The Binder's Road (The Sequel to 'Illumination')

by Terry McGarry

  Today, it was just her and the girl. Two ordinary shielders, devoting their lives to a watch that they could not help but hope was in vain.

  Yet Verlein did not feel that the girl beside her aspired to futility. They spoke little during their long watches, and had spoken less on this sacred day, but now she hazarded to say, “What is it you watch for, girl?”

  The broad redhead turned in mild surprise. “Ships, Shieldmaster.”

  “Ships?” Verlein said.

  Her aim proved true; the girl’s gaze dropped for a moment before returning to its task. “A ship, Shieldmaster.”

  “Perhaps it is not the same ship I watch for.”

  “We don’t know what kind of ships will come.”

  Will, not might. Was that to please the shieldmaster? Her words were straightforward, but Verlein caught some emphasis in her tone. Determination. Conviction.

  “I’m watching for one bristling with spears,” Verlein said. She meant it half-humorously, and to prompt a more detailed response, but to her surprise she found herself describing a vision she’d never put [495] into words: “A long ship, beamier than ours. Moving fast, with folk at banks of oars as well as tending sail. Square-rigged, I think, though I don’t know why. With the sun behind it, so that it sails into its own shadow, so that it’s a shadow itself against the glare. The darkness we fled, catching us in the end.” She snorted. “What a load of manure that sounds when I say it, eh?”

  She’d picked up the “eh” from the girl, she hadn’t noticed when. A Norther tic. She found it funny.

  “I see a small ship,” the girl said. “One sail, one woman at the tiller. The sun’s behind me when I see it, and the sail’s let out in a triangle to one side, so that at first it looks like a shard of white shell stuck upright in the sea.”

  Her eyes still on the swells, Verlein clapped the girl on the shoulder. Not too hard. Companionable. “One of your folk went off in the ships that sailed to see the outer realms.”

  “The first,” the girl confirmed. “The very first one. But she’ll come back. She has to.” Softly, not meaning for the shieldmaster to hear her, she said, “She never came to say goodbye.”

  Verlein squeezed the girl’s shoulder. It was meant to be sympathetic, but it became a hard, convulsive grip as the two of them went rigid, staring at the seam between sea and sky.

  At the first prick of sail on the horizon.

  The Strong Leg

  Do not look to me, Louarn thought in anger as he left the burrow hole of the past. A narrow track gouged through banks of earth led him back out onto the road, where crowds of Ve Eiden celebrants, fresh from their noon ablutions, waited their turn for a glimpse of history.

  Jhoss wished to make a symbol of him. He was far too enamored of symbol. It was a tool—a useful tool, and a transcendent tool when wielded by mages, but still akin to a chisel, or a blade, or a loom. He would never again be anyone’s instrument.

  The stale scent of the stone interior clung to him. He shook his clothes to air them.

  He had worked hard to craft himself. He was tired of being crafted. It was time to just be, and see what came of it.

  When the runners and Jhoss had waylaid him, he had been on his way to breeze Dabrena’s horse Vervain. Daily rides gave him an opportunity to learn the countryside and observe its changes; the vision of Eiden Myr that he’d been privy to during the storm had given him a taste for sprawling vistas, and he took pleasure in finding new hilltops, new views to enjoy. He had spent a good deal of his youth on horseback and most of the last six years afoot. There was nothing in the world like movement, and becoming one with the mount beneath you.

  He fetched the gelding, swung aboard, and reined down the Maur [497] Road and into a lope as soon as traffic permitted. Gir Doegre’s historic hills smoothed into the distance behind him, sinking with the outline of the Elfelirs, and before long there was only the green of pastures, the gold of grain, the russet of flame wood, the deep delicious blue of the harvestmid sky. Eiden had healed; in the hands of a small child, his agonies had eased, and the twisting of Galandra’s shattered warding had been corrected. Mages had made this land a paradise. Perhaps it might be paradise once more.

