by Victor Poole
"No," Delmar said instantly. "No, they talked about breaking things, and using corrupt spells. I didn't know it when I read them, but now that I know what real magic is like, they were very bad books."
"But you said you got some ideas from those books, of things that you could do," Ajalia said.
"Well, what I was trying to say is that I have been studying about magic for a long time," Delmar said, "so it's not like I'm a miracle, or anything. I mean, I read a lot of books."
"Delmar," Ajalia said slowly. Delmar looked suspiciously over at her.
"I don't know what you mean by that," Delmar said, as though she had uttered a whole diatribe when she had said his name.
"But I haven't said anything yet," Ajalia protested.
"Yes, and I can hear your tone," Delmar said. "You're going to tell me that maybe Savage was right, and I am some kind of a god, and then you're going to—" Delmar broke off.
"You're mine, and I'm keeping you forever," Ajalia said firmly. Delmar smiled, but his eyes were still sad.
"I'm probably going to die at some point," he said, "so you can't have me forever."
"Yes I can," Ajalia said firmly. She climbed into Delmar's lap, and took his face into her hands. Mop had climbed to the top of the wall that ran around the back enclosure of the dragon temple, and he was walking around the top of the wall, with both arms outstretched to help him balance.
"We should get your boy down," Delmar told her. He wouldn't meet her eyes. Ajalia pushed his chin up.
"Look at me, Delmar," Ajalia said firmly. Delmar's lips twisted, but he looked at her. "I love you," she said clearly. "I'm not going to leave you, or abandon you, just because you have awesome magical powers." Delmar's mouth turned in a smile.
"They aren't awesome," he protested, but Ajalia gripped his shoulders, and gave him a little shake.
"Delmar," she told him firmly, "you just built me a palace overnight, and decorated it with little gems that you made with your mind. You have awesome powers."
"But it's only a little palace," Delmar protested. His lips were pulling at the corners, and he was looking at Mop, and following the boy's progress around the stone wall.
"And you can make grass appear out of life that is apparently hanging in the air," Ajalia told him sternly.
"Only a little bit of grass," Delmar murmured.
"And you have brought water to the dry city, and reorganized the flow of weather patterns, and built a land bridge across the sea, apparently," Ajalia said. "And probably about six other things you haven't thought to mention yet. I suppose you single-handedly conducted some painless purge on the city of Talbos while you were away?"
Ajalia had only meant this as an exaggeration to make her point, but when Delmar looked at her, panic in his eyes, and a vivid heat rising again through his cheeks, she began to laugh.
"You are awesomely magical, Delmar," Ajalia said. "Savage was right about you being some sort of more-than-human thing. I don't think you're a god," she added, when Delmar opened his mouth to object, "but if there is a kingdom in the sky, then I think you're probably the same kind of being as the king there."
Delmar now looked rather flattered.
"Really?" he asked. "I would like to be like the stories of the sky king."
Ajalia slipped out of Delmar's lap, and wrapped her hands around his arm.
"Now tell me what we are going to do," she suggested, "between now and your coronation."
The coronation celebration was held on a square of water that Leed had drawn into the center of a hardened block of magic. Live fish swam through the block of water, and birds from the forest of Slavithe had been caught and put into large balls of blue magic at the corners of the square. Ajalia's boys had trapped several of the colorfully-plumed birds from the forest, and these birds squawked loudly, and fluttered around the magic balls. Some of them clung to the bars of magic, and sparks of white light flew up where their feet touched the magic.
Ajalia had never seen people from Saroyan before, aside from Philas, and when the first group of aristocratic Saroyans came into view of the water platform, Ajalia felt at once that she knew more about Philas than she had ever known before.
The Saroyan parties crossed the sea on the land bridge that Delmar had constructed. This, Ajalia had found, was a thing of marvelous beauty, and ingenious construction. Delmar had broken the high peak of the black mountain away, and joined it, in pieces, to long strips of rock that he had drawn up from below the ocean floor. The black mountain peak had been shivered into long, narrow strips, and laid down on breath-taking arches formed of this ocean stone. The arches spun down in delicate curves to the bottom of the sea. The result was a thin, elegant bridge that stretched far across the ocean to the Saroyan coast.
