LITMIR.BIZ

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Ryana.’ He shook his head. ‘Wonderful creatures. Some men count them gods, I have been told. I would like to talk to one.’

      Pug said, ‘Ryana is young, just having come to intelligence after years of living as a wild creature, in the fashion of her race; she is barely able to understand her own nature or her new power. It’s better if we limit her contact with humans for a while.’

      Nakor shrugged. ‘If you say. I have seen her. That is enough, perhaps.’

      Pug smiled. ‘You are a rare man.’

      Nakor shrugged again. ‘I choose not to become upset about things I have no control over.’

      ‘Why the visit, Nakor?’

      The man’s usually grinning visage took on a somber expression. ‘Two reasons. I wished to meet you, for it was your words that brought me to Stardock.’

      ‘My words?’

      ‘Once you told a man named James that should he meet someone like me, he should say, “There is no magic.”’ Pug nodded. ‘So when he said this thing to me, I went to Stardock, to find you. You were gone, but I stayed there awhile. I found many serious men who did not understand that magic is only tricks.’

      Pug found himself grinning. ‘I’ve heard you were a bit of a shock to Watum and Korsh.’

      Nakor’s grin returned to match Pug’s. ‘They are fussy men, who take their school much too seriously. I moved among the students and recruited many to my point of view. They call themselves the Blue Riders in my honor and are united to resist the insular notions of those two old ladies you left in charge.’

      Pug laughed. ‘The brothers Korsh and Watum were my most apt students. I don’t think they’d appreciate your calling them old ladies.’

      Nakor said, ‘They didn’t. But they act like them. “Don’t tell this; don’t share that.” They just don’t understand that there is no magic’

      Pug sighed. ‘When I looked at what ten years of work had brought forth at Stardock, I saw a repeat of the past, another Assembly of Great Ones, such as I knew upon the world of Kelewan: a band of men pledged to nothing but their own power and greatness, at the expense of others.’

      Nakor nodded. ‘They like being mysterious and pretending they’re important.’

      Pug laughed. ‘Oh, had you visited me upon Kelewan, so many years past, you would have said worse about me.’

      I’ve met some of your Great Ones,’ answered Nakor. ‘The rift gate still operates, and we still trade with the Empire. Tsurani goods come through and we send back metals. The Mistress of the Empire is a shrewd negotiator, and everyone stays happy on both sides. From time to time a Tsurani Great One visits. And some alien magicians from Chakahar. Did you not know?’

      Pug shook his head and sighed. ‘If cho-ja magicians from Chakahar are at Stardock, then the Assembly’s control over the Empire has been ended.’ His eyes misted over and he said, ‘There are things I thought I would never see in my days, Nakor. The end of that tradition was foremost among them – much of what gave the Assembly its power was based on fear and lies: lies about magicians, lies about the Empire, and lies about those outside the Empire’s borders.’

      Nakor seemed to understand Pug’s words. ‘Lies can live a long time. But not forever. You should return and visit.’

      Pug shook his head, not certain if the little man meant Kelewan or Stardock. ‘For nearly nine years I have put my past behind me. My children now look of an age with me, and soon will look older. I’ve seen my wife die, and my teachers. Old friends on two worlds have traveled into death’s hall. I have no wish to watch my children grow old.’ Pug stood and paced a bit. ‘I do not know if I was wise, Nakor, only that I feared that more than anything.’

      Nakor nodded. ‘We are alike, in some ways.’

      Pug turned and stared at the little man. ‘In what ways?’

      Nakor grinned. ‘I have lived three times the normal span of a man. My birth was recorded in the census of Kesh in the time of the Emperor Sajanjaro, great-grandfather of the wife of Emperor Diiagái. I saw the Empress, his wife’s mother, nine years ago. She was an old woman who had ruled for more than forty years. I remember when she was a baby, and I was then as you see me now.’ Nakor sighed. ‘I have never been a man to trust others, perhaps because of my trade.’ He produced a deck of cards seemingly out of nowhere and fanned it with one hand; then, with a flick of his wrist, the cards vanished. ‘But I understand what you say. No one I knew as a child lives today.’

      Pug sat again on the fountain and asked, ‘Why else have you come?’

      Nakor said, ‘I see things. I do not know how, but there are moments when I know. Nicholas is upon a voyage that will take him far beyond Crydee. And there is to be much danger in the boy’s future.’

      Pug was silent for a long time, thinking about what the small man had said. Finally he said, ‘What must I do to help?’

      Nakor shook his head. ‘I am not a wise man by nature. I have been called a frivolous man – by Watum and Korsh, and by Ghuda most recently.’ Pug smiled at that. ‘I do not understand my abilities, sometimes.’ He sighed. ‘You are a man of great gifts and attainments, by all accounts. You live among creatures of wonder and do not think it strange. I saw the work you left behind at Stardock, and it is impressive. For me to advise you is presumptuous.’

      ‘Presumptuous or not, advise.’

      Nakor bit his lower lip as he thought. ‘I think the boy is a nexus.’ Waving his hand in a vague circle, he said, ‘Dark forces move and they will be drawn to him. Nothing we do can change this; we must be ready to aid him.’

      Pug was silent for a long time. At last he said, ‘Nearly thirty years ago, Nicholas’s father was such a nexus, for his death would have been a victory for dark forces.’

      ‘The serpent people.’

      Pug looked astonished at the remark.

      Nakor shrugged. ‘I heard of the Battle of Sethanon long after it was over. But there was one rumor that I found interesting, that the leader of those invading your Kingdom had a Pantathian mystic as an adviser.’

      ‘You know of the Pantathians?’

      ‘I have run across the serpent priests before,’ Nakor said with a shrug. ‘I assume that whatever your dark elves of the north may have thought, it was the Pantathians who were behind the entire mess, but beyond that I don’t understand much of what occurred.’

      Pug said, ‘You would be even more surprising than you are if you had understood, Nakor.’ He nodded. ‘Very well. I shall help Nicholas.’

      Nakor rose. ‘We should go to bed. You would like us to leave tomorrow.’

      Pug smiled. ‘You I would like to stay. I think you could be a valuable addition to our community, but I understand what it is to be drawn to one’s fate.’

      Nakor’s expression darkened, and he looked as serious as Pug had seen him since meeting him. ‘Of this company, five shall cross the waters, with four more we have yet to meet.’ His eyes grew unfocused as if seeing something distant. ‘Nine shall depart, and some shall not return.’

      Pug looked worried. ‘Do you know who?’

      Nakor said, ‘I am one of the nine. No man may know his own fate.’

      Pug said, ‘You never met Macros the Black.’

      Nakor grinned, and suddenly the mood was lighter again. ‘I did once, but that is a long story.’

      Pug stood. ‘We must return to my guests. I would like to hear that tale sometime.’

      ‘What of the boy?’ asked Nakor.

      Pug said, ‘For the reasons I have just given you, I am not pleased with the prospect of becoming involved with any

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