The Mages of Bennamore

by Pauline M. Ross

  Hestaria, rising from her bed wearing little more than a near-transparent wrap, was thrilled to have her vessel back, and cried copiously over Kael, who was credited with retrieving it. I had little liking for the woman, but still it was touching to witness her joy.

  We talked endlessly about what had just happened, but none of us could explain why Kestimar would try to kill us.

  “When he first appeared,” Mal said, “I thought perhaps he was just going to capture us, and throw us in the dungeons again.”

  “That wouldn’t work,” I said. “We could just walk out again.”

  “Hmm. They don’t really know how we escaped, though.”

  “They do now. They’ve seen my connection with metal.”

  “No. They saw the mages use magic on them, but they know how to tame a mage – just take away his vessel. I don’t think they realise that you were the one who dealt with the swords. So they might still feel safe locking us up if they believe the mages have no power.”

  “But why?” I asked. “Why lock us up, why kill us? They’re already in trouble for what they did to Hestaria. They surely don’t want the Bennamorian army to descend on Dristomar?”

  “What about you, Fen?” Mal asked. “What would Shannamar do if you die at Kestimar’s hands?”

  I shrugged. I was still related to Shannamar’s Holder, but I had no official status, so there was no obligation on my father’s part to avenge my ill-treatment. He might protest, but he would hardly go to war over it. The Bennamorians were a different matter. Their mages were important politically, and killing one would provoke outrage.

  “What will you do?” I asked Losh. “Will you send for the army now?”

  He was silent for a long time, then he sighed. “I will have to report what has happened. I will not ask the Drashon to send the army, but he may do so anyway.”

  “It could take months to mobilise the Council of Nobles again,” Hestaria said. “We should leave at once. It is not safe here, not for any of us.”

  Several people began to speak at once, but Losh held up a hand. “It is late, we have had a trying evening and I for one need my bed. We will sleep, and discuss this further in the morning. Mal, are you satisfied that the house is safe for tonight?”

  “As safe as we can make it. Lenya’s in charge of the watch tonight. We have enough eyes, with the guards and several of the more able servants. We’ll have warning if they come tonight.”

  “Then we will all take our rest. Yes, including you, Mal. No, do not protest. It is all very well having guards prowling the grounds, but I will sleep more easily knowing that you at least are in the house.”

  Everyone crept away in exhausted silence. Well, except Hestaria, naturally. She was not a silent person, and she had already had several hours’ sleep.

  I was not exhausted at all. I still had magic thrumming in my veins, making me feel not just well, but positively energetic. I fidgeted on my stool in front of my dressing mirror while Mal untangled the silk flowers from my hair, my head filled with flitting thoughts like butterflies. Many of those thoughts centred on Mal himself. It would be the perfect way to end a difficult evening.

  After his enthusiasm when we’d reached home after our escape from the dungeon, he hadn’t touched me at all, not even when deep in his sleep. Tonight I was wearing the rose silk gown again, which brought memories of the last time I’d worn it, when Mal had jumped on me and I’d resisted. He showed no sign of such intentions tonight.

  All he’d said to me since we’d reached the bedroom, was, “You did well tonight with those swords. Most women would have been screaming.”

  “Shooting flames from my fingers would have worked, too,” I said, but he didn’t smile at my little joke. After that he lapsed into glum silence, avoiding my eyes. It wasn’t promising for my plans for a night of abandoned passion.

  I couldn’t work out what had changed. I’d thought we had an understanding, and although I wasn’t crazy about it, I was quite prepared to accommodate his demands in bed. It puzzled me that he didn’t make any. Had he thought better of his declaration of love? Or had he simply given up on me?

  With magic fizzing through me, I was determined to seduce him. He’d never resisted me before, and I wasn’t going to let him ignore me for another night. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted him.

  So when he’d extracted all the flowers from my tangled hair, I asked him to unfasten the buttons on the back of my gown. I thought that might inspire him, but he knelt down behind me without a word. This was going to need some work.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” I ventured.

