“It’s mine,” Carjoris said. “Give it to me.”
Gaurane simply shook his head. “Save your breath, my son. Your tricks aren’t going to work on me.” He tapped the side of his head. “Deaf as a post.”
Carjoris got to his feet painfully and looked around. They weren’t alone here, as he’d first thought. In the distance he could see three people watching them.
“I’m leaving now,” he said.
“Did you know Elade’s from Sensolding?” Gaurane asked. Something in his voice made Carjoris hesitate. “Sensolding, that’s Holder lands. Harsh country. Hard people. I suspect none of that means much to you, but try this: She learned to use a great bow almost before she could walk. The range on it is . . . well, from where she’s standing to here. That’s her over there.” Gaurane waved, and one of the figures waved back. “Walk away from me, son, and she’ll put an arrow into you.”
“That’s murder,” Carjoris said.
“Only if she kills you,” Gaurane said. “Now sit down. I have a few things to say to you.”
Carjoris looked from the figures in the distance to Gaurane, and he sat.
“You aren’t from here, are you?” Gaurane asked.
There wasn’t anything to do but answer,and hope he could find a way out of this. “Iftel.”
“Ah. So, likely you think you have some kind of magic power. But you see, magic doesn’t work in Valdemar. We call what you can do a Gift.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Carjoris said.
“Oh, I don’t think so. Elade doesn’t think so—you used your power on her, you know. Meran doesn’t think so—he saw you take the purse at the scentseller’s stall. And me, I really don’t care. But my friends do, so we’re going to make sure you don’t do things like that any more. Stealing is wrong,” he added virtuously.
“I won’t ever do it again—I promise!” Carjoris said desperately. If he could convince the man that he repented and get the maniac to let him go—
“Well, here’s the thing,” Gaurane said. “I don’t believe you. And using a Gift to trick people, that’s even more wrong. But it’s tempting, isn’t it?”
“I never took anything anybody needed!” Carjoris said. “They were rich!”
“Ah, well, that’s a matter of perspective,” Gaurane said. “Now me, I think you’re a nasty little bully, and I wouldn’t lose a moment’s sleep over slitting your throat. Hedion’s got standards, though. So I suppose we could just dose you up with something that shuts down your Gift—oh, don’t look at me like that; this is Valdemar, they understand the mind-gifts here—and send you off to Haven. They’d put Truth Spell on you, you know. And when you’d told them what you’d been up to, why, they’d get someone to burn your Gift out of you before they sent you off to prison. Or we could just do what Elade suggested, and slit your tongue. Hard to talk people into things when you can’t talk.”
Carjoris looked at him for a long minute, trying to judge how serious he was. When Gaurane did not so much as blink, Carjoris knew there was no escaping this disaster. “Please,” he said, covering his face with his hands. “Please.”
“And then there’s Meran,” Gaurane said, as though Carjoris hadn’t spoken. “Did you know he grew up on the streets in Haven? A beggar and a thief. But one day a Bard found him and took him off to the Collegium, and he never stole again. He didn’t have to. The question is, would you steal if you didn’t have to?”
Carjoris lifted his head and stared at Gaurane at that ray of potential salvation. “I wouldn’t! I won’t!” he said desperately.
“Ah,” Gaurane said sighing. “Never lie to a drunk, boy. We’re good at seeing the truth. Of course, you have a third choice.” He reached down into the grass beside him and picked something up. Carjoris couldn’t see what it was before Gaurane tossed it at his feet.
He looked down at it, and could not believe his eyes. “You want me to wear—a collar?” The silver flashed in the sun.
“It’s even got a lock,” Gaurane said cheerfully, bouncing a small object in his hand. “And the thing about this collar is—oh, I don’t suppose you can read, so let me tell you about it—the engraving on it says you should be handed over to the next Herald who rides by. You’ll recognize them. They’ll be the ones riding something that looks like that.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the white horse standing patiently behind him. “And those things are smart, and you can’t trick them, and they aren’t horses, no matter what they look like. And you’ll find yourself in Valdemar before you can blink. They’ll probably hire you out as a laborer there so you can pay back what you stole. After they burn out your Gift, of course.”
“If—If I wear that, you’ll let me go?” Carjoris stammered. Once he was away from here, he could surely find a blacksmith to strike the collar off. Only what if they read it first? What if they chained him up and gagged him and delivered him to one of these Heralds?
The white horse snorted, and Gaurane gave a sharp bark of laughter.
“Or you wear that and come with us. Do what you’re told. We work hard, harder than you’ve ever worked a day in your life, but the reward is well worth the labor. We’ll put you to work, teach you what you need to know in order to be of use. If you’re a good boy, we might even get someone to teach you the right way to use that Gift of yours someday, once we’re convinced you’re done misusing it. Run, try to compel any of us, make any trouble—and you’ll wish I’d let Elade put an arrow into you now.”
Carjoris shook his head, trying to make some kind of sense out of all this. “Why—Why—Why—” he stuttered.
“Maybe you deserve a chance to be someone better. Maybe you were born with your Gift for a reason. Maybe all you need is somebody to show you how to be a hero. Maybe I’m tired of listening to Elade bitch about doing all the work around the camp. Or maybe I bet Hedion you’d rather take your chances in Haven than do an honest day’s work. But like I said, it’s your choice.”
“Who . . . Who do you think you are?” Anger got the better of caution, of the hard-learned lesson that the only way to survive was to smile and give soft words no matter what words were said to you.
“Me?” Gaurane said. “I’m nobody. But I was somebody—for a while. And it’s a funny thing, but if you give someone a thing worth doing, well, sometimes that’s worth quite a lot.” He got to his feet, grunting with the effort. “Time’s up, youngster. Choose.”
“I . . .” He looked down at the collar at his feet. Trapped, and trapped well, that much was certain. He could run and take his chances with the woman’s aim. He could put on the collar and take his chances with finding someone to strike it from around his neck. He could give himself up to one of their Heralds and take his chances that their punishment would be lenient and easily survived.
But Gaurane was watching him, a little smile lingering at the edges of his lips. He looked like a man who held a secret. And Carjoris suddenly, desperately, wanted to know what that secret was.
A hero. He liked the sound of that.
“My name is Carjoris,” he said. His hands shook as he reached for the collar. It was lined in leather, and the metal was warm from the sun. But it still felt cold and heavy as he closed it around his throat.
“A pleasure to meet you,” Gaurane said, without irony.
He tossed the lock into Carjoris’s lap. It clinked against the metal as Carjoris threaded it through the clasp and squeezed it shut.
“Come on.” Gaurane was holding a hand down to him. Carjoris took it, and Gaurane pulled him to his feet.
“What—What happens now?” Carjoris asked. He knew he ought to feel afraid, or even angry at having been trapped so neatly. But he didn’t.
He didn’t know what he felt.
“Now we go back to the fair—should be there by dark—and you hand over everything you’ve stolen, and Meran goes and finds a Herald to give it all back. And tomorrow we buy you a horse and whatever else you need. Did I mention we spend our time living rough up on the Border? You’ll get used to it.”
He turned and began to walk toward the others. The white horse followed. As it passed him, it turned its head and gave Carjoris a penetrating look.
“Come on if you’re coming!” Gaurane called, and Carjoris found himself running to catch up.
“You’ve lost me a five-mark piece, you know,” Gaurane said when he reached him. “Ah, well, maybe I can get Hedion to go double or nothing. Over a moonturn, you know. To give him a sporting chance.”
