The Unwelcome Warlock by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Author:Lawrence Watt-Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Ethshar, fantasy, sword and sorcery, magic, terry pratchett
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2012-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sterren stepped into Warlock House and found half a dozen strangers sitting in the parlor in their nightclothes. They seemed to be deep in discussion, so he decided not to interrupt them, and instead turned right, into the grand dining room. It was empty, but he could hear noise from the kitchen, so he made his way there and found the little redhead — Rudhira, that was it — shelling peas.

“Hello,” he said.

She nodded a silent acknowledgment as she popped open the next pod.

“Who are those people in the parlor?”

She looked up. “Warlocks,” she said. “Or former warlocks, anyway.”

“Why are they here?”

She cocked her head. “You’re asking why warlocks would come to Warlock House?”

Sterren felt momentarily foolish. “Well — yes,” he said.

She set down the bowl of peas and turned to face him. “Because they have nowhere else to go. Most of them were Called on the Night of Madness, and have no homes or families left after thirty-four years. Some were Called later, but still have no homes. So they came here.”

“You let them all in?”

“Hanner did. It’s his house. He told them they could stay until they find places.”

“Stay?”

“He doesn’t want them to have to go to the Hundred-Foot Field.”

Sterren pursed his lips, then asked, “What does the Great Vond think of this?”

“He isn’t back yet.”

“I doubt he’ll approve.”

“You would know better than I.”

“What do you think of it?”

She turned up a palm. “I am here because I had nowhere else to go, and Hanner took me in. How can I object when he offers others the same?”

“Well, you… Aren’t you a friend of his, while they’re strangers?”

“We knew each other for a few days, more than thirty years ago. I have no special claim on his affections.”

Sterren’s eyes narrowed. “I had thought there was rather more than that between you.”

“No,” she said flatly.

Sterren did not argue, but something about her attitude had him wondering whether perhaps she would have preferred there to be more.

“Where is Hanner?” he asked.

“He’s out looking for a wizard he knew seventeen years ago, to find something he left in the wizard’s shop.”

“To find what, exactly?”

“He did not see fit to tell me that.”

“Did you ask?”

She shook her head.

“Why not?”

She glared at him. “I told you,” she said. “I am here on Lord Hanner’s sufferance. I am not in a position to make any demands, for information or anything else.”

Sterren noticed the glare, and the title. “He brought you here, didn’t he? Did you beg him to save you, or did he volunteer?”

“That doesn’t matter,” she said. “I am still a guest.”

There was clearly something going on here between Rudhira and Hanner that Sterren didn’t entirely understand, but it wasn’t any of his business — at least, not unless it upset Vond. Sterren did not pry further.

This did complicate his own plans, though. He had just spent an hour talking to Emmis of Shiphaven, the overlord’s customs inspector responsible for overseeing all traffic between the Vondish Empire and Ethshar of the Spices.

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