Chapter 5

Part 1

“Forty years!” Markee exclaimed, rising to his feet. “I think perhaps one year, if that!”

“One year! Impossible! We will barely know one another in one year!” Yazadril sputtered. “You must give me… You must give me ten, at least!”

“Ten years?! Ten years on the side of a mountain, being poked and prodded like a leech on a plate?! I think not! I may feel bad enough right now to throw my life away, but I’m smart enough to know I’ll feel differently in ten years!”

“Now see here! It needn’t be as unpleasant as all that! I like to think I’m pretty good company, and if you have any interest in the subject of magic, you may very well find it to be a fascinating time indeed! As for living on the side of a mountain, you must admit that this is very pleasant place, and if you choose to stay here I will have a lovely home built for you at the edge of the meadow there, and you may consider it yours for as long as you choose to stay with us!

“Beyond that, I happen to be a very powerful and wealthy wizard, and I would be willing to reward you very generously for your service! I could make you as wealthy in gold or jewels as any king in any of the human lands out there! I can build you a castle with a waterfall that flows uphill and a basilisk to guard the gate! I can give you a charm that will make you irresistible to every woman and admired by every man! Come now, I am willing to be reasonable, and I can give you almost anything you could want!”

“You must really want this very much.” Markee told him grimly, and sat back down, staring with eyes unfocused into the grass. “I don’t want those things. And you can’t give me what I want, for I want what I’ve lost. And I doubt even you can return the dead to life.”

Yazadril didn’t answer for a moment, and when he did, his manner was compassionate. “You’re right, in that I want this very much. You are the most unique magical phenomenon that’s ever happened. According to everything we know, you are impossible, and your very existence negates much of what we thought we knew about magic. The implications cannot be overstated. Nothing else is this important.

“And you are right, even I cannot bring back the dead if they have been gone for more than a moment, or if their brains or spines are destroyed.

“But, everyone needs affection, and companionship, and love. Elves and humans are the same that way. I will give you my companionship and my affection, Markee, and perhaps I will grow to love you like a grandson. Also, you will be a great novelty among my people, and many of them will want to visit you, and I’m sure you will like almost all of them.”

Markee didn’t reply, as he considered the enormity of what was being asked, and what was being offered.

“Perhaps there is something else I can offer, that you would value more.” Yazadril ventured quietly. “Tell me your story, Markee. There must be something I can do. Tell me of your home, and of what happened there.”

Markee stared at the ground for a long time before he spoke, and did not look up when he did.

“Shinosa Valley is in the mountains north of here. It’s a long way from anywhere, you have to hike over thirty-five kilometers of mountains and passes to get to Pimata; the next inhabited valley. The trader only comes twice a year, on foot with a pack train of nimble donkeys, and we were the very end of his route. Its a hundred and ninety-three hard kilometers east to Copper Strike; the nearest town, and another hundred and twenty-nine to the foothills and farmlands of Finitra proper before you come to anything that you could really call civilization. Other than that, to the north, west and south, there’s only mountains for hundreds of kilometers, uninhabited and mostly impassable. Fifty-three people lived in Shinosa valley, including me. The traders and five people from Pimata and two of the King’s Rangers are the only other people I’ve ever seen. And you.

“One morning just after dawn last winter a storm came, the most terrible blizzard any of us had ever seen. It was sudden, one minute there was clear blue sky, the next it was hell. The wind blew so fast that pieces of straw were blown three centimeters into solid wood, and it was so cold that people in warm winter clothes froze to death in moments. I’ve never been as scared as that. Lots of blizzards go on for days, and I knew if that one had even lasted till suppertime there wouldn’t have been anything left alive in the whole valley. It only lasted an hour, and it killed everyone that was caught outside, or that went outside to save their children or animals, and everyone whose house was too exposed to the wind.

“My family was spared, because Mother wouldn’t let us go out to save the mule and the sheep, though one window blew in and my little sister Shelvy got awful sick. All five of us huddled together on my parents’ bed under every stitch of clothing and bedding we owned. It was really, really cold, and the wind was so loud you had to yell into each other’s ears to be understood. Twenty-one of our neighbors died from the storm. It ended as suddenly as it started, then it was completely gone, the sky was blue again.

“We gathered everyone who still lived at Dob Jorman’s mill, since it was the second biggest place, and made of stone, and well sheltered from the wind.”

He paused for a long moment, and when he continued he was so choked with emotion that it was difficult to speak clearly.

“That night, just after suppertime, everyone but me went mad. They just completely lost their minds. Most of them, you couldn’t tell what they thought they were seeing, or what they were trying to do, but some were running away from nothing, and some were fighting the air, and some were yelling gibberish and thrashing around and… Some hurt themselves, and some hurt others. My brother Steb killed my mother with one blow to her head, and… And other bad things happened. A few minutes later, most of them became themselves again. Some were dead. My little sister was dead. She looked like she had died from sheer terror. Steb never came out of it, and Dob Jorman knocked him cold with a chair, to keep him from killing his son Verk.

“Some who had gotten their minds back wanted to run. But my father yelled that we were under magical attack, and that we couldn’t run from it, and a regular attack might come next, so we all had to stay together to help each other. Everyone saw the sense of that, so we all stayed there. There were twenty-one of us left alive, seven of them injured or sick, four of them still mad.”

He stopped to wipe at his tears with both hands, and tried to swallow the lump in his throat.

“The next morning, about midmorning… I was leaning against my father, we were sitting on the floor against the wall, and I was holding Marja Dobbim. She was thirteen, and everyone knew she’d be my wife someday. I was very fond of her, and besides, she was the only girl who was near the right age in the valley. Then everyone except me screamed, they screamed so horribly… And... they... died. They died, and their skin turned black and green pus started coming out of all their…”

Markee had to stop, and wept openly for a minute before he regained enough control to continue.

“Anyway, I ran. I grabbed a few things and I ran. I was really stupid about what I took, too, and I’ve regretted it a million times. It’s like all my training just flew out of my head, but I was in such a panic that I couldn’t even think. I just ran away and left them all lying there dead, because I was so scared. So… horrified. I ran south, because I was afraid of the ice storm, and I knew it was warmer, south. I ran until I dropped, just eating snow for water and running, and when I dropped I slept, and then a nightmare woke me up and I ran again, until I dropped. The next day I couldn’t run anymore, so I walked fast. The next day I stopped and gathered food, because I was so hungry, and kept on walking south.