particular significance. But the boy’s a warlock, as I am, so I brought him along.”
“Is that so?” Faran asked Ulpen.
“Yes, mas... yes, my lord,” Ulpen replied. “Master Abdaran took me to the Guildmaster for a consultation, and Guildmaster Manrin took me to Guildmaster Perinan, and Guildmaster Perinan sent us to Guildmaster Ithinia, and then we came here.”
“So all these people know you’re warlocks?” Faran frowned. “Then why did you want to see mein private?”
“Theydon’t know,” Manrin said quickly. “Abdaran knows about Ulpen, but I don’t believe any of the others know it’s possible for a wizard to have been contaminated in this fashion. I claimed to be acting from disinterested motives in consulting the others, and had Perinan send us to Ithinia-or rather to Ethshar of the Spices. That was the fastest way to get here.”
“A Transporting Tapestry?” Faran asked.
“You know of them?” Manrin asked, startled.
“I’ve heard of them,” Faran said. “I’ve never seen one in operation.”
“They’re very handy; we stepped forty leagues in a heartbeat.” “It was amazing!” Ulpen said, showing the first sign of enthusiasm-very nearly the first sign oflife —Hanner had seen from him. “We justtouched it!”
“Yes, yes,” Manrin said. He turned his attention back to Faran. “At any rate, we arrived in the city, stopped by Ithinia’s home to maintain the fiction that we came to consult her, and then came here.” He hesitated. “You understand why we came?”
“I’d prefer you to make it explicit,” Faran said.
Manrin sighed. “It’s simple enough. We want to live. And right now, it’s not clear that we’ll be permitted to. Ithinia says your overlord here, Lord Azrad, is determined to kill all the warlocks; our Lord Ederd isn’t so certain, but was talking about exile.”
“Then haven’t you just made your situation worse by coming here?” Hanner asked.
“We came to seek shelter, young man,” Manrin said.
“But if you stayed out of Ethshar of the Spices, you wouldn’t necessarilyneed shelter...”
“I think we would, no matter what Ederd decides,” Manrin replied. “The triumvirate isn’t the only power in Ethshar. Don’t forget-we are wizards. And wizards are forbidden by Guild rules to learn any other magic. And violations of Guild rules are punishable by death.”
“But you didn’task to be warlocks!” Hanner exclaimed.
“I’m afraid that the Guild often does not worry about intentions, but only results.”
“Then they’re no better than Lord Azrad!”
Manrin blinked at him in surprise. “Did anyone ever claim they were?”
“My nephew has something of an idealistic streak,” Faran said dryly. “I’ve been telling him for years that the Wizards’ Guild is not as benign as it would like to appear, but he was not inclined to believe me.”
“So I see,” Manrin said. “Well, in any case, it seems to me that if we, as both warlocks and wizards, want to survive, we had best find some support. We can’t keep our situation a secret forever-”
“Why not?” Hanner interrupted, startling everyone, including himself. He had just been thinking that in Manrin’s position he would simply never have admitted to being a warlock.
After all,he hadn’t told anyonehe was a warlock, and didn’t intend to.
Manrin looked at him in surprise. “Because warlockry wants to be used! Hasn’t anyone told you that, out of all these warlocks? It’s easy to use it quite unintentionally-we’ve both done it several times. One can even use it inadvertently in one’s sleep. Sooner or later we would slip somewhere we could be seen-and that’s quite aside from the fact that Ulpen’s master Abdaran already knows that Ulpen is a warlock.”
Lord Faran was nodding, and Hanner remembered that his uncle had, in fact, given away his own warlock nature by accident. The possibility that Hanner would give away his own secret the way Manrin described worried him, but just now he didn’t see much he could do about it.
Manrin frowned. “And there’s another factor, as well. It would seem that warlockry and wizardry do interfere with each other to some extent. Most of my spells have been going wrong for the past two days, and it may well get worse. I’m a Guildmaster-people expect me to use my magic every day. If I begin to refuse, or if my spells begin to fail regularly, questions will arise.”
