Scholar of Magic

by Michael G. Manning

  Will paused, holding up a hand. “I apologize for worrying you. Things happened. I’ll explain later, but for now I need to be alone.”

  Blake started to argue, but then he saw the look in Will’s eyes and the words died in his mouth. He stepped back and let Will pass unhindered.

  Will managed to reach the top of the stairs before his control began to fail and his chest spasmed. A single heaving sob escaped his lips as he hurried for the bedroom door. Once inside, he locked the door and went to the bed where he snatched up one of the pillows and held it against his mouth.

  And then, he broke down. Completely.

  The stress and pain of the previous evening played a part, but it wasn’t what drove him to tears. The trauma of Lognion’s whipping would probably leave mental scars, but it was Mark Nerrow’s rejection that had broken him. Two days ago, he wouldn’t have cared if the man had told him to stay away from his family. Now it felt like the end of the world.

  Just a tiny bit of kindness from them and I’m undone.

  He let his misery run its course, and after a while it emptied itself out, leaving him feeling cold and dead. What should he do next? I have to find Tailtiu, and after that… His mind went blank. He wanted to make sure Laina was safe. After that I’ll do whatever is necessary, and Mark Nerrow can be damned if he doesn’t like it.

  Opening his mouth, he spoke his grandmother’s name three times and immediately felt a connection. She was coming. Many times in the past she had delayed or sent Tailtiu instead when he called, but not this time. She must know something is wrong, he thought.

  That done, he called up the limnthal so he could speak with the ring. “I have a problem,” he began.

  “Nothing new there,” replied Arrogan. “You were born a problem.”

  That hit a little too close to home, and Will was still feeling sensitive. “I’m not in the mood today. I need you to listen.”

  Something in his tone must have convinced Arrogan, for the ring refrained from making a snappy comeback. “All right. Let’s hear it.”

  “Tailtiu is missing.”

  “Ordinarily I’d tell you to thank your lucky stars, but that sounded ominous. Explain.”

  Will jumped into an involved explanation, beginning with Laina’s first visit to ask for Selene’s help and continuing on until he left the Nerrow household. He stuck to the facts but left out the effect that some of it had had on him. When he got to the baron’s farewell, he kept it simple. “He told me to stay away from his family.”

  “That was cold,” remarked the ring. “I can understand his reasoning, but he certainly made an ass of himself there.”

  It felt good to hear his mentor’s agreement, but Will didn’t want to talk about it. “That’s the least of my worries right now,” he said, wishing he believed it. “Aislinn is already on her way. I called her a short while ago.”

  “Aislinn, eh? You don’t shy away from danger, do you?”

  “She seems like the one most likely to help. It’s her daughter after all, and yours too.”

  “I’m trying not to think about it in those terms,” said Arrogan. “If I start down that path I’ll be too upset to offer you any worthwhile advice. The first question is—”

  “Where is she?” cut in Will.

  “No, you dumb bastard! Don’t interrupt me again. Yes, her location is what you want to know, but it isn’t the first thing to ask, because it isn’t helpful. You have no goddamn idea where she is. A better question is—how was she captured? Along those same lines, when and where was she captured? Those questions are more manageable, and they will hopefully lead to the next question you should be asking—”

  “Which is where she is now,” finished Will. There was a long pause, and eventually Will asked, “I spoke too soon, didn’t I?”

  “Damn right you did, you insufferable fuckwit! May I finish now?”

  “Ah, go ahead.”

  “As I was saying, they will hopefully lead to who captured her. If you’re lucky, the who will lead you to your goal, where.”

  “So, what should I do first?”

  “Well, I would have probably advised you not to call Aislinn. She’s going to be too invested, and despite the time and effort she’s put into you, her first priority will be her daughter.”

  “We’ll be in agreement then,” said Will.

  “No, you won’t,” said the ring harshly. “Aislinn is fae. When I say her first priority will be her daughter, I mean that everything else will probably drop way down her list of priorities—including whether or not you continue to breathe.”