  He stopped in a small roadside village for a rest and to water the horse. Sitting by the trough outside an inn, he found himself abruptly beset by children. They always seemed to find their way to him, with their tongue-lolling dogs or capering pet goats. With stray bits of straw that had collected around the watering trough between evening sweeps, he twisted some quick braid puzzles for them, and their laughter so pleased the innkeeper that she brought him out a snack of pickerel weed seeds and a growler of ale, then went back in to fetch a carrot for the horse. They went on their way, refreshed and happy, and when they rounded the next bend in the road and cleared a buckthorn hedge, Louarn saw Maur Lengra laid out in the glittering distance.

  He had come nearly eight leagues without realising it. This was as far as he could ride today and still be back by dark.

  He paused, looking down to where the road forked maurward and Heelward.

  He had never been to the Toes. A ferry from the Heel would have him across the maur in less than a morning. He’d like to learn the smelter’s craft. He’d never seen the Souther Lowlands, tasted their fermented palm sap, hung from the tough vines in their dark forests, smelled their exotic flowers.

  He had no pack, no provisions. That was no deterrent. The weather in these Souther climes had not yet turned too chill for sleeping out, and he had always earned his way with little trouble, charmed it where he had to.

  But Vervain did not belong to him. Dabrena rarely rode him, but she’d have need of him soon enough, to visit her family or her old holding, or to take Kara up to Glydh again.

  Hands tight on the reins, he was about to turn back when a trebled thud of hooves from that direction warned him off to the side of the road just in time to avoid a young lad racing around the bend on a dapple pony.

  “Ho, there, not so fast,” he warned, but the lad was reining up at the sight of him. Apparently the rush was to catch him.

  “You shine,” the boy said, breathless and with no preamble. He [498] might be nine-and-four or nine-and-eight, there was no telling, but the eagerness in his eyes was unmistakable.

  “So do you,” Louarn said, and waited.

  “I heard about the shine,” the boy said. “Like a flame wood leaf, when it’s strong, and you can ease pain and cure colic and—well, I’ve done that, you see, and I thought I might—I might—”

  “You do,” Louarn said.

  The boy licked his lips. “I’d like to do more. I’d like to learn more. I heard there was a place where they teach you. Where they shine bright. I’d like to shine bright. Sometimes our stock—things happen—if I could help—and my sisters are little and they’re into everything and sometimes I worry that—and if the fevers came back, or—well, if there is a place, I’d like to go there, but no one seems to know exactly where it is, it’s just a rumor like every other rumor—but I hoped—and when I saw you, and I saw your shine, I hoped—I thought—”

  The lad must have kept a pack ready by the door, waiting for the moment when someone passed through with that shine. Waiting, and watching, and peering out from his dairy or smithy or stable, examining every stranger who passed through his little roadside village.

  This lad could take Vervain in tow and return him to Dabrena while Louarn continued to the Heel on foot. Louarn could see the Toes. Sip fermented palm sap. Wander the dark forests.

  “It’s Gir Doegre you want,” he said to the boy, whose shine was like Elora’s eyes when she worked a delicate form in wood, like Pelufer’s face when she stood up in fierce defense of what she loved, like Caille’s hands when she stroked a cat’s soft fur. “It’s up the Knee Road, straight on, surrounded by hills. There’s no missing it. But ...”

  The boy paused with thanks on his lips and worry in his eyes.

  “But I can do better than that,
” Louarn said, and reined Vervain up beside the dapple pony. With a smile that required no crafting at all, he said, “I can take you there.”

  He set off at a canter for home, and called to the shining boy, “Follow me!”

