Vanyel gulped, and tried to look competent and brave. This is what it all comes down to, doesn’t it? This is what I have to do; Ihave to, like ‘Lendel said. Because these peopleneed me. “Yes, Aunt,” he said carefully. “Barricades and fire.”
Savil looked worried and preoccupied. “Do your best, lad. Remember that ‘voice’ I used to stop you and ‘Lendel fighting? It makes people listen; goes right to their guts. Imitate that if you can.” She mounted Kellan from the porch; Starwind took Yfandes’ saddle, but Moon-dance hesitated a moment before taking the pillion behind him.
“Vanyel, ke’chara, remember what I told you about the nodes. Usethem. There are - “ he paused, and his eyes unfocused for a moment. “There are three that I can sense that you should be able to use. I wish you could reach the valley-node as we can, but I think it is beyond your strength for now. None of the three nearby are as strong as the valley-node, but taken together they should serve.” He took Vanyel’s face between his hands and kissed him on the forehead. “Gods be with you, youngling. With fortune, this will be no more than an interesting exercise for you.”
He mounted behind Starwind, and the crowd of villagers parted to let them through. Vanyel watched them vanish into the darkness with a heavy heart.
If he hadn’t been so frightened himself, he’d have lost his temper a dozen times over. He had to keep explaining to these people, time and time again, exactly whathe wanted of them and whyhe wanted it - and would turn his back on one group, thinking that he had finallygotten through to them, only to return to find they’d abandoned the project and were staring apprehensively off into the darkness.
It wasn’t that they were stupid; it was that they were so completely without hope. They couldn’t see any chanceof holding off anything, and so they had abandoned any thought of being able to do so. After all, theirbest efforts hadn’t done anything but get folks killed. Vanyel, who was counting on themto be as much protection for him as he would be for them, was nearly frantic. It took hours before he was finally able to get them going under their own power.
Then there was the matter of defense.
When dawn came and he asked for their weaponry, he got as ill-used and motley an assortment of near-junk as he’d ever seen, and there wasn’t a one of them who knew how to use any of it. These were farmers born and farmers bred; most of them off lands held of lords or mage-lords who were bound to protect them. The k’Treva had bartered protection for made-stuffs and foodstuffs, and they had never thought they’d need to raise a blade in their own defense.
So Vanyel was faced with the task of showing rank amateurs the way of the sword. Forgetteaching them point-work; forgetthe finer points of defense. In the end he padded them to the eyebrows and set them to bashing at each other. Teach them to hold something long and poke with it, or hold something heavy and smash with it - and if it was something with an edge, hope that the edge, rather than the flat, connected.
By the second day of this he was tired to the bone, half-mad with frustration, and frantic with the fear he dared not show. So when Veth, Gallen’s half-grown son, came at him wide open for the hundredth time, he lost his temper completely and hit him with a full force blow he had not consciously intended to deliver. And tried to pull it too late to do any good.
He knocked the boy halfway across the square.
Veth landed sprawled on his back - and didn’t move -
And Vanyel’s heart stopped -
And in his mind he saw - Jervis - standing over him -
Oh, gods!
Vanyel’s sword went flying; his helm followed it as he ran to kneel at Veth’s side in the cold dust of the square.
Oh, gods- oh, gods- I’ve done to him what Jervis did to me. Oh, please, gods, please don’t let me have hurt him-
He unlaced the boy’s helm and pulled it off; about then Veth blinked up at him and started to sit up of himself, and Vanyel nearly cried with relief.
“Veth - please, Veth, I’m sorry, I - I lost my temper - I didn’t mean it - “
The boy looked at him with bewilderment. “Eh, Master Van, I be all right. I been kicked by our old mule worse nor this - just let me get a bit of a drink, eh?”
Vanyel sagged back on his heels, shutting his eyes against the harsh sunlight, limp with relief. The boy got gingerly to his feet.
Oh, gods. I-I’m as bad as Jervis. I’m worse than Jervis; I know better. Oh, gods-
“Vanyel, young sir - “
He looked up; it was Reva, Veth’s mother, her tired face anxious. He winced, and waited for her to give him the tongue-lashing he deserved.
It didn’t come. If you’ll forgive me for being an interfering old hen,” she said, with a little quirk of her mouth, “I think you’ve about worn yourself into uselessness, young sir. I know you haven’t eaten since last night. Now here - “
She offered him her hand; astounded, he took it, and to his utter befuddlement she hauled him to his feet. “Now,” she put one arm around his shoulders, the other about Veth’s, “I think it’s time you both got a bit of food in you. The time it takes to eat won’t make Veth a better fighter, nor you a better teacher.” She hugged them both, as if they were both her sons, then released them.
The words he had thrown into Withen’s face - was it only a year ago? - came back to shame him further.
“Let every man that must go to battle fight within his talents, and not be forced to any one school.”
I’ve been treating them exactly the way Jervis treated me. Forcing them to use things they don’t know, to go outside of their talents. I am a complete and incompetent fool.
Vanyel blushed. And stammered. “I - I’m no kind of a teacher, Mistress Reva, or I’d not have chosen what I did to teach.” He raised his voice so the rest of those practicing in the square could hear him. “This is getting us nowhere. It’s like you trying to teach me to - to plow and spin, for a Midsummer contest a week away. We haven’t the time, and I’m a fool. Now, please, what are your realweapons? Any of you know the use of bow? Or sling? Boar-spear, maybe?”
It was not his imagination; there were looks of real relief all across the square - and the beginnings of smiles.
But in the end, all his preparations were in vain.
The villagers willing to fight were on the barricades; there were really only two blockades - there was only one road going through the village, and it led directly through the pounded-dirt square. The square itself was fairly defensible now; not even a colddrake would have been able to get past the buildings. The folk too frightened or unable to defend themselves had faded away into the shadows as they did every night to scatter and hide in the cellars and attics of the buildings around the square. Headman Gallen had by now come to the conclusion that Vanyel knew something of what he was about; he and two or three of the other folk not too cowed to take a stand (including the old herb-witch, who took a dim view of this young upstart wizard taking over hervillage) were having a hasty conference with Vanyel on supplies - when a surge of Gate-energy invoked practically under Vanyel’s nose knocked him to his knees and very nearly knocked him out.
The only thing that saved him from unconsciousness this time was that he was completely under shield. He found himself gasping for breath, and completely disoriented for a moment. His eyes had flashing lights in front of them, and he shook his head to try and clear it. Thatwas a mistake; his head reacted poorly to the abrupt movement.
He could hardly think, much less see. Gods - what in -