Lamma's Night (anthology)

where they'd never heard of the War save as a vague rumor.

At last I came to Woodedge, a well-named little village tucked in among the trees, just at the verge of true wilderness. Clean trees, I thought, standing on the crest of a small hill and sniffing the piney air, clean wilderness. Not a trace of anything to be sensed but the hundred little natural magics of a normal forest. I looked down the slope to Woodedge itself and found a nicely built place, shingled roofs, wooden walls. Each one- or two-storied house had its own small garden, bright right now with spring flowers, and the door frames and window shutters were cheerfully carved. The sound of children playing drifted up to my ears, and I realized, wondering, how long it had been since I'd heard open, honest laughter.

Of course no stranger is going to enter a village unnoted. Before I'd taken a dozen steps I was the center of a wondering crowd. I stared right back. Mostly blondes and redheads here, fair skin, light eyes: I must have looked very alien to them with my dark hair and eyes. The dresses of the women and shirts and breeches of the men were of simple weave but nicely embroidered and rich with herbal dyes; my own traveler's robe was unornamented, but its color—stark green such as no magicless folk dared wear—marked me, as it was meant to do, as wizard.

'I come in peace,' I told them, inwardly wincing at the cliche.

The cliche didn't matter; they didn't understand me and began chattering among themselves. After a moment, I identified the language as a dialect of Rishan: I'd wandered far, indeed. But wizards are trained in many tongues, so I repeated in Rishan, 'I come in peace.'

That caused a new stir. They were calling for someone: Sashan? The man who worked his way through the crowd was no longer young, his skin rough and fair hair more gray man gold. But his eyes were shrewd, and I knew Sashan could only be the village headman.

'You must be weary, lady.' The formal words sounded odd in this rustic dialect. 'Will you rest and talk with me?'

In other words: Will you tell me who you are and why you're here and if you're any threat to my people? I dipped my head politely. 'I will.'

Their beer was cool and rich, soothing to the throat. I sipped carefully, aware of its strength, and told Sashan, 'I am called Reilanan, and as you've already guessed, I am a wizard.'

He gave a little 'tsk' of wonder. 'So young a woman!'

Young. After the War, I hardly considered myself young, no matter my actual age or what Sashan saw. 'I am fully trained. And fully tested, for that matter,' I added wryly.

'I'm not doubting you, never that!' To my surprise, Sashan was all at once fairly quivering with eagerness. 'It's just... lady, we have no wizard. Or rather, we don't have one any more.'

At my raised brow, he added, 'His name was Tiern; he'd grown up near here and returned to us a full wizard—not much older than you, lady. But he kept us safe enough for all his youth.'

I couldn't see why a village should need a wizard rather than some competent wise woman, but I guessed that living surrounded by all that natural forest magic made folks edgy. 'What happened to him?'

'Ah. Um. We're not sure. Tiern was... well, he wasn't the friendliest of folks, kind of cold. He was always at his books, always studying and hunting new spells.'

Not surprising; fierce curiosity was the wizard's boon and bane. 'He found something too strong for him, eh?'

Sashan bit his lip. 'You'd know more of that than me, lady. All I can tell you is this: he was up to something last Lammas Night. We found him in the morning, stark dead with not a mark on him.' Sashan shivered. 'Lady, since that dark day, there hasn't been anyone able to weave us any protective spells.'

'You're offering me a job.'

'Ah, yes. You can have Tiern's house—it's a fine one,' he hurried on, 'very comfortable, yes, and all his magic gear, too. Lots of books, scrolls, that sort of thing.' Sashan stopped short. 'Lady, I'll be blunt. We can't offer gold or much in the way of city pleasures. What we can give you is food and a nice, clean place to live. And our gratitude and, I hope, friendship.'

I thought of what I'd seen so far, the attractive little village, the cheerful, rural folk. Folk who would have their quarrels, yes, their petty feuds, perhaps. But folk who had never seen the land turned to blazing mud, or their fellows melted into—

'I'll be honest with you,' I said to cut off the memories. 'I've come from the War.' His blank stare was reassuring. 'Never mind which war,' I continued. 'Let's just say it was a very ugly one involving war magics.'

'And you're worn out,' he said to my surprise. 'Need healing.'

'Sashan, I couldn't work a master spell right now to save my life.'

'Your magic will return?'

'Yes. With time.'

Sashan's smile was wide and warm. 'Time we've got. We've waited this long for a wizard, we can wait a little longer. What say you? We'll give you our protection, you give us yours.'

To my embarrassed horror, I almost burst into tears of sheer relief. Sanctuary. And hopefully healing. 'Yes,' I told him shakily. 'Yes.'

The late Tiern's house was just as I'd been promised: small, maybe, but well-made, with not a draft or a drip. It smelled sweetly of herbs; plainly the villagers hadn't been too afraid of Tiern's death to keep his house clean. The floor was earth, hard-packed to a sheen almost as smooth as glass, and covered with rugs of woven cloth. I found a mirror of precious glass lying on a table, caught a glimpse of my face (amazed to see how young it still looked, how unmarked; surely there should be something terrible marking the smooth skin, something besides weariness in the dark eyes). The bed bore a good feather mattress and the walls bore shelves crowded with jars and vials, books and scrolls. I took one book down, frowned at the title. Tiern had been truly ambitious! I gingerly returned 'Demonic Summonings and Banishments of the Third Level' to its place beside 'The Many Ways of Transformation' and 'Ardenic's Key to Night-Altered Spells.' An intriguing collection that would bear careful investigation.