After Al was secured to the tree, Raulin turned to face Linden. “How are you feeling?”
“Good.”
“Do you think you could do us a favor? Could you bring Cove’s body to the police station and inform the mayor of what happened?”
“Aren’t you going to tell him?”
“We will, but we’re going to stay here with Al until this passes.”
Linden nodded. He slung Cove’s corpse over his shoulders with a shudder and headed east back into town. While Al heaved against the vines, and later the rock shackles when he burst from the first, the rest of the quartet made a fire and lunch. Anla quietly, patiently, fed Al some of the stew as he screamed she was poisoning him, that he’d choke on it, that spirits were coming to rip his heart out and eat it.
“Maybe you should ensorcel him,” Raulin suggested.
“I thought of it, of course,” she said, “but I’m wondering whether it will interfere with what’s going on with him. If he gets worse I’ll try it.”
They were surprised to see Linden back an hour later. He sat and addressed Raulin. “The mayor would like to speak with you whenever you have a moment.”
“He can speak with Al when he gets better.”
“He might not get better.”
All three of them looked up from what they had been doing. “Could you tell me more about that?” Raulin asked.
“He was flooded with magic. That doesn’t always leave nicely. I’m from out west in the desert. I’d heard about floods, real floods, and thought they were nice and clean; water comes in, water leaves, everything gets dry. I didn’t realize that the water is muddy and stains things and stuff gets swept around and mold grows. It gets into the bricks and slats of the house. It’s sort of like that for us wizards. I’m shocked that Cove guy was as lucid as he was if he’s gone through several floods.”
“I think he likely got close, but not to that point.”
“That makes sense.”
“So Al is flooded,” Anla said. “What does that mean?”
“It means he’s taken on too much magic for one person to hold. Cove poured what magic he had in him into me, which was likely twice what I could take. Then Al drained me of all that and had what he had originally. At the minimum, he has two times what he should be able to take. All those people Cove killed had twice what they could handle. They died.”
“He’s not dead, though.”
“No, and that gives me hope that he might survive. But what he’ll be like if he survives is a different story.”
Raulin flinched as Al screamed again, banging his head against the trunk. They at least had had the foresight to make sure Tel had softened the wood to a cork consistency so that he wouldn’t bash his skull in during a fit. “You said ‘Al drained me’ not ‘I poured’.”
Linden looked embarrassed. “Not every wizard is a model wizard. Most take in magic and it dissipates after use or they transfer it to someone else. A small percentage can’t let the magic sluice correctly, so they’re stuck with it until they use it. A smaller percentage can’t transfer magic. I’m one of those ‘deformed’ wizards, as my classmates called me. So I couldn’t pass the magic on to him. And trust me, if I could have, I would have. It was blindingly scary.”
“So how did Al get your magic?” Anla asked.
Linden’s eyebrows furrowed. “I thought you guys might be able to tell me that. I’ve never heard of a wizard who could take magic from another wizard. Never. Not in school or from Cliff.”
Al started sobbing uncontrollably. “He’s a cross-switcher,” Raulin said. “Does that make a difference?”
“No. Magic is a one-way street. You take it in, you pass it on, but you never put it back where it came from or pull it from someone else. It’s like reversing the flow of a river.”
“What if he’s a cyclical wizard?”
Linden blinked a few times, staring ahead in thought. “Maybe? Cyclicals can do a lot of weird things like heal themselves almost instantly and bring people back from the brink of death. Is he a cyclical wizard?”
“If you ask him, he’d tell you ‘no’. Al thinks it’s ridiculous to even consider it. But we’ve been questioning it for a while now.”
“Why?”
“We’ve been traveling Gheny since last June. Al wanted to keep up with us, so he started using the Unease after not using it for most of his career. As in, he turned it on and didn’t turn it off for months. Then he finally did turn it off and he had his magical backlash. It was rather bad. He tried to stab a companion we had, then jumped off a cliff. After a period of a week or so, he came out of the catatonic state he’d entered and began to get better. His mood improved greatly.”
“I don’t know much about cyclical wizards. Amandorlam taught us very little. Some wizards, like Cliff, think they’re just legends. I guess if he’s cyclical, then he should be able to pull the magic from inside him and disperse it. He’s not doing that, though.”
Al was weeping and muttering about something. “Maybe he doesn’t know how.” Raulin stood and walked over to his friend, who gave him a wild-eyed look.
“Kill me? Please?”
“You think I dislocated my shoulder lassoing you from a rock dive to kill you now?”
“It’s too much!”
“I know,” he said softly. “I know, Wizard, but you need to be strong. You need to push your magic out.”
Al gritted his teeth together and began hyperventilating.
“Shhh. Breathe slowly. You have too much magic. That’s why you’re scared. You need to get rid of it and then you’ll be at peace.” Raulin waved Linden over. To him he asked, “What is it like, taking in magic?”
