Flux

squinting. She was an average height for a woman and a bit on the thin side. Her nose was as sharp as a bird’s beak and her mouth was a colorless line. Instead of the local garb, she wore blood-red trousers that belled out from her waist and then came in tightly at her ankles, and a loose white blouse with garishly colored embroidered flowers. Her feet were bare but several delicate metal chains tinkled at her wrists and ankles.
    She hardly spared a glance for Miner, but she inspected Ennek as closely as he inspected her. She didn’t look especially impressed, but after a long moment she shrugged and motioned them inside. She bolted the door behind them.
    The wizard had told Miner she had no use for money, and perhaps that was true. Certainly the large room they entered was far from luxurious. A few colorful scrolls were hung on the walls, but Miner had the impression that they served a practical purpose, rather than being decorative: they contained charts and maps and illustrations of night skies. Several rough tables were piled with crocks and jars and boxes, and the entire place had a strange, herbal scent that tickled Miner’s nose. There were also rolled parchments scattered here and there and a shelf stuffed full of books.
    Ennek shuddered visibly and Miner suspected that this room reminded him of Thelius’s laboratory, where he’d been forced to spend so many long hours.
    “It took you too long to get here,” the woman said. Miner wasn’t certain whether she had a naturally breathy voice or if that was her accent.
    “We needed time to recover. We had a difficult journey to this land.”
    “I know this. But your slave made me a promise.”
    “He’s not my slave!” Ennek responded angrily.
    She shrugged, unconcerned. “Your boy, then.” She somehow made this sound shameful. “He is answerable to you and he gave me his word. That binds you as well.”
    “He had no choice.”
    “Perhaps not. But I saved your life. His as well, no doubt. I expect recompense.”
    Miner could see Ennek’s jaw working. “What is it you want?”
    She smiled in a predatory way. “Let us discuss the matter.”
    She led them up a set of steep stairs to a room that was as large as the one below but considerably airier, with several large, glassless windows set into the walls. There was a thick mattress in one corner of the room with a small table and a washbasin beside it. A long black spyglass was set up in front of one of the windows, and a variety of mysterious and unsettling objects were strung from the ceiling: strange assemblies of bones and feathers, scraps of folded colored papers, transparent stones that broke the shafts of light apart into slowly spinning rainbows. There were also several large embroidered cushions set around a low table, and it was to these that she directed them. She sat cross-legged on one of the cushions; after a brief pause, Ennek followed suit and then Miner, who had to fold his long legs tightly. She didn’t offer them any refreshments.
    “What is your name?” she demanded.
    “Ennek. And this is Miner.”
    She still didn’t bother looking at Miner. “I am Akilina. And from where have you traveled, Ennek?”
    He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Far away.”
    She lifted one thick eyebrow. “Is your presence no longer welcome in your homeland?”
    “Miner and I wanted to see the world.”
    She laughed; it was a harsh sound, like a raven’s cackle. “A wizard need not ever leave her home in order to see the world. I have not left this village in many years, yet I see all.”
    “I can’t ride about in birds’ heads,” Ennek answered, a trifle sullenly.
    “This is not such a difficult thing, not even for one whose element is water. It is simply a matter of learning the proper incantations. My mentor ruled fire instead of air, but she could fly with birds. Not as well as I, of course, but passably well nonetheless.”
    “I prefer to see the world through my own eyes.”
    “Then you are foolish. To travel outside one’s own demesne makes one vulnerable. As, perhaps, your recent experiences have taught you. But I think you had no choice but to leave your home. It had something to do with this slave, yes?”
    “He is not my slave!” Ennek sounded so furious that Miner put a calming hand on his knee. It didn’t matter to him what Akilina called him.
    “But he wears a collar. You have covered it with that scarf, but I saw it. I know what he is.”
    Miner might not