The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy

by Mercedes Lackey

  Crack like lightning striking as the shield split. Sudden darkness, dizziness. Waking to Lissa’s anxious face, and a pain in his left arm that sent the blackness to take him again.

  “Good gods!”

  Medren shrugged with one shoulder. “I bruise that way. Looks worse than it is, I guess. Young Mekeal took one just as hard and you can’t hardly see a mark on him.” He looked longingly at the pot of salve. “Vanyel, you going to stand there and stare all day, or use that stuff?”

  “I’m sorry, Medren.” He shook off his shock, got several fingersful of the ointment, and began to massage it as gently as possible into the bruised area, working his way from the edges inward. The boy hissed with pain at first, then gradually relaxed.

  Vanyel, on the other hand, was profoundly disturbed, and growing tenser by the moment, his own shoulder muscles knotting up like snarled harpstrings. Gods, what can I do? Damned if I’ll let Jervis ruin Medren the way he ruined me—but how? If I force a confrontation, he’ll only take it out on Medren. If I take him on myself—gods, I do not trust my temper, not with that old bastard. Not with the hair-trigger I’ve got right now. He’d make one wrong move, or say something at the wrong time—and I’d kill him before I could stop myself. What can I do? What can I do?

  “Lady Bright,” the boy sighed. “I feel like I got a shoulder again, instead of a piece of pounded meat.”

  “Medren, is there any way you can avoid practices until you’re safely out of here?” Vanyel asked.

  Medren considered a moment. “Now and again,” he said, slowly. “Not on a regular basis.”

  “Are you sure?” Vanyel pursued, urgently. “Isn’t there any place you can hide?”

  “Not since they opened up the back of the library. Anyplace I go, they’ll find me, eventually. Isn’t there anything you can do?”

  Vanyel shook his head with bitter regret. “I wish there were. I can’t think of anything at the moment. I’ll work on it; if there’s a way out for you, I’ll find it. Look, avoid him as much as you can. Try and stay out of his line-of-sight when you can’t avoid the practices. If he doesn’t actually see you in front of him, sometimes you can manage to keep from becoming his target for the day.”

  Medren sighed, and shrugged his shirt back on. “All right. If that’s all I can do, that’s all I can do.” He twisted his head around and gave Vanyel a slightly pained grin. “At least you believe me. You even sound like you know what I’m going through.”

  Vanyel stared at the wall, but what he was seeing was not wood panels, but a thin, undersized boy being used as an object upon which a surly ex-mercenary could vent his spleen. “I do, Medren,” he replied slowly, a cold lump settling just under his heart. “Believe me, I do.”

  • • •

  Vanyel was more than happy to see his Aunt Savil’s serene, beaky face again. And was glad he’d decided to ride out and meet her. It was a lot easier to tell her what had been going on without wondering who was going to overhear.

  “. . . so that’s the state of things,” Vanyel concluded, Yfandes matching her pace to Savil’s taller Companion. “The only real problems—other than the fact that Lineas and Baires could go for each other’s throats any day—is Medren. Melenna I can avoid. The Great Sheep Debate is going to go on until the sheep are gone from Long Meadow. Father seems to have accepted Meke’s breeding program, although he’s got his agent out looking for an alternative to that awful stud Meke bought. But Medren—Savil, I know what you’re thinking; you’re thinking I’m overreacting to seeing another lad in the same position I was in. You didn’t see that monster bruise he showed up with. He’s not getting love-pats. That bruise was the size of my spread hand, finger-tip to thumb-tip, easily.”

  “Huh,” Savil replied, frowning in thought.

  “And to make it worse, Meke told me Jervis wants to—I quote—‘go a few rounds with me.’ To spar.” Vanyel snorted. “‘Spar’ indeed. It’ll be a cold day—”

  She nodded. “Probably a damned good idea to avoid him. He’ll push you, Van; he’ll push you all he can.”

  “And I’ve just spent the last year on the Border.”

  “Exactly. If he pushed you too far—well, you know that better than me. Kellan, can you and ’Fandes kindly wait until you’re loose for the chatter and gossip? We’re trying to have a serious briefing here.”

