Tundra

The wind was howling, grey and restless as a pack of wolves. With gnashing teeth, it tore at the surface of the water, shredding sea spray into strips. It is always colder above the water than underneath it, but on the tundra the difference is something else. The shock is enough to give you hypothermia, if you don’t carry the right runes, or at least have access to some Firecaster magic, as the Seafarers who hire mages and druids sometimes do. Thankfully, we were lucky. Hackley and I had come well prepared. As our party surfaced and we dragged ourselves ashore, waterlogged when our bubble charm had worn out, the two of us lagged behind. Eiron strode up ahead, glad to be out of the nightmare realm from which his kraken tattoos, a sign of fearlessness had come. Aais was in a state of reverent shock.

‘So, are you ready to go to Mossen Grove now?’ I asked my young Apprentice.

‘Mossen Grove is not the problem,’ she replied. ‘It never was.’ There was an edge of bitterness in her voice that matched the screeching wind. I shivered.

‘I understand how you could be Blackmouth educated and scared of demons,’ I reasoned. ‘It’s an entirely rational response. But that’s not what’s going on here.’

‘Demons per se, I have no problem with,’ said Hackley, coldly. ‘So long as you stick to pacts you understand, they can be controlled. I just don’t think that’s what you’ve done.’

‘I’ve made a plan based on something a demon told me as part of a pact,’ I countered, reasonably. I did not expect what happened next. Hackley turned abruptly on her heel, so that she was facing me directly. Although she was a head shorter than I was, it was difficult, or rather impossible, to avoid her glare. ‘Do you want to know why I am no longer at Blackmouth?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ I replied.

‘I questioned a Master.’

‘That comes as no surprise to me,’ I let on, using my own bitter tone.

‘Listen,’ she said, firmly. ‘He had a demon with which he worked closely and constantly. The Voice of Flashing Teeth, it was called. A Shedu, one of Powers of the Frenzy Host. Because he made such heavy use of this demon, he started treating it as a familiar. A pet, even. The pacts he used to bind it became looser and looser. I told him, in front of his other Apprentices, that this was a terrible idea, and for that, as well as some other minor matters that aren’t important right now, I was expelled.’

‘Other minor matters? I raised an eyebrow.

‘Genuinely not important,’ she said with a dismissive sweep of her hand.

‘Well, if a Master says he can control something–’ I began, but was rudely cut off. Hackley’s mouth had become a grim, hard line.

‘A month later,’ she said, ‘it killed him, a second Master, four Apprentices and twelve house guard before it was contained. Pacts, yes, pacts are fine,’ she said hurriedly. ‘But any other interaction with demons is a recipe for disaster.’

We stood still for a moment, silence fixed between us, tangible as a bloc of ice. ‘You realise this doesn’t change my mind, don’t you?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ she said, in the same short, even tone I had used.

‘So you’ll help,’ I told her. It was not a question.

Resentfully, she returned my look. ‘I have nowhere else to go,’ she informed me. ‘When the wolves come for you, I’ll make sure you’re buried with the full honours befitting your station.’