Текст книги "Magic's Pawn"

Автор книги: Mercedes Lackey

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

* * *

To Lord Withen Ashkevron from Vanyel Ashkevron: greetings. I have received your letter and your token, for which my thanks. I am endeavoring to follow all of Herald Savil’s instructions to the best of my ability. I have found her to be a wise and knowledgeable mentor, and hope to better please her in the future. By my hand, Vanyel Ashkevron.

 

Dearest Son: I Pray with all my Heart that this finds you Well, and that you were not Hurt by that Brutal Boy. I Feared that something of this Nature would Occur from the Instant your Father Told me of this Foolish Scheme and have had Dark and Fell Dreams from the moment you Departed. Savil is plainly Not To Be Relied Upon to keep her Creatures in Order. I pray you, do not Provoke the Barbarian further; lam endeavoring to Persuade your Father to fetch you Home again, but thus far it is All In were not enough, I have been visited with a Further Grief. My maid Melenna has been rendered With Child – and by your Brother Mekeal! So she Claims, and so Mekeal Admits. Your Father is No Help; he seems to Think it is All Very Amusing. Indeed, I am at my Wit’s End and I know not What To Do! But even in my Extremity, I have not forgotten my Beloved Child, nor that your Birthday is this very day. I enclose a Small Token – All that I could Manage, and not Nearly your Desert. I Beg you that if you are in Need that you will Tell Me at Once. I shall Manage something More from your Father, Hard-Hearted as he is. Your Loving Mother, Lady Treesa Ileana Brendywhin-Ashkevron.

“Purple ink?” Tylendel said incredulously, looking over Vanyel ‘s shoulder. “Am I really seeing purple ink? And pink paper?”

“Costs a fortune, and it’s all she’ll use,” Vanyel answered absently, pondering how to reply without setting his mother off again. The pink page lay on the blotter of the desk, its very existence a maternal accusation that he hadn’t written since he arrived here. Beside it were two piles of silver coins – absolutely equal in value.

One reward for beating up a pervert, one consolation for getting beaten up by a pervert.He sighed. Gods, there are times I wish I was an orphan.

“May I?” Tylendel asked.

Vanyel shrugged. “Go ahead. You’ll encounter her eventually, I’m sure. You ought to know what she’s like.”

Tylendel worked his way through the ornamented and scrolled calligraphy, and gave it back to Vanyel with a grimace that said more than words could have.

“You think this is bad – you should see the letters she writes to friends, or worse, people she thinks have slighted her. Three, four, and five pages, purple ink and tear-blotches, and everything capitalized.” He sighed again. “And appallinggrammar. When she gets really hysterical, she goes into formal mode and she cannotseem to keep her ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ straight.”

He contemplated the letter for a moment. “What’s reallyawful, she talkslike that, too.”

Tylende laughed, threw himself down on the bed, and got back to the book he’d been reading.

 

Dear Mother: I really am all right. Please don’t worry about me – worry about yourself. If you don’t take care of yourself, if you let your fine sensibilities get the better of you, you’II make yourself ill. Savil is quite kind, and the problems I had with Tylendel have been taken care of. Every rumor that comes out of this Court is an exaggeration at best and an outright lie at worst, so pay no attention to what your friends are telling you. I am sorry to hear about Melenna; this must be a terrible burden for you. Your present was very kind, and very much appreciated, and for in excess of my needs. I love you, and I think about you often. Be well, Vanyel.

 

Dear Vanyel; What in Havens is going on? Are you all right? If it’s unbearable, for the gods’ sake let me know and I’ll lead the Seven Corey Swordmaids to your rescue – they’re dying to play avenging angels, although given their figures, it’s more like avengingangles. All my love, Lissa.

 

* * *

Vanyel laughed aloud, and passed the note to Tylendel.

Tylendel grinned broadly and handed it back to him. “Now thisone I like. What’s my chances of meeting her?”

