Watt-Evans, Lawrence - Annals of the Chosen 01 (20 page)

"Yes, he did," Breaker agreed.

"I thought he was worrying about nothing—after
all, the Wizard Lord has been in power for eight or nine years now, and nothing
dreadful had happened, so far as I knew. So I wished him well, and he went
west, and I came south. And then just recently, I saw you were coming this way,
and realized you were following Lore, so I found him and told him you wanted
to meet him."

"That was just a few days ago," the
Scholar added.

"And I thought it would be nice to meet
you, too, so we settled in together to wait for you, and we talked, as people
will . . ."

"I wanted more stories," the
Scholar interrupted. "I always do."

The Seer's expression suddenly changed.
"And you know, I think that's a lovely sword the Old Swordsman gave you,
but wouldn't it be nice to have a new one, made to fit your own hand? Isn't it
awkward, fighting with someone else's sword?"

"What?" Breaker said.

"The
Old
Swordsman had a sword made for him, you know—he went to the best
swordsmiths, right under the cliffs in Winterhome, and had them make it just
the way he wanted
."

"Yes, he did," the Scholar agreed,
nodding vigorously. "He told me the whole story."

Breaker was not sure what was going on, but
he was bright enough to play along. "Wouldn't that be expensive, though?
I'm just a barley farmer, after all—I don't have much to trade."

"Oh, but you're one of the Chosen,"
the Seer said. "I'm sure the armorers would be honored . .."

She stopped in midsentence and let her breath
out in a rush. Then she turned and deliberately stamped on a spider that stood
on the floor by the corner of Breaker's bed.

"I hate it when he does that," she
said. "Wouldn't you think someone who's ruling all Varagan would have
better things to do with his time than spy on us?"

'The Wizard Lord was watching us?"

"And listening," the Seer
confirmed. "Through that spider."

Breaker stared at the gooey smudge on the
floor.

"As I was saying," the Seer
continued, "the two of us were waiting here for you—we both wanted to meet
the new Swordsman. And we talked, and we discussed the Old Swordsman's worries,
and I mentioned that incident with the rogue wizards five years ago, when the
Wizard Lord had killed people for the first and last time."

"And I didn't remember a word of
it," the Scholar finished.

 
Breaker stared at the Scholar. "But
I
thought you
I
said you
remember
everything."
"Only
if it's true." Breaker looked at the Seer's face.

"It was lies," she said grimly.
"The whole story about the rogue wizards must have been lies, from
beginning to end."

"But you're a
seer
—couldn't you
tell?"

She shook her head.
"No. I'm a seer, yes, but not that sort of seer. Sometimes I can't tell
truth from falsehood any better than any other woman my age—and I heard the
story from Boss, from the Leader, and he can be very convincing. You'll see
when you meet him. He and the Wizard Lord both draw on the
ler
of persuasion for
some of their magic; after all, they're both expected to command people. As one
of the

Chosen the magic doesn't work as well on me
as it does on most people, but there's still a little bit of an effect, or
maybe Boss has just had so much practice being believed— whatever the reason,
it's
hard
to see when he's lying, even when it would be obvious nonsense from an
ordinary person."

"But
...
I don't understand. If there were no rogue wizards, then why did he say there
were?"

"There were
people who died, Swordsman; there's no doubt of that. I felt it,
knew
it—the Wizard Lord killed them himself, summoning
ler
of fire and plague
and storm. And they weren't rogue wizards."

"But then—who
were
they? Why did he kill them? Why did he lie about it? Or why did the
Leader
lie about it?"

"It may have been a
misunderstanding," the Scholar suggested. "You would be amazed how
often stories are distorted, quite unintentionally, in the retelling.
Especially stories about the Wizard Lord—there are several I remember very
differently from how they're usually told."

"He's been
trying to convince me that that's what it is," the Seer said. "That
the Wizard Lord told Boss that these were people who had to die, and Boss
assumed that meant they were rogue wizards, and they weren't. He might even be
right—but who else would the Wizard Lord be called upon to slaughter? Common
criminals are usually dealt with by local priests, you know that, unless they
flee past the bounda
ries, and most aren't stupid enough to do that—they know the old
stories, they know the Wizard Lord probably won't bother with any trials or
mitigating circumstances, he'll just kill them, while the town priests and
magistrates generally won't do anything more than a flogging unless their
crimes are unspeakably vile. Oh, one or two fugitives, that could happen,
certainly, but this was more than two killed, all at once. And you know Blade
said he never trusted this Wizard Lord. I fear Blade was right, that innocents
were slain five years ago and we did nothing."

"We didn't know. We still don't, not for
certain."

"But it's our
duty
to know! It's what
we were chosen to do!"

Breaker shifted uncomfortably, but before he
could speak the Scholar said, "It is perhaps what
you
were chosen to do, but
my
role is to learn everything I can of the
world, past and present, so as to advise you and the others how best to deal
with the Wizard Lord."

"Well, isn't the murder of innocents a
part of the world's history, and a fit subject for your study?" the Seer
demanded.

Before the Scholar
could reply, Breaker asked, "If this happened, if the Wizard Lord killed
innocent people, why didn't we hear about it? Why wasn't the news in every public
house in the Midlands and every pavil
ion in the valleys? The guides carry gossip
everywhere—why hadn't the Scholar heard the
true
story
somewhere?"

"That's a very good question," the
Seer said.

"Indeed," the Scholar agreed.
"We have been discussing this while we awaited your arrival, and the only
conclusion that seems to make sense is that there were no witnesses to the
killings, no survivors to spread the word."

