Chapter 6

Part 1

“And that’s all I’ve done since then; walk south, and climb when I had to. About six months, I think. Every few days I climb high enough up a mountain to choose a way ahead through the passes. That’s why I came up here; the top of the pass faces south. From the maps my father had, I know the mountains must end a few more weeks’ walk south of here. I know there are plains south of that, and south of that is the shore of the ocean, where it never snows. I guess I’d sort of thought of going there.”

He turned to Yazadril and tried to smile with tears pouring from his eyes. “Now that I know I’m immune to magic, I suppose I should go home and give my folk decent burials. But I don’t think I could bear to do it.”

His look of despair made Yazadril look away, and there was a painful silence for a minute.

“Have you thought about the cause of it?” Yazadril finally ventured. “The source of the storm and the madness and the death?”

“Not really.” Markee answered after a moment. “I haven’t been thinking about it, really. I try to keep my thoughts on the here and now, or I review the lessons I was taking, or just engage in abstract philosophizing. Anything to keep from thinking about it, or I weep constantly. Until your spell. And I’m still weeping, just not as much.”

He paused again. “None of us had any real enemies, so it makes no sense. I suppose some evil wizard must have killed them for his own amusement.”

“That is one possibility.” Yazadril nodded. “They were definitely killed by magic. Or a wizard may have made a mistake, or had an accident. If one tries to put too much power into an object, for instance, it could explode, and that could cause what you’ve described. Or a small piece of a world that is a source of raw magic may have fallen from the sky nearby. The magic storm from that could do it too.

“By far the most likely possibility is that your folk were simply caught in the crossfire of a battle between two distant wizards. In which case, one or both of them are probably dead. Two very powerful, very incompetent, very sloppy, very unethical, and undoubtedly human wizards, I might add. No elf would even contemplate such methods.

“That is one thing I can offer you. I can help you find out what caused those unfortunate events. If we find that someone is at fault, I will help you take action.

“I should clarify that. If your people were killed by intent or incompetence, by a wizard or wizards, and we can identify any surviving perpetrators, my people will take appropriate action, whether you choose to or not. Such atrocities cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.”

“Hmm. Would you be able to find out from here, by magic, or would you have to go there?” Markee asked.

“I might be able to find out from here, but most likely I will have to go there.” Yazadril mused. “Along with a few hundred elven warriors, all of whom have various magical skills, as well as another dozen senior wizards of The High People.”

“So you sometimes go beyond the lands of your people?”

“We do indeed!” Yazadril laughed. “I’ve spent a third of my life out in the world, and I’ve seen most of it!”

“Hmm.” Markee said. He stood and clasped his hands behind himself, and slowly strode to the center of the glade. He remained there, deep in thought, for many minutes. Finally he turned and made his way back.

“Here’s what I propose. Please, hear me out.” He stated as he sat down again. “I’ll stay here for your study, in the house you will build me, for five years. You will also help me with furniture, clothing, boots, and bedding for the winter. And with food, or I’ll have to gather and trap so much in this small area that it would start to become barren in less than a year. You will also teach me what you can about magic during that time.

“I won’t count the time we spend on dealing with what happened to my people against the five years.

“If after the five years I no longer want to stay here, or whenever I choose to leave after that, you will give me enough jewels to buy a good ranch with a nice house, small enough that I can work it by myself, somewhere south where it never snows, as well as enough to equip it, to furnish it, and to buy some breeding stock and the first year’s seed. If I leave here and you do that for me, I’ll let you come with me and study me during my free time, but you’d also have to continue my magic lessons.”

“For how long?” Yazadril asked.

“Pardon?”

“For how long could I accompany you and study you and teach you during your free time at your new ranch, after we left here at the end of the five years?”

“Oh. As long as we didn’t get so sick of the sight of each other that we couldn’t stand it. As long as we both enjoy spending the time together, I mean. Other than that, as long as I live.”

“Agreed then!” Yazadril stated happily as he rose to his feet.

“It’s a bargain?” Markee asked as he also stood and offered his hand.

“Wait. You understand that during the five years, I will not be the only wizard of my people studying you? That sometimes one or two others will join us?”

“That’s all right.”

“And do you understand that a vow with an elven wizard is magically binding, like a geas or a Compulsion?”

“I didn’t know that!” Markee stated. “So when you swore you and yours to not harm or impede me earlier, and your glow got brighter…?”

“I couldn’t break it to save my life.” Yazadril nodded. “Though to save my daughters’ or my wife’s lives, I could break it. Most could not.”

“That’s good to know. But what if I’m immune to the binding, as I am to other magic?”

“Then I’ll just have to trust your honor.” Yazadril smiled.

“You can.” Markee nodded, offering his huge hand again.

“So let it be agreed, as it was spoken!” Yazadril smiled, and he placed his small and bony hand within the other’s huge one.

“Agreed!” Markee stated, with a bit of a smile himself as they shook on it.

Yazadril grinned as they resumed their seats. “Tell me, did you feel anything special just now?” he asked.

“You glowed a little brighter for a moment there, when I said ‘agreed’. It’s getting harder to see as the sun gets higher and the daylight gets brighter, but for a moment it was as plain as when you were walking through the shadows under the trees.”

“Ah. Interesting. Here, do try some of this bumbleberry wine. It’s very good, and you haven’t tasted yours yet.”

“I’m not allowed to drink wine until I’m eighteen.” Markee admitted sheepishly. “But I’ll sure have another of these pastries! They’re delicious! The first real food I’ve had in a long time!”

“Ah, it’s so easy to forget your age. But it is wise, to avoid the possibility of drunkenness until you are mature, and perhaps even after that. Before we give wine to our young, those under twenty-five years, we generally take most of the alcohol out of it. If I did that, do you think you would be permitted to drink it?”

“I suppose that would be all right. I hesitate to assume so though. The thought of offending my mother’s spirit is… very painful.”

“Ah, understandable. But we are celebrating an agreement, and it’s a new chapter in your life, and you’ve had to assume responsibility for yourself as an adult before your due time. You knew your mother well, and loved her very much. If you think of how she was, and how she would decide if she were here now, I think your heart will know the truth of it.”

Markee thought about it. “I… I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind, as long as it couldn’t make me get drunk.”

“I think you are almost certainly right.” Yazadril gently smiled. He hummed a note and touched his fingertip to the surface of Markee’s wine, making tiny ripples of vibration in the liquid as bubbles rose. “There. Generally we remove alcohol from wine with a slow selective evaporation process, but it’s no trouble to transmute the alcohol. Try it.”

“Mmm! It’s good! Sweet and tart and spicy, all at the same time!” Markee exclaimed, holding the silver goblet delicately but awkwardly with his fingertips. It looked almost ridiculously small in his hand.