Chapters might be a bit slower to update because I have now used up my pre-written chapter buffer. Gulp. But, for now here is the longest chapter yet.
Chapter 14
"There you are" shouted a little voice, and the black dot of Nightwitch started running towards us.
In the middle of the clearing, drawing most of the attention of our merry little band was the dragon, large, scaly, and helpfully highlighted by the random gouts of fire he was still sneezing out.
"That certainly is a dragon." The man who claimed he wasn't a wizard muttered, rather redundantly. I glanced over and saw him raise his staff and felt magic begin to concentrate. I reached out to do, something, but before anything could happen the magic congealed and the staff disappeared.
The clearing went dead silent (except for Nightwitch panting in the background) and we all stared. My experience with wizards was limited to the past two days, but the ones I'd met were pretty protective of their staffs, as in kill anyone who tries to hurt them protective (or in my case set the entire wizard society after them). They didn't just let go of them and they certainly didn't make them disappear. Unless making the staff disappear was some sort of more powerful magic. As I stood thinking it through, he did something else very unwizard-like. He walked up to the dragon and bowed politely, "I apologize for inconveniencing you," he said. "I offer you greetings and welcome to my home, and I wish you good fortune when you leave."
"What?" the dragon blinked at him.
The man blinked back, then looked at the dragon more closely.
"Oh, I see," he said, he hesitated for a moment and then shrugged. "Well, you're welcome. Come and make yourself comfortable."
And just like that it was all supposed to be okay.
"Honestly, I leave you alone for one moment and look who you're hanging around," she wheezed then half collapsed on my foot. I picked her up and glared at the man.
The dragon seemed to share my feelings "I don't like wizards," it said, eyeing the man suspiciously. "And I don't like people who put invisible things in the middle of my shortcut."
"I am not a wizard," the man sighed. "And my tower has been here for years, and it isn't invisible. Now, come in and talk. There hasn't been a dragon by for a long time, and I'm a bit behind on the news."
"If you're not a wizard, what are you?" I demanded.
"I'm a magician," the man said. "And my name is Telemain."
And as soon as he said that Daystar went into automatic introduction mode. "Pleased to meet you," he began.
"Only if he has cream and some more of those really nice smelling leaves," Nightwitch muttered, and started purring loudly.
I stared at my kitten and then Telemain started laughing in a shockingly non-evil way.
"I don't believe I have ever seen a group quite like this one," Telemain gasped in between laughs laughing. "Please, tell me who you all are."
Daystar took over, introducing each of us, Telemain nodded politely at each name, until Daystar got to his name. That he met with a very sharp glance. "I thought that was what your friend called you," he said cryptically. "Welcome to my home."
"Some welcome!" I snarled. "You nearly got Daystar killed, and you started the dragon sneezing again. And how come the dragon was allergic to you if you aren't a wizard?"
"Dragons aren't allergic to wizards," Telemain said, sounding absolutely apalled."What gave you that idea?"
"I did!" the dragon said. It came over to sit next and settled himself down next to me in solid support. "All dragons are allergic to wizards." He declared. "I should know: I sneeze every time I get near one." And gave the man a steely look.
"Oh, I don't doubt that at all," Telemain said, unconcerned. "But the hypersensitive reaction results from the indiscriminate absorption of magical energy through the enchantments fixed in their staffs."
"What?" said the dragon.
Telemain sighed. "It's not wizards you're allergic to, it's their staffs. You stopped sneezing as soon as I got rid of mine, didn't you?"
"The dragon looked stunned."I did, didn't I?" it said.
And there went my main support. I continued on doggedly, "If you aren't a wizard, what are you doing with a wizard's staff?" I demanded
Telemain raised his eyebrows. "Why do you ask?"
Oh no reason, just that everyone who's had a wizards staff has tried to kill us.
"We've been having some trouble with wizards," Daystar leapt in, earning his understatement of the year award.
"Really." Telemain said in a slightly strangled voice. "All of you?"
No! Well actually, if you thought about it…
"Well, mainly just Shiara and me," Daystar said. "We've been sort of worried about them. Most of them are after Shiara," he added.
"What would the Society of Wizards want with a fire-witch?" Telemain asked. I gave him a look and he shook his head. "I can see that I shall have to invite you in, if only to hear your tale."