"Except the Wizard Lord himself,"
the Seer added. "I know he was there."

"But wouldn't these people be missed?
Wouldn't their families and townsfolk notice their absence? One person might
disappear without anyone thinking it especially strange, but you said there
were
...
You didn't say. How many
were there, three or four?"

"More," the Seer said. "I
don't know how many."

Breaker felt as if he had been punched in the
gut.
"More
than four? The Wizard Lord murdered more than four people?"

"Killed them, yes," the Scholar
said. "Seer seems sure of that. We don't know yet whether it was murder or
execution, though." Before anyone else could respond, he added, "Or
self-defense."

"It wasn't an accident," the Seer
said. "You don't summon a plague by mistake." "I concede that
much."

"We have to
do
something,"
Breaker said, overwhelmed by the thought of half a dozen people dead at once.

"What we must do," the Scholar
said, "is determine the facts of the matter."

"Talk to the Wizard Lord, you
mean?"

"No. If he lied to Boss, he would lie to
us," the Seer said.

"But the Scholar would know, when he
didn't remember the lies."

"That could take months," the Scholar
said. "And if the Wizard Lord has indeed given in to darkness, he could
dispose of us all during those months."

"But how? We're the Chosen!"

"He might find a way, all the
same."

The Seer interrupted. "We aren't going
to talk to the Wizard Lord. We are going to go and see for ourselves what happened
to those people."

"But
...
I don't understand."

"I know where they died—my magic, the
ler
of location, will guide us there. It's in the Galbek Hills—and yes, the
Wizard Lord lives in the Galbek Hills, but the deaths were at the other end,
about thirty miles east of his tower. We'll go there. Then we can talk to the
people nearby, and see what's left, and perhaps my other magic will let us know
more. I'm not omniscient, but I do sometimes see with more
than just my eyes,
even when neither the Chosen nor the Wizard Lord are involved."

"And the Wizard
Lord
was
involved,
in this case," the Scholar pointed out.

"When you say 'we,'" Breaker said,
"are you including me?"

"Yes, of course!" the Seer said,
startled. "It might be dangerous, and neither of us is a fighter. We may
need you to protect us. After all, you
are
one of the Chosen."

"One of them. Will you be gathering the
other five, then, before we set out?"

The Scholar snorted.

"No," the Seer said. "That
would take too long, and I'm not sure all of them would cooperate. And wouldn't
that be as good as shouting to the Wizard Lord, 'We think you've gone
mad!'?"

"What about the Leader, then? Isn't it
his decision? Shouldn't he be involved?"

The Seer and the Scholar exchanged glances.
"Ordinarily, you might have a case," the Scholar said.

"But it was Boss
who told me not to worry about these killings," the Seer said. "He'll
be reluctant to admit he could have been fooled—and if he wasn't fooled, if
there's re
ally
an innocent explanation, I'd rather not look like
I'm
a fool."

"Besides, he's nowhere near here,"
the Scholar said.

"That's true—he's traveling well north
of here, in the eastern Midlands," the Seer said. "It might take
months to catch up to him and bring him."

"And I would
prefer not to gather too big a crowd," the Scholar said. "Even three
of us traveling together might be viewed with some suspicion. Seer assures me
that the Wizard Lord
does
keep track of us all—that incident with
the spider shows a
s much."

The explanations all
had a superficial logic, but Breaker was not entirely satisfied. He had already
had one of the Chosen mislead him, and for all he knew these two were even less
trustworthy than the Old Swordsman. He had lived with the old man
for months and still
been deceived, while he had only just met these two—why should he trust them?
He had a sudden momentary suspicion that the incident with the spider might
have been staged; after all, he had no proof other than the Seer's word that
the Wizard Lord had been watching them, through the spider or otherwise. The
Seer and the Scholar might be fooling him as part of some elaborate scheme—or
perhaps the Seer had fooled the Scholar, as well; maybe there had been no
mysterious deaths, maybe she had never told the Scholar the story about rogue
wizards being executed.

Maybe these two weren't really the Seer and
the Scholar at all!

But that was absurd. Who would pretend to be
the Chosen and make up such a tale? Why would anyone lie about such a thing?
No, he had to trust these two—they were playing out their roles as he was
playing his.

But they were not necessarily following the
wisest possible course.

"Maybe we should split up, then,"
he said. "We don't want to arouse any suspicions. The Seer could go to investigate
the killings by herself."

"I want to know what happened," the
Scholar said.

"And I want witnesses along, to confirm
my findings," the Seer said. "Boss might not take my word for it if I
find something bad, but he can't ignore all of us. And the Scholar's knowledge
may be useful."

"But do you
really need me? You said you wanted protection, but wouldn't three of us
traveling together attract so much attention it would be
more
dangerous than if I
just went home?"

The Seer stared at Breaker for a long moment,
then said, "I want you to see what there is to see, Swordsman. After all,
if our ruler
has
become a Dark Lord, it will be
your
duty to kill
him."

For a moment Breaker stared at her, unable to
reply.

"It might be the Archer who kills him,"
he said at last. "Or any of us, really."

"In three of the five cases where a Dark
Lord has been removed by the Chosen, the Swordsman was the one who actually
killed the Wizard Lord," the Scholar said.

"Well, there, twice it was someone
else!" Breaker said with a gesture.

"Once the Beauty
put a knife in his ribs," the Scholar said. "That's unlikely to work
again. And the other time the Leader carried the Wizard Lord over a parapet,
and both fell to their deaths on the rocks below—the Leader's struggles, combined
with previous injuries and the Thief's removal of various talismans, prevented
the Wizard Lord in question from flying away safely."