The Curse in the Gift (The Last Whisper of the Gods Book 2) (9 page)

“I have no complaints, First Brother. Without the aid of your healers, I wouldn’t be alive to have this conversation. I’m deeply grateful for everything you’ve provided: food, care, shelter.”

“There is one other thing I wish to offer, My Lady: spiritual nourishment.”

Alicia tried unsuccessfully to stifle a sigh. Of course there was a price to be paid for so much kindness. In Vantok, free meals at the temple were accompanied by a sermon. You couldn’t get the former without agreeing to sit through the latter. She guessed it was much the same the world over.

Yuman chuckled. “You needn’t fear, child. I won’t preach to you - at least not
too
much. The gods, after all, are no more. Instead, I wish to discuss the purpose of your journey.”

So Kara had told him. Alicia felt a stab of betrayal, although she recognized it to be an unworthy reaction. “I seek to save a man from throwing away his life.”

Yuman nodded. “A commendable and worthy endeavor. It speaks highly of your character that you have undergone the depravations of a long trip to achieve this aim. Not many would leave the comfort of Vantok’s temple to embark upon such a grueling journey. Tell me more.”

“I’m sure Kara has already told you the particulars. It’s her son, after all.”

“A son many of our older residents remember as a babe. Indeed she has, but I would like to hear your perspective.”

Reluctantly at first, then with growing conviction and passion, Alicia spoke of her fears and concerns about Sorial and his confrontation with the portal. She surprised herself with her forthrightness, but Yuman was the kind of person who inspired trust. She felt she could say anything to him without fear of recrimination - and she confided things she had told no one else.

“It seems to me, my dear, that you have two essential questions for which answers are needed. The first regards the existence of magic in this world. The second relates to whether Sorial possesses the innate capability to be a practitioner of it. You must address the first before considering the second. Will you let me try to help you? It’s a matter of faith - a quality that remains even though the gods are gone. Faith need not be directed toward the divine. That’s why priests are still needed in this new era.”

“It’s just... All my childhood, I was told magic doesn’t exist. It’s anathema to the gods and was taken from men as a punishment for their arrogance. To suddenly be asked to believe in it now...” Alicia struggled to verbalize her concerns.

“For hundreds of years, that was true. Wizards, in their hubris, set themselves alongside the gods and the gods were wroth. But all that changed when the gods decided to remove themselves from the firmament of creation. Magic is the means by which they have provided men a chance to achieve balance, and balance is what allows stability. Chaos and darkness on one hand, Order and light on the other - each kept in check in our material world by the powers of air, water, earth, and fire, all contesting with one another. Balance: the key to our survival in this new era. This is the great truth revealed to Prelate Ferguson and what he has devoted his life to promoting. The gods spoke to him when he was but a young man - as young as you are now - and he’s done their work before, during, and after their disillusion.

“For a long time, it was true that believing in magic was folly, the purview of babes and simpletons. We don’t accept what isn’t real. But when something clearly exists, it’s foolish to deny it. You come from Vantok, and it’s there that the new forces of magic are most evident: fire to fuel an unnatural heat and air to drive it from the Deep South and lock it in place around your city. My dear, you cannot believe that this wave of heat and drought is a natural phenomenon, especially now that you’ve seen how the rest of the land maintains normal weather patterns. To deny that this is the work of wizards is to reject tangible evidence. To ignore the existence of magic today is as imprudent as it would have been to believe in it several generations ago.”

As she listened to Yuman’s words and considered them, Alicia began to wonder why she was so resistant to the idea that magic might be real. Was it because she was frightened of a reality in which there were no gods? Or was it stubbornness? She thought of herself as an intelligent person, yet Yuman’s argument made her reticence seem unenlightened. Was she wallowing in ignorance?