When Ajalia first saw this bridge, she had been silent for many minutes. Then she had turned to Delmar, and told him that what he had done was impossible. The surface of the bridge had neat balustrades at each side, which Ajalia found were formed of clear crystal, and the span was broad enough to admit six horses abreast.
Delmar had smiled shyly, and told her that it was possible, because he had done it.
"Yes, but this is impossible," Ajalia told him. She was standing at the end of the bridge that met up with the coast of Talbos, and looking at the black stone beneath her feet, and at the crystal handrails that spun delicately at either side of the bridge. "When did you make this?" she asked Delmar, turning to stare at him.
"Um," Delmar said. He looked unwilling to say.
"Did you work on it for a few days?" she asked. Delmar blushed. Ajalia thought that Delmar was blushing so often now that his face was going to turn a permanent tinge of red.
"No," Delmar said. She waited. He squirmed a little. "I thought about it, after I finished the palace," he said finally. "Some of this bridge is made out of the palace stone. There was a lot of it, you know. I moved the palace aside, when I was putting the new dragon temple in its place, and then, well, I was thinking about how dark that peak over the mountain made the whole valley, and how much nicer it would be if the mountain were shaped differently, and then I had that whole palace. The palace of my grandfather Fernos was very large, you know," Delmar told Ajalia, as if he were trying to justify what he had done.
"Yes, but isn't it a long way to Saroyan?" Ajalia asked, looking across the narrow bridge. It stretched in a straight line, and disappeared into a thin point in the distance.
"Um," Delmar said.
"Are people going to use this bridge to transport things?" Ajalia asked. She stamped her foot against the black stone, which was quite sturdy. "Will it hold up against that?" She had a sudden vision of a great caravan of goods and animals tumbling down into the water from an ill-supported bridge, and she looked over the balustrade into the water.
Delmar looked at her with genuine consternation in his eyes. His lips were pursed together.
"Look at the magic," Delmar told her. He sounded offended.
THE LAND BRIDGE
Ajalia grinned at him, and reached for a length of green light in the ocean beneath her feet. She could see the lights without holding magic if she concentrated, but she preferred to be holding the lights in her hand. When the green light was firmly in her fingers, she looked at the bridge. Her mouth dropped open, and she took in a slow, deep breath. Delmar laughed at the look on her face.
"I think it will hold all right," he told her, sounding positively jolly. Ajalia saw thick columns of red-hot light twisting from deep within the earth, spinning up around the pillars that supported the bridge. The bridge itself was vibrating gently in the grip of a mesh net that had been woven out of every color of light; it looked like a shimmering rainbow of twisted lines. Ajalia dropped the green light, and turned to Delmar.
"How did you do that?" she asked him. He laughed again at the look on Ajalia's face.
"You look thunderstruck," Delmar told her.
"But how did you do that?" she demanded. Delmar smiled, and shrugged.
"I thought of it," he said. "I think it's pretty."
"It's going to last longer than the whole world, isn't it?" Ajalia asked, looking again at the shimmering rainbow of colors that nestled tightly against the bridge.
"I don't know about that," Delmar said, "but I think it will hold up all right."
"How did you make this railing?" Ajalia asked. She wrapped her hand around the crystal, which was shot through with pink lines, and had a cloudy white center.
Delmar laughed again, and told her that he had not interrogated her, when she had destroyed the two black dragons.
"Yes," Ajalia said, "but you didn't believe me for quite a while." Ajalia watched Delmar purse his lips together, and she laughed at him. "See?" she teased. "I can do unbelievable things, too."
"Well, it will make travelling easier, anyway," Delmar said, looking out over the bridge.
Ajalia had asked Delmar about Leed and Philas. She wanted to know if Leed had mentioned anything about his plans to make Philas the king of Saroyan. Delmar had shrugged.
