Night of Madness

Chapter Twenty-one

On the morning of the sixth of Summerheat Mavi ambled out into the courtyard behind her family home, nominally to dump her chamber pot and the kitchen slop bucket in the public sewer but really to hear the morning gossip-and to tell the story of her own adventures the previous day.

She had hoped, when she went to bed on the fourth, that being walked home by Lord Manner and giving him a good-night kiss would be the juiciest item in the morning chatter on the fifth. Instead there had been so much excitement about the night’s madness that she had never even gotten around to mentioning it.

Today, though, she had the tale of her adventures with Hanner and his collection of warlocks to tell, and that was certainly going to be worth mentioning no matterwhat Thetta and Aniara and Oria had to report. She hadflown through the air, and met all those warlocks, and spenthours with Lord Faran and Lord Hanner, and heard Lord Faran say all those terrible traitorous things about the overlord...

She grinned at the thought.

And Hanner had walked her home again, and this time they had kissedeach other good night, and not just a quick little peck, either.

Lord Hanner wasn’t quite the impressive catch he had been before the Night of Madness, now that his uncle was an outcast warlock rather than the Lord Counselor, but Mavi didn’t really care; he was still a sweet young man, always ready to help, so sincere and eager to please that she couldn’t help but enjoy his company. He was a little soft and plump, a little unsure of himself, but in general she found him very satisfactory. He had lovely dark eyes and curly black hair and a funny smile.

If he had a good position, rather than just being his uncle’s assistant, he would be a fine candidate for her husband.

She opened the sewer lid and dumped in the waste, then closed the lid again. When she straightened up and turned around she saw Oria approaching.

The two waved to each other, and after Oria had disposed of her own burden the two young women settled on the bench by old Skig’s chicken coop, in the shade of an ancient gum tree, to talk.

The conversation stayed very light at first-the usual exchange of rumors about who might be pregnant, whose marriage might be in trouble, and the like. Anything more interesting would be saved until the others had arrived.

But then Thetta arrived-almost running. “What’s wrong?” Oria asked her as Thetta hurried up to the bench.

“Did you hear about Pancha?” Thetta asked as she squeezed onto the end of the bench beside Oria.

“What about her?” Mavi asked. Pancha was Aniara’s slightly older half sister.

“She’s a warlock!”

“You’re joking!” Oria said, shocked.

Mavi, who had spent the previous day practically surrounded by warlocks, was less surprised-especially since Aniara had mentioned the day before that Pancha had been one of the people who woke up screaming about a nightmare.

Pancha hadn’t run out into the street smashing windows, though.

“Is she all right?” Mavi asked.

“Aniara? Oh, she’s upset, but...”

“I meant Pancha.”

“Oh.” Thetta looked confused for a moment, then said, “I guess so. They’ve locked her in her room and sent for a priest.”

“A priest? A theurgist? Why?”

“To try to cure her, of course!” Thetta said, leaning forward to look past Oria at Mavi.

“Is Aniara all right?” Oria asked.“She isn’t a warlock, is she?”

“She says she isn’t,” Thetta said, “and she seems to be holding up, but she’s not leaving the house until the theurgist is done.”

“She won’t be here this morning, then?” Mavi asked.

“No,” Thetta said. “I thought we might go by there later to comfort her, though.”

“Oh, we should,” Oria agreed. She shuddered. “Her own sister a warlock! How dreadful.”

“Oh, warlocks aren’t really so terrible,” Mavi said.

“How would you know?” Thetta asked.

Mavi smiled and began explaining how she had spent the previous day. The others were suitably impressed.

“Maybe you should tell Pancha about that house full of warlocks,” Oria said thoughtfully when Mavi had finished.

“They’re going to cure her!” Thetta protested. “If they can,” Mavi said. “I don’t know whether youcan cure warlocks.”

“Why don’t we go see?” Oria asked, getting to her feet. “Just let me put a few things away...”

The others quickly agreed, and half an hour later the three of them were in Aniara’s parlor, talking to Aniara and her mother, pretending not to listen to the chanting faintly audible from upstairs.