  “But I want to help her.”

  “Good, because she never turns down a good tool,” quipped Arrogan. “If she isn’t fully convinced of your willingness, she may try to apply additional pressure.”

  “Pressure?”

  “Threats. The good news is that she’s precluded from harming you directly because of the accord. So, the next question is this: What other sorts of leverage does she have to use?”

  “You’re slipping, old man,” said a soft feminine voice from just behind and to Will’s left. Her jerked his head in surprise and saw his grandmother standing there, though as usual, the term grandmother was misleading. Aislinn looked every bit as young and alluring as her daughter; the main difference was in the maturity and authority she projected. “You should already know what sort of leverage I have.”

  Will barely heard her, for his attention locked on the woman who had been hidden from view by Aislinn. As his grandmother moved, he got a clear view. “Selene!” In her eyes he could see a mixture of emotions—happiness, fatigue, pain, and a warning. There were dark circles beneath them that underscored the strain of her training.

  “Will.”

  Selene took a step toward him, but a sharp word from his grandmother brought her up short. “Stop there.”

  Selene looked at the elder fae, hatred smoldering in her gaze, then she lowered her head submissively. “Mistress, may I? Please?”

  Aislinn looked at Selene first, then Will, her expression speculative. “I’m not sure you’ve earned it, either of you.”

  Will’s eyes narrowed and his anger flared. “Go to hell.” Without waiting, he moved to embrace his wife. To his surprise, Selene stepped back, dodging him, a look of alarm in her eyes as she fearfully looked to his grandmother. He would have protested, but he was having trouble breathing, for Aislinn’s hand had moved with blinding speed to seize his throat.

  He pulled at her hand in vain, but she held him in a grip of iron that only allowed him the bare minimum to continue breathing. “You aren’t allowed to hurt humans,” he wheezed. “The accord…”

  Aislinn’s lips mocked him as she replied, “I’m well within my rights to defend my property. Quench my blade with kindness before I’m done firing it and I will end you.” Contemptuously, she released him with a shove that sent him falling backward.

  Coughing, Will pushed himself back up on his hands and knees. “She isn’t a weapon.”

  “She is whatever I wish to make her. Nor should you assume I was referring only to the useless trash you call your wife.”

  “What did you call her?” Will demanded, his anger growing to new heights.

  The ring spoke up, interrupting Will’s next angry response. “Don’t let her goad you, Will. You’ll only make things worse.”

  “Arrogan’s memory offers sound advice,” observed the fae lady. “You would do well to heed the counsel of my gift.”

  Thinking hard, Will got to the heart of the matter. “Why are you like this? I called you because I want to help Tailtiu.”

  Aislinn’s lip curled. “You’ll have to find your own answers, child, or pay me for them. The time when I could indulge your whimsical fantasies has passed. Shall we get to business?”

  Will sighed. “Very well. Truce until we conclude the discussion and for two hours afterward. Answer my questions and I will answer yours without deceit or omission.”

  His grandmother touched
her lip, a pensive look on her features. “I have been generous in the past, but that seems like a poor bargain for me. After all, I know far more than you and my answers are similarly more valuable than yours. Also, any information about where my apprentice has been for the past months is exempt from the discussion.”

  That set him back on his heels. She had never refused that exchange in the past. Arrogan spoke then. “If your daughter is taken, or dead, you will need vengeance. Given that this is the human realm, the culprit is also likely human. You’ll need a human agent to punish those who have given you offense. You might consider that before you set the terms for your exchange, Aislinn. Limited communication might hurt you more than you would gain from extra concessions on Will’s part.”

  The fae woman’s eyes lit on the ring for a moment, then an evil smile flickered across her lips. “A good point, but insufficient. Perhaps if someone, or something, with greater knowledge were willing to act as collateral for the exchange of questions…”

  “Don’t sell me to her, Will,” said the ring quickly.

