Night of Madness

by Lawrence Watt-Evans

  "Lord Azrad makes no exceptions," Hanner replied. "What about you, though-are you all right? Was anyone in your family hurt?"

  "Oh, we're fine," Mavi said quickly. "There was some disturbance, certainly, and I didn't sleep at all well, due to the shouting and so on, but nobody troubled us. I heard all the neighbors talking, though, so I thought I'd come up here to see what was happening."

  "Not very much, from what I can see," Hanner said. Then someone bumped against him, and he turned to find that Rudhira had finally worked her way through the crowd, caught up with him, and shoved her way up to his side.

  "Who is this?" Rudhira asked.

  "Ah," Hanner said. He spread his hands as best he could in the crowded circumstances. "Rudhira of Camptown, this is Mavi of Newmarket. She's a friend-a friend of my sister Nerra, I mean."

  "Pleased to meet you," Rudhira said, though she did not look especially pleased. "Hanner, why are we here? They aren't saying anything new."

  "You don't have to stay," Hanner told her, a trifle resentfully. "You can go home or go back to Uncle Faran's house."

  "Uncle Faran's house?" Mavi asked, puzzled. "But your uncle lives in the Palace."

  "He has a house on High Street, as well," Hanner explained. "That's where Alris and I are staying until the guards let us back in."

  "Oh, I assumed you'd found an inn."

  "I didn't need to ..."

  "We wouldn't all have fit at an inn!" Rudhira interrupted.

  "We?" Mavi asked, puzzled.

  "I collected a group of people to help out last night," Hanner explained. "Rudhira was one of them." Othisen was approaching as well; Hanner pointed him out and said, "And Othisen Okko's son was another. Most of the rest have gone home now, but these two stayed."

  "I could have helped!" Mavi said. "You should have come to get me!"

  "Are you a warlock?" Rudhira demanded, before Hanner could reply. Hanner raised a hand to hush her.

  "No, of course not," Mavi said.

  "We are," Rudhira said, gesturing at herself and Othisen. "Lord Hanner found us in the Wizards' Quarter-we were trying to figure out what had happened to us, and he came and told us to help him stop the bad warlocks."

  At that, a stranger in the crowd turned and stared. "What did you say?" she asked.

  "Did you say you're a warlock?" another said.

  "A warlock? Here?"

  Hanner looked around worriedly and quickly threw a protective arm around Mavi. Several faces were turning toward them, and Rudhira was standing defiantly, hands on her hips, glaring back at them all.

  "We were helping," she said. "Lord Hanner invoked the overlord's name and told us to help, and we did! We've just come from turning four of the warlocks who went smashing things over to a magistrate!"

  Mavi threw Hanner an uncertain glance.

  "I'll explain later," he said. "Right now, I think we should-"

  The end of his sentence was drowned out by a sudden roar from the crowd, followed by a hush. Hanner turned, startled, trying to see what had happened.

  The palace door had opened, and a figure had emerged onto the bridge, a figure dressed in a magnificent green velvet cloak that was probably swelteringly uncomfortable in the summer heat.

  Hanner recognized him immediately-as had several others in the crowd.

  "Lord Faran," someone said.

  An expectant silence spread quickly as Faran strode across the bridge. The lines of soldiers parted at his approach, and he marched on into the square. Everyone waited for him to stop and begin speaking.

  He didn't. He kept right on marching.

  The crowd stepped back, splitting down the middle to give him room, and then, much more slowly, filled back in behind him.

  Faran paid no heed to any of them; he strode onward as if the square were empty, directly across the center without looking to either side, and finally out of the square and onto Center Avenue, as if he intended to simply march straight on to Southmarket.

  The silence broke as people began to ask one another what the Lord Counselor was doing, and Hanner had to shout to be heard over the babble.

  "Come on!" he said, taking Mavi's hand. "I think I know where he's going, and we'd best meet him there."

  Mavi didn't try to answer over the noise, but followed as he led the way.

  Rudhira and Othisen followed as well, and the foursome fought their way quickly through the milling throng-not toward Center Avenue, as that was mobbed, but to Aristocrat Circle.