Like we were going anywhere with him! "How do you know about the Society?" I demanded, if he was such a non-wizard how did he know what had happened in an exclusive wizard again. "And why should we trust a wizard, anyway?"
Telemain turned and stared down at me, decidedly "Anyone who knows much about magic can tell you're a fire-witch, and the only reason I can think of for a fire-witch to have several wizards after her is if she has done something to offend the Society of Wizards," he declared, sounding vaguely amused. Was he laughing at me? "And for the third time, at least, I am a magician, not a wizard."
"What's the difference?" I demanded belligerently.
"Magicians deal with many ways of magic," Telemain said. "Wizards with only one. Now, will you come in and sit down?"
I gave him a long look, he might be telling the truth but there was really no way to tell. Telemain smiled. "Will an oath content you? If you mean no harm, I am not your enemy, and I will do you no harm while you are my guests, save in self-defense. I swear by the sword," There was a hum in the air, a pressure, and a frisson of energy shimmered through the clearing and washed over me in a wave. Even trying to close out all my magic it overwhelmed me, making me jump.
Nightwitch fell, yowling indignantly and stalking away. The dragon stretched its neck, letting the energy glide over him like a caress. It kept echoing on and on without seeming to lose energy or clarity of tone.
Telemain gaze became noticeably sharper.
"That is the way of it, then?" he muttered. "I don't think I blame you for your caution." He stared at the sword rather intently.
I scowled stubbornly "If you're so smart…" But then was interrupted my cat rubbing up against the suspicious man's leg, absolutely purring.
"Nightwitch?" I asked, shocked.
"An intriguing name for a cat," Telemain said, bending over to pick up Nightwitch, and the little furball didn't even try to claw him. "Even more interesting for a kitten. Where did you come by her?"
"She was a present," I muttered. "From a witch named-"
"Morwen?" Telemain finished.
"A pure witch's cat" Nightwitch purred loudly.
"I suspected as much." Telemain smiled "Now, will you come in? Or do you wish to continue this discussion where anyone may hear?"
I was too shocked by my cat's sudden cuddliness to object. And admittedly when we went in it didn't look like an evil wizard's lair just stone and bare and vaguely messy. It was obviously magical though, seeing as the inside was about twice as big as it looked from the outside. Even trying to ignore my magic-sensing I could feel power humming through the walls, zipping up and down the two iron staircases in a very…unusual way.
The door closed with a slam and a newer strand of the power pulled a table and chairs out of some other region.
"Sit down and tell me about yourselves."
So of course Daystar did. I sat down next to him more slowly, listened warily while he started explaining everything about his mother, the wizard, and the great magical sword. The magician nodded sagely, as if he expected everything, which is to be expected, but he also kept interrupting with really suspiciously specific questions about really technical details: who the magic had affected hear, when exactly had the voice spoken there. He wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he knew something about it.
But, I reminded myself, that didn't necessarily mean he was a wizard. They normally at least tried to be sneaky, and they were attached at the hip to their staffs, and their magic didn't feel like this.
Daystar reached my part of the story and glanced over at me, silently asking if it was all right to go one. I frowned, still not sure if I wanted so much personal information told to a questionable stranger. But I didn't say anything.
Daystar went on with the story, and I watched as various degrees of interest, amusement, and irritation flickered over the magician's otherwise calm face. It wasn't until Daystar mentioned Morwen's house, of all things, that there was any real reaction. His face suddenly lit up and he sat back, smiling.
"I haven't seen Morwen in a long time," he said "How is she?"
"You know Morwen?" I asked
"We grew up together," he replied, the smile growing a bit at the memories. Then he seemed to shake himself back to the present. "Now, exactly what did she have you do to repair the damage to your hand?"
I looked at him, consideringly. He was friends with Morwen, well that would sort of make sense, why Nightwitch had snuggled up to him, maybe, and why he knew so much about the specific quest. And if he was friends with Morwen he probably wasn't bad, she was just too common sense to put up with suspicious friends.
His relaxed impassive face was back on, he only really seemed to be interested in the sword, I noticed, he seemed only mildly interested in the wizards, and downright dismissive when we got to the part about the princess (a very sensible reaction in my opinion). Until Daystar got to our little run in with the invisible castle and its owner.
