The Blood of a Dragon

Chapter Fourteen

Faléa stared at the packed dirt of the street as she walked, shading her eyes from the morning sun. “I don’t like it,” she said.

“Don’t like what?” Doran asked. “Arena Street?”

“No,” Faléa replied, without rancor. “I don’t like it that Dumery’s on that barge-if that’s really where he is.”

“That’s where hesaid he was,” Doran pointed out. “Why would he lie?”

“That was where thedream said he was, anyway.”

Doran looked at his wife, puzzled. “Do you think the wizard was trying to trick you? That there was something wrong with the dream?”

“No,” Faléa said. “Or maybe. Or... I don’t know. I just don’t like it.”

“Well,” Doran said, trying to sound determined and cheerful, as if everything was satisfactorily settled, “I can’t say I do, either, but if that’s what Dumery wants to do...”

“Butis it?” Faléa asked. “There’s something wrong here. That man he says he met-whowas that? Why would he arrange to meet Dumery in Sardiron, instead of accompanying him along the way?”

“I don’t know,” Doran said. “I suppose to see if the boy can follow instructions and handle himself alone.”

“But it’s dangerous,” Faléa said. “And making the boy do something like that before even starting an apprenticeship, isn’t that awfully severe?”

“Well, yes,” Doran admitted. “I’d have to say it is.”

“And this place he’s meeting him in Sardiron, what’s it like? Is it safe? Maybe if we knew more about it...”

“Well, then, what did the boy say about it? You didn’t mention that. I’ve been to Sardiron-remember, when you were pregnant with Derath, and I didn’t want to be away too long, so instead of the regular run to Tintallion I went up the river to Sardiron, and it took just as long as Tintallion would have, and I didn’t get back until two days before he was born?”

“I remember that,” Faléa agreed. “Was that Sardiron? I thought it was Shan.”

“No, it was Sardiron. Strange place. Cold. Very damp.”

“Oh. Do you know the Blue Docks, then?”

“Blue Docks?” Doran puzzled for a moment, then abruptly stopped walking.

Startled, Faléa stopped, as well.

“There aren’t any ’Blue Docks’ in Sardiron of the Waters,” Doran told her.

“The riverfront’s not... everything’s named for the person who owns it, usually Baron somebody-or-other. Are you sure Dumery said ’Blue’?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Faléa said. “Areyou sure about the names? Or is there a Baron Blue, perhaps? Or a baron who uses blue as his colors?”

“I never heard of any. And you said Dumery was supposed to meet this man there in a sixnight?”

Faléa nodded.

“A sixnight isn’t much time to get to Sardiron, either,” Doran pointed out.

“It took me eleven days; you’d almost need magic to get there from here in a sixnight. Or did he mean a sixnight from where he is now?”

“I don’t know,” Faléa said, worried.

“There’s something wrong here,” Doran said.

“Do you think Dumery lied to us?”

“Maybe,” Doran said. “Or maybe Thetheran did.” He turned and said, “Come on, we’re going back.”

Together they marched back to Wizard Street.

Thetheran listened to their worries in polite silence. When at last both of them had said all they wished, the mage said, “I assure you, to the best of my knowledge the spell worked perfectly, and if it did, then I did in fact speak to your son Dumery. If he did lie about where he is and what he’s doing, I have no way of knowing-the spell does not force the truth. At least you know that he is alive and well, and that he is not in any immediate danger. Had he wanted help, he would have said so; one hardly need worry about being overheard in a dream!”

Doran grumbled an uneasy wordless agreement.

Faléa was not so easily swayed. “I want him back,” she said. “Something is wrong!”

Thetheran sighed. “Lady,” he said, “nothing was wrong with my spell. If you wish to pay an additional fee and stay here again tonight, I can perform the spell again, and you will be free to argue with your son all you like-or at any rate, up to half an hour or so; I doubt I can sustain the contact much longer than that.”

“I don’t want to justtalk to him,” Faléa snapped, “I want him brought back here!”

“And what does that have to do with me?” Thetheran asked.