“I hope it works,” Aniara said, looking up the stairs.

“It’s not really so horrible, being a warlock,” Mavi said. “Some of the people at Lord Faran’s house seemed almost proud of it. And it must be handy sometimes, being able to do magic like that.”

Aniara shuddered. “It’screepy” she said. “What if she goes mad, like those others, and starts breaking things? Or what if people start disappearing around her? What if...”

Just then the daylight seemed almost to flicker, and Mavi and the others felt a sudden pressure.

Mavi swallowed. “I think the theurgist’s invocation worked,” she said. The notion that there was an actual god-or at least a partial manifestation of one-in Pancha’s room upstairs made her at least as nervous as the houseful of warlocks had.

“I wonder which god he was summoning?” Oria asked, glancing at the stairs.

“I remember that when Diriel was sick, the priestess summoned Blukros,” Thetta said. “She said Blukros was god of healing.”

“I’m not sure warlockry is something that needs healing,” Mavi said doubtfully. She glanced at Aniara’s mother-Pancha’s mother, as well-who was sitting in the rocking chair in the corner, rocking steadily in unhappy silence.

The five women did not speak for a moment after that; the knowledge of a god’s presence was affecting them all, in various ways. At last Aniara said, “Mavi, tell me more about what Lord Faran said!”

Welcoming the distraction, Mavi began a detailed account of Lord Faran’s actions the previous day. She had gotten to his sorcerous conversation with the wizard Ithinia when the air suddenly stirred, and an invisible pressure seemed to be lifted from the room.

All eyes turned to the stairs.

“It must be over,” Oria said.

A moment later they all heard the sound of a door opening and of Pancha snuffling; then the theurgist came slowly down the stairs, straightening his white robe.

“What happened?” Aniara asked, leaping to her feet.

The theurgist took a deep breath, then said, “I consulted the goddess Unniel the Discerning, and I’m afraid the results are not what you hoped for.” “What do you mean?”

The theurgist sighed. “I mean the goddess could not even recognize your sister as human.” Before anyone could respond, he raised a hand and continued. “This isn’t as significant as it sounds-the gods see things differently than we do, and often don’t perceive magicians other than theurgists as human. There are some people they can’t see at all; we don’t know why, and they have never managed to explain it in ways we can understand. Unniel could see Pancha, but not as a human being; she said Pancha was a thing she had no Ethsharitic word for.”

Aniara made a strangled noise.

“Unniel could not tell me anything useful about this magic,” the theurgist said. “She could not remove it, and assured me no other god or demon could. She said it was unlikely that any other magic could reverse Pancha’s transformation, due to something she called anursettor fwal in Pancha’s brain, but reminded me that even the gods don’t understand wizardry or know exactly what it can and cannot do.”

“So she’s still a warlock?” Aniara’s mother demanded. Mavi turned, startled, to see that the older woman had stopped rocking and was staring intently at the priest.

“Yes, she’s still a warlock,” the theurgist replied. “There’s nothing more I can do about it.”

“I don’t want a warlock in my house,” the old woman said.

“Mother, she’s your own daughter!” Aniara said.

“Not anymore,” her mother said. “You heard the priest-she’s not even human anymore! She’s athing that used to be my daughter.”

“I didn’t say...” the theurgist began.

“Human or not, she might go berserk at any time,” the old woman said. “Did any of you hear about the house in Seacorner where Varrin the Weaver smashed the entire top floor in an instant? He almost crushed his own wife!”

The other women looked at one another.

“Please, Mother, this is her home,” Aniara said. “Where else would she go?”

Mavi immediately knew what would happen then, and sure enough, Thetta and Oria turned to look at her. Pancha’s mother pointed at her, and Aniara turned as well.

The puzzled theurgist also looked at Mavi, simply because everyone else did.

“All right,” Mavi said. “I can take her there.” That this would not only be a kindness to Pancha but would give her another chance to see Lord Hanner did not escape her.

“May I ask where?” the theurgist said.

