Chapter 37
"Is this dangerous?" Deven asked in a whisper as he helped move the old couch in front of the door.
"For her, if she wasn't ready." Silverdoe admitted.
"But she's ready?"
"Yes. Do you believe that all Gifts are given for a reason?"
"Yes."
"Well, the Heralds are focused on the lordly bandit but I am far more concerned about the Blood Path Mage. I have looked at the papers the Heralds have gathered. Every Herald who has investigated the case has died. Nothing alarming; a stroke here, an accident there. Child's play for a Blood Path Mage. Elf is protected from him on the Palace grounds by a very powerful shield. When she reached the plains the tower itself and distance protected her. But if she sets foot out of Haven as she is now…"
"He can kill her."
"Same for you." Silverdoe informed him. "But she can protect you too."
"I wish I was a mage." Deven admitted longingly.
"Why? As a nonmage you can breach the defenses of a mage much easier. There is a reason you are not a mage. I am certain of it."
Elf looked up from where she was painting on the floor. "Is something wrong Deven? You're worried again."
"Are you sure you are not an empath?" Deven asked.
"Positive." Elf assured him.
"You heard my thoughts then?"
"More like I heard the tenseness in it. It is hard to explain." Elf turned back to her diagram. It was supposed to be done in many colors but, as with the Master's test, she used only white. The colors were not needed magically and white seemed a better symbol. Each symbol was painstakingly crafted, no line too thick or two thin.
Deven winced when he dropped his end of the couch and watched the door.
"No need to worry about being heard." Silverdoe said as she sat on the couch. "It is shielded to a fair thee well here. There are very very old shields here that are tied to the Heart stone under the palace. They likely date to that last mage you told me about."
"Herald Vanyel."
"That's the one." Silverdoe gestured for him to sit down. "I strengthened them so none of Elf's Workings will get through. There will be two more shields, she will have one around herself and I will have one around that. I checked, there are no occupants in the rooms below us. The only safer place would be a truly shielded Work Room. However, they are in the base of the old palace. That's the right word, right? Palace?"
"Yes."
"I envy Elf's ability with languages. I cannot explain the words I need to teach in Valdemaran or I would take on more students here."
"Elf said once you are a special teacher." Deven said as he gingerly sat next to her.
"Yes, I normally take only one student at a time. One who has special needs. Both of my students before Elf were Adepts as well. One was outstripping his regular teachers and was becoming cocky. The other was a young one whose gift developed far too early. Like Elf and I on the plains, I didn't just do a few hours a day with these students. It was like an… oh what's the word… an assistant learning your trade."
"Apprentice."
"Exactly."
"How long did you teach the others?"
"First was for ten years. He was the youngest Adept in all the Clans when I allowed him to complete this challenge. The other I had for nearly fifteen years. When he was twenty I handed him over to another teacher to complete his training."
"How old were you when you started teaching, you can't be much beyond thirty."
"I am fifty five, youngling." Silverdoe informed him. "I started teaching when I was twenty five."
"Thirty years and only three students."
"Ah, but those three students are the special ones. I had others but I was not their main teacher."
"Why is Elf able to take the test now?"
"She's had a far more condensed version of teaching. Elf's Grandmother has had contact with her. You have dreamed so you know time does not run the same there. She could teach Elf for hours at night and I more hours in the day. If the other teacher had been anyone other than a very well trained Healing Adept I would have found a way to block it."
"Does she know you know?"
"Of course, she does not lie to me about it, but she will say 'My grandmother says' and I know she has not had a letter from her grandmother. She will sleep on a problem and awake with an answer that would have been taught to a Clan Mage. If I ask her she would tell me."
"Why don't you ask? How do you know what she has been taught?"
"Because I watch. You will learn far more about what people know if you watch than if you ask. I watched her skill grow. I watched her discuss theory with other mages. Also, Clan Mages are taught certain spells and theories at predictable levels, only when they have mastered the lessons from before. I watched for those. Like if you wanted to see how far someone had learned to read you would watch what they read. Do you see?"
"I think so." Deven watched as Elf cleaned one spot of paint away. "How do you look so young?"
"Magic preserves and Tayledras live in a fog of magic. I have felt myself grow older more since the Mage Storms but I helped k'Vala and two other clans rebuild the nodes so I have had more magic around me than say a Herald or a Karsite." Silverdoe explained.
"If this works, it means you are no longer her teacher. What will you do then?"
"I will stay for a short time. Work on my Valdemaran and see where it goes from there. I do wish to see the northern Vale. One of my students is there."
"Which one?"
"The cocky one, and my first student."