  Names

  The Living

  Adaon n’Arai l’Ivrel, a seeker and scholar

  Anifa n’Bendri, a senior alderwoman of Gir Doegre

  Annina, a runner who was a vocate with Dabrena

  Barumor, a shield post commander

  Befendry, a scarvesmonger in Gir Doegre

  Belwyn, a woman who minds children in the Head holding

  Benkana, a man from the Weak Leg

  Berilise, daughter of the Chimney Swift publicans in Gir Doegre

  Beronwy, Jiondor’s pledge

  Bofric n’Roric, a scholar on the Isle of Senana

  Burken, a reckoner retired from the field

  Caille n’Prendra l’Nimorin, a street child, five years old

  Chaela, a fighter from the plains Girdle

  Chaldrinda n’Poskana, an aide to Pelkin

  Cheveil, a shielder

  Cinn, a mender who was a vocate with Dabrena

  Corle, a senior mender in the Head holding

  Dabrena n’Arilda l’Desarde, head mender in the Head holding

  Dalle, a piemonger in Gir Doegre

  Denuorin n’Amtravr, a senior alderman of Gir Doegre

  Diluor, a coppersmith in Gir Doegre

  Dontra, a senior mender in the Head holding

  Effad, a fighter from the plains Girdle

  Elander, a Copper Long trader in Gir Doegre

  Eldrisil te Khine, one of Streln’s men

  Elidorlin, a scrapmonger in Gir Doegre

  Elora n’Prendra l’Nimorin, a trader girl, nine-and-four years old

  Eltarion te Khine, a mender who was a vocate with Dabrena

  Elya, a woman of Heel descent

  Eowi, a shielder, one of Verlein’s seconds

  Eshadri, a shield post commander

  Evrael n’Daivor l’Naeve te Khine, the Khinish fleetmaster

  Falowen n’Tedra, a scholar on the Isle of Senana Flin, nearly six years old, a child of Holding warders

  Galtrelor, a foodmonger in Gir Doegre

  Gilris, a shield post commander

  Girayal, a shielder, one of Verlein’s seconds

  Graefel n’Traeyen l’Brenlyn, head scholar on the Isle of Senana

  Harinar, a shielder

  Herne, a runner who was a vocate with Dabrena

  Ilorna, a Holding warder

  Jeolle n’Jedona, a senior alderwoman of Gir Doegre

  Jerize, a mender who was a vocate with Dabrena

  Jhoss n’Kall l’Sirelyi t’Eiden, a beekeeper

  Jia, a shield post commander

  Jifadry, a soupmonger in Gir Doegre

  Jimor n’Loflin l’Baile, an aide to Pelkin

  Jiondor, a sweetsmonger in Gir Doegre

  Kara n’Dabrena l’Tolivar, Dabrena’s six-year-old daughter

  Karanthe n’Farine l’Jebb, a runner who was a vocate with Dabrena

  Kazhe n’Zhevra, last of a line of blademasters

  Lannan, a shield post commander

  Lerissa n’Rigael ti Khine, formerly an Ennead illuminator

  Loralir, an elderly stonemonger in Gir Doegre

  Loris, birdmaster at the Head holding, a senior mender

  Louarn, a lad-of-all-crafts

  Mellas, a Holding runner boy

  Meloni, a seamer in Gir Doegre

  Mireille n’Jenaille, a stonemonger in Gir Doegre

  Narilyn, a senior mender at the Head holding

  Nemrina, a weaver in Gir Doegre

  Nerenyi n’Jheel l’Corlin, keeper of codices on the Isle of Senana

  Nolfiander (Nolfi), a barrow boy on Copper Long in Gir Doegre

  Ofalador, a Copper Long trader in Gir Doegre

  Ollo, a scrapmonger in Gir Doegre

  Pelkin n’Rolf l’Liath, head runner

  Pelufer n’Prendra l’Nimorin, a street child, nine-and-two years old

  Porfinn, a mender

  Prenaille, a Tin Long trader in Gir Doegre

  Reiligh, herbmaster at the Head holding, a senior mender

  Riflin, a foodmonger in Gir Doegre

  Risalyn, a woman from the Highlands Girdle

  Ronim, a senior mender at the Head holding

  Seldra, a Tin Long trader in Gir Doegre

  Selen, a senior mender at the Head holding

  Sevriel, a shield post commander

  Sira, a woman from the plains Girdle

  Strelniriol te Khine (Streln), headman of the Khinish

  Tarunel, a shield post commander

  Teyik, the son of Worilke’s old steward, Valik

  Tiloura, a coppersmith in Gir Doegre

  Tofro, a trader child in Gir Doegre

  Toudin, a stewmonger in Gir Doegre

  Verlein n’Tekla l’Sayal, first of Eiden’s shield

  Worilke n’Karad, formerly an Ennead wordsmith

  Yuralon, a man from the Highlands Girdle

  The Dead

  Torrin n’Maeryn l’Eilody, the Lightbreaker, a wordsmith

  Gir Doegre

  Aifrin, Altreille, Amtreor, Andorlin, Anondry, Bardor, Belu, Beoni, Diludel, Donfa, Eldomon, Erileka, Feraille, Fesalyn, Grotelyn, Herik, Jedfa, Jerulon, Jimni, Jimurin, Luander, Melledor, Morlor, Nemolle, Nilu, Noluorin, Nomulor, Ofrander, Ronderas, Valenya, haunts

