Colors of Chaos

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  “Well… as Leyladin might have told you, I’m an orphan. Both my parents died when I was so young I remember neither. I was raised by my aunt and uncle…” Cerryl went on to detail his years at the mines, his apprenticeship at Dylert’s mill, and then his work as an apprentice scrivener for Tellis. “… and then, one day, one of the overmages arrived at the shop and summoned me to meet with the High Wizard. He examined me and decided I was suitable to be a student mage. That took two years, and last harvest the Council made me a full mage… a very junior mage. Now I’m one of those who guard the gates to Fairhaven.”

  “Good thing, too.” Layel shook his head. “I don’t mind as paying the tariffs and taxes for the roads, but I’d mind more than a hogshead full of manure if the smugglers got off with using the roads and then coming into the city and selling for less than I could.”

  “Father… no one sells for less.”

  “They could. Aye, they could. Take stuff in Spidlaria and sneak through Axalt or take the old back roads from Tyrhavven, and afore you know it they’d be in the Market Square.”

  “Doesn’t everyone pay the taxes?” Cerryl asked.

  “No. Even all the mages in the Halls couldn’t find every ferret who turns a good. That’s not the task of the city patrol, either. They keep the peace, not the trade laws. Thank the light, don’t need armsmen to make trade and tariffs work, not in the city, anyway. See… there’s coins in Fairhaven, and the best roads are the White highways, the ones that can take the big wagons.” Layel shrugged. “So traders and exchanges are here. Smaller traders can take carts over the back roads, but most times they can’t carry that much, and the Traders’ Guild makes sure the road gauges are kept.”

  “The road gauges?” asked Leyladin.

  Cerryl had the feeling she had asked the question for him, but he was grateful. He’d never heard of the road gauges.

  “You should remember, Daughter. If a road is more than four cubits wide, it’s a highway, and the ruler must collect tariffs, and only those with the medallions may use it. See, that way, the pony traders have to go on the slow and muddy tracks that wind out of the way. And most times, a trader with fast teams and wagons is a prosperous trader, and the great highways are fast.”

  Cerryl nodded. Another fact he’d not known.

  “Meridis! What have we for sweets?”

  The serving woman reappeared. “Be you ready for sweets, ser?”

  “Why’d you think I called?” Layel’s stern expression dissolved into a chuckle.

  “Father… you don’t have to put on the stern front for company.”

  “Can’t even be master in my own dwelling, not even over sweets.” The trader glanced at Cerryl. “You’ll see… leastwise, much as a mage can that way.”

  “Father…”

  “Fellow ought to know.” Layel turned to Meridis. “Sweets?”

  “I baked a fresh nut and custard pie.”

  “Wonderful! It takes company for me to get my favorite.”

  “It does not,” suggested Leyladin. “You always tell poor Meridis not to bother because you’d look like a shoat if she fixed it just for you.”

  “You see?” asked Layel. “An answer for everything.”

  Cerryl nodded, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the banter and byplay.

  “Then let’s have it.”

  The empty dishes vanished into the next room, a kitchen, Cerryl thought, but he was far from certain about anything, and Meridis returned with three smaller china plates, each filled with a golden-crusted pie.

  “Try it,” urged the trader.

  “It is good,” added Leyladin. “Rich, but good.”

  Everything felt rich to Cerryl, but he took a small bite and then a larger one. Before he fully realized it, his plate was empty.

  “See? Your mage friend agrees with me.”

  “It was… I’ve never tasted a sweet that good,” Cerryl confessed. “In fact, I’ve never had a dinner so good.”

  Layel and Leyladin exchanged glances, and Leyladin added, “I’m so glad you enjoyed it. The Meal Hall isn’t known for good food. Most of the full mages don’t eat there unless they have to for some reason or another.”

  “I have noticed that,” Cerryl said dryly. “I’m beginning to see why.” He found himself yawning, perhaps because of the fullness in his stomach, or the warmth of the dining room, or the length of the day. “I’m sorry. It has been a long day.”

  “You have to be at the gates when they open for trade?” asked Layel.

