Barl Lindin closed her fingers around the ball of fire, snuffing it out. “And I know our magework must seem like a threat,” she added. “It’s not. But if you choose to disbelieve me, if you don’t want to help us, we will leave your land peacefully. Only—” Her voice shook. “I am begging you. Do not turn us away. For if you do we will perish to the last man, woman and child. The mages of Dorana will become bleached bones and scraps of faded linen. We do not deserve that.”

As the gathered Olken turned to each other to comment, Bannet leaned close. “Mayhap they don’t, but do we deserve to starve faster, with all of them to feed?”

“There ain’t so many of ’em,” said Del, staring narrow-eyed at the mages. Staring longest at Barl Lindin’s brother, a small, appreciative smile quirking her lips. “Enough to fill a few villages, and a hamlet or two.”

Bannet grunted. “Until they start breeding. D’you tell me they won’t?”

“You’d drive them away so they can die?” Del frowned. “That’s harsh, that is.”

“Eh?” Bannet gaped at her. “You’re the one said there’d be no helping them.”

“The fishing village elders said that,” Del said, shrugging. “But I’ve seen ’em now, ain’t I? I’ve heard their sad story.”

With another grunt, Bannet folded his arms. “Got yourself an itch for that scarred mage, you mean. Hussy.” Ignoring Del’s protest, he jerked his chin. “Jervale, what’s your thought?”

Not one he could share. “That we’ve a lot of talking ahead of us, and—”

“Mage Lindin,” said Elder Chaffie, sitting in the crowded hall’s front row, as was proper. “We’re not heartless, but Lur’s got its own strife. There’s crops failing. Rivers running dry. Skin and bone livestock dropping dead and still-birthing their young. If our woes keep on, could be we’ll need to escape over the mountains ourselves.”

Again, Barl Lindin looked at the other mages. Then she took a step closer to Elder Chaffie. “You mustn’t,” she said, her eyes terrible. “For one thing, the crossing will kill you, as it killed many of us. Those mountains are treacherous. Unforgiving. Believe me, you don’t want to watch your loved ones plunge to their deaths, as we have. You don’t want to sit helplessly beside them as they die in agony from snake bite, or because they ate a poison berry.” She took a deep breath, shuddering. “Besides, as bad as things are in Lur, beyond the mountains they’re worse. Those lands are blighted by rogue magics and fear, and their princes and potentates are no friends to strangers. Whoever survives the mountains will be slaughtered without mercy.”

A frightened silence followed her stark words.