‘I can’t say as I had the time to notice any smell,’ said Pug. He looked at Miranda and Magnus.
‘I’ve run into several demons over the years, and except for one who smelled of burning brimstone, the rest were . . . sweaty? It was a pungent, musky odour.’
Amirantha laughed. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t literally mean their odour. I mean, how their magic smells.’
Pug’s eyes narrowed and he said, ‘This sounds a lot like a conversation I once had with a tribal shaman down in Kesh, many years ago. He claimed he could tell whose magic had fashioned a ward or cast a spell.’
Amirantha’s eyes grew wide. ‘You can’t?’ He glanced at the others, then at Brandos, and said, ‘But I thought every magician could . . . sense whose spell it was, I mean, if they knew the other magician and had encountered their spellcraft before.’
Magnus exchanged glances with his mother and father, and then said, ‘An assumption based on limited contact with other practitioners of magic’ He thought on this for a moment, then said, ‘I believe I can, as well.’
‘Really?’ said Pug.
‘You’ve never said anything,’ added his mother.
‘I never really gave it much thought,’ said Magnus. ‘It’s not something I do consciously. If you or Mother translocate into or out of the next room, I always know which of you it is.’
Pug’s eyes widened slightly.
‘If I’m in my quarters, I know who’s teaching the students most of the time, just from the way the magic feels in the background.’
Miranda shook her head slightly. ‘I had no idea.’
Pug said to Amirantha, ‘After the current problems are concluded, perhaps I could persuade you to stay for a while, for I would like to know more of this ability you and my son speak of.’
‘I don’t know if it’s an ability in the sense that it could be taught.’
‘Maybe it’s a quality that can be recognized, then,’ said Pug. ‘Something we do and give no thought to, like blinking or breathing.’
‘Actually,’ said Brandos, ‘I give a fair amount of thought to breathing, usually when something is trying to keep me from doing it.’
Amirantha’s gaze narrowed but he withheld comment. To Pug he said, ‘Brandos must return home soon, else his wife Samantha will have my head on a stick, but I will stay for a while if I can help.’ He smiled. ‘Besides, there’s a great deal here that piques my curiosity, for you’ve codified magic I’ve barely heard of. As I said, for those of us who practise the so-called dark arts, there’s little social opportunity to meet with other magic users.’
Pug said, ‘Agreed.’
Sandreena appeared, guided by one of Pug’s students. The Knight-Adamant of the Order of the Shield of the Weak wore a man’s tunic, trousers and sandals. Pug indicated that she should join them at the table, and she took a chair next to Miranda, on the opposite side of the table from Amirantha.
‘Did you sleep well?’ Miranda asked in neutral tones.
‘Yes,’ said the still-exhausted girl.
‘You should have one of our healers look at those wounds.’
Sandreena took a bowl and helped herself to the stew. ‘They are fine. I’ve sewn up enough of them to know if they’re festering. I’m just going to have some new scars.’
Miranda said, ‘There’s a priest of Killian who can make those scars fade, if you care to visit his Temple.’
‘Why?’ said Sandreena. She looked directly at Amirantha as she said, ‘Scars remind me that carelessness is a route to pain.’
Amirantha inclined his head slightly as if in agreement, but said nothing.
Brandos said, ‘Well, that was fine, but if you have no more use for me, I think I’d like to get out and stretch my legs; otherwise I’ll be napping and I find that a bothersome habit; it makes me feel like I’m getting old.’
Miranda smiled and said, ‘I’ll have one of the students show you around; there are a few places that wouldn’t be safe to blunder into.’ She signalled and a young man in a dark robe approached. Miranda instructed him to show Brandos the rest of the community he hadn’t seen so far, and they left.
Pug asked Amirantha, ‘Would you care to look around, too?’
The Warlock said, if it’s all the same to you, I’d just as soon wait here for Creegan to arrive and get that out of the way.’
Pug and Miranda exchanged brief looks, but said nothing. Magnus said, ‘We sent word to all of our agents that Sandreena had turned up safe and was here, so he should be along any time now.’
Amirantha said, ‘Well, then, if you have no objections, might I inquire into your stock of wine?’
Pug laughed and motioned another student over and said, ‘Do you prefer red or white?’
The Warlock said, ‘Yes.’