“It’s not easy to accept such a radical change in the natural order, my child. Men are taught that life progresses tomorrow as it is today and as it was yesterday. For the most part, that’s true. But there are times when there are shifts. Consider how difficult it was for people to adjust when the gods took away magic. Eventually, everyone will accept it - they’ll have no choice - and generations from now, people will wonder how their ancestors could have doubted such an obvious thing.”

Yuman made a convincing case and Alicia found her skepticism wavering. Foremost in her mind was what this meant for Sorial. If magic had returned and if Ferguson had made a careful study of the best candidates, then perhaps his journey wasn’t fated to end in tragedy. Was there a possibility that he could have the capacity for controlling magic?

“I don’t envy the burden fate has placed on Sorial. It’s a great honor to be a wizard, but a greater responsibility. The powers are his to do with as he pleases. And that’s where you come in: the stabilizing force who reminds him there is love and joy in this world. The one who comforts him and steers him away from giving into his base instincts. Power such as what Sorial will experience can warp a man. It’s your duty as his friend, lover, and wife to prevent him from yielding to the ugliness that will always be a temptation.”

“You counsel me to reverse my course and not travel to the portal?” Could she do that?

“No,” said Yuman. “Quite the contrary, in fact. You and he are inextricably linked. It was foolish to exclude you from accompanying him on his journey, although I’m sure Ferguson had his reasons. He always does. But you must go to the portal and wait for Sorial there. You must be there to support him. You fear he will die at the portal, and I cannot tell you with absolute certainty that he won’t, but think how much deeper his own fear is than yours. It’s an act of faith for him and you must show him that your faith in him is strong. How much easier for him to take the ultimate step if there’s one by his side who loves him?”

She bowed her head. Her dark-dyed hair, which had grown longer since she took shears to it, formed a curtain hiding her face from the priest. “I’ve been selfish,” she said, her voice small. “And a man I loved almost as much as Sorial died because of it. You’re right. This isn’t my choice to make for him. For the peace and security of his soul, he must make it himself, and I know what that choice will be. Accepting it will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Yuman placed a hand on the top of her head, almost as if in a benediction. “You’re brave and courageous and full of love. Your soul seeks to do what’s right, although your heart has led you astray. Go to the portal. Give Sorial all your support.”

Later that day, after Alicia had spent hours ruminating about her conversation with Yuman, Kara came to visit.

“Yuman tells me you’ve made a choice.”

“You were right all along. This is about Sorial. It’s about caring for him and being there for him and, in the worst case, letting him go. I finally get a sense of what you’ve given up along the way. But do you really believe Sorial will succeed? That the portal won’t destroy him?”

Kara smiled. Her expression was pure, not sad as so often was the case with her smiles. “I do. I’ve believed it since he first stirred in my belly. All his life, I’ve worried about him - not that he would fail at the portal, but that he wouldn’t live to get there. Even now, I worry about that. But I have every confidence that if he gets there, if he stands face-to-face with the portal, he’ll be transformed.”

“I wish I had your faith.” The words were wistful. “Maybe then this wasted journey wouldn’t have been necessary.”

“Wasted? I don’t think so. You’ve learned much about yourself since we left Vantok. Your transformation may be more subtle than Sorial’s, but it was just as necessary.” She paused, as if trying to decide whether to say more. “Ferguson knew this. That’s why he let you go.”

Alicia gaped at her.

“You didn’t ‘escape’ from the temple. The prelate allowed you to leave. Rexall and I were sent along to provide you with aid and encouragement. Vagrum was, as always, your bodyguard, but he didn’t know. Had he done so, he would have told you.”

“Rexall and you... working for Ferguson?” When applied to Kara, the revelation wasn’t stunning, but Rexall? “This whole journey has been a sham?”

“A sham... no. As I said, it’s led to your transformation, a necessary step in your maturation as The Wizard’s Bride. This was never really about arriving at the portal ahead of Sorial. It was about getting you to accept there’s more at stake here than the lives of two people. Something Sorial acknowledged before he left.”