  He looked at my in the mirror suspiciously. “Talk about what?”

  “Whatever it is that’s bothering you.”

  Long silence. “No.”

  He’d reached the last button, so I spun round to face him. “I wish you would. I’m your wife, after all, that’s what I’m here for.”

  His face darkened with anger. “Why do you do that?”

  “What do you mean? Do what?”

  “Try to make out that we’re just a normal married couple, like anyone else. Because we’re not. We’re only married so I can keep my job, it doesn’t mean anything, does it?”

  “Doesn’t it? I thought we were friends, at least.” For some unaccountable reason I could feel tears pricking at my eyelids. I’d got so used to his easygoing good humour that his spurt of temper made me feel bereft.

  “Friends?” He sat back on his heels, glaring at me. “Really? You despise me, you always have. You can’t wait to be free of me, so that you can be with your Holder lover. So don’t pretend to be the caring little wife.”

  That stopped me swimming in self-pity. “Don’t be ridiculous!”

  “It’s true. As soon as I’ve gone back to Bennamore, you’ll be off with him.”

  “Mal, whenever our contract comes to an end, I shall go back to Carrinshar. That’s the nearest I can get to a home. I won’t be with Ish, that’s certain. He’s the Holder, I’m just a recorder, there’s no place for me in his life.”

  “Truly?” he said, puzzled. “But you’re both nobility…”

  “I was but I’m not any more.”

  “So you can’t be with him? Ever?”

  I sighed. “It’s not impossible, but…”

  How could I explain it, the difficulties, the political ramifications, the subtle negotiations that would be involved for a marriage? Especially to a woman of forty who had already failed to prove. And anything less than marriage was out of the question. Impossible to be a mere courtesan where I had once been a wife. I would never cling to him, beg him to take me back, weep at his feet.

  Of course I dreamed of it, how could I not? My imagination knew exactly how it would happen. I would go back to Carrinshar, to my old life, and one day Ish would appear out of nowhere. “I cannot live without you a moment longer,” he would say. “As soon as the contract with my foreign wife terminates, I will marry you and then I will stay by your side forever.” The rational side of my mind pointed out that this was much the same dream I’d had for twenty years, which had failed me so spectacularly. My heart took no notice of rationality. Somehow I still had faith that Ish would come for me.

  I couldn’t begin to explain that to Mal. “It would be too difficult, especially after all that’s happened.” Something niggled at my mind. “Wait, did you say you’re going back to Bennamore? I thought nothing was decided?”

  He scratched his cheek. “I shall be going back, whatever happens, and quite soon. Hestaria’s written to Kingswell, to the Mages’ Forum, to tell them that Lenya and I have been using magic. That’s a very serious crime.”

  “How serious? What will they do to you?”

  “They could put us to death.”

  “What! But that’s crazy!”

  “That’s the law. That’s why no one in Bennamore admits to having the sort of connection that you have. You just don’t own up to something like that, in case the mages haul
you off and execute you. It’s not always execution, but it’s a possibility.”

  “But Kael has a connection with stone!”

  He smiled ruefully. “Yes, but he’s also trained in magic, which makes it easy to hide. So you see the problem. It’s been bothering me rather. I could be sent back to Bennamore at any moment.”

  “No, you couldn’t. You’re my husband, you have the right to live here. What’s more, it’s not illegal to use magic here and Bennamorian law doesn’t apply. No one can haul you off and execute you.”

  He looked astonished. “I never thought of that. You mean – I’m safe? And Lenya, too, since Wornest is from round here. Gods, I never thought of that!” He laughed, and my spirits lifted to see his gloom evaporate so quickly.

  “Well, that was easy. So, are you going to be a husband to me tonight, husband? For I have need of your special skills.”

