Lawrence Watt-Evans - The Unwelcome Warlock

“Who knows?” Bardec pointed at the sky. “They’ll be back before the sun’s moved an inch.” He grinned.

Hanner was in no mood to grin back. “Vond must be getting impatient by now. We need to get started before he loses his temper.”

One of the other men, who had been leaning against a wall, straightened up. “Correct me if I’m wrong, no-longer-a-lord Hanner, but isn’t this the one place in Ethshar where the emperor can’t hurt us?”

“Well, he can’t touch us here directly, but he can make things difficult. We won’t be able to bring in any more food or clothing, or tools.”

The people exchanged glances. “That could be inconvenient,” a woman admitted.

“We could manage,” the man who had been leaning on the wall said.

“Could you?” Hanner said.

“Oh, I think so. We’ve already brought in copper and iron cook-pots, and there’s clay to make pottery once we can build a kiln. Of course some of us have knives, so we can probably get by without any more tools. We have wood and reeds and grass – you must have seen the basket-makers when you first arrived.”

“I did,” Hanner admitted.

“They’re up there as much to watch for new arrivals as to make baskets, but they are making baskets. We can make fish traps, too. We can manage.”

“I hope you’re right – and I must ask, whoever you are, if you’re so eager for self-sufficiency, why didn’t you settle on that land up near Aldagmor?”

“Out on the edge of the wilderness, with mizagars in the woods, and snow likely to fall any minute?” He shook his head. “It’s warm and sunny here, and these houses were already built, and if there’s anything dangerous around, we haven’t seen it yet.”

Hanner had to admit that the man had a point.

“Besides,” Bardec said, “we’re just a few steps from the city here, rather than dozens of leagues.”

“When the magic is working and the emperor allows it,” Hanner said.

“Why wouldn’t he allow it?” Bardec asked.

“Well, that’s what I came to tell you,” Hanner said. “He wants everyone out of here.”

As he said that another handful of people came around the corner of a neighboring house. “Who wants us out of here?” one of them asked.

“Emperor Vond,” answered one of the women in the original group.

“Why?”

“I’ll explain that when everyone’s here,” Hanner called.

“Rudhira said to gather in the square,” someone said.

“Where is that?” Hanner asked.

Several fingers pointed, and several voices said, “Over there,” or “That way.”

Hanner walked in the direction indicated, and found the vaguely-hexagonal space that Rudhira had mentioned, a pleasant area surrounding a stretch of stream, shaded by four large trees and equipped with some boulders of suitable size and shape to serve as crude benches. Hanner settled on one of the rocks to wait, and chatted idly with some of the others, asking questions about the refuge.

There was, he learned, much more to it than the grassy slope and the village. There was a broad beach below the village, where a fairly calm sea extended to the horizon. At the top of the slope, on the far side of where the tapestry delivered new arrivals, there was a fair-sized meadow, and beyond that was a forest of unknown size – as yet, no one had ventured more than a mile or so into its interior. One boy had climbed the highest tree he could find, and reported that he could see mountains in the distance – two peaks for certain, and possibly a third. There were several groves of nut-bearing trees; as yet the only variety anyone had gathered in any quantity appeared to be walnuts of a tasty but unfamiliar sort, but people were optimistic about others that had been seen in passing.

As yet no fruit had been found, but there were trees in blossom that looked as if they would bear fruit in time. No one knew whether this place had any seasons, let alone which season it was at present, so they could only guess when that might happen.

The largest animal anyone had yet seen on land was something the size of a large cat or a small dog, with gray and black fur, that lived in the woods; none of the three people who had caught a glimpse of it could identify it as any known species.

There were various birds, but no one had yet managed to catch any, and there was some disagreement about just what varieties had been spotted.

The streams and the sea both held plenty of fish of various sizes, and half a dozen people thought they had seen something much bigger than any familiar fish break the surface of the sea a couple of hundred yards from shore, but all they could agree on was that it was big, smooth-skinned, and dark gray or black, moving very swiftly indeed.

In short, this refuge was not merely a village, as Hanner had thought, but an entire world in its own right, though probably much smaller than the World.

As yet, no one had done much serious exploration; no one saw any need to rush. They were still settling in, and the village was large enough to fit everyone comfortably. The supplies Hanner and Rudhira had sent had been divided up and stored away safely, so that they had plenty to eat for a few days, and the hope was that by the time the delivered food ran out, they would be producing their own, in the form of fish, nuts, and possibly game. Growing grain would take awhile, but that, too, might come in time.

Hanner had assumed when he allowed these people to use the tapestry that this place would be no more than a temporary shelter, but at least half the people he spoke to seemed to think they wanted to stay permanently. That made what he had come to do even more unpleasant, but it also changed what he intended to say.

More and more people arrived in the square as he talked, more than Hanner remembered actually sending through the tapestry; he wondered whether Rudhira or Zallin might have sent along more when he himself was otherwise occupied. Finally, though, Rudhira brought up the rear of a final group, then crossed to where Hanner sat and said, “I think that’s everyone. There might be one or two out in the hills somewhere.”

“Thank you,” Hanner said. He stood, then climbed up to stand on the boulder and announced, “My friends! I have important news!”

The murmur of conversation died.

“The Great Vond, self-proclaimed emperor, has now proclaimed himself master of Warlock House,” Hanner said. “He wants no one inside its walls but those who have sworn total loyalty to him. As far as he is concerned, everything we see around us, the entire world on this side of the tapestry, is inside those walls. He finds the idea that someone can pop out of this village into his attic uninvited to be unacceptable. He has sent me to get all of you out. Those of you willing to swear fealty to Vond will be allowed to stay in Warlock House – maybe here, maybe back in the World – while the rest of us will be cast out to fend for ourselves on the streets of Ethshar.”

A surge of muttering began to rise, but Hanner raised his hands for silence.

“The situation has become complicated,” he said. “A group of magicians led by the wizard Ithinia of the Isle attempted to trick Vond into thinking that his new magic was accompanied by a new Calling, but the ruse failed, and made Vond very, very angry – so angry that he picked up the overlord’s palace, the entire palace , and is holding it suspended a hundred feet over Ithinia’s house. If Vond is harmed, or his magic is blocked, the palace will fall and crush a significant portion of the New City. The overlord’s guards have evacuated the inhabitants of that part of the city, and found them places to stay, for now, in various garrisons and defensive structures. Those of you who leave here can probably join these refugees, rather than being forced to sleep in the Hundred-Foot Field – but still, you will be living in a city where the most powerful warlock in history is feuding with pretty much everyone else. Right now, Ethshar of the Spices is not a safe place.”