"Or one kind of magic from another," Kellen agreed, puzzled. "Except for Jermayan, who's Bonded to Ancaladar, all the Elves have is what they call 'small magics,' and I have no idea what…"
In the middle of his sentence, he looked down, and completely forgot what he'd been about to say.
The books were from his father's library.
Or they could have been. Lycaelon Tavadon's passion was rare books, and it would have been amazing indeed if the Arch-Mage of Armethalieh did not own a number of rare and ancient books on the Art Magickal.
"What " he sputtered. "Where "
Cilarnen laughed. "I wanted to know the same thing but you're the one who told me that it's very rude to ask Elves questions, Kellen! And anyway, I wasn't here when they came so if you want to know, you'll have to ask someone else. All I know is that they're a gift from Kindolhinadetil's library."
Kellen sat down slowly opposite Cilarnen. He picked up a book at random and opened it to a middle page. There were no words it was a table of complicated symbols, arranged in a grid. He turned the page. More symbols, this time arranged in a circle.
Meaningless.
He set the book down and tried not to look as baffled as he felt.
"They're books of High Magick, Kellen," Cilarnen said, his voice filled with excitement and delight. "Spellbooks. Glyphs sigils seals wards that one is for the wand; this one here is for the swordthese have spoken spells and conjurations it is everything a Master Mage would have in his personal library! Kellen, with these I can finish my training back home I was ready to test for Full Apprentice; Master Tocsel taught me well I know I would have passed, and once you have made Apprentice, progress through the grades is mostly a matter of power and mastering the spellwork oh, that and patronage, but that doesn't matter here!"
Cilarnen was practically babbling, his voice filled with relief. Kellen felt a pang of sympathy as much as he was a Knight-Mage, or Idalia was a Wildmage, Cilarnen was a High Mage, and his unjust Banishment had cut him off from the only life he had ever known or wanted.
"But… how did Kindolhinadetil… ?"
Wirance snorted. "Who knows what the Elves may choose to do or predict how they may choose to do it? A man might grow old wondering. For my part, I have heard that the library here in the Forest City is an amazing thing, containing books from many lands. It is plain that it also holds books from your Armethalieh as well, and that Kindolhinadetil decided to make you a present of them."
"I'm sure he meant them as a present to all of us," Cilarnen said, though it was obvious from his expression that it would take a more than a Wildmage or several Wildmages to get him to give them up.
"I have all the books I needand so does any Wildmage," Wirance told Cilarnen. "Look at them! You'd need a packhorse just to carry them and from all you've said, that's barely the beginning of what you need for that High Magick of yours. Faugh! Keep your bloodless nonsense, and welcome."
But though his words were rough, the Mountainborn Wildmage's expression was kindly. He had fought beside Cilarnen at Stonehearth, and though he understood High Magick as little as Cilarnen understood the Wild Magic, he respected Cilarnen himself.
"I shall keep my 'bloodless nonsense,' old man," Cilarnen answered lightly. "And you may go on babbling to empty air and burning wet leaves and reading blank books and I shall do nothing to stop you. Light knows, the world is big enough that I think there is room for us both in it."
"Then I shall leave you to it, and take my old bones to their rest," Wirance said, getting to his feet. "Mind that you do not do too much too soon."
"As if I could do anything at all," Cilarnen said, when Wirance had gone. His good humor had vanished as if it had never been, and the abrupt change startled Kellen. "I had nearly forgotten… seeing all this… what good will all the knowledge in the world do me without the power to cast my spells? I cannot forever be relying upon Ancaladar's power."
"No," Kellen agreed. The dragon had loaned his power to Cilarnen's Shielding spell to save all their lives, but Ancaladar was understandably touchy about being regarded as nothing more than a living storage battery. And besides, so far as Kellen knew, Ancaladar was only supposed to be able to express his magic through his Bonded Jermayan. They had all been linked together in the Spell of Kindolhinadetil's Mirror, which explained, Kellen supposed, why Ancaladar had been able to loan Cilarnen his power. But that would hardly work as a regular solution.
"But the Wild Magic has arranged for you to gain the spellbooks you need to study the High Magick," Kellen said, "so obviously it wants you to be a High Mage. And that means you will find a way to power your spells, when the time comes."
Cilarnen regarded him as if he'd lost his wits. "'The Wild Magic has arranged,'" he quoted. "The Wild Magic didn't arrange anything. Kindolhinadetil made the Wildmages a gift of books from his library."
