price it once had, because of cheap wool from the new grazing lands in the far north. The lands my great- grandfather had won were in dispute—the lords of Lusul had laid claim to them, and my mother had no one to protect her rights.
“I am telling you this history, not just because it was drummed into my head when I was a boy,” Aruendiel added, “but because it does have some bearing on how I became a wizard.
“My mother was a perfectly handsome-looking woman, in my view, but she was not considered a great beauty. So she could not hope for a great match.”
“What did she look like?” Nora asked.
“She was like most people in her line, dark-haired, dark-eyed, more sturdiness than stature. There are half a dozen women in the village now who could be taken for her at a little distance.”
“But you’re tall,” Nora pointed out.
“In that, I resemble my father. He was a very tall man, lean, with light hair and eyes, not like the people of the Uland. He was from Sar Lith, the youngest of five sons of a middling peer with mediocre holdings.”
“Where is Sar Lith?”
“South and west of here, two or three weeks’ ride. There was a distant connection—one of my mother’s great-aunts had married into his family. At any rate, although this small, poor estate in the northern hills could not have been very attractive to my father, by marrying my mother, he could at least secure a very old and honorable title of his own. So he came here and took the name Lord Aruen.
“My father had grown up in a family that was vassal to several different powerful and disputatious lords, and he had learned something about diplomacy and forging alliances, which my mother’s family never much bothered with. He set about building better ties to other peers and to the court in Semr, in order to enforce our land rights. My father was a clever man,” Aruendiel said thoughtfully. “He had a knack for a sort of patient, intelligent prudence that I have never quite mastered.
“Because of these alliances, he was often away on campaign when I was a small child. My mother ran the estate and oversaw the upbringing of me and my siblings.”
“You were the youngest,” Nora prompted, when he paused for a moment.
“Well, the youngest who survived. There was actually an earlier Aruendiel, who died so soon after his naming day that my parents decided it made no sense to let the name go to waste and gave it to me when I was born. My sister used to tease me by telling me how much superior the first Aruendiel had been to me, although I am sure she was too young to remember him at all.
“There were four of us who lived to grow up: Atl Aruendies, then Aruendic, then my sister, then me. Dies was eight years my senior. We all looked up to him, not only because he was the eldest—he was strong, fair- minded, an excellent warrior. My second brother, Aruendic, was very different. He had a short temper that was even worse than mine is. I cannot tell you how many times I felt his fists before I grew big enough to defend myself. I learned to be a very fast runner, as a child.”
Nora made a sympathetic noise, but Aruendiel shook his head. “I cannot say that I would have treated him differently, if our positions had been reversed,” he added. “We never got on well, Aruendic and I. Although it is not true,” he added, “that I was responsible for his death.”
“What?”
Aruendiel was a shade startled by his own words, and regretful. If he was not careful, he thought, he would find himself telling this odd, clever girl with the luminous brown gaze the entire history of his life. “That is a different story. Where was I? My brothers. In fact, though, I spent more time with my sister when we were small. She was only a year older than I.
“We had an irregular series of tutors. One, I remember, was a sailor who could barely read, but he could teach sums and geography—he drew chalk maps from memory on the floor. Another was a wizard—although he taught us no magic,” Aruendiel added, seeing the question in Nora’s face. “We learned some astronomy and the
“Such as?”
He thought for a moment. “It seems to me now that I spent entire weeks on the back of a horse when I was young. At planting and harvest, we helped in the fields. When I was ten, my father came home for good—he had lost an arm at Glous—and after that, he coached Aruendic and me in swordplay. At any rate, by the time I was twelve or thirteen, I had probably spent a total of two years at my schoolbooks.”
Nora could not resist observing that his early education was spotty by the standards of her world.
“If my father’s estate had been larger, he might have hired a full-time tutor,” Aruendiel said, frowning. “Still, when I went away to school, I was not far behind the other boys. And they knew nothing of the higher branches of mathematics, such as the multiplication tables, which I had learned from Izl Whitehead, the sailor,” he added with some pride.
Nora gave a wicked grin. “I learned the multiplication tables by the age of seven.”
“Through twelve times twelve?” he asked.
“Yes. My brother taught me—he liked to do stuff like that. All children in my country learn multiplication. Of course, they learn nothing of magic,” Nora added quickly, as Aruendiel’s face darkened.
“Are you sure that you wish to hear this tale?”
“Yes! Please continue. I won’t interrupt again.”
Aruendiel raised a skeptical eyebrow, but he continued: “Where was I? Well, my brother Dies had gone into training to become a knight. My parents sent him to the court of Lord Boena. It was not inexpensive to send him there, but Boena was one of the great lords of the kingdom, and it was a great opportunity for Dies, whom my parents considered, quite rightly, to be the most promising of their sons.
“My brother Aruendic hoped to join Dies at Lord Boena’s court, but my parents could not afford to maintain two sons there. Instead, Aruendic went to Lord Inos, who had a midsized estate on the White Boar River. Inos was a good fighter, a friend of my father’s, but his court was a stagnant backwater compared to Boena’s. My brother was quite bitter about it.
“I found Aruendic’s disappointment very funny. Without thinking much about it, I was confident that, when it came time for the next stage of my education, my parents would send me to someone more like Lord Boena.
“But my father’s means were straitened, and my sister was approaching marriageable age, which meant that he had to gather the funds for a dowry. You remember her portrait?”
“The one that I broke?”
“It was painted around that time. My parents had it made so that they could send it to prospective bridegrooms. And indeed, the eldest son of Lord Forsne was very taken with that same portrait. She was married on her fourteenth birthday.”
“Fourteen!” Nora could not stop herself. “And how old was he?”
“Twenty-seven or twenty-eight, something like that.”
She shook her head, disgusted. “Fourteen is too young to be married, especially to a twenty-seven-year- old.”
“I agree,” Aruendiel said, surprisingly. “But the youngest brides are often the most desirable. Perhaps if my parents had waited, she would not have made such a brilliant match.”
“Were they happy together?”
“Not particularly.” His mouth hardened for a moment. “But I am digressing again. My sister had just been married when I learned that I would not be going away to Lord Boena or even Lord Inos. My father had determined that he could not afford to send me anywhere at all.
“He felt I should stay home and manage the estate. I was smaller than my brothers had been at that age— they used to call me the piece of string, because I was so thin. It would be a waste, my father said, to train me as a knight.
“My mother did not disagree outright. But she said, ‘Aruendiel has a good mind. He has always been quicker than his brothers. He would benefit, I think, from further study.’ She was thinking of wizardry school. There were quite a few, in those days. A wizard in need of funds would board pupils in his house and undertake to beat some spells into their heads in exchange for a dozen beetles or so. ‘It is always useful to have a wizard in the
