Colors of Chaos

LV

CERRYL STEPPED INTO Kinowin’s quarters, still dusty and hot from a long day on his guard duty. He was more worried about what Kinowin might decide than the three days left on his double duty assignment.

“Sit down. You look as though you could use the rest.” Kinowin poured something from the gray pitcher into a second mug. “And something to drink.”

“Thank you, ser.” Cerryl sat gingerly and looked at the mug.

A single bronze lamp in a wall sconce supplied a faint illumination to the lower Tower room, and a light breeze drifted through the open window and from the darkness beyond.

“Drink it. It’s but fresh cider. Call it a tribute to Myral.” Kinowin leaned forward and lifted his own mug. After drinking, he added, “One of the few crops not damaged or destroyed this harvest.”

Cerryl took a swallow of the cider, welcoming the cool tang on his dry and dusty throat.

“You were asked to present an argument. The argument was why exceeding the rules was dangerous to a mage and to the Guild.” Kinowin lifted the parchment. “This is better than I expected, Cerryl. It is also far better than Redark, Esaak, or Broka thought possible. They suggested to Jeslek that, with experience, some years from now, you might be considered to offer some instruction in explaining why the Guild is important to apprentices.” Kinowin’s face crinkled into a smile. “They emphasized the part about some years in the future.” The overmage set the parchment back on the table, then stood and paced toward the window, pausing and glancing at the red and gold hanging, rather than the blue and purple one Cerryl knew he usually surveyed.

“You thought about what you wrote. That was clear. It was so clear that one could almost ask why you broke the rules of peacekeeping. It was clear enough to let any know you had learned from this error. I did not have to let the three see what you wrote. Beyond showing them that you had gained from your experience, why do you think I shared your words?”

Cerryl swallowed. He had ideas, but dare he express them?

“Go on.”

“Because you wanted others to see my value and the value of your judgment about me?”

Kinowin turned back to Cerryl. “You could be the greatest mage in many years. No matter how great you might be, you are but a single person. Is Jeslek a greater mage than Isork?”

“Ah…I would judge so.”

“How could Jeslek consider the problems in Spidlar and Gallos if he could not rely on Isork to keep the peace?”

Cerryl could see where Kinowin’s words led.

“Is the High Wizard a greater mage than Esaak? Certainly, but does Jeslek have time to instruct in mathematicks?” The overmage coughed to clear his throat. “My questions are simple. So simple that even an untutored peasant boy in Fenard could answer them. Yet ruler after ruler, generation after generation, is undone because he cannot or will not find others he can trust to do all the duties that hold a land together.”

Cerryl nodded. “That is also why there must be rules. So that all can work together.”

“You have great skills, Cerryl,” Kinowin continued, looking out the window, rather than at the younger mage. “As I know too well, possession of skills others do not have usually leads to equally great mistakes. Sometimes, such mistakes are not discovered because they are so large that no one realizes matters could have been otherwise. Other times, they seem very stupid because others do not understand the thoughts behind them.”

“Mine was stupid,” Cerryl admitted.

“You were worried about being more than a Patrol mage, were you not? About people going hungry? About the unfairness of sending a boy much as you might have been to the road crew? All for trying to feed a sick sister?”

“I did think about that.”

“In being a mage, you must always balance what must be done now with where that will lead. If you do not survive what you do now, you will not reach the future. If you do not think now about where you go, you will have precious few choices when you reach next year or the years after. But…at your age, you have to survive.” Kinowin laughed gently. “Survive long enough, and few will gainsay your dreams.”

Cerryl knew that Kinowin was saying far more than his words and that the overmage did not expect a direct answer. “I thank you for sharing your wisdom.”

“Wisdom? I doubt that.”

“What happens now?” Cerryl asked carefully.

“For the moment, after you finish your double duty, you will remain as a gate guard, but only the morning duty. In the afternoons, once you have eaten, you will present yourself to the High Wizard. You will be serving as his assistant. You will not receive any additional stipend for that. Not now. The moment you finish your last double duty, the restriction on remaining in the Halls is lifted-but not until then.”

“Yes, ser. Do you know what the High Wizard expects?”

“Outside of reminding you of your place? And me of my lack of judgment in recommending you for the Patrol?” Kinowin’s tone was dry. “For all his faults, Jeslek takes his position most seriously. He sincerely believes that the trade difficulties with Spidlar and Recluce represent a basic problem that Fairhaven must address, and soon. He has continued Sterol’s policy of opening the Guild to all with possible talent, but that is making things worse right now.”

“Lack of coins?”

“The Treasury is being depleted, and the road tariff payments from other lands are arriving later and later.” Kinowin turned back toward the window and the scattered points of light beyond. “For what the Guild does we have never had enough mages of great talent, and each one that we lose…” He shook his head. “Myral was a great, great loss, though most will not understand why. Too many think that a great chaos wielder is a great mage.” Kinowin’s eyes fixed on Cerryl. “Jeslek is more than a mage who can unleash great amounts of chaos. I do not always agree with him, but he thinks as much of Fairhaven as himself.”

“I will do my best for him.”

“Good.” Kinowin pivoted on one foot to face Cerryl. “Do your best and watch all corners, from the moment you leave here.” Kinowin’s lips offered his crooked smile, or one that seemed so because of the blotch on his cheek. “All mages need to watch all shadows in the years to come. Now go get some sleep.”

Cerryl rose from the chair. “Thank you.”

“You’ll thank me-and Myral-well enough by surviving, thank you.” Kinowin walked toward the door. “You have a few years to learn. Use them.”

Cerryl nodded again.

What Kinowin had said, and not said, echoed through Cerryl’s mind as he headed down the main steps from the White Tower to the front entry foyer. In effect, the overmage had told him, in several different ways, to do Jeslek’s bidding and to survive. And to learn. The last reference to Myral had not been accidental or sentimental, not at all.

Cerryl shivered. What had Myral seen and passed on to Kinowin? How could Cerryl believe that he would do great things, as Kinowin had vaguely suggested, or become High Wizard, as Myral had told Leyladin? How…when he could not see the simplest things necessary to survive?

He shook his head. Do what you have to do and survive. He looked toward the empty foyer, extending his perceptions, but the Hall was empty for the moment. You’d better get back into the habit of studying everything again.

He smiled. At least, he had a future to look out for-if he made no more stupid mistakes. If…