“I want you to fetch him!”

Thetheran blinked at her. “Lady,” he said, “while I may be able to find a spell that would transport your son back here, consider carefully. It would be very costly, I make no pretenses about that. Furthermore, if your son does indeed have a legitimate appointment in Sardiron of the Waters a few nights from now, fetching him back here would almost certainly cost him the apprenticeship he has gone to so much trouble to arrange. I doubt he would thank you for that.”

“Then you can go and find him and see if his story is true, and bring him back if it’s not!” Faléa shouted.

Thetheran stared at her in astonishment. “Lady,” he said, “I sincerely doubt that your husband has enough gold to pay me to do that. If he does have that much, I’m sure he has more sense than to waste it so. I am not interested in leaving the city. If you’re determined to send someone after your son, find someone else.”

“You won’t do it?”

“Not willingly.”

“Why not?”

Exasperated, Thetheran looked at Doran, who merely shrugged. The mage turned back to Faléa and explained, “I, lady, am a wizard. I make my living from wizardry, not by traveling hither and yon about the countryside. I have a shop here; if I were to go gallivanting off after your son I would need to close it down for a few days, which would undoubtedly hurt my regular business. Furthermore, there is no telling what sort of hazards I might encounter out there, and I would be hard pressed to know which spells I would need to prepare, which ingredients I would want to take with me. Wizards do not travel well; we are too dependent upon our books and supplies. Or at least, I am. I am not desperate for work; I make a comfortable living here in Ethshar, and see no reason to face hardship and danger elsewhere.”

Faléa glared at him for a long moment.

“Then you won’t go after him, and you won’t send a spell to fetch him back?”

“Lady, I will do either one if you pay me enough,” Thetheran said mildly. “I merely state that I think it would be a very, very bad investment to hire me, in this case. Why don’t you go after your boy yourself, or hire someone else to do it? I’m not the only one who has magic for sale that can locate him.”

Faléa started to say something, but Doran cut her off.

“The wizard has a point,” he said. “If he’s not interested, we’ll find someone who is. Thetheran, is there anyone you’d recommend?”

Thetheran frowned, considering. “Not offhand,” he said. “There are wizards who specialize in information, and who could find out exactly what the boy is doing and where he is, but they can be very expensive, and they wouldn’t be interested in fetching him back if you did decide on that. You might try another school of magic-they aren’tall charlatans.”

Doran nodded. “Is there a theurgist around here?” he asked.

“Dozens of them,” Thetheran replied. “And you might also consider a witch-some of them have a knack for finding lost things, I understand. Or a warlock. I’d stay away from sorcerers, though-they make big claims, but half the time their spells don’t work. And of course demonology is dangerous, but it might serve, if you want to risk it. I can’t see much use for most of the lesser varieties of magic in a case like this...”

“We’ll try a theurgist,” Doran said.

They tried a theurgist. In fact, they tried three theurgists.

Two of the three said they could find Dumery; one of them even did so, for a fairly modest fee, and reported that the boy was on a cattle barge on the Great River, a good many leagues northwest of the city.

None of the three, however, was willing to go after the boy, nor to fetch him home by magic.

They tried a warlock next.

She claimed she had no way of finding the boy except to go out looking for him. She was perfectly willing to do that, if they could give her rough directions and would pay her rather exorbitant fee.

Or at least, she said she was perfectly willing, right up until they told her about the barge.

“North?” she said. “How far north?”

Faléa and Doran looked at each other.

“We don’t know,” Doran said. “The theurgist just said it was a long way to the northwest, he didn’t say exactly how far.”

She looked uneasily about, then down at the ornate carpet that covered most of the floor of her shop.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “but I can’t go far to the north. It’s too... well, it’s risky, for a warlock.”

“Why?” Faléa demanded. “I never heard of anything that made the north any more dangerous than any other direction!”

“You aren’t a warlock,” the warlock told her. “I don’t dare go too near to Aldagmor.”

“Why not?” Doran asked. “What’s in Aldagmor?”