  Vanyel chuckled. :Trading stories about the muscular, young courier-types?:

  :Shut up and ride.:

  Vanyel caught Savil’s eye, and they exchanged a look full of irony. “I can see,” she said aloud, “that this is going to be a very—lively—visit.”

  CHAPTER 6

  THE ARGUMENT HAD been in full flower since Vanyel had arrived at the stable, and from all that he could tell it had evidently begun (well fertilized with invective) long before then. The stable was a good fifty paces from the keep itself, but the voices reached with unmistakable clarity well beyond the stable. The stablehands were doing their best to pretend they weren’t listening, but Vanyel could all but see their ears stretching to catch the next interchange.

  Havens, Savil has a strong set of lungs!

  “Now listen, you stubborn old goat—”

  “Stubborn!” The indignation in Withen’s voice was thick enough to plow. “You’re calling me stubborn? Savil, that’s pot calling kettle if I ever—”

  “—and provincial, hidebound, and muddle-headed to boot!”

  Vanyel smothered a grin and kept the movement of the brush steady along Yfandes’ glossy flank. She sighed with contentment and leaned into each stroke.

  :Feel good?:

  :Wonderful. All Companions should choose musicians; you have such talented hands. Speaking of which—: She flicked an ear at the open window through which Savil and Withen’s argument was coming so very clearly.

  :Music to my ears. If he’s yelling at Aunt Savil, he can’t be yelling at me. You’re looking better. Those hollows behind your withers are gone. And your coat is much healthier.: He paused for a moment to admire the shine.

  :I’m recovering faster than you are.: She swung her head around to fix him with a critical blue eye. :Are you getting enough sleep?:

  :If I slept any longer, I’d wake up with headaches.: He turned his mental focus up toward that open window, avoiding any more of Yfandes’ questions.

  The fact was, he didn’t know why he was still sleeping so long, and tiring so easily. He always felt hollow, somehow, as if there were an enormous empty place inside him that he couldn’t fill. But he had recovered enough that all the problems, major and minor, were starting to make him feel restless because he couldn’t do anything about them.

  Other problems were starting to eat at him, too.

  Shavri; I like her—too much? Gods. I must think about her and Jisa every night. I loved ’Lendel. I know I loved him. But have I let Shavri get into me deeper than I’d thought? Gods, she’s Randi’s lifebonded. He must be my best friend in the world next to Savil. She’s one of my best friends. How can I even be thinking this? Gods, gods. Am I really even shaych? Or am I something else?

  The question ate at him, more than he cared to admit.

  Am I avoiding Melenna because I’m shaych, or because I hate to be hunted?

  He shied away from the uncomfortable thoughts, and sent out a thin, questing thought-tendril toward Savil.

  :What can I do for you, demon-child?: came her prompt reply.

  :Just wondering if you needed rescuing.:

  The answer came back laughter-tinged. :Havens, no! I’m enjoying this one! I’m opening your father’s eyes to politics and policies under Randale. Elspeth was always conservative, and got more so as she grew older. Randale is her opposite. This is coming as quite a shock to Withen.:

  Vanyel fought down another grin. :What’s he up in arms about now?:

  :The mandatory education law Randale and the
Council just passed.:

  :Remind me; I’m behind.:

  :Every child in Valdemar is to be taught simple reading, writing, and arithmetic in the temples from now on; every child, not just the highborn, or the few the priests single out as having vocations or being exceptional. Morning classes in the winter from harvest-end to first planting. And it’s the duty of the Lord Holders to see that they get it.:

  Vanyel blinked. :Oh, my. I can see where he wouldn’t be pleased. I know where Randale’s coming from on this one, though; he talked it over with me often enough. I just didn’t know he’d managed to get it past the Council intact.:

  :Enlighten me, I need ammunition.:

  :He believes that an informed populace is more apt to trust its leaders than an ignorant populace, assuming that they feel the leaders are worthy of trust.:

  :That isn’t much of a problem in Valdemar,: Savil replied.