  “Yes. Otherwise they have to hold wagons until a mage arrives. I’d not want to face Kinowin if I caused that.”

  “Neither would I,” said Leyladin with a laugh. “Perhaps… it may be getting late for you.”

  “Don’t shoo him out.”

  “He has to rise early, Father.”

  Cerryl held up a hand. “Your daughter is doubtless correct. I’ve enjoyed the meal and the company… but I do have to be up before the sun.”

  Leyladin rose, and Cerryl followed her example, following her back through the house, lamps still burning in unused rooms, throwing shadows on polished and glistening floors.

  In the foyer, he eased on his jacket, thinking about the short, but certainly chill, walk back to his cold room, a room that had seemed so luxurious-until he had seen Leyladin’s house.

  “What do you think?” asked Leyladin as she stood by the door.

  “About what? Your father? He cares a great deal for you.”

  “Cerryl. You are as dense as that mule my father mentioned.” A smile followed the words, but one that held concern, and her green eyes, dark in the dim light of the polished bronze lamps, fixed his.

  He took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to think. I could say pleasant things, and I would, to anyone but you. Right now… I’m… overwhelmed. I grew up an orphan in a two-room house. It was clean, but my pallet was on the stone floor, and my uncle felt lucky if he could grub a good piece of malachite and sell it for a silver once every few eight-days. I went to work in a mill not much past my tenth year, and I was lucky to have a pearapple to eat once or twice a year. Those noodles tonight-they were wonderful, but they probably used more pearapples than I’ve eaten in my whole life. I’ve never had good wine from bottles.”

  “Cerryl… I know that. I’ve known that from the beginning, but I couldn’t keep pretending that I wasn’t different.” She reached out and touched his cheek. “With you… I don’t want to pretend.”

  “That means more than you know.” He offered a smile.

  “I think I know that.” She bent forward and brushed his cheek with her lips. “Good night. I’ll see you soon.”

  As he walked through the night, through the light gusts of cold wind, through the intermittent snowflakes with the slight headache he’d almost forgotten, his thoughts swirled like the snow. What happened next? Could anything happen? Jeslek, Sterol, and Anya had all cautioned him again consorting with a Black. Yet Leyladin was a healer who was mostly Black, and he was a White mage-perhaps at best a White mage fringing toward gray. He repressed a slight shiver at that. No one liked gray mages, neither the White mages of Fairhaven nor the Black Order mages of Recluce.

  He and Leyladin could hold hands… but how much more? Was she worried about that? Was that why she kept a certain distance?

  He frowned as he kept walking. Her kiss had been warm, but not order-chaos conflict warm.

  V

  Cerryl stretched, standing in the sun of the small guardhouse porch, glad that spring had returned. Even the hills in the distance were showing signs of full greening.

  He sat down on the backed stool provided for him, just high enough to be able to see over the granite rampart. He kept his eyes open but concentrated on focusing the chaos energy of the sun into an ever-tighter line of pure chaos-something like a light lance, but no thicker than his index finger.

  Whst! The barely audible hiss followed as the narrow line of golden fire cut into the granite at the bottom of the ram
part, drilling into the hard stone. White dust oozed out onto the walkway.

  Cerryl released the light dagger-or whatever it might be-and sat there quietly, sweating, although the day was not that warm, trying to cool off from his silent effort. The area under the rampart ledge wasn’t that visible, and if anyone did look, he’d only assume that the stonecutters had made an error and perhaps filled in with powdered stone that had leached away over time.

  Kinowin had suggested he use his time to improve his skills… but how? And where? He couldn’t very well have said that he’d mostly mastered the light cloak that left him invisible, certainly not in the Tower, where the walls had both eyes and ears. Nor did he wish to make known his light lances, and if he used those on guard duty, everyone in the Halls of the Mages-including Jeslek-would know in days.

  Cerryl had wondered what other skills might be useful… that he could work on quietly. Somehow, focusing chaos into a tighter focus might help. At some time he wanted to try the light dagger against cold iron, but he dared not experiment with that where anyone could see or scree him. Chaos against iron would alert any mage nearby.

