Authors: Kim Hunter
I still dont remember. The raven snorted. You dont remember much at all, do you? Soldier let this pass. Did you find the woman and the boy? he asked. Thats why I came to get you. Theyre on their way out of the city. The woman is afraid of something. Soldier blinked and looked around him at the shadows cast by the moonlight. So am I. Someone tried to kill me here. You say Kaff was probably behind it? I think youre right, raven. In which case I had better get out of Zamerkand too, before Im murdered in my sleep. Your drunken sleep. Never mind the wise talk, lets find Uthellen. The raven flew ahead, stopping every so often for Soldier to catch up to him. They wound their way through the city streets, avoiding watchmen. Finally they came to the north gate. Ahead of him, Soldier could see the woman and the child, hurrying along as if they were being pursued. Soldier caught up with them. Wait - Im coming with you, he said. Uthellen turned in alarm. She looked up into his face. Why do you want to do that? Leave us alone. Youre causing us trouble. I dont mean to. I have to get out of the city. People are trying to kill me. I want to find somewhere to rest for a while, in peace and quiet. She clutched the witchboy to her breast. Youre spying on me. Youre a wizard, or a wizards agent. Go away. Leave us alone. We wont harm you. He took one of her hands in his own. I swear to you, he said, Im no wizard, nor wizards spy. Im a simple soldier, who woke on the hillside and found himself with no memory. Its true I have this scabbard, which appears to be magical, but I dont know where I got it or from whom. You talk with that jackdaw, Ive seen you. Please, replied the bird, raven. My mother wouldnt have a jackdaw in the house. They steal things. Mother, said the awkward child, detaching himself from her clutches, I think we should take Soldier with us. I trust him. Let him come with us. She looked worried. But clearly her sons words had a profound affect on her. Staring into Soldiers eyes, she said, They worry me. Theyre just eyes, said Soldier. Nothing more. I come from a different race to Guthrumites, thats all. Different as well from the Carthagans and every other people I know. Soldier shrugged. Perhaps Im from across the sea? I seem to know there are people with dark skins over there. There are images in my mind which are just there, like pictures hanging on a wall. I know there are a tall stately people with long black hair and dusky bodies. But not blue eyes. No, but perhaps they are from another place? Again the boy interrupted. Mother, we must leave, but we should take Soldier with us. She sighed. All right, we travel together. And trust each other? said Soldier. I have no choice, she replied. Now thats settled, said the raven, laconically. Lets get on. They were stopped at the gate, but it was pure boredom on the part of the guards. They were in the middle of their night duty and the world was peaceful. They questioned the three, assuming they were a family, and asked them why they were leaving the city at three in the morning. Soldier said they were going out to gather mushrooms, to sell in the market. We have to be out early, to gather them before the sun comes up and blemishes their caps. On you go then, muttered one of the guards, bring us back a couple for our breakfast. I like fried mushrooms. No funny ones mind. Just your plain wood or field mushroom, with a nice velvety-brown underside. Nothing with red spots or white gills. A friend of mine was dead in half an hour, just from licking his fingers after pickin the wrong kind. The other guard said, They say a death cap can kill you just by seeping into your pores. You dont even have to put it into your mouth. The first guard shuddered. On second thoughts, Ill stick to eggs and bacon. You dont find destroying chickens or death pigs, do you? Uthellen, Soldier and the boy slipped out into the night. They made their way towards the distant forest. It was dangerous anywhere outside the city, but at least in the forest there was plenty of cover, lots of places to hide from potential enemies. There were wild boars and wolves in the forest, but though any boar might charge them if cornered, wolves tended to avoid contact with humans. Soldier knew there were lots of myths about wolves attacking humans, but there was very little truth in them. In his experience, locked somewhere in the recesses of his mirid, wolves were only really dangerous if they sensed their human prey was sick or feeble in some way, and they the wolves were starving to the point of madness. Wolves were not stupid. Better to run down a wild boar than tackle a human being. They reached the forest without incident. It was getting light as they entered the pale of the trees. They had to battle their way through huge webs built by giant spiders, which blocked every path. There were stagnant pools and rotten trees everywhere, and carcasses of dead animals and birds. Carrion creatures