“Pretty good,” Vanyel replied, stretching. “Once the secret’s out about us, Father will disinherit me, Mother will have vapors, and Lissa will show up, sword in hand, to defend me from Father’s wrath. She’s gotten a lot spunkier since she went over to the Coreys to foster. Lord Trevor has just about promised her a commission in the Guard.”

“Which he can give her, since he’s in charge of recruitment for the Guard,” Tylendel said thoughtfully. “Is that your last letter?’’

“One more after this – “

 

Dearest Lissa; Don’t worry, it’s all right. I’m fine, and I’m happier than I’ve been in my life here. Savil is on my side against Father, and some of what you ‘ve been hearing is to keep him happy. Trust me, it really is all right. I love you, and I miss you, Van.

 

To Vanyel Ashkevron from Evan Leshara; greetings. I believe we have mutual interests and I would be honored and pleased if we could meet to discuss them. I am at your disposal any evening. By my hand and seal, Evan Leshara.

“ ‘Lendel – “ Vanyel said slowly, sorely puzzled by this last note, which had been delivered to the suite by a page that very afternoon. “Who is Evan Leshara?”

Tylendel paced the confines of the bedroom, as restless as a caged wolf. Savil thought both of them were in here; he hadn’t told her that Vanyel had slipped his leash to go see what Evan Leshara wanted. He glanced over at the time-candle; it hadn’t burned down any since the last time he’d looked at it.

Ishouldn’t have let him go. If Leshara figures out the fight was all a ruse-

Up and back, up and back. It was damned hot for an autumn night, or was it being on edge that was making him sweat? His scalp prickled, and he felt a headache beginning just under his right eye. Shadows cast by the light of the time-candle danced and flickered, shrank and grew.

– if he figures out the game we’re playing, he’ll be able to use blackmail on Van against me, and me against Staven. Oh. gods, I shouldn’t have let him go. I should have told him to ignore Leshara’s invitation. I should have. I -

The creak of the garden door broke into his worries, and his tensions evaporated when Vanyel slipped in from the darkness and latched the door behind himself.

“Ashke?”Tylendel began, then hesitated, seeing the troubled expression in Vanyel’s eyes.

“He’s a damned persuasive man, this Leshara,” Vanyel said softly, sitting himself in the chair in front of the cold fireplace.

“That’s why he’s here,” Tylendel replied grimly. “It’s the Leshara countermove to my being here. Since they can’t buy into the Heralds, they’ve sent the one of their kin with the sweetest tongue to get the ear of the Queen, if he can.”

“He says he’s got it. He said a lot of things. ‘Lendel, there was an awful lot of what he said that made sense.”

“Of course there was!” Tylendel interrupted. “I’ll be willing to bet that half of what he told you was the absolute truth even by mystandards. It’s the wayhe said it, the context, and what he was prompting you to infer from what he told you that counts! You ought to know yourself from what you’ve been writing home that the best possible lie is to tell only the truth – just not all of it!”

“But ‘Lendel,” Vanyel still looked uncertain. “ ‘Lendel, he says his people have been willing to settle for months now, a settlement the Queen approves, and yours refuse to go along with it – “

“He didn’t tell you what that ‘plan’ was, did he?”

Vanyel shook his head.

“To marry my thirty-year-old maiden-cousin who’s never been outside of a cloister to a fifty-year-old lecher, take Staven out of being Lord Holder and put herin,” he said savagely, “which effectively means putting himin, since there’s no way she’d ever be able to stand up to him. She’d dry up and blow away the first time he spoke harshly to her. That’sthe Leshara notion of an equitable settlement.” He glared at Vanyel, angry and a little hurt that Vanyel would even considertaking Evan Leshara’s word as the whole truth. “He’s using the fact that Staven’s only seventeen as a way to imply that he’s incompetent, too young to make any kind of rational decisions. And a lot of the powers at Court, being old goats themselves, are buying into the idea. After all, seventeen’s only old enough to be told you have to go fight and die for something – it’s notold enough to have any say in the matter!”

