Watt-Evans, Lawrence - Annals of the Chosen 01 by The Wizard Lord (v1.1)

feels as
if I'm closed in here, trapped in this place, caught between the ridge and the
river, as if the ler are holding me here against my will, and
I need to escape. But I don't want to just wander aimlessly around Barokan,
like a rogue wizard—I have roots here, I know that, my true name tells me as
much. I want to stay here, but at the same time I want to see more, to be more. I want to see the ocean, and the Midlands, and the salt marshes,
and to stand at the foot of the Eastern Cliffs to see how high they truly
are—but not as a stranger; as someone who belongs there, just as I belong here.
I want a role, a place in the world, but a bigger one than
growing barley in Mad Oak. It's not e nough, being here. I see Joker and Brokenose
and the rest, and they're fine here, they're happy, they don't want anything
more, but I do.
    "But
I don't know what."
    "Just more,
huh?"
    "Yes. And
becoming one of the Chosen—how much more could there be? I would be a part of
all of Barokan, not just Mad Oak or Longvale."
    "So that's why
you agreed to be the Swordsman?"
    "Yes. But
then—there's the whole thing about killing. A sword is made for killing—I was
holding a sword earlier, and I could feel how cold and hungry it was, how ready
to kill. It's not like a hunter's arrows, where the prey's ler surrenders itself to feed us—the sword is meant to take that which no one wants to give, and that frightens me a little. I
don't want to kill anyone. And if I don't, if I'm not ready to use the sword as
I'm meant to, then what am I really accomplishing by being one of the Chosen?
Killing the Wizard Lord is what they're chosen for, after all.
And that means they're useless, really—the Chosen don't do anything."
    "They will if
there's another Dark Lord." "But there won't be."
    "Because the
Chosen are there. It's like some of the priests you hear about, in other
towns—they do things to stop the ler from doing things. They offer prayers and sacrifices and rituals not
to make th e
crops grow or the game come close, but so the ler won't carry off the children or blight the land. If they weren't there, the
towns would be just as uninhabitable as any wilderness. And if the Chosen
weren't there, the Wizard Lord could turn dark in an i nstant, and no one
would stop him."
    "But
why would he turn dark?" He waved a hand at the sky. "Look at the
weather he gives us! It's beautiful. He's doing fine. Why would that ever
change? Most people don't go about stealing and raping and murdering, even if they have the
chance."
    'The
wizards did, though, in the old stories. Maybe it's something about being a
wizard, about binding ler with talismans. Or maybe it's just that
some people are like that, even if we aren't, and
they would go stealing and rapin g and murdering if
they had the chance. A few do, you know, despite everything, and the Wizard
Lord hunts them down to bring them to justice, so we know such people still
exist. Perhaps there are many more of them, but knowing that the priests and
the Wizard Lord would catch them keeps most of them from doing anything bad—but
if one of them were the Wizard Lord .. ."
    "So don't
choose people like that to be Wizard Lord."
    She shrugged.
"Maybe you can't tell them in advance, even with magic."
    "It still seems
..." He groped for a word, and finally said, ".. . clumsy."
    'The
system's worked for hundreds of years. So the question is, do you want to be
part of it? Or would you rather not have the responsibility? If you don't want
to be a farmer or a musician, ther e are still plenty of other choices besides
being the world's greatest swordsman. You could become a guide, maybe, or a
bargeman, if you want to travel."
    Breaker nodded. He
had sometimes thought about exactly those options.
    "The Swordsman
says I have the ability, though," he said, remembering the feel of the
sword in his hand. It had felt strange, but somehow right.
    "Did he?"
    Breaker nodded.
"He tested me this morning. In fact, we practiced for an