Ashura had not been as deceived as his cousin and foster son assumed. After a lifetime as the object of all varieties of political and court intrigues, he himself was quite skilled at the arts of misdirection and deception. Unless he was overly tired or distracted, he usually recognized when such tricks were played upon him by even the most sophisticated and dishonest of his courtiers. And Fai was hardly a practiced manipulator.
Well, not yet, anyway. Fai was well on his way, if his recent performance was any indication.
Ashura paused in his work, lifting his quill from the paper he had been making notes upon, and looked over at his little schemer, who was working on his latest magic lesson in Ashura's quarters. Fai frowned in concentration. He might never smile, but he could certainly scowl. Fai moved his fingers absently and levitated two quills simultaneously. For the moment at least, pleasant silence reigned. Ashura knew it wouldn't last long.
He was actually rather proud of the precocious boy's guile, cleverness, and developing court skills, and had been charmed by the childish act. Fai would need such talents in the future, so Ashura had done nothing to discourage him—or his dear, dear cousin. He was under no illusions as to who had been the instigator, having been the target of her wiles before. When caught and challenged, she always claimed her actions were for his own good. Because they usually were, he tended to let them pass. She had been counting on his forbearance this time, he was sure. Not to mention his affection for Fai.
He repressed a grin, dipped the quill in the rock crystal inkpot, and attempted to scratch out some spell-runes. Alas, he remained distracted by amusing memories of the fortunate and not terribly subtle plot Fai and Kendappa had engaged in. Since they had gone to so much trouble, of course he had had no choice but to accommodate them. Besides, Ashura knew that Fai really was a little disturbed by Taishakuten. It wasn't all an act on Fai's part, so Ashura had been obligated to improve the child's environment, and, conveniently, his own.
There was no harm done; in fact, it had been an excellent opportunity. Ashura had already been of the same mind as Fai and Kendappa. Taishakuten was ambitious, and Ashura had started to grow weary of the incessant maneuvering. He had begun looking for a politically inoffensive way to rid himself of Taishakuten's company, but had been frustrated in that effort. The southern border had remained abnormally quiet, despite the decent weather of the past few weeks, and so had granted him no excuses to propose that Taishakuten should return home to deal with trouble. Usually the Arimaspi raiders became active when the winter storms eased, but when Ashura actually could make profitable use of their raids, they thwarted him. It had seemed almost personal.
While he could have simply dismissed Taishakuten from court without a reason, it would have been a deep insult, and such high-handedness might have unnecessarily disturbed other members of the court. They were always a little on the turbulent side, and he didn't want to rile them further. After his dreadful experiences during Sunbirth, Ashura wanted a bit of peace.
Fai's artful performance had provided Ashura with an unexceptional reason to suggest that Taishakuten return home. None of Ashura's councilors, all of whom were familiar with Fai's insecurities and emotional troubles, had faulted him for indulging the child's apparent discomfort, especially when there were no pressing issues that required Taishakuten's continued presence at court. Even Taishakuten himself had appeared to understand the problem and departed with humor and good grace. He was accustomed to inspiring fear in children. Ashura smiled wryly. And in adults, too.
Any serious business that emerged could be handled through magical communications or the use of ordinary messengers, as usual. Besides, Ashura and the bulk of his court would be making the annual progress to the Southlands in a couple of months, anyway. Less pressing matters could wait until then, and any remaining ruffled feathers smoothed over at that time.
He planned to take Fai along on the trip, despite the child's wariness of Taishakuten. Ashura had promised Fai that they would visit the warmer parts of Seresu during the brief summer months. No other place in the country compared in that regard to the Southlands, and really, Fai needed to grow accustomed to Taishakuten. The warlord could not be avoided forever, so perhaps occasional meetings would help Fai to gradually overcome his apprehensions. Additionally, Ashura planned to stop by Clissin so that he could introduce Fai to his new property and people.
A piercing whistle interrupted Ashura's idle musings, stabbing right through his head and making him wince. He deliberately didn't look up from his work, upon which he had accomplished very little, and told himself not to express irritation at the latest renewal of the recurrent, shrill noise. Instead, he forced himself to focus on his task, which really did require his attention. These were important spells he was designing, for both himself and perhaps even for Fai. He hoped to use them to protect himself from traps the dark sorcerer might have set in the veils over his dreams, as he intended to resume his quest for a solution to his and Fai's future dilemma as soon as possible. The King's Sacrifice had been a harsh, ugly reminder that he should not procrastinate at that particular task.
Or rather, he corrected himself, he was attempting to design some protective spells, when he wasn't woolgathering. Not that it mattered whether he daydreamed or worked with unflagging dedication. Erratic, off-key whistling kept annihilating his concentration at irregular intervals.
