The Walls of Air Page 0,134

of clouds hid the higher peaks and filled the rocky notch of Sarda Pass with nebulous grey.

Rudy's breath burned in his lungs. His long, wet hair hung damply around his face and over the collar of his buffalohide coat. The steel points of his pronged staff winked faintly in the wan afternoon light. Under the burden of books they'd brought all that long way from Quo, his shoulder ached, but his mind circled gull-like around a confusion of thoughts.

We're home.

Home to Minalde.

And to what else?

By now, he was long used to carrying on both sides of the conversation. 'You said to me once to remember that we were outcasts. But that was back when we thought we'd have the Archmage to help us. And now we've got nothing, literally nothing. Anybody who declares himself a wizard is asking for it.' He shrugged. 'I don't blame Wend for sitting tight.'

'Nor do I.'

He glanced around, startled at the response. Ingold had been silent for days.

To his surprise, the old man continued. 'In fact, I should be amazed if anyone shows up at all. Kara and her mother might,' he added reflectively, 'if nothing else happened to them. But - the opposition to wizardry will have redoubled. And those alive to hear my summoning would be those who could not overcome their fear of opposition in the first place.'

Ingold came up beside him, leaning on his staff, bowed under the weight of his burden of books, like a very old and very wretched beggarman, with his long white hair, grubby beard, and stained and tattered cloak. In the shadows between the rim of

his hood and his ragged muffler, his eyes still looked sunken and tired. But at least he was talking.

Ingold went on. 'Maybe now you understand my impulse to become a hermit.'

'Well, let me tell you, the way you've been acting, I was damn tempted to let you do it.'

The wizard ducked his head. 'I am sorry,' he apologized quietly. 'It was good of you to put up with the grieving of an old man.'

Rudy shrugged. 'Well,' he said judiciously, 'since I've been perfect myself all my life, I guess I can find it in my heart to forgive you.'

Thank you,' the wizard replied gravely. 'You are very kind. But having heard you play the harp, I feel your assertion of perfection is rather rash.'

Their eyes met, and Rudy grinned. 'I had to get back at you somehow, didn't I?'

Ingold shuddered. 'In that case I doubly apologize,' he said. 'If that was meant as retribution, my conduct must have been execrable indeed.'

'Hey!' Rudy protested.

'It's the first time in my life that I've been thankful that I'm almost completely tone-deaf,' the wizard mused - not quite truthfully, Rudy knew. 'So I suppose there is good to be derived from every state.'

'Well, then you and I better think real hard about what kind of good is to be derived from being in the doghouse,' Rudy said grimly. 'Because that's sure as hell where we're gonna be when Alwir finds out what happened at Quo.' Then, in a different voice, he asked, 'What did happen at Quo, Ingold?' Wind keened through the trees above the Pass, but only a breath of it touched the travellers labouring through the drifted snow. The clouds moved down the mountains, as grey and chill as the fogs that had surrounded Quo. 'Was Lohiro acting for the Dark or was that the Dark themselves?'

There was a long pause while Ingold scanned the tracks of rabbit and bird in the snow of the drifts, as if judging matters pertaining to wind and weather. When he finally spoke, his scratchy voice was tired. 'I think it was the Dark themselves.' He sighed. To this day, I don't know if they did release him, there at the end. If they did, I could have brought him back with us. At least we could then have had the benefit of his wisdom and the knowledge of whatever it was that the wizards unearthed before they were destroyed. But I couldn't risk it, Rudy,' he said in a soft, urgent tone. 'I couldn't risk it.'

'Hell, no,' Rudy agreed. 'With all his knowledge and the Dark behind him - no wonder every building in the town was smashed, the wizards destroyed, and Forn's Tower blown to flinders. If your power could hold them at bay before the gates of the Keep, his power could only double theirs.'

'As their powers could baffle, or channel, the powers of