Nature's Servant (6 page)

Taurnil pushed her back again. “You’re what?” he squeaked. “But we’re not married.”

“Why does that matter?” Lydia asked, her pupils wide. “For gypsies this comes first, and marriage after. I’m at the right age Taurnil, and I want it to be you.” She pulled him towards her once again.

“No!” Taurnil said, firmly this time. “It’s not right, I can’t.”

Lydia stiffened, her eyes widening even further, but this time in anger. “If I’m not good enough you can leave,” she said.

“Lydia, of course you’re good enough,” he pleaded, placing a hand on her arm, but she pulled away.

“Leave!” she said fiercely, rising swiftly from the bed.

Taurnil stayed where he was, dumbfounded. “But Lydia,” he said feebly.

She glared at him. “I said, LEAVE! GET OUT!” she shouted, pointing a trembling finger at the door. A glass lifted from the desk and floated menacingly above her head.

Taurnil didn’t know what to do. He’d never seen her like this, and he instinctively knew he had no chance of making things any better. Besides, he was terrified! He stood up slowly and backed towards the door.

“I’ll come back later when you’ve calmed down,” he said, but that seemed to be the wrong thing to say too. Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared. “Right I’m going,” he said, not giving her another chance to shout at him. He yanked the door open and stepped out as quickly as he could. Something collided with it as he pulled it shut behind him, and he heard the sound of smashing glass. Taurnil turned tail and fled as fast as he could.

…

Having escaped Lydia, he went looking for Gaspi. He asked anyone he could find, and eventually someone knew where his room was, and showed him the way. His heart was in his mouth when he realised how close they were to Lydia’s room. This was definitely not safe territory. He knocked loudly, and when Gaspi answered, he practically dragged him to the Rest, where he explained what had happened over a beer. Gaspi sat open-mouthed for the entire story.

“So I got out of there and legged it,” Taurnil finished, running a hand down his face. He sat hunched over the table, staring at his drink with a furrowed brow. He looked up with pleading eyes. “What should I do?” he asked.

Gaspi barked out a laugh. “Don’t ask me!” he said, holding up both palms as if to ward off the question.

“So you’ve not had this problem with Emmy?” Taurnil asked.

“Good grief no!” Gaspi answered. “We think like you do mate. I mean, sometimes when we’re kissing…” He trailed off, flushing bright red. “But no,” he recovered. “I don’t think it’s crossed either of our minds. I’ve always just assumed you wait till you’re married.”

Taurnil frowned. “Well apparently gypsies don’t think that way,” he said.

There was a long pause. Gaspi cleared his throat.
“So, what are you going to…do?” he asked meaningfully.

“Do?” Taurnil asked, and then he realised what Gaspi was implying. “Well I’
m not going to do that!”

“Are you sure mate?” Gaspi asked. “I mean, I don’
t get a choice about this. Emmy will want to be married first, that’s for sure. But if Lydia wants to, er…you know, well maybe you shouldn’t argue.”

Taurnil
’s expression was incredulous. “No way!” he insisted. “We should be married first, and we’re too young for that!” He took a big swallow of his drink, spilling some over the rim of the glass and down his shirt. “Damn!” he cursed, rubbing at the wet patch with the back of his hand. He looked up at Gaspi. “Why did she have to go and complicate things?” he implored. “What was wrong with things the way they were?”

“I really don’
t know what to say mate,” Gaspi answered. “This is out of my league.”  Taurnil grumbled incoherently into his pint. “You’d better make up as soon as you can though,” Gaspi added. “You know what girls are like if you leave stuff lingering.”

Taurnil didn
’t look very confident. “You should have seen her Gasp. She was furious!”

“Let her sleep on it then, but I reckon you should talk about it tomorrow,” Gaspi responded.

“You’re probably right,” Taurnil said moodily, and slumped back in his chair.

“Another beer?” Gaspi asked, rising to go to the bar.

“Sure.”

Gaspi stood at the reception desk, waiting to speak to Dorys. It was time for his appointment with Hephistole. He hadn
’t seen the chancellor since getting back from Aemon’s Reach, and he couldn’t wait to find out what had been happening while he was away. How many weapons had been enchanted? Had they made anything really exciting? Had there been any news of Sestin since the battle?

“
Yes?” Dorys asked officiously.

“
I’m here to see Hephistole,” he said.

“
Do you have an appointment?” she asked, eyeing him up and down with a dubious expression.

“
Yes,” he answered, taken aback by what seemed to be rudeness.

“
Name?” she asked, peering at him through thick spectacles.

“
Gaspi,” he answered.

She pulled a sheaf of parchment towards her and peered at it suspiciously for long moments.

“Twelfth plinth; the command is “Observatory”,” she said eventually, jabbing her quill in the appropriate direction.

“
Er…thanks,” he answered, walking towards the plinth. He felt a surge of annoyance at her manner, but he shook it off as he stepped onto the transporter. He was about to see Heppy again, and there were much more important things to be thinking about.

“
Observatory,” he said, and disappeared.

When he came to his senses, he was standing on the plinth in the Observatory. Hephistole stood up, grinning from ear to ear.

“Gaspi!” he enthused, walking around the desk and approaching him with long strides, hand extended. Gaspi automatically offered his hand in return, staring dumbfounded at the chancellor’s outrageous appearance as his hand was mercilessly pumped. A smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth as he tried to contain himself, but in the end he gave up and burst out laughing. Hephistole was dressed in lustrous robes of midnight blue, heavily embroidered with shining silver thread. His long, dark hair had been tied into thick locks that hung around his head like ropes, each of which was braided with silver and blue thread to match lustrous robe. He wore an extravagant necklace of blue river stones strung together with silver wire.