Elf stood stiffly, pausing to rub her hip. "This looks corrects. Ready?"
"We shall sit and watch the show." Silverdoe assured her calmly.
As Elf stood in the centre of the circle Deven could see a slight shimmer then she blurred slightly, like he was looking at her through poor quality glass.
"Perhaps someday I will return to teach yours and Elf's children." Silverdoe suggested thoughtfully then watched in amusement as he turned bright red. Satisfied he would be too busy thinking of babies, and likely how they came about, to worry loud enough to bother Elf she returned to watching Elf.
Inside her shield, Elf took a few deep breaths.
:Put aside your anger Elf.: A familiar voice said into her mind.
:Grandfather?:
:You are too angry, look at it, acknowledge it, understand it, then put it aside.:
Elf decided not to ask how her Grandfather was able to speak to her, he has very weak mindspeach. Instead, as she settled into her grounding, she stepped back emotionally to look at the swirl of emotions that existed in her. Even ones she did not admit to herself where there. There was anger, love, uncertainty, fear, hatred, resentment, and hope.
She looked at negative emotions first. Much of her hatred was bound up with the grief of her family. Grief that still held a grip on her. In there was also guilt.
The rage and hatred for the men who killed her family was there, gnawing at her soul. She forced herself to look at those emotions and realized part of her anger was based on guilt, that she had not saved her family because she was too busy talking to a bird. She had been thirteen, now she was seventeen. Using the experience and knowledge she had garnered, she forced herself to consider what other outcomes there could have been but the only alternative there was death for all of them. If she had ridden in using magic, the blood mage would have done far worse. Torture, perhaps captivity for all of them.
:Ah, you do see.: The voice whispered in her mind. :Anger like this is a great weakness. A path to your heart for darkness to exploit.:
Elf struggled but finally released the anger and hatred. She felt something inside her loosen, a tenseness she didn't know she carried vanished.
There was also the resentment she had towards the Collegium and even partially towards Dayna. She had been just outside Haven, why hadn't Dayna Chosen her then? If she had they would never have been slaughtered.
She felt sick to her stomach, she resented Dayna? Dayna was her sister in her heart. She loved Dayna, but she resented her…
:Perhaps then you would never have made a good Herald.: Faolan pointed out. :That day changed you Elf. She would not have been sent to Choose you if it had not happened.:
Had their bond not been inevitable? Her Grandfather was a priest who Heard the God, he would know, wouldn't he?"
:Nothing is inevitable.:
Elf struggled a bit before she could set aside that emotion.
Finally, she faced the emotions at the core of her being, she had expected more anger and more rage but instead she faced Dayna and Deven. Dayna, her sister, her friend, her Companion. The one who had called her from death. Deven… his role was unclear but there was an excitement at the uncertainty. Her heart pulled towards both of them.
At peace for the first time in years, she started the Challenge.
"I think someone is knocking." Deven said several candlemarks later when he felt vibrations in the back of the couch.
"Probably." Silverdoe admitted. Reaching through the shields with her magic, she tested who was there. "Tashti, a man I don't know, and Alberich."
Silverdoe shooed Deven off the couch then helped him move it.
"Why did you answer, not?" Alberich demanded.
"Shielding. I made it strong enough to block out sound." Silverdoe explained around the slightly opened door.
"It is my watch now." Alberich informed her.
"I know. Nevertheless, I will stay to maintain the shield. But first, could you bring some water to drink?"
"They are still awake?"
"Elf has some struggles to face. Deven and I have been talking for the most part. There is much to weigh on the minds of these two." Silverdoe glanced back at Elf.
"What decisions have they made?"
"None. It is one of those stare at the fire and search your soul nights. That's all."
Alberich turned to Tashti and sent her for the water then turned back to Silverdoe. "Allow me in?"
"Certainly." Silverdoe had to focus for a moment to key the shield to allow him in before stepping to the side. She closed the door as soon as he was in the room.
"What magic is she doing now?" Alberich asked worriedly.
"Magic her teacher wholly approves of." Silverdoe gestured for Alberich to sit. Deven chose to sit on the hearth.
"The Challenge she spoke of."
"Yes, and she is ready." Silverdoe sat on the couch and stretched her legs out in front of her. "I felt it was necessary."
"The other mages have expressed concern about her anger."
"I was concerned too." Silverdoe admitted. "Hence this. Our Challenge is not a test. It forces one to see their flaws. If she fails, she will see how her anger and rage have weakened her. If she passes, she will have overcome them. Do I make sense?"
"You could have sent her to a Mindhealer." Deven pointed out.
