The Pilgrims

spare a pinch, I’ll owe you.’

Eric experimentally moved the pouch left, then right. Sharfy’s eyes followed its every movement till he put it away. ‘Just why have you lowered your voice there, Sharfy?’

Sharfy blinked and returned to normal. ‘Anfen and his rules. He’s not keen on scale visions. But listen. You know how I was saying Loup’s a bit of a mongrel, in what magic he knows? If he has a speciality, it’s visions and other Dreamcraft. Our secret though, just the three of us. And I can see by the look in your eye you’re keener than I am. Don’t deny it.’

‘I doubt you can see that in my eye, my friend.’ But it was true enough.

31

All had eaten and bathed, even Lalie, who was again tied up on the front porch and none too happy about it. Sharfy, Eric (and Loup, who had been put on notice visions were to transpire) were all patiently waiting for Anfen to fall asleep or busy himself on some hours-long mission, but as yet he was still around, and hadn’t seemed to notice all the furtive glances his way.

Siel now sat on Eric’s mat with her legs crossed, heels pushing into the brown flesh of her thighs. He lay with his eyes about level to her knees, chin resting on his hands and pleasantly close to hypnotised while her quiet voice spoke as though telling children a story. The half-giant’s footsteps occasionally creaked from other rooms, even her softest tread enough to make the floor shake as she put cloth covers on the bird cages and bade each bird good night.

Said Siel, ‘The castle was not always home to its current dwellers. It used to house powerful magicians from many schools. Before that, it housed no one, for it was not a castle but a hunk of magic stone, shaped, we guess, by the dragon-youths’ very own claws and teeth. But the dragons left no clue as to their use of it.

‘For much of history, none dared go close. Not until the mages arrived to start their work: hollowing out stairways, halls and chambers to make a great house of it. They dwelled there for a long time, developing their arts, ignoring the rest of the world, which had so mistrusted them and driven them away from the cities.

‘Then five centuries ago came the War that Tore the World. All eighteen cities were dragged into a tangled mess of allegiances, betrayals. More people died in that war than live today, and the Great Spirits intervened to end it before we killed each other completely. Stories are told of Mountain stepping into a valley and sitting, legs crossed, to block the path of two great armies marching at each other. Catapulted rocks flew from both sides, striking his front and back, but he wouldn’t move.

‘When the War finished, the magicians devised a plan for permanent peace. They relinquished the castle to the Mayors for a staggering price, and retreated to their newly built temples. By agreement, the castle formed its own peacekeeping army, a force greater than that of any one city, or any two … but not great enough to defeat several cities at once. Cities took turns sending wise people to the castle to govern disputes. Of the eighteen cities, six had run of the castle for five years, then six others for the next five years, and so on. They made decisions by court, a charter of principles as their guide. Disputes were settled this way. Not without complaint, of course. But for the most part, peace held.

‘If only the dragons could tell us what they had done to that mountainous sculpture to make its airs run so thick with power … but they keep their secrets. Men who dwell there live longer, untroubled by sickness. Mages bask in the potent airs or at least pay a lower price for the magic that goes through them. It has been a temptation to all who have sat in those thrones, and walked those halls, to remain forever. It took a long time for someone to reach for the prize with enough cunning and luck to seize it. Vous was the one to do it.’

Siel paused to sip her drink, the same strong brew Case had been sipping most of the day. They’d seen Lut begin to make a new batch of it from roots and fat red berries. Eric sipped a far more agreeable drink, the Levaal equivalent of tea, its taste sweet and nutty.

Siel went on, ‘He was born of a powerful merchant family in the city of Ankin. He knew sons and daughters of other powerful families across the world. They all resented and mocked the magicians’ system, resented its taxes on their wealth, its limiting of their cities’ greatness. Their parents and grandparents had mouthed the same complaints, but this generation decided to act. Vous, a gifted speaker, a skilled swordsman, soon earned his cause a small, devoted following. They were few, but had great wealth behind them. They recruited the help of rogue mages, many of whom hated the Schools’ decision to sell the castle to the Mayors.

‘It was easy for Vous, with bribery, lies and blackmail, to be Ankin’s nominated wise-man when the time arose, despite his youth. It was a longer, dirtier battle to get his co-conspirators nominated as their respective cities’ wise-men. A trail of intrigue and murder churned in their wake. The families emptied their safes of riches, knowing the prize they reached for would be greater. And they achieved their goal. For the first time, all six wise- men had the same interests at heart.

‘The rules appeared to be followed, when the newly appointed wise-men set forth for the castle gates from their cities to claim rule. They appeared to rule justly at first, and fears were soothed. But much went on behind the stage of this performance. In five short years, with vast new resources and powers, the six used the same blackmail, bribery, lies, and murder on a grander scale. Soon the ring of cities closest to the castle were the first of what we now call ‘Aligned Cities’. Puppets of the conspirators were put in charge of each, generals were likewise replaced, and those cities’ armies swelled the castle’s ranks. War brewed silently and invisibly. The cities further away did not see it coming.

‘When five years had passed, the next six nominated wise-men came to claim their place. They were brought up to the castle halls and killed. This act was kept secret for three years, time enough for more drastic change. The first war mages were created, wilder and harder to control than today’s. An army of them began to grow in secret. Many heard their screams, and wondered what foul thing spoke death’s tongue.

‘People were slow to believe a tyrant had really seized the castle. People in Aligned Cities learned not to rebel when their city’s food was withheld. In time, anything posing a threat to Vous and his cohorts was stamped out: the magic schools, folk magicians, half-giants, things and peoples you’ve not yet heard of. We who serve the Mayors’ Command, a fragile alliance at best, are high on their list. There are slave farms, mines, and other places to send us. Six Free Cities remain.’

As Siel paused to drink from her cup, the silence was startling. Across the room Loup began snoring as though to fill it. Anfen got up, stretched, and sat with them. ‘I’ve been listening to your history lesson,’ he said to Siel. ‘Painfully brief. But the key things were covered. May I join you?’

‘Your pardon, good people,’ said Case, sitting up from his mat. ‘I don’t feel right lying in here, comfy and warm, while that poor girl’s out there in the cold.’

‘She has blankets,’ said Siel.

‘I’m going to see if she needs anything else,’ said Case, ‘like being treated like a human being after what she’s been through.’

‘Don’t go further than the porch,’ said Anfen, rolling his slanted eyes. Case didn’t acknowledge he’d heard.

Eric sighed. ‘Sorry about him.’

‘What’s his grievance?’ said Anfen. ‘Does he want to return home?’

‘It’s that Stranger woman. He thinks she’s his friend, thinks you’ve been unkind to her.’

‘Yes, her.’ Anfen looked troubled. ‘I wasn’t going to tell you this, but … the charm Case wore. Loup discovered one of its secrets. If you wear it and hold two of its active beads in a certain way, you have a vision, showing you what Case heard and saw within the castle, right up to his waking on the lawns. I spent the day examining it closely. On the lawns, you hear what he says to Stranger. You do not see Stranger, or hear what she says to him. Somehow, she has kept herself hidden from the charm, almost as though she knew at a glance what its purpose was, and hid from it.’

‘Or maybe she wasn’t actually there-’ said Eric.

‘She exists,’ said Siel. ‘I saw her and fired at her.’

‘But who is she, what does she want?’ said Anfen. ‘Her powers sound formidable. She does us no harm, but goes to great trouble to remain unseen. If she is really a friend, why?’