He set the pen back in the stand, then looked at the red-faced Osten. He smiled and said, “Good night, Lord West.”
After stepping back, Kharl raised the sight shield around himself. Then he walked to the balcony. He took a deep breath and wiped the sweat fromhis forehead, then re-created the air-steps, releasing them as soon as his boots touched stone once more. Not until he was on guardway below and halfway to the garden oak did he release Osten’s bonds.
This time, short of the oak, he used the stairway of hardened air to the ground beside the lower garden wall.
Behind him, he heard no alarms, no outcries, and he sensed no guards moving. Was that because Osten had decided against telling anyone what had happened? Because it showed he was vulnerable? Kharl didn’t know, and didn’t much care, so long as he reached the Seastag safely.
He did not see Demyst immediately and began to walk eastward. He’d been walking almost a quarter of a glass before he sensed the undercaptain and the two mounts. Releasing the the sight shield, he stepped out from behind one of the hedges.
“I’m back,” he said quietly.
“Getting worried, ser.”
“So was I.″ Kharl grinned, then mounted, and wiped his forehead.
They rode quickly downhill through the darkness toward the waiting Seastag-and to Jeka.
Epilogue
“There won’t be any great mages in the future,” Kharl said, standing on the front porch and looking out at the small harbor of Cantyl-his harbor, or his and Jeka’s.”I had trouble stopping rifle bullets when a whole company was firing. Before long, they’ll start building bigger cannon with soft iron shells, maybe even black iron shells. Then they’ll build something bigger, because the next Emperor of Hamor, or the one after that, or the one after that, can’t stand the thought that someone stopped Hamor from grabbing another land.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jeka said, squeezing his hand. “Always someone making trouble. You fixed things now. When the time comes, folks then, they’ll have to fix things for themselves.”
“I suppose so.”
“You’ve done enough. ‘Sides no one’s going to bother Lord Ghrant solong as you’re his mage. Folks are stupid, but not many stupid enough to get you after them.”
“I didn’t really create all that chaos,” Kharl pointed out. “The chaos-wizards did.”
Jeka laughed, the musical laugh that he loved so much. “Who knows that, except you and me?”
Kharl squeezed her hand back and looked at the smooth silver of the harbor water, calm in the late fall evening.