Lawrence Watt-Evans: The Sorcerer's Widow

“We got it back,” Kel said.

“We?” Ezak was suddenly wary.

“She wasn’t killed,” Kel said, as he swung the door behind him wide, letting the dim light spill out into the tunnel beyond.

Dorna stepped in, the black weapon in her hand. She pointed it at Ezak.

“You have some of my belongings,” she said.

Ezak stared at her for only an instant before diving for the canvas bag, grabbing it up, and cradling it in his arm as he scrambled for the cellar’s other exit. Kel had not yet decided what he should do about that when the weapon went off.

This time Kel was upright and watching, not diving for the grass; he saw the eerie blue gobbet of magic that shot from the talisman, struck the stone wall behind Ezak, and exploded. Kel closed his eyes, but there was no blinding white flash following the blue flash this time, and the sound was loud, like a sledgehammer shattering a stone block into gravel, but not the earth-shaking roar that the Northern device’s destruction had produced. Apparently most of that explosion’s power had come from the Northern magic, rather than the weapon that destroyed it.

Ezak screamed, dropped the bag, and fell to his knees on the sandy floor. “Don’t kill me!” he said.

“Get away from the bag,” Dorna said.

Ezak shoved the bag toward her, then backed away. “Why did you bring her here?” he asked Kel.

Kel did not answer; he simply stood and watched as Dorna crossed the room, snatched up her bag, and slung it on her shoulder. She dropped the boot-heel talisman into the bag, but kept the weapon ready in her hand.

“Thank you,” she said, as she straightened up. “Kel asked me not to kill you, so for his sake, I won’t. I won’t even turn you over to the magistrates. But if you ever try to take anything of mine again, I will kill you. You understand that?”

Ezak nodded vigorously.

Then for a moment the three of them remained where they were-Kel standing by the door to the tunnel, Dorna standing in the middle of the room with her bag and weapon, Ezak kneeling near the hole in the wall where one could climb up to the next level-each waiting for someone else to do or say something. Finally, Dorna turned and headed back toward the tunnel. “Come on,” she said.

“What?” the two young men said simultaneously.

“Not you,” Dorna said to Ezak. “Him.” She pointed at Kel.

“Me?”

“Yes! I need you to show me the way out of this place.”

“Oh,” Kel said, hurrying to follow her through the door. He had not realized she was one of those people who could not reliably retrace her steps. He knew such people existed, and had met them before, but he did not really understand them; he might not always know where he was, but anywhere in the city he always knew how he got there, and how to get back out. It was part of his nature.

But Dorna wasn’t from Ethshar, she was from a little village somewhere, and her nature apparently differed from his. Besides, she had been so intent on her talisman that she probably hadn’t really seen the route.

Once out of the room Kel took the lead. Neither of them spoke as they trudged back out and up the steps to the alley. Dorna paused to glance up at the narrow strip of sky visible above them; it was noticeably darker than when they had come the other way. Then she turned to Kel, who was watching her. “I could probably have found my own way out, especially now I have my bag back, but I wanted to talk to you.”

That was mildly surprising. Kel looked at her expectantly.

“You thought I was going to just go off and leave you here, didn’t you?” she asked.

She seemed to want an answer. “Yes,” he said.

“I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t just walk away and leave you in a place like this.”

Kel looked around. The alley was a rough, ruinous place, but it was one he knew well. “I live here,” he said. “Sometimes, anyway.”

“Well, you shouldn’t.”

He could think of no sensible reply to that, and blinked silently at her.

“I’m going to open a tea shop,” she said. “I’m going to import my favorite teas from the Small Kingdoms. I used to buy them from a trader named Vezalis who came to deal with Nabal; I’d ask him to bring me a new variety each trip he made, and to bring more of the ones I liked. I hadn’t known there were so many kinds until I met him!”

“That’s Ezak’s uncle,” Kel said. He had no idea why she was telling him about her plans, but he thought she might want to know.

“What?” That seemed to have jarred her out of her planned speech.

“Vezalis, the trader your husband dealt with. He’s Ezak’s uncle. That was how we found you.”

She stared at him. “You’re serious? I thought it was just a coincidence that they were both named Vezalis.”

“Yes. The trader is Ezak’s uncle.”

“That stupid , troublesome…” She stopped abruptly, took a deep breath, let it out slowly, then said, “Never mind that. My point is, I’m going to open a tea shop.”

Kel nodded. She had already said that.

“I’m going to spend a lot of my time dealing with tea merchants, and trying out different blends.”

Kel nodded again. He knew almost nothing about running a tea shop, and in fact had never seen a tea shop, but this sounded reasonable.

“I’ll need an assistant to look after the shop when I’m busy elsewhere. I’d like to hire you as my assistant.”

Kel blinked; at first the words didn’t seem to make sense. Eventually he managed to work out their meaning, but it still didn’t seem reasonable. “But I’m a thief ,” he said. “No one hires a thief!”

“You wouldn’t be a thief anymore,” Dorna said. “You’d be a tea shop assistant.”

That was too bizarre to grasp immediately, but Dorna was looking at him, clearly expecting a response. “I don’t know,” he said.

“The position would include room and board, and pay a round a sixnight to start,” she said.

“Room and board?” He glanced back at the tunnel mouth, remembering the room they had just visited, where he had so often lived.

She nodded. “A room above the shop, and at least three meals a day,” she said.

That knocked all thought of the room out of his head. Kel had never in his life eaten three meals a day; he had trouble comprehending such luxury. He stared at her, only just barely keeping his jaw from dropping.

“Why don’t you give it a try?” Dorna said. “You can always quit if you don’t like it.”

Kel tried to imagine how someone could dislike eating regularly and sleeping indoors, and decided maybe someone could, but he was not that someone.

On the other hand, he knew someone who would look on this with a great deal of suspicion. “What about Ezak?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’m only offering to hire you , Kel. You helped me when you could, and you’ve been as honest with me as a thief could be.” She smiled wryly at that, then continued, “You’re smarter than you realize, and I think you deserve a chance to use your wits for something better than stealing old clothes.”

“But Ezak helped me,” Kel said. “He’s always helped me.”

“But he stole from me . And he did nothing to help me or you after he sent the fil drepessis off looking for something to fix.”

Kel hesitated.

Dorna saw his uncertainty and sighed. “Think about it,” she said. “For now, get me out of here and back to the Three Feathers before it’s too dark to see where we’re going.”

That was something Kel could understand and accept. “This way,” he said.

By the time they got back to Grandgate and found Irien sitting in a quiet corner of the inn, Kel had made up his mind. Three meals a day! A dry room! And some money! How could he resist?