when the time comes,” she had said calmly. “If anything comes up before then, I’ll come find you at your grandfather’s.”
That had effectively been the end of the conversation, and Will couldn’t help but think his mother wasn’t taking it seriously enough. When he got back to his grandfather’s house, he hoped the old man would have some insight.
After urgently explaining what had happened, his grandfather was equally unimpressed. “Just bring Erisa here. She can stay with us. This place is safe enough.”
“What if the Patriarch’s army comes through here?” asked Will, aghast at his grandfather’s seeming aplomb.
“They’ll never find this house,” said Arrogan flatly. “And, even if they did, we always have my rabbit hole in the cellar. That’s assuming I don’t decide to do something nasty to them rather than hide.”
“But…”
Arrogan held up a hand to silence him. “How many years do you think I’ve been living here? Those fools in Darrow decide to wage their holy war every few decades, and I’m always still here after it all blows over. My only regret is that I didn’t put an end to their self-styled prophet before he ruined the common sense of the people living in Darrow.”
“You knew the Prophet of the Highest?” asked Will, once again surprised by his grandfather’s revelation.
His grandfather nodded. “I mentioned him before—my wayward student, Valmon. He always thought he was smarter than everyone else, and I suppose in the end he was, in a way. He certainly taught me a lesson.”
“I thought you said you killed him?”
“I did,” spat Arrogan. “That was the lesson. Kill a prophet, and suddenly he’s a martyr. If I’d left him alive, he might have lived long enough for them to figure out what a needle-dicked bug-fucker he was. Instead, killing him just poured oil on the fire.”
Will gaped. “Needle-dick—what?”
The old man winked at him. “Take notes. You’ll want to remember that one. It’s a keeper.”
He shook his head. Just when he thought his grandfather couldn’t get any weirder, the old man said something like that. “What about what my uncle said? Do you think they should hide in the hills?”
Arrogan nodded. “Your uncle is probably right on that point. Getting out of the village before the press gangs show up is an excellent idea, whether or not the Patriarch’s soldiers show up in the spring or not. Knowing Lognion, he won’t take chances. He’s probably already getting ready for the war.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Will.
“That’s easy,” said his grandfather. “I’m hungry, so you get to cook supper. Tomorrow I’ll start you on the runes.”
***
The next morning, after breakfast, his grandfather brought out an old and extremely worn leather-bound journal and laid it on the table. “This was my first study journal,” he informed Will. Next to it he put a second book, though this one was considerably newer. “This is yours. As you learn, I’ll expect you to copy everything into this one. It will be good practice for your abominable penmanship.”
Will groaned. “I thought you were going to show me the runes.”
“I am,” said Arrogan. “Runes are the pieces and parts that spells are made of, but as you learn them you also have to know how they’re transcribed on paper. You saw the books in my room. Many of them are full of old spells. The books aren’t magic, but if you’re to use them, you have to understand what they mean. Once you know each rune and what it represents, you’ll be able to recreate the spells created by men who died long before you lived. Open up my study journal.”
Will did, turning it past the first two pages, which were blank, until he found the first entry. His grandfather pointed at a large symbol written at the top of the page. Having become fairly good at reading, Will knew it wasn’t any letter he had learned before; it consisted of a short horizontal line with a downward curve at the end.
“This is the rune ‘bruman,’” said the old man. “Copy it into your book and memorize how it’s written.” He stared over Will’s shoulder until he had done as he was told. “Now, watch me and I’ll show you what bruman represents.”
Will watched as Arrogan brought his hands together and pulled them apart again, leaving a glowing blue line in the air between them. When his mentor took his hands away, the line remained, hanging motionless in the air.
“That’s it?” asked Will. “A line? What good is that?”
“A spell