Vanyel’s eyes had gotten very distressed, and he had shrunk back into the chair as far as he could. “ ‘Lendel,” he faltered. “I didn’t mean – I wasn’t doubting you-”

Tylendel gave himself a mental kick in the posterior for upsetting him. “Ashke,I didn’t mean to shout at you,” he said, kneeling beside the chair and putting one hand on Vanyel’s knee. “I’m sorry – I’m just so damned frustrated. He can say any damned thing he wants, and because I’m a Herald-trainee, I can’t even refute him. It makes me a little crazy, sometimes.”

Vanyel brightened, and put his hand over Ty lenders. “That’s all right. I know how you feel. Like me and Father and Jervis.”

“Something like it.”

“ ‘Lendel, would you,” Vanyel hesitated, “would you tell me your side?”

Tylendel took a deep breath. “If I do, I’ll be breaking a promise I made to Savil, not to get you involved.”

“I’m already involved. I – why? That’s what I really want to know. What’s keeping this thing going?”

“Something Wester Leshara did,” Tylendel replied, fighting down the urge to get up, grab a horse, and ride out to strangle Wester with his bare hands. The white-hot rage that always filled him whenever he called that particular memory up was very hard to control. “Savil says I have to be absolutely fair – so to be absolutely fair, I’ll tell you that this was in retaliation for a raid that accidentally killed his youngest son. We – our people – went in to stampede his cattle. The boy fell off his horse and wound up under their hooves. But I don’t think that excuses what Wester did.”

“Which was?”

“My father had just died; he hired some kind of two-copper conjuror to convince Mother that Father’s ghost wanted to speak with her. She wasn’t very stable – which Wester was damned well aware of, and this pushed her over the edge. We got rid of the charlatan, but not before he’d gotten her convinced that if she found just the right formula, she’d be able to communicate with Father’s spirit. She started taking all manner of potions, trying to see him. Finally she didsee him – she ate Black Angel mushrooms.”

He did not add that he and Staven had been the ones to find her. Vanyel looked sick enough. Tylendel got a lid on his anger, and changed the subject. “What did the bastard want, anyway?”

“He wanted me to let him know any time I heard anything about you or your family, and he wanted me to talk my father ‘round to his side.”

“What did you tell him?”

Vanyel grimaced. “I guess I was playing the same game of telling not all of the truth. I told him that I heard more about your people directly from you than I heard casually, and let him draw his own conclusions.”

Tylendel relaxed, and chuckled. Vanyel brightened a little more. “What about your father?”

“I told him the truth; that I had been sent here as punishment, because I wouldn’t toe the line at home, and that father would take advice from a halfwit before he’d take it from me. He was rather disappointed.”

Now Tylendel laughed, and hugged him. “Ashke, ashke,you couldn’t have done better if I’d given you a script!”

“So I did all right?” Now Vanyel was fairly glowing.

“You did better than all right.”

Gods,he thought, seeing Vanyel so elated, he fades like an unwatered flower when he thinks I’m angry at him – and now this– you’d have thought I’d offered him a Bard’s laurel. Does my opinion mean so much to him? Do I mean so much to him ?

The thought was a sobering one. And it was followed inevitably by another.

Maybe Savil ‘s right. . . .

“He said he wants to stay in touch with me anyway, just in case I hear something. I told him that was all right with me. In fact, I acted pretty eager about it.” He turned his head a little to one side, and offered, tentatively, “I thought we could sort of tell him what we wanted him to hear.”

Ha. “We,” not “you. “ No, Savil’snot right. He depends on me, but I depend on him, and if he’s leaning on me a little, well, that isn’t going to hurt anyone. He’s just not used’to making decisions on his own, that’s all.

