by Victor Poole
"You are not lost," Savage said.
"But when would that happen?" Ajalia persisted. Savage's mouth drew down severely at the corners.
"In cases of very dark magic," Savage said. "There are not many who can make such a child. The body of a baby is strong, and reaches up to the sky and down to the earth. It is very hard to make the child's body turn away from the natural way of life."
"But how would it be done?" Ajalia asked again.
"Why do you ask me this?" Savage asked her. She met his eyes steadily.
"I want to know things," she said finally. Savage dipped his head, and then looked at Mop, and at Delmar.
"This is not to be spoken of," Savage warned.
"Delmar behaves with discretion," Ajalia told him. "You never need to worry about Delmar in a public situation. He only makes mistakes in private."
"This is good," Savage said, nodding to Delmar. "You are a wise man." Delmar laughed, and Ajalia thought that Delmar was thinking hard thoughts about himself. "You, child," Savage said to Mop. "You will hear many things in your mistress's employ. You will be silent, or I will silence you myself."
Mop nodded, but Savage told the boy to say that he had understood.
"I'm not stupid," Mop said cuttingly, and Savage smiled.
"Good," Savage said, and he turned back to Ajalia. "The baby cannot be cut off right away," he said. "The body of the child must be tortured, and kept on the edge of death. When the body has grown a little, the baby is seduced by the evil one, and fed by the parent into the mouth of a black dragon." Savage watched Ajalia carefully. "The child must then give itself to the dragon, and the dragon chews away the tethers that bind the body to the earth and sky. A child must cooperate with evil to cut itself off," he said. "You cannot force a child to become lost."
"So all the children who grow into lost ones give themselves to the black dragons, and so cut themselves away from the earth and sky?" Ajalia asked. She was thinking of her brother, and wondering if he was cut off, and when it would have happened. She was thinking of him as he had been as a child, and how his personality had darkened, and his abuse of her become more severe, when he had grown from a toddler to a child. "What does it mean," Ajalia asked suddenly, "now that the dragons are gone? I destroyed both of the black worms," Ajalia explained. "Does that mean there will be no more lost ones?"
She saw a clear gleam of victory in Savage's eyes, and the former priest of Talbos smiled.
"It will be difficult for them now," Savage told her.
"Difficult? Who is going to find it difficult?" Delmar demanded, looking between Ajalia and Savage.
"The bad people are going to lose control of their children," Ajalia said. Delmar stared at her.
"How do you know that?" Delmar asked. He looked irritated. "Why are you two acting as though you know some big secret that I don't?" he complained. "I don't know what is going on anymore. Can we go back to talking about Philas?"
"Make the figure of a child with the light in your hand," Savage said. Delmar frowned at the man, and then the golden light Ajalia had gathered burst into a glorious little world. There were a few miniature trees, and Ajalia saw birds, and tiny shapes of the metheros hiding in the branches. Two children were standing below the branches of the golden trees that Delmar had made, and narrow threads of light twisted above and below the children, in the ground beneath their feet, and the air above the tops of the trees. Ajalia heard Mop draw in a sharp breath, and she looked up at where the boy stood near the horse. She saw that Mop had made his own small child with the blue light he held; Mop's figure was clumsy, and two straight lines ran above and below the child, where Mop had tried to make a picture of the lights in the earth and sky.
"There, now are you happy?" Delmar demanded, glaring at Savage. Savage could not keep himself from smiling.
"Did you know that your Thief Lord could do this?" Savage asked Ajalia, and he nodded to the beautifully-detailed world that Delmar had formed almost instantaneously out of the golden magic.
"Delmar's never done story magic for me," Ajalia said. She felt as though she was revealing some embarrassing aspect of their relationship, but Savage nodded without any surprise, and turned back to his own, now rather unimpressive, figure of a child.