“You explain,” Aniara said, heading for the stairs. “I’ll go help Pancha pack.” As Tanna the Thief worked the crowd in the plaza, cutting purses from people’s belts and slipping them into her own shoulder bag, she was still trying to decide who she should tell about Elken-if anyone. Her original intention in coming here had been to warn the magistrates about the warlocks, but it had been instantly clear that they already knew. The guards in front of the Palace, the shouting crowds, made it plain thateveryone knew about the warlocks.

No one was going to pay her for the information.

She wished she hadn’t taken a day to bury Elken, clean herself up, steal new clothes, and get up her nerve-if she had arrived yesterday she might still have gotten a couple of bits for her report.

Of course, she was doing fairly well at her customary trade, certainly taking more than a few copper bits. The crowd was large and angry, which meant it was also more careless than usual, and she had gotten half a dozen purses. Still, it was theprinciple of the thing-she had something thatought to be worth money, and she wasn’t able to collect.

Of course, she told herself, in a way it was paying off. Ordinarily she would never have comehere, right in front of the Palace, where any number of guards and magicians might be watching, and she would never have found this crowd of unsuspecting prospective victims.

Just then she was distracted as someone shouted,“Hai! My purse!”

Tanna turned to see who spoke, ready to flee if anyone pointed her out as the culprit. Perhaps these people hadn’t been quite so unsuspecting as she thought.

An elderly man was staring down at the severed cords dangling from his belt; then he raised his head and looked around at the crowd.

“Who did that?” he bellowed. “Did anyone see who took my purse?”

Suddenly inspired, Tanna called, “The warlocks!”

The elderly man’s head snapped around, and he stared directly at her.

“It vanished,” Tanna said. “I saw it! It just disappeared. It must be the warlocks!”

“The warlocks?” the old man said. “First they took my son, and now they take my purse?” He turned to look at the guards on the north side of the square. “Blast it, it’s time something wasdone about this!”

“You tell them, sir!” Tanna said as she slipped behind a tall man.

A moment later she had worked her way well away from the angry old man, who was arguing with the nearest soldier. It was time to go, she decided. She had tried to do her civic duty by reporting Elken’s attempt to take over the Hundred-Foot Field, and she had gathered a few fat purses for her efforts, and that was enough; it was time to go, before things got really ugly.

Ten minutes later she was trotting down Arena Street, trying to ignore the shouting behind her. Kennan was absolutely furious. The guards had referred him to their captain, who had stolidly listened to his story, then told him to go away.

“But they stole my purse!” he shouted.

“Sir, I doubt it was a warlock who stole your purse,” the captain said. “It looks to me like the work of an ordinary cutpurse.”

“But that girlsaw it!”

“More likely she was the one who took it.”

“Captain, I have been robbed of my child and my money by these people, and Idemand that you do something about it!”

“The overlord is consulting his advisors and magicians as to what action to take.”

“What action to take? Goget them, and demand they return what they’ve taken!” Kennan said. “They’re all right there in that big black stone house on High Street, at the corner of Coronet!”

“Sir, I doubt thatall the warlocks are there,” the captain said dryly.

“Well,some of them are!” Kennan raged. “Lord Faran went there, and that fat man, and that redheaded whore...”

“Sir, I have my orders,” the captain said. “I am to guard the plaza and the Palace. Unless you have real proof that those particular warlocks took your purse or your son, I am not going to arrest them. If you really do have a witness, I suggest you bring her here to testify.”

Kennan glowered at the soldier, then turned to look for the thin, long-haired girl in the brown tunic.

He couldn’t see her anywhere.

He fumed silently for a moment, then growled. “I’ve had enough of this,” he said. He stamped away from the captain.

“Excuse me,” someone said.

Kennan turned to see a stocky man in a tan tunic. “Yes?”

“Did I hear you say that you know where the warlocks live?”

“Yes,” Kennan said. “What of it?”

“They took my brother,” the stocky man said. “Can you show me where this place is?” Kennan scanned the crowd again, but could not see the girl anywhere.

It wasn’t as if he were accomplishing anything here, he told himself.

“Come on,” he said. “We’ll go there together. At the very least we can keep an eye on the place.”