“Yes. I thought she was falling in love with me.’’
“One of her talents is to be what she needs to be, Talon. It was a cruel lesson, but necessary. And I can’t stress this enough: she would have cut your throat while you slept had Nakor ordered it. And then she would have got dressed and whistled a happy tune as she walked back to the estate afterward.”
“Why do this to me?’’
“So that you can look hard inside yourself and understand how weak the human heart can be. So that you can steel yourself against anything of this sort ever happening again.’’
“Does this mean I can never love another?’’
Now it was Magnus’s turn to fall silent, and he also stared out of the door for a moment. Then he said, “Perhaps not. But certainly not with some young woman who simply happens to command your attention because of a shapely leg and a winning smile, and because she’s in your bed. You can bed women who are willing to your heart’s content, time and circumstances allowing. Just don’t think you’re in love with them, Talon.’’
“I know so little.’’
“Then you’ve taken the first step toward wisdom,” Magnus said, standing up. He moved to the door. “Think about this for a while: remember the quiet times when your father and mother were caring for you and your family. That’s love. Not the passion of the moment in the arms of a willing woman.’’
Talon leaned back against the wall. “I have much to think about.’’
“Tomorrow we return to your training. Eat something and sleep, for we have much to do.’’
Magnus left, and Talon lay back on the bed, his arm behind his head. Staring at the ceiling, he thought about what the magician had said. It was as if Magnus had thrown icy water over him. He felt cold and discomforted. The image of Alysandra’s face hung in the air above him, yet it was now a mocking, cruel visage. And he wondered if he could ever look at a woman again in the same way.
Talon spent a restless night, even though he was as tired as he could remember. It was even more profound a fatigue than on those occasions when he had recovered from his wounds after almost dying. It was a weariness of the soul, a lethargy that came from a wounded heart.
Yet there was a fey energy within; a strange flashing of images, memories, and imagination; phantasms and fantasies. He rejected Magnus’s judgment of Alysandra. Talon knew he could not have imagined his feelings, but at the same time he knew he had. He was angry, and his pain sought an outlet, yet there was no place to focus it. He blamed his teachers, yet he knew they had taught him a vital lesson that might someday save his life. He raged at Alysandra, yet from what Magnus had told him, she could no more be blamed for her nature than a viper could be blamed for being venomous.
The dawn rose, and the sky turned rose and golden, a crisp and clear autumn morning. A knock roused Talon from his dark introspection, and he opened the door.
Caleb stood there before him. “Let’s go hunting,” he said.
Talon nodded, not even wondering how Caleb had so suddenly appeared on the island. Magic was a foregone conclusion on Sorcerer’s Isle.
Talon fetched his bow from inside the wardrobe, where he had lodged it in the corner and forgotten it. He had spent hours dressing and undressing in the fine robes there when he and Alysandra had spent the summer contriving games. He had thought them games of love, but now he thought of them as exercises in lust.
He held the bow, and it was solid and real in his grip, and he knew that he had lost something in his days with the girl. He pulled out a quiver of arrows, then turned to the older man. “Let’s go,” he said.
Caleb set a punishing pace, leading and not looking back, expecting Talon at all times to be a step behind him or at his side.
They ranged north, far away from the estate. Half the time they ran. At noon, Caleb stopped and pointed. They were standing on top of a ridge which offered a clear view of most of the island to the north. In the distance Talon could see the small hut where he had lived with Magnus when he had first come to the island. He said nothing.
Eventually Caleb said, “I thought myself in love once.’’
“Does everyone know about it?’’
“Only those who need to know. It was a lesson.’’
“So everyone keeps saying. I can’t help but feel it was a cruel jest.’’
“Cruel, no doubt. Jest, no. I doubt anyone has told you yet what is in store for you, and I do not know, though I have some sense of it. You are going to be sent places and see things no boy of the Orosini could ever have dreamed of, Talon. And in those places the wiles of a pretty woman may be as deadly as a poisoned blade.” He leaned on his bow. “Alysandra is not the only girl with a deadly side to her. Our enemies have many such women in their ranks. Just as they will have agents like you.’’