Natural Ordermage

LXXXVI

Although Rahl looked for Taryl on fourday morning to say good-bye, the older ordermage had already left the station, according to the mage-guard on duty. He still wished he’d been able to say a true good-bye to Taryl. He’d asked why Talanyr and Rhiobyn weren’t taking the wagon, but Talanyr had pointed out that they were going upriver, rather than down, and that the next river steamer would not port at Luba until fiveday.

So Rahl found himself on the transport wagon to Luba port, seated beside Jyrolt, as they rode eastward. The older mage-guard dozed in the wagon, as if he were still exhausted from his evaluation efforts of the previous day. Rahl could not rest and contented himself with studying the highway and the barren flatlands that stretched toward a line of hills ahead.

The hills looked as though a massive layer of black basalt had formed and then been tipped on its side. The road itself ascended a long and gradual ramp to the lowest point in the hills. For a moment, Rahl wondered why the ramp was so long and gradual-until he realized that the iron wagons had to travel it to the river port.

Near the top of the road, Jyrolt stirred himself, stretched, and looked at Rahl. “You’ve been pleasantly quiet, Rahl, but I’d wager you have more than a few questions.”

“Yes, ser.” He paused. “Ser…what exactly is Mage-Guard Taryl’s function at Luba station? Beyond training, that is? He is more than he seems, I feel.”

Jyrolt raised two bushy eyebrows. “Why do you think that?”

“He sees more, but he says little.”

“Ha! At least, you saw that, young Rahl.” Jyrolt cleared his throat. “He was one of the Triad. Let us just say that he made an error. Only the great make errors of such magnitude. None thought it his fault, but he felt it was his responsibility, and he stepped down and came to Luba.” Jyrolt paused. “There are rumors that a woman and a relative of the Emperor were involved. They are false. I will only say that the error involved judgment and magery, and none, save a few, will ever know the details, and none should. This is the last I will speak to you of it. Should any ask you, you should answer as I answered you.”

“Yes, ser.”

“Now…what other questions do you have? Preferably dealing with your assignment and duties.”

“Taryl only told me that I had been assigned to Swartheld station and that I would be paired with an experienced mage-guard. I don’t know enough beyond that to ask a good question, except for what my duties might be and what skills would be most useful.”

“The most useful skills in Swartheld are skills with weapons, which you have, shields, and yours are adequate, the ability to sense when something is not as it should be, and a knowledge of commerce. Beyond petty thievery and violence, the majority of evildoing there lies in attempting to misuse trade for great personal gain…or worse, to obtain power over others. Your duties at first will be simple. You will patrol with another mage and keep order according to the Manual and Codex. I can’t say where you’ll patrol, because that’s up to the city mage-captain and the station undercaptain.” Jyrolt looked at Rahl, as if waiting for another question.

“What questions should I ask, ser?”

“Has Taryl been tutoring you on how to draw me out?” Jyrolt’s tone was wry.

“No, ser.”

“That sounds like something he’d come up with.”

Rahl couldn’t comment on that.

“Is it true that you were dosed with nemysa?” asked Jyrolt.

“I don’t know that. I lost my memories for seasons, and Taryl told me that only nemysa could do that…” Rahl went on to explain all that had happened.

“Why do you think this Shyret wanted you to lose your memories?”

“He thought I knew something he didn’t want known.”

“Did you?”

“I had a good idea that he was claiming some goods were damaged, then selling them on the side and pocketing the coins. I would have been hard-pressed to come up with proof, and he was convinced that what he was doing did not go against the Codex. Without hard proof and as an exile-”

“You were exiled from Recluce?”

“Yes, ser. Because I was a natural ordermage. They claimed I couldn’t be taught and was a danger to them for that reason.”

Jyrolt fingered his chin. “This Shyret could not have known you were a mage, or he would not have used nemysa…unless he thought it would kill you well away from him. How long before you could remember?”

“I was not even aware of anything for more than a season, and it was another season almost before I remembered who I was.”

Jyrolt nodded. “The dosage you were given might well have killed most mages, but there must have been something else. This merchant was right that the Codex does not concern itself with commercial manipulations, only with theft or fraud against those who buy their goods. There is a reason for that. Do you have any idea what it might be?”

Rahl did not. To him it seemed wrong that merchants could cheat each other.

“The Emperor cares only that honest goods are sold. To try to set the price, either directly or indirectly, always results in higher charges. To prohibit certain practices or to mandate that factors and traders only adhere to certain others only results in even more convoluted fashions of accounting and bookkeeping, and that makes gathering tariffs even more difficult. So the Emperor concerns himself with making sure that honest goods are sold and that the amount and value of the goods brought into Hamor, or produced here before sale, are accurate. What the merchants do to each other or their accounts is their business.”

But if that were so, why had Shyret wanted Rahl removed or dead?

“I can see that you understand the problem. It is not a crime to remove someone’s memories-rather it would be, except it can almost never be proved that it was caused by drugs rather than by an unfortunate accident-but it is a definite offense to murder someone. So why would a merchant partner do something that might result in murder over an accounting issue that is not an offense in Hamor?”

Rahl didn’t have an answer for that, either, except that what he had seen signified far more than he had understood at the time-or even now.

“I would suggest that you say nothing about this matter. I can assure you that I will bring it to the attention of Mage-Captain Gheryk and Regional Mage-Commander Chaslyk. You are not to speak of it, except if asked, and only by those two officers, or by their superiors. This is for your protection as well. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ser.”

“Now…let me tell you about how the mage-guards came to be…”