  Manner was sure that Faran was headed for the house on High Street, and there were other routes that would take one there more quickly than going straight up Center and then turning right onto High Street.

  Even as he hurried, he was aware of the feel of Mavi's hand in his-cool and soft, her touch delicate but not weak.

  He also noticed that Rudhira was opening a path through the crowd by unnatural means; he considered protesting, but then decided against it. The mob was already stirred up by Faran's silent appearance, and too busy to notice that they were being pushed not by hands, but by magic.

  In fact.. .

  "Rudhira," Hanner called, "maybe you should fly."

  Rudhira turned to look at him, and then smiled a broad, not entirely pleasant smile.

  "We all will," she said.

  Before Hanner could protest he found himself snatched off his feet; the surrounding crowd fell away, the buildings around the square dropped away and shrank. His hand tightened-and so did Mavi's. Hanner turned to find her wide-eyed with fright, staring down, but saying nothing.

  "It's all right!" Hanner shouted. "Just stay calm!"

  She lifted her gaze to him, her expression making it plain that she thought he was completely insane to tell her this. "But we're flying," she said.

  "Yes, I know," Hanner said. "But it's safe."

  She did not look convinced. "You've done this before?" she asked.

  "Well, no," Hanner admitted, "but Rudhira has."

  Honesty, he decided upon seeing her reaction, had not been the right choice.

  Below them voices were shouting angrily.

  "Which way?" Rudhira called to him.

  Startled, he stopped watching Mavi's face and looked around.

  The four of them, he and Mavi and Rudhira and Othisen, were hanging in midair perhaps fifty or sixty feet up, well above most of the rooftops. Below them in the square people were churning about and shouting and pointing, and a few were throwing things at the hovering clump of people; fortunately, none were able to actually hit anything so far off the ground.

  To the north was the golden facade of the Palace and the dark water of the Grand Canal, and on all other sides the rooftops of the city stretched out, all brightly lit. There were no shadows up here, nothing to keep off the summer sun, and the expanse of red tile seemed vast and shimmering, pocked and split almost randomly by the dark separations between buildings. The Old City was a tangled patch of red tile, golden thatch, and black slate to the northeast.

  On the ground he knew half a dozen routes to the corner of High Street and Coronet, but from up here he didn't recognize any of them. One tile rooftop looked much like another.

  He could work it out logically, he told himself. If the Palace was that way, they wanted to go the opposite, into the New City, up the slope past Short Street and Second Street and Lower Street. ..

  He tried to pick out the streets from the rooftops, but the alleys and gardens and courtyards confused matters, and he settled for pointing south and saying, "That way."

  Immediately they were whisked away, swooping after Rudhira as if they were on strings.

  Once they were moving Hanner was able to spot a few details he had missed before. There was Lord Anduron's estate with its eccentric assortment of turrets and wrought-iron spires, at the corner of Canal Avenue and Second Street...

  "Bear right," he called.

  Rudhira obliged, and they cut diagonally across a block, over assorted gardens and courtyards. He recognized a facade on Cen
tral Avenue.

  "Farther right," he said.

  That sufficed; they were then aimed as directly as he could ask toward Lord Faran's house. A moment later they descended gracefully toward the packed dirt of High Street.

  "Wait," Hanner said. He glanced to the left, toward Center Avenue, and could see people moving about-not the usual gentle movement of people going about their business, but pushing and running. He could hear shouting as well.

  Rudhira stopped, and the four hung in midair. All of them followed Manner's gaze.

  "What should we do?" Rudhira asked.

  "Back up," Hanner said. "We'll land in the garden out back, and go in that way, where we can't be seen."

  "Good idea," Othisen said.

  Rudhira nodded, and the foursome swooped upward again, over the roof and down into the garden.

  Mavi stumbled when they landed; she had tucked her legs up and did not straighten them quickly enough. Hanner caught her, then quickly released her.

  "Sorry," he said.

  "Thank you," she replied.

  "Now what?" Othisen asked.

  Hanner looked around at the neatly trimmed hedges and flowerbeds. They had traveled far faster by air than a man could on foot and had been able to cut across the roofs instead of following the streets, so they had undoubtedly gotten here before Lord Faran, but he would be arriving any minute.

