Fool's Errand

A friend of Hap's, I explained to Nighteyes. He still hung back and regarded her warily as I went to meet her.

"Welcome. I didn't expect to see you so soon," I said, and then heard the awkwardness of my words. "An unexpected pleasure is always the most welcome," I added to mend the moment, and then realized that such gallantry was just as inappropriate. Had I completely forgotten how to deal with people?

But Ji

Without waiting for an answer, she strode up to the rain barrel, unknotting the kerchief at her throat as she did so. She walked like a woman used to the road, weary at the end of the day, but not overly taxed by her journey. The bulging pack high on her back was a natural part of her. She damped her kerchief and wiped the dust from her face and hands. Moistening it more generously, she wiped the back of her neck and her throat. "Oh, that's better," she sighed gratefully. She turned to me with a smile that crinkled the corners of her eyes. "At the end of a long day's walk, I envy folk like you with a settled life and a place to call your own."

"I assure you, folk like me just as often wonder if life would not be sweeter as travelers. Won't you come in and be comfortable? I was just about to start the evening meal."

"Many thanks." As she followed me to the door of the cabin, Nighteyes shadowed us at a discreet distance. Without turning to look at him directly, she observed, "A bit unusual, a wolf as a watchdog."

I often lied to people, insisting that Nighteyes was merely a dog that looked like a wolf. Something told me this would be an insult to Ji

"So Hap told me. And that he does not like to be stared at by strangers, but will come to me when he's made up his mind about me. And as usual, I'm telling a tale by starting in the middle. I passed Hap upon the road a few days ago. He was in high spirits, with every confidence that he will find work and do well. I do believe he will; the boy has such a friendly, engaging ma

She followed me into my cabin. She slung her pack to j the floor and leaned it up against the wall, then straightened and stretched her back with a relieved groan. "Well. What are we cooking? You may as well let me help, for I'm never content to sit still in a kitchen. Fish? Oh, I've a wonderful herb for fish. Have you a heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid?"

With the ease of the naturally gregarious, she took over half the di

It seemed that di

She took her brandy to the hearth. Our cooking fire had burned low. She added another piece of wood, more for light than warmth, and settled herself on the floor beside the wolf. Nighteyes didn't even twitch an ear. She sipped her brandy, gave an appreciative sigh, then gestured with her cup. My scroll- cluttered desk was just visible through the open door of my study. " knew you made inks and dyes, but from what I see, you employ them as well. Are you a scribe of some kind?"

I gave a desultory shrug. "Of sorts," admitted. "I do not attempt the fancy work, though do simple illustration. My lettering is no better than passable. For me, there is a satisfaction in taking knowledge and committing it to paper, where it is accessible to all."

"To any who can read," Ji

"That is true," I conceded.

She cocked her head at me and smiled. "I don't think approve."

I was startled, not just that she disagreed with such a thing, but that she could do it so pleasantly. "Why not?"

"Perhaps knowledge should not be available to all. Perhaps it should be earned, parceled out from master to worthy student only, rather than committed to paper where anyone who chances upon it may claim it for himself."

"I confess to some of the same doubts myself," I replied, thinking of the Skill- scrolls that Chade now studied. "And yet have known of cases in which a master died an untimely death, and all she knew went with her, before it could be passed on to her chosen pupil. Generations of knowledge were lost in one death."

She was silent for a time. "Tragic," she admitted at last. "For though masters of a skill may share a great deal of knowledge, each has his own secrets, destined only for hisown apprentices."

"Consider someone such as yourself," I went on, pushing my advantage in the discussion. "You practice a trade that is as much an art, woven of secrets and skills shared only by those others who practice hedge-magic. You have no apprentice at all that have seen. Yet I would wager there are aspects of your magic that are yours alone, ones that would die with you if you perished tonight."

She looked at me for a still moment, then took anothersip of her brandy. "There's a chill thought to dream on," she replied wryly. "Yet there is this also, Tom. I have no letters. I could not put my knowledge in such a form, unless someone such as yourself aided me. And then I would not be certain if you had truly put down what I know, or what you thought I had told you. That is half of teaching an apprentice: making sure the youngster learns what you said, not what she thinks you said."

"Very true," I had to agree. How often had I thought I understood Chade's directions, only to come to disaster when I tried to mix the concoction on my own? Another little ripple of uneasiness went through me, as I thought of Chade trying to teach Prince Dutiful from the scrolls. Would he teach what some forgotten Skillmaster had committed to paper, or only his understanding of it? I pulled my thoughts back from the unsettling notion. I had no duty there. I had warned him; that was as much as I could do.

Conversation lagged after that, and Ji

On nights such as this, we used to hunt together.

That we did. It would be a good night for hunting. The moon will make the game restless and easy to see.