“That’s perfect,” he said, leaning on the arm of the chair. “Absolutely perfect. Now, after facing off the dragon for me, oh noble warrior, in what way can I everreward you?” He batted his eyelashes at Vanyel, who laughed, and drew himself up as if he sat in a throne. “I’ll do anything – “

“Oh?” Vanyel replied archly. “Anything?”

“Savil told me something funny today,” Tylendel murmured quietly into Vanyel’s ear. His voice roused Vanyel out of the sleepy half-dream he’d been in ever since he and Tylendel had settled into their favorite spot in all of the Field.

It was the first time either of them had broken the silence since they’d entered the pine copse.

The suite had seemed far too stuffy for the warm autumnal evening, even with all the windows open. And Vanyel had scarcely left it since they’d staged their “fight” – except for lessons and the obligatory evenings with Evan Leshara to feed him misinformation. And the appearances he hadto make at Court to keep his circle of admirers happy and deceived.

It was moon-dark, and the chance of anyone seeing them heading out into Companion’s Field together was practically nonexistent. So when Vanyel had looked up from his Religions text and tentatively suggested a walk, Tylendel had shut his own book and flung the garden door open with a mocking bow and a real grin.

It was inevitable that Gala should join them when they crossed the river; Vanyel had come to take her presence for granted on the precious few joint excursions they’d judged safe from detection. It was equally inevitable that they should seek “their” pine grove; it drew them as no other place within walking distance could.

It was blacker than Sunsinger’s despair beneath the branches on this moonless night, but Tyiendel had made a tiny mage-light once they’d gotten past the first line of trees and were safely out of sight. They’d just rambled for a long time, from one end of the peaceful grove to the other and back again; not speaking, but not needing to. Not touching, either – but again, not needing to.

It wasn’t until they’d walked out the last of their end-of-the-day tensions that they’d finally decided to settle next to the oldest tree in the grove and just relax in silence. Gala provided a willing backrest, and the two of them leaned up against her soft warmth, with Vanyel resting his head on Tylendel’s shoulder. Tyiendel had put out the mage-light, leaving them in near-total darkness. There were still a few crickets that hadn’t been killed by the first frost, calling from a dozen different directions, and once Vanyel had heard geese crying by high overhead. But other than that, and the sigh of Gala’s breathing, they might have been the only two living creatures in an endlessly empty, pine-fragrant universe.

Which was exactly the way Vanyel wanted it. This continual charade of theirs was proving to be both harder and easier than he’d thought it would. Easier, because he was no longer trying to block out his feelings, no longer trying to convince himself that he didn’t need anyone. Easier, because the arrogant pose, the flirtation games, were no longer anything more than an elaborate set of games. But harder, because one single slip, one hint getting back to Withen of what was really going on, and he’d lose everything that was making his life something more than a burden to be endured. And harder, because of the double-game he was playing with Leshara. One slip thereand Leshara would know what was really going on – and it would be child’s play for him to use that knowledge as a double-weapon against Vanyel andTylendel.

And there was no way of knowing how much – or how little – Evan Leshara believed out of all the things Vanyel was telling him. All he could do was trust that ‘Lendel knew enough to seed the falsehoods with exactly the right amount of truth – because hecertainly didn’t know enough.

The pretense was a constant drain on his emotional energy, and it wasn’t often that he felt safe enough to forget and enjoy the moment. The insecurity of the situation was the first thing on his mind when waking and the last when going to sleep.