“Um, it’s…like someone splashes water on your clothes, but your clothes are your skin. Then the water thickens at your nape and in your chest. It tightens.”
“If you were to reverse the splashing water feeling, how would you describe it? Evaporation? Pulling the water out?”
“That’s, um…” He thought about this for a minute. “Like someone has a blanket that they’re taking off.”
“Wizard? Look at me, right here,” Raulin said to Al, who finally met his gaze after several repetitions of the command. “The magic is on you like a thick blanket. You need to throw it off your shoulders, pull it off, get rid of it. Can you do that?”
His lucidity broke again and he surged against the ropes. Raulin heard them creak, but they held, as did the stone shackles. Raulin sighed and walked back to the fire with Linden.
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Linden seemed uncomfortable with the group. Raulin realized after a few minutes it was mostly with him and not Anla or Tel. “Do you have any questions for me?”
“Are you here to kill me? Or someone I know?”
“Likely not. Do you know anyone in the Ismela part of Cataya?” He shook his head. “Then no, I won’t be killing anyone you know.”
“Why are you here, then?”
“For Al. He took on this case and I’m helping him with it.”
“But trirecs don’t help people,” he blurted out.
“We’re in a special situation,” he said and told a piecemeal story of their last nine months. It wound up having quite a few holes and many, many lies, so much so that it was more air than Swiss cheese, but he made his point after some time: this was Al’s turn.
Linden relaxed a little. “I’ve always imagined trirecs to be cold and lethal.”
“I can be that,” Raulin said, poking at the fire.
“You can be,” Anla interjected, “but you are not.”
“I am when I have to be.”
“That’s closer to the truth.”
There were a few minutes of silence punctuated by Al’s anguish before Anla perked up, then dashed off to the east. They heard talking between two women before Anla came back to the fire and Mian walked slowly to the tree where Al was.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Raulin asked.
“No,” Anla said, sitting. “I don’t think Al would want her to see him like this. Maybe if they had known each other longer it would be different. But she said her boss had given her the day off to visit him. I warned her he was in a bad place, that he wouldn’t recognize her, that he might hurt her. I told her not to touch him.” She spoke more quietly. “I told her we needed to leave when and if he got better. I told her he had come from a bad marriage.”
“Do you think that was a good idea?”
“I was trying to dissuade her. It didn’t work.”
Even among them, there were still things too personal to be a part of. They tried not to watch, but occasionally one would look up through the trees and brush. Mian stood next to Al, speaking softly in his ear and touching him gently. She stroked his hair and held his hand as his rages against the vines lessened. After some time she sat next to him, still holding his hand, and spoke to him about things.
They were preparing dinner a few hours later when she returned. “I think he’s passed out,” she said.
“How is he?” Anla asked.
“I don’t know. He just seemed hoarse and exhausted before he finally collapsed.”
“Should we free him?” Anla asked the group.
“Come,” Raulin said to Tel, taking out his knife. A few minutes later they brought Al to the fire and piled blankets over him.
“You two can go home, get some rest,” Anla said. “We’ll make sure he sees you both tomorrow.”
Linden left after thanking them. Mian knelt over Al’s sleeping form and kissed him on the forehead before leaving without a word.
“It’s comforting to see that kind of love here,” Telbarisk said. “She reminds me of Kelouya.”
“That might grow into an issue,” Anla said.
Raulin sighed. “I’ll talk with him if it does.”
* * *
Anla threw another log on the fire, watching the sparks fly up at the disturbance. It had dropped in temperature, enough that she was huddled under her cloak for warmth. She glanced back at Raulin. In his arms, now there was some place she’d rather be in that moment. Instead she used a stick to rearrange the wood so that things were just right and the fire was properly stoked.
It was in these quiet, still moments that Anla grew. Things were always at high pace with this group that she rarely had time to think, really think about things. And it was then as she tended the fire and kept watch that she made a realization, one of two things that needed to be discovered.
When Mian had approached them earlier, Anla had pushed back for maybe a little longer than she should have. She had felt that burning feeling in her chest to some lesser degree than when she had seen that girl kiss Raulin. Anla wasn’t a stupid girl, but having been raised on the street during a time in her life when love had been riddled with lust and greed and pain when it should have been tender and sweet and beautiful, she had a hard time navigating those emotions. She knew jealousy as that small stab that pulsed once when a friend ignored her and spoke to someone else. She didn’t know it could be worse, could grow into a possessive pain that physically hurt.
She hadn’t wanted Mian there. They were going to care for Al. They were going to bring him out of this. And though she was relieved that he had finally fallen asleep, she was also surprised to find that she had been jealous it had been Mian who had soothed Al into that deep slumber. The recoil of shame stung, but she had to remind herself that no one knew how she felt. She did, and she needed to think on it, but she hadn’t really acted irrationally. It would be irrational not to consider this.