  The sound of wagon wheels on the stones of the highway broke into his reverie, and he sat up straight, looking at the afternoon coach from Lydiar. The four passengers all filed out and stood by the guardhouse while Cerryl studied with his senses the boxes and bags roped to the top. Outside of one black case that held a set of iron knives, the bags were all filled with what seemed to be fabric or leather-things with a “soft” feel.

  “Ser?” called the duty officer.

  “The black bag has knives, but there’s no rule against personal weapons.”

  The swarthy black-bearded trader in purple looked up at the thin mage, standing at the guardhouse upper rampart, back to the duty guard, then shook his head.

  “… see why you’d best not be smuggling?” asked the rotund Sligan in his embroidered jacket.

  “… demon-damned mages know what you eat for breakfast…”

  “It makes your efforts more profitable,” suggested the third man, a blond man in a gray tunic and trousers with high black boots, an outfit Cerryl didn’t recognize.

  “Smugglers don’t take the White highways.”

  “If they don’t, they’ll not be carrying much.”

  “Let’s go!” called the coach’s driver.

  As the coach pulled through the gates, the duty guard gave a broad smile to Cerryl. “That be keeping them thinking, ser.”

  “Let us hope so.” Cerryl still wondered about the blond man in gray and black. The fellow could have been almost any age and showed neither order nor chaos. But something about him bothered Cerryl. Or was it that he just couldn’t determine from where the fellow might hail?

  Cerryl sat back down on the stool, fingering his smooth chin.

  So many things were unsettled. Leyladin was off in Hydlen, and while he was pleased with his progress in using the light dagger, he felt he needed to come up with something more.

  He’d have to think about it, not only about what other chaos skills he could hone or develop, but where so that others, Anya and Jeslek, especially, did not discover, not quickly, in any case.

  VI

  Cerryl took a deep breath as he left Kinowin’s quarters, not really knowing why, except that he was relieved that Kinowin hadn’t pressed him again on improving his chaos-handling skills.

  “It can’t be that bad.” Standing outside the overmage’s door, Faltar grinned at Cerryl. “Wait for me. I won’t be long.”

  “All right.” Cerryl sat down on the small wooden bench as the blond mage stepped into Kinowin’s quarters and shut the door behind him. Faltar was always so cheerful. Was that why he appealed to so many people? He certainly didn’t have as much ability to handle chaos stuff as did either Lyasa or Cerryl, but all had been made full mages at the same time. Then, reflected Cerryl, it had taken Faltar four years. The slender mage leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.

  Thud!

  Cerryl opened his eyes in time to see a red-haired apprentice mage, thin-faced and female, hurrying away from Kinowin’s door. He sat up for a moment, but Faltar didn’t appear, and he leaned back. Darkness, he was tired.

  “Cerryl?”

  Cerryl struggled awake. Gate-guard duty didn’t help his sleep, and he hated to think what it might be like in summer when the days were longer. “I’m here. I think.” He sat up on the bench and rubbed his eyes.

  “Kinowin’s already left. You were sleeping. I’ve been to the Meal Hall and back. They’re having creamed lamb. Again.” Faltar’s lips curled. “I thought you might like to go out for dinner with me.”

  “I know how you like the lamb.” Cerryl grinned, but his grin faded. “Do you ever eat in the Halls?”

  “Not often.”

  “I don’t see how you can eat in the city every night,” Cerryl pointed out. “I can’t.”

  “But you can,” Faltar countered. “We get a gold every eight-day. That’s ten silvers-or a hundred coppers. Most meals-except at Furenk’s-cost five coppers or less. So you still have more than six silvers left over every eight-day, even if you ate away from the Halls every night.” The blond mage smiled. “I’m not saying every night. Just tonight. Besides, what’s coin for?”

  Books, clothing, silk smallclothes to keep him warm on guard duty-Cerryl could think of quite a few things. Even a warm woolen blanket for the cold nights. Or a present for Leyladin. Still, he’d been careful, and he had nearly ten golds in his private strongbox. Faltar was right. Paying for a dinner out of the Halls now and again couldn’t hurt. Leyladin was off on a trip to Hydolar-Duke Berofar was ailing and had requested a healer from Fairhaven. “Tonight-that sounds good.”

