The Pilgrims

to him, as the finder of the scale, or whether Loup had other reasons.

‘It’s a kind of knowledge minds like ours can’t hold,’ Loup continued. ‘Unless you think your hands can hold a mountain. You get half a thought of It — not even! A flicker of noise across Its sleeping mind — and your mind, why, it’ll bend just trying to hold it. Just a few grains of Its scale, that’s enough. And it’ll send us through the very sky, brain all full of the same magic that made the world.

‘The red, if you must mix,’ Loup said to Sharfy, who added a pinch of red scale to his cup. ‘When I say,’ said the magician, a glint in his eye, ‘drink it up. Simple as that; hard part’s the crushing. Takes the strength of a mountain to crush up even an old piece of Its skin. Drink, then we’re away. See you beyond, and Eric, I’ll give you a push over there, if you need it. Drink now!’

His mouth was full of grit. He managed not to gag, but it was a battle to swallow the mix. He fell back, hands to his throat as his airways seemed to close off. From the corner of his eye, he saw Sharfy doing likewise, then rolled his head the other way, where Loup — Loup just watched him, eyes gleaming.

Then he woke to the folk magician shaking his arm. It was dark. ‘Awake, at last!’ Sweat ran into Loup’s beard and covered his torso. A more relieved face Eric could hardly imagine. He sat up and groaned.

‘He’s back!’ Loup stood and did a little dance, elbows cocked.

Eric’s head felt like it had been put through a washing machine. ‘What happened?’ he slurred. ‘How long’ve I been out?’

‘Hours,’ said Loup, smiling. ‘I thought you’d slipped away for good! That can happen sometimes, you know. Spirit goes out of body, sometimes don’t find its way back. Happens more’n you might think.’

Eric looked at him in disbelief. ‘Thanks for the warning.’

‘Ah, you were safe with me right here. What’d you see? Gave you a push over there, but I lost you after that.’

‘I don’t know what I saw. A lot.’ He thought back, sifting through the pictures like trying to recall an old dream. It fell through his hands the second he reached for it, then was gone. ‘Something to do with Kiown and the others …’

‘Pff, I saw that. Right at the start, that was, before I gave you a push higher up. Don’t you bother with that old news. What else?’

‘Nothing. My head’s completely blank.’

‘Ahhh! She’s faded on you!’ Loup regarded him thoughtfully. ‘You’ll see it. It’ll come, likely some night before sleep, not far from now. Means you was showed something you’re not meant to see just yet. Maybe given some instruction, but your head can’t know what it is, or you might think to do otherwise! Gotta be felt right down in your bones, whatever it is.’ Loup’s gummy smile was so close Eric could smell his sour breath. ‘I followed you in. Out my own vision, into yours. Good at that, I am. Not all mages can do it. Not even the old schools, who thought they knew it all. Lingering around, you was, all confused, so I gave you a boost up high. Meant to follow you, then something grabbed you. Whoo! Did it what? Oh aye, grabbed you hard and yanked you away so’s I couldn’t see. Didn’t want me to see whatever was meant for your eyes! More to you than there seems, don’t you doubt it. And here, you’re just back now!’ Loup laughed and shook Eric’s arm like they’d shared a grand joke.

‘He’s back?’ Sharfy came in and crouched by Eric’s mat. ‘What’d he see?’

‘Nothing yet!’ said Loup, growing more excited. ‘He’ll see it when the Dragon wants him to. Could be a day from now, could be a week or more. Knew it, I did! It was all meant, that whole group of things: him finding the scale, me crushing it up, now the vision. What else? Maybe all of us being here in this very house, and whatever comes next, good or bad. As It wills! Anfen’s being a fool.’

Eric lay back — whatever he’d been through had made him sleepy. ‘So, the boss found out.’

‘Yep,’ said Sharfy. ‘You were out too long. He twigged you weren’t just sleeping. Not happy with us. And if anything goes bad in the next few days, it’ll be our fault. You watch.’

