Page 36 of Fate of the Argosi

I expected Remeny to start bawling then. There’s only so much fear and misery a boy can hold inside himself after all. Instead he took away Ala’tris’s hand and said, ‘If they’re part of me now, then I just need to learn how to change them on my own. The Mahdek used to work magic, long before the Jan’Tep came. I used to feel a pull, like there was a fish hook in my head tugging me towards the oases. I don’t feel it so bad now.’ He tapped a finger against the intricate silver symbols on his forehead. ‘Maybe this is how I’ll learn to work magic for my people.’

Ala’tris rose and took a step back, turning to glance at me like she was lost as to what to say next because she didn’t want to break the boy’s heart. I didn’t know what to offer her. The Argosi don’t believe in lying to make someone feel better.

‘Look at them,’ Chedran said, almost shoving Ala’tris out of the way when he came to kneel in front of Remeny. ‘Can you see the doubt in their eyes, boy? Neither of them believes you’ll ever be able to shape spells the way our ancestors did. You know why?’ He put each of his hands on either side of Remeny’s head, squeezing him. ‘Because these Jan’Tep have convinced themselves that the Mahdek are weak. They need to believe we’re incapable of the feats they perform, even though we were working magic long before they fouled our lands with their presence. Our elders? They think we’re weak too.’ He turned Remeny around so that the boy was looking over his shoulder at me. ‘This Argosi sees so little worth in us that she turned her back on her own people.’

‘That’s not—’

‘You’re going to prove them all wrong, Remeny.’ He tapped the silver sigils on the boy’s forehead. ‘You’re going to take this wound those mages inflicted on you and make it heal into something wondrous.’ He thrust his other hand towards the open door and the spellship some fifty yards away. ‘That galleon . . . it’s a miracle. It’s like nothing anyone’s ever seen, even the Jan’Tep.’

‘A compliment at last?’ Sar’ephir asked, seeming amused at the parade of emotions inside the barracks. ‘Perhaps the Mahdek are capable of surprises after all.’

Chedran turned that feral grin of his at her. ‘That one, she’s not like the others, Remeny. Before she came along, I’ll wager every clan prince and lord magus of her people would’ve laughed at the thought of a ship that can sail through forest, mountain and desert as if they were merely different kinds of oceans.’ He turned back to the boy. ‘A thing is always impossible until someone comes along and decides to do it anyway.’

Now Remenywascrying, but it was from a fierce pride that had come over boyish features that didn’t seem so boyish now. He gave Chedran a terse nod, and that was that.

‘Now I’m unsettled,’ Arissa said quietly to me.

‘How come?’

‘Because for a moment there I almost forgot how much I dislike Chedran.’

Remeny, though, he walked right up to Ala’tris and declared, ‘You may deliver your proposal now, Jan’Tep. The twelve of us will grant your words such consideration as they deserve and inform you of our decision.’

Again Ala’tris looked to me, that same unspoken question in that otherwise placid expression. It struck me as funny that a coven of Jan’Tep teenagers who’d decided they knew better than their own elders should have so much trouble understanding why I was adamant that the Mahdek runaways had to be the ones to choose whether or not to bring this gift of a new homeland to their people.

Sometimes the best response to a question that keeps being repeated is no response at all.Glare all you want, sister, I thought,I’ve won tougher staring contests against my horse, and he’s a lot ornerier than you.

Ala’tris gave in soon enough, and knelt down to gather up more dust from the floor before motioning for Sar’ephir to join her. The statuesque beauty removed a small black bag from one of the folds of her dusky gold robes and poured sand into her own palm. ‘Some things are better revealed than described,’ she said, her gaze sweeping over the twelve Mahdek runaways. ‘There will be no need for panic.’

What I presume was meant to be a reassuring smile was so full of accidental condescension that I was sorely tempted to smack it off her face. But the Path of the Wild Daisy winds towards the Way of Wind long before it travels the Way of Thunder, so I found myself a spot near the wall and sat down on the floor. After all, any time it takes not one buttwoJan’Tep mages to explain something, you know they’re gonna put on a show.

22

The Gift

Ala’tris tossed the handful of dust into the air. As the tiny motes began to fall back towards the ground, three of the tattooed bands on her forearms sparked. Lights danced beneath the gossamer fabric of her sleeves, first the purple of silk magic to pull visions from her own mind. Next, pale blue breath swirled the still-falling dust, lending it form until it resembled a map of the continent, held in place by the greyish glow of her iron band.

Arissa sidled up next to me. ‘You think they put on these little magical puppet shows any time they want to explain something because they figure we’ll all be so gosh-darned bedazzled by the fancy lights and floating pictures that it won’t occur to us to question if any of what they’re saying is true?’

Not everyone was bedazzled though. One of the runaways, the youngest boy, buried his face in his hands and began to cry. Chedran sat down next to him, placing an arm around his shoulders and whispering something inaudible into his ear. Gab’rel, only a couple of years older, chuckled disdainfully, apparently finding the other boy’s trepidation silly. Like so many Jan’Tep, he was oblivious to the terror Mahdek children experience when they catch sight of a mage’s bands sparking. Ba’dari made an inconspicuous somatic shape with her left hand that briefly lit up her own iron band. A second later Gab’rel was bent over, exhaling a loud ‘oof’ as if she’d elbowed him in the stomach.

Ala’tris had missed the entire exchange. She was passing her palm across her floating map in a snaking up and down motion. The dust particles rose and fell to form mountain ranges and river valleys, forests and deserts. ‘This continent we share is vast enough to support many times the populations of the great nations that occupy these lands.’ With the forefinger of her right hand she traced jagged lines that rose up to become iron walls delineating the borders of the countries she named. ‘Darome, Zhuban, Gitabria, the Jan’Tep territo—’

‘Mahdekterritories,’ Chedran interrupted.

The momentary loss of concentration caused the dust to begin drifting apart. Ala’tris furrowed her brow and the map once again took shape. She shot me a glance that asked,‘Must he remind us all of his patriotism quite so often?’

I gave her a shrug that replied,‘Best get used to it.’

Ala’tris resumed her demonstration, which I would’ve found tedious were it not for the fact that all her poise couldn’t hide her unease from my arta precis. ‘Not all peoples are sedentary,’ she went on, tapping a rhythm with two of her fingers along first the northern part of the map, then the southern. ‘The tribelands are filled with nomadic peoples.’ The last trail of figures she conjured were smaller than the others, but moved across the entire continent. ‘None travel as great distances or interact with as many nations as the Mahdek.’

I winced at her phrasing and tone. She’d made it sound like all that endless slogging in search of food and shelter was some inborn cultural trait to be celebrated. She was about to get another dose of Chedran’s patriotism.

‘It is remarkable how fast and how far a people will trudge to escape the ember mages ever at their backs!’ he said with such a growl that the boy he was comforting began to cry again.

‘Untrue!’ Ala’tris declared, returning Chedran’s outrage in spades. She swallowed like her mouth had gone dry, then took in a deep breath.

Here it comes, I thought, slipping my throwing cards out of my waistcoat pocket in case things got ugly.This is the part where she tells a bunch of Mahdek teenagers the one thing they never want to hear.

---