  “You were a gift from her, why would she want you back?”

  Aislinn laughed. “If your ring agrees to answer questions as well, honestly and without omission, that will be enough. I have no desire to retake the present I gave you.”

  “Oh.” That seemed reasonably fair, but even though the ring was his property and the mind it contained wasn’t really his grandfather, he still couldn’t compel it to honesty. Unlike the fae, the Ring of Vile and Unspeakable Knowledge was perfectly capable of lying or refusing to answer questions. “Can you agree to that, Arrogan?”

  The ring growled. “I’m sure I’ll regret it, but it seems like the lesser evil here. I’ll consent.”

  His grandmother rubbed her hands together happily. “Then we are agreed. You will—”

  “Not quite,” said Will, holding up one hand. “I was merely obtaining the ring’s consent. I haven’t given mine. I think you’re getting too much here, possible aid from me regarding your daughter, plus Arrogan’s knowledge. I need something more to balance things.”

  Aislinn’s eyes flashed. “What do you desire to add?”

  “I’d like a day with my wife.”

  “No.”

  “But…”

  The fae woman shook her head. “She cannot be left unsupervised for so much time, among other reasons.”

  “What other reasons?”

  Aislinn sneered. “Our deal has not yet begun, grandson. I’ll answer nothing until we have come to terms.”

  “Half a day,” he countered.

  “Five minutes.”

  “Five hours.”

  She laughed. “Still too much.”

  “An hour?”

  “Half an hour,” she replied. “I’ll be forced to wait in your world until the time is done. That is as long as I will remain here.”

  “Alone,” he clarified.

  “So long as you pledge to abstain from coitus.”

  He felt his cheeks coloring. “We’re married!”

  “Your problem, not mine, child. Are we in agreement?”

  Reluctantly, he nodded. “We are.”

  “Then I will begin with a warning. If my daughter isn’t found and returned safely to me, I will see to it that this city suffers for it.”

  The ring cut in. “That’s a threat with no teeth, Will. The accord binds her more strongly than iron chains. The fae are incapable of breaking their word.”

  “We are also incapable of lying,” Aislinn reminded them. “Think about that a moment before you dismiss my threat.”

  Anyone who had spent any degree of time dealing with the fae knew that while they couldn’t technically lie, it was often impossible to get the truth from them, much less a simple answer. Will understood her meaning immediately, as did Arrogan. She might not be able to directly take vengeance, but she would make certain it happened, one way or another.

  “Threatening me won’t help Tailtiu,” he replied. “It would be more productive—”

  The ring interrupted him, “You don’t owe her a damn thing, Will. Tailtiu’s problem isn’t your fault.”

  “She was in service to you at the time,” argued Aislinn.

  “For an unbound favor,” said Arrogan quickly. “Anything, including payment with a life, is permissible to repay such a favor.”

  “You sound more like one of the fae than a father whose daughter has been taken,” Aislinn responded sharply.

  “I’m not her father. I’m his memory, and my child died in your womb, eaten by the immortal disease of your realm. Don’t pretend to be acting based on emotion. I know your kind better than the stink of my own shit!”

  Will met Selene’s eyes for a moment, and she shrugged helplessly. He could understand her feeling. Then Aislinn responded, “Colorful as always, you’re right, of course. My concern is for the debt the child owed me. If she is not returned, who will pay it?”

  Will swallowed, feeling uncertain as he tried to remember the finer points from the book his grandfather had once made him study. Arrogan responded immediately, “That’s not the boy’s concern! He isn’t obligated to pay her debts just because she was repaying one of hers to him when she got snatched.”

  “Maybe it would be better if we stuck to discussing what we can do,” suggested Will. “Bickering won’t do Tailtiu any good.”

  No one said anything for a moment, then Arrogan said, “He makes a good point.”

  Aislinn snorted. “He has more sense than you ever did.”