  His face dropped. “Fen—”

  Dragon’s balls, I was not going to be denied! What was the matter with the man? He’d been willing enough when I’d had need of him before, he’d told me he loved me, what was holding him back?

  “Why won’t you?” I said, and to my ears it sounded petulant, like a child demanding a treat. “You did before, you were quite happy with things then. Please…”

  “I want to, of course, but… there’s something I ought to tell you, something I should have told you before.”

  My heart turned over. Now what? I couldn’t take any more revelations, I just wanted to be in bed, safe in his arms, warmed by his sweet kisses.

  I laid my hands in my lap, and lowered my head, prepared for anything. “I’m listening.”

  “Well, I… the thing is… I… I slept with the Holder’s wife.” He looked so woebegone that I almost laughed. If that was all, it was hardly a major crisis.

  “Oh, that. I know.”

  “What! How?”

  “You came home with her perfume all over you.”

  “Gods! So you’ve known all along! But aren’t you angry? Upset? Disappointed in me?”

  “Of course not. I don’t own you, Mal. A bonded marriage is a different matter, but an annual contract? You’re free to do as you please. And she’s very beautiful, I can see the attraction.”

  “But I didn’t want to! Do you remember that night when I took Lady Tarn home? Well, she came in, his wife, Lady Tella. She was very – charming. She saw me out and asked me to come back the next night – to talk, she said. I thought I might get some information out of her. But then she got all… you know, and… and I’m only human, Fen. And we hadn’t… not for a while. But I’m so sorry. I’ve regretted it every day since.” His dark eyes pleaded with me. “Can you forgive me? I’ll sleep in my own room again, I know you won’t want me near you…”

  “You do talk some terrible nonsense, you know. If you try to avoid me by going to your own room, I shall only follow you, and you can’t lock me out. I think my bed would be better, don’t you? Less of a squash.”

  His face lit up like the moon. With a single motion, he jumped to his feet and swept me into his arms.

  “Do we have to go to bed at all?” he said, grinning. “I liked that time you were all on fire and I just fucked you against the wall.”

  I giggled. “Oh, yes! I’d like that, husband. But try not to tear my gown this time.”

  31: Plotting

  I was drifting off to sleep wrapped in Mal’s arms, his face buried in my hair, when I heard a whisper. It was only the faintest hint of a voice tickling my mind, but it sounded like Kestimar. I shot back to alertness.

  For a long time there was nothing, then I heard it again, faint but clear.

  “Their magic was too strong!”

  The glass ball. It was emanating from my glass ball.

  I slipped out from beneath Mal’s inert arm. He didn’t wake, just stirred slightly and murmured something almost inaudible. The moon was still up, filling the room with light. With quick steps, I wove between the discarded items of clothing on the floor to reach the chair where one of the girls had laid my nightgown out ready for me. Slipping it over my head, I crossed the room and picked up the glass ball.

  A voice crashed into my head.

  “—stupid thing to do! What were you thinking?”

  I jumped, heart hammering, and almost dropped the ball. Ish’s voice, as loud as if he were beside me, angry and hard. I never remembered him speaking that way.

  “What the fuck was I supposed to do?” That was Kestimar, shouting back at him, rattling my skull. “They had magic! You weren’t there, you didn’t see what they could do!”

  “You were not supposed to harm them, that was what we agreed. Lock them up, you said, keep them out of the way. You said nothing about killing them.”

  “Well, they weren’t killed, were they? I thought they were going to kill us. We had to defend ourselves.”

  “You just panicked.”

  “Ha! You’d have shat yourself if you’d been there, but you weren’t, were you?”

  Another voice, softer, feminine. “Stop it, both of you. It can’t be helped now. It was a good plan, but it failed for reasons we couldn’t have foreseen. We could hardly have known they were still able to use magic. It’s disappointing, but we can still go ahead.”

