by Tanya Huff
Micholai stood frozen, knowing full well he'd had nothing to do with this but afraid to lower his arm. Only when it was finally over, when the danger had been diverted past the town, did he let it drop to his side, pins and needles wrapped around it from elbow to fingertip. "Why?" he demanded.
Magdelene stepped back as the first of the hysterically grateful townspeople threw themselves down the length of the retaining wall. "I try to keep a low profile," she explained, not entirely truthfully. A dozen clutching hands all tried to get a piece of the wizard who'd saved the town. "Besides, you're the one in the robe."
* * * *
"It's a beautiful spring day out there, Micholai. Too bad you can't leave the room without being swarmed." Magdelene ignored the scowl he shot her and dropped her travelling bag on the floor by the wide balcony doors. "Wait until you see what I bought. It's exactly what we need for travelling up into the mountains. You know, this really is a very nice place." Her fingers stroked the soft nap of a brilliantly patterned multicoloured shawl. "The weavers here do the most amazing things with sheep. Pity you couldn't have come with me."
"Magdelene..."
"Of course, that robe of yours does make you stick out like a tall, dark, sore thumb."
"Magdelene..."
"Still, everyone knows you're a wizard, and that is what's important, people throwing themselves at your feet, kissing your hem, even if it does keep you cooped up on such a..."
"Magdelene!" He crossed the room and grabbed her shoulders. "I got the point the first time. I'm not stupid!"
The corners of her mouth quirked up. "Of course you're not," she told him kindly, grey eyes sparkling. "You're a wizard."
It was probably fortunate that a sudden knock at the door cut off his reply.
"Hey, Magdelene! Where do you want the carpet?"
"Over there by the window, Bruno."
The burly man followed her pointing finger, the huge roll of carpet resting lightly on one broad shoulder. "You had to be on the top floor," he grumbled good-naturedly. "Couldn't be down at street level. Oh no. Had to be up three flights of stairs."
"I did it on purpose." Magdelene watched appreciatively as he crossed the room. "I wanted to see those rippling muscles covered in a fine sheen of sweat."
He laughed and let the carpet fall. "Well, as long as you had a good reason. Maybe we should try it out, you and I." He turned, saw Micholai, and blushed a deep crimson. "Lord Wizard. Your pardon. I didn't see!" The speed of his exit invalidated the common belief that big men were slow men.
Micholai spread his hands helplessly at Magdelene's glower. "I didn't do it on purpose!"
"I know you didn't." Her expression softened as she realized how much the porter's reaction really had upset him, and she decided that lessons were over for the moment. After all, she still had five days on the trail to make him into a human being. "Don't worry about it. Come and see what I bought."
"I thought you'd never been to Sherilac before?"
"I haven't." Tongue between her teeth, she worked at the cords holding the carpet rolled.
"But he spoke like he knew you..."
"Who? Bruno? I met him this morning."
Micholai shook his head and couldn't help a note of censure creeping into his voice. "You shouldn't tease strangers like that."
"I shouldn't or wizards shouldn't?"
"Uh..."
She laughed, much as Bruno had, and leapt up off her knees. "Then you'll be happy to know, I wasn't, in the strictest sense of the word, teasing."
He shook his head. "You couldn't have meant to... I mean, wizards don't!"
"Of course they do. Where do you think little wizards come from?"
"He's a porter!"
"He's gorgeous," Magdelene corrected. "All broad and musclely. And he's a nice man. And your attitude is beginning to irritate me. Fortunately, I refuse to allow you to ruin my good mood." With a wave of her hand, the carpet unrolled. "What do you think?"
Greens and blues and oranges and yellows, in every possible variation of non-complementary shades, chased each other around and around and around the border. The central design was... Micholai squinted, but it didn't help. He had no idea what the central design was. Was, in fact, willing to believe that it hadn't been designed at all. That it had just happened. It wasn't the sort of carpet any wizard would be caught dead on. He opened his mouth to tell her so, had a sudden memory of thousands of tons of moving water rising into the air, wondered just how irritated an honest response would get her, and said, "I bet you got a good deal on it."
"You wouldn't believe it." She set her travelling bag over a particularly virulent bit of pattern and dropped down beside it. "Well, come on."
Micholai took a step backwards. "Where?"
"To see the Council of Wizards. Remember?"
"On that?"
"Why not?"