infested the area, feeding from the corrupt flesh of their own kind. Better stick to the edge, said Soldier. We dont want to get lost straight away. Its all right. said the witchboy, leading them into the thick undergrowth. I know every part of the forest. Youve been here before? Weve not been out of the city before, have we Mother? Uthellen didnt answer, but Soldier took her silence to mean yes. Then how do you know your way? he asked the boy, beginning to get worried as they went deeper into the gloom of the trees. Its all in here, replied the boy, enigmatically, tapping his head. Trust me, just as I trust you. They found a mossy bank by a little brook with a waterfall that gushed from a rocky outcrop. There were plants and wildflowers growing in amongst the lichen of the outcrops cracks. Great trees shouldered each other around the small glade, letting in narrow sheets of light. Here there was a pretty pink campion flower, there some mauve herb robert. Frogs and newts swam in the small pool at the bottom of the tumbling waterfall. A grass snake slithered away, under a stone, one of the shy creatures of the forest. Butterflies and dragon-flies decorated the air above the sparkling waters. This is a beautiful place, marvelled Soldier. How is it that the rest of the forest is in a state of decay, while here its clean and fresh? There are small pockets which escape corruption, said Uthellen. Were lucky my son knows of them. Soldier then set about making a shelter for them. He still had the assassins dagger in his belt and he used this to cut some staves to form the frame for a bivouac. He covered the frame with moss and leaves, making a small apartment for himself and a bigger one for the other two. When the watery-pale sun arrived, they were ready for it. There just remained the problem of food. Soldier went out, following the brook away from the scent of their camp, to set snares for wild creatures. He made a fishing line from some twine unravelled from Uthellens belt and a hook from one of her metal hairgrips. With this makeshift angling tool he left the boy happily fishing in the brook ahead of the falls, while he set his springy willow traps at the watering places of wild animals. By the time evening came he had caught a hare, while Uthellens boy had managed to hook a rainbow trout. We can eat like royalty, he said to Uthellen. The boy looked up from his task of cleaning the trout. You are royalty, he said. Soldier thought about this. I suppose I am, he said at length. Im the husband of the queens sister. But she doesnt acknowledge me. Shes not interested in me as a man. She merely took pity on me as a human being. Princess Layana married me to stop me from being tortured by the Lord of Thieftakers. You dont know that, said the boy. Maybe shes protecting you against her madness, by not letting you into her house. Perhaps she secretly cares for you. Soldier studied the boy carefully in the light of the camp-fire. His stick-thin limbs appeared quite dark in the dancing shadows thrown by the flames. They protruded from a scrawny body which would have any observer thinking the child was consumptive. His face was gaunt and elf-like, with narrow inquisitive eyes and a long thin nose. The hair on his head stood as erect as the bristles on a brush. He was clearly a peculiar looking individual. But with his last remark he had revealed that his insight was very incisive for someone of his age. Just how old are you, boy? asked Soldier. Eight, replied the child proudly, as children do when they think they have reached a superior level and expect to be praised for their wisdom, and a half. Well, thats quite a speech for an eight-year-old, but of course youre quite wrong. The princess has only seen me once. People dont fall in love at a single glance. The boy stared at Soldier. You did. This observation really made Soldier sit up. He said to Uthellen, This boy is remarkable. To Soldiers surprise she looked frightened at these words. She moved closer to her child as if to protect him from Soldier. Perhaps it was Soldiers imagination, but even the dark trees circling their camp seemed to shuffle forward as if to come to her assistance, should she cry out for it. No - no most children of his age say things like that. They dont know what theyre talking about really. The boy whom Soldier had, in his own mind, labelled the witchboy looked up into his mothers face. You can trust him, Mother. Dont worry. Soldier has come from another place. He wont hurt us. Of course I wont hurt you, said Soldier. Do you think I would cause you harm, Uthellen? Uthellen continued to look scared and hugged her child to her breast. Tell him our secret, mother. He needs to know. If we are to share our exile with him, then he must be told. No, she whispered. He could be a spy. Who knows what form ... here she stopped abruptly and shuddered. What form? Soldier was bewildered by all this cryptic talk. Youve lost me, Im afraid both of you. The boy then