"Which only you can use," Kellen pointed out. "And which are exactly the books you need. That's how the Wild Magic works."
Cilarnen shook his head, plainly unconvinced.
"Have you eaten?" Kellen asked, changing the subject. "Because I haven't, and I'm hungry." Without waiting for an answer, he got to his feet and headed for the kitchen.
The kitchen staff knew him by sight; he'd barely opened his mouth before he was handed a heavily-laden tray. Hot cider, hot stew, several stuffed buns, and a large mug of Winter Spice tea as well. He took the tray back to the table.
Cilarnen was being as stubborn as… as an Elf. Why wouldn't he admit what was so obvious to Kellen that the books were here because the Wild Magic willed it so? The Elves of Ysterialpoerin understood humans about as well as a cat understood maths; it was highly unlikely (in Kellen's opinion) that Ysterialpoerin's Viceroy would have simply decided to empty his library of every book Cilarnen would find useful and hand them over without the Wild Magic being involved somehow.
And it wasn't as if Cilarnen had never seen the Wild Magic at work. He'd seen Wirance casting spells at Stonehearth. He'd been part of the Spell of Kindolhinadetil's Mirror. He knew it was real.
But it functions very differently from the High Magick he's used to, Kellen reminded himself. The High Magick is mechanical, like like a machine. The Wild Magic is alive; we speak to it, and it speaks to and through us. You remember when the Books came to you, and you felt the difference for the first time. But Cilarnen is not called to the Wild Magic. He cannot feel what a Wildmage feels.
He set the tray down on the table.
"Do you really think your the Wild Magic arranged for me to have these books?" Cilarnen asked doubtfully.
"Yes, I do," Kellen said honestly, picking up a bun and biting into it.
"I think you're mad," Cilarnen said simply. "A magic that thinks that wants things… " He took a deep breath. "But I know there is a Wild Magic. And you haven't been wrong so far. And the books are here, and they're what I need. I suppose it doesn't matter what I believe about how they got here. Now all I have to do is study them. And learn in a few sennights what ought to take me years."
There was a grim note in his voice, and that made Kellen take a moment to think about what Cilarnen was intending to do.
The study of the High Magick was dangerous and fraught with peril. All of his Mage-teachers had said that so often and in so many different ways that
Kellen had simply started ignoring it years before he'd been Banished. His own lessons had been merely boring, not particularly hazardous.
Of course, he'd never gotten beyond Student Apprentice work.
The look he must have had on his face made Cilarnen laugh out loud.
"Oh, Kellen, if you tell me it will be dangerous I promise I will get Kardus to throw you into the nearest snowbank! I am not planning to practice in the middle of the camp, I promise you I think that might only do The Enemy's work for him! No, when the time comes I will find a place that is safely out of the way I think that ice-house your Elven Mage built for your working will do, as I am sure it is not going to melt any time soon. And wards are simple, and can be built up over several days.
"But there are things I must know, especially now that we know that Anigrel is Their agent. He meant me to escape my Banishing alive, and with my Magegift intact. Why?"
"I don't know," Kellen said slowly. It was a puzzle that needed more thought than any of them had been able to devote to it. "You aren't Tainted in any way. Shalkan Idalia Vestakia they all agree on that. And I would trust any one of them with my life. With all our lives."
"But there are other ways of tampering with a mind as you well know," Cilarnen answered bleakly. He would not meet Kellen's eyes. They were both thinking of Magecraft that owed nothing to Demontaint the High Mage's ability to remove memories, and even implant false ones, seamlessly and undetectable It had been done to Kellen when he was a child, to erase his memories of his sister.
If Anigrel had done it to Cilarnen with the High Magick there was no way for either of them to know. Wild Magic would not detect the alteration.
"I know my Magegift was suppressed, until seeing that Thing at Stonehearth made it come back. I want to know why and what else might have been done to me. And I will discover a way to be of some use to you all without taking that which can only be freely given. I swear it by the Eternal Light," Cilarnen vowed.
"If anyone can in or out of Armethalieh it's you," Kellen said.
He was sure of that Cilarnen had abandoned none of the good things about Armethalieh, but somehow he seemed able to cast off much of what was hidebound and bad. If anyone could manage to look at the High Magick in a new way, and find some way to use it, even here, it was Cilarnen Volpiril.
"Now eat something." Kellen pushed one of the stuffed buns across the table.
* * * * *
AFTER they'd both eaten Kellen bullied Cilarnen into making a proper meal he helped the young High Mage catty his library to his new quarters.