A chill seized my heart. Had I made a terrible mistake in coming here, in leaving Vai behind? The thought took hold in my mind and would not let go. Anxiety muddled me, for although I found the water closet easily enough, I lost my way going back. Instead of returning to the library, I found myself at doors opening onto a stone terrace.

A solitary flame drew my eye. James Drake sat on a stool with five fire mages at his back, four catch-fires kneeling with heads bowed, and three people facing him like strangers brought before a prince.

“I will not lie to you,” said James Drake in a kindly voice I scarcely recognized. “No fire mage is ever safe. If you wish to be safe, then learn from the blacksmiths how to lock away your fire and hope it never escapes.”

“The blacksmiths would not have me!” said a stocky young man who stood with arms crossed belligerently.

“What of you?” Drake asked the younger of the two lads.

The youth was so thin he looked as if a breeze might blow him over. “We haven’t the apprentice fee to pay to the guilds, me and my people.”

“If I gave you that fee, would you choose a blacksmith’s forge? For I will make you risk your life, right now, if you wish to join my company.”

The lad stammered. “I wouldn’t mind the blacksmith’s guild. It’s an honorable life. In a few years I could give my parents a cow. Men will pay a bride price to marry my sisters, if I’m a blacksmith. My parents can’t afford to lose me. I’m the only son they have.”

“Very well.” Drake gestured. An attendant counted out coins into the lad’s hand as the boy gaped at this largesse. “Our kind are sorely ill-used here in Europa, the lands of our birth. Go with my blessing. Make a good life for yourself.”

As the lad hurried off into the night, Drake again bent his eye on the stocky young man. “Will you risk your life for a chance to join my company of mages?”

“I’m not afraid!”

“Better if you were. Fire knows no mercy. But very well. To weave fire, you must cast the backlash of the flame into another body. Otherwise it will burn you up from inside. I will raise an unlit candle. Put a spark to it. As you feel the answering burn from that combustion in your own flesh, throw it like a rope into the body of this catch-fire.”

A candle and two lamps burned at Drake’s feet. He blew them out. All sat in darkness lightened only by stars and a rising crescent moon.

“Be cautious,” added Drake. “Even the lighting of one candle can kill a fire mage.”

“I can light a candle!” boasted the young fellow.