Perhaps she should feel a kindredness with Dardas/Weisel. After all, she was in effect Raven/Vadya. And the general, whoever he actually was, had in fact shown her much trust and attention and fondness.
It was very confusing.
Raven focused. It seemed there was a mounting activity around her. She frowned. It was widespread. She saw the troops stirring, heard the rumble of voices.
After a few moments, it became clear. The horns sounded. The camp was being struck. The army was mobilizing. She guessed they were going to move against Ompellus Prime to the east.
Raven caught a soldier hurrying past.
'You there! Are we off to invade Ompellus Prime?'
The soldier shook his head. He looked excited and afraid all at once.
'No, the scouts have reported a force organizing to our south!'
Raven frowned again.
'There's another army coming to meet us! They say it's a big one!'
RADSTAC (4)
She was prepared to kill Nievze if the situation called for it. In fact, she had been ready to do so from the first moment he had appeared in their lives, knocking at their door after curfew, the same night the rebels had painted their emblem so conspicuously on the wall of the Registry.
Radstac had also been prepared to turn the renegade Felk magician over to Aquint. He was, after all, most certainly the type of individual who would interest the Internal Security Corps. What Nievze was not, however, was a rebel in good standing with the local Broken Circle underground here in Callah, who were the only rebels that interested Radstac.
Deo's position on the matter was something entirely different.
'You were
Nievze made a small rasp of a laugh. He tossed the gnawed rabbit bone onto his plate and proceeded to lick his fingers clean. 'More like we were obliged to do so. I can barely describe the pressure we were under. Your loyalty was always suspect, no matter what you did, however true your allegiance to Matokin was. We took oaths, swearing our eternal devotion, and the next day we'd do the same thing all over again. It was a constant testing and affirming. It was brutal.'
'This Academy of yours sounds like a dreadful place,' Deo said. It was, by Radstac's count, the third time he'd said it.
She let out a short breath. 'Then stop making him tell these horror stories.'
Deo gave her a flat glance. Plainly he was enthralled by all this. Nievze was a figure of wonder and mystery to him. He was a Felk wizard who had fabricated his own death and deserted his post before this war had even gotten under way. That he had fled to Callah was, in Radstac's opinion, a tactical error. But perhaps this unfaithful Felk magician had been unable to imagine the rapid success of his home state's military adventures. Callah had fallen to the Felk army less than a lune after he'd smuggled himself into the neighboring city.
Nievze guzzled down another cup of wine. Deo filled it without making him ask.
She and Deo—entirely at Deo's insistence—were paying this hostel's proprietress the fee for the room in which Nievze was now staying. The wizard's plans for escape had apparently not included setting aside enough funds to live comfortably once he reached his destination. Laina, the old woman who ran this house, was happy to receive the money.
It irked Radstac. They were paying for this deserter's lodging and board out of the money that Aquint was paying them to act as Internal Security agents. The money didn't quite stretch that far, particularly since Nievze was consuming enough food and wine to fill the bellies of three men.
Granted, he did appear half-starved. His gaunt face was trimmed with greying stubble, and his eyes bulged from his skull. He was perhaps four tenwinters old, but looked older. He had a slight frame and wasn't especially tall. He was a man one wouldn't normally notice and a man who evidently didn't
Nievze's deceptions had been successful. When his fellow Felk had invaded this city-state, Nievze wasn't recognized. To the occupiers he was just one more Callahan who was too old to absorb into the army. He had blended in with Callah's poorer inhabitants, eating scraps when he had to, sleeping where he could. This last hadn't been so bad during the summer, but as autumn deepened, it had grown more and more problematical.
Nievze was very grateful for the room. He was also grateful for the food. And the wine. Deo seemed to be enjoying the man's perpetual expressions of gratitude as much as his stories of the inner workings of the Academy, which was some school for magic training in the city of Felk.
'So, you deserted because you were ill-treated at your school,' Radstac said, putting a slight but hard edge to it. 'I've got that right, don't I?'
'Radstac—' Deo started. But she returned him that same flat look, and he quieted with a shake of his head.
Nievze took a more measured swallow of wine this time. He was aware of Radstac's animosity but was hardly in a position to take offense at it.
'Actually,' he said, his tone civil, 'it was after I had graduated.'
'And what happens after a magic student graduates from your Academy?'
Nievze made a breezy gesture with one hand. 'Well, there are a number of possibilities. Matokin had uses for wizards in quite a few capacities, so...' He dropped his hand and his eyes. 'After graduation you go into the army.'
Radstac let her teeth show in her unnerving version of a grin. 'So, really, you ran away because you didn't want to go to war.'
He didn't lift his gaze. 'Yes,' he said simply.
Radstac shrugged. Despite her career as a mercenary, she had no strong opinion about deserters. Cowardice on a battlefield was a very understandable condition.
Nievze's faked death had been one of opportunity, he'd said. An accident had occurred at the Academy on the same day he was scheduled to leave to join the ranks of the Felk army. A wizard with a particular forte for fire magic—and not enough control over her talent—had managed to incinerate herself and four others nearby. Nievze, the first one on the scene, recognized that one of these was a visitor who had, at great peril, infiltrated the Academy to see his young lover, the fire producing magician. Nievze seized the opportunity, knowing that no record of the young man's visit would exist. He stuffed a few of his own personal effects into the man's seared clothing, fled the scene, and later escaped over the Academy walls.
Deo looked embarrassed for Nievze. Seeking to change the subject, he asked, 'What sort of magic did you learn at the Academy?'
Nievze finally looked up. 'Actually it's only technique that you learn there. Some people have an innate talent for magic. Most don't. Whatever capabilities you have are all you'll ever possess. They can only be refined.'
Deo nodded. 'That's very interesting. So, what techniques were you taught?'
'I specialized in blood magic.'
Radstac had accompanied Deo when he'd brought the food and wine to Nievze's room, meaning only to make sure Deo didn't pass the man any more money. Now she was regretting coming along. Nievze was an irrelevancy. He could do nothing to help them and was in fact only a burden. Radstac felt no especial sympathy for him or his plight. He had been resourceful enough to contrive his own death, but he'd been barely able to survive on the streets of Callah.
'Blood magic?' Deo's brows raised. 'What's that?'
Nievze pushed away his plate and settled back in his chair with his cup of wine. 'Human blood has certain
