Death of a Darklord

SEVEN

Jonathan sat at his desk, arms crossed over his chest. He could feel his face set in a scowl, but didn't care. If anything was worth scowling about, it was this.

Tereza stood against the far wall. Her arms were also crossed, tucked tight against her stomach, angry. Her long, dark hair gleamed like fur in the lamplight. The rich colors of her clothing glowed with reflected radiance. The strong planes of her face were set in high relief by the light and shadows. The sight of her made his body ache, but what she asked was impossible.

"No, Tereza, I cannot condone it." His voice sounded firm and reasonable. He was right, and she would see that.

"You did not see Elaine in the shed tonight, Jonathan. Now that she knows she is a mage, her magic is coming out stronger, faster. If Gersalius had not been there, she might have been sucked to death's door again."

"From what you tell me, if the wizard had not urged it, she would not have tried this. magic."

"No, but the next vision would have endangered her. At least now she knows how to control the magic, a little." She pushed away from the wall and began to pace the small room. Her energy seemed to fill the room, making it shrink and pale compared to her. She was so very alive, all nerve endings and emotion, all physical. Jonathan was aware that she balanced him, his careful calculation to her impetu-ousness, his thinking to her heart, his age to her youth. Even as he argued, part of him wanted to say yes just because it was her. But no, not this time. He would, by the gods, stand his ground.

"Before tonight, I would have agreed with you." She stopped in front of him, hands on hips. "Gersal-ius must accompany us to Cortton."

He shook his head. "No." One simple word; why couldn't she understand it.

Tereza paced away from him, stalking the room as though it were a cage. "Then Elaine must remain behind, with the wizard."

"No."

She whirled. "Why not?"

"I do not trust the wizard here at our home with us away. He could bewitch the entire household, including Elaine, before we return."

"Do you really believe that?" She was standing in front of him again, dark eyes gentle and searching. The anger was seeping out of her. Tereza could never stay angry long, at least not at him. Frankly, this new reasonableness was more dangerous. As long as she ranted and raved, he could simply fight. But how to argue with reason?

He looked away from those searching eyes. It was a bad sign that he could not meet her gaze. He was losing, and not sure why. "Surely you see that we cannot take a wizard along on our work. I am the mage-finder. I cannot cart a mage along to aid me."

"He won't be there to aid you, Jonathan. He will be there to see that Elaine does not inadvertently kill herself."

"It can't be that serious. She has gone on all these years."

Tereza shook her head, dark hair sliding along her shoulders. "I told you what happened tonight. She was like a stranger, Jonathan." Her face when she turned to him showed something he had not expected. fear.

He reached out for her without thinking, touching her arm. "Are you truly afraid of our little Elaine?"

She cupped her hand over his, pressing gently. "She would never harm us on purpose-I know that. Before tonight I was only worried for her safety, but now …" She knelt at his feet, hands encircling his hand. She gazed up at him. "She is going to be a powerful mage, Jonathan. We cannot change that."

He opened his mouth to argue, but her fingertips touched his lips and the protest died, unspoken.

"We cannot change it, Jonathan. After what I saw tonight, I know that for a certainty. All we can do is train her to be a power for good and see she does no harm to herself or anyone else by accident."

He pulled her hand away from his mouth. "There is no such thing as good magic. It is all evil."

"Then Elaine is evil," she said softly. "But you don't believe that. We've raised the girl for eight years. You know her heart is kind and gentle. You know that."

Jonathan stood, pulling away from her hands, the smell of her skin. He would not be persuaded by beauty to override his common sense. He walked to the window, staring down into the cold courtyard.

There was a gleam of firelight in the wizard's cottage. He smashed his fist into the wall beside the glass. "Magic corrupts all it touches. I have seen proof of that, again and again."

He felt her approach behind him. He did not need eyes to sense her movements. He could sense her like some great irresistible force. Love and passion can be as strong as any star.

