Luck in the Shadows

side of the rise below the village.
    Animals had been at them for days, and what remained was frozen into the mud. Two were adults, a man and a woman. From the way they lay, it looked like they'd been cut down running. The man's head had been knocked twenty feet away and the woman was hacked almost in two at the waist. A young lad lay half in the water at the base of the hill, with an arrow still in his back.
    "The signs were easy enough to read. Dozens of tracks led to a depression in the earth halfway down the rise; only a few came back out to cross over them. By the manner that the dirt had been thrown around, I'd say it was a wizard's doing. Going down for a closer look, I suddenly sank into the ground right up to my hip. When I went to wiggle loose, I realized that my foot was in open space down there.
    "There was a hollow place in the hill, like a barrow.
    Digging down, I found a little chamber in the hillside, built low and shored up with timbers."
    Micum paused and took another long sip of wine before continuing. "The whole village had been killed and carried in there. The stench was fearsome; I wonder you don't smell it on me still. The torch burned blue when I stuck it through to see. There were bodies sprawled out everywhere—" Meeting Seregil's level grey gaze, he shook his head. "We've seen some hard things, you and I, but by Sakor, nothing like this. Some they'd just killed, others they'd hacked open, pulling their ribs back until the poor bastards looked as if they'd grown wings. Cut up their insides, too.
    "There was a big flat stone in the center of the chamber, like a table. They must have done their butchery on that—it was all black with blood. A little girl and an old man were still laid out there, their faces gone green. I counted twenty-three in all, plus the three above. Must've been the whole damn village."
    Micum sighed heavily, kneading his eyelids. "The strange thing, though, was that I found older bones beneath the bodies."
    Nysander had been staring impassively into the fire all this while. Without shifting his gaze, he asked, "Were you able to examine the stone?"
    "Yes, and I found this." Micum drew a bit of rotted leather from a pouch at his belt and showed them the remains of a small bag.
    Nysander took the scraps and examined them closely. Then, without comment, he cast them into the fire.
    Micum was too surprised to react immediately, but Seregil leapt up and tried to rake them out with a poker.
    "Let it be!" Nysander ordered sharply.
    "This is to do with the disk, isn't it?" Seregil demanded angrily, still grasping the poker.
    Micum felt a palpable thickening of the atmosphere of the room as Nysander and Seregil faced off.
    Judging by Alec's startled expression, the boy was feeling it, too. The wizard betrayed no outward sign of anger, but the lamps went dim and the warmth of the fire failed.
    "I have told you all I can in the matter." Though Nysander spoke quietly, his voice seemed to
    reverberate like a thunderclap in the deadened air. "I tell you again that the time is not come when you may know."
    Seregil tossed the poker down on the stone hearth with a snarl of disgust. "How many years have I kept your secrets?" he hissed through clenched teeth.
    "All the intrigues and dirty jobs. Now this touches my own life—Micum's, Alec's—and you won't say a word? Oaths be damned, Nysander! If I'm not worthy of your trust, then I'm not worthy of your roof. I'm going to the Cockerel comtd!" And with a final furious glare, he slammed out of the room.
    "What the hell was that all about?" Micum demanded as he and Alec rose to follow.
    Nysander motioned them back to their chairs. "Give him time to calm down. This situation is tremendously difficult for all of you, I realize, but perhaps especially so for him. Curiosity alone will drive him half mad, not to mention his wounded sense of honor."
    "Do you mean to say you know something about that business in the Fens but you're not telling us?" asked Micum, none too happy himself.
    "Please, Micum, I need your cool head to govern Seregil just now. Should the need for action arise, be assured that I will look to the two of you—" He paused, catching sight of Alec sitting stiff and silent in his chair. "Pardon me, dear boy-to the three of you to deal with it. In the meantime, do you think you can prevent him from charging off in a fury? There is another matter I must discuss with him before he leaves the Orлska."
    Micum scowled. "It had better