by Guy Antibes
Something, unseen, knocked Lily to the ground, but she crawled on hands and knees towards the wizards and between the three of them, they took care of all four. Norra poured water on her head and face. She couldn’t believe the pain and fell to the ground. Lily rolled in the dirt, clutching her leg.
Namen towered over Norra and began to chant. She felt the pain begin to lessen and she fainted.
~
The morning dawned and Norra blinked her way to consciousness. It surprised her that she could sleep, slung over a saddle on her stomach. The first thing she did was put her hand to her face. Her skin felt tender, but a great deal of her hair had burned off to less than half of it’s original length. When she began to cry, Namen stopped the train of three horses. Lily was tied to her horse, as well, and was still asleep.
“I guess we’ve gone far enough. As far as I can determine, we’ve passed into the Win fief.”
Norra composed herself enough to be aware of their surroundings. “You took us off road.”
“I did. There are no wizards around us. You don’t know how sorry I am, for not being more observant. It was extremely stupid of me and you two paid dearly for my negligence.” Namen looked haggard as he unbound Norra from the saddle. He took her from her horse and laid her on a cushion of pine needles on the forest floor.
“You healed my face.”
He nodded and worked on Lily. “I operated at the very end of my strength to get you two able to ride. We would be in even graver danger if we lingered in Bistomer fief. Your power is a tremendous liability, although the air blanket served its purpose. They couldn’t get to me and while I kept them at bay, Lily and you did most of the damage.”
“Damage to who?” Norra said. “My face and hair.”
“Your hair can grow back. Once I took care of your face, I had to repair Lily’s leg. It’s still not properly done, but I hope she can ride and the tower is certain to have a wizard with better healing abilities than I do. As I’ve said before, I’m not a great healer.”
Norra felt her face. The skin seemed so thin and delicate, but she couldn’t detect any scarring and her eyes were unaffected. Her initial shock had dissipated enough for her to walk over to Lily. Her steps were erratic as she worked the stiffness out of them.
“Lily.” She stroked her friend’s hair. “Wake up.”
She stirred and after a bit more prodding, Lily opened her eyes and looked down at her leg. “It hurts.” She put her head back and put her arm over her forehead. Norra looked down. A gash in her leather pants showed a bloody leg. Norra rummaged around in her saddlebag for the pain powders and the salve and any kind of cloth that could be used to bind her wound.
Lily’s pants were too stiff from dried blood to be pushed up, so Norra took Lily’s knife and cut off her leather pants just below the knee. Her shinbone looked crooked and a knob was split open and bleeding. Norra took a bit of the pain powder, mixed it with water, and gave it to Lily while she washed the blood off the wound as much as possible and applied the salve to the wound. She bound it and by the time she finished, Lily slept again.
Namen knelt at her side and took her hand. “My powers are spent. All I could do was join the bones back together and fuse them. I could barely close the wound and as you see, it opened up again during our flight.” He looked down at Lily. Norra could see true concern in his eyes.
“I’ve done all I can and I don’t dare use another spell to heal her. There is more to healing than a simple magic. Your face was easier because I could see what I was doing but inside a leg?” Namen shook his head. Norra thought he’d fall asleep standing but Namen remained focused on Lily. “Thank you, Norra.”
Norra blanched slightly. “Thank you for saving us. I expected to be disfigured for life. I’ve seen people with burns on their faces. Thanks go to you.” She got up, put her hand on his shoulder, and then walked into the woods.
She leaned against a tree and let the tears begin to fall again. “Why am I such a mess?”
“What makes you think that, Norra?” Gristan said.
She welcomed his presence and felt the need of his strength. “I don’t want this power and yet I find myself using it to help save us. I hate it all. And now this.” She put her hand through what was left of her hair.
“Cut it off and let it grow again. At least it didn’t burn all the way down to your scalp. Lily keeps her hair barely longer than what is fashionable for a man. If you cut yours down, your hair will still be longer than Lily’s. It makes you both look like charming slave girls.” He smiled.