Fai stood in the center of the main room, practicing his levitation magic. After the bookcase incident, Ashura had devised a new training exercise, and had Fai picking up random items from a pile on the floor and adding them to the collection he currently kept suspended in midair. At the moment this array of floating detritus included a handful of spoons, five books, two pillows, and a few feather quills. Unfortunately, Fai had decided that he should whistle while practicing.
That Fai could keep such a wide variety of objects levitating while he also whistled was quite impressive, actually. Impressive, and extremely aggravating.
Ashura again tried to focus on his own work. He had an idea for a dream defense, jotted down a series of protective spell-runes quickly, and then lost his entire train of thought as Fai hit an excruciatingly bad high note.
He firmly reminded himself that he wanted Fai to behave like a normal child. He also reminded himself that this was his own fault, and gritted his teeth while he suffered in silence.
During the Sunbirth court, he had asked Tancred to be nice to Fai. Tancred had complied, and as part of that compliance—or perhaps as retaliation—he had taught Fai to whistle. Since then, Fai had found a great many opportunities to exercise his newfound lack of musical talent. Ashura wasn't sure if he would ever forgive his nephew.
The tooth-jarring whistling continued, broke off abruptly on a sharp, upward tweet, then, after a few nice, quiet moments, resumed again. Sooner or later, Ashura told himself, the novelty would wear off. Eventually Fai would no longer find his new skill so fascinating. Surely, surely, he would soon lose interest. Ashura wondered if he was hoping in vain.
Fai managed a particularly awful series of random tones, and in defeat Ashura decided to add music lessons to the child's educational curriculum.
Finally, he couldn't take it any longer. He looked up to say something, anything, to get Fai to stop. Then he noticed how some of the pillows trembled when Fai hit certain notes. Different notes, and the spoons shivered. That was interesting. Ashura wondered if Fai had noticed yet. He didn't think so. Fai seemed more focused on the levitation, and appeared to just be whistling absently, without any conscious thought or intent. Or, unfortunately, without even a simple tune in mind.
Music was occasionally used to control magic, although usually by song. The Völur, for example, often sang their spells. Even Ashura sometimes sang a spell. It seemed Fai also had that particular gift, although in his case the "music" was his off-key whistling.
Music lessons had just become a high priority, or Fai's annoying new habit, combined with his immense and growing reserves of magical power, might quickly become dangerous.
Fai hit a truly bad note, and every single item in the collection he held aloft shuddered as though in pain. Ashura found himself in the unenviable position of sympathizing with inanimate objects.
"Fai," he finally said.
Fai stopped whistling—and what a mercy that was!—and looked over at him. Ashura noted with approval and pride that even though Fai's attention had been distracted from his task, he kept his collection neatly levitated and held firmly in place, without even the slightest threat that anything might shift or fall. There should be no more bookcase accidents.
"That's very good, Fai," Ashura said, indicating Fai's floating assortment of odds and ends. "Your levitation skills show superior achievement. I'll have you know that many fully trained, adult mages can't keep so many things levitated so well without their complete attention on their task, as you are doing now. Most excellent work."
Fai seemed to glow at the praise, although how that was possible without even a trace of a smile, Ashura didn't know. He just knew Fai could pull it off.
"Thank you," Fai said. "Should I let them down now?"
"If you wish."
Fai carefully directed each item to return to its place in the pile on the floor, one by one, in the same order he had levitated them.
As he watched the operation, Ashura stayed silent, considering his next words. He didn't want to say anything that might discourage the child. Fai already suffered from poor self-esteem in a number of areas, although at least magic wasn't one of them. Ashura had gone to great lengths to avoid adding magic to the list, and did not want to undermine that work. Besides that, anything even remotely negative he said about the whistling had the potential to crush Fai. He needed to tread carefully and put a positive light on the topic.
While he was working out a benign way to talk to Fai about improving his whistling and applying it to his magical studies, the whistler in question came over to him and inspected Ashura's own work.
Fai said, "That looks complicated." He peered at Ashura's notes. "I recognize the protection spell-runes, and those are for dreams...and that group is for deflecting attacks..."
Ashura kept quiet and let Fai work out what he could. The notes he had jotted down were just incomplete ideas that he had yet to form into actual, meaningful spells, so he wasn't worried that Fai would divine anything he shouldn't from them, and he was curious what Fai would make of them. He didn't have to wait long.
Fai looked up at him. "It looks like you're making defenses against bad dreams. Is that right? Are you trying to fix your bad dreams?"
"Something like that," Ashura admitted. He added honestly, "There is no way to eliminate my dreams, but I am trying to create a spell that will protect me from certain unpleasant aspects that I may encounter in them." That was certainly understated, but he did hope to shield himself from any traps the dark sorcerer might have set.
