Watt-Evans, Lawrence - Annals of the Chosen 01 by The Wizard Lord (v1.1)

particular preference.
Naturally, I'll do everything I can to oblige them."
    "Come on,"
Elder Priestess said. "I'll show you where you can sleep." She
beckoned for the wizard to follow her as she led the way toward her home.
Apparently she had no intention of making the town's guest sleep in the
drafty, poorly heated pavilion, despite his offer.
    Thinking of the cold,
Breaker wondered idly, not for the first time, why the Wizard Lord allowed
winter to still happen; was his command of the weather not enough to prevent
it? The Old Swordsman had claimed not to know any answer to that one.
    "Well, that's one wizard," the Old Swordsman said, smiling at Harp, Fidget, Spider,
and their brother as they all turned toward home, eager to get out of the cold.
"Two or three will be enough. Then we'll put on our show, give you th e talisman and bind
the ler, and
I'll be done with it all, ready to leave as soon as the roads are open in the
spring."
    "And you'll be the Chosen
Swordsman," Fidget said, looking up at her brother. "Who'd have ever
thought that would happen?"
    The Old Swordsman laughed, but Breaker just
batted a hand at his sister, who ducked the blow easily. He did not laugh.
    And, he noticed, neither did his other
sisters.
     
    Other
wizards were not long in coming. With the river
frozen over and snow blocking the paths only those who had captured wind
elementals or found other ways to fly were able to come, so the first wizard's
flamboyant arrival was repeated, with minor variations, three more times over
a period of five days. All these wizards, two men and a woman, were str angers; apparently
the two who had brought the Swordsman to Mad Oak in the first place either had
not received the message, had decided not to attend, or were unable to fly.
    And four wizards, the
Old Swordsman decided, was plenty; with this fourth and la st arrival the
wizards now outnumbered the priests hosting them, and waiting for more would
be an imposition on Mad Oak's hospitality. Furthermore, he and Breaker had
gone over their plans carefully, and both felt ready to perform their little
exhibition. They could not rehearse it move for move, as that would make it
impossible to fool the ler, and trying
to set out specific moves in words did not seem entirely practical, but they
agreed on what areas the Old Swordsman would try to leave exposed to Break er's blade, and
discussed just how the performance could be kept spontaneous and convincing
while still yielding the desired result.
    Thus prepared, the
Old Swordsman sent Spider and Fidget to tell the assorted magicians that the
formal challenge would be made the next day, and on the afternoon following the fourth wizard's
arrival the Old Swordsman strode into the town square and proclaimed loudly to
no one in particular, "I am the world's greatest swordsman! No one in
Barokan can defeat me with a blade!"
    Breaker had been
waiting in a convenient doorway, feeling the tension in the air that meant ler were listening and watching; he thought he had even glimpsed light and
movement in some of the winter shadows. Now he straightened up, flung back his
hood, and
marched out to face his teacher.
    "I can defeat you, you old fraud,"
he said, "if you forgo magical assistance!"
    Wind stirred, and shadows moved; a wave of
glitter seemed to glide across a nearby snowdrift, as if something were
refracting the watery sunlight. The air almost seemed to vibrate; the former
Breaker had never before felt such a concentration of ler, not even during the
spring planting rites.
    "I need no magic to beat the likes of
you," the elder sneered.
    "The empty words of a windbag!"
"The simple truth."
    The younger raised
his hand in challenge. "Then prove it—send away your captive ler, put down your
talismans, and face me on even terms!"
    Now he could feel dozens of eyes on him, as
well as the presence of the ler. He resisted
the temptation t o look around at the hidden audience, peering through shutters or door
cracks, or around