“I don’t know,” she said, “but I won’t go near it.”

Dumery’s parents argued for another twenty minutes before they gave up and went elsewhere.

The next shop they tried bore a sign reading, “Sella the Witch, Diviner & Seer.”

Sella was a smiling, rosy-cheeked woman of fifty or so; Faléa found herself rather resenting the existence of so much bounce and cheerfulness in a woman older than she was. The moment the two of them stepped into the shop, Sella was there, bustling them to a pair of overstuffed chairs and fetching them over-sweetened herb tea. They were so caught up in this whirlwind of domesticity that neither of them had time to spare a thought for the thin, sad-looking girl standing in a shadowy corner of the room.

Once Faléa and Doran were seated, and before either of them could get out a word, the witch said, “You’re worried about your son? Well, I’m afraid that I can’t tell you very much; he’s too far away. He’s alive, though, and tired, but healthy.”

Doran’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“No, sir, I’m not a fraud,” Sella told him. “Your son’s name is... Dumery, I think? And he ran off to find an apprenticeship, though I can’t see the details. You want someone to find out the exact truth of his situation, and to bring him safely home if possible. I can’t tell you the exact truth; no witch could, at this distance. Nor am I willing to leave the city myself and fetch him home. However, for the appropriate fee, I would be willing to send my apprentice, Teneria of Fishertown, after your boy.” She gestured toward the girl in the corner, who managed a weak smile.

Doran hesitated. This was all going too quickly; he had expected to have to explain the situation, negotiate details, wait while the witch worked her spells-and instead, they had been in the shop scarcely two minutes, and everything seemed to be all but settled.

He didn’t like that. It might be witchcraft-or it might be fraud. Sella might have had informants, or a scrying spell, watching while Doran and Faléa talked to the other magicians.

Faléa wasn’t worried about authenticity; she had another concern.

“An apprentice?” she asked. “A mere apprentice?”

“Almost a journeyman,” Sella said, dismissing that worry with a wave of her hand. “She’s ready for journeyman status; in fact, she’s as good as some master witches. We’re merely waiting for her eighteenth birthday, which is still three sixnights off.”

“But if she’s...” Doran began.

“Yes,” Sella said wearily, “she’s over fifteen, but she wasn’tready at fifteen. We witches make our journeymen at eighteen-or at least,I do. I want them to reflect well on me, not just to know a few tricks and fidgets, so I don’t let them go until they know all I can teach. And sir, I see you suspect me of some sort of trickery, and I assure you there is none. I worked a spell this morning to see who would come to me, and what they would want-it saves a great deal of time and trouble. And a witch, a good one, can read a man’s thoughts before they reach his lips.” She smiled wryly. “I’m afraid I’m too impatient to wait for your words to work their way from your tongue to my ears.”

Doran considered that, brows lowered. Faléa turned to stare at Teneria.

“He’s a little above average in height, for his age,” Teneria said, in a low, soft voice, “but thin. His hair is black and his eyes brown, like most Ethsharites; when last you saw him his hair was still fairly short, having been cut for his apprenticeship trial with Thetheran, but had gotten a little ragged. He was wearing a green cotton tunic and an expensive pair of boots, boots meant for looks, rather than hard wear. He left Westgate Market through the gate around mid-morning of the day before yesterday, passing near the south gate-tower. I can follow him from there, I think.”

“And the sooner she does, the better,” Sella said. “The trail isn’t getting any fresher. I have a pack prepared, since I knew you were coming, and Teneria can leave as soon as you pay our fee.”

Doran started to speak, but Sella cut him off. “One round of gold-yes, it’s a lot, but we will refund all but our expenses should Teneria lose his trail or should Dumery be harmed while in her company, and will swear to that before the overlord’s officers, if you insist, or register it as a geas with any competent magician. She will leave immediately, if you consent.”

Faléa and Doran looked at each other. Doran saw the look in his wife’s eyes and reached for his purse.

Teneria bent down and picked up her pack from the corner. Without a word, she left the shop and headed for Westgate.