That wasn’t the only strain. Since the fight, he’d been virtually ostracized by the Bards, Heralds, and all their trainees. Tylendel was (somewhat to his own surprise) highly-regarded among the “working” members of Queen Elspeth’s High Court. But that meant that Vanyel was bearing the burden of theirscorn for provoking the fight. And while his teachers remained within the bounds of polite civility, they were making no secret of their disdain. Lessons had become ordeals, and only Tylendel’s insistence that he was going to haveto continue if the charade was going to work had kept Vanyel persisting in the face of the hostility he was facing. The only one of his teachers that seemed oblivious to the whole mess was Lord Oden – possibly because the Lord-Marshall’s second-in-command was pretty well indifferent to anything not involving the martial arts. Vanyel had ample occasion to reflect on the irony that his situation was now precisely the opposite of what he had endured at Forst Reach. There he’d been the pet of his tutors, except for the armsmaster, and despised by everyone his own age. Here – discounting the trainees – his peers were fawning on him, but his teachers were doing their icily gracious best to get him to give up and drop out of their lessons – except for his armsmaster. It was nothis imagination that they were being harder on him than the others being lessoned; Mardic was in his Religions group now, and had confirmed his suspicions.

“So what did Savil say?” he replied, closing his weary eyes, and shifting a bit so that he wasn’t resting so much of his weight on Tylendel’s arm. Tylendel responded by holding him a little closer.

“That she can’t understand why we haven’t had at least one fight,” Tylendel said, laughing a little. “She says we’re sickening.”

“She has a point,” Vanyel conceded, with a ghost of a chuckle. “We are, a bit.”

“She told me she can’t understand how we stay so dotingly devoted to each other. She says we act like a couple of spaniels – you know, kick ‘em, and they just come back begging to be kicked again – only worse, because we aren’t kicking each other.”

“She just doesn’t realize,” Vanyel said, sobered by a moment of introspection. “ ‘Lendel, there is no way I’d fight with you, when any moment my father might find out about us and pull me home. I couldn’t bear the idea of our last words being angry ones. I have to make every moment we have together a good memory.”

“Don’t let it eat at you,” Tylendel interrupted. “You’re sixteen now; I’m seventeen. It’s only two years before you’re of age. We’ll be all right so long as you can keep your end of things going with Lord Evan.”

Vanyel sighed. “Gods, gods, two years – it seems like forever. It seems like it’s been years already. I just can’t imagine coming to the end of this.”

Tylendel stroked his hair, his hand as light as a breath of wind. “You’ll manage, ashke.You’re stronger than you think. I sometimes think you’re stronger than I am. I doubt I could be dealing successfully with the plate you’ve been handed. And whether or not you believe this, I think I depend as much on you as you do on me. Gala says so.”

“She does?” Vanyel’s voice rose with his surprise. “Really?”

“Frequently.” He sighed, and Vanyel wondered why. There were times when it seemed that there were some serious points of disagreement between Gala and her Chosen, usually involving Tylendel’s tacit and unshakable support of his twin. Vanyel personally couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. Even if ‘Lendel hadn’thad the close bond he did with Staven, even if Wester Leshara hadn’tconnived the painful suicide of ‘Lenders mother, it would still have been his duty to support Staven. Even though Vanyel himself had a rather bitter and uncomfortable relationship with his own brother, Mekeal, if it came to an interHouse confrontation there was no doubt in his mind where hewould stand, and he knew Mekeal was likely to feel the same. And given how much Tylendel owed to his brother for supporting himin the face of all opposition – well, Vanyel couldn’t see what else he coulddo, in all decency and honor.

But then, there was a great deal about all this “Herald” business he didn’t understand. For instance -

“ ‘Lendel, if we make it that far – all the way to when you get your Whites – “

“ ‘If?’ Don’t think in terms of ‘if,’ love,” Tylendel chided, softly. “It may not be easy, but we’ll make it. Havens, I should talk about not being easy, when it’s you that is having to take the worse share on your shoulders. But I’ll help you, I’ll help you all I can, and we willsee this through to the other side.”

“Well, what’s going to happen with us? When you get your Whites and I’m of age – what then?”

There was a long pause, and Tylendel’s hand stopped moving, resting on the back of his neck. “That’s the easy part, really. First thing, you make up your mind about exactly what you want to do about Lord Withen. I mean, you could flat tell him about us, or you could just – let him find out. Whichever way you want. At that point the worst he could do is disown you, and you knoweverything I have is yours for the asking. The Circle won’t stint me; I’ll have more than enough to support two.”

