Light in the Darkness

by CJ Brightley

Banfrey pulled back and looked at the red marks the noose had left on Lainie’s neck. “Don’t know what else you expected, baby girl. Running off alone into town like that, when everyone knows you’re a wizard.”

  “But I’ve lived here all my life! They know me! They know I’ve never done harm to anyone. I’ve got a right to go about in my own hometown, don’t I?”

  The sorrow in Lainie’s voice and on Banfrey’s face cut Silas deeply. He rode up to them and dismounted from Abenar. “I stopped it in time, and the man who was leading the hanging won’t be trying it again.”

  “Who was it?” Banfrey looked ready to murder someone right then and there.

  “Gobby,” Silas answered. “I should have killed the sheepknocking son of a bitch when I had the chance, down there in the tunnel.”

  “You teach that bastard a lesson?”

  “He’s dead. And I think I put a good scare in the rest of them.”

  “I’m grateful,” Banfrey said. “You’ll never know how much. And now maybe she’ll listen to me. You hear me, baby girl? You don’t know what I went through when I found you missing! You don’t go into town without at least three men with you, or better yet, not at all.”

  “But I don’t want it to be that way! It shouldn’t be that way!”

  “No arguing with me, girl.”

  Thunder cracked overhead, and the first few fat raindrops of the storm came down. “Let’s go inside,” Silas said. “I need to talk to the both of you.”

  Mooden followed the hands to the stable while Silas, Lainie, and Banfrey went into the house. They sat at the dining room table, Lainie next to her Pa, Silas across from them. In a corner, Dobay leaned against the wall, unobtrusive but still there, watching over the family he had worked for for so many years.

  “Here’s how it is,” Silas said, gathering his words and his resolve. What he had decided to do wasn’t going to be easy for Banfrey to hear, but there were no easy answers to what was best for Lainie. “Miss Lainie isn’t safe here. And mage law requires that everyone with power either be trained at one of the schools of magic in Granadaia or Stripped of their power.”

  “I’m not going –” Lainie said.

  “I won’t let my daughter be turned into one of them,” Banfrey added at the same time.

  “Hear me out,” Silas said. “Under the law, I’m required to do one or the other of those. But school in Granadaia would destroy her, one way or another, and even if she chooses to be Stripped, I won’t do it. If I leave her here and another mage finds her, we’ll both be punished for failing to obey the law. Prison, Stripped, even executed. And she’s a danger to herself and others if she remains untrained. So –” he took a deep breath “– I thought of another way.” He had to be out of his mind, thinking what he was thinking, but instead he felt a bone-deep certainty, as though this was the sanest decision he had ever made. Illegal, yes, and it would complicate their lives far more than he cared to think about, but he knew, utterly and absolutely, it was the right thing to do. “I’ll take her with me and teach her myself.”

  Silence met this, then Lainie said, “Is – is that allowed?”

  “No. All training of mages must be done at one of the schools that operate under the authority of the Mage Council. It’s strictly forbidden for individual mages to start their own schools or take on their own students.”

  “Then, that would mean… You’d be a rogue mage. An outlaw. Like the ones you hunt.”

  “That’s right.” Oh well; it wasn’t like he wasn’t already half-renegade, anyway, because of his sympathy for Plains and his alliance with the Hidden Council. “It’s true, I’m sworn to uphold the laws of the Mage Council. But, more importantly, I vowed to myself and the gods a long time ago that I would always work for what was right, no matter what the law says. Stripping you or forcing you to go to school in Granadaia would be wrong, but I can’t leave you untrained. And you’re in danger if you stay here – I stopped them today, but I don’t doubt they’d try to hang you again if they got the chance. And, frankly, your Pa’s in danger as well, for sheltering a wizard.”

  Her gaze shifted away, downward, and she looked uncomfortable. “I know. I’m sorry, Pa. I had no right to put you in danger.”

  Her father put his hand over hers and squeezed it. “You know I’d die for you, baby girl,” he said.

  “I don’t want you to die, Pa,” she answered in a small voice.