‘What was your vision like?’ Eric asked Sharfy.

‘Not saying,’ Sharfy answered, face grim.

‘Ah, he blames the black scale,’ said Loup, grinning wide. ‘That pinch of red’s what did it. Warned you about mixing, I have. Sometimes gives it a kick, but black scales don’t need a kick. Skewed you to a bad place, eh?’

‘Not saying,’ Sharfy repeated, and he seemed a little pale.

Anfen came back inside. He quickly examined Eric as though for physical injury, but said nothing. ‘Ready to hear me out now?’ said Loup. ‘I’m telling you, I saw something important. Real or no, you should hear it.’

Anfen shook his head and kept tensely silent over on his mattress, running a dead stone over his blade.

‘He’s not happy,’ Eric whispered.

‘Nope. That was a fine sword of his, and that Invia snapped it like a stick,’ said Loup. ‘Eskian blade. Heck, it made me sad, wasn’t even my sword.’

‘I get the feeling that’s not what’s bothering him,’ said Eric, though he marvelled again at the often scattered dots Loup managed to connect.

‘He’s got to understand something about us,’ said Sharfy. ‘We’re never gonna be like his old unit was. Not as disciplined, never will be. We can scrap all right, survive in the wild. We got the balls to come on a mission like this in the first place, can keep our mouths shut about where we been, s’long as they pay us what they promised. That’s going to have to be enough.’

‘How high up the chain of command was Anfen, in the army days?’

‘First Captain, rank below General,’ said Sharfy. ‘Youngest ever to make that rank, best swordsman around, in his day. There’s a tournament, Valour’s Helm. Use blunt wood swords so no one’s killed. Best sent in from all cities, best from the castle. Week long, it runs, whole lot of smaller tournaments before it to pick the cream. Even Free Cities send their best, kind of a truce. Anfen won it four years running.’

‘Three,’ said Loup.

‘Three, four, may as well be ten. No one won it twice, before him. He’s nearly a decade older now; I reckon he’d be a chance to win it still.’

‘But you’d give him a good fight, wouldn’t you?’ said Loup, grinning.

Sharfy considered this question very carefully. ‘When I was younger, maybe I’d make him sweat, but he’d win. Now he’d cut me up in three seconds, if I really went at him.’

‘And I might,’ Anfen said from across the room. ‘Among my virtues is uncannily good hearing. I was waiting for you to add it to your list.’

Sharfy winced.

‘Valour’s Helm was pointless,’ muttered Anfen, running the dead stone over his blade with aggressive tugs: scrape, scrape, scrape. ‘You said it yourself. Blunt wooden swords so no one gets hurt. Three years running I was best at wielding a piece of tree barely fit for firewood. Some of those others would have spilled my guts on my shoes with their own swords.’

Anfen tossed the sword aside as though afraid he’d be tempted to vent his anger by using it. ‘You think I’m pining for elite soldiers, Sharfy,’ he went on. ‘Not really. It’s common sense not to do magic rituals when a powerful mage stalks your company. And to tell your leader when you’re being followed by one. Siel knew, Loup knew, even Case knew before I did. And let’s not even mention Kiown’s idiocy at the wagon train, which was so stunning I’m almost in awe. Would you people think about this, please? In my pocket is a charm, with a message on it that may change the course of all history: they have shown us their fear and their weakness. All we have to do is get this charm back to the Mayors. Not to mention two Pilgrims with heads full of priceless knowledge. Yet, we are extremely lucky to be alive right now, and not in castle dungeons being slowly tortured. You of all people, Sharfy, should be wary of that.’

Sharfy’s face darkened, jaw clenched.

‘If this were the army,’ said Anfen, ‘the castle’s or a city’s, on a campaign with one hundredth as much at stake, most of you would be headless in a roadside ditch. And I’d side with the officer who did the cutting.’

Siel gave Eric and Sharfy a look that said, maybe you should just keep your mouths shut. So they did, and soon Faul bade the birds good night.