“Frightening, yes,” Hanner admitted. “But still limited, and your own people can wreak considerable havoc before drawing the Guild’s attention. I don’t know whether the legendary Tower of Flame in the Small Kingdoms is real-”
“It is,” the white-haired man interrupted. “It still burns.”
“You see? The World is full of dangerous magic, yet it survives. And a powerful warlock who goes rogue can easily be handled.”
Some of the wizards exchanged glances.
“Not so easily,” Ithinia said. “Warlocks resist wizardry. It’s as if you all bear powerful protective spells at all times. We have had some unfortunate incidents already. You know of one of them; the spell we used on your uncle, Lord Faran, was the strongest petrifaction spell we know, and should be utterly instantaneous, yet it took a second or two to work, and he had time to retaliate. And Lord Faran was not a terribly powerful warlock, nowhere near Rudhira’s level.”
“It was not Faran who stopped his killer’s heart,” Hanner said. “I was able to see that, using a warlock’s added senses. I hope you’ll understand if I don’t tell you who did perform the deed.”
That created a stir, but before anyone could speak Hanner continued, “But that wasn’t what I meant, in any case. Yes, you could destroy powerful warlocks with your spells, at some risk to yourself-but you could also slit their throats while they sleep.Manrin knew you far better than my uncle did, yet he didn’t manage to take anyone with him.”
Hanner paused for breath and heard someone mutter, “Elken, too.”
He ignored that, and continued. “Even that isn’t what I meant, though. Don’t you see? You can use the Calling to do your work for you!” Again, his words triggered unrest; the wizards shifted in their seats and looked at one another.
“If you keep throwing things at a dangerous warlock, it doesn’t matter whether any of your attacks succeed,” Manner said. “He’ll use his magic to defend himself. The more magic he uses, the more powerful he becomes. And the more powerful he becomes, the stronger the Calling becomes. Rudhira destroyed herself by lifting those ships-after she did that, the Calling was always there for her, growing steadily stronger.”
For a moment the place was silent; then Ithinia said, “An interesting point.”
Hanner knew he had said the right thing, finally. He was swaying them.
“That’s one side,” he continued. “Warlocks cannot cause the same level of destruction you fear, so there’s no real need to destroy us. But there’s another side. Wecan make any attempt to destroy us very costly.”
“Go on,” Ithinia said.
Hanner knew he had to phrase this carefully. He did not want to anger these people by seeming disrespectful or by threatening them openly. “You know we can kill you without touching you. You’ve seen us be obvious, smashing doors and so on, but we can be subtle. We can hide. We don’t need to look like anything but ordinary people-did you knowI was a warlock before this morning?”
“No,” Ithinia said, “but we do have ways of finding out.”
“And if a wizard’s heart suddenly stops in the street one day, can you find out which of the dozens of people in the area is responsible?”
Ithinia frowned and glanced around at the others. “Go on,” she said.
Hanner thought he heard someone whisper something faintly. He ignored that, as he had the earlier muttering, and went on. “You may think that there are only so many warlocks, and that once you’ve disposed of us all you’re rid of the problem-but we can make others into warlocks. It’s very easy, very subtle-the person altered wouldn’t necessarily even know it at first.”
“Wait a minute,” the white-haired wizard said. He drew a dagger and placed it on the table, then fumbled with a pouch on his belt.
“What are you doing?” Ithinia asked.
“The Spell of Truth,” the other replied. He mumbled something, gestured with the dagger, and did something Hanner couldn’t see with his other hand. Then he pointed the knife at Hanner and said, “Repeat what you just told us.”
“I said that we can make more warlocks. We can makeanyone a warlock, easily, with or without their permission or knowledge.”
“Are yousure of that?” the white-haired man demanded.
Hanner hesitated. He wanted to say yes, but he couldn’t honestly. He admitted, “No, I’m not sure. We believe so, but there might be people we can’t change. We can certainly change most people.”
The wizard nodded. “Good enough,” he said. “Then whyhaven’t you? Why not turn all the World to warlocks?”
“I’m not eager to do something irreversible when we don’t know what the results will be,” Hanner said. “Besides, it’s not as if most of us have found warlockry an unmixed blessing.”
“But if you turned your enemies to warlocks-”
“They might still be our enemies-and they might be more powerful than us.”
“But you have more experience.”
“And we’re closer to the Calling. We aren’t in any hurry to go see what’s in Aldagmor. If wedid turn everyone to warlocks, and the Calling took us all, we might destroy the entire World. We don’t want that any more than you do.”
“Go on,” Ithinia said.
Hanner sighed.
“That’s most of it,” he said. “If you do declare war upon us, we will fight, and we will fight with any means at our disposal. Wizards will die of heart failure, die in their sleep, die as they walk down the street. Wizards will find themselves transformed into warlocks, their familiar magic suddenly unreliable. Warlocks will appear throughout the city, throughout the World, anywhere we can get within a few yards of some unsuspecting innocent for a moment. You might win in the end, you might exterminate us or drive us all to the Calling, but would it be worth the cost?”
“What alternative do you offer?” the white-haired wizard asked.
“The Council of Warlocks,” Hanner said eagerly. “We propose to organize all the warlocks, as they’re discovered, and bind them by our rules. The warlocks who accept the Council’s authority will obey the laws of whatever land they live in-here in Ethshar-”
“You aren’t in Ethshar here,” a beautiful woman who had not previously spoken interrupted. “In fact, you aren’t even in the World.”
“I’m sorry,” Hanner said. “In Ethshar, then, they will obey the laws of the Hegemony and the commands of the three overlords. In the Small Kingdoms they will obey the laws of the various kings and queens. In Sardiron they will obey the barons. Whatever the law is, warlocks will be bound by it, and other warlocks will cooperate, free of charge, in bringing to trial any warlock who does not. Council warlocks will operate openly, not in secret-we will distinguish ourselves by wearing black tunics, as you wizards wear your traditional robes. We will transform others to warlocks only as properly sworn apprentices, as other magicians do. We will regulate our members, like any guild-and two or more warlocks working together can overcome a single more powerful warlock, where other magic might encounter that interference you’ve noticed. We will require that no warlock use any other magic.”
“And what do you expect in return?” the white-haired wizard asked.
“Very little,” Hanner asked. “We ask that we be treated as magicians, not monsters. We ask that the Wizards’ Guild not kill us, nor drive us into exile, nor aid others in doing so. And one more thing.” He had almost forgotten it and shuddered at the possibility. Convincing the Wizards’ Guild to leave warlocks alone was important, but it would hardly solveall their problems while warlocks were blamed for other crimes.