"The Saroyans believe that their kings were once magical," he said. "Philas can fly, and Leed is going to build him a crown that the people can see. Everyone hates Silas. I don't think anyone is going to be very upset about Philas taking over."
"That seems odd," Ajalia told him, but then he pointed out that he had come in and made himself king of Talbos in a day. "But that is different," Ajalia protested. "Fernos was actually evil, not just stupid. And you changed the whole mountain, and put streams in everywhere." The weather over Talbos, ever since Delmar had changed the direction of the energy in the sky, had turned balmy and pleasant. The constant damp was lightening, and the city had begun to air out.
"I still do not understand," Ajalia said, as they walked towards the block of water on the morning of the coronation, "how it could be so wet here in Talbos, when there is a desert for miles and miles just a little distance away."
"I saw the sky, when I played with things up there," Delmar told her. "Someone mangled the magic in the sky. I don't think it can have been Jerome, but someone was trying to make life very unpleasant in Talbos. There was a corner in the sky, just above the mountain, where the clouds were driven from across the sea. The desert will get more rain now," Delmar added brightly.
"Delmar, you can't do things like this," Ajalia said.
"Obviously I can," he said sensibly.
"Well, yes, but I don't think it's possible," she said. Delmar shrugged again.
"You used to do things that I told you couldn't be said or done," Delmar pointed out. Ajalia thought about this.
"I guess," she said.
"I remember telling you several times that you could not say things that you said," Delmar told her. "You always went ahead and did things anyway. I am going to do the same thing."
"I have set a very bad example for you," Ajalia told him. Delmar laughed again.
"You just don't want to be the one who is following along this time," Delmar told her. "I'm sure it will be your turn again to be startling someday."
Ajalia looked at Delmar with her lips pushed to one side.
"I don't like this," she said. "I never know what is going to happen next." Delmar laughed again, and picked up her hand with fond attention.
"I didn't like it either, when you did it to me," he said.
"Hm," Ajalia said.
Leed, who had flown over the ocean before dawn to build the water platform for the double coronation, had shown Ajalia how to manage the cords of light he used to make the magical place. It was wide enough for about forty people to stand, and it was near enough to the coast of Talbos for the people from the city there to stand at the beach and watch.
"Delmar told me that Fashel married someone else," Ajalia told Leed, as they stood together on the newly-constructed magical platform. "How is Philas taking it?"
Leed laughed when she said this. The boy had made a set of iridescent green wings for himself, and his brown hair was still blown back from his flight to Talbos. His eyes, which had always been bright, shone now with a light that Ajalia thought belonged to an old sage.
"Philas is growing up a little," Leed told her. "I told him he needed to rely on himself for a time, and love no one. He needs to gain some self-sufficiency."
"Fashel's new husband told me that Philas was worshipping me like a sort of domestic god," Ajalia told Leed. Leed eyed her appraisingly.
"Yes," Leed said, "but worshipping you was a necessary part of Philas's development. I'm pleased with his progress so far."
"Savage told me that Philas had latched onto Fashel as a replacement for me," Ajalia told him. "Do you think this is true?" Leed looked at her solemnly.
"I know who Savage is," Leed told her. "He was one of the men who managed my sale to the old king Fernos, to be used as a spy."
Ajalia bristled, and Leed saw her mouth draw into a thin line. He laughed again.
"Don't go after Savage," Leed told her. "He's not a bad sort. I like him well enough. It's my uncle who fouled things for me. Don't go after my uncle," Leed added, his eyes thoughtful. "I am still thinking about how to punish him."
"You aren't going to turn vengeful, are you?" Ajalia asked. Leed looked at her, an inscrutable expression in his eyes.
"I love you, Ajalia," Leed said soberly, "but you can't manage me any longer. I've outgrown you."
Ajalia laughed out loud. Leed glared at her, and she saw that she had offended him.
"You are a magnificent child," Ajalia told Leed. "Be careful not to outstrip yourself."
