Lawrence Watt-Evans: The Sorcerer's Widow

“Anything. Just not Kelder the Blabbermouth.”

“Or Kelder the Bastard, either. We’ll just say Kelder of Ethshar, then?“

“That’s good.” He watched as the bird flew away, then asked, “Are you going to steal the sorcerer’s things?”

“I’m hoping I can convince her to give them to me, or maybe sell them to me cheap, but I’ll steal them if I can’t get them any other way.”

“I don’t want another flogging.”

“I don’t want you to get one. I don’t intend to get caught this time.”

“You didn’t intend to get caught last time.”

“Well, I didn’t get caught, did I?“

“But I did.”

“Yes, and thank you again for not telling anyone it was my idea.”

Kel turned up a palm. “It wouldn’t have done any good. They were going to flog me anyway. I didn’t want to be a blabbermouth.”

“Thank you, all the same. So what did you think of the sorcerer’s widow?”

Kel considered that for a long moment before replying, “She isn’t very pretty.”

“She isn’t ugly, either, and I suppose old Nabal didn’t have much to choose from out here in the middle of nowhere. She probably looked better when she was younger.”

“Maybe he didn’t worry about looks.”

Ezak grimaced. “He was a sorcerer-the only magician in the village, maybe the only one in the entire region. He must have had his pick of all the girls here, so she must have been the best available. Which doesn’t say much for the local women, does it?”

“Maybe she’s smart, instead of pretty.”

Ezak snorted. “If she was smart, would she be living out here ? This Nabal couldn’t have been all that bright, either, even if he was a sorcerer.”

“Then how did he get to be a sorcerer?”

Ezak turned up an empty palm, then fell back onto the bed, where he lay staring up at the carved beams of the ceiling. “He served an apprenticeship, like anyone else. You don’t need to be a genius to get through six years of running a master’s errands, or nine, or whatever it is for sorcerers. All you need to call yourself a sorcerer is your master’s say-so and a talisman or two.” He glanced toward the window. “But according to my uncle, this one had a lot more than one or two. Uncle Vezalis said this fellow had dozens of talismans he’d picked up somewhere. Those are what we’re after. This Nabal claimed he’d found a cache of stuff some Northerners hid during the Great War, but he was probably just trying to make it sound better than it was. I’d guess he inherited them when his master died.” He flung himself back on the bed.

“His master died?”

“I assume so. I don’t really know.”

“You said you served under the same master-shouldn’t you know whether he died?”

Ezak raised his head to glare at his friend. “Blood and death, Kel, I don’t even know his name ! If anyone asks us about him, we’re just going to have to be vague, and change the subject as quickly as we can.”

Kel considered that for a long moment, then said, “I don’t think coming here was a good idea, Ezak.”

“What are you talking about? Of course it’s a good idea! A poor country widow with a houseful of sorcery and no children-we’ll be rich!”

“You’re sure she has no children?”

“Uncle Vezalis said the sorcerer was childless.”

Kel considered this for a moment, imagining possibilities Uncle Vezalis might have missed-stepchildren, estranged children, siblings, cousins, in-laws, and so on-that could complicate matters. Then he said, “I don’t like your story, Ezak. I don’t think you know enough to fool her.”

Ezak sat up to stare at his companion more easily. “I most certainly do,” he said. “I don’t need to know the master’s name; I can just call him ‘Master.’ And I don’t need to know whether he really died; if I get it wrong I can just say I was misinformed. My story is that I served my apprenticeship and then headed for Ethshar-I wouldn’t be up to date on the local news.”

“Do you know where Nabal served his apprenticeship?”

Ezak waved vaguely. “Some other village near here.”

Kel did not reply in words, but the expression on his face made it clear he was not impressed with this answer.

“Kel, it’ll be fine ,” Ezak said. “She’s just a country bumpkin. It’ll be as easy as finding sand on a beach.”

“I don’t want another flogging,” Kel repeated.

“Look, even if it doesn’t work, we won’t be flogged! You think they even have a magistrate around here? Look at this place! If anything goes wrong, all we have to do is leave; no one’s going to bother coming after us. They won’t have any way to know which way we’ve gone!”

“They could use magic to find us,” Kel said.

“No, they can’t,” Ezak said, grinning. “The only magician this village ever had was Nabal the Sorcerer, and he’s dead.”

“I thought…” Kel began, but then he stopped. It was obvious even to him that a village this small couldn’t support more than one magician. “I still don’t like it,” he said.

“You don’t need to like it, you just need to do what I tell you to, and we’ll both be rich. Now, let me think just what…”

He never said what he wanted to think about; a knock on the door interrupted him, and Kel admitted Irien with a pitcher and basin, and a few small towels. As she set the basin on the bedside table Ezak got to his feet.

“Thank you, my dear,” Ezak said, bowing deeply. Kel said nothing, but just watched, and nodded when the innkeeper looked his way.

“Supper’s an hour after sunset,” she said.

Kel glanced out the window again, and saw that the sun was brushing the treetops on the western horizon.

“Thank you,” Ezak repeated. “We’ll be down soon.”

Irien left them, and Ezak closed the door behind her. “It was a long walk from Ethshar,” he said. “I’m going to take a nap before supper. Wake me, will you?”

“All right,” Kel said, as Ezak climbed back onto the bed.

That was the last thing Kel said for the next hour, as he sat by the window, staring out at the countryside as the sunlight gradually faded from the sky, and darkness crept over the fields and houses. Ezak was quickly asleep; Kel ignored his gentle snoring. For one thing, the snoring was a sign that the bed was soft and comfortable, which gave Kel something to look forward to. He knew that Ezak never snored when sleeping on hard ground.

He awoke his friend with a single soft word when he judged the time was right, and the two of them headed downstairs.

At supper Ezak asked Irien whether Dorna might be joining them, and was clearly disappointed when Irien said no. The sorcerer’s widow kept early hours, the innkeeper said, or at any rate did not often venture outside after dark. If the two strangers were determined to see her, Irien said, they could call on her in the morning.

Ezak assured her that they would do just that, and thanked her for the suggestion. He was obviously eager to see more of Dorna, but Kel did not see what the hurry was about. This delay would give Ezak more time to plan, and Kel thought he could use it.

He did not say anything at the table, of course; in fact, his dinnertime conversation was limited to asking for plates to be passed, or thanking Irien for the various foods. Back in the upstairs room afterward, though, he asked why Ezak was rushing so.

“Two reasons,” Ezak said. “Firstly, the longer she has to think about it, the more likely she’ll settle on some way of disposing of her husband’s magic where we can’t get at it. And secondly, we just barely have enough money left to pay the bill for two nights here; if we’re still here for a third, everything gets more complicated.”