Euris went on alone. The roads became familiar now, and she recognized every hedge, rock wall, and cottage. This was home, South Port, the land she knew so well. She was happy to be here, and felt a swelling of contentment inside of her which she had not felt in it seemed ages. Even the air smelled different, with the salty tang she had missed so much.

Over six years ago, now, she had taken one last look over her shoulder at South Port as it retreated from her view and she went off to the north, to college. Now, nothing had changed. South Port was a large city built up along a natural bay in the southern shoreline of the kingdom. All around were a jumble of docks, wharfs, boat houses, and shipyards. Vessels of all sorts and descriptions from island-hopping clippers to deep-sea traders with a forest of masts and ropes filled every square yard of water. Warehouses, inns, and every other sort of building sat beside the wharfs. Behind them were stone buildings belonging to the merchants who controlled trade. In the midst of all this was her home, the royal castle where she grew up. Its curtain wall descended all the way around the inner keep down to the waterfront itself and the enclosed royal beach were she spent so many hours as a child. She saw the Sea Tower, which stood in the inner curtain wall of the royal keep, proudly flying the aquamarine banner with its Star of Sorcery, and then her eyes landed on the keep itself, and the little tower with the royal apartments and her own room. Her room looked out at the sea, so she couldn’t see her own window, but she longed to be there in that view. Beyond the city stretched the ocean, as far as she could see to the horizon. She had grown up playing and swimming in the ocean, and her heart leaped for joy in her chest when she saw it again. She did not realize how much she missed it. She wanted to run to the shore, pull off her dirty riding leathers and dive into the ocean and let its waters soothe her.

She rode into the city, happy in her anonymity. No one knew the muscular, tall girl with the sword who came back was the skinny, coltish Euris they all remembered who left. Everything had changed, and nothing had. Savoring being in the city itself, she slowly rode until she had come up to the keep. She rode over her drawbridge to the gate.

“Eurie!?” The old gatesman was startled, rubbing his bleary eyes. He had been the day-gatesman of the keep for longer than Euris had been alive. “Little Eurie? I can’t believe it! It’s you!”

“Open the gate!” she laughed, enjoying his surprise. He did, and she gave him a big hug, happy to be back among old friends.

She went through the keep’s gate, handing her horse off to the trusted ostler of the keep whom she trusted more with her horse than she did herself. Slinging the strap of her bag over her shoulder, she walked into the inner yard of her home. She saw, as she half-suspected she might, her brother out in the yard, instructing some students in the finer points of swordsmanship. Completely unable to contain herself any longer, she let her bag fall to the ground. She ran across the grass, and jumped on her brother who barely had time to notice she was there before she was upon him. They rolled on the ground, half hugging and half wresting, with the tenderfooted students looking on in complete amazement that anyone would so assault the taskmaster they feared.

“Eurie! You’re back!” Her brother said, when he finally caught his breath and recovered from the surprise.

“I thought it was about time to come for a visit.” Euris said, lying back on the lawn in complete contentment.

“I’ll get father!” he said, climbing to his feet; then said to his students, “Dismissed!  You’re free for the entire day!” A general cheer went up. Euralin disappeared into the keep, and Euris slowly got up, retrieved her bag, and followed.

The insides of the keep were dark stone, with high windows to let in light. Euris did not need to see her brother to figure where he had gone: most likely to her father’s audience room. Inside, as she half-suspected, her father was working with an ambassador from the Three Islands on a trade pact. They had a mound of official-looking papers. Her father, who was a hoary version of her brother, still hale but somehow less powerful, haggled with the ambassador over some obscure point of contention. He glanced at her, but then picked up another paper and pointed to a certain section the ambassador needed to read, before breaking away.

“Excuse me a moment, if you please,” her father said to the ambassador, who nodded. Her father got up and came over, enfolding her in a hug. “I’m so happy you’re home, Eurie! Let me finish up here, and we can have some time together. I’ll tell you all about the exciting new trade possibilities. If you’ll be here visiting long enough, I might need you to go to the Three Islands to represent me. Wouldn’t you like that?”

“I’d love that, later, father,” Euris said, so happy to be home again with him and her brother that she didn’t want to think about a trip to the exotic Three Islands, which any other time she would have jumped at. She hugged her father again, and then let him get back to his business. Euralin carried her bag up the steps to her room for her, and she told him she wanted to freshen up and change clothes. He left her alone there on the landing, at her room.

The door closed behind her, sealing her off from the rest of the castle. She was home, finally. In her room, with her things, that had always been hers. She hugged her ratty old stuffed dolphin, which her first nurse had stitched together out of aquamarine and white fabric. She pulled off her travel-stained boots and put on her old, comfortable, worn-out sandals that she wore around the keep. She put on her threadbare old floppy hat that she wore down by the beach. Home. She threw herself down on her bed, in which she had not slept in over six years. Planning to get up and do something after a few minutes of luxuriating, she instead fell into a deep, sound sleep better than any she had had for months.