Anla knew what jealousy was now. She felt jealous of the attention Raulin was getting in Tektorn. The people loved him and he had spent a considerable time away from her in Acripla and with that girl. She had wanted Raulin’s attention back with them, and forcing herself to be really honest, with her.
Raulin’s mask glowed in the fire. She could imagine the lines beneath, the expression when he spoke, how much she loved kissing him. A thought crossed her mind: what if it might be different with him? What if she could make the most of their remaining time and have something wonderful instead of what she’d had? She gathered the pieces of what they were in her mind, stitching together a potential future, and felt warm at the thought. A smile crossed her face. She glanced at Al and saw a dark spot in the wavering, gold sheen across his face. It stayed, disappeared, then came back.
His eyes were open!
She scampered over to him. “Al?” she whispered.
He turned to look at her, swallowing. “Thirsty,” he said gravelly.
There was a water skin nearby that she handed to him. He drank deeply and tried to sit up, but choked. This woke Raulin, who sat up fast. “Wizard?”
He nodded.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel like every muscle in me has been thoroughly chewed and every bone pulverized.”
“But, how do you feel? Can you remember things? Are things the same as they were?”
Anla helped him sit up as Tel turned to hear his response. “It hurts, but it doesn’t feel painful, like everything is an old injury. My mind…I remember things. I think I even remember what people said when I was roped to the tree. Did you tell me to take off a blanket?”
Raulin laughed. “I was trying to use words to tell you to get rid of the excessive magic. Did it work?”
He lifted an arm in consideration. “I still have too much. I can feel that. But, it’s manageable. What did I do? I remember doing something as I was passing out. Ah,” he said, laughing. “I shook my fur like a wet dog. All the water droplets went flying and I felt a lot better.”
“Could you do it again?”
Al closed his eyes. He took in a deep breath as he shuddered. “Better, but still not below where it should be. Maybe a few more times, but,” he yawned, “I’m getting tired from it.”
Raulin wanted with a desperate curiosity to ask him about how he was able to do that and whether he thought it was something only possible if he was a cyclical wizard. But, not then. Not when he had been through so much. “Wizard, you had two visitors.”
“I remember a girl…” he began. “Was it Mian?”
“Mmm. She stayed with you for a few hours and made sure you were okay.”
“Did she seem…perturbed? I can’t imagine I was presentable.”
“You weren’t, but she didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and barged past Anla to see you. She wanted to stay longer. She’ll want to see you as soon as you’re able to.”
“Who was the other? The mayor?”
“The mayor would like to speak with you as soon as possible as well, but it was Linden who stayed. Came back, actually. We sent him away as well.”
“What did he want?”
“We never actually got that.”
Al nodded, his head drooping.
“We’ll find out in the morning. For now, we should all get some sleep.”
Anla made sure Al was comfortable, then crawled back into the blankets held open by Raulin. She sighed as his arms encircled her and she squeezed his tighter around her.
The sun had risen a few hours by the time Al awoke. Raulin cooked a breakfast of flapjacks with some fresh, early strawberries and venison sausage. They packed up camp and walked east into Kinuestra, where the townsfolk had already started their day and moved on into their work.
They were barely through the door of Russet Hunting when they heard, “He’s okay!” Linden moved past the weapons and cages stacked in the musty shop to hug Al. “How did you do it?”
“The magic went away.”
“But how are you not burnt by it? It was too much.”
“It was. I must have switched to the Calm at some point.”
Linden looked dubious. “Are you…a cyclical?”
Al laughed. “No, just lucky. And delusional, I think.”
Linden put his arms on Al’s shoulders. “I wanted to thank you for saving my life.”
“I wasn’t going to let you go through that death. I was in charge and I was responsible.”
“You still could have left me. But you took my magic from me.”
“You gave it when I asked for it.”
Linden shook his head. “I can’t. I’m blocked. I’ve never passed on my magic. You took it from me.”
Raulin shook his head at Linden. It wasn’t worth pursuing when Al had so many doubts. He’d eventually realize the truth.
“Well, I still wanted to thank you. If you need anything, let me know.”
“We’re good. Thank you for your help; it was invaluable at catching Cove.”
They left for the mayor’s office. Mian was out fetching his lunch when he let the four in himself. He thanked them, saying he had already written letters to the Duke and Marquess as well as Baron Girord.
As they were leaving, Mian entered the building. Al watched as she climbed the stairs, his eyes glued to her. She made it to the top before she realized they were standing there and startled. Her eyes latched onto Al as she slowly set down the bundle of food on the floor.
“I heard you,” he said.
She said nothing. Al took a step towards her, but she was the one who ran the rest of the way, pulling his head towards hers and kissing him. Al wrapped his arms around her, pulling back for only a moment to look into her eyes.
“Thank you,” he said and kissed her again.