His face grew serious. "So that's how you knew about it," Telemain said. "I wondered."
"That's how we knew," I said, staring back at him, just as seriously. "How did you know?"
"The castle landed in my clearing sometime around noon," Telemain said dryly. "I was understandably curious as to why someone would go to all the trouble of making a castle invisible and then drop it on top of a magician who can't help noticing it."
The castle was here... "It's not there now," I asked, dreading the answer, I didn't think I could handle seeing it again, feeling that energy, being anywhere near it.
"Of course not!" Telemain assured me "What would I want with an invisible castle? When I found no one home, I cleaned the place up a bit and got rid of it." There was a subtle danger to those last words.
"Cleaned it up?" Daystar asked, confused.
"The most recent owner had a number of unattractive habits," Telemain said in a flat voice. "In addition to casual petrification of passersby, she indulged in seven varieties of involuntary metamorphosis, as well as necromancy and demonology. I don't believe you would be at all interested in the technical details."
"Oh." Daystar looked vaguely ill. Or maybe that was just me projecting, I really didn't want the details.
I looked away and straight into the magician's very serious eyes.
"I owe you an apology," he told me. "I knew that the castle was the property of a fire-witch, and I'm afraid that when you showed up, I thought you had some connection with it."
He knew what that meant, what that implied he thought I'd done and he was apologizing. Seriously and sincerely. But I couldn't go all sappy now "Well, I don't," I said, "but I suppose I can see why you might have gotten mad." I couldn't really blame him for wanting to go after the evil she-demon after seeing what was in that place of hers. Speaking of which…I frowned
"How did the castle get into your clearing, anyway?"
Telemain shrugged and leaned back. "As far as I can tell, the unit transportation spell operated on a set of totally random parameters, both in terms of time and location."
"What does that mean?" said the dragon.
"The castle was designed to move around the Enchanted Forest more or less randomly. It's a rather unusual spell to put on a building, particularly an invisible one, because if you happen to be outside when it moves, you get left behind."
"Then why on earth would anyone put a stupid spell like that on a castle?" I muttered
"Presumably this fire-witch didn't expect to have any problems finding the castle again. I don't believe it occurred to her that someone else might find it first." Telemain smiled, a rather fierce smile. "I left a few surprises for her. I doubt that she'll be pleased."
I felt myself grinning in return, at the idea.
"Oh, that's all right," the dragon said. "Daystar got rid of her."
Telemain glanced at Daystar, curiously. "Really. How did you manage that?"
"She threw some sort of spell at me, but Nightwitch scratched her, so she missed," Daystar said, casually, as if him defeating the fire-witch had been something he'd done by accidentl "And after that, I had the sword out."
"You used the Sword of the Sleeping King on a fire-witch?"Telemain said, in a choked gasp.
"I couldn't think of anything else that might work," Daystar told him apologetically, "And it did work, sort of. I mean, it got rid of the fire-witch."
"She went up in smoke," the dragon said gleefully ."I watched."
"She went up in smoke," Telemain sounded absolutely fascinated "And what were you doing while this was going on?"
"I was trying to hang on to the sword," Dastar said "It was glowing red, and my hands felt like they were burning or something, so it was sort of hard to do. But as soon as the fire-witch was gone, it stopped."
"You are extremely fortunate," Telemain told him. "You might have gotten yourself killed and ruined everything. I don't recommend that you try that again. Stick to wizards. That's what the sword was meant for."
"It was?" I asked "How do you know? What else does it do?"
Telemain looked at me, inscrutably. "Magicians know many kinds of magic." Right because that's all it was. Every magician would know the exact technical questions to ask yeah… He turned back to Daystar. "Please, continue."
Daystar glanced at me, obviously curious as well. His eyes flicked back to Telemain then cocked his head tom me in what amounted to a shrug then began talking again. Telemain obviously was part of the secret society of knowledgeable cryptics. I snorted and sat back in my chair.
Daystar finished and Telemain shook his head "So the war is beginning again," he murmured "I had best make my own preparations. I wonder why no one let me know?"
I sat bolt upright"War?" Daystar and I demanded at the same time.
Telemain looked up, surprised. "The war between the dragons and the wizards," as if it should be obvious.