“He probably will disown me,” Vanyel said bitterly. “Which will mean I’ll haveto ask, ‘Lendel.”

“So? We’re partners, aren’t we? It won’t be charity, ashke;it’ll be sharing.”

Vanyel squelched the automatic retort that it would still feellike charity. “All right, assume I’ve told my father and I’m free to do what I want. Then what?”

“After that, Savil will turn the lovebirds over to another Herald and take me – us – out on a Field assignment. Us, because obviously I won’t go without you; Savil knows that, so it’s a given. That’s a year, or thereabouts. But then – I don’t know. I’m a Herald-Mage trainee; they usually give us permanent positions rather than having us ride circuit like the straight Heralds do. They’ll probably put me either here at Haven, or out along the Border at the places where magic is needed.

Down by White Foal Pass, around the edge of the Pelagirs – “

– “Why? That’s something that has me baffled. Why?” Vanyel asked. “I mean, why are you going to do what somebody else wants? Why do you have to go where theysay? Who are‘they,’ anyway?”

“ ‘They’ – that’s the Heraldic Circle. Queen’s Own, Seneschal’s Herald, Lord-Marshal’s Herald, the speaker for the Heralds with trainees – that’s Savil – the speaker for the Herald-Mages and the speaker for the Heralds on circuit. And the Queen, of course, and the Heir. They’re the ones who decide where Heralds and Herald-Mages will serve and what they’ll do. That’s – that’s just the way it is. Van, I don’t understand younow.” There was hurt in Tylendel’s voice. “Don’t you wantto go with me?”

“Oh, gods – “ Vanyel groped for Tylendel’s free hand, and held it tightly. “ ‘Lendel, I didn’t mean that. I’d rather lose my arms and legs than lose you. I’ll go wherever you go, and glad to. I’m just trying to get all this to make sense. Whyare you doing this, going where they tell you, doing what they tell you to do? Why is this – Herald stuff – so important to you?”

Vanyel could almost feel Tylendel fumbling after the right words. “It^s, I don’t know, it’s a kind of hunger. I can’t help it. I’ve got these abilities, these Gifts, and I can’t notuse them. I couldn’t sit here, knowing that there were people out there who need exactlythe kind of help I can give them and not make the effort to find them and take care of them. It’s like backing Staven – it’s just something I could not even see myself notdoing. I can’t explain it, Van, I can’t. I have to, or – or I’m not me anymore.”

Vanyel just shook his head a little. “All right, I’ll accept that. But I still can’t really grasp it,” he confessed.

“Giving up everything to play nursemaid to a pack of people you don’t even know. Won’t you have any life of your own? Who are these hypothetical people that need you, that you’re sacrificing your whole life for them?”

“Huh,” Tylendel said, “You sound just like Stav – “

Suddenly he went rigid; “Staven?” he whispered. “Stav-”

Then his entire body convulsed as he screamed Staven’s name. And the night erupted into chaos around them.

The scream went on and on, filling the entire universe with pain and loss. An unbearable pressure rose around them, and shattered, all in the moment, the eternity of that scream. The still air churned, and began pummeling them with fists of heat and turbulence.

Gala scrambled to her feet; Vanyel caught and held his lover, trying to support him as he thrashed in uncontrolled spasms. Tylendel’s forehead cracked against the bridge of his nose; he saw stars and tasted blood, but gritted his teeth against the pain and held on.

A gale-force wind sprang up out of the confusion and chaos. It went howling about them, moving outward in a spiral, nearly tearing the clothes from Vanyel’s body as it passed. Tylendel was – glowing; angry red light pulsed around him. In it, Vanyel could see his face set in a mask of madness. His teeth were clenched in a grimace of pain, and there was no sense in his eyes, no sign of intelligence.

The trees closest to them literally exploded in a shower of splinters; those farther away spasmed in convulsions much like Tylendel’s before they began tearing them selves apart.

