Bearers of the Black Staff

“I’ll go now.” Aislinne stood. “Panterra, there’s food in the kitchen. Go in and have something to eat and drink. Sider, I would speak with you alone for a minute.”


She took him outside without further explanation, closing the door tightly behind them. She stood on the porch without looking at him for a moment, staring out into the night, but seeing something else entirely. Then she took him down the steps, across the yard, and into the shadows where they could not be easily seen. All around them, the village was dark and silent. Even the lights in the windows were beginning to disappear.

When she turned to face him, there was no friendliness in her eyes. “Why did you bring Panterra back with you?”

The question took him by surprise. “He’s seen things I haven’t; he brings another perspective and another voice to the discussion. I thought it would help.”

She gave him a sardonic smile. “You are such a poor liar, Sider. All you say is probably true, but that isn’t why he’s come with you. I don’t need you to tell me the reason, either. I can see it in your eyes, in the way you look at him. You want him for yourself. You’ve decided he’s the one.”

Sider hesitated, considering a lie. Then he gave it up. Not with her, he decided. “That’s true. But he doesn’t know it yet; I haven’t spoken to him. I have no way of knowing what he will say.”

She stepped close. “I know that boy. And the girl who partners with him. They aren’t exactly like you and I once were, but close enough that I won’t let you do this. Separating them would be worse than what you did in separating us. Do you realize what they mean to each other?”

He shook his head. “I know hardly anything about that. I only know what he makes me feel, and what he makes me feel is why I plan to speak to him.”

“I forbid it!” she hissed sharply.

“It isn’t your place to do that.” The words were out before he could think better of them, too late to take back. “Aislinne, I don’t want this, either. But if I am killed in this business, in this transition from the old world to the new, that boy will be needed to take the staff and go on. There must be someone to follow after me.”

“Then find someone else.”

He shook his head. “I haven’t time for that. I haven’t even got a place to start. I’ve been looking all these years, waiting, but there’s been no one. Now I have to—”

“Stop.” She spit out the word as if to rid herself of its bitterness, one hand lifting to emphasize her wish to silence him. “No more. I have to go. But we aren’t finished. Do you understand me?”

He took a deep breath. “All too well. I’ll wait on you. I can promise that much.”

She stared him down, and then nodded. “I’ll bring you your audience. Practice your speech to them while you wait. And practice one to me, as well.”

Then she was gone.





TWENTY-ONE




WHEN SIDER CAME BACK INSIDE THE COTTAGE, Panterra Qu could feel the anger radiating off him. The Gray Man’s face was rigid with it, and his posture warned against saying anything. So Pan sat quietly, ate the food he had found in the kitchen in the cold box, and waited for the anger to dissipate, the familiar calm to return.

After a while it did. “That looks good,” Sider offered absently.

He rose, disappeared into the kitchen, and returned with a plate of his own. He ate hurriedly, obviously anxious to finish before Aislinne and the men returned, saying nothing further to Pan.

But when he was finished and had returned his empty plate to the kitchen and lowered himself into a chair across from the boy, he said, “Are you ready for this?”

Pan nodded. “What do you think will happen?”

The Gray Man shook his head. “No one will be happy to see us, Skeal Eile least of all. But they will stay and listen because they will know that our being here means we have something important to tell them. They’ll listen, but maybe they won’t believe. It depends.”

“I guess it does,” Pan agreed. He thought about it for a minute. “What will you do about Skeal Eile?”

Sider Ament shrugged. “That depends, too. If I don’t like what I see in his eyes, I’ll have to reconsider my thinking. Otherwise, I’ll seek a promise of unconditional support in front of the other two. That sort of public oath carries weight. Since we won’t be staying, we won’t be at much risk. It’s Aislinne who should worry.”

“Aislinne seems able to take care of herself,” Pan said. “And she has friends besides us who can protect her.”

The Gray Man nodded and looked away, his gaze drifting toward the curtained windows and the night beyond. “She was always resourceful.”