Sianim 02 - Wolfsbane

done.”
    “Ridane says that the web is spun, and one person at Lambshold will die no matter what you do.”
    Aralorn had not dealt with gods much, but she was a firm believer in writing her own future. She was not about to let Ridane decide the fate of her family and friends. “I’ll do what I can. Thank you, Tilda. You’ve helped a great deal.”

    Nevyn, she thought as she mounted Sheen. It is Nevyn.
    The stallion snorted and sidled and generally kept her attention until they were well on their way back to Lambshold. As she’d listened to Gerem’s story, she had known it wasn’t Geoffrey. If Geoffrey had known that there was a mage of Gerem’s potential, untrained, at Lambshold, he would have moved mountains to get to him—untrained mages gave him so much more power than trained mages. So Geoffrey hadn’t known about Gerem before he died. And, as a dead man seeking revenge, he would not have used Gerem to do his work—he’d have used Anasel. Surely a doddering old man who had been a great mage would have been a better target. But Nevyn avoided Anasel as he avoided most of the mageborn if he could. If he needed two other mages to help him, it would be Kisrah and Gerem. But Nevyn would never hurt her father.
    One of Aralorn’s greatest talents as a spy, other than being able to turn into a mouse, was her ability to take a few bits of knowledge and knit them into a whole story.
    Kisrah told her that Nevyn was a dreamwalker.
    Kisrah had long been a favorite of the ae’Magi’s and spent a lot of time at the ae’Magi’s castle.
    Nevyn, who’d already suffered from being a mageborn Darranian, had been first apprenticed to a wizard who had abused him. That wizard, though powerful, had a bad enough reputation that the ae’Magi had never associated with him willingly.
    Those were the facts she had. It was enough for an experienced storyteller to work out the probabilities.
    She saw in her head that boy, wary and nervous, taken by his new master to the ae’Magi’s castle. Abused children try to protect themselves any way they can. They hide, they try to please their abuser, they use their magic. Santik had not been a dreamwalker; certainly his apprentice would have used his talent to spy upon him to try to stay safe. Perhaps dreamwalking to watch his master had already been a habit when he’d gone into Kisrah’s care.
    Kisrah would certainly have taken his new apprentice to the ae’Magi to see if Geoffrey had suggestions on how to handle the boy. Like Kisrah himself, Nevyn had had the promise of power, and Geoffrey would never have let such a wizard in his presence without ensuring that he, too, was caught up in the charisma spell. Maybe Nevyn had a ring like Kisrah’s or some other bit of jewelry, given to him by the ae’Magi.
    She wondered how long it had been before Nevyn, dreamwalking, had first spied upon the ae’Magi. Because once he had been abused, he certainly would have had trouble believing in the goodness of those assigned to his care. Spying on Kisrah would have caused him no harm. But the ae’Magi . . . Even Kisrah, an adult, had been torn by the discrepancy between how he felt about Geoffrey because of the charisma spell and what he witnessed at the ae’Magi’s castle. And Kisrah hadn’t seen half of it. Wolf had—and Aralorn would have bet that Nevyn had as well.
    Ah, gods, she thought. The poor boy.
    Sheen guided himself for a bit while she dropped her reins to wipe at her eyes. He shook his head when she drew the reins taut again.
    That first time, she thought, how old was Nevyn the first time? What did he see?
    She’d seen Geoffrey kill children, had seen a man she knew in the face of a shambling Uriah, had seen a woman who turned into a flesh-eating thing—and she’d only been around the last ae’Magi for weeks, not years. Wolf had experienced worse—and so, she was certain, had Nevyn. All the while he’d been defenseless, caught up by the ae’Magi’s spell that bound him to think that the Archmage was the best, most wonderful of good men.
    Each thread of the story flowed worse than the last.
    Spying on the ae’Magi would have allowed Nevyn access to black magic. Geoffrey was a dreamwalker, too. Had he known that Nevyn was spying?
    Of course he had, she thought. How could he not? Geoffrey had been as powerful as only a black mage who was also the Archmage could be. Had he compared them, Wolf and Nevyn, as he taught them both things children should never have to