Wiz nodded. “I’ve known hackers like that. They didn’t care what they screwed up as long as they got what they wanted.”
“It may be so on all the worlds,” Moira sighed. “There are always those whose talent and ambition are unchecked by concern for others. If they have no magical talent they may become thieves, robbers and cheats. With talent they are likely to travel south and join with the Dark League.”
“Why go south. Why not just stay and make trouble?”
“Two reasons. First, the Council will not have them in the civilized lands. Second, they must still serve an apprenticeship no matter how much talent they have.” She smiled tightly. “The tests for an apprentice are stringent and many of them are aimed at uncovering such people.
“Once they pass over the Freshened Sea they are beyond the Council’s reach. They are free to work whatever magic they wish and that place shows the results. All of the Southern Shore is alight with mountains of fire and the earth trembles constantly from the League’s magic. The land is so blasted that none can live there save by magic. The very World itself pays the price for the lusts of the League.”
“Why put up with them at all? When we had problems like that we’d kick the troublemakers off the system. Or turn them over to the cops—ah, the authorities.”
“You have an easier time than we do, Sparrow,” Moira said ruefully. “There is no way to bar a magician from making magic, so we cannot ‘kick them off the system.’ As for the authorities, well, the Council exists in part to check the League but this is not a thing easily done.
“Individually the ones of the League are mighty sorcerers. Toth-Set-Ra, their present leader,” Moira made a warding sign, “is the mightiest wizard in all the World.”
“If he’s so powerful how come he hasn’t taken the North?”
“Because the League contains the seeds of its own destruction,” Moira said. “To conquer the North, the League would have to act in careful concert. This they cannot do because of the rivalries within. The Mighty are more constrained than the sorcerers of the League and so perhaps not so powerful individually. But they work easily together and can defeat any of the League’s efforts.
“The League is like the Phoenix which renews itself by regular immolation. When it is sundered by contention and many strive for the Dark Throne, then we of the North have a time of peace. When a strong leader emerges and brings most of the wizards of the South under his sway, the League harries the North and magics are loosed upon the land.” Moira sighed. “Twas ever so. And now we live in a time when the League is united as never before.
“Toth-Set-Ra,” again the warding sign, “is a mighty sorcerer, skilled in magic and cunning in lore. And it is our age’s woe that he has especially powerful tools at his command.”
“It doesn’t sound very secure to me,” Wiz said dubiously.
“Little in life is secure,” Moira replied. “But we contrive.” She rose and moved to the other side of the fire.
“And now let us see if we can get some sleep, Sparrow. Morning comes early and we still have far to go.”
Three
The Watcher at the Well
The land was different here. The valleys were narrower, the ridges more numerous and the slopes steeper. But the trees were as tall and their leaves shut out the sun as fully as they had in the flatter country behind them.
The forest was making Wiz claustrophobic, but since the water meadow open spaces didn’t appeal to him either.
They were following the valleys now, but Wiz wasn’t sure it was an improvement. Moira seemed to become more nervous. When they walked they went as fast, but Moira stopped more often to listen intently. She spoke seldom and only in whispers and she glared fiercely at Wiz every time a branch cracked under his feet.
Finally they came up a gentle rise and looked down into a valley even steeper and narrower than the ones around them. From the disturbance of the treetops Wiz could make out the line of a road or a stream running through its center.