  "We go inside, of course," Hanner said. He led the way to one of the garden doors and knocked vigorously, hoping someone was within earshot.

  Bern answered the door. He tried to say something, but Hanner was in no mood for polite greeting and pushed past him, leading his party quickly into the house and through the long gallery toward the front. As he passed, Hanner told Bern, "Uncle Faran's coming."

  Alris, sprawled on a divan in the front parlor, heard that. "He is?" she called, startled. "He's not still in the Palace?"

  Hanner turned up an empty palm as he stood in the doorway to the parlor. "He'll be here any minute," he said.

  "Is Nerra with him?" Alris asked, rising.

  "No," Hanner said. "He was alone."

  "No guards to take charge of the prisoners?" Zarek asked from the parlor-he had been seated not far from Alris. "Does he know what you did with them?"

  "He's alone," Hanner said. "I don't know any more than that I don't know why he left the Palace or why he's coming here or why he's alone."

  Bern arrived as Hanner finished this speech.

  "My lord," he said, "I really think you should know, before your uncle arrives, that we have additional guests."

  Startled, Hanner turned to face him.

  "They're upstairs, resting," Alris said. "Two of those people you had here last night, who went home this morning. They came back. Their neighbors were shouting at them and throwing mud."

  "What? Why?" Hanner asked.

  "Because they're warlocks, of course," Zarek said.

  There was a moment of awkward silence as the seven of them-Hanner, Mavi, Rudhira, Othisen, Alris, Zarek, and Bern- stood scattered about the parlor and hallway, looking at one another, seeking some clue as to what was happening and what they should do.

  And then the front door opened, and Lord Faran stepped in.

  "My lord," Bern said with a bow. "May I take your ..."

  He had not yet said the word "cloak" when Faran flung the garment at him. Bern caught it and began smoothing and dusting it as Faran looked around at the others. Hanner, from years of experience, saw that his uncle was regaining control of a lost temper; he suspected the others saw nothing but a man relaxing after the exertion of a brisk walk in the summer sun.

  "Hanner, my boy," Faran said. "A pleasure to see you here. Would you introduce me to your friends?"

  "Of course, my lord uncle," Hanner said, bowing. Formalities that he never bothered with if he could help it, that he almost never used when he was surrounded entirely by family or entirely by outsiders, seemed necessary and natural in this particular setting. "Lord Counselor Faran, may I present Rudhira of Camptown?"

  Rudhira had the wit to curtsy.

  "I believe you have already met Mavi of Newmarket, who I had the good fortune to meet in the square just now and invite to accompany us. This young man is Othisen Okko's son, and that is Zarek, known at present as the Homeless."

  Neither man managed a decent bow, but Zarek did make a belated and halfhearted attempt, while Othisen just gaped.

  "I understand you are the master of this house," Rudhira said. "Our thanks for your hospitality, my lord." She smiled warmly-a little too warmly, Hanner thought.

  Faran smiled in return, a smile that Hanner had seen many times before, and Hanner knew where that would lead. He cleared his throat.

  "It's a pleasure to welcome guests such as you," Faran said. He looked around. "And are there any others? My understanding was that my nephew had brought more than a dozen visitors here last night."

  Hanner hesitated. "The others left, my lord," he said. "The four criminals have been turned over to the Lord Magistrate of the Old Merchants' Quarter, since Lord Azrad refused them entry, and the others, now that the excitement has subsided somewhat, went home. But two of them have come back."

  Faran raised one eyebrow. "The excitement, my boy, has scarcely begun."

  "That's why the two returned," Hanner said.

  Faran nodded. "Tell me, are all my guests here possessed of the new magic that appeared last night, this so-called warlockry?"

  Hanner swallowed and looked at the others.

  "I am," Rudhira said proudly, spreading her arms and rising a few inches from the floor. To Hanner's surprise, Faran's smile broadened.

  "I'm not as powerful as Rudhira, but I'm a warlock," Othisen said.

  "So am I," Zarek admitted.