Hephistole glanced down at his robes, and looked up, smiling.
“You like?” he asked with a wink, spreading his arms wide to give Gaspi a full view of his magnificence.

“
They’re very you,” Gaspi responded between chuckles.

“
Ha! Well said,” Heppy responded. “Take a seat,” he urged, leading Gaspi across the office to a small cluster of comfortable chairs, arranged around a small side table.

“It’
s good to see you,” Hephistole said once they were seated, his green eyes twinkling with fantastical energy.

“It’s good to see you too,” Gaspi responded sincerely.

Hephistole sprang up from his seat and busied himself making them some tea.
“So how was your summer?” he asked over his shoulder.

Gaspi harrumphed.

“Not so good then?”

Gaspi told him all about it as the tea was being prepared. Hephistole carefully carried the ornate silver tea set across the room on a matching tray, and lowered it gently to the table.

“Well, all things considered, I imagine you’re glad to be back,” he said, taking his seat.

“Definitely!
So what’s been happening while I’ve been away?” Gaspi asked.

Hephistole eyed him knowingly.
“You mean have we heard anything about Sestin?”

“Yeah, and how many enchanted weapons do we have now? Did you make anything good?” Gaspi asked.

“One thing at a time!” Hephistole admonished with mock sternness. “We’ve enchanted about thirty weapons,” he said more seriously, “and although none of them are as powerful as the staff you made for Taurnil in terms of pure power, we have laid some sophisticated enchantments on them that may prove useful.”

Gaspi didn
’t think he could get any more curious. “What sophisticated enchantments?” he asked, hungry for information.

“All in good time Gaspi,” Hephistole answered infuriatingly. “If we start down that line today we’
ll never talk about what I wanted to see you for.”

Gaspi swallowed his curiosity with some difficulty.
“What did you want to see me for?” he asked, unaware until that moment that Hephistole had any motive for seeing him beyond letting him know how the summer had gone.

“Hold your horses!” Hephistole said, laughing. “Let me answer your first question!” Gaspi clamped his mouth shut, determined not to interrupt again. “You asked about Sestin,” the chancellor continued. “The short version is that we’
ve heard nothing. We suspect that it’s as we surmised after the battle; he has been badly set back by the loss of his demonic forces, and is recovering somewhere.”

Gaspi nodded, relieved that no other dreadful things had happened while he
’d been away. “Do people know that Shirukai Sestin was behind the attacks last year?” he asked, unsure how widely that knowledge had spread,

“I’
ve given a lot of thought to how much people need to know,” Hephistole mused, “and have come to the conclusion that it’s better to know what you are facing than be left in the dark. Rumours abound of course, but I intend to set the record straight. In the next few days, a letter will be sent to all students’ pigeon holes, and news will be circulated throughout the city. Anyone with further questions will be invited to contact the college for more information. Voltan is concerned it might create a panic, but my hope is that people will be reassured by the knowledge that Sestin has suffered a major defeat, and is unlikely to attack again soon.”

“But even if it goes as I hope, and the good citizenry of Helioport’s fears are stilled,
we
must not afford ourselves the same luxury!” Hephistole insisted, throwing him a sharp glance. “Wherever he is, he’ll already be plotting his next move. It won’t be too long before he finds another way to unfold his dark plans, whatever they may be. We have identified several possible locations for his hideout, and have sent out teams of magicians to scout those areas, looking for signs of the renegade. No luck so far, but we’ll keep on searching. We certainly don’t want to be caught napping when we could be doing something!”

Gaspi nodded, knowing Hephistole was only speaking the truth.

“On a lighter note,” he said more briskly, “I wanted to talk to you about what you will be studying in the next few months.”

“I thought you let people choose what they want to study once they leave the first year,” Gaspi said, confused.

“Normally we do, yes, but in your case I have a suggestion you may wish to consider,” Hephistole said. “You don’t have to do it, but I think you might like it.”

“Okay,” Gaspi said, curious to hear what he had in mind.

“Sestin shows a disturbing interest in summoning and controlling spirits,” Hephistole explained. “That is forbidden to us, of course, as it is a dark and dangerous practice, but there is no reason we can’t see if we could harness the power of spirits voluntarily.”

“What?” Gaspi asked, horrified. “Ask demons for help? Like the dJin, or the ones that attacked the college? I really don’
t think they’d want to!”

“No not demons!” Hephistole answered emphatically. “
I’m referring to the benign spirits that inhabit this world. Elemental spirits. You may have covered them in class last year.”

Gaspi dimly remembered Professor Worrick talking about elementals once.
“Oh yeah. Professor Worrick said they live in the wild, and that some kind of magic-users live with them.”

“Druids,” Hephistole said. “We know very little about them, or about the practice of magic that enables them to commune with spirits.  We should never have allowed such a gulf to grow between the different traditions of magic, but now we have an opportunity to do something about it.” He turned his deep green eyes on Gaspi, excitement sparkling in their depths. “I have managed to find a druid willing to train a student in their ways, on one condition.”

“What condition?” Gaspi asked.

“That it be you,” he answered. “To be honest, it was very hard to get this man to even meet me, but in our correspondence I told him about the presence of a Nature Mage at the college, and once he knew of your gift, he wouldn’t
let the matter drop. His name is Heath, and the only place he would meet me was near the wooded dell he calls home. I went to visit him, and a fascinating visit it was too. He was cautious Gaspi, and wouldn’t reveal any of his secrets to me, but I think he might to you.”

“Why?” Gaspi asked.

“I don’t know, but I got the feeling he would do anything within his power to have the chance to train you,” the chancellor answered.