"Healers usually encourage a… selfishness. Not a negative one. And they offer too much understanding. Especially since they all remember a little girl."
"Pity she does not need." Alberich agreed.
"Exactly."
"How long?"
"A couple more candlemarks at least."
Alberich watched in silence until Tashti arrived with the water and a platter piled with cold foods, which Silverdoe accepted.
"What danger faces she?"
Silverdoe debated what to say. "I have seen people emerge with no magic."
"Why?"
"This is part prayer, part spell. I cannot say why someone failed. I can only suspect that they displeased the Starry Eyed."
"Who did she call on?"
"I don't know." Silverdoe admitted.
"Raiken." Deven answered.
"A God of Warriors and Death." Alberich said darkly.
"Her Grandfather is a priest to him." Deven explained. "Elf told me that the warriors are not just those of swords and such, but any who fight. Healers, mages, even pregnant women appeal to him. He had a parallel. A Goddess of Life and Mercy. Elf tells me that both have good and bad aspects."
"I don't see how mercy and life has a bad side." Silverdoe said with some confusion.
"Sometimes mercy is a great injustice." Deven pointed out. "Sometimes life is nothing but suffering."
"Interesting." Silverdoe offered Alberich the plate of food. "Would you care for some cheese?"
"Too calm you are."
Silverdoe chuckled. "Even a failure here will be a success. What is there to worry about?"
"Elspeth has told me people die attempting this."
"They die attempting the Adept Work, not the Challenge. It is like the difference between the first time you let your student fight live steel and the first time they face a true enemy."
"And when will she do her Adept work?"
"When she has her Whites. She will need time to decide upon it. You already have a Heart stone so she cannot make one of those. She is not a Healing adept so she will not set a spell to cleanse the land. But she will find something."
"And you will remain for that?" Deven asked.
"Probably not. She has other teachers to turn to if she needs help. She will have the rank of Adept and the Mage Collegium has said when the student has reached their final rank, whatever it may be, they are trained and may sit among them as equals, right? Well, that's what she needs."
Silverdoe sensed they were satisfied.
:You lied to them.: Dayna accused in the back of her mind. :This could be very dangerous.:
:Dayna, you know she won't fail. At worst, she will be very malleable for a few days while her headache goes away. Her grandmother would have protested if she did not agree it was time.:
---
Faolan opened his eyes and found Taniel still pacing the small barge, causing it to rock.
"How can you just sit there?" Taniel demanded.
"I am not just sitting here. I am meditating." Faolan corrected. "I am more concerned about the consequences of our children riding into a land where justice lies in the hands of the crown and taking matters into their own hands. It could result in their deaths. Besides, if Elf is not ready, she will try again in a year or two."
"Don't reminded me about that either. How on earth did we make six hundred children?"
"Large families with large hearts who collect strays." Faolan pulled her down on the edge of the bed. "You can do nothing about Elf, she is in the hands of her teacher and the Hands of the Gods. The clan is expecting us to join this witchhunt and that is something can do something about. Talk to our children, send him off to be useful someplace."
"They won't turn around."
"No, they won't. But we should give them a new path. Make them useful rather than a hindrance."
"What are you suggesting?" Taniel asked.
"Let no wagon travel alone. Tell them to act as guards so Elf can act. Send some to act as agents for the crown, people who can walk anywhere unmolested."
"When did you get that idea?" Taniel asked as she stood, this time with purpose rather than worry.
"When I was listening to you rant earlier. You have brilliant ideas when you stop to listen to yourself."
"I am going to need lots and lots of birds."
"We are not far from Haven now, surely they have pigeons."
"That will work. Come on."
"It is not even dawn!" Faolan said in exasperation.
"You're an adept, you survive a night without sleep." Taniel said as she exited out the back of the floating barge.
"Not at a hundred fourteen!" Faolan protested.
"Pissh! You can get the horses."
Faolan debated going out into the cold night and decided if she wanted to get back on the road she could do it herself. Getting up only to close the door he snuffed out the mage light and headed to bed.
"Faolan?" Taniel opened the door. "What are you doing back in bed?"
"I am hoping my wife will come to her senses and join me before all the warmth escapes out the door. The horses are sleeping, we are ahead of almost everyone, and a few hours will not much difference."
Taniel recast the mage light. "I am not sleeping. Not now."
"Then read a book."
"How can you even consider sleeping?"
"After eighty years, you really need to ask?"
Taniel practically growled.
"If you aren't going to sleep why don't you go for a walk?"
"Very well. But we are still leaving at dawn." Taniel grabbed her cloak and stormed out.
Faolan waited a few minutes to see if she changed her mind before snuffing out the magelight.