began whispering with urgent tones in his mothers ear. For a while Uthellen continued to shake her head, but finally she broke down and sobbed. Soldier let her cry for a while, then assured her again he meant no harm to her. If you think Im some kind of demon in disguise, well, theres no way of proving that Im not. Tell him, Mother. This was by way of a command from the boy, rather than a request. All right, said Uthellen, quietly. But Soldier, you must swear an oath never to reveal what Im about to reveal to you. It would put my child and myself in great danger. Soldier was a little ruffled by these words. Im not sure I even want to know, if thats the case. Ive got enough burdens to carry with my own troubles. I dont know who I am. I dont know where I come from. I dont know why Im here. Im a stranger in a hostile land. It may be the result of some accident, but I feel I have some purpose here, but what it is or how I find out seems to be an insurmountable task. If youre going to add to the load I have to carry, Id as soon as not know your secret. Perhaps, said the boy, mysteriously, you have come to Guthrum to our world to seek some kind of redemption? If this is so, you must seek it with all your might and soul, for it wont come looking for you. You must grasp all that is offered, in the hope of finding some kernel of understanding within. This boy is exceptional, cried Soldier. What is he, some kind of priest? Uthellen drew a deep breath and the shadows moved in even closer. He is the son of a very powerful wizard, she replied. A wizard? Soldier stared at the boy. Then why does he look so sickly? The child gave him a cold and emotionless smile which chilled Soldier to the bone. In that smile he saw the strangeness of the creature before him. This was no mortal, with a mortals feelings and thoughts. This was a being of another make-up, a creature incomprehensible to human view. The boy might as well have been an intelligent wolf, or a knowing serpent, for all that Soldier knew about what was in his heart and mind. This boy was of a different race to that of men and women. Wizards are not strong in their youth, replied the boy. Theyre weak and puny, the prey of men. Thats why theres so few of us. We die of disease, we are killed out of fear. In the beginning we have to develop our minds at the expense of our bodies. We do not have a natural ability to employ magic, that comes with patient learning just as the knowledge of such subjects as science, philosophy and mathematics comes to men and women. You would not expect your own son to be born with vast learning. You would send him to a teacher who would tutor him. The child paused for a moment, then added, Later the flesh will cover my bones, but for now I must starve my body of the energy my mind needs to develop its powers. I must use all the potency I can produce in sharpening my thoughts and intellect. When I am worthy of a name I shall be given one a wizards name until then I shall live or die in anonymity. Whose child is he? asked Soldier, anxious to keep the boy in the third person. Are you really his mother? Uthellen explained to him the nature of the world at that time. You have come to us from the outside, she said, and youre not familiar with what is happening to Guthrum and the world at large. You have seen the weak, pale sun. You have seen the hanged men, the stagnant lakes, the lethargy and corruption which festers within the walls of the city. For some time now we have been on the brink of war with our neighbours. There are horrible murders committed without compunction. Why is this? Uthellen sighed. To explain that, I must tell you how things are here. Guthrum is a country surrounded by mountain ranges, beyond which are forces of great evil. The greatest of these ranges is the one to the east, where on seven of the tallest peaks sit our gods, one on each. These gods, said Soldier, they keep the evil at bay? Not so much the gods, who are simply there because they are part of the unnatural world around us. This wickedness is held back by the vigilance of a fraternity of magi. The King Magus provides spiritual and moral guidance to this fraternity. He is responsible for a balance of good and evil in the world. Soldier was sceptical. The King Magus, I take it, has supernatural powers? Of course, said Uthellen. He resides in the western mountains. The King Magus at present is a wizard called HoulluoH, who has been ill for the last fifty years. Hes dying of old age its rumoured he has seen seven hundred years of our history - but wizards live long and in consequence take a long time to die. HoulluoHs strength has all but gone, and the nameless evil from beyond the mountains is seeping through and poisoning the minds of the people of Guthrum. This sounds like a good excuse for lawlessness and chaos to me, said Soldier. I dont believe in the presence of nameless evil - only in the evil that mankind fosters. The boy interrupted their conversation now,