Through the Darkness

His voice had an edge to it. What that edge meant was, So you‘ve dumped your Kaunian lady and found yourself a nice, safe Forthwegian girl, eh? You’d better not sneer at me anymore for cozying up to the Algarvians, then.

“This is Thelberge,” Ealstan answered: the first Forthwegian name that popped into his head. He hadn’t expected to meet anyone who knew him, and he really hadn’t expected to meet anyone who knew anything about Vanai. He wished he’d told Ethelhelm less. Since he hadn’t, he had to make the best of it. “Thelberge”--he wondered how Vanai would feel about his giving her a name--”do you know who this is?”

“Why, no,” Vanai answered. Maybe she was even telling the truth; she’d seen Ethelhelm only once, after all. Truth or not, though, she sounded politely curious, not frightened, and Ealstan admired her coolness.

He also thought he could get away with overacting here. Striking a pose, he said, “Well, sweetheart, I told you I cast accounts for the famous Ethelhelm. Here he is, in the flesh.”

Grinning, Ethelhelm struck a pose, too, as if about to hunch over his drums. Vanai’s eyes--brown now, not blue--went wide. “Really?” she breathed, and then started babbling about how much she loved Ethelhelm’s songs. Ealstan marveled at her performance, not least because he knew what she really thought of Forthwegian music.

When she stopped gushing, Ethelhelm smiled at her and nodded to Ealstan. “I won’t keep you,” he said. “Just wanted to let you know I spied you there, and to meet your friend.” On the last phrase, that hard edge returned to his voice. Ealstan wondered if Vanai noticed it. Had she just been Thelberge, a sweet bit of fluff, she wouldn’t have. Ealstan was sure of that.

“I’m so pleased to meet you,” she gushed, for all the world as if she were nothing but a bit of fluff. “Good luck with your mushroom hunting.” Ethelhelm chuckled and waved to her as he ambled back toward his... friends? Entourage? Ealstan wondered whether the band leader knew the difference these days.

As soon as Ethelhelm was out of earshot, Ealstan said, “Maybe we ought to go back to the flat.”

He wondered if Vanai would try to talk him out of it, but she didn’t. “Aye, maybe we’d better,” she said. They didn’t flee; that might have drawn Ethel-helm’s notice. But, after they’d drifted into the oak grove once more, she stopped and looked at Ealstan. “Thelberge, eh?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. To his relief, she shrugged. He went on, “I didn’t think anything like that would happen. Powers above be praised, we got away with it.”

Vanai nodded. They walked on for a few steps. Then she said, “He thinks you’ve got rid of the Kaunian girl you used to know.” Ealstan could only nod. Vanai’s mouth tightened. “I don’t like what he’ll think of you on account of that.”

“He’ll think I’m giving in, the same way he is,” Ealstan answered.

“That’s what I meant,” Vanai said sharply. She took another few strides and shrugged again. “Maybe it’s for the best. Now he won’t think he has a hold on you because you’re with a blonde.” Ealstan had to nod again. He hated thinking in those terms, but anyone who didn’t only endangered himself.

Not long after they left the park, he bought a news sheet, as much to distract them both from the alarm they’d had as for any other reason. The news sheet, of course, printed what the Algarvians wanted the Forthwegians to read. An address by King Mezentio topped the headlines. “I wanted to reach the Wolter, and so I have,” Ealstan read aloud. “We’re in Sulingen because it’s a vitally important city. It has a huge ironworks, and it’s a cinnabar shipping port. That was why I wanted to capture it and, you know, modest as we are-- we’ve got it. There are only a few more tiny pockets left, and we’ll get those, too. Time doesn’t matter. Not a single ship comes up the Wolter anymore, and that’s the main thing.”

“Is he right?” Now Vanai sounded worried.

Ealstan was worried, too. “I hope not,” he said, and wished he hadn’t bought the news sheet.

Pekka wished she hadn’t had to come up to Yliharma for her latest set of experiments. But she could hardly have asked Siuntio and Ilmarinen to come down to Kajaani, not when they were frail old men and she young and strong and healthy. The capital had far better libraries than Kajaani City College, too, and laboratories with fancier sorcerous apparatus. The trip made good logical sense.

She still wished she could have stayed home. Now Elimaki had to watch Uto all day long; she couldn’t give him back to Leino in the evening, for Leino was learning the art of front-line magecraft. Pekka knew how much she was asking of her sister. I have to find a way to make it up to her, she thought, not for the first time, as her ley-line caravan pulled into the depot in the center of Yliharma.