  A cacophony of voices speaking at once. I winced as they rolled round my head like thunder. I was still standing beside the shelf where the ball had sat, holding it in my hands, mesmerised by the voices. I took it to the window seat so that I could listen in comfort. Setting the ball down for a moment as I arranged the nightgown around my legs, the voices stopped. The instant I picked up the ball, I could hear them again.

  Remembering the strange experience at the moon feast, I grasped the ball firmly and closed my eyes. It worked. I could see them.

  It was the same room I’d seen before, from the same angle. I was viewing through Ish’s glass ball, which hadn’t moved. Perhaps if they’d chosen another room for their argument I’d have heard nothing, but there they were, Ish and Kestimar glaring at each other across the rug, and Ish’s wife nearby. Kestimar was still in his mail, and I guessed he’d not long woken from his spell-induced sleep. The wife wore a delicate night wrap. Ish was still dressed, although informally in just his shirt, the coat cast over a chair. There were unrolled messages and a book on the table to one side of the fire and a half-drunk glass of wine, so perhaps he’d been up reading.

  “Of course we can go ahead,” she said, her accent so strong I had to concentrate to understand her. “Everything is ready. We can still keep the mages out of the game some other way. Kes, do you know where they went to?”

  “They walked out, that’s all I know at the moment. I’ve sent people to find out if they went to their house. If they have, we can keep them there. There are no underground escape routes. Is there anywhere else they might go?”

  “The Shannamar flag ship.” That was Ish.

  “Even better,” his wife said. “They can’t leave harbour unless we permit it. We only need to contain them. Shannamar is too far away to aid them, and by the time the fleet is underway it will be too late.”

  “Do you not think we should pause and reconsider…?”

  “Too late,” Kestimar said brusquely. “The fleet sailed with the tide. We are committed now.”

  “What about Bennamore? We cannot defeat an army…”

  Ish’s wife sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. “Ishmarsol, you are worse than a man in his dotage, the way you worry so. Where is your spirit, your courage? We’ve been intercepting the mages’ messages for a moon now, the awkward one is dead – and that was a piece of luck, wasn’t it? As for the rest of them, we just have to keep them quiet for a while. Everything will be fine.”

  “You always say that.” Ish’s voice was petulant. He rubbed a hand tiredly across his face. “You said no one would be harmed, Tella.”

  “And no one has been.”

  “Only by good fortune. And what about Aunt Tarn?”

  “S
he is safe where she can’t interfere, you know that. Stop whining. We have had some problems, but nothing that will stop us now. It’s a good plan, you know that. You just have to believe in it.”

  “It was a good plan. We were going to wait, to do this slowly, let Nord turn the Holders to us one by one and build our fleet, not this great rush. That was a good plan. But using her… You know I have never been happy with that, and neither has Nord.”

  “No, it was madness.” A new voice, familiar somehow, out of my sight. “And her emotions were too complex for me to untangle…”

  “You just made a hash of it.”

  “And you hurt her, Tella,” Ish went on. “That was never in the agreement. No one was to be harmed, you said. You promised.”

  “Pfft. A tiny bump on the head.”

  “She might have died!”

  “She was fine.” Kestimar again. “I was keeping an eye on her. I’d have brought her out of there if some imbecile hadn’t left the cells unlocked. She’d have done what we wanted, in time. Nord would have persuaded her.”

  “I am not so sure. She was very strong.” The new voice, from the corner of the room, hidden from my view. I wondered if I could get the ball to show me, and with the thought I could see him. Nord, wearing worn trousers and a mismatched shirt, hair tangled as if he’d just got out of bed.

  “Well, at least she is safe now,” Ish said. I thought there was relief in his voice. “She is with the mages and out of our reach. So the plan is no longer viable.”

  “Of course it is,” Tella said. “She could have been helpful with Shannamar, but she is no longer important.” That made me tremble. If I was no longer important, what might they do next time I got in their way?

  “But we have to have Shannamar,” Ish said. “Without it, we will fail.”

  “Shannamar will come to us,” Tella said. “So long as Nord can get to them.”