Luck in the Shadows

thing was attacking me, or rather letting me attack it and sidestepping me. Alec must have come in during all that and I was too crazed to realize. Gods, I could just as easily have killed him—"
    "It was magic, dear boy, evil magic,"
    Nysander said softly.
    Seregil shivered and ran a hand back through his hair.
    "After I collapsed, I kept dreaming I was on a barren plain. I couldn't move except to turn and there was only the wind and grey grass. I was alone. I thought at first that I was dead."
    Alec watched him with rising concern. Seregil was whiter than ever, and his breathing was and labored, as if it took all his strength to keep speaking. Alec glanced anxiously at Nysander, but the wizard's attention was fixed on Seregil.
    "After a while, there was someone else there," Seregil said, eyes squeezed tightly shut, one hand raised to his face as if to ward off a blow.
    "I can't remember who, just—gold. And eyes, something about eyes—" His chest was heaving now and Alec placed a hand on his shoulder.
    "Blue," Seregil gasped, "something so blue— " With a hollow groan, he fainted back onto the pillow.
    "Seregil! Seregil, can you hear me?" cried Nysander, feeling for the pulse at his throat.
    "What's happening?" cried Alec.
    "I am not certain. A vision of some sort, perhaps, or some overwhelming memory. Fetch a cloth, and the water pitcher."
    Seregil's eyes fluttered open again as Alec bathed his temples with a cool cloth.
    "You must not try to go on," Nysander warned, stroking Seregil's brow. "You were speaking gibberish just now, as if something was disordering your thoughts even as you tried to voice them."
    "Could it have been that black creature again, here!" asked Alec.
    "I would have sensed such a presence," Nysander assured him. "No, it was as if the memories themselves induced some mental confusion. How very interesting. Can you speak now. dear boy?"
    "Yes," Seregil rasped, passing a hand over his eyes.
    "Rest, then, and think no more of these things for now. I have heard enough." Rising, Nysander went to the door.
    "Well I haven't!" Seregil struggled up on one elbow. "Not nearly enough! What's happening to me?"
    Alec thought he caught a look of pain on Nysander's face.
    "Trust me in this, dear boy," the wizard said. "I must meditate on what we have learned so far. Rest and heal. Shall I send Wethis for some food?"
    Alec braced for another outburst, but Seregil merely looked away, shaking his head. He busied himself with the fire for a moment after Nysander had gone, then pulled the chair up beside the bed. "That black creature you fought with," he began, fidgeting with the hem of one sleeve. "It really was there in the cart, wasn't it? And in the room with us at the inn. It was real." Seregil shivered, staring past him at the fire. "Real enough for me. I think you saved both our lives when you yanked that bit of wood from my neck."
    "But that was an accident! What if I hadn't?"
    Seregil looked up at him for a moment, then shrugged. "But you did, and here we are, safe and sound. Luck in the shadows, Alec; you don't question it, you just give thanks and pray it doesn't run out!"
    In the deepest hours of the night, Nysander lifted the wooden disk from its container. The chamber around him vibrated with the thickly woven spells he had invoked in preparation for the examination. Turning the disk this way and that with a pair of forceps, he tried to gauge the quiescent power of the thing. Despite its ordinary appearance, he could feel the energy emanating from it as clearly as waves lapping against his skin.
    Heart heavy with foreboding, he sealed the thing away again and pocketed it, then set off for the vaults beneath the Orлska House to take his nightly constitutional.

18 Around the Ring
    Alec watched in dismay, if not surprise, as Seregil struggled out of bed the next morning.
    "Valerius wouldn't like this."
    "Then it's lucky for us he's not here, eh?" Seregil winked, hoping the boy didn't notice how wobbly his legs still were. "Besides, there's nothing more beneficial than a good bath. Just let me lean on you a bit and I'll be fine."
    With Alec's grudging assistance, Seregil worked his way slowly down to the baths without mishap.
    Winded but triumphant, he let a bath servant assist him into his tub while Alec stationed himself on a nearby bench.
    "Illior's Light, but it's wonderful to be back in a civilized city!" Seregil chortled, immersing himself up to the chin in the steaming water.
    "I've never