatness of Cenzi and the Faith.” He went over to the sill of the window, where Karl had set the plant the commandant had given him.

Ca’Rudka touched a fingertip to the soil, then looked at the black earth clinging there. “Damp,” he said. “I’m impressed, Vajiki.” He looked at the plant. “But I’m afraid it’s only a common weed after all. You’re wast-ing your efforts.”

“Why are you here, Commandant?” Karl asked. He could feel the tension gnawing at his belly. This is what Mika feared. It’s begun. . He knew it, knew by the way the commandant glanced around the room, knew from the careful stares of the gardai whose weapons never quite moved away from him. “If it’s a social call, as you can see, I’m otherwise engaged.”