Ringwall's Doom. Wolf Awert

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СКАЧАТЬ and Uul.

      “I grant you a temporary respite from your duty to defend my life,” he said quietly. “There is a more pressing matter. Go out and find powerful sorcerers. Search for them in the troops or wherever they decide to be. Search among Astergrise’s bowmen. Any sorcerer who knows how to use bow and arrow, or any marksman who has a spark of magic within him, is a gift to me. Do you understand?”

      Skorn-Vis furrowed his brow and said cautiously:

      “A sorcerer who has mastered a weapon is as rare as a warrior who knows magic. That is simple to understand. The rest only you understand, sire, for only you know why you seek such people.”

      Sergor-Don stared at Skorn-Vis and attempted to reach the depths of his soul through his eyes, but failed.

      “Your name, sorcerer. Vis is not honorific, it denotes no rank of lineage. Who has Wit in their name, what does it mean?”

      “Everyone in my family has Vis in their name, my liege. It truly is not of honor or rank. It means ‘white as the mountain snow,’ where my ancestors came from. Others say it comes from wisdom, but that must have got lost long ago.” Skorn-Vis’ lips curled a little in his usually stoic face. “It may also come from wide, as in, a broad view, or open mind. Whatever it means, it merely shows my family’s origin, far from the desert.”

      “So your ancestors’ birthplace is a legend, and like all good legends it’s wrapped in a veil of mystery.”

      “As you say, my king.”

      “And how long have you been at court?”

      “Not for long, sire. The mares that carried their foals when I arrived may still call a stallion’s attention. As Ringwall measures it, no more than ten winters perhaps. I never counted the days.”

      “You were under Auran-San’s command, yet you did not help him.” The king’s voice was objective. Although the answer to his words was what he wanted more than anything out of this conversation, he was satisfied with the simple statement.

      “The other court sorcerers did nothing to help him either, my liege. We all swore fealty, but the order of our oath is to the king first, then the kingdom, then our leader. The king was dead. Our oath bound us foremost to the kingdom. You were at the time the one true claimant, and I had sworn to defend you. As I will continue to do, as long as your plans allow it.”

      Skorn-Vis knelt down and kissed the hem of the king’s robe. King Sergor’s eyes left the sorcerer’s head and found Uul’s wide open ones. It seemed he had absorbed every word spoken between the sorcerer and king like a piece of cloth.

      “And your name, Uul?”

      The boy formed a loose ball with his hands, thumbs side by side. He raised his hands to his mouth and blew into them, calling forth a wailing, yet alluring sound. It was unlike anything in the plains and echoed out dimly.

      “That is no sound of the land.”

      Uul looked rather helpless. “I was told it was a sound of the forest, but I don’t know the forest. Someone once told me they heard a similar thing in the rocks, but that could have just been the wind howling in the crags like my own breath in my hands. It was they who knew the forest who gave me my name. It has no meaning.”

      “Who were these people?”

      Uul shrugged. “The others, here and there.”

      “And who taught you to use magic?”

      Uul shifted his weight back and forth; the boy seemed uncomfortable.

      “I’m no sorcerer, Sire. I was a child of the desert for as long as I can remember. I can talk to the fire. If I ask it, it follows me. My task was to guard the horses, Sire. Never did an arrow hit a horse under my protection, and I could keep the predators of the plains away with the fire. That is all I can do. I’m no sorcerer, Sire.”

      After a brief, tense pause, he continued: “Will you send me away?”

      “I needed a shield of Fire to protect me against Metal. A person who can shield a herd of horses has the power to shield a king. We will see how strong you really are in due time. Until then, rejoice in your gift.

      “And now ride. Both of you. And remember: we need a shield against all the elements, one that no one could hope to penetrate. The five of you are only the core of the army I will build, and it will be unstoppable.”

      Chapter IV

      Ringwall’s dark shadows lay behind him. Nill struggled to remember when he had last felt as free as he did now, the warm wind blowing in his face, telling him tales and fables. The smells it brought were fresh and young, and the sounds came from far away. It felt as though with every step he took, he was taking off dark, heavy layers of clothing and leaving them on the ground.

      Soon I’ll be all naked, he thought merrily.

      He had not dwelled long on which direction to take. The name Perdis and the knowledge that this Perdis had written in the old runes of the Fire Kingdom were evidence enough for him. And so he followed the sun at its highest point. While he had promised to help Ambrosimas in his search for the five Books of Prophecy, that had to wait. The books could be anywhere. And if even Ambrosimas had not been able to find them so far, Nill himself would be even less likely to. Unless they just happened to come to him. Fate would decide, as with everything else. Nill decided to take the easier route, likely due to the sun, the light and the happiness he felt.

      Nill avoided the paths and roads. His steps were long and light, like those he had admired of Dakh-Ozz-Han, his first mentor. Dakh’s steps left no trail; he left no footprints on the earth and left the grass unbroken. A stride like this made the wanderer invisible to hunters and trackers. Only dogs or arcanists could find him, for they could follow the magic that remained on his invisible footprints before it blew away with the wind. By the time Ringwall came to realize his disappearance, every hint of his trail would be gone, and so he hurried through the fields and meadows where the grass was tall, and past bushes and copses where his sharp shepherd’s eye spotted the fruits the birds had missed.

      “I have the power of magic!” Nill cheered as he rejoiced in his newfound freedom.

      He avoided the many small villages as well as he could, and the larger settlements in particular. It seemed the better choice to avoid other people, even if it meant not taking the faster roads. He ate what he could find on the land and slept wherever there was enough space and shelter, and so it took just a few days before he was outside of Ringwall’s province. The distances between villages grew, and so too did the lonesomeness of the landscape; in place of fields there was now tall, wild grass, its many blades caressing his legs and stretching to all sides like a vast green ocean. Only near villages was it cut. Away from those it belonged to the wild animals, rams and herds of ruminants. As they were easy game for any hunter, Nill avoided them too.

      He stopped and looked back. Alone and oddly lost, he stood in the middle of the untouched grasslands, calmly swaying like the sea that barely remembered the last storm.

      Moments of harmony like these were rare even in the untouched wilderness, for there was always something that disturbed the peace. A sudden gale, fighting cocks or a freak rainstorm СКАЧАТЬ