“That made me so mad last night. The very thought! Those men automatically thought that Lily and I were Namen’s slaves.”
“Well, that is how things are in Magia. Women are property and non-magical men are property too.”
“What a horrid place.”
Gristan looked around at the trees and the foliage. “It still looks like home to me,” he said.
Norra had put Lily’s knife in her belt and now took it out. “You tell me if it’s even.” She began her work until her hair looked more like Lily’s—maybe a finger length long around her head.
“You look different, I’ll say that. Your new skin is pale, as it might look at the end of winter and the rest is tanned. Your hair has more curl all over, quite a contrast to Lily’s hair that lies like a helmet over her head until she rubs it into spikes. As fearsome a pair as I’ve ever seen.” The ghost grinned at her and then they made their way back to Namen’s makeshift camp.
“We have to leave. I want to be deeper into Win lands. Bistomer’s wizards might still be able to track us.”
“Can’t you do that trick with masking our wizard light?” Norra said.
“I’m not Herran and the way I feel I could barely light a candle.”
She smiled grimly. “Is there any way to avoid being detected? The air blanket might still remain where we destroyed the wizards.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Namen shook his head. “I am losing my ability to reason. Perhaps Bloggo helped me more than I realized.”
“No. You’re just distracted,” she said, looking at the sleeping Lily.
“Something new. You might be right.” Namen didn’t smile. “You might try this spell.”
Norra repeated the words Namen spoke and pointed at Namen and repeated them and pointed to herself. In a sense, she felt muffled.
“I can’t detect your power,” Namen said. “Amazing. I wouldn’t be able to do that but without the ability to remember spells, you are only half a mage, aren’t you?”
“I am and I’d like that half, gone.” She went to Lily and tried to rouse her again but was unsuccessful. “This time let’s tie her to the horse in a sitting position.”
Namen agreed and soon they were on their way. Norra wondered if she could cloak their magic, could the wizards of Bistomer do the same?
~
Some uneventful days later after Namen had declared them safely out of Bistomer’s lands, they found a dirt road in the woods and followed it to a cottage inhabited by a woodcutter sitting on his porch. Her cloaking spell had long since died and they were all relieved that it wasn’t needed.
“Are we on the way to Tower Win?” Namen said.
“You are indeed, Man of Power.” A grin cracked the man’s face as he lit a pipe and leaned his chair back against the wall.
“Can we purchase some bread from you?”
“Perhaps,” he said. “Come in.”
They walked into the house and found sacks of fresh food and the man’s wife cooking a delicious smelling stew.
“Mage Merran detected your coming and had men from the tower bring food for you to take on the rest of your journey. The Mage’s men told me you have nothing to fear in his domain and he wishes you comfort for the rest of your journey to the tower. Please eat with us. We’d be honored.” The woodcutter gave a little bow and puffed on his pipe.
Norra smiled. “We’d be delighted.”
Lily looked at th
e food and limped towards a chair by the table. “Are there healers in the Win fief?” Her face had become more drawn and Norra noticed how thin she had become.
“There are talented ones at the Tower. Your leg, is it painful?” the woodcutter’s wife said.
“I ran out of pain powder a few days ago.”
The woodcutter brightened. “I have some. Right powerful stuff, it is. I’ve got a bad back and can’t work without it from time to time.”
Lily took the proffered cup of water and gulped it down. By the time their meal was ready, she looked much better and Norra noted that she ate more than she had in days.
~~~~
Chapter Eighteen
Tower Win
~
The Tower town sat on the edge of a peninsula jutting into the Crystal Sea, a large bay that went into Magia like a huge finger from the Western Sea. Villages became more frequent as they rode through them. New construction sprouted up everywhere. It reminded Norra of Delia’s Laput village.