  “Let’s try The Golden Ram. It’s not far, and I’m starving.”

  “So am I.” Cerryl stood and stretched, then followed Faltar out of the tower and past the guards and the messenger in red. Outside, the wind was gusting, almost warm, as they turned right leaving the front Hall and walked south along the Avenue past the White Tower.

  “Spring is here,” Faltar said pleasantly.

  “Let us hope it remains this time.”

  The Golden Ram was less than a half-kay from the Wizards’ Square. How many times had Cerryl walked past the inn on his way to and from his sewer cleaning duties? He probably couldn’t have counted them. They stepped past the green signboard with the image of the golden ram and in through the left side of the double doors.

  “Two of you?” asked the man in the faded blue vest standing by a small counter.

  “Two, Veron,” Faltar confirmed.

  “The corner table.” Veron gestured.

  “I take it you come here often.” Cerryl glanced around the long room as Faltar wended his way through the crowded room. In the other corner Cerryl caught sight of Eliasar and Kinowin, but neither acknowledged the younger mages, as they were apparently caught up in their own conversation. The public room contained all sorts of people, from young traders to lancer officers and even several couples.

  “Ah… feels good to sit down.” Faltar stretched circumspectly.

  The serving girl, also wearing a blue vest, appeared at Faltar’s elbow. “What’ll you gents be having?”

  “What’s good?” asked the blond mage, looking at her, then at Cerryl.

  “It all is, ser. I’d try the cutlets. They run three. A touch chewy, but tasty. Either the good ale or a red wine. Fresh barrel.”

  “I’ll have the cutlets, with the good ale,” Faltar said. “The cutlets, but I’ll try the red wine.” Cerryl felt too hungry and tired to ask about other possibilities, but he’d drunk so much ale lately, or so it seemed, that he thought he’d try the wine.

  “Two cutlets-they come with the roasted potatoes and bread-and an ale and a red. That be it?”

  Both mages nodded, and the server bustled off.

  “I didn’t know you drank wine. Or is that the healer’s influence?”

  Cerryl found himsel
f flushing.

  “Oh… she’ll change you yet.”

  “She probably already has,” conceded Cerryl. “I don’t see her much, what with her healing stuff and my gate duty.”

  Thump! Thump! Two mugs appeared on the table. “That’ll be four, gents.”

  Cerryl fished out two coppers, as did Faltar. Both vanished, and so did the server.

  “Gate duty is boring,” said Faltar. “Sometimes you see odd things, though. This afternoon, I saw some Blacks-three of them. I think they were the ones that get exiled from Recluce.”

  “You let them in and didn’t tell anyone?”

  “Even I’m not that stupid.” Faltar took a healthy swallow of the ale. “They were leaving, but I still told Kinowin when I got off duty. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He thanked me and sent an apprentice to tell Jeslek. What’s her name, the new redhead?”

  “Kiella? Oh… that’s what she was doing.”

  “And I thought you slept through it all.”

  “I wasn’t that sleepy.”

  “I could have roasted you with chaos, and you wouldn’t have known it.” Faltar grinned. “Anyway, two of them were blades, and one was a healer, it looked like.”

  “I imagine you looked very closely.”

  “It’s not what you’re thinking. One of the blades was a woman. Redheaded and good-looking from what I could tell, but she was big, taller than you, and had that look, like Eliasar does when he’s slapping you around in weapons training. One was like Kinowin, big and blond, except he was even bigger. The healer was smaller, a young fellow, redheaded, almost shy.”

  “Here’s the cutlets. That’s another six.” The serving woman in the blue vest set two heavy brown platters on the table, then glanced from Faltar to Cerryl.

  Cerryl dug out another four coppers. Faltar did the same.

  “And I’d be thanking you both.” She slipped the coppers into her wallet and gave a broad smile, pausing for a moment before nodding and slipping away.

  Cerryl frowned, then took a bite of the cutlet, chewing hard because it was tough, if tasty. He had his own ideas about the travelers from Recluce, but Kinowin had told him not to guess outside the Halls.