"Here is the child," Savage said, "and this is how the lights connect to her before she is a lost one." Savage made the lines of light below the figure twist up gradually to the child's feet, and lap around the figure's ankles, as though the lights formed a stream, and the water licked up occasionally against the child's own soul. The lights above the figure of the child did the same thing, dipping down and connecting sometimes to the child's head. "The child waxes and wanes with power, depending on how she is trained, and what choices she makes. A child can drive away the light," Savage said, and the lights of magic retreated from the child, as though repelled, "or the child can draw the lights close. When the child lives in harmony with nature, and with the order in the world," Savage said, and Ajalia saw the man's eyes flick momentarily to Delmar's gorgeous golden creation, "then the lights are drawn into the child, and fill up his soul with light, and life. Do this to your own figures," Savage directed, as the tiny lights he had made twined up, like loving vines, against the figure of the child, and filled up the soul of the child with the same multicolored riot of lights that she had seen inside of Savage himself.
As Savage's figure was made of white light, and could split into many colors, the lines of magic that swept above and below the figure of the child, which was white, were composed of green and of gold, of red and of blue, of delicate pink, and flushed purple. When Savage made the lines of magic draw into the figure of the child, the child's soul, which had before been gold and blue, with hints of green, burst into a rainbow of delicious colors.
Ajalia thought that Savage had made the child look like the colors of Delmar's soul. Delmar was composed of gold and of blue, with hints of deep forest green, and Ajalia had seen for herself how his colors moved around him with swift swirls, like rapids in a heavy river. Ajalia suspected now that Savage was working on Delmar, and preparing Delmar's mind for the colors that Savage wanted to see filling his soul.
She remembered what Savage had said, about his own soul being like the sky god's soul, and she thought of how Savage had deferred to Delmar's authority and position. If Savage saw in himself a copy of the sky god that the Talbos priests believed in, Ajalia thought, then Delmar must be, in his fullest version of himself, something quite mightier than Savage was.
Ajalia began to wonder what Delmar would be like, when he had learned to treat himself with respect, and when he had finally begun to hate the abuse his mother had put him through. She could see, and had seen for some time, that Delmar's mind was still formed in the shapes his mother had put it in. Ajalia was sure that Delmar saw nothing wrong with the way he thought; she told herself that Delmar was like a man who had been raised among animals, and had not learned to walk upright, or to speak with words. Delmar had learned to make the picture of a man, but he did not know how to speak like an honest man, or how to treat himself like an honorable king. Ajalia had stopped Delmar from cutting into himself with magic, and tearing at his soul to weaken himself, but she had not yet been able to stop him from thinking ill of himself, and from believing many of the things that his parents had taught him were true.
Ajalia wanted to eradicate from within Delmar every trace of his parents; she wanted to scrub every word and harmful action from Delmar's memory, and to make him strong, like an impervious shield of shining metal. She wanted him to see himself as she saw him, and as he was seen by the masses of people in Slavithe, and in Talbos.
She knew that the people in Slavithe saw Delmar, after the week of the purging, as a rescuing god. She had seen the way the people parted for him, and looked benevolently upon him. She had heard of at least six children who had been renamed after Delmar, and many of the old and young men in the city had begun to fashion their clothes, as much as they were able, a
fter the costumes that Calles had made. Fashion had not yet caught up to the women in Slavithe, but Ajalia had seen the way women looked longingly at Delmar's clothes, and she knew that their minds were turning over schemes of adornment now.
The city of Slavithe had grown quiet, and the streets had come to resemble the gentle splashing of a forest stream; people came and went about their business, just as if there had been no change in Thief Lords, and when the gangs of boys carried men to the temples, or guards bore the dead bodies of priests away, the people of Slavithe parted around them without words, and then went on their way. The families had reorganized themselves quietly; the healthy men and women in the family carried the now-dull witches to the temples, to try whether they would die, and when they returned home, either with a sobbing and living witch, or with a body that was later carried to the poison tree, everything changed. Women who had ruled for years over their families with merciless and predatory wiles were reduced either to a pale corpse, or to a childish and blubbering state useless for anything but menial tasks. Most of the older witches in Slavithe did not survive the test of the ocean-blue magic, and their families passed into peaceful and orderly living without any grief, but a few had been not quite evil enough to be utterly corrupt, and when these older witches were cleansed, and were taken home with their families, almost every one of them was quickly sold into hard labor, or as a low servant in some far-distant house.