“You tricked me. Rexall tricked me.” There was anger in the accusations but not much heat. The truth was unexpected but not a shock. Some part of her realized things had been too easy, at least until they had gotten far away from Vantok.

“Neither of us played you false. We did what you wanted. Rexall provided you with a way out of the temple and helped to get you out of the city. I offered you the guidance you recruited me for.”

“You reported to
him
.”

“I am his disciple. Have you forgotten that? Did you think I’d betray the values upon which my entire life is founded? Rexall has been one of Ferguson’s eyes-and-ears since the days when he was a street urchin. He was hired to watch Sorial although the friendship they developed was genuine.”

“Sorial shared confidences with him. Rexall betrayed him.”

“Many of those confidences weren’t relayed to Ferguson. Though you may find it difficult to credit, Rexall has a code of honor and he never violated it where Sorial was concerned. The information he provided to Ferguson was very general and some of the tasks he was asked to do, such as take Sorial bathing on your father’s property, seemed harmless enough. We’re not your enemies, Alicia.
Ferguson
is not your enemy. He’s your greatest ally. And if Sorial succeeds, he’ll need the prelate’s wisdom and knowledge. Eighty years of scouring the world’s greatest libraries, some of which were buried under rubble or across the ocean... He knows more about magic than any man alive - possibly more than any man who’s ever lived, including the great wizards of old. If he thought there was any chance of success, he would have been first in line to enter a portal, but his lineage is barren, not rich like Sorial’s. The portal that will elevate my son would have killed Ferguson.”

“Knowing that you’ve... duped me, how am I supposed to trust you?” Alicia felt as if her life had once again been jolted into a ditch. She had thought the manipulation was over when the truth about her and Sorial was revealed after her Maturity. But it continued for both of them. The whole time Sorial had been relying on Rexall as a messenger, he had been in Ferguson’s employ. The prelate had been aware that Sorial had never left Vantok. She had to assume that everything Rexall had known, Ferguson had been told. And Kara didn’t see that as a betrayal?

“So what would you have me do? Return to Vantok and wait for Sorial?” Going on seemed pointless. Worse, Vagrum’s death felt empty.

“If that’s what you prefer, Rexall and I will show you the way. But we’re so close to the portal that it would seem a shame to turn back now. We’re ahead of Sorial. Rexall agrees that if you want to continue to the portal, we’ll take you there. No more subterfuge.”

Kara departed soon after making the offer, leaving Alicia alone to decide. The village wise woman had decreed that the storm would pass by the morning after next and then would be optimum time to depart. Alicia had that long to choose her path.

Stung by the duplicity of her companions, she considered fleeing without them, but the idea was foolish. She was in a strange land. Even if she knew how to get to the portal, she might never make it there on her own. And, as soon as she was discovered missing, a search party would be assembled comprised of men who knew the region intimately. She couldn’t escape them. She was trapped to travel with Kara and Rexall. But she wouldn’t make the mistake of trusting either of them. At least Vagrum hadn’t been part of the charade. He had been true. Anything else would have broken her heart. She missed him now more than ever.

As the night wore on, she found herself thinking less about Kara and Rexall and more about Sorial. This had all started because of him and it was still
about
him. Yuman was right; she had been blind. The more she considered, the more obvious it was that magic had returned to the world and those who were using it weren’t friendly to Vantok. He had said there were two questions and only after answering the first could she address the second. Just because the gods allowed men to regain their magical capabilities didn’t mean that Sorial was among the select few. It was a matter of faith, not fact. Kara, Ferguson, Yuman, Warburm, and perhaps even Sorial himself
believed
. What about her? If she stood between Sorial and the portal, could she step aside and let him enter, knowing that the price of failure was death? She didn’t know. And she suspected she wouldn’t know until faced with that proposition.

That was why, when she was well enough to travel, she would do what she had set out to do and complete the last leg of the journey to the portal. And, if that was Sorial’s destination as well, she would learn the answer to her question.