The Magic of Recluce - L. E. Modesitt [104]
XXXII
SHEEP—I HOPE never to see another sheep as closely as I saw the sheep of Weevett, nor to smell them. By comparison, rancid butter smells better, at least if it is not too spoiled.
Like Justen, I wore a borrowed herder’s jacket and trousers and boots, though I had to stuff some raw wool into the toes of the boots.
According to the gray wizard, what he was about to do was pure order-magic. “Just because it’s ordered doesn’t mean it’s pleasant,” he added. “That’s why I’m free to do as I please most of the rest of the time.”
I followed him from the rough shed to a pen or corral, where there must have been over a hundred of the black-faced creatures.
Urrrr…uppp…My stomach protested, although my nose was already numb, and not from the chill of the wind. The sun beamed brightly but not warmly, and the wind whipped a thin coating of snow across the ground, scudding it into piles here and there against fence posts, in frozen ruts, and on the sheltered side of the empty wool-sheds.
Briskly, Justen strode over to the gate where a white-haired, lean, and tanned woman stood. Her hair was thick, nearly as short as mine, and she smiled openly at the wizard. Her gray leathers were clean, and half a step behind her stood a taller man, balding, wearing stained leathers and holding a crook.
“Justen…”
“Merella.”
Then I noticed the squad of crossbowmen ranged along one side of the shed behind the woman. Glancing in the other direction, I found a few other armed soldiers. My feet carried me after Justen.
“Who’s the youngster?”
“My current assistant. This is Countess Merella of Montgren. Lerris, who understands order but not sheep.”
The countess’s smile became a grin. “He didn’t expect me. You never tell them, do you, wizard?”
Justen shrugged. “It works better that way.”
“Pleased to meet you, your highness.” I inclined my head, although I didn’t know what you called a countess.
“It’s good to see you, Lerris.” Then the smile was gone, replaced by a more businesslike look. “We lost too many because of the duke and the rains. Is there anything…? We separated put the cripples and brought the least-damaged ones.”
“We’ll do what we can.” He turned to me. “The ewes to be bred this year come through the chute here one at a time. We check them to make sure they’re as healthy as they look. If you feel something…”
“I tell you?” I asked.
Justen nodded, turning to the countess. “Lerris has a well-developed sense of order, and that will let me use my energies, I hope, on the cripples and the problems.”
“As you wish—so long as the results stand.” The countess’s tone was neutral, although her voice was harder than before.
Justen looked at the herder. “Send one through alone first.”
…Bheeeaaaa…A black-faced four-legged wooly heap bumbled down the chute—really, just two low fences set three cubits apart—that led from a gate in one corral to a second empty corral.
I tried to feel the sheep, and the action wasn’t quite so hard as I had feared, since there was no sense of disorder, and even a faint underlying sense of scheme and order. Looking at Justen, I said. “She seems fine. No disorder, and a faint sense of order…health…”
He nodded. “Can you strengthen that order just a bit?”
I didn’t know how.
“Watch and use your senses.”
So I did, and what he did to the sheep was like smoothing the grain of fine wood to bring out its natural flow. That’s not quite right, but that’s what it felt like.
“Send another one.”
With the second, I was able to do what the gray wizard had, with a little help, and by the fourth or fifth ewe I was working alone, with Justen watching. Until a larger ewe, perhaps the twentieth, came skittering down the chute.
Even before the animal got to me my stomach turned, and the beast seemed to glow in a whitish-red fire underneath its wool.
“Justen…this one…”
Even the gray wizard seemed to pale momentarily, but he just nodded