Mercedes Lackey - Lamma's Night (anthology)

Jason Henderson

"We've thought about it, Miranda," said Master Kenton. "We talked for a long time about it, as you know." Kenton had his pipe in his mouth and rocked back on his heels, a perfect caricature of the people of Denwyck. He squinted, for the sun was in his eyes, but he was too polite to move.

Miranda stood awkwardly, her arms cramping with the weight of the victuals she had just bought at the market. She looked past Master Kenton and saw the path out of the square, out of the village, out into the woods. The road from and to elsewhere. Miranda was glad for a place to hang her hat. But she had not expected the place to become—what would the word be—official? Permanent? Home ? But here was Master Kenton nevertheless, trying ever so hard to appear not to be uneasy around her. Non-wizards were so odd , Miranda decided. The magic had to be taken care of and so one needed a wizard. How nice to be a necessary evil. Miranda balanced the basket on her hip and reached up to move her hat from her eyes a bit. "And what did you decide?"

Miranda could envision the meeting without needing the answer, and it required no clairvoyance. She had wandered into the village of Denwyck because that was where the road had taken a wizard needing a village. And in she came, around the bend and through the wall, walking under trees that bloomed as if in defiance of the spiritual living death of Denwyck. And that first week, when the marauders came, casting spells and killing sheep, and she used her powers, the gossip started. Portly women hung over window sills and whispered audibly about the new wizard. New wizard! As if she'd come to fill that hole.

Fifteen years ! She mourned inwardly, and then berated herself: Come along, Miranda, don't you think it's about time you settled down? This is what you're made for. Take the village.

"We talked about it, and obviously everyone feels we've been long enough without a wizard," Master Kenton continued.

"Yes." Old Stephen must have died, what, eighty years ago, by all accounts? Before Miranda's wandering even began. Just her luck she'd land in a starving village.

"And of course we feel you have the qualifications." Master Kenton stopped now to see if Miranda would respond. Miranda nodded, to acknowledge the compliment, such as it was. Master Kenton continued: "Has the inn suited you?"

Miranda nodded, wanting to get her groceries home, "Of course, thank you." As if they were paying for it.

"Well, excellent, then," said the old man. "Jacob Deferish will be very happy to hear it. He has remarked that you have been a model, if silent, guest."

This warranted a smile. 'Thank you again."

"But I trust you would prefer not to remain at the inn, Master Deferish's hospitality notwithstanding. The council and I—we feel you should take Stephen's old house. It's not much, of course, and the place needs work. I understand there's quite a library. Haven't seen it myself, of course."

Miranda couldn't help it. She wanted to say: No, I wander, the stars are my ceiling , some sort of nonsense like that, but she simply could not help her eyes lighting up with excitement at the prospect. Somewhere she heard Jemuel say: Good girl. You have a spark of ambition after all . "I will," she found herself saying, and it wasn't to satisfy Jemuel or anyone. "I would be very pleased to."

So much to learn , Miranda thought as she approached the house of Stephen, the Wizard of Denwyck. So much I've put off learning.

Jemuel had been shocked, she recalled, as she curled up by his fire and drank his chocolate, he in his ostentatious chair, a book resting beside him. Shocked .

"You have never been placed in a village. Fascinating." the older wizard had said "You received your training at what age?"

"I was eight when the Circle found me."

"Right," he said, and he handed her a biscuit, and she kept from laughing, feeling as she did like a circus animal being handed a herring. But Jemuel was so sensitive. "Eight, which is very late. Very late," he repeated.

"Well, I wasn't available until then. I was shipwrecked with my father."

"He was a wizard?"

"Not a very good one, but yes." Miranda snuggled herself in the blanket Jemuel had given her. She felt comfortable. No way in the world she'd be here long. "He taught me spells, but mostly it was my own ability that I worked on; I made up my own uses for magic. I didn't really know what I was doing. I talked to a few ghosts, of course, and had some unpleasant experiences with dead pets."

"All part of growing up," Jemuel said drily. He lied well for a man. No wizard pupil would be allowed anywhere near living subjects until she'd learned the ground rules; Miranda knew that, now. Father was careless, but he never could say no to her.

"We were returned to the mainland when I was eight and I was snatched up by the Circle."

"Did you ever see your father again?"

"No."

"And how did your training progress?" Jemuel's voice was always soft, like a father, but different. His voice made you want to go to sleep, but it made you talk instead.

"I was a difficult student, I think," Miranda smiled, dunking her biscuit in her mug and nibbling at it. "The Circle wasn't sure if I could be retrained, as they liked to call it, and God knows I fought them every inch of the way."

Jemuel nodded. Miranda tried to ignore his probing eyes. She wanted to stay in his house and drink chocolate and eat biscuits by his fire, and she had no desire to get complicated. "So when you graduated they didn't try to place you?"

Miranda let out an embarrassed laugh. "Oh, I was placed. The village of Senkewin."

"Mmm-hmm..." Jemuel surely had heard of this. Did he know everything?

"I lasted three months."

"And then what?"

"I pleaded with the Circle to put me on special assignment, and that seemed to suit me. I spent some time in the Far Corners, looking for a few unwizards who were practicing magic."

Jemuel closed his eyes. "Unpleasant business."

"I hated it."

"Why?"

Miranda leaned forward and put her arms around her knees. "Jemuel, this is a magical world. I learned to use it on my own before the Circle ever found me."

"Natural talent."

"Right. So what if they hadn't found me?"

"I don't understand the question," Jemuel said, lying well again. The man seemed entertained by her. Clearly.

"Was I a wizard or wasn't I?"

"Before your training?"

Miranda nodded. The chocolate was running out. "Before my training by the Circle."

"The Circle would say no."

"And if I had returned to the mainland and gone to some village and set up shop solving problems, controlling weather, whatever, what would be then?"

Jemuel tilted his head. "I see. You would have been an unwizard."

"Right." Miranda waited for a moment but Jemuel was still silent. Finally she said, "I shut them down , Jemuel."

"And how did that make you feel?"

"When? At what point? When I went into their minds and fried their brains, as I'd been ordered to do? Or when they refused to beg for mercy? Or maybe you mean before that, while I was still trying to gain their trust? Rotten, Jemuel. Rotten to the core."

'This doesn't do you any good," said the wizard, by which he meant he didn't want to discuss it.

"All I'm saying—and then I'll drop it, I promise, because I don't have any assignments right now anyway and I like your company—all I'm saying is, what if we're doing something wrong?"

"Wrong?"

"What if there could be more wizards? What if we're controlling the magic when we should let the magic control itself?"

"Danger," said Jemuel. "That way lies great danger."