  “Listen up, you rabid old hag! I don’t give a damn what you—”

  “Arrogan,” interrupted Will. “It’s you she’s goading now. Let’s discuss this peaceably.”

  “Begin with what you know about her disappearance,” said Aislinn. “Leave nothing out.”

  As he had done for Arrogan, Will laid out everything that had happened over the past several days. He didn’t really have any reservations about sharing the same information with his grandmother, but he was intensely aware of Selene listening intently. He did his best to pass over the punishment he had taken, but Aislinn was far too sharp for that.

  “Stop,” she ordered. “Repeat that last part.”

  “I negotiated on Laina’s behalf, since he was threatening to have her publicly whipped. Then the next day I—”

  “You negotiated what, exactly?”

  “I agreed to answer five questions or take two lashes for each question that I refused to answer,” said Will quickly. “After that he took the remains of the creature that attacked Laina, and—”

  Aislinn held up one hand. “Don’t force me to remind you that if you violate the terms of our temporary agreement the consequences could be severe. You promised honesty and completeness. Has Lognion asked his questions of you?”

  Will nodded, his eyes moving to Selene for a second. She doesn’t need to hear this, he thought desperately. She had enough trouble without worrying about him. “Yes, he did.”

  “What were the questions, and did you answer?”

  “He asked where Selene was, over and over.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “He asked the same question? I’m assuming that means you refused to answer it.”

  “Four times, yes,” said Will. “But the last time he asked something different by mistake and I told him it counted as the fifth question.”

  “What was that question?”

  He groaned inwardly. “Whether I was conscious or not.” He winced as he heard Selene’s sharp intake of breath and he spoke directly to her. “It’s not as bad as you think. It all worked out in the end.”

  “You’re speaking with me, William, not my apprentice,” corrected his grandmother. “Save any words you have for her for when you are alone. Explain the rest of what happened. Have you already been whipped?”

  She interrogated him for fifteen minutes, leaving no stone unturned, even to the point of having him describe the condition of his flesh afterward. Selene’s color shifted throughout his an
swers, going from pale to red with anger, and she was visibly shaking by the time he reached the end.

  Arrogan spoke first after Will finished. “So we have three main possibilities. The bodyguard that was watching the Nerrow house, the creature that attacked Laina, and the Driven.”

  “Lognion would be a fool to jeopardize the accord by destroying or imprisoning one of my people,” said Aislinn.

  “If he’s even aware of the accord,” countered the ring. “Will, have you ever heard him say anything that would indicate how deep is knowledge of the fae is?”

  Will shook his head. “Not that I recall, though he did spot Aislinn’s blessing when he first met me.” The blessing was a mostly invisible mark that his grandmother had put on him the previous year. It was meant to facilitate his dealings with the fae, but Lognion had been the only human to notice it thus far.

  Aislinn turned to her apprentice. “Do you know if your father understands the fae, or the ancient accords?”

  Selene looked down. “No, Mistress. His only words to me on the matter were to avoid them. The little I learned before being taken under your wing was from my studies at Wurthaven. I wouldn’t underestimate his knowledge, though.”

  “The Arkeshi still teach their disciples regarding the fae and the accord,” supplied Arrogan. “So, the assassin might have been capable of dealing with Tailtiu if she was of a mind to do so.”

  Arkeshi, was that what Lognion called Darla? Will couldn’t remember for certain. “The Arkeshi, what are they?”

  He could see that Selene was dying to speak, but Aislinn continued to ignore her and answered him instead, “An old cult from Faresh. Fanatical assassins who serve the Great Khan. Although their religious beliefs are ridiculous, their practical skills are some of the best to be found among humans in this day and age.”

  “I don’t think it was Darla, though,” Will stated, feeling a certain amount of conviction. “My misunderstanding, her actions, all of it—I really think she’s sincerely acting as Laina’s bodyguard.”

  Aislinn arched her brow. “And a bodyguard wouldn’t attempt to remove a dangerous fae shadowing her master?”