  Faran looked at Mavi, who turned up both hands. "Not I," she said. "I was just talking with Hanner in the square when we saw you leave the Palace, and I was brought along."

  "The two upstairs are warlocks, though," Hanner said.

  "Ah," Faran said. "Then counting that mysterious unnamed pair, there are six of us."

  "Us?" Hanner said, startled.

  Faran's smile vanished. "Us," he said. "I, too, am a warlock. Thus Lord Azrad, that useless old fool, has cast me out."

  Hanner's mouth fell open, and he could see Alris's eyes widen with shock.

  The revelation that their uncle was a warlock was perhaps the biggest shock, but it was by no means the only one. That Faran had called Azrad a fool before these near-total strangers was another, almost as great. They had both heard their uncle speak disparagingly of the overlord before-quite often, in fact-but never before where anyone outside the family could hear. In fact, it had been pounded into Hanner from an early age that as a hereditary lord he must never, ever speak ill of Lord Azrad in public; whatever they might think or say among themselves, the nobility had an obligation to present a united front to the World at large, so as never to undermine the public trust.

  And the idea that Azrad would evict Uncle Faran from the Palace was almost more than Hanner could comprehend. For as far back as he could remember Azrad had relied on Faran, had trusted him to make all the decisions that would keep the city running smoothly. That even strange new magic could shatter that trust in a single day was hard to grasp.

  "He threw you out of the Palace?" Alris gasped.

  "Oh, he has done more than that, my dear niece," Faran said. "It would seem that Lord Azrad the Sedentary, in his infinite stupidity, has sentenced the four of us, and all the others upon whom this new magic was bestowed, to die."

  Chapter Nineteen

  Die? For what?" Rudhira demanded.

  "For endangering the peace of the Hegemony of Eth-shar by the mere fact of our existence," Faran said. "Or perhaps for kidnapping or murdering a few hundred people-he didn't seem very concerned about a reason."

  "But we haven't... well, I haven't hurt anyone!"

  Zarek cleared his throat. "Rudhira, you killed a man last night," he point
ed out.

  Rudhira turned angrily, and Zarek staggered backward, catching himself on the door frame. "That was self-defense!" she shouted.

  "He's still dead," Othisen said.

  Rudhira whirled, and Othisen slammed back against the wall, his head narrowly missing a brass sconce.

  "Rudhira," Hanner said, "don't hurt them."

  Rudhira started to turn on Hanner, and he braced himself for whatever she might do, but instead she stopped. Her raised arms fell to her sides.

  "You're right," she said. "It's those fools in the Palace I want to throw around, not you."

  "Just one fool, really," Faran said, watching Rudhira apprais-ingly. "It's Azrad himself who's behind this, not any of the rest of us."

  Rudhira met Faran's gaze. "Is he really as fat and lazy as they say?" she asked.

  Faran smiled knowingly. "Since I don't know who 'they' are or what they say," he said, "I can't answer that exactly, but I can certainly say that Lord Azrad the Sixth weighs perhaps twice what most men his height do, and exerts himself as little as humanly possible."

  "If I ever get at him, he'll exert himself!" Rudhira snapped.

  "And I hope to see it happen," Faran replied, his calm facade slipping.

  "Lord Faran!" Mavi gasped. "He's the overlord! The triumvir!"

  "He's an idiot," Faran said. "Oh, his great-great-great-great grandfather1" was a great man, a military genius, the founder of this city-but the blood has obviously thinned, and I think it's time to do something about it. You know who's really been running this city the past ten years, Hanner." His temper was visibly wearing thin again.

  "You have," Hanner said. "But still..."

  "That's right, I have!" Faran said angrily, cutting Hanner short. "And what does it get me? A death sentence, because some mad wizard somewhere got careless and spilled magic everywhere!"

  "I don't think it was a wizard ..."

  "Fine! Whatever did it!" Faran flung his hands in the air, no longer making any pretense of composure. "And do you want to know something even more despicable, my boy? Our dear Lord Azrad won't even take responsibility for his own actions. He intends to arrange for the Wizards' Guild to outlaw this new magic, and let them take the blame when the people realize how unjust this all is!"