  “So,” Silas went on, “the best thing is for you to come with me, so I can protect you and give you the training you need.”

  Before Lainie could respond, Banfrey said, “Well, now, Vendine, I surely do appreciate that you’re willing to take a risk to help my daughter. But my little girl, becoming a wizard, it’s hard for me to think on –”

  Knowing about Banfrey’s mother, Silas could understand his concerns. “There’s good mages and bad mages. I’ll teach her to be a good one, to use her power without turning into something you wouldn’t want her to be. She’s powerful – I can’t begin to guess what she might be capable of – and I want to help her learn to use the talents the gods have given her, to do good with them. And I want to keep her safe.”

  Banfrey was silent for a long moment. “Well,” he finally said. “You seem a decent sort, for a wizard, and I believe you mean what you say. But here’s the other thing. I can’t let my daughter go off with a fella that she’s not married to.”

  Lainie’s face flamed, and she stared down at the table. Silas wondered if Banfrey knew or guessed what had happened in that mountain meadow. In the Wildings, if a fellow bedded a respectable young lady, he was expected to marry her, and that was all there was to it. Even if Banfrey didn’t suspect anything, it was also true that respectable young ladies did not go off traveling with men they were neither related nor married to.

  Having an unauthorized wife as well as an illegal student would make the matter doubly complicated, but, knowing the way of things in the Wildings, Silas had been expecting this and was prepared for it. And, even with all the drawbacks and difficulties, after nearly losing her today he knew now that the one thing he wanted most in the world was to always have her with him, to have her face be the last thing he saw every night and the first thing he saw every morning. “Of course,” he said. “I understand completely. Assuming there aren’t any prior claims to Miss Lainie’s hand –” He and Banfrey both looked over at Dobay.

  Dobay waved them off. “I told you how I feel about that.”

  “Then I would be honored to marry her. If she’ll have me.”

  Lainie looked up at him sharply, her mouth open in surprise. He held his breath, afraid she was still too mad at him, afraid she would turn him down, afraid his plan would fall apart and he would have to figure out how to do what had to be done and go on without her.

  “Well, Lainie-girl?” her father said. “What do you say?”

  “I – I – Yes.” She sounded stunned. “I will.”

  Silas let out a long breath, relieved even as his future took on a new and complicated shape. At least it would have her in it. He couldn’t have held back the smile that broke out on his face if he wanted to. No matter; let Banfrey and Lainie know she was marrying a man who wanted her.

  “There’s one other thing,” Banfrey said. “Lainie’s my only living kin. She’ll inherit the ranch when I die. If she ain’t here to claim it, I’m afraid it’ll fall into another family’s hands.”

  Knowing Banfrey’s history, Silas could also understand the importance to Banfrey of keeping the ranch in the family. “Then you’ll just have to stay alive until it’s safe for us to come back,” he said with a grin.

  Banfrey chuckled a little. “I suppose I will.”

  “An’ even if I can’t stay around after I claim it,” Lainie said, “I’ll trust Mr. Dobay or whoever you choose with the running of it.”

  “Well, then,” Banfrey said, “I guess it’s settled. I suppose we’d better take care of things right away.”

  “That would be best,�
�� Silas answered. “Don’t you think so?” he asked Lainie. It was her marriage; she should have some say in it.

  “I – Yes, I suppose you’re right.” She still sounded a bit flustered.

  “Dobay, go out an’ ask one of the boys to come in an’ be the third witness,” Banfrey said.

  Dobay slipped out the back door and returned a moment later with Wik, the hand who had been at the Rusty Widow the night Lainie was kidnapped. They all went into the front parlor to stand in front of the household shrine. There, in view of the gods and in the presence of three witnesses, in the name of the Joiner, Silas took Lainie’s hand and pledged himself to her, body, heart, mind, and soul, and she likewise pledged herself to him. The words said, he kissed her, and the witnesses pronounced themselves satisfied that the marriage was true and valid.