The next morning, Euris felt refreshed and alive as she woke up. Memories did not shadow her thoughts in the bright sunlight streaming into her room through the open window which also let in the smell of sea-air. She stretched mightily, moving every muscle. She put on a light, airy dress from her closet, realizing that she had worn nothing but leathers, and armor, for six years. She felt light and free. She walked out of her room in search of something to eat.

An hour or so later, Euris wandered up to the gate house, munching on a fresh and juicy orange. She had missed fresh oranges greatly while away, although the College imported them and her brother generally brought up a bag when he came to visit. An orange hauled up to the capital did not taste the same as an orange freshly picked from a South Port orchard. Wandering aimlessly, she found herself in the gate house of the keep, at a window overlooking the drawbridge. This had always been a favorite spot for a quiet moment, and she relished it as she finished the orange.

She heard voices approaching, and recognized her brother’s. He was walking along the wide stone wall with Mattak and Mattak’s Protector. She realized that Mattak must have become a good friend of her brother’s in the time since graduation. He saw Euris standing there and hurried them all into the gatehouse.

Her brother greeted her warmly with a hug, which she returned just as warmly. “It’s so wonderful to have you here again, Eurie. Everything is right with the world. Right, Mat?”

“I would that it were so,” Mattak said lightly but with an undercurrent that all was not right in South Port. Mattak looked handsome and tanned after his months back at the Sea Tower. His Protector, whom Euris had found was named Dorrial, was even more beautiful after the months in South Port’s sun. She had cut her hair short, as many women did in South Port’s heat. She touched Mattak with a casual familiarity, with a hand on his back or along his arm. Euris didn’t know if this or the tone of Mattak’s voice that was bothering her.

Euralin’s face turned grave. “All isn’t well in South Port,” he confirmed. “Mat has been telling me about a renegade Sorcerer who has come to town and has been stirring up trouble.”

“Rumors are floating through Sea Port. He arrived the afternoon you did, Euris, and started down by the docks, performing unsanctioned magical acts. He is not from the College of Sorcery, that’s for sure. Then he made his way up through the city, and has been seen performing miracles.” Mattak said all this with a grimace.

“Miracles?” Euris immediate thought of her friend from the road. Could it be him? He did say he might show up in South Port.

“Yes, he’s been working healing magic right here within the city walls. Imagine the cheek of a renegade doing that in the home of the Sea Tower! Did he think he would not be found out as a fraud and a renegade?”

Dorrial had left Mattak’s side and was looking down at the square in front. “A crowd’s gathering below us in the square,” she said, “and I think I see him.”

Mattak went over to her, enfolding her in an arm as he looked down. “Truly, there he is. He is performing magic even now, I can sense. Well, we’ll have to deal with this.”

“Deal with this?” Euris asked, suddenly realizing that Mattak had a different opinion of this man than she did. “What do you mean?” But Mattak and his Protector left without answering. “Euralin, what did he mean? The man is harmless. He’s a good man, I met him once on the road. He means no harm to anyone. He healed a little child.”

Euralin did not answer her, but followed Mattak. “Come on, let’s see,” he said over his shoulder.

Euris trailed them down the steps, nursing a very bad feeling. As she got down to the gate level, and walked through the gate onto the drawbridge, a booming voice which she recognized as Mattak’s exclaimed: “This man is a renegade, practicing magic outside of the College of Sorcery.” Euris could see he was pointing to the man she had met on the road. “Do you deny, man, that you are a renegade?”

The man answered in a low voice that carried across the square, “I have done nothing wrong. Do you condemn me for healing this lame boy so he no longer has to beg? Or for restoring sight to this old woman? For what do you condemn me?”

Mattak shouted: “The punishment for renegade magic is death!”

Euris cried in frustration: “No, wait! He is a good man! You can’t kill him!” She had not even brought her sword along, for why would she ever need it in her own home? Still, she rushed forward, trying to think of some way to stop them from hurting the man.

“Stay out of this. This is Tower business,” Mattak said to her. His Protector drew her sword. Euralin put his hands on his sister’s shoulders to prevent her form leaping onto Dorrial’s back to stop the execution. Euris helplessly watched as Dorrial rushed forward with her sword, and with one swipe took the man’s head off. He did not resist or even flinch as the blow landed.

Mattak stepped up and somehow, magically, set fire to the body. He yelled loudly as the body burned: “This is the fate of all who practice renegade magic! So it has been decreed by the College of Sorcery.”

She turned around, crying into her brother’s shoulder. “No!” Euris said through tears, choking as Euralin held her. “He was a good man!”

Euralin bore a puzzled look, not knowing what had caused his sister to lose her composure, and not knowing what to do to help comfort her. “He was just a renegade, Eurie, don’t overreact like this. He got what he deserved.”

She shouted “No!” and pushed out of her brother’s embrace, and ran back into the castle, leaving her brother with Mattak and Dorrial amid the stunned crowd.

On to ... Chapter Twelve: Home