Though I didn’t know it at the time, I was looking for
the name of the wind.
CHAPTER NINE
Riding in the
Wagon with Ben
A BENTHY
WAS THE FIRST arcanist I ever met, a strange, exciting figure to a young boy.
He was knowledgeable in all the sciences: botany, astronomy, psychology,
anatomy, alchemy, geology, chemistry….
He was portly, with twinkling eyes that moved
quickly from one thing to another. He had a strip of dark grey hair running
around the back of his head, but (and this is what I remember most about him)
no eyebrows. Rather, he had them, but they were in a perpetual state of
regrowing from being burned off in the course of his alchemical pursuits. It
made him look surprised and quizzical all at once.
He spoke gently, laughed often, and never exercised
his wit at the expense of others. He cursed like a drunken sailor with a broken
leg, but only at his donkeys. They were called Alpha and Beta, and Abenthy fed
them carrots and lumps of sugar when he thought no one was looking. Chemistry
was his particular love, and my father said he’d never known a man to run a
better still.
By his second day in our troupe I was making a
habit of riding in his wagon. I would ask him questions and he would answer.
Then he would ask for songs and I would pluck them out for him on a lute I
borrowed from my father’s wagon.
He would even sing from time to time. He had a
bright, reckless tenor that was always wandering off, looking for notes in the
wrong places. More often than not he stopped and laughed at himself when it
happened. He was a good man, and there was no conceit in him.
Not long after he joined our troupe, I asked
Abenthy what it was like being an arcanist.
He gave me a thoughtful look. “Have you ever known
an arcanist?”
“We paid one to mend a cracked axle on the road
once.” I paused to think. “He was heading inland with a caravan of fish.”
Abenthy made a dismissive gesture. “No, no, boy.
I’m talking about arcanists. Not some poor
chill-charmer who works his way back and forth across caravan routes, trying to
keep fresh meat from rotting.”
“What’s the difference?” I asked, sensing it was
expected of me.
“Well,” he said. “That might take a bit of
explaining….”
“I’ve got nothing but time.”
Abenthy gave me an appraising look. I’d been
waiting for it. It was the look that said, “You don’t sound as young as you
look.” I hoped he’d come to grips with it fairly soon. It gets tiresome being
spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one.
He took a deep breath. “Just because someone knows
a trick or two doesn’t mean they’re an arcanist. They might know how to set a
bone or read Eld Vintic. Maybe they even know a little sympathy. But—”
“Sympathy?” I interrupted as politely as possible.
“You’d probably call it magic,” Abenthy said
reluctantly. “It’s not, really.” He shrugged. “But even knowing sympathy
doesn’t make you an arcanist. A true arcanist has worked his way through the
Arcanum at the University.”
At his mention of the Arcanum, I bristled with two
dozen new questions. Not so many, you might think, but when you added them to
the half-hundred questions I carried with me wherever I went, I was stretched
nearly to bursting. Only through a severe effort of will did I remain silent,
waiting for Abenthy to continue on his own.
Abenthy, however, noticed my reaction. “So, you’ve
heard about the Arcanum, have you?” He seemed amused. “Tell me what you’ve
heard, then.”
This small prompt was all the excuse I needed. “I
heard from a boy in Temper Glen that if your arm’s cut off they can sew it back
on at the University. Can they really? Some stories say Taborlin the Great went
there to learn the names of all things. There’s a library with a thousand
books. Are there really that many?”
He answered the last question, the others having
rushed by too quickly for him to respond. “More than a thousand,
the name of the wind.
CHAPTER NINE
Riding in the
Wagon with Ben
A BENTHY
WAS THE FIRST arcanist I ever met, a strange, exciting figure to a young boy.
He was knowledgeable in all the sciences: botany, astronomy, psychology,
anatomy, alchemy, geology, chemistry….
He was portly, with twinkling eyes that moved
quickly from one thing to another. He had a strip of dark grey hair running
around the back of his head, but (and this is what I remember most about him)
no eyebrows. Rather, he had them, but they were in a perpetual state of
regrowing from being burned off in the course of his alchemical pursuits. It
made him look surprised and quizzical all at once.
He spoke gently, laughed often, and never exercised
his wit at the expense of others. He cursed like a drunken sailor with a broken
leg, but only at his donkeys. They were called Alpha and Beta, and Abenthy fed
them carrots and lumps of sugar when he thought no one was looking. Chemistry
was his particular love, and my father said he’d never known a man to run a
better still.
By his second day in our troupe I was making a
habit of riding in his wagon. I would ask him questions and he would answer.
Then he would ask for songs and I would pluck them out for him on a lute I
borrowed from my father’s wagon.
He would even sing from time to time. He had a
bright, reckless tenor that was always wandering off, looking for notes in the
wrong places. More often than not he stopped and laughed at himself when it
happened. He was a good man, and there was no conceit in him.
Not long after he joined our troupe, I asked
Abenthy what it was like being an arcanist.
He gave me a thoughtful look. “Have you ever known
an arcanist?”
“We paid one to mend a cracked axle on the road
once.” I paused to think. “He was heading inland with a caravan of fish.”
Abenthy made a dismissive gesture. “No, no, boy.
I’m talking about arcanists. Not some poor
chill-charmer who works his way back and forth across caravan routes, trying to
keep fresh meat from rotting.”
“What’s the difference?” I asked, sensing it was
expected of me.
“Well,” he said. “That might take a bit of
explaining….”
“I’ve got nothing but time.”
Abenthy gave me an appraising look. I’d been
waiting for it. It was the look that said, “You don’t sound as young as you
look.” I hoped he’d come to grips with it fairly soon. It gets tiresome being
spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one.
He took a deep breath. “Just because someone knows
a trick or two doesn’t mean they’re an arcanist. They might know how to set a
bone or read Eld Vintic. Maybe they even know a little sympathy. But—”
“Sympathy?” I interrupted as politely as possible.
“You’d probably call it magic,” Abenthy said
reluctantly. “It’s not, really.” He shrugged. “But even knowing sympathy
doesn’t make you an arcanist. A true arcanist has worked his way through the
Arcanum at the University.”
At his mention of the Arcanum, I bristled with two
dozen new questions. Not so many, you might think, but when you added them to
the half-hundred questions I carried with me wherever I went, I was stretched
nearly to bursting. Only through a severe effort of will did I remain silent,
waiting for Abenthy to continue on his own.
Abenthy, however, noticed my reaction. “So, you’ve
heard about the Arcanum, have you?” He seemed amused. “Tell me what you’ve
heard, then.”
This small prompt was all the excuse I needed. “I
heard from a boy in Temper Glen that if your arm’s cut off they can sew it back
on at the University. Can they really? Some stories say Taborlin the Great went
there to learn the names of all things. There’s a library with a thousand
books. Are there really that many?”
He answered the last question, the others having
rushed by too quickly for him to respond. “More than a thousand,
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