The reshuffling of younger disabled witches took place without any fanfare; some families arranged straight trades, and took in a young witch in exchange for getting rid of their own affected daughter or niece. All who were revealed and then tested as witches were immediately stigmatized; Delmar had revoked his grandfather Tree's edict on marriage on his second day as Thief Lord, and the whole city married each other almost overnight. Ajalia had not attended any of these marriages; she still did not know the form of official marriage in Slavithe, but she had heard scraps of gossip from Sun, and from Fashel, both of whom had relatives who were wed in the great wave of uniting couples.
In place of Tree's ban on weddings, Delmar had established a new, and strict ban against marrying known witches. This law had greatly disturbed Chad, who hoped to marry Esther, but Ajalia had told Chad not to worry about it, since nothing had been settled with Esther yet. Delmar had asked her what Chad was so flustered about, and when she had told him about Esther, Delmar had said, with some violence, that he would not give permission for Chad to marry a witch, and that if Chad tried, Delmar would kill him personally. Ajalia had told Delmar not to worry about it either, and when Delmar had lost his temper at her, and told her that she was undermining his authority as Thief Lord, she told him that she would send Chad out of the city, if the young man did end by wanting to marry Esther, and the witch was fit to marry.
Delmar had frowned deeply at this, and glared suspiciously at Ajalia. He had asked where Ajalia meant to send Chad, if this happened, and she told him that she would send Chad to the East, to live on her master's estate. Delmar had accepted this explanation grudgingly, but Ajalia knew that he was not happy about it. She was not, however, willing to renege on her offer to Chad, and she told Delmar that many of the young witches would try to marry someday, and that Chad carrying Esther off to the East would set a precedent. Delmar had harumphed at this, but he had grown thoughtful, and they had spoken of something else after that.
THE LOST ONES
Ajalia looked now at the figure of the child that Savage had made, and she saw how Savage looked at Delmar, with a mixture of respect and admiration in his eyes. She knew that Delmar did not suspect how much he was needed and liked by the people in both Slavithe and Talbos. She had not seen much of Talbos yet, but she had seen enough in the palace, and in the streets near the house Philas had taken, to guess that the sentiment among the people of Talbos would be quite strong in favor of Delmar's rule.
Mop had made his two lines of light curve first away from his clumsy child figure, and then draw down into the body of his figure. Delmar watched Savage for a moment, his mouth drawn down in a frown, and then Ajalia watched Delmar look at his own wild forest of golden light, and attempt to draw the lights in close to the two figures of children that stood beneath the trees. The lines of golden light that represented the lights of energy in the sky and earth curved sharply away from both the boy and girl figures. The lights moved so far away from the two figures of children that Ajalia thought they looked as though they were encased in an invisible bubble that made the lights carve away from them. Savage was watching Delmar's tiny world.
"Now make the lights touch the children," Savage told Delmar. Delmar's face was creased with concentration.
"I'm trying to," Delmar said. Delmar's eyes were fixed, and his mouth was twisted to one side. The lights moved even farther away from the two children.
"Try to cut them off," Ajalia said. "Try to get the lights as far away from the children as you can." Delmar glanced at her, and then looked back at the two figures of the boy and girl. The golden ribbons of light spun straight down into the boy's head, and up into his feet, and made a chaotic swirl of gold in his body.
"Why aren't the lights touching the little girl?" Ajalia asked Delmar. Delmar was chewing on his lower lip. He frowned, and the lights inched nearer to the figure of the girl.
"That is you," Savage said, pointing to the golden figure of the boy, "and that is your mother. Make a child figure of Ajalia," Savage said. Delmar glanced at Ajalia, and then at Savage.
