James Enge - This Crooked Way

I was going to ask her how she knew Fasra, then, but I decided I had more chance of a straight answer from Fasra herself. "Do you know an old man named Aurelius?" I asked.

"Aurelius? Aurelius Ambrosius?"

"Maybe," I said slowly. "His surname might be Ambrosius."

"Oh my dear! Oh my dear! I may not be the freshest buzzard in the flock, but I'm not old enough to have known Aurelius Ambrosius! He died fighting against the Saxons before I was born! At least," her quavering voice lost its brief burst of confidence, "I think he did."

"Maybe it was someone else?"

"Maybe who was someone else? I'm not following you, dear. Anyway, now that Fasra has finally brought me some water, I think I'll try fashioning my water-focus. Is Morlock there?"

"No."

"That's right. That's right. They were going to go somewhere and talk about poor Naeli without that silly old woman interrupting them. How I wish she would shut up, sometimes! Because so often it turns out I'm the only one in the room."

"Um. Good-bye, then."

"What?" the old woman's voice squawked. "Who's there? Oh, thank God, they brought me a little water. Maybe I should try making a waterfocus……

I sneaked away, shushed the flames as they tried to banter with me, and fled the workshop.

I was feeling kind of light-headed-had since I left Aurelius, in fact, and I wandered around the house a little without thinking of anything in partic ular. When I looked up I was in the big room we had made our refectory. Fasra and Reijka were sitting at the table, looking at me solemnly.

"Hello there," I said, a little bolder than I felt. "How goes the letter writing?"

"Oh, Mama," said Fasra, and she got up and ran to me. "Oh, Mama," she said weepily, burying her face in my chest as she wrapped her arms around me.

"What is all this?" I asked, amazed. "What's wrong, honey?"

"Nothing," she said, raising her wet, darkly luminous eyes to meet mine. "Nothing. Oh, Mama."

Reijka had risen, too, and her cool green eyes seemed to measure me. "Maybe we'd better have a look at you, Naeli," she said. "I never really got a chance to examine you. The other day," she added significantly.

"The other-" I choked off what I was about to say. I didn't like the way this sounded. "All right," I added, finally. "Let's go to my room. Fasra-"

"No-I've got to-I'm going to tell the boys."

"Tell them what exactly?"

"Oh-nothing!" She flashed me a grin and fled out the far door of the room.

Reijka walked in easy silence alongside me until we were in my room.

"I'd like to know what this is all about," I said.

"I'd like to look you over before I answer," the physician replied.

I pulled off my gown. I noted sourly that my wounds were somewhat more healed than they had been when I last looked at them-this morning, or so it seemed to me.

Reijka looked me over and spent an unusually long stretch of time staring into my eyes. Then she said, "All right, sit down on the bed and tell me something."

"I want someone to tell me something."

"Oblige your healer."

"What is it?"

She held up the gown I had been wearing. "Was this the dress you put on this morning?"

"It-no."

"Show me the dress you last remember wearing."

I got up and moved around the room. There was a russet thing with gold trim I wore on days when Glemmurn was due. "This one."

"All right. Are you ready to hear this?"

"I think so."

"You haven't had that dress on for several days. You've been in some kind of haze, and we had to dress you, Fasra and I. Since the day Glemmurn was here and that rarth-thing-"

"Harthrang."

"Whatever. Do you remember anything that happened in the intervening time?"

"Some." I wasn't going to tell her everything. "Not much."

"All right. Be that way. I may not be the master of all fricking makers, but I know a binding spell when I see one, and what to do about it."

"A binding spell." The hospitable Aurelius and his kindness in pouring me a cup of tea. Or maybe it had been something about the chair. They say you should never accept anything from a sorcerer without finding out what it will cost you.

"Yes," Reijka was saying. "They don't really work on someone who doesn't engage in binding magic herself, and that's what kept it from being effective. But the residue was afflicting you, somehow. I dosed you with Voin's Reflective Purifier-"

"Voin?"

"Um. Yes. Do you know her work?"

"I've heard of her," I said, a little imprecisely. I pulled on my gown, the one they had put on me today. "Thanks, Reijka. We owe you, and not just money. I'll-"

"Savage Triumphator, will you slow down a moment?" she wailed, hanging onto my arm as I tried to get out the door.

"I'm not sure how many moments I've got at the moment," I said.

"You say you owe me, not just in money. Pay me off in time. Just a little of your time, Naeli."

I was reluctant, but she had my word. "All right." I shook her hold off but turned back to face her.

She seemed a little unready. "Mother of stones," she muttered, "why do I always get interested in women like you?"

Women like me. I goggled. So much for my insight into the minds of others. I'd been sure it was Roble she was after. Thend must have gotten his Sight from my husband's blood, if it's one of those hereditary things.

"If that's what you wanted to tell me," I said, "I have to tell you-"

"No, no. I just wanted to shock you a bit, I guess. You're always being such a bitch to me. Very unprofessional: I'm sorry. But: look, Naeli. This place isn't safe for you anymore, you or your family. The harthing, or whatever it was. The binding spell. It's not safe."

"I know."

"I don't know what's going on-"

"Neither do I. Not really."

"Sure, Resident Naeli, sure. You were tearing out of here because you had no idea where you were going. No, I'm not asking you to tell me; I imagine you have some sort of reason for not doing that. And Morlock-"

I hadn't decided what to do about Morlock, yet. I shook my head.

"Then what are you going to do about it? No; never mind. You wouldn't tell me anyway. I'm telling you: I'm planning a business venture that will take me out of the city and on tour through the towns of the north for some time. I think you and your family could profit by the change of scenery. You should think about coming along with me. That's all."

"Hm." It was worth thinking about. But it sort of depended on whether I sided with Morlock or Aurelius, and I wasn't sure what I was going to do about that yet. "Have you talked to the others?"

She threw up her hands. "Of course! But what's the use in that without also talking to you?"

I closed my eyes. I could almost see it. Maybe I had seen it, while in the haze of Aurelius's binding spell.

"You're exaggerating, I think," I said, opening my eyes. "Roble's his own man, and Bann and Thend are getting there. And Fasra might be as tough as any of them."

"So I exaggerate. It's one way to tell a kind of truth."

I didn't really agree with that, but it wasn't worth pursuing just then.

"I'll have to think about it." I could hear other people moving around the house. "And I have to go now."

"Think," she said. "Go. I hope you come back next time better off than you came back last time."

"Me too. I …I still owe you, Reijka."

"Stop flirting with me," she snapped, and I turned and left before I could tell if she was joking.

I went down the back stairs and out the back door. Fortunately, my gown had a few stray coins tucked away in pockets. I used them to pay the toll on the Camlann Bridge and to cross Whisper Street so I could get to the Badonhill Hostel. Aurelius and I were going to have a little conversation.

The streets of Aflraun were even busier that day. Whisper Street was packed with those ill-smelling louts doing their shuffling dance; I decided it must be some kind of cult.