  :Thanks be to the gods. Well. The only way to have an informed populace is to educate them, so they don’t have to rely on rumors, so they’re willing to wait for the official written word. It was the near-panic when Elspeth died that decided him.:

  :I didn’t know that; good points, ke’chara. Young as he is, our Randale can be brilliant at times. As soon as your father pauses for breath—:

  “Now see here, you old boneheaded windbag! Do you want those farmers of yours to be the prey of every scoundrel with a likely rumor under his hat?” Savil had the bit in her teeth and she was off again. Vanyel gave up trying to control himself, and leaned all his weight against Yfandes, laughing silently until his eyes teared.

  • • •

  This is ridiculous, Vanyel thought irritably, pausing for a moment on the narrow staircase. Absolutely ridiculous. Why should I have to act as though I was sneaking through enemy-held territory just to get to my own bed every night?

  He took the last flight of back stairs to the fourth floor, poorly lit as they were, with not so much as the betraying squeak of a stair tread. He flattened himself against the wall at the top, and probed cautiously ahead.

  No Melenna.

  So far, so good.

  His right eye stung and watered, and he rubbed at it with one knuckle; his eyelids were sore and felt puffy. I should have gotten to bed candlemarks ago, except every time I tried, Melenna was lurking around a corner to waylay me. I hope she’s given up by now.

  He peered down the dark corridor one more time before venturing out into it. This was the servants’ floor, and if she were still awake and hoping to ambush him, Melenna wouldn’t think to look for him up here.

  He counted the doors—the fifth on the right opened, not into a room, but into a tiny spiral staircase that only went as far as the third floor. He probed again, delicately. Nothing in the staircase, or at the foot of it.

  The stair was of cast iron, and in none too good repair. He clung to the railing, gritted his teeth, and moved a fingerlength at a time to keep it from rattling. The journey through the stuffy darkness seemed to take all night.

  Then his foot encountered wood instead of metal, and he slipped off the staircase and groped for the door. He put one hand flat against the wooden panel and concentrated on what lay beyond it. This stair let out only two doors from his own room, and if Melenna were waiting, she’d be in the corridor.

  Politeness—and Heraldic constraints—forbade Mindsearching for her, even if he had the energy to spare. Which he didn’t, he had been chagrined to discover.

  And anyway, the non-Gifted were always harder to locate by Mindsearch than the Gifted.

  I’m getting very tired of this. I don’t want to set Mother off, and I don’t really want to hurt Melenna, but if this cat-and-mouse game keeps on much longer, I may have to do just that. I tell her “no,” politely, and she doesn’t believe it. I avoid her, and she just gets more persistent. I almost killed her two days ago when she popped out of hiding at me. He leaned his forehead against the door for a moment, and closed his aching eyes. I’m about at my wits’ end with that woman. Damn it all, she’s old enough to know better! I don’t want to hurt her; I don’t even want to embarrass her.

  Well, there was no sign of her in the corridor. He relaxed a little and stepped out onto the highly polished wood of the hall of the guest rooms, where the brighter lighting made his smarting eyes blink and water for a moment.

  He opened the door to his own room—

  And froze, hand still on the icy metal of the doorhandle.

  Candles burned in the sconces built into the headboard. Melenna smiled coyly at him from the middle of his bed. She allowed the sheet to slide from her shoulders as she sat up, proving that she hadn’t so much as a single thread to grace her body.

  Vanyel counted to ten, then ten again. Melenna’s smile faltered and faded. She tossed her hair over one shoulder and began to pout.

  Vanyel snatched his cloak from the peg beside the door, turned on his heel without a single word, and left, slamming the door behind him hard enough to send echoes bouncing up and down the corridor.

  :’Fandes, beloved,: he Mindsent, so angry he was having trouble staying coherent. :I hope you don’t mind sharing sleeping-space.:

  • • •

  Straw was not the most comfortable of beds, although he’d had worse. And he’d spent nights with his head pillowed on Yfandes’ shoulder before this. But “day” for the occupants of the stable began long before he’d been getting up. The stablehands had no reason to be quiet—and neither did the horses. Meke’s famous stud was the worst offender; he began cow-kicking the side of his stall monotonously from the moment color touched the east.

