After an uncomfortable amount of time, Carcalla announced, “I do not believe he’s a fool.”
“I’m no liar either.”
“That remains to be determined,” Carcalla stated flatly.
“They have magical charms that can test that.”
He ignored my helpful suggestion. “Enchantments can be wrong. My instincts never are. What is your ultimate goal, Mr. Carnavon? I speak not about your idealistic organization, but you personally. What is your purpose here?”
I’d made no secret of that the entire time I’d been in the Core. “I intend to become a high-ranking wizard.”
“Why?”
This was getting personal, but I might as well put it out there. “The rest of the Carnavon family lives in indentured servitude. Generations of us have been worked to death mining the Red. It’ll take a lot of coin to buy out all their contracts from the Argents. Powerful wizards command wealth. I’m going to free my family someday.”
Carcalla continued with that piercing gaze. It was downright unnerving. “There’s more.”
Maybe he was better than a truth charm after all. “There is also a matter of revenge.”
“Against who?”
“An elf pirate who’s been attacking barges across the Plane of Fire for the last few years.”
Carcalla was unmoved that I wanted to kill one of his kind. “Revenge is not that complicated. Why does this elf in particular require potent magic?”
“Because he’s an extremely powerful mage himself, and nobody else, even the mighty Gaul Haddar, has been able to find, or even identify him. From the skills he’s demonstrated, Haddar thinks he’s equal in might to a Councilman, something crazy like a rank fifteen or higher. Do you happen to know of this pirate?”
“It is rare for one of the most blessed of all races to turn to a life of crime, but unfortunately, those of us who have done so are not all acquainted.” Carcalla replied so cooly that he might have been lying right to my face, but who could tell with an elf? “Who did this pirate kill of yours?”
“My mom and dad, among a great many others, when he shelled our barge and left it to burn.”
Carcalla pondered my words, then stated, “Power and revenge are two motives which I both understand… and respect… Leave us, Joran.”
The subordinate nodded and departed without another word, taking the two wizards with him. Whatever Carcalla’s magical defenses were, he certainly wasn’t worried about unarmed, elementless me presenting any danger to him.
Once the door was closed, the gang lord went over to a cabinet full of liquor bottles. “Care for a drink, Mr. Carnavon?”
I figured there were easier ways to kill me than by poisoning. “Sure.”
He got out two glasses, poured some dark brown liquid into each, then handed me one.
“Thanks.” Though I wasn’t sure why he’d shown me the kindness of offering me anything. His manner remained as icy as before. I took a sip, which burned and made my eyes water so bad, that for a second, I thought he had poisoned me after all. I loved a good stiff drink as much as the next guy, but this was downright painful. I was used to the beer the Argents imported for our barges because it was basically wet bread to help feed the miners and keep us content enough not to strike. This stuff made the strongest drink in Fort Silver taste like water straight from the globe.
“Gwynfar Dragon Rum, distilled upon a lonely peak where the Elemental Plane of Life collides with Death and Fire.” Carcalla downed the whole glass in one gulp. “Ah. Refreshing.”
Sign of weakness or not, I had to cough.
Carcalla wandered to one of the maps on his wall. While he did so, the magic window changed to a land of sand and dull red plateaus. A distant caravan was crossing the horizon. Even with his back turned, he somehow knew what the window showed, because he explained, “That view is of Ashen Harran, the Blood Drenched Sands of the Elemental Plane of Earth.”
“That’s where Gaul Haddar is from.”
“A harsh man, from a harsh kingdom. It might even be as inhospitable as the one you hail from.”
By my standards, the image looked rather pleasant. None of the mountains were squirting lava and the sky wasn’t covered in smoke. “I don’t know. It doesn’t look so bad.”
Carcalla was so effortlessly intimidating, he even managed to make studying a map seem like a threatening gesture. “Both of those kingdoms are unforgiving in their own way. Yours by environment, his by the nature of the people who reside there. Ashen Harran has been consumed by endless war for hundreds of years. The various tribes live for war. Conflict runs in their veins. Of the thousand kingdoms, they are among the mostcapable. Orcs rage, lobs hold grudges, but you humans are relentless, and the Ashen Harran are the most so of all of you. To the Ashen Harran, war simply is. Your master is a product of this land.”
From what I knew of Haddar, that seemed accurate. “He is rather intense in person.”