Not to us, and apparently not to the dragon either, since its head suddenly jerked up."War with the wizards?" it asked.
"It is obvious," Telemain said stiffly. "The elves are choosing sides, the dragons are restless, the wizards are coming into the Enchanted Forest in large numbers, and the Sword of the Sleeping King has returned. What more do you need to know?"
What the Sword of the Sleeping King has to do with any of that, for example. But before I could say anything Daystar asked pretty much exactly that, albeit in a much different tone than I would have used.
"The sword is what started the war in the first place," Telemain replied. There was a moment of expectant silence as we waited for him to continue. He blinked then shook his head, definitively, "If Cimorene didn't see fit to explain, I certainly won't," he said. "When you meet Kazul, I am sure she will tell you whatever you need to know. I'm afraid I don't have time at the moment. I must see to things at once, if we are to win this war at last."
"What do you mean 'we'" I asked him, I was all for kicking wizard butt, but I hadn't signed up for any sort of war. Especially one that I had no clue how it started.
"The dragons," Telemain replied, "and the rest of us who follow the sword. Now, if you will excuse me?" And he got up and started walking away.
"Wait a minute!" I yelled. "What about us?" We were carrying the stupid flaming sword that apparently people were following. Weren't we supposed to do something, make rousing speeches, lead the army? Something?!
"What? Oh, of course," Telemain said. He waved his hand again and muttered something, the space flexed again, and suddenly plates and bowls full of food appeared on the table. "Help yourselves while I am gone," he said. "I don't expect to be long." And headed jogged up the stairs.
Not exactly what I meant.
I glanced over at Daystar and found him looking back at me with an equally frustrated expression.
"Now what do we do?" I asked.
Daystar shrugged,"I'm going to eat," he said and sat down "Would you like something?"
I snorted. Again, not what I meant, what was it with these forest people and not answering questions? Not that there was anything new there. Oh, well no use letting good food go to waste, who knew when we were going to get another banquet like this, wandering in the forest, or apparently fighting a war. The others seemed to agree as everyone proceeded to dig in to the food. Though being a magical feast it seemed be designed to suit the eaters, co that suddenly there were several large platters of roast meat and a bucket of chocolate mousse near the dragon and a small dish of cream conveniently within Nightwitch's paw reach. And either it was perfectly planned portion wise or had some self-regeneration ability because the spread outlasted even the dragons appetite. The dragon had just rolled back from the table with a satisfied belch when Telemain reappeared from the stairs.
"I was right," he announced, to the world at large, without bothering to explain what he happened to be right about."You'd better stay here for the night. It will be much safer for everyone, and it will give me time to look into things a little more. You've been extremely lucky so far, but there's no reason to take any more chances until you must."
Daystar started to nod, but then, wonder of wonders, stopped to think. He looked over at me, questioningly. I stared back, thinking, I still didn't know how much I liked this. He wasn't a wizard, after all Nightwitch liked him, and seemed to kind of know him so he couldn't be that bad. I glanced over at where my kitten was snuggled up on Telemain's chair. No point turning down a real bed either. I shrugged. "Let's stay."
"You will find rooms upstairs, on the second floor," Telemain told us .'Just pick one and go in." He turned to the dragon. "I think you'll be more comfortable down here."
"I think you're right," muttered in response, glaring at the iron steps.
I snorted quietly and started climbing the rickety frame. Or tyring to. I moved my feet but each time I brought my foot up the previous step seemed to sink down so that I ended up marching in place.
"What's the matter?" Daystar asked, catching up to me. Probably busy thanking our host.
What did he think was wrong? "There's something wrong with this stupid staircase!" I snarled. "I keep trying to climb up, but I don't go anywhere?"
Telemain, looked up, somewhat sheepishly "I'm sorry; I should have warned you. You'll have to take the other staircase. That one incorporates a unidirectional matrix focused groundward."
I really was not in the mood for this. "Say that again, in English," I said slowly.
"That stairway just works going down."
"That's ridiculous!" I growled "How can a staircase only work going in one direction?"
"He's a magician," Daystar said, and started tripping lightly up the other staircase.