A modest, but obviously growing town surrounded the bottom of the tower. As they rode closer to the tower, the buildings were mostly stone and wood houses three stories high. A unit of eight wizards riding horses stopped them before they entered the tower gate.
Namen drew in his breath and Lily loosened her sword.
The lead wizard held up his hand. “Welcome. Mage Merran is eager to see you, come with us and we will lead the way.”
Norra expected them to surround them, but the wizards wheeled their mounts and Norra, Lily, and Namen followed their escort into the tower grounds. The wizards obviously weren’t guards.
Namen looked up at the tower. “Not much by Tower standards. This must be one of the smaller ones. You should look at Mage Bistomer’s Tower. It is twice the girth and half again as tall.”
“So do you think the mage lives in that? It looks like the lighthouse at Nastaly Port,” Norra said.
“The grounds seem to be larger.” Namen looked around. “They are certainly cleaner than the average tower. What is wrong with this Merran? He certainly is unconventional.”
“I like unconventional,” Gristan said, looking at each person in the group. “I think we all must like unconventional. Just look at us.”
That comment even got Lily to smile. She had put on a little weight as they traveled through Mage Merran’s lands, but that drawn look of pain never really went away.
“You may leave your horses here. Take any personal belongings with you, as we have prepared quarters for you on the other side of the Tower. Mage Merran would like to meet you as soon as you have settled, bathed and have fresh garments.”
Norra thought how gracious, but wondered if she could risk leaving her doll in her saddlebag, but no other alternative remained. They dismounted. Namen collected Lily’s belongings and put them in one side of his saddlebag and put food and other things in her bag, which remained on her horse. He had to help her walk for a bit to work out the stiffness in her leg. She still limped.
Norra ended up carrying her pack with her. So much was travelworn it seemed that the only appropriate thing to do would be to throw them away.
She looked up at the Tower. It looked ancient. The rocks that made up most of the outer wall looked old and quite a bit of the mortar had worn away. She noticed Namen touch the walls.
“Reinforced with magic, if that’s what you were thinking. Even that’s old work,” he said.
They continued around the tower to a courtyard garden. Spring flowers poked through rich dirt, brightening it up. Some trees were still resisting the urge to sprout leaves, but she could see the buds swelling. She could feel a cool moist breeze coming from the west off the Crystal Sea, which reminded her of Cloud. She sighed and wondered where Cloud, the wizard, lived.
Their escort led them up steps to a double door set in a stone facade. Everything looked new. They entered and over polished black stone floors they saw a large hall with windows facing out towards the water. They could barely make out the shore that was miles away on the other side of the inland sea. Roofs of other tower buildings below them kept the shore out of sight.
She walked to the windows and then Namen and Lily joined her and they all looked at the sea as a man dressed in purple robes walked into the room. It must be the mage. He was short and starting to gray, but possessed a light step and a bit of a twinkle in his eye. She hadn’t thought of mages as cheerful people, yet here one was.
“I am Jorell, the Mage’s uncle. If you would follow me, I will lead you below to your quarters. If you would return to this room in two hours, you will get to meet Mage Merran.”
So the mage was this man’s nephew. He must be young indeed. “How old must a tower mage be?” she asked Namen quietly as they left the room.
“It all depends on power and knowledge. Mage Merran is reputed to be young and a very powerful and brilliant student. I understood he astonished the Nine when he undertook his challenge for this tower mage opening. I wasn’t ready.”
Norra entered her apartment. It smelled of fresh paint and everything sparkled. On a large bed, lay five dresses and a black leather coat, vest and pants with a silk blouse folded next to it.
It had been weeks since she wore a dress and it surprised her how much she desired to wear one. She put each one in front of her, hoping that they fit. She walked around her apartment and went through an open door to a bathroom. Steaming water filled a large marble tub. Oils and soaps lined one side of it. A pile of towels sat on a bench along with a selection of new underclothes.
