Magic's Pawn

'Well - no.'

'You ran toward the danger when you Mindheard the call for help, right?' Savil asked. 'Not away?'

'Well - yes.'

'And you simply froze when you saw the strange monster. You did not flee?' Starwind raised one long eyebrow.

'I guess that's what happened.'

'I think perhaps you have mistaken inexperience for cowardice, young Vanyel,' Starwind said with conviction. 'A coward would have run away from a plea for help. A coward would have fled at the first glimpse of the drake. You were indecisive - but you remained. It is experience that makes one decisive, and you have precious little of that.'

'M'lord Starwind?' One of the homespun-clad men of the settlement was standing diffidently at the Tayle- dras' elbow.

'Phellip, I wish you would not call me 'lord,' ' Starwind sighed, shaking his head. 'You hold your lands under our protection, yes, but it is a simple matter of barter, foodstuffs for guardianship, and no more than that.'

'Aye, m' - Master Starwind. Master, this drake - she just be chance-come, or be there anythin' more to it?'

Starwind turned to look at him more closely, and with some interest. 'Why do you ask that?'

Phellip coughed, and flushed. 'Well, m'lord, I was born 'n' bred west a' here. M'people held land a' Mage-lord Grenvis - he were all right, but - well, when 'is neighbors had a notion t' play war, they useta bring in drakes an' th' like aforehand.'

'And you think something of the sort might be in the offing? Phellip, I congratulate you on your foresight. The thought had only just occurred to me - '

'Da?' One of the boys couldn't contain himself any longer, and bounced up beside his father. 'Da, there gonna be a war? With fightin' an' magic an' - '

Phellip grabbed the loose cloth of the boy's tunic and pulled him close. 'Jo - I want ye t' lissen t' what m'lord Starwind is gonna tell ye - m'lord, you tell 'im; 'e don' believe 'is of man that fightin' ain't good fer nothin' but fillin' up graveyards.'

'Young man,' Starwind fixed the boy with an earnest stare. 'There is nothing 'fine' about warfare. There is nothing 'glorious' about battle. All that a war means to such as you and I is that people we know and love will die, probably senselessly; others will be crippled for life - and the fools who began it all will sit back in their high castles and plot a way to get back what they lost. If there were to be a war - which, trust me, Phellip, I shall try most earnestly to prevent - the very best you could hope for, young man, would be to see these lovely fields around you put to the torch so that you would face a very hungry winter. That is what warfare is all about. The only justifiable fight is a defensive one, and in any fight it is the innocents who ultimately suffer the most.'

The boy didn't look convinced.

Vanyel cleared his throat, and the boy shot a look at him. 'Pretty exciting, the way that drake just nipped off that fool old man's head, wasn't it, Starwind?' he drawled, in exaggerated imitation of some of the young courtiers of his own circle.

The boy paled, then reddened - but before he could burst into either tears or angry words, Vanyel looked him straight in the eyes so fiercely that he could not look away.

'That's what you'll see in a war, Jo,' he said, harshly. 'Not people in tales getting killed - your people getting killed. Younglings, oldsters - everybody. And some fool at the rear crowing about how exciting it all is. That's what it's about.'

Now Jo looked stricken - and, perhaps, convinced. Out of the corner of his eye Vanyel saw the farmer nodding in approval.

Out of nowhere, Vanyel felt a sudden rush of kindred feeling for these people. Suddenly they weren't faceless, inscrutable monoliths anymore - suddenly they were people. People who were in some ways a great deal more like him than his own relatives were. They had lives - and loves and cares.

Their outlook on warfare was certainly closer to his than that of any of his blood relations.

They aren't that much different than me. Except - except that I can do something they can't. I can - I can protect them when they can't protect themselves. And they can do things I can't. But I could learn to grow a carrot if I had to. It probably wouldn't be a very good carrot, but I could grow one. They won't ever be able to blast a colddrake.

What does that mean, really? What does that say about my life? Why can I do these things, and not someone else - and what about the people out there who - who send drake-swarms out to eat Helpless farmers? If I can protect people like this from people like them - doesn't that mean - that I really have to?

He looked up and saw his aunt's eyes; she was watching the children at their chores, cleaning and chopping vegetables for a stew. Her expression was at once protective and worried.

It's the way Savil feels - it's got to be. That's why she's a Herald.

And suddenly Tylenders words came back to him; so clearly that it seemed for a moment as if Tylendel were sitting beside him again, murmuring into his ear.

'… it's a kind of hunger. I can't help it. I've got these abilities, these Gifts, and I can't not use them. I couldn't sit here, knowing that there were people out there who need exactly the kind of help I can give them and not make the effort to find them and take care of them.'' Now he understood those words. Oh, the irony of it; this part of Tylendel that he had never been able to comprehend - now it was clear. Now that Tylendel was gone - now he understood. Oh, godsHe closed his eyes against the sting of tears. Oh, yes - now he understood. Because now he felt that way, too. Too late to share it.

Fourteen

:Well?: To all appearances, Savil was asleep beside the settlers' stone hearth as she Mindspoke Starwind in Private-mode. In actuality, despite her weariness she was anything but sleepy, and was