"Really?" Delmar asked. He looked nervous.
"Yes," Savage said. Delmar sniffed, and wiggled his shoulders. He looked at the little world of gold, and the small figure of a girl child, much smaller than the figure Savage had said represented Delmar's mother, appeared beside the figure of the boy. "Now try with the lights," Savage said, and Delmar's ribbons of light spun straight down into the head and feet of the second girl figure.
"Why am I so small?" Ajalia asked, staring at Delmar.
"Because he thinks you are a child," Savage said, his eyes fixed on the golden forest. "Look," Savage told Ajalia, nodding at the place where the lights shone above her and Delmar's hands. Ajalia turned her eyes to the place, and saw that Delmar had called up threads of colored light from the earth, and bound them up together within the small figure of the girl. The girl's insides glowed red, but around the red, and the gold that formed her body, Ajalia could see the echo of a wild swirl that was just like the soul that Savage had.
"That's what you look like, in the future," Delmar said. His voice was hoarse, and his eyes blinked away beads of sweat. Ajalia saw that Delmar looked as though he were under a tremendous strain.
"What's wrong?" Ajalia asked him.
"He's trying to push the lights away, and draw them up at the same time," Savage told her. "I think it would kill a lesser man."
"I'm not special," Delmar said. There was a wheeze in his voice. "That's what you're like," Delmar told Ajalia, nodding at the second girl figure.
"You can put the lights away," Savage said. He was watching Delmar with concern in his eyes. Delmar shook his head.
"I'm fine," Delmar rasped. "This is nothing. Finish telling me about my mother." Savage looked doubtful, but Delmar urged him again to continue. Ajalia saw that Savage wanted to save Delmar from the effort that he was clearly making to draw colors up into the ball of golden light that Ajalia had used. Delmar saw Ajalia staring at the threads of colored light, and he grinned at her. "Gold is easy," Delmar told her. "When you tell me to connect to the the earth, I only use the gold. The other colors are hard."
"Here is your mother, as a young girl," Savage said. He moved closer to Delmar and Ajalia, and held forth his palm, with the figure of the child, and the lines of light. Savage made the lights bend away from the child, making bumps above and below the figure. "When the girl child, your mother, harmed someone, or was selfish, the lights drew a little away." Savage made the lights above and below bounce slightly, and pull back from the figure of the ch
ild. "If this went on for too long," Savage said, "as it clearly did, your mother began to look different to other children. Children did not trust her, and her own parents drew away. Everyone could feel that something was a little wrong. Our souls can sense each other. We can feel the energy within one another," Savage explained. "When there is a body with too little light inside, our own bodies feel repelled. The body that is thus feels a little like death to us. It is cold, and foreign."
"So they drew back," Delmar said. He made the figure of the larger girl stride across to the boy figure, and push him down to the ground. Savage watched this with a fixed look of fascination. Ajalia could see that Savage was impressed with Delmar. When the girl figure pushed the boy figure down, the lights in the earth and air surged up towards the figure of the boy, and at the same time, drew away from the figure of the girl. The figure that Delmar had made of Ajalia as a child stood to one side, and watched this.
"I wouldn't just stand there," Ajalia said.
"You didn't know me then," Delmar said. "Continue," he commanded Savage.
"When the girl child, your mother, saw everyone drawing back, and when the lights in the earth and sky withdrew from her, her body hungered for the lights. We are meant to be in the lights always, and to feel them flow around us. It is our natural path, to be in the light."
"So she couldn't get light from the earth," Delmar said, "and so she stole it from me?"
"You were not alive when your mother was a child," Savage said, without smiling. He made the figure of an adult woman appear near the child figure. "Your mother's mother," Savage said to Delmar, "was a terrible witch."
"Yes, yes, everyone knows about Lily," Delmar said impatiently. Savage continued, unperturbed.
"It is likely," Savage said, making the figure of the child go up to the adult figure, and put its hands around the adult's waist, "that your mother first learned to steal light with hugs, and caresses."