  LAINIE’S PA INSISTED that she and Silas at least stay for a good meal before leaving. He offered to cook, but Lainie refused to let him. So much had happened, so suddenly, she still wasn’t sure it was real or what it all meant, and she needed a few moments to herself in the kitchen. She cooked up a mess of bacon and eggs and pan biscuits, and dished up some canned applesauce, thinking all the while that this would be the last meal she would cook in this house for – how long? Ever? That couldn’t be. Sooner or later she’d be able to come back and see her Pa again. Eventually she would return to claim ownership of the ranch. The day would come when the Plain folk in the valley would forget how much they hated mages and just remember that they had known her growing up and that she had helped them instead of doing them harm.

  She took the food out to the dining room, and Silas dug in. It pleased her, how much he liked her cooking. From spending plenty of nights out on the range, she knew campfire cooking, so she should be able to cook for him as they traveled. He had gotten himself stuck with her, trying to do what was best for her; the least she could do was make sure he was well-fed.

  She herself was in too much of a tizzy inside from everything that had happened to be able to eat much. She had nearly died, and then Mr. Vendine – Silas – had come for her again, had fought for her and saved her. She was alive, and married to the nicest, handsomest, bravest, best, most interesting man she had ever known. His wife. Mrs. Lainie Vendine. The thought made her head spin, and she put her fork down. “I’ll go get my things together.”

  Behind her, as she walked down the hall to her room, she heard Silas telling her Pa and the other men about how he had rescued her from being hanged. Not wanting to relive it, she closed the door to her room. She moved around the room, going through her few possessions, trying to decide what to take with. There was only room in her knapsack for the essentials – some changes of clothing, a couple of light blankets, water bottles, hair brush and tooth cleaner, and a few other necessities, plus some provisions from the pantry. She touched the wooden toy horse that Blake had carved for her, her framed certificate from the Bitterbush Springs Town School, that proudly proclaimed her completion of all six years of instruction and passing of the comprehensive examinations, the rag doll she’d had since she was a baby.

  She looked at the bird-in-a-cage quilt her mother had finished only a few months before dying of a fever when Lainie was six. It was soft and warm, and the prettiest thing she owned, and all she had of her mother. It would be a fine thing to sleep with Silas under that quilt. At the thought, her cheeks grew warm and a delicious shiver went up her back. But it was too bulky to fit in her knapsack, even if she didn’t take anything else.

  As she smoothed the quilt, feeling her mother’s tiny, perfect stitches beneath her fingers, she thought of her own dreams of children. From what Silas had told her, they would have to go before the Mage Council to get the block on his fertility removed. What with them being outlaw, that might be a problem. One day, though, they would find a way. Silas was a good man, and a good mage. The Mage Council had to understand that, and see that they weren’t really outlaws or renegades; they were just two good people who’d found a different way of doing the right thing.

  Would she rather not be married to him, she wondered, but to someone she didn’t like as much, someone she didn’t feel so right about being with, who could give her children right away? She paused a moment, weighing the choices, and knew that even if it meant she had to wait a while to be able to have children, she would rather have them with the right man. And Silas was that man.

  They would have children, one day. And they would come back here one day and sleep under that quilt. One day, mages in the Wildings who only wanted to live in peace would be able to walk fearlessly in the open and not be hanged or driven from their homes. She would do whatever she could to help that day come, she promised herself.

  The door to her room opened and closed. Lainie turned around quickly, half-expecting to see Silas. Instead, her Pa stood there. “So,” he said. “My little girl’s married now.”

  “Yeah.” It still didn’t seem real. She looked down at her hands. Maybe sometime later they would be able to get some wedding rings. Would Silas give her a mage ring when she was good enough at magic?

  “Didn’t quite happen the way we thought it would.”

  “No.” She wondered what Dobay had meant when he told Pa and Silas that they already knew how he felt about marrying her.

  “I want you to tell me the truth about something, Lainie-girl.”

  “Yes, Pa?”

  “Did he force you?”

  It took her a moment to realize what he meant, then she felt her face burn. She looked away. “What makes you ask that, Pa?”

