Natural Ordermage

XCV

Rahl woke before dawn on twoday. For a time, he just lay on the narrow bed, enjoying the comfort of the thickest and most comfortable mattress he’d ever had, but his thoughts began to drift to the uneasy feelings he had about the Jeranyi and Shyret. Even though he’d promised he wouldn’t attempt to snoop around the Nylan Merchant Association, he couldn’t help but feel how much easier something like that might be if no one could see him. He knew that was possible for both ordermages and chaos-mages, and he recalled vaguely something about light being made to flow around things. Had it been something someone had said, or had it been in the Basis of Order? For a moment, he wished he still had his copy. Then he recalled what Taryl had said about his need to “feel” rather than think when he learned a new skill.

But how could he feel light passing around him?

He sat up and put his bare feet on the floor. The smooth stone tiles felt cool, especially in the warm confines of his chamber. While he had left the small window open, there had been no breeze the night before.

Could he think of…no, feel light as if it were a breeze? The only source was the window, just like the breeze-when there was one.

Rahl closed his eyes, trying to feel the light rather than see it.

Something happened, and he opened his eyes. He was in total darkness. How…what? Had he gone blind?

Just as suddenly the light reappeared.

What had occurred? Why hadn’t he been able to see?

He knew he had to feel to use his order-skills, but he still had to understand what had happened. He’d been feeling the gossamer-like flow of light-and he had sensed the flow, but when he had opened his eyes, he hadn’t been able to see. Why couldn’t he see? He could see now.

He took a low and slow deep breath and tried to relax, again closing his eyes. This time, when he felt something he couldn’t quite describe happening, he did not open his eyes, but just tried to experience the feeling. As though he were in darkness, he could in fact order-sense what was around him. Still holding on to that feeling, he opened his eyes into darkness, yet he could sense everything around him.

After several moments more, he released the sense of diverting light, and his vision returned.

It wasn’t his eyes, but why couldn’t he see when he had the light flow around him? It was like he was in his own private cave. Suddenly, he felt stupid. In a cave, or in a windowless room at night, there was no light to see by. If he flowed the light around himself, his eyes had no light to see with, either.

Getting the same feeling was far harder with his eyes open. After a time, he did manage it, but he had to stop the exercise because he was feeling light-headed. At that point, he washed and shaved and dressed and headed for the mess.

Only Hegyr, Vosyn, and Carlyse were seated when he walked in and sat down across from Vosyn and Hegyr.

“Good morning.”

“It is morning,” conceded Vosyn. “Whether it’s good remains to be seen.”

“Any morning that you’re healthy and alive is a good morning,” replied Hegyr.

“So you say.” Vosyn took a bite of egg toast, chewing it slowly, before saying, “We’ve had worse egg toast. I don’t remember when, though.”

Rahl started in on his platter the moment the server set it before him, and the egg toast didn’t seem all that tough to him. He hadn’t realized just how hungry he was until he’d finished off two stacks of egg toast, four tough strips of ham, and a greenish sour fruit that was too squishy for his liking-not to mention more than a mug of ale.

Carlyse glanced over from the women’s table to Rahl. “Bringing down that thief yesterday must have taken all your strength.”

“It just happened. He was stupid.” Except, Rahl realized, the thief had been hidden behind the canvas of the vendor’s tent and probably hadn’t even seen the two mage-guards and doubtless thought he was unseen.

“…Myala was pissed, you know,” Carlyse bantered. “She really likes to flame thieves. Hear you smashed his arm. Wager you never thought that mangling a thief’s arm was going easy on him.”

“Real easy,” added Hegyr.

Rahl had his doubts, recalling his days as a loader in Luba.

“Hear about south Merowey?” asked Vosyn. “No one’s saying much, but the administrator’s declared independence.”

“Independence from what?” asked Carlyse. “The world?”

“I’m serious. So is he. You know he’s Prince Golyat, and he’s the older brother of the Emperor. They say that he’s getting help from Fairhaven. Under the table, of course. That’s why there aren’t many warships at their berths across the harbor.”

Rahl managed not to frown. The older brother wasn’t the Emperor? Yet he was an administrator who served the Emperor.

“That won’t last long,” opined Hegyr.

“You’d better hope not,” countered Vosyn. “The last revolt, the Emperor drafted a good fifty mage-guards to help the army.”

“That was more than a century ago.”

Rahl ate and listened.

“As good as their chatter is, Rahl, you’d better get moving,” suggested Carlyse, “unless you want to give Myala good cause for writing you up for being late. She goes by the manual and then some.”

That was the last thing Rahl wanted, and he left the mess quickly. He was at the duty desk just behind the waspy mage-guard.

“Let’s go,” was all Myala said.

Rahl checked his truncheon, adjusted his visor cap, and followed her.

Myala’s and Rahl’s first sweep of the piers confirmed that the Jeranyi vessel, with its guards, was still tied at pier two.

By midmorning, when Myala and Rahl were making another tour of pier three, Rahl could see another iron-hulled vessel doubling up at the end berth and the gangway coming down onto the pier. “There’s that other Jeranyi ship.”

“We’ll take a closer look.” Myala’s voice was almost an order.

Rahl found himself bridling at her tone, but he said nothing, just matched his pace to hers as they walked toward the just-docked ship.

Once they neared the Jeranyi vessel’s stem, Rahl began to count the crew. Those he saw numbered more than twice what he’d known on the Diev, and he had the feeling that there were far more crew members belowdecks than he saw topside.

“Too large a crew for a merchanter,” Rahl observed quietly.

“Obviously.” Myala’s tone was dryly condescending.

Rahl could make out the same concealed gun ports as on the other Jeranyi vessel, and roughly the same level of concealed chaos as he’d noted there as well; but, after Myala’s last comment, he kept his observations to himself. He also didn’t see any signs of the deck crew preparing to off-load cargo, and that was normally one of the first things a merchanter did once she was secured to the pier.

On the way back down the pier, on the far side, Rahl smiled pleasantly at an attractive brunette girl, clearly using her obvious charms to help her father sell an array of brightly colored shirts and tunics. Then, as they passed the cart and half tent that shielded the father and daughter from the sun, Rahl waited until Myala looked in the other direction. Then he concentrated on feeling the light flow around him, although he kept walking a pace behind her and to her left.

He could sense her turning, then looking. “Rahl?”

He waited only until she turned her head in the other direction before releasing his hold on the light flow. “I’m right here. I had to adjust my boot.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Adjust your boot, both my left elbows. You were ogling that vendor girl.”

Rahl shrugged as expansively as he could. “What can I say?”

“Not on duty.”

“I won’t.”

“You just did.” Myala snorted.

“I won’t do it again…at least for a while.” He offered a grin.

“Don’t be so obvious.”

That confirmed for Rahl that Myala, and possibly many of the chaos-type mage-guards, had limited order-senses. Certainly, Khaill and Jyrolt-and Craelyt and the captain-possessed a fuller range of senses, but then, since the mage-guards co-opted all the mages in Hamor, one way or another, it made sense that many, especially the patrol mages, were not so talented.

While the day had already been long and was far from over, he’d learned more than a few things, but he was far more worried about what he hadn’t learned-such as the connection between the Jeranyi ships and Shyret and the Nylan Merchant Association. He tried to tell himself that it wasn’t his duty.

That didn’t seem to help much. He still worried.