Natural Ordermage

XX

The questions by the patrollers and the magister lasted until well into midafternoon, when another junior magister appeared with a wagon and drove Rahl and the older magister back up the long, inclined road to the training center. Then Rahl had to sit alone on a bench outside the study while the older magister talked to Kadara behind the closed door.

Rahl was not looking forward to meeting with her, although he had no real idea what else he could have done-except let the thief steal the cashbox and escape, and that would have felt very wrong. He continued to sit on the bench, shifting his weight from time to time and occasionally standing to stretch his legs.

Finally, the hard-faced magister who had questioned him stepped out of the study. “You’ll need to talk to Magistra Kadara.” With a perfunctory nod, he turned and left the building.

Kadara was waiting in the study. Rahl closed the door and seated himself at the table opposite her.

She looked at Rahl. “The first time you go to the harbor, and what happens? You come back with patrollers.” Her eyes went to his bloody sleeve and the dressing beneath the rent tunic.

“The patroller said that you tripped a thief and recovered a woman’s cashbox. Is that true?”

“Yes, magistra. There were two of them, and I was about to warn her, but they acted before I could say anything.”

“Two of them?” Kadara did not seem surprised, but was seeking something, Rahl felt.

“One was distracting her by haggling…”

Kadara nodded. “That’s one way they work. Then what happened?”

“She gave me a small piece of dried fruit. I would have bought some, except I don’t have any coins. Then I was walking through the rest of the market, and I heard someone say that I was the one. I didn’t want to get into another fight. That didn’t seem like a good idea, and I tried to slip away, but the man in blue came after me with a knife, and there was nowhere to go. I grabbed for something to block the knife. I thought it was just a smooth piece of wood, and I parried the knife and hit him across the temple. I kneed him as well. He didn’t get up. I didn’t realize I’d hit him that hard. I still don’t see how I could have.”

“You didn’t.” Kadara sighed.

For the moment, Rahl realized that she actually looked as though she cared.

“He was off one of the Hydlenese ships, and he was…what you might call chaos-driven. You’re at least a low-level order focus. When you hit him with that ivory, you destroyed all the chaos in him, and that included what he needed to live.”

Rahl didn’t know what to say, not really. “I didn’t have that in mind, magistra. I was just trying to defend myself.”

She nodded brusquely. “We know. The patrollers checked with everyone. The thief never should have been allowed off the pier, but those things happen. He might even have avoided the pier guards. No one’s going to be upset about his death, and the training center will pay the vendor for the broken ivory. The larger question is what to do about you.”

Rahl gave a start, then winced. His arm was sore. But why was he once more a question? He’d tried to avoid trouble. He truly had.

“Rahl…in some ways…let’s just say that you present a particular problem, and a very serious one for both Nylan and for yourself. Most mages show some trace of their talent early, but you didn’t. Your talent appeared strong and late, and that meant you didn’t get the training you should have when you should have. You’re also stubborn. Most mages are. We’re going to have to rethink your training. I don’t want to say more right now, not until I talk things over with the others.” Kadara paused. “Have you been to the infirmary? Do you know where it is?”

“No, magistra.” Rahl took a deep breath.

“It’s on the hillside above the bell tower-” She broke off and looked at Rahl. “I’d better go with you, and you’re going to need something to eat before we get there.” She stood.

Rahl was truly confused. Was this the Kadara who had lectured him that very morning?

During the entire walk to the canteen, since the mess was not serving, Kadara kept watching Rahl, and she even sat him at a table and got him a bowl of maize chowder with chunks of ham, some dark bread, and a mug of ale.

He had to admit that he’d been slightly dizzy before he ate, and that he felt steadier after he finished the last of the chowder.

Kadara studied him. “You’ve got more color, but I still want Deybri to take a look at you and that wound. She’s the duty healer today. Have you met her?”

Rahl nodded. “I met her at dinner.”

“Good. No one needs any more surprises.” Kadara gestured toward the door that led outside from the canteen.

