David Drake - Master of the Cauldron

"His name's Nergus but he prefers to be called Nergura," Davus said. Only his lips moved; to look at him, he might've been talking in his sleep. "He believes the seven letters have a secret significance, you see. He didn't want to tell you lest knowing his name give you power over him.'

Chalcus laughed, then tossed the athame into the fire. Nergura gave a strangled cry and lunged toward the hearth. He stopped when he found the sword-edge barring his way.

"I have all the power I need over him already," Chalcus said, his voice as soft as a cobra's. "And people who take out a weapon when first they meet me can thank their stars if they lose nothing but that weapon by it. Eh, Master Nergura?"

The wizard shrugged with a sour expression and seemed to huddle into his robe. "What is it you want of me?" he said, looking again at the floor.

"Food and perhaps shelter," Ilna said. She lifted the pottery lid that covered the cistern in the corner opposite the cupboard. She didn't know how deep it was, but there was certainly water for the three of them. A bronze dipper hung from a cord within the shaft; she lowered it into the tank.

"And information, Master Nergura," Davus said, his fingers spread on the armrests. "Tell us about the present King and what happened to the Old King."

The wizard sighed. He leaned toward the hearth again, then caught himself when the sword twitched. "Let me swing my alembic off the fire," he said in a tone of anger suppressed by well-justified fear. "No more than that!"

"Go on, Master Nergura," said Chalcus, raising his blade vertical again. "You were going to tell us about the King."

The wizard pivoted the iron hearth crane so that the pot hanging from it was out in the room. The flames burned brighter now that the athame had ignited. He stepped back, grimaced, and walked deliberately to the wooden chair. He turned it to face into the room and sat down.

"The King…?" Nergura said. "I suppose you can call it that if you like. The King which now exists isn't human. It was a beast, a pet I suppose, of the Old King who ruled this land in past ages."

"Davus?" Chalcus said. "Do you know of this pet of your King?"

"There was a creature," Davus said, leaning his head back against the chalcedony throne. "Supposedly from another world. It wasn't a pet, exactly. The King had gained his power through it. He kept the beast around afterwards, though he needn't have done so."

"Well, he was a fool then," said Nergura, eyeing Davus sharply. "How is it you know about the Old King? Are you a wizard? Youmust be a wizard to have learned so much about the old times!"

"I'll let you be the only wizard here, Master Nergura," Davus said, his closed eyes lifted toward the roof. "For myself, I'm merely glad to be flesh and blood. I spent the past thousand years as a statue, it seems."

He paused, smiled wistfully, and added, "I wonder what I was thinking about while I was stone?"

"Aye, you can be the wizard," said Chalcus. He took the dipper of water, drained it, and handed it back to Ilna without letting his eyes slip from Nergura. "But you should recall that though I'm no wizard myself, I can make your head vanish from your shoulders in a heartbeat. Eh, my friend?"

"Yes, well…," Nergura said. It obviously unsettled him to watch Davus' hands on the wax-smooth surface of the throne. "I said the Old King was a fool not to have killed the creature when he no longer needed it. It happened because his power lay in a jewel on his brow."

Ilna refilled the dipper. She'd planned to offer it to Davus, but on consideration she drank the water herself. Davus was doingsomething . She didn't understand what, but she wouldn't have thanked anyone who broke her concentration while she was busy.

"Something happened," Nergura continued. "I haven't been able to learn precisely what-it was a thousand years ago, after all! There was an attack or at any rate a summons that drew the King's attention. Because he was focused on other affairs, the creature was able to steal his jewel and then kill him."

Ilna began slicing bread and cheese. She used her own paring knife instead of the longer-but dull-blade in the cupboard. The wizard glared at her for a moment, then looked at Chalcus and said, "That's what the King deserved, since he should've killed the creature when he had the chance. Ever since, it's ruled this land. As much as anyone has."

Ilna offered Chalcus a slice of cheese on bread-good wheat bread and baked no later than the night before. He gestured it away without taking his eyes from the wizard. "What does this new King do with the land he rules, then?" he asked. "His yoke is light, you say?"

He'd sheathed his sword, but Nergura had seen the steel come out once. He didn't seem fool enough to chance anything that would cause Chalcus to clear his blade again.

"It doesn't do anything," the wizard said. "Mostly it stays in its Citadel and builds the walls higher. When it comes out, it wanders about and turns anyone it meets to stone. If there are reasons for what it does, they aren't human reasons."

Ilna heard the bitterness in Nergura's voice. She smiled faintly as she chewed bread and cheese made from cow milk, the latter a rarity in Barca's Hamlet. If this wizard had the power the alien creature had, he'd have used it. Looking at Nergura's scowling face, Ilna suspected the other inhabitants of the land were better off bearing a beast's random violence than they would be under him.

"Much goes on in the land that the Old King wouldn't have permitted," Davus said softly. His right thumb rubbed the glassy surface of the armrest.

"Who knows what the Old King would've allowed?" Nergura said sharply. "There's all manner of terrors walking the land now, and everyone is responsible for his own safety!"

Davus opened his eyes. He sat up straight, then rose from the throne with a graceful, controlled motion. He glanced at the stones he'd brought but smiled and left them on the floor.

"Yes, I see that's so," Davus said. His tone was pleasant, but there was an undertone to it that reminded Ilna of Chalcus when he was poised to explode into action. "How is it that you gain your information, Master Nergura?"

The wizard frowned. "Does it matter to you?" he said. "I drink herbal potions. They wouldn't do you any good, you know."

"I'm sure that's true," said Davus, sauntering toward the back door. "But I think I'll see what kind of herbs it is that you grow in your garden."

"You mustn't go-" the wizard said, bustling to put himself between Davus and the door. He shrieked as Chalcus pinched his earlobe between thumb and forefinger and jerked him back to where the sailor's dagger just pricked his cheek.

"Let's all go see the garden," Chalcus said. He and Davus exchanged glances. Davus smiled, opened the door, and stepped out with Ilna behind him. Chalcus brought up the rear, leading the faintly whimpering wizard.

Ilna supposed she'd been expecting an ordinary kitchen garden like those every housewife in Barca's Hamlet kept, fenced off so that the chickens wouldn't devour the new shoots. Instead she was looking at an orderly jungle. The air was warmer than that of the wasteland they'd crossed to reach Nergura's maze, and more surprisingly it was as humid as when the sun comes out after a summer shower.

None of the plants and shrubs were familiar. The tall tree near the back looked like a sugarberry, but the fruit was bluish, not red. Besides, the sugarberries shouldn't have been present at the same time as the flowers on the shrub near the door with figlike leaves. Why hadn't she seen the almost-sugarberry when they left the maze if not before they entered it?

A path of white gravel set in marl entered the garden. It branched before it vanished into the vegetation in the near distance. Ilna could see the tiled room of a gazebo or workshed beyond a stand of what she'd have called holly were it not for the round leaves; there might be other structures completely hidden by the foliage.