“Oh,” Hanner said. He glanced at his uncle.
Faran was looking thoughtfully at the wizards.
“Your spells don’t work?” he said. “Then are you really still a wizard?”
Manrin sighed. “I’m afraid so,” he said. “I can still worksome spells, and besides, one can’t stop being a wizard, not really. I know a good many Guild secrets, including some that it’s death for a nonwizard to know. So if I’m still a wizard, then I must die for being a warlock; if I am no longer a wizard, then I must die for knowing Guild secrets. Unless, that is, I can find some way to convince the Guild to relent.”
“The Guildnever relents, does it?” Ulpen asked. “Abdaran told me it didn’t.”
“Not unless it’s forced to,” Manrin agreed. “And that’s why we’ve come here. I’m not sure just what you intend with this group you’re gathering, my lord, but whatever it is, we’d like to offer our services in exchange for whatever protection you can give us.”
“Your services,” Faran said. “But you just said that your magic is damaged.”
“Mymind isn’t,” Manrin snapped. “And it’s wizardry that’s damaged; I’m still as much a warlock as any of those others downstairs. And I’m also still a Guildmaster, until they find out what’s happened to me-I reallydo know secrets, and for now I am able to speak with Ithinia and Perinan about matters that an outsider would never dare broach.”
“That could indeed be valuable,” Faran admitted. “I spoke to Ithinia yesterday and asked for an audience to discuss the warlocks’ situation; when you came to the door I thought you were here as her representative, to deliver an ultimatum or escort me to a meeting or otherwise respond to my request. You obviously aren’t her representative-do you know why she hasn’t responded? Has she met with the overlord, as he requested?”
“No, she hasn’t,” Manrin said. “Ido know that much. She hasn’t met with any of you because she’s been busy meeting with other wizards-the Guild wants to present a consistent response to the warlock problem, throughout not just the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars, but the entire World. So the-”
He stopped abruptly in midsentence, glanced at Ulpen, then continued.
“I am about to break an oath,” he said. “I think this is really a very minor point, compared to some, but I’m going to tell you a Guild secret, and I have sworn never to reveal any of the Guild’s secrets. If this is unacceptable, tell me now-I do not want to be forsworn for nothing.”
“Go on,” Faran said. “If it’s any comfort, I would guess you were about to say something about the Inner Circle.”
“Ah!” Manrin looked relieved. “Then you already know, and I’m not breaking my vow after all. Yes. The Inner Circle is meeting to discuss this matter, or at least part of it is. I don’t know where, but it’s not in Ethshar. Ithinia and Perinan and the others are gone, and won’t return until there’s a decision; I caught her just before she left and asked her where you could be found. She thinks I’m here to see what you’re up to with all these warlocks, so that I can report back to her-but I have no intention of reporting back.”
“Then there reallyis an Inner Circle, and you’re not a memher?” Faran asked. “I’m afraid I’d only heard rumors.”
“There really is an Inner Circle, and I’m not a member,” Man-rin confirmed. “I had hoped that I might someday be invited in— but obviously, that can’t happennow.”
Manner heard the bitterness in the wizard’s voice. It was quite clear that whatever this Inner Circle might be, Manrin thought heshould have been a member by now.
Hanner noticed that Ulpen looked more confused than ever, and in the apprentice’s interest as much as his own he asked, “Just whatis the Inner Circle?”
Manrin bit his lower lip, causing his beard to thrust out, and looked at Lord Faran.
“The rumors I’ve heard,” Faran said, “were that while ostensibly the Wizards’ Guild is run by all the Guildmasters, in fact there is secretly a select group within the Guildmasters that is the true ruling council of the Guild. This council is called the Inner Circle.”
Manrin opened his mouth, hesitated, then said, “That’s essentially correct.”
“I never heard anything about that,” Ulpen said.