Rahl followed her out, then northward on the walk beside the building that held both the mess and the canteen. The next walk to the left brought them past the bell tower, where they walked up a low rise to another small building.

Kadara opened the door. “Healer!”

Deybri was moving toward them when she saw Kadara and Rahl. Her eyes widened, then lingered on his wounded arm.

“Rahl ran into a chaos-driven Hydlenese at the harbor square. Rahl stopped him from stealing a vendor’s cashbox, and he went after Rahl.” Kadara offered a lopsided smile. “The thief is dead, but he did slash Rahl, and I thought you should look at the wound.”

“Chaos-driven…I should.” Deybri gestured to a stool before the window. “Sit down here, if you would.”

Rahl was happy to sit down. Even after eating, he was still tired, as if he’d worked all day spading his mother’s garden.

Deybri unbound the dressing, then took a bottle of liquid from the plain cabinet set against the wall and soaked a cloth before cleaning the top of the slash, as well as the area around it. The liquid stung, but not badly. Her fingers rested just at the edge of the wound.

Rahl could feel a warm/cool darkness touching and penetrating the gash. “Is that order?”

“You can feel that?” asked Deybri.

Kadara leaned forward slightly, looking at Rahl.

“Yes, healer. I mean, I feel something that’s there, but not there, and black and warm and cool all at the same time.”

Kadara and Deybri exchanged glances.

For a moment, Rahl could feel the air tightening around him-except that it wasn’t.

“Did you feel something?” asked Kadara.

“Something pressing in on me.”

Deybri glanced to Kadara.

“He’s not aware of his shields. No wonder they sent him here.”

Rahl glanced back and forth. Again, people were using words he knew, but they didn’t make much sense.

Kadara looked to Rahl once more. “There’s a way to use order to keep either order or chaos from touching you. That’s what I meant by shields. Most mages have to learn how to create such shields. You’re doing it without understanding what you’re doing. In fact, you’re doing a number of things with order without thinking about them. That can be very, very dangerous, and, if you don’t learn to control them, you will get in a situation that will kill you. It’s only a matter of time. If you don’t learn control, your failures may kill people around you as well.”

Rahl looked to Deybri.

She nodded.

“There wasn’t much wound chaos there, almost none at all.” Deybri turned to Rahl. “Did a mage dress it?”

Rahl nodded.

“That explains it.”

“Or most of it,” Kadara added.

The healer took a fresh dressing from the cabinet. Her hands were swift and gentle as she re-bound the wound. “You’re to come here every afternoon after the midday meal until we tell you that you don’t have to. Even if you’re supposed to be somewhere else. Do you understand?”

“Yes, healer.”

“I’ll make sure the other magisters know,” added Kadara. “Now, we need to get you some rest.”

Rahl stood. He wasn’t light-headed, but he had felt better than he did at that moment, usually much better.

As Rahl stepped out of the infirmary, Kadara leaned back inside the doorway and said in a lower voice, “I’ll be back later.”

Deybri did not speak in reply, and Rahl could not see or sense any gesture in response.

Then Kadara returned. “We need to get you back to your room. You need some rest and a good night’s sleep after that.”

Since putting one leg in front of the other was getting more and more difficult, Rahl had to agree. He walked silently beside the magistra until they reached his chamber.

“You don’t need to think about everything right now. You need to get some rest. Just lie down until supper.”

After Kadara left, Rahl stretched out on the bed. What had he done? The thief had said that Rahl had burned him, when Rahl had tripped the man. Rahl certainly hadn’t been aware of using order when he’d hit the man with the ivory carving, but what else could explain why the thief had died? He’d only felt that reddish whiteness that strongly once before, with the man with the sword in Land’s End.

He swallowed. Had the conflict between order and chaos been what had killed that man as well? Was that part of the reason why he was so tired?

He had more questions, but he found his eyes closing, even as he tried to think of what they were.