What happened in Caligo
He let go of her wrist and she ran back inside with Surdus right behind her still holding the bottom of her cloak off the ground. She realized that he was still following her and dismissed him with a wave of her hand. It seemed that the last monarch who had strength and magic enough to use a power as potent as the Deplorable Word was only a few generations before her. She knew from her history that King Bilis was her great-grandfather.
But even he had used the Deplorable Word only in self-defense like a weakling. And his son after him had completely wiped it off the face of the earth like a cowardly fool! Her own father would not even allow her to speak of it! The blood of Charn been watered down by cowardice! What had happened to the proud despots who could conquer empires without a flick of an eyelash? They cowered at a mere word only because it gave them supreme power.
In that moment, Jadis was almost ashamed to have been born into a line of weaklings. But wait. Was she not to be the next queen? She could bring back to her House the bravery and supremacy of old. Then would all nations truly fear her and fall before her feet! Every principality in the world would bow to her every wish with the threat of complete obliviation hanging over their heads.
She could already imagine golden chambers in which she would send those who displeased her. Then, after wiping them off the face of the earth, she could give their lands to those who were loyal to her and sell their families as slaves. The terror of Charn would spread far and wide and great kings would pay tribute to her. Laughing manically, Jadis reclined upon her bed as she imagined it to be a pile of precious stones and jewelry of precious metals from all corners of the world. This time of reverie was brought to an end by the dinner bell.
Jadis frowned. She could not conquer the world without knowing the Deplorable Word and that was completely restricted from her. A part of the scroll came back to her: "All scrolls and records of it were burnt although it was said that some magicians hid their own copies to save them from burning." This was over a hundred years ago and nobody could possibly still be alive to tell her where any hidden scrolls might be found. But there were ways of asking questions of the dead. After all, her father had not forbidden her to study scrolls about how to bring the dead back to life. First, she had to find a record of a great magician from Bilis' time. Finally, she would be one step closer to being the most powerful ruler in the world.
The library was dark this time of night but not pitch-black. Moonlight coming through the high windows threw eerie shadows on the wall. But Jadis scorned what would have frightened any other teenage girl and went on with her search. Her torch illuminated only a few scrolls at a time, and it had taken her all night just to get to the other side of the library. Now she had reached the last scroll on the bottom shelf of the last wall. Jadis glanced up at the windows and saw that the light coming through them was gray. Dawn was coming. She grabbed the scroll to read later and ran back to her room, remembering to throw the torch into the fireplace where it would burn to ashes by the time anyone went to clean it out.
After breakfast, she retired to her room to study the scroll. It began like this: "Here are preserved the writings of Cadaver the Sorcerer, court wizard and palace healer from the reign of King Bilis the Mad into the reign of King Avus and Queen Avia." That was all she needed to know and she rolled up the scroll to put it away in the secret compartment in her closet next to the first scroll she had stolen. That night she called into her bedroom Ancilla, her maid-servant.
"Take off all your clothes," she commanded, "then put on my nightdress and sleep in my bed so that anybody who happens to check on me might think that I am sound asleep."
Ancilla was very confused by these orders, but she knew better than to disobey Jadis or even be slow to obey because two years ago, Jadis had magically paralyzed her hand when she had been too slow to dress her. She still could not move it and had to do everything one-handed. Even now she undressed with one hand and with difficulty she put on Jadis' silky nightdress watching Jadis put on her own clothes, undergarments and all. Bewildered, she slipped between the silky sheets of Jadis' bed. As soon as Jadis left, she lay her head down on the soft downy pillows at once and pretended to be asleep, as Jadis had commanded her. Meanwhile, Jadis made her way to the back exit of the palace used by the servants on their errands. She got out easily enough because the guards just looked at her servant's dress and thought that one of the princesses had just sent her servant out on an errand.
When she was very small, she remembered the court healer of her father displeasing him in some way and being banished from the court of Charn. The sentence was banishment in Caligo, a destitute region of Charn that was the haunt of criminals and peddling magicians who had escaped being wiped out long ago. They made their living by illegally selling potions and now the former court healer had been demoted to being one of them. Jadis now made her way to Caligo by asking passersby the way. In less than an hour she finally reached it.
Caligo made itself known by its stench before she was three blocks away from it. Human excrement and garbage carelessly thrown into the street fused to create an almost unbearable fume. But Jadis was not going to be stopped by a mere bad odor. After walking for some time, she saw an open door through which a strong smell of clay was coming from. Uncertainly, she stepped onto the threshold and looked inside to behold a small potter's shop. The walls were filled with shelves on which were hundreds of pots and also clay pipes for smoking goodness knows what of different sizes and shapes.
Suddenly, a figure in the corner moved and she realized that it was a man, but he was so covered in clay that he looked like part of the wall.
"Good evening, pretty girl," he said.
If he knew who I was, he would not speak so freely, thought Jadis. But she showed no emotion.
"I am looking for Callida the Healer," she said to him.
"Ah, old Cal! In fact, I just finished up an order for her and I told her it would be ready by now. So she should be coming by any minute now. If you will sit down on that stool over there, you can wait until she comes by and ask her what you wanted."
Hardly believing her good luck, Jadis thanked the potter and started to go to the stool he had indicated in the far corner of the shop. But she never got there. All at once the potter flung himself upon her and fumbled with the low neckline of the servant's dress. Jadis screamed but she still had her wits about her. She put upon his hand the same paralyzing spell she had put on Ancilla. Instantly, he got up clutching his useless hand with his other one.
"Witch," he cried. "Get out of my shop, whore-witch."
Jadis got up quick as lightning.
"Minion!" she cried. "You will pay for attacking your princess! The wrath of the House of Charn falls upon you!"
As she spoke, the man was still throwing curses at her, but his words were no longer coming out. Only a gurgling noise escaped his throat, then nothing. He stood there still clutching one hand with the other, a perfect clay statue of a man. Still breathing hard, Jadis sat down on the stool to calm down. As her breathing slowed down, her ears caught faint screams coming from other parts of the town.
No one had answered her scream because such happenings were common in those parts. She put her head between her knees for a few minutes because she felt suddenly sick. Presently, an old woman covered in soot as much as the potter had been covered in clay entered the shop. She looked around the walls as if she expected the man to be camouflaged against them as he had been when Jadis had walked in. When she could not see him, she called him in a voice as covered in soot as her body was and the product of long years of smoking.
"Argilla! Argilla, where are you? It is no use hiding from me! I will collect rent from you this month whether or not you…"
She stopped as she caught sight of the statue of Argilla. Then she turned slowly and looked around the room once more. Finally, she saw a pale girl with flashing eyes staring at her. Her mouth fell open in a gasp and she picked up her skirts and fairly ran for her life. When she got to the door to Callida's shack, she burst in to say that Argilla was a statue, and there was a girl dressed like a palace servant sitting in his shop.