  :Stupid brute thinks that if he keeps kicking, somebody will come to let him out,: came Yfandes’ sleepy thought. :I usually move out under a tree about now.:

  Vanyel raised his head and yawned. He’d gotten some sleep, but not nearly as much as he would have liked. :You move. I think I’ll go back to my room. If Melenna hasn’t taken herself off to her own room by now, I swear I’ll throw her out. Maybe a dose of humiliation will convince her to leave me alone.:

  :Sounds as good a plan as any.: Yfandes waited for him to move out of the way, then got herself to her feet and nudged open the outside door. Vanyel stood up, shoulders aching from the strange position he’d slept in, and brushed bits of straw off his clothing. He ignored the startled glances of the stablehands, picked up his cloak and shook it out as Yfandes ambled out into her meadow.

  :Go get some more sleep, dearheart,: she Mindsent back toward him.

  :I’ll try,: he replied, smoldering. :Maybe I’ll bring my sleeping roll down here. Maybe when word gets around that I’m sleeping with horses she’ll stop this nonsense.:

  :And if she’s stupid enough to try and waylay you down here, I’ll chase her around the meadow a few times to teach her better manners,: Yfandes sent, irritation of her own coloring her thoughts a sullen red. :This is getting exasperating. I don’t care if she thinks she’s in love with you, that doesn’t excuse imbecilic behavior.:

  Vanyel didn’t reply; he was too close to temper that could do the woman serious damage. He folded his cloak tidily over his arm, pretending he didn’t notice the whispers of the stablehands as he let himself out of the stall and shut the door behind him.

  “There was a problem with my bed last night,” he told Tam, the chief stableman and Withen’s most trusted trainer.

  Tam was no fool, and he’d been quietly on Vanyel’s side since Van was old enough to ride. He was one of the few at Forst Reach who hadn’t changed his behavior toward Vanyel when the nature of Vanyel’s relationship with Tylendel became known at the holding. Since his wife was one of the cooks, he was quite conversant with “house” gossip. He smiled slowly, showing the gap where he’d had three teeth kicked out. “Aye, milord Van. I ken. There’s some invites a body wish t’ give hisself.”

  Van winced inwardly a little, knowing that t
his was going to do Melenna’s reputation no good at all once this tale got around the keep.

  The stablehands went back to their chores, and he wound his way past them, out into the yard between the outbuildings and the keep. He blinked at the sunlight, seeing just one other person, a vague, unidentifiable shadow in the door of the armory.

  “Vanyel,” called a raspy, far-too-familiar voice. “A word with you.”

  Jervis. The armsmaster moved out past the door of the armory to stand directly in his path and Vanyel felt his stomach start to churn. In no way could he successfully avoid a confrontation this time. Jervis was between him and the keep.

  “Yes, armsmaster?” he said.

  “I left you messages, Meke told me he’d passed them on.” Jervis moved closer, a frown making his seamed and craggy face more forbidding than usual.

  Vanyel kept his own feelings behind an expressionless mask. “That you wanted to spar, yes I know. He did tell me. I’d rather not, thank you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Frankly, because I don’t feel up to it,” Vanyel replied with cool neutrality, though his back was clammy with nervous sweat. Because I know damned well it won’t stay polite exercise for long. Because I know you’re going to push me just as far as you can, armsmaster. I’m going to have to hurt you. And dammit, I don’t want to let you do that to me.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Jervis growled, his face darkening. “You think this old man isn’t good enough for you?”

  “I’m worn out, for one thing. I just spent the night in the stable because there was an unwelcome visitor in my room; that’s not my bed of choice, and Meke’s damned stud makes more noise than a herd of mules. For another—Jervis, I’ve been on a battle-line for the last year. You were a mercenary, what does that tell you?”

  I don’t want to inflict more pain when I don’t have to. And I’m on a hair-trigger; gods, think about this, you old bastard! Remember what it was like, how some things became reflex, no matter how hard you tried to control them.