Her strong hands touched his shoulders, her body pressing against his back. "We cannot change what has happened to Elaine. All we can do is protect her as best we can, as any parents would."

He leaned his forehead against the icy glass. A wizard was sleeping just below, behind stout walls that Jonathan had built. A mage inside his defenses. It was outrageous.

"Leave Elaine here in Gersalius's care, or bring them both with us. Those are our choices, my love." Her voice was soft and warm against his neck.

He straightened. Her arms encircled his waist, and he pressed his hands over hers. "They will come with us." Her arms tightened against him, snuggling closer. Why was that small movement worth losing a dozen fights?

"Perhaps we might have the wizard look at Elaine."

Tereza was very still against him. "What do you mean?"

"His ability to feel animals, plants; he said the tree was dead, even when it attacked them, he knew it was dead. You tell me Elaine's magic said the same."

"You think Elaine might be a mage, as well?" Her voice was very soft, very careful.

"I don't know."

"But you fear it?"

"I fear we have harbored serpents in our midst without knowing it."

"You can't believe the twins are evil, Jonathan." Her arms tightened around him. "You can't."

"I don't know what I believe anymore, Tereza. If you had told me two days ago that I would allow a wizard within my home …" He let the thought trail off.

She softly kissed the back of his neck. "You were very brave to allow Gersalius inside."

"I cannot let Elaine die because of my prejudices. That would be evil all its own."

Tereza turned him away from the window to face her and the warm, familiar room. "You are a good man, Jonathan Ambrose."

"Am I? If Elaine is not evil, then what of the other mages I have destroyed over the years? Were some of them good? Has my own conceit murdered the innocent?"

She gripped his arms tightly. "No, it is not just magic that earns them death. It is evil magic. In all the years I have been with you, I have never seen you persecute someone that had not committed some terrible evil."

"I wish I could be certain of that."

"In Cortton, someone has conjured up a plague that has killed half the village. The dead walk the street, preying on the living. That is evil, Jonathan, and only one man can stop it. The mage-finder. You will hunt down this rogue magic-user and see that he is stopped." She stood just an inch or two taller than he, her face earnest, eyes searching his.

"Will Gersalius come with us to persecute one of his own?"

"If Gersalius will not aid us against a necromancer, he is the wrong wizard to be tutoring Elaine." She seemed to think of something that made her smile. "If the wizard agrees to come, surely that is proof that even a mage does not approve of murder and raising the dead."

He knew she meant it to be comforting. If Gersalius agreed that it was evil, he was probably not evil, and if a mage approved of the mage-finder, Jonathan was not wrong to hunt them. But what if Gersalius only went along to spy for the other wizard? What if he used his power over Elaine to corrupt them all? And what was he, Jonathan, thinking to give the mage power over Blaine, too? But if Blaine had magic, wasn't he in danger of its emerging at odd moments? Wasn't Blaine in as much danger as Elaine?

Jonathan shook his head. Tereza hugged him, pressing her strong arms tightly across his back, trying to comfort. He clung to her, taking the warmth offered, but he was not comforted. Too many doubts had been raised. Too many things he had been certain of were now as fragile as thin ice.

He was the mage-finder, but now, for the first time, he wondered if he was also a murderer. Tonight, and for many nights to come, he would be reliving past events. He would be searching for evil in the people he had helped destroy. He would go over every job, to see if the magician had been truly evil, or just misguided, to see if there had been a way short of killing them, or causing others to slay them.

Just a few short weeks ago, if Tereza had told him of someone else doing what Elaine had done in the shed, someone showing that much uncontrollable magic, he would have had her imprisoned, tried to see if she were a danger to others. And he would never have allowed another mage near her, to aid her, to teach her.

Jonathan clung to his wife, breathing in the scent of her skin, the warmth of her body. He clung to her like a drowning man. Quilt began to eat at his mind, feeding the doubts. Guilt and doubt; they were two things the mage-finder had never dreamt of, until now.