The Silver Mage. Katharine Kerr
means they won’t like seeing me among them, doesn’t it? Aloud, Hwilli said, ‘That will be splendid, then.’
While the two apprentices finished turning the drying herbs, Hwilli learned the meaning of the words that had so puzzled her. Nalla also gave her the first principle of magical studies. All things are made of a light that has shone since the beginning of the world, but light that has convoluted, twisting around itself, bending around other rays of light, gaining substance and form with every twist and interaction, melding itself into matter in the way that a master blacksmith pattern-welds a sword from separate strips of iron.
‘Meditate on that,’ Nalla told her. ‘The teachers say that it’s the key to everything. I don’t know why, because I’m not advanced enough.’
‘You mean you’ve not worked hard enough,’ Jantalaber said, grinning. ‘Follow your own advice, Nalla.’
Nalla blushed, but she managed to smile.
For the rest of that day, Hwilli felt as if she were floating through her usual work and study. The door to the treasure chamber had swung open, a door that she’d been sure would always remain shut and locked. When she went to Gerontos and Rhodorix’s chamber to examine her patient, her splendid mood withstood Gerontos’s own foul temper. That evening he did little but complain into the black crystal. The leg ached, when could he walk on it, he hated lying still all day, the cast smelled bad and itched him, on and on until she was tempted to drug him into silence.
‘If you’re patient now,’ she said instead, ‘you’ll heal properly. If you refuse to lie still for a few more days, the leg will be twisted and strange. Which do you want?’
Gerontos set the crystal down, then crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. Rhodorix got up from his seat by the window and walked over to pick up the black pyramid.
‘There’s a third choice,’ he said, grinning. ‘Your older brother can tie you down to the bed so tightly that you can’t move until the cursed leg heals.’
Gerontos said something that made Rhodorix laugh. ‘Just try,’ he answered. ‘Not that you could right now, anyway.’
Gerontos said something else in a less angry tone of voice.
‘That’s better,’ Rhodorix said. ‘He tells me that he’s sorry if he offended you. Offending me is somewhat else again, but I can’t begrudge it to him.’
‘Just so. Please tell him that he really will get better if he lets the leg heal in its own time.’
Rhodorix repeated what she’d told him. With a sigh Gerontos nodded his agreement. Hwilli gave him his carefully measured dose of the opium tincture, then packed up her supplies.
‘I’ll carry those back for you,’ Rhodorix said, ‘if I may.’
She hesitated, but the night had turned late enough that Master Jantalaber would have left the herbroom.
‘My thanks,’ she said, ‘I’d like that.’
Rhodorix carried her sack of medicaments, then waited, glancing around the herbroom, watching her put things away by candlelight. Without asking he escorted her back to her chamber. Neither of them spoke on the short walk, but Hwilli could feel her heart pounding so hard that she wondered if he could hear it. At the door she hesitated, clutching the white crystal in one hand while he held up the black.
‘You look particularly beautiful tonight,’ he said. ‘Your hair’s like the winter sun, it gleams so.’
‘Oh, listen to you! You should be a bard.’
‘You inspire me, that’s all.’
He caught her chin in his free hand and kissed her, a long lingering kiss that made her gasp for breath. She leaned back against the corridor wall, and he stepped closer to kiss her again.
‘Could you favour me?’ he murmured.
‘Can’t you see I already do?’ She regretted her bluntness the instant she’d spoken.
He laughed. ‘I had hopes that way, but I’d not get you in trouble with your master. What will he do if he finds out you’ve got a man?’
The question puzzled her. The women here in the fortress had always taken lovers when they wanted them, whether anyone else had approved or not.
‘Naught,’ she said. ‘Why would he do anything? I’m only his apprentice, not his daughter or suchlike.’
‘Well, then.’ He smiled, his eyes eager, as if he were waiting for something.
‘Then what?’
‘Then will you invite me in?’
‘Oh!’ She realized that despite everything he’d said and done, she’d still been doubting herself. ‘Of course.’
As they went inside, he shut the door firmly behind them. He put his crystal down on the stool by her lectern, then slipped his arms around her before she could do the same. He drew her close and kissed her with the white pyramid caught between them. When his hands slid down to her buttocks, she felt so aroused that she nearly dropped the precious crystal. He laughed, caught it in one broad hand, and turned away to put it down next to the black.
Hwilli pulled her dress over her head and let it fall to the floor. She lay down on her bed, so narrow that he barely fitted next to her, but once his arms were around her, it became all the comfort they needed.
After their love-making, she drowsed in his arms, only to wake when a pale grey light filtered through the window. He woke as well, to turn onto his side and contemplate her face. He was smiling, and with a gentle finger he traced the shape of her lips.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ he said. ‘I’m honoured that you’d favour a man like me.’
‘Oh don’t say daft things.’ She kissed his fingertips. ‘I’m the one who’s honoured.’
‘Indeed? You’re a healer, you can read and write, and what am I? Just a fighting man who happens to know horsecraft.’
‘I’d say you know women just as well. I –’ Hwilli stopped, abruptly surprised. ‘Wait! I’m understanding every word you say. The crystals are still over there.’
Rhodorix sat up, twisting to look at the lectern and the stool, where indeed the two crystals sat some five feet distant.
‘Ye gods!’ He lay back down. ‘Well, that’s a handy thing, then.’ He started to say more, but the priestly gongs began announcing the dawn in a racket of struck bronze. Rhodorix swore and winced, then waited till the sound died away. ‘Why in the name of every god do they keep making that wretched noise?’
‘In the name of every god, just like you said.’ Hwilli grinned at him. ‘It’s the priests’ duty to mark the points of the passing days, and the days themselves, the cycles of the moon and the sun, the rising of some of the stars, all of the heavenly things. That’s why the prince built this fortress up so high, so the priests would be closer to the stars.’
‘I think me that the sun would rise without them making all that cursed clamour.’
‘So do I, but the priests don’t.’
‘Ah. Like the cocks that crow on the dungheap, then, and the sun obeys.’
She laughed until he kissed her again, and neither of them had any need of words or laughter.
Yet once their love-making finished, sunlight was flooding in the window, and he needed to leave to rejoin his men out in the horse yard. Hwilli lay on her side and watched him pull on the funny, baggy legging-things he called brigga.
‘Will you come back tonight?’ she said.
‘If you’ll have me back,’ Rhodorix said.
‘Of course!’
He paused