Because that solved . I muttered something uncomplimentary under my breath and followed him. Whatever had been stopping me from going anywhere on the other staircase helped us go up on this staircase since it took us practically no time at all to pass over to spiral up to the second floor, where we were met with a circle of identical doors.
Daystar just stood there and I wondered if it was against some sort of politeness rule to go somewhere you weren't explicitly invited. "Well, he said to just go in," I reminded him. He nodded warily and each of us grabbed a door and opened it. The rooms looked the same. Small, well lit and comfortable with a bed, a table, a lamp, a padded chair, and a small set of drawers with a mirror above it arranged in the exact same pattern. Out of curiosity I opened up the other doors , to find they too were identical. It made sense actually probably when he was making the tower he created one stock room and then simply duplicated it to make as many guest rooms as he wanted. The furniture could just sit there nicely though, the flame would probably be harder to control… "I wonder if he keeps lights going in all these rooms?" I murmured.
"He might," Daystar said. "I mean, he is a magician. Does it matter?"
That phrase again. Oh, of course, he's a magician, because that answered my question. That explained how the spell worked, how he channeled his magic, where it came from, and why he chose to use it the way he did. Those little details that, we had, oh-so-recently learned were rather important tips about a person's character. That was all summed up in the fact that he was a magician. The fact that he was a flaming magician summed up everything about him.
I whirled on him, glaring and found myself unable to find words enough withering sarcasm to express my displeasure. So I simply stalked past him into a room at random and slammed the door as soon as Nightwitch had scurried in behind me.
"Wasn't he the one who said I couldn't say I had a temper just because I was a flaming fire-witch even though that's practically how you identify one?" I seethed, pacing about the room "I mean its practically part of the definition. But magicians can apparently do things just because their magicians. That explains their magic. Because everyone who uses the same sort of magic must use it in the exact same way. I'm sure we just missed Morwen's daily broom-flying and cackling practice, and her next round of gingerbread really was going to be used to make a house to trap small children. Because she's a witch."
"A waste of good gingerbread." Nighwitch interrupted, curling up on the pillow where she could watch me pace with the least amount of movement on her part.
I snorted "Exactly. Because that's not how life works. Where does that hypocritical idiot get off? Does. It. Matter? Honestly?! And I ought to and go back to lighting everything around me on fire and start making myself my own little castle right now. Because I'm a flaming fire-witch!"
"Your hair's on fire." My cat informed me, closing her eyes.
I glanced in the mirror as I paced by it and found that my hair had, in fact turned into a rather respectable tower of flame. "Of course it is…" I muttered, and glanced up to see if any of the ceiling had gotten scorched.
"How come my fur doesn't my fur does that when I'm angry?" Nightwitch muttered, sounding sleepy."
"Because I'm a fire-witch and you're a cat." I informed her shortly,
There was a beat of silence, and I realized what'd I'd just said. In the mirror my cat cracked one eye to stare at me.
"That's different." I muttered, the flames on my head sputtered.
My cat blinked.
"It is." I insisted, rather weakly.
My cat stretched in a very shrug-like way. "You're hair lights on fire because you're a fire-witch, the dragon sneezes at wizards because he's a dragon, Telemain uses big words to talk about everything because he's…Telemain."
A laugh wiggled its way out of me in the middle of my sullen snort as I sat down on the bed. Nightwitch, sensing weakness snuggled up against my leg and made hopeful pet-me noises. It had been a long day, and I really didn't have the energy to stay annoyed in the face of a purring kitten.
"How do you even know Telemain?" I asked, "He said he hadn't seen Morwen in years and you can't be that old…"
"He's on the talking mirror all the time." Nightwitch purred sleepily "Once a week, more if he wants to bother Morwen about a spell. His voice sounds the same though his face is a lot farther away. And he smells like the packages."
"The packages?"
"The stuff that travelers would drop off when they passed by, it all had that smell. Lots of other too. But they all had that smell. No matter what they were. Books, and spell stuff, and the lovely stuffed mouse toy for my birthday."
"He sent a cat a birthday present?"
"Mmm-hmmm. Just for the first birthday of course. It smelled sooo good." She trailed off into purrs at the memory. I waited for her to go on and was answered by suspiciously sleepy rumbling noises that might have been snores. I sighed, so much for deeper plots or information, then I set her on the other pillow, lay down, and followed her example.