The Choice of Magic - Michael G. Manning Page 0,53

of all this?” asked Will. “If my body replaces my turyn with external turyn and I wind up with roughly the same amount anyway, why go through the trouble?”

Arrogan showed his teeth in an almost feral grin. “Even in my day there were many who didn’t want to bother, which is why this type of training is unheard of now, but a lot of advantages accrue for masters of this technique.”

“Such as?”

“Well, I already told you that this is the secret to the longer lives that wizards used to enjoy,” said his mentor.

Will wasn’t impressed. At fifteen, he still had what seemed to be a lot of years ahead, and he couldn’t imagine anything worse than the torture of his grandfather’s training. “Is that it? I get to live twice as long? It doesn’t seem to have done you much good.”

“What does that mean?” said his grandfather suspiciously.

“You’re bitter, mean, and you look like something the dog dragged in on a bad night.”

Arrogan’s face remained smooth for a second, then he smiled. Over the past year, Will had learned that the old man liked insults almost as much as compliments. “Well, that’s true, I suppose,” he replied. “But consider this. You’re not just going to outlive regular people, but you’ll outlive today’s lazy wizards by an even bigger margin. The way they work shortens their lives, rather than extending it. Think about what you did for that boy, Jack.”

“Joey,” corrected Will.

“Joey, jackass, whatever he was called,” said Arrogan, waving one hand. “Think about how you felt afterward; imagine what your turyn looked like. You exhausted yourself. What would happen if you did that now?”

Will thought about it for a minute. “The same thing. If I used up most of my turyn, even if it wasn’t from my source, I’d still be exhausted until it recovered.”

“With what you know now, that’s true,” admitted his grandfather. “But you would recover much faster, and you could cope with the temporary deprivation far better. What do you think one of those fools from Wurthaven would do?”

He could still remember their previous conversation on the topic, when the old man had showed him the candle flaring brighter. “He’d increase his turyn production for a while.”

“And shorten his life in the process,” spat Arrogan.

“Better than being so tired you can’t move,” argued Will.

“Since you like tests so much, why don’t we try it?” said his grandfather suddenly. “You never believe what I tell you, so we might as well make a lesson of it.”

Seeing the light of evil mischief appear in the old man’s eyes, Will started to run, but the green line caught him before he could take more than half a step, and he was paralyzed again. Arrogan caught him as he started to fall and eased him to the ground. He set Will’s candle on his chest. “Keep an eye on this. I think you’ll find it interesting.”

Arrogan stepped back and then held his left hand out toward his grandson before clenching it into a fist and pulling it backward. Will felt—and saw—the mass of turyn that emerged from his body. It followed the green line and stopped to hover around the old man’s fist. Arrogan looked at it for a moment and then waved his hand as though trying to get rid of a bad smell, dispersing Will’s turyn.

Will felt an intense exhaustion sweep over him, as he’d expected, but it began fading almost immediately. After just a few minutes, he was merely tired, and through it all the tiny flame on his candle remained steady, neither growing nor shrinking.

“Let’s do it again,” said his grandfather.

No! thought Will. Not again, not so soon. Are you trying to kill me? Unfortunately, he was unable to voice his objections.

Again the old man sucked the very life out of him, and Will was overcome with a bone-deep fatigue. A few minutes later, he did it again. “You would have been incapacitated for days after this when you first came to me,” lectured the old man. “Now you can recover most of your turyn from the environment in just minutes, and you can do it over and over again. I’ll show you something even more interesting this time.”

He drew out Will’s turyn once more, but this time rather than dispersing the energy, he brought it close to Will’s body and released it. Rather than fading away, the cloud of turyn was drawn back into his body, as though a wind was blowing it toward him. Seconds