The Choice of Magic - Michael G. Manning Page 0,65

said Will. “All you ever do is swear and berate people. I don’t think you learned it properly.”

His grandfather growled, “I make my feelings known. That’s the point. But I’ll admit, I may have been a little different back then. You’ll see one day. A good woman makes you want to put your best foot forward.”

Will doubted his grandfather had a ‘good’ foot. As far as he could tell, Arrogan was sour and mean from back to front. Rather than point that out, he asked a different question, “Wasn’t it a little unusual to marry your teacher?”

Arrogan shrugged. “Even in my day, wizards were uncommon. We didn’t have many peers to pass judgement on us, and we were a good match, though she was a little older than me.”

“How much is a little?”

“Forty-three years,” said Arrogan, his lips curving into a faint smile as he waited for his grandson’s reaction.

Stunned, Will almost shouted, “She was older than my mother!”

His grandfather broke into a grin. “I said forty-three years older. I was fifty-four on the day we married.”

Putting his still new math skills to the test, Will added up the numbers mentally. “She was ninety-seven! You said you had two daughters, how—”

“Two daughters and one son,” corrected his grandfather. “You neglect the possibility that I may have had more than one wife during my long life; however, in this case you’re correct. I was only married once, to Aislinn.”

He still wasn’t convinced. “But at that age…”

“Physically, she was similar to a woman in her thirties,” explained Arrogan. “No one that saw us could even notice the age difference. In fact, when we did start showing our age people often thought I was the older one. Forty years is a small difference for wizards.”

Will considered it for a bit and decided that while his grandfather was almost certainly right, it was still strange. As he thought about it, he saw a look in the old man’s eye that indicated he was about to call for a return to practice. Searching for another distraction, Will blurted out the first thing that came to mind: “Her parents must have known she’d be a wizard someday, since Aislinn is the goddess of magic and the wife of Elth—the fae lord that we met.” He caught himself before saying the name, remembering his grandfather’s previous warning.

Arrogan flinched, almost as if he had been slapped.

He knew he had said something wrong, but he wasn’t sure what. “Your Aislinn and his Aislinn are different people, of course.” His heart sank as he saw the look on his grandfather’s face grow even darker. “Right?”

Arrogan stood and walked a few steps away, heading toward the entrance to the house. “I think you’ve had enough practice for today. Why don’t you take the afternoon off?”

“I didn’t mean to offend,” began Will, but his grandfather closed the door before he could finish. He stared at it for several minutes, feeling bad and unsure how to apologize. After thinking it over, he gave up. The old man would only make him suffer if he insisted on talking to him. Better to let him cool off. “I’m going to go visit Eric,” he called to the door, raising his voice in the hopes Arrogan would hear him.

There was no response, so after a short wait, he left.

As he tramped through the woods, he mulled the conversation over. Tailtiu was Arrogan’s daughter, and from what his grandfather had said, Aislinn was her mother. His daughter was fae because she had been born and raised in that other realm. Could his grandfather’s wife really be the same as the Aislinn from legend? And if so, why had she married Elthas?

Whatever the explanation, it was very likely the reason Arrogan harbored such a big grudge against the fae lord. Will shook his head, as if that would clear up his muddied thoughts. It didn’t. In the end, he had more questions than answers, and he could think of no good way to ask his questions. Still, it’s wicked. My grandmother is the original Mistress of Magic, he thought. Not that anyone would ever believe him.

He was so caught up in those thoughts that he failed to notice the sounds of a man on horseback ahead, and he almost stumbled upon the stranger before realizing it. Coming to a sudden halt, he peered through the brush.

The man was probably in his thirties, and he had dismounted to lead his horse along what amounted to a small game trail.