She stripped on the spot and slipped into the bath. How long had it been? Delia’s village of Laput, she decided. Could she have gone that long without doing more than an odd rinsing in a frigid stream along the trail? She opened bottles of oil and sniffed. She selected a bar of scented soap that reminded her of home and began to clean off weeks of dirt. A pile of hand squares sat on the rim and it astonished her that she went through three of them as she took the grime of travel off of her body.
Her hair hadn’t grown that much since the night of the attack by Mage Bistomer’s wizards. She paused for a moment and remembered the fire that killed Bloggo. Doing that also brought Fenning into her mind and then a progression of Delia, Cloud and then at the last, Herran. People who had come into her life and left their mark. People she wouldn’t see again. All of this time and so many people had come into and out of her life. Too many changes. Some of those changes were good and some weren’t, but too many were just plain unsettling.
Her thoughts turned to her father and mother. Had they given up hope of seeing their daughter again? She shook her head and wished she could talk to them.
Norra relaxed her body and and let the heat do its work. The bath felt good after so long.
~
A knock on the door woke her as she napped on the bed and a young girl’s voice reminded her that it was just about time to meet the Mage. She rose and examined what was laid out at the dressing table. How long had it been since she used cosmetics? Miss Poddy’s. She sat down in clean underclothes and sniffed perfumes and felt the waxiness of hair pomade.
Norra looked at her face and wondered where to begin. She’d start with her hair and brushed and brushed so that it fell down in soft curls from a part in the middle. She took scissors and trimmed the ends a bit, evening them out in the front. Her skills weren’t up to tackling the back of her short hair.
A touch of rouge went on to even out the still-pale cheek from the one more tanned. Dipping her finger in a pot of lip rouge, she put a thin layer on her lips. She took a soft cloth and rubbed more of the rouge off of her tanned cheek. There. That would have to do with her limited expertise. She wouldn’t touch her dark eyebrows and lashes. A few months at Miss Poddy’s didn’t get too far into how to make one’s face. She looked at the other items and let them rest except for a touch of perfume. Her mother always told her that a little went a long way and heeded her advice.
Her eyes welled up a bit as thoughts of her paren
ts had been spotty once they had boarded ship in Nastalia. She took a deep breath and stood, looking at the results. Not bad and then she realized that she looked older, a bit gaunt after all of her travels, but more fit. Miss Poddy would not approve.
The mossy green dress, she thought. Not too dark, not too bright, not too colorful. She put it on and the dress fit very well indeed. She saw a row of shoes by the table and tried a few on. Some fit and some didn’t. Everything else had fit so well and somehow the varied selection made her feel more comfortable that the Mage didn’t seem to know everything.
She jumped at the knock on the door and hadn’t realized how nervous she felt. Lily stood there as Norra opened the door. She had to put her hand to her face as she looked at the former robber’s attempt at putting on cosmetics.
“Yeah. Go ahead and laugh,” Lily said as she pushed past her, limping into the room. “I’m just glad I didn’t run into anyone when I crossed the hall.” She looked at Norra and made a face. Then both girls collapsed in laughter.
“I suppose you want me to help you,” Norra said with her hands on her hips.
“Could you? How could I go out wearing this gown and a painted face?” They laughed again as Norra led her to the dressing table.
“The first thing we’ll do is start fresh.” Norra was relieved to find out that whatever Lily had put around her lips and eyes could be washed off. She had looked more like a raccoon with lip rouge on than anything else and her hair could use a little work.
It took awhile, but Norra stood back and looked at Lily in the mirror.
“Now, that’s better,” Lily said with a little wonder in her voice. “Could you teach me how to do that?”
Norra shrugged. “I guess so. I will admit that Miss Poddy knew how to use this stuff much better than I, but we can go over some real basics tomorrow, if we have time. “ She thought it a matter of luck that Lily’s thick auburn hair had grown out enough from her usual hacked off ends to be back brushed and made to do something more than just cover her head. “I think Namen should be pleased.”