[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
any training, and there was no reason for anyone but an aristocrat or a magician to have learned any of this.
"All wizards are members of the Wizards' Guild," he said. "They kill anyone who practices wizardry without
joining, or who breaks other Guild rules-the rulers of Old Ethshar gave them that authority hundreds of years
ago, maybe thousands, and nobody argues with it. Most of them are just ordinary members, though, the
same way most people are just ordinary citizens of Ethshar. A few wizards are chosen as Guildmasters-we
don't know who does the choosing, or how, and apparently anyone who told us would be put to death. The
Guildmasters have more authority. We don't know how much-maybe the Guildmasters run everything, but
there are rumors that there's some secret higher rank. We don't even know whether there are different levels
of Guildmaster, or how many Guildmasters there are in the city, or who they are-
again, that's all kept secret. But we do know the names of a few, so that we know who to talk to if we need to
consult the Wizards' Guild and don't want to work our way up from the bottom. The highest-ranking
Guildmaster we know of in Ethshar of the Spices-and really, we're just assuming she's ranked higher than the
other two we know about-is named Ithinia, and she has a mansion on Lower Street, near Arena."
Rudhira said, "That's less than half a mile from here."
"I know," Manner said. "Much less. That's why I offered to take a message."
"Uncle Faran would rather do it himself," Alris said. "He likes showing off."
"It sounds dangerous to me," Mavi said. "If he has magical things up there and he uses them to send a
message to Ithinia, isn't he admitting he's broken their rules?"
"Yes," Hanner said. He glanced uncomfortably up the stairs; Faran was long since out of sight. "I hope he
knows what he's doing."
Hanner thought it all too likely that his uncle did not know- that after being cast out by the overlord he had
lost his temper so thoroughly that he wasn't thinking clearly, and was more concerned with demonstrating
that he still had power than with the best long-term strategy.
Or maybe he had simply gotten fed up with keeping so many secrets.
Or maybe he did know what he was doing, after all. He had far more experience than Hanner in these
matters.
"I really hope so," Hanner said.
Chapter Twenty
Ithinia of the Isle was not happy. She was short on sleep, having been rousted out earlier than her wont by
panicky messages from various lords, magistrates, and magicians, and she had spent the entire day dealing
with people who expected her to know far more than she did, which she always found wearing.
Furthermore, she didn't approve of changes in the normal routine of Ethsharitic life. Whatever had happened
the night before had disrupted any number of things, and Ithinia resented that.
And finally, she had spent the whole day talking to people instead of doing magic. She hadn't cast a single
decent spell. Oh, she had used a few simple tricks and applied some existing artifacts, but she hadn't
worked anything more difficult than a third-order incantation, and she hated that. She had become a wizard
because she loved magic, and she was good at it, which was how she'd become a Guildmaster, and she
considered it completely unfair that her duties as senior Guildmaster for the World's largest city so often
meant she had no time to spend in her workshop, animating bric-a-brac or talking to ghosts she had trapped,
or otherwise enjoying the miraculous abilities she had spent her life acquiring.
She thought now that she should have used some sort of time-distortion spell to find a few extra hours she
could use to catch up on her sleep, but she hadn't done it-at least, not yet, and she still wasn't sure when
she "would have a chance.
So her mood was already quite sour enough when she arrived home, transported magically into her
downstairs solarium, to hear a loud, unnatural buzzing in the garden behind her house.
It was not a pleasant buzz. It was a harsh, insistent noise that Ithinia found intensely grating. She thrust a
hand into the pouch on her belt, fumbled with a vial, and opened the garden door of the solarium with a pinch [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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any training, and there was no reason for anyone but an aristocrat or a magician to have learned any of this.
"All wizards are members of the Wizards' Guild," he said. "They kill anyone who practices wizardry without
joining, or who breaks other Guild rules-the rulers of Old Ethshar gave them that authority hundreds of years
ago, maybe thousands, and nobody argues with it. Most of them are just ordinary members, though, the
same way most people are just ordinary citizens of Ethshar. A few wizards are chosen as Guildmasters-we
don't know who does the choosing, or how, and apparently anyone who told us would be put to death. The
Guildmasters have more authority. We don't know how much-maybe the Guildmasters run everything, but
there are rumors that there's some secret higher rank. We don't even know whether there are different levels
of Guildmaster, or how many Guildmasters there are in the city, or who they are-
again, that's all kept secret. But we do know the names of a few, so that we know who to talk to if we need to
consult the Wizards' Guild and don't want to work our way up from the bottom. The highest-ranking
Guildmaster we know of in Ethshar of the Spices-and really, we're just assuming she's ranked higher than the
other two we know about-is named Ithinia, and she has a mansion on Lower Street, near Arena."
Rudhira said, "That's less than half a mile from here."
"I know," Manner said. "Much less. That's why I offered to take a message."
"Uncle Faran would rather do it himself," Alris said. "He likes showing off."
"It sounds dangerous to me," Mavi said. "If he has magical things up there and he uses them to send a
message to Ithinia, isn't he admitting he's broken their rules?"
"Yes," Hanner said. He glanced uncomfortably up the stairs; Faran was long since out of sight. "I hope he
knows what he's doing."
Hanner thought it all too likely that his uncle did not know- that after being cast out by the overlord he had
lost his temper so thoroughly that he wasn't thinking clearly, and was more concerned with demonstrating
that he still had power than with the best long-term strategy.
Or maybe he had simply gotten fed up with keeping so many secrets.
Or maybe he did know what he was doing, after all. He had far more experience than Hanner in these
matters.
"I really hope so," Hanner said.
Chapter Twenty
Ithinia of the Isle was not happy. She was short on sleep, having been rousted out earlier than her wont by
panicky messages from various lords, magistrates, and magicians, and she had spent the entire day dealing
with people who expected her to know far more than she did, which she always found wearing.
Furthermore, she didn't approve of changes in the normal routine of Ethsharitic life. Whatever had happened
the night before had disrupted any number of things, and Ithinia resented that.
And finally, she had spent the whole day talking to people instead of doing magic. She hadn't cast a single
decent spell. Oh, she had used a few simple tricks and applied some existing artifacts, but she hadn't
worked anything more difficult than a third-order incantation, and she hated that. She had become a wizard
because she loved magic, and she was good at it, which was how she'd become a Guildmaster, and she
considered it completely unfair that her duties as senior Guildmaster for the World's largest city so often
meant she had no time to spend in her workshop, animating bric-a-brac or talking to ghosts she had trapped,
or otherwise enjoying the miraculous abilities she had spent her life acquiring.
She thought now that she should have used some sort of time-distortion spell to find a few extra hours she
could use to catch up on her sleep, but she hadn't done it-at least, not yet, and she still wasn't sure when
she "would have a chance.
So her mood was already quite sour enough when she arrived home, transported magically into her
downstairs solarium, to hear a loud, unnatural buzzing in the garden behind her house.
It was not a pleasant buzz. It was a harsh, insistent noise that Ithinia found intensely grating. She thrust a
hand into the pouch on her belt, fumbled with a vial, and opened the garden door of the solarium with a pinch [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]