"Oh," said Fai, looking a little deflated. "I was hoping there was a way to get rid of nightmares."
"A spell tailored for my dreams wouldn't work for you, Fai," Ashura informed him gently, knowing exactly what Fai was really asking. Even if it were possible, this particular set of spells would not be targeted at ordinary dreams. "Besides, nightmares, while unpleasant, often serve a useful purpose. You may not believe this, but they can function as a healing mechanism."
"Nightmares?" Fai's voice was filled with disbelief.
"They allow your sleeping mind to deal with issues in different ways than when you are awake. Their frequency and severity has declined over the past several months, has it not?"
Fai nodded doubtfully.
Ashura knew that Fai didn't wake screaming from night terrors very often anymore. At least that had become a rare occurrence. He had also taught Fai a few mental tricks to try to ameliorate the worst of them, with mixed results. In his opinion, Fai still had too many bad dreams, but they did seem to be improving. "Over time, they should decrease still further. It takes a long time, Fai." He wondered who he was trying to convince, himself or Fai. "One should not try to affect them with magic unless it becomes clear that nothing else will help."
"Like yours?" Fai asked in a challenging tone.
Fai's increasingly common shows of spirit always pleased Ashura, as they were indications that the child was gradually healing. "Mine have afflicted me for as long as I can remember, Fai. No magic will ever stop me from having them. I only seek to affect a very particular part of them."
His weren't normal nightmares, but he couldn't explain that to Fai. Ashura had never found any way to prevent visions of the future from tormenting him, though it hadn't been for lack of trying. He changed the subject, saying briskly, "In any case, I didn't intend to talk to you about dreams. I wanted to discuss your whistling."
Fai brightened. Again, Ashura marveled at how the child could be so expressive without ever smiling. Something about the eyes, he decided. Fai announced happily, "Tancred taught me over Sunbirth."
"Yes, I know." Ashura smiled ruefully. "I was wondering if you realized that you could affect your magic with your whistling."
"Really?"
"So you didn't notice. It is true, Fai. I saw it while you were practicing your levitation. The pillows and spoons trembled when you hit certain notes."
Fai looked intrigued. "What does that mean?"
"It means that you will be able to control your magic through whistling alone. It is a very special gift. I would like you to start taking beginning music lessons, so you can..." Ashura thought quickly, seeking a way to phrase matters that wouldn't harm Fai's growing self-confidence, "...so you can learn more complex and sophisticated means of utilizing this ability." Never mind that it would be a significant improvement if Fai just learned to whistle in key.
Fai's brows furrowed while he sorted through that complicated statement. He said gamely, if uncertainly, "Okay."
The child always looked so adorable when he concentrated like that. Ashura wanted to hug him, but instead just said, "It is not intended to be a burden, Fai. You will only need to study music one or two hours a week to gain sufficient skill to begin applying it to your magical studies."
Fai didn't look convinced. "Do you really think I can do magic by whistling?"
"I believe so, yes."
"How?"
"You will learn to associate musical notes with magical meanings and put them together into phrases that describe your desire and purpose as you shape your magic, much like the way spell-runes are used. But you first must be able to create and sustain the notes knowledgeably."
"That's why I have to take music lessons?"
"Yes."
"So right now my whistling is bad?"
Ashura repressed a wince. He had tried so hard to avoid this part of the discussion, but as happened so often, Fai perceived too much. "Fai, your whistling is fine," he lied. Well, it wasn't really a lie. It was fine for a young boy, just not for anyone else within hearing distance. However, this course of study was nonnegotiable. The simple fact was that Fai's whistling affected his magic, therefore it had to be trained before it became dangerous. "It merely needs to be perfected so you can use it to control your magic. You will need to know the tones and the names of the notes, and the theories of how they relate to one another and are put together into music."
"Oh." Fai looked thoughtful, rather than dismayed or tearful. For one blissfully deluded moment, Ashura felt relieved. Then Fai said, "So if I learn this, I'll be able to do magic just by whistling. That could be really sneaky," and an unholy light came into those expressive blue eyes.
Ashura hadn't considered that aspect. Of course, the potential for mischief would be the first thing on a young boy's mind. Naturally.
He wrestled down his rising alarm. It would be quite a few years before Fai possessed that much knowledge, control, and skill. He hoped. It occurred to him that Fai's adolescence was going to be...interesting.
Now that he had Fai's agreement, he wanted to change the subject. Desperately. "Since this is decided, let us move on. Show me how your defensive shields are coming along."
Fortunately, Fai was still young enough to be easily distracted. He also enjoyed showing off, which he proceeded to do with enthusiasm.