  Jenaille, Mireille’ s mother

  Nimorin n’Belu, father of Elora, Pelufer, and Caille

  Prendra n’ Anondry, mother of Elora, Pelufer, and Caille

  Seliander (Sel), Nolfiander’s older brother

  The Holding

  Alliol, a head warder, one of Flin’s foster-fathers

  Brondarion te Khine (Bron), a stablemaster

  Davior, an Ennead binder (balance triad)

  Drinda, a baker

  Ellerin, a head warder, one of Flin’s foster-fathers

  Evonder n’Daivor l’Naeve, an Ennead binder (balance triad, Daivor’s successor)

  Freyn n’Eniya, an Ennead binder (weather triad)

  Garran, a vocate

  Gondril n’Rontifer, an Ennead wordsmith (leading triad)

  Jonnula, a vocate

  Landril n’Rontifer, an Ennead illuminator (leading triad)

  Naeve n’Bevriel, Evonder’s mother, an Ennead wordsmith (balance triad)

  Pirra, a head warder, Flin’s foster-mother

  Rigael n’Saeron l’Portriel, Lerissa’s father, an Ennead illuminator

  Seldril n’ Yelwyn, an Ennead binder (leading triad)

  Terrell, a vocate

  Tolivar, a warder triaded with Dabrena; Kara’s father

  Valik, Worilke’s old steward

  Vonche n’Reiff, an Ennead illuminator (balance triad)

  Risalyn

  Ardis, Ariel, Bendik, Efrein, Istriel, Liya, Traig, haunts

  Yuralon

  Astael, Coenn, Daeriel, Deilyn, Diandre, Korras, Niseil, Perchis, Rajulon, Soliri, Sowryn, Thandra, Vaen, Vebryn, haunts

  Glossary

  bet-jahr, also pethyar: The spirit world.

  binder, bindsman, bindswoman: A mage who prepared casting materials and sang a wordless melody over an inscribed, illuminated manuscript to complete a casting. Binders also bound their triads, psychologically and sometimes by blood relationship. Former binders have taken up a variety of trades, as healers, herbalists, producers of scribing materials, and so on; some have become singers, traveling to learn and entertain; some have become scholars, attempting to re-create from scribed sources ancient songs with words; only a few, unable to bear their inability to cast, have returned to their family trades.

  bonedays: Three days a year (one in each season) when the dead are remembered and offerings are left for the bonefolk. Observances differ regionally. Binders often chose bonedays to harvest skins for vellum and parchment.

  bonefolk: Mysterious fringe fo
lk who dispose of the carcasses of people and animals, leaving nothing behind but any metal or stone.

  Brightfire: A minor holiday also known as Spindle Day; the night before is known as Wantons’ Eve. Considered the start of summer in some Souther areas and on Khine. We would call it May Day.

  Celyrian: One of the old tongues that was lost over time but retained by wordsmiths as the language and scribing system used for magecraft. An ornate, flowing, alphabetic script, it is now the scribing system used most by the scholars.

  cheit: A small, hooked, magecrafted dagger carried by a kenai. Plural cheitla.

  Eiden: The animating and personified spirit of earth. Masculine in aspect. Anyone engaged in farming, animal husbandry, or material crafts is considered a child of Eiden. Formerly, anyone not a mage—not a child of Galandra—was considered a child of Eiden.

  Eiden Myr: The world, now also, more specifically, the island continent on which a magecrafted society existed in isolation for twice nine nonned years.

  Ennead: Nine mages, in three triads, bound to protect Eiden Myr from the Great Storms and other catastrophes. Also called the Nine, the Three of Threes. Lived and worked in the Ennead’s Holding, in the Aralinn Mountains of the Head facing into the Sea of Storms, until their downfall six years ago.