Страница 100 из 135
“You should follow a plow and earn yourself some coin stoning the crows. That’s some skill,” a cheerful voice complimented me.
“It is, but it’s not my own,” I said without thinking.
“That sounds like a line from a bad ballad! You must be Ryshad, I’m Pered.”
I turned to see what ma
“Go on then, tell me the tale.” Pered sat himself in a bench to enjoy the sunshine, arms folded, muscular legs outstretched at his ease.
I hurled my last stone and struck a chip of rock from my target. “I have a fair eye but this particular talent belongs to a man many generations dead whose memories are somehow cluttering up my dreams.” It sounded rather improbable put like that, but Pered didn’t look surprised.
“So our revered Archmage has entangled you in one of his schemes, has he?”
I liked the almost total absence of respect in his voice and thought that Pered and I could probably be friends.
“Like a fly in a web.” I nodded.
“This is all to do with some lost colony and this unknown magic that has all the mages fluttering like doves with a cat in the cot, is it?” Pered shook his head. “Good thing too, if you ask me. It’s nice to see some of them learning a little humility for a change.”
No, I decided, we were definitely going to be friends. “Shiv’s told you about it?”
“Enough,” shrugged Pered. “So, what’s he like?”
“Sorry?”
“This lad who’s wrecking your nights, the one with the throwing eye, what’s he like?”
I looked at Pered and found myself at a loss for words. The Archmage had asked so many things, teased out so much detail about the colony, found far more information that I had realized I knew, but he hadn’t once asked about young D’Alse
“He’s not a bad lad. He still has an unholy amount to learn about women but he’s growing up fast, squaring up to his responsibilities all right. He has got plenty of character but it needs tempering, polishing up.” It seemed strange to be talking about Temar like this.
“What does he look like? Can you describe him?” Pered pulled a scrap of reed paper from the breast pocket of his shirt and found a broken length of charcoal in his breeches pocket.
I closed my eyes to picture Temar more clearly and Pered sketched swiftly as I spoke, charcoal deft in his stubby fingers. “He’s a ski
“How does he wear it?”
“Long, straight, mostly tied back.”
“Anything like this?” Pered turned his sketch toward me and I smiled involuntarily.
“Are you sure you’re not a mage? Actually, his nose isn’t that prominent and his brows are finer but that’s a better likeness than many a portrait I’ve seen. You’re wasted in a copy-house.”
It was strange, seeing that picture, imperfect as it was, the face of a youth so alive in my dreams and reveries but so long lost on the far side of the pitiless ocean. I felt an odd tug of affection, almost. Besides, I owed the boy, didn’t I? He’d saved my stones against Kaeska’s enchanter.
“As my father said when he apprenticed me, it’s a fair trade and it keeps bread on the table,” gri
“Don’t you mind the way Shiv has to go ru
“Yes,” said Pered simply, “but that’s Shiv’s choice and I have to respect that if we’re to be together. The trick is making sure Shiv himself comes out ahead when all the runes are drawn, whatever game the Archmage is playing. That’s what you need to do, trust me.”
This struck me as an unusually intense conversation to be having with someone I’d only just met. “You seem very well informed. Shiv must have told you more than you’re saying.”
Pered shook his head. “Not Shiv, Livak. Anyway, what you need to work out first is just what you want. Then make sure whatever Planir tries to talk you into works for you as well as for him. Watch your step if he’s being all honest and open with you as well—there’ll be a barb in the honeycake, mark my words.”
I heaved a sigh. “I just want to get clear of all this, have ordinary, nonsensical dreams about swimming through deep water with talking fish or whatever; to be allowed to go and pick up the threads of my own life again.”
“Then keep your eye on that target and don’t let Planir or anyone else distract your throw.” Pered raised a hand and stood up. “I think I heard the street door.”
We went into the kitchen, the i
“What’s for di
It proved to be a sturdy pottage that had been simmering away in a cook-pot on a tripod in the hearth and only awaited the addition of the vegetables. Shiv skimmed the fat and thickened the mix with the marrow from the bones while the rest of us peeled and chopped.
I caught Livak looking thoughtfully at me and raised an inquiring eyebrow.
“Are you pla
“Do you like it?” I did hope she was going to say no.
She tilted her head to one side, considering this. “It definitely makes a difference but—”
That was good enough for me. “Shiv, do you have a razor I can borrow?”
Shiv laughed. “Certainly but I’d wait a bit before you use it. Shave a beard like that off in high summer, especially after spending time in the Archipelago, and you’ll have a piebald face. Your chin will catch the sun too, unless you’re careful. Trust me, I’ve done it!”
Pered’s artist’s imagination was instantly caught by this picture. “When did you wear a beard?” he asked, intrigued.
“Soon after I came to Hadrumal,” replied Shiv. “I thought it would make me look older and force some of the senior wizards to take me a bit more seriously.”
“Didn’t it work?” Livak asked with a wicked smile.
“No.” Shiv shook his head ruefully. “The only thing that impresses master mages is how you handle your element.”
In very little time we were sitting down to an extremely satisfying di
As Shiv eventually rose to stack the plates in the sink, Pered looked out at the night. “You might as well stay, Livak. There’s no point in you heading back to the hall now and Halice will be asleep, if she’s anything like as tired as she was after the last session with those Solurans mauling her leg about. So, am I making up the bed in the garret as well or will the one in the back bedroom suffice?” he inquired with the first trace of archness I had seen in him.