The wind picked up in strength; trees farther away began thrashing and the wind spiraled outward a little farther than it had a moment before. The light surrounding Tylendel – and now Vanyel – throbbed, ebbing and strengthening with each paroxysm of his body. And something frighteningly like lightning was crackling off the edges of that glow, striking at random all about them. Where it hit, the effect was exactly like natural lightning; trees split, and the ground was scorched and pitted.

The wind was scouring the earth bare, making projectiles of dead needles and bits of wood. Even the ground was shuddering, heaving like a horse trying to throw a rider.

Vanyel held Tylendel as tightly as he could, looking wildly about for Gala. Finally he saw her, off on the edge of the circle of chaos. She, too, was glowing, bluely; the edge of her glow seemed to be deflecting the debris and the lightning, but it looked as if she was unable to doanything. Not that she wasn’t trying – she stretched her neck out toward her Chosen, her eyes bright and terrible with distress – but all she seemed able to do was shield herself. She couldn’t even get nearthem.

“Gala!” Vanyel shouted, over the screaming of the wind, restraining Tylendel as his lover spasmed in another convulsion. “Get help! Get Savil!” He couldn’t think. If Gala were helpless to do anything, Savil was the only possible source of aid.

She shook her head; tried to force her way through the gale toward them, but was actually pushed back by whatever force was controlling the raging wind. She tried twice more; twice more was shoved farther back, as the circle of destruction grew. Finally she reared, screamed like a terrified human, and pivoted on her hind feet, then sprang off into the darkness.

Vanyel closed his eyes and clasped Tylendel against his chest, trying to protect him from the wind, trying to keep him from hurting himself as he continued to convulse. He was well beyond fear; his mind numb, his mouth dry, his heart pounding – praying for an end to this, praying for help. He couldn’t think, couldn’t move – all he could do was stay.-

‘Lendel, I’m here– he thought, as hard as he could, hoping somehow that Tylendel would “hear” him. ‘Lendel, come back to me-

The trainee spasmed once more, his back arcing – and suddenly, it was over. The light vanished, and with it, the wind. The ground settled – and there was nothing but a deadly silence, hollow darkness, and the weight of his lover’s unmoving body in Vanyel’s arms.

“ ‘Lendel?” He shook Tylendel’s shoulders, and bit back a moan when he got no response. “Oh, gods – “

Tylendel was still breathing, but it was strange, shallow breathing – and the trainee’s skin was clammy and almost cold.

A moment later Savil and two other Heralds came pounding up on their Companions, mage-lights glowing over their heads. By their light, Vanyel could see that Tylendel was limp and completely unconscious, his head lolling back, his eyes rolled up under half-open lids. He swallowed down fear, as Savil slid off Kellan’s back without waiting for her to come to a full stop, landing heavily and stumbling to them. As the light of the pulsing balls strengthened, Vanyel saw with shock that there was not so much as a single pine seedling left standing in what had been a healthy grove of trees.

“I – I-I d-d-don’t know what h-h-happened,” he stuttered, as Savil went to her knees beside them, pulled open Tylendel’s eyelids and checked his pulse, her face gray and grim in the blue light of her globe. The other two Heralds dismounted slowly, looking about them at the destruction with expressionless faces. “He was a-a-all right one minute, and then – Aunt Savil, please, Id-d-didn’t do this t-t-t-to him – did I?”

“No, lad,” she said absently. “Jaysen, come over here and confirm, will you?”

The taller of the two Heralds knelt beside Savil and made the same examination she had. “Backlash shock,” he said succinctly. “Bad. Best thing we can do for him is get him in a bed and put someone he trusts with him.”

“What I thought,” she replied, getting to her feet and motioning to the older Herald to come help Jaysen take up the unconscious trainee. “No, Vanyel, it had nothing to do with you.” She finally lookedat him. “Did you know your nose is broken?”