  “I know my little girl. I know something happened between you two. Did he force you?”

  What would her Pa think if he knew she had not only been willing but had practically thrown herself at Silas? Would he be disappointed and angry, and order her to leave and never come back? She couldn’t bear it if he did that. But she also couldn’t lie, not to her Pa and not about Silas. She looked her father in the eye. “No, Pa. He didn’t.”

  “You’re telling me the truth? You ain’t lying to protect him?”

  “No, I ain’t lying. He ain’t the kind of man who would want a woman to lie to protect him.” Although she knew so little about Silas, she knew this with absolute certainty. “In truth, he’d probably want me to lie an’ say he did, so that you wouldn’t think badly of me. He’s a good man, Pa.”

  “I see.” Burrett was silent a moment. “So you want to be with him, then. You ain’t going into this against your will.”

  “No, Pa. Him an’ me… he knows what it’s like, having power. He’ll teach me to use it, help me… become what I can be, without turning into a monster with no heart and no soul. Like him – he’s a powerful mage, but he’s also got a powerful good heart. And…” She felt herself blush again, but in a good way this time. “It’s hard to put words to, but we fit. We belong together.” At least, she thought they did. She hoped Silas felt the same way, that he didn’t feel like he was being forced into this against his will.

  “Good.” Burrett hesitated, then patted her on the shoulder. “Well, get on then, and finish packing. Your husband’s waiting for you.”

  She smiled. “Yes, Pa. Tell him I’ll be right out.”

  A FEW MOMENTS after Banfrey returned from his “few words with his daughter,” Lainie came into the dining room carrying a stuffed-full knapsack. She looked at Silas and gave him a shy smile that disappeared as quickly as it appeared. “I’m ready.”

  Silas took his hat and coat from the hook in the front hall and made sure Lainie had her hat and gunbelt. Outside, the storm had moved on south and east down the valley, leaving the air fresh and cool. The fat orange-striped, one-eared cat followed them out of the house, and the dogs came around again, barking and jumping in the mud and puddles. Lainie knelt down and hugged and petted the animals. “You all be good,” she said, her voice breaking.

  Wik brought Abenar and Lainie’s mare around from the stables. Though Lainie was perfectly capable of mounting a horse on her own,
this time it seemed only fitting that Silas should help his bride into the saddle, so he gave her a hand up. As he turned to mount Abenar, Banfrey stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

  “She’s all I got, Vendine. You take good care of her.”

  “I will, Banfrey.” He looked at Lainie on her mare, and remembered the terrible feeling that had torn through him when he saw Gobby putting the noose around her neck. He would never let her come so close to harm again, he vowed. “I will. She’s all I got, too.”

  They shook hands, then Silas swung up into the saddle. With a nod at Lainie, he started Abenar at a walk, and Lainie rode beside him, looking back several times to wave at her Pa.

  “Don’t be strangers!” Banfrey called out. “You stop by when you can!”

  “We will, Pa!” Lainie shouted back.

  When they had passed the windbreak and were out of sight of the house but still a distance from the road, Silas reined Abenar to a stop and climbed down. “Lainie, darlin’.”

  Looking puzzled, she also dismounted. “What?”

  He moved over close to her and took her face gently between his hands, smoothing back the loose hair. So much to say, and none of it was anything he was much practiced at saying. “I think… I think I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you,” he said, feeling his way through the words as he went along. “But I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do anything about it. When Carden took you, and when I saw them trying to hang you, I thought I would die if anything bad happened to you. So…” He paused, fumbling for words. “I guess what I’m trying to say, darlin’, is, it did mean something.”

  She caught her breath. “Me too,” she said.

  He bent down and kissed her mouth, long and soft, and she pressed herself into the kiss, clutching the shoulders of his duster. He trailed his mouth down her jaw to her neck, gently kissing the injuries left behind by the noose. Never again, he vowed. He would guard her life and safety and happiness even more closely than his own.

  She gasped and leaned into him, her body melting against his, and he pulled away before he disgraced himself and her right there within sight of the road. “Let’s go,” he said.