"I could beat you in a duel any day," Leed boasted, and Ajalia saw him think of drawing his shining short knife before his fingers twitched. She had the knife off of him, and her own drawn in her hand, before Leed had drawn another breath.
"You are a fine boy, Leed," Ajalia told him, "but no one has tried to kill you yet. Please don't think you are immortal. I like you very much, and I would be sorry to come and avenge your murder."
Leed looked at her, and his lips were pressed very close.
"I see that I was wrong," Leed said finally. He held out his hand for his knife to be returned. Ajalia had not seen Leed's knife until now; she had promised to get him one, but he had told her he would see to it himself.
"It is not a bad blade," Ajalia said, examining the hilt and the balance of the metal. She thought of what Delmar had been doing with magic, and an idea came into her head. Leed saw the look in her eyes, and he smiled.
"Are you going to fix my knife with magic?" Leed asked. Ajalia eyed the child.
"Are you going to go around thinking you are a great warrior, if I do?" Ajalia asked.
"Probably," Leed told her, "but I will only think it to myself, and I won't attack my uncle Wesley."
"I have not gone looking for your uncle yet," Ajalia said. "I have been managing things."
"I don't want you to look for him," Leed told her. "I want to decide what to do."
"But you are my boy," Ajalia said, "and I am angry about what he did."
"He only beat me," Leed said. Ajalia snarled. "You just said that no one's tried to kill me yet," Leed protested. "I don't see why uncle Wesley kicking me around is that important."
Ajalia got down so that her eyes were level with Leed's. They were both standing on the magical platform filled with water and fish, and the gray light of dawn was just beginning to grow at the eastern edge of the ocean.
"Leed, listen to me," Ajalia told the boy. "People have tried to hurt me before. I have been beaten up before by other slaves. I have also been kicked around by someone who was related to me. It is not the same thing. When I am with Delmar, and I know that someone is going to try to hurt him, I will kill to protect him. Do you understand?" Leed was staring hard at her eyes, and his face was flushed. He hesitated for a moment, and then he nodded. Ajalia could feel a heat rising through her center; she could hear, in the back of her mind, her brother Gabriel screaming at her while he beat her legs with a stick.
"Leed," Ajal
ia said, shutting out the noise of her brother's voice, and the slap that the board had made against her calves. "I have killed people in Slavithe. I told you about that." Leed was watching her, and she could hear his breath coming in ragged spurts. She thought that he was going to cry. "Do you think that you can imagine yourself killing someone, if they came at Philas with a knife?"
Leed thought about this, and he looked down at a pale orange fish that was darting just under his feet. The fish was bumping its nose up at the magical barrier, and its eye was a brilliant orange.
"I don't know," Leed said.
"You are not going to have to fight those battles for Philas," Ajalia told Leed, "because Philas is like me. Do you know that I am a slave?" Leed looked at Ajalia, and he nodded. "And do you know that Philas is a slave as well?" Ajalia asked. She was struggling to control her voice; she felt exposed, and at the edge of a wave of pain. She had never tried to say any of this out loud before, and she was afraid that she would not be clear. She wanted Leed to understand why she was angry with his uncle. She had not gone after the man Wesley yet, because she was determined to destroy his whole life, and she wanted to have the time and leisure to obliterate him thoroughly. She was sure that if she went after the man too soon, she would not cause him as much pain and humiliation as she wanted to see in his eyes.
"But it's vengeful to go after people, just because they hurt you," Leed argued. Ajalia put a hand on Leed's shoulder.
"Do you understand that Philas is a slave?" Ajalia asked. Leed's mouth pinched up; he nodded. "Philas is one of the chiefest slaves belonging to my master," Ajalia told the boy. "I am my master's favorite, but Philas is not far behind me in our master's eye. Do you have any idea what this means?" Leed was beginning to squirm a little; Ajalia saw that the boy was uncomfortable.
"But he's going to be king now," Leed said. "Doesn't that make him not a slave?"
"Philas sees himself as a slave," Ajalia told Leed. "If I do bring my master here from the East, Philas will go to my master, and bow down before him. You will see him do this."