Steven Brust - Athyra

Savn winced in sympathy and decided not to ask for more details. A little later, he ventured, “Isn’t the sword annoying to carry?”

“No. In any case, I used to carry a great deal more.”

“More what?”

“More steel.”

“Why?”

“I was living in a more dangerous place.”

“Where was that?”

“Adrilankha.”

“You’ve been there?”

“Yes, indeed. I’ve lived most of my life there.”

“I’d like to see Adrilankha.”

“I hope you do.”

“What’s it like?”

“It’s what you make of it. It is a thousand cities. It is a place where there are more noblemen than Teckla, it seems. It is a place of ease, luxury, and sudden violence, depending on where you are and who you are. It is a place of wishes fulfilled, and of permanent longing. It is like everywhere else, I think.”

They began climbing up toward the caves. “Did you like it there?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you leave?”

“Some people wanted to kill me.”

Savn stopped, turned, and tried to look at Vlad’s face to see if he was joking, but it was too dark to be certain. It was, in fact, almost too dark to walk safely. Vlad stopped behind him, waiting. There was a flapping sound overhead. Savn couldn’t tell what sort of bird it was, but it sounded big. “We should get to the caves,” he said after a moment.

“Lead on.”

Savn did so. They came up the rise toward the first one, which was shallow and led nowhere interesting, so he ignored it. He said, “Have you really killed people?”

“Yes.”

“Was there really someone in Adrilankha who wanted to kill you?”

“Yes.”

“That must be scary.”

“Only if they find me.”

“Are they still looking for you?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Do you think they’ll find you?”

“I hope not.”

“What did you do?”

“I left.”

“No, I mean, why do they want to kill you?”

“I annoyed some business associates.”

“What kind of business were you in?”

“One thing and another.”

“Oh.”

“I hear water from below.”

“The river flats. That’s where the people from Brownclay and Bigcliff go to bathe and wash clothes.”

“Ah, yes. I was there earlier; I hadn’t realized we were in the same place. This must be Bigcliff, then.”

“Yes.”

“You say you know a cave that has water in it?”

“One of the deep ones. That’s where I’m taking us.”

“Very good. It sounds like just what we’re looking for.”

“What will we do there?”

“You’ll see.”

“Okay. This is it. It goes way back, and down, and the further down you go, the wetter the walls get, and I remember once we heard water trickling below us, though we didn’t actually find it.”

“Excellent. Let’s see what it looks like.”

The immediate area filled with a soft, yellow light, displaying the weed-covered rocks. Savn said, “Was that witchcraft?”

“No, sorcery.”

“Oh. My Paener could have done that, then.”

“Yes. Let’s go in.”

The entrance to the cave was narrow and low, so that it would have been difficult to find even in the daylight if Savn had not known where it was. He pointed it out to Vlad, who bent over and caused his sorcerous light to fill the entrance. This was followed by the sounds of small animals, disturbed from their rest, who scurried off to find hiding places.

“Best not to know what they are,” said Vlad.

“I agree,” said Savn, and led the way into the cave.

At once it opened up, and in the sourceless, hazy light it appeared rather bigger than Savn remembered. He was very aware of the sound of their soft boots, and even the sound of his own breathing.

“Can you make light with witchcraft?”

“I don’t know,” said Vlad. “I’ve never tried. It’s easier to bring torches. Which way?”

“Are you sure you want to go deeper, Vlad?”

“Yes.”

“This way, then.”

The pale light moved with them, growing brighter in small spaces, then more dim as they entered larger ones.

After a while, Savn said, “Do you want to go all the way down to the water?”

“If we can. It is certain to be a place of power.”

“Why?”

“Because Lord Smallcliff used it. Even if it weren’t before, it would be when he was done. He’s like that.”

“This is as far as I’ve ever gone.”

“Bide, then.”

Savn waited, listening to the flapping of bat wings, while Vlad’s eyes narrowed, then widened slightly as he shook his head, and at last he moved his lips as if uttering an incantation. “All right,” he said at last. “It’s safe. If we climb over this ledge, crawl that way about forty feet, and drop down, we’ll fall about five feet and land on a flat surface.”

“How do you know?”

“That’s what you’ve come here to learn, isn’t it?”

“Was that witchcraft?”

“Yes and no. Without the Art, I couldn’t have done it.”

“And you’re certain—”

“Yes.”

Savn hesitated a moment, but Vlad, without waiting, went over the indicated ledge, actually a narrow slit in the rock wall which was barely large enough for them, and began creeping along it. Savn became aware that he’d been hearing the gurgling of water for some few minutes. He followed the Easterner; then, at the same place Vlad did, he hung over the edge and let go, landing easily. The sound of trickling water was louder as he landed. The yellow light grew until it faintly illuminated a large cavern, with a dark, narrow stream, perhaps four feet wide, making its leisurely way back into the hill.

“Is this the place?” said Savn, hearing his words come back to him. “Or should we go further in?”

“What do you think?” said Vlad. “I don’t know.”

“Can you feel anything?”

“What do you mean?”

“Open yourself up to sensation. Do you feel power?”

Savn closed his eyes, and tried to feel something happening. There was a slight chill on his skin, and a soft whisper of wind against his ears, but that was all. “No,” he said. “But I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be feeling.”

“Let’s try it here, then. Sit down on that rock. Take my cloak and fold it up behind your head so you can lean back.”

Savn did these things. “Now what?”

“Relax.”

He tried to settle back into the unusual position, with only some success.

“Can you feel your scalp? The top of your head? No, I don’t mean touch it. Put your hands back in your lap. Now, can you feel the top of your head? Think of your scalp relaxing. Imagine each hair on your head relaxing. Your temples, your ears, your forehead, your eyes, your cheeks, your jaw. One at a time, try to relax each of these muscles. Now the back of your neck. Feel your head sink into the cloak, pretend you are falling into the wall behind you....”

Sometime later, Vlad said, “How do you feel?”

Savn realized that a great deal of time had passed, but he didn’t know how much, nor what had occurred during that time. “I feel good,” he said, surprised to discover it. “Like I’m, I don’t know, alive.”

“Good. You took to it well.”

“You mean I’m a witch now?”

“No, that was only the first step, to prepare your mind for the journey.”

“It feels great.”

“I know.”

“What do we do next?”

“Next, we get you home. It’s late.”

“Is it?” Savn reached for the time and blanched. “The gods! I had no idea—”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Mae and Pae—”

“I’ll speak to them.”

“But they—” He bit off his words. He’d been about to say they wouldn’t listen to an Easterner, then realized there was no polite way to say it. In any case, Vlad would find out for himself soon enough.