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, completely in control for the first time since his failure at the coral wall. Her stunt with the river had almost had him believing that most-powerful-wizard-in-the-world stuff. "Magdelene, flying carpets are a myth. Extensive research has proven that not only did the spell to energize them never exist, but that carpets are basically so non-aerodynamic that they wouldn't... wouldn't... uh..."
The carpet hovered two feet off the floor, fringes quivering as though it were anxious to be off.
Magdelene gave him her second best smile. "You coming or just breathing hard?"
"Magdelene!"
"Oh, calm down and sit." She patted a luminously awful bit of weave beside her.
Fingers folded tightly around his crystal, Micholai shook his head.
"Either get on, or I'm leaving without you."
A sudden vision of how the council would react to Magdelene arriving unescorted moved him carefully onto the carpet. They deserved a warning, at least. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
She shrugged as they flew out the window and began to climb. "How hard can it be? There's nothing up here to hit. Besides..." Lounging back against her travelling case, she waved at an astonished gull. "...if you think I'm spending five long, tiring days slogging up a mountain, you're out of your mind."
As the phrase I'm out of my mind had just been in the forefront of Micholai's thoughts, he closed his eyes, tried not to think about how far it was to the ground, and decided not to argue.
* * * *
The five days of travel differed only in that Micholai finally relaxed enough to open his eyes and look down. Once. Then he wished he hadn't as Magdelene, encouraged by his interest, put the carpet through two loops and a barrel roll.
But the nights...
The first night, Magdelene pulled a red and white striped tent, two folding beds, a four course meal, a pair of crystal goblets, and a bottle of very good wine out of a travelling bag six inches wide by a little over twice that high.
"H... h... how?" Micholai's fingers were white around the edges of the full plate he'd just been handed.
Magdelene looked confused. "Micholai, you're a wizard. How do you think?"
Micholai blushed. "Oh. Right."
On the second night, prompted by the screech of an owl in the darkness, Magdelene told of her encounter with the last of the great dragons and the half dozen knights who were determined to kill it. With her legs tucked up under her and the fire dancing flame coloured highlights through her hair, she barely looked old enough to be dragon bait let alone dragon saviour.
Micholai listened, eyes wide. Had he heard the story from anyone else, about anyone else, he would have reacted with awe. It was, however, impossible to be in awe of Magdelene, no matter what she did – although an incident involving two of the knights had him as close to awe as he was likely to get.
The third night, after supper, she asked him what it was he liked about being a wizard. Something in her tone convinced him that she really wanted to hear the answer. Although his list began in council-approved places, under the power of her listening, he
discovered joys he'd forgotten during the long years of training.
"...but I guess what I really like is that, well, terrific feeling that comes from doing something so absolutely wondrous and impossible."
Later, after the fire had died to white-red embers, he heard her say, so softly he wasn't sure she was speaking to him, "You didn't mention the robe."
On the fourth night, one of the crystal glasses shattered, and without thinking, Micholai fused the pieces back into a seamless whole.
Magdelene gave him her second best smile, but said only, "Thank you."
On the fifth night, Magdelene discovered that Micholai possessed a fine tenor voice. She kept him singing until he pleaded for sleep.
"You couldn't have decided to sing four nights ago," she sighed as they made their way to their separate beds. "You just had to wait until the last night..."
* * * *
The stronghold of the Council of Wizards looked pretty much exactly the way tradition suggested it should. Thick stone walls surrounded a cluster of buildings dominated by the brooding bulk of a tower. The original builders had used the local granite and in the early morning sun the whole place gleamed a soft off-white.
"Almost pretty," Magdelene observed as they swooped over the last mile.
"Land outside the wall," Micholai told her, cracking one eye open just enough to see where they were.
"Don't be silly. Tell me where it is and I'll land right in the council chamber."
"Magdelene, there's a ring of defensive spells..."
The carpet passed over the outer battlements. Micholai made choking noises.
Magdelene reached over and patted him on one robe-covered knee. "Look, I really don't want to get you in trouble, so I'll set her down here in the courtyard. Okay?"
"Just land. Please."
The inhabitants of the stronghold froze at their tasks and watched in astonishment as the world's ugliest carpet drifted gently to the ground. They stared from windows and doorways as a chestnut-haired woman wearing turquoise trousers and a salmon pink tunic stood, stretched, and declared in ringing tones, "There now, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
Expressions changed as they recognized her companion.
