‘About being a wizard?’
Lythande hesitated. ‘It would be difficult, but – it might be possible. It is
true that your talents should not be wasted.’
‘You don’t understand,’ Wess said. ‘I don’t want to be a wizard. I wouldn’t go
back to Sanctuary if that were the reason.’
Lythande said, finally, ‘That isn’t the only reason.’
Wess took Lythande’s hand between her own, drew it to her lips, and kissed the
palm. Lythande reached up and caressed Wess’s cheek. Wess shivered at the touch.
‘Lythande, I can’t go back to Sanctuary. You would be the only reason I was
there – and it would change me. It did change me. I don’t know if I can go back
to being the person I was before I came here, but I’m going to try. Most of what
I did learn there I would rather never have known. You must understand me!’
‘Yes,’ Lythande said. ‘It was not fair of me to ask.’
‘It isn’t that I wouldn’t love you,’ Wess said, and Lythande looked at her
sharply. Wess took as deep a breath as she could,
and continued. ‘But what I feel for you would change, too, as I changed. It
wouldn’t be love anymore. It would be … need, and demand, and envy.’
Lythande sat on a tree root, shoulders slumped, and stared at the ground. Wess
knelt beside her and smoothed her hair back from her forehead.
‘Lythande…’
‘Yes, little sister,’ the magician whispered, as if she were too tired to speak
aloud.
‘You must have important work here.’ How could she bear it otherwise? Wess
thought. She is going to laugh at you for what you ask her, and explain how
foolish it is, and how impossible. ‘And Kaimas, my home… you would find it