Lesson of the Fire by Eric Zawadzki Page A

feature was its long, thick tail covered in small,
stinging spines — Katla cringed at the grotesque proportions of the
creature. It seemed to be engaged in a fierce discussion with a
pair of ravits in the same hissing, spitting manner that Brack had
used earlier.
    Brack strode by, acknowledging Katla’s
surprise. “The Drakes have a common language, as the Mar do. They
are not monsters, and neither am I for dealing with them.”
    “You seem as much at ease killing Mar as
they are,” she observed.
    He only acknowledged the barb with a small
smile. “You may suffer more surprises while you are here. Many
Drakes speak Mar more fluently than many of your rural mundane do.”
He spoke louder as she opened her mouth. “Not many Mar have ever
considered the possibility of negotiating with Drakes. In the days
before the Giens arrived, most of the Mar who knew anything of the
Drake language were considered mapmakers. Some mapmakers had even
mastered different dialects.”
    “I am no mapmaker, but I will learn their
languages,” Katla said firmly, making the quick decision. She was,
after all, here to learn what she could from this wizard.
    “You will first learn their history with the
Mar. The fall of the Gien Empire marked a revolution in these
relations.”
    “Tryggvi Fochs.”
    “Yes. Those who spoke Drake tongues were
often those who lived on the fringe of Mar society, but not always.
A few scholars collected knowledge of that sort, as you have
learned. Nightfire has never had a reputation for discarding
knowledge, however forbidden it might be. The Brack who preceded me
was an avid scholar of the Drake languages when he was a young
wizard.”
    “You are Brack the way
Nightfire is Nightfire, then.” Over
hundreds of years, a name becomes a title — are not all of us
weards named for the first wizard, Weard Darflaem? Nightfire is the
title of the person who is the arbiter of law among
weards.
    “Yes.” He touched the braided gold and
silver ring on his finger. “Domin’s Favor marks me as his
successor. Brack learned to despise the Giens after he witnessed
the Flasten Massacre.”
    “The what?”
    He ignored the question. “It changed Brack,
made him a hard, ruthless man who would stop at nothing to destroy
those who opposed him. He organized a rebellion among his fellow
wizards, which failed, before fleeing into the swamps. When he
returned, it was with an army of Drakes at his back.”
    Brack’s Rebellion.
    They entered a low building separated from
the others. A fire already crackled in the hearth, a tall stack of
peat to one side. Two chairs and a table were the only
furnishings.
    “Brack wanted to liberate Marrishland at any
price,” she said.
    “He learned the Drakes’ common tongue. He
befriended the leaders of many of their tribes. It would be
presumptuous to say he is the reason the Drakes united peacefully,
but he was there the first time the Delegates met to discuss how to
deal with the Gien problem. The Mass was the result of that first
debate.”
    “A treaty.”
    Brack nodded. “A delicate one forged in fear
of the Gien invaders. Brack fanned that fear daily. He painted them
as barbarians with powerful magic who would not rest until they had
slain every Drake on the subcontinent. The Delegates’ power grew as
more tribes joined them out of fear of the Giens.”
    And then Domin came to
him, Katla thought bitterly. Brack, a brilliant strategist, led what to the
Gien mentality would be a sizable force to attack a northern town
far from the capital. When the Giens committed a majority of their
forces, Brack led the rest of the Drakes along the coast from the
east, leveling every city in his path.
    “His rebellion succeeded at an incredible
cost to the Mass. The Drakes defeated the Giens and liberated the
Mar. That is when matters got out of control. The Mar turned on
their saviors, and Brack convinced his allies to leave Mar lands
alone.”
    The Mar turned on the Drakes, monsters of
the