"Micholai! What do you think you're doing?"
Micholai scrambled to his feet and tried, unsuccessfully, to smooth the creases from his robe. "Lady Wizard Gillian! I, uh... That is, we... Uh, I mean... This is Magdelene."
"So I assumed." Gillian shot a venomous glare over Micholai's shoulder. "I don't know what you're trying to prove, missy, but research has determined that flying carpets are not possible."
Magdelene blinked.
"And what's more, those defensive spells on the wall were put there for a reason. You had no business going through them in such a way."
"How should I have gone through them?"
"How should you have gone through them?" Gillian snorted. "And you call yourself the most powerful wizard in the world. Ha."
"Uh, Lady Wizard Gillian..."
"Be quiet, Micholai." Gillian turned, sketched two arcane symbols in the air and declaimed two lines in a language that seemed mostly made up of consonants. An unseen bell in the tower began to toll. "The COUNCIL OF WIZARDS will meet immediately," she declared, spun on one heel, and strode away. "As you have brought her this far, Micholai, you can escort her to the council chamber."
"Did she have an unhappy childhood or something?" Magdelene asked as Micholai indicated they should follow the senior wizard.
His brows drew down, and his right hand rose to wrap around his crystal. "Magdelene, you've got to start taking this seriously."
"Oh, I am," she told him, motioning for her travelling bag to go on ahead.
Somehow, he wasn't reassured.
* * * *
"Magdelene, you stand accused before this COUNCIL OF WIZARDS of actions endangering all wizards." The Lord Wizard Wang Fu leaned forward, palms flat on the high oak bench the council used when it sat in session. "To wit, stirring up the rancor of the demonkind by wilfully destroying one of their princes."
"Is that what all this is about?"
"Isn't it enough!" Lady Wizard Fatima exclaimed, tapping one polished fingernail against the wood. "The completely unnecessary destruction of the sixth demon prince has upset the balance of power and put us all in a great deal of danger."
Magdelene stopped trying to find a comfortable position in the intricately carved marble chair, suspecting she'd found the reason why the council seemed so generally cranky. "You seem to be forgetting that I upset the balance of power in our favour," she pointed out.
Lady Wizard Tatianya shook her head, grey curls whipping back and forth. "No, no, no. Balance is the important factor when dealing with the Netherhells. Our favour, their favour – all that is completely unimportant."
"It was important to me at the time," Magdelene said dryly. "What does the council suggest I should have done when Kan'Kon challenged me?"
"You should not have accepted the challenge." Wang Fu was adamant. The rest of the council nodded agreement.
"Trust me on this one. Demons don't work that way."
"We know how demons operate." Lord Wizard Manuel sniffed. "We have devoted years to the study of the Netherhells."
Lord Wizard Manuel had lovely dark eyes and long sultry eyelashes. Magdelene decided she didn't like him anyway. "Ever been there?" she asked.
"Don't be impertinent. It is a well-known fact that wizards can not survive in the Netherhells."
Magdelene rolled her eyes. "Suit yourself," she muttered. "You will anyway."
Lady Wizard Gillian, a white and purple crystal of truly immense proportions cupped in both hands, cleared her throat, the sound pulling the other members of the council around to face her. "Your wilful and unnecessary action," she declared, "has stirred up the Netherhells. We are therefore decided to take action before we are all swept away on a crimson tide of revenge."
"Oh, puh-lease..."
"This council can no longer allow you to continue blithely doing whatever you wish." Gillian's lips thinned. "We were, in the past, prepared to be lenient..."
"About what?" Magdelene interjected.
"The demon you keep in your household for starters," Fatima declared.
"I saved her life. By demonic rules that makes her life mine."
Gillian waved that away. "We know you consorted with a bard."
Magdelene leaned forward. "Consorted?" she repeated.
"You bore him a son!" Fatima said scornfully. "Don't deny it!"
"Oh, I wasn't denying it," Magdelene explained. "I just thought you needed a stronger verb."
"As I said," Gillian snapped, "we were prepared to be lenient in spite of your refusal to act as befits your power. You have been, for all the centuries of this council, a disgrace, a disgrace do you hear me, to the title Lady Wizard. You ignore our traditions, you scoff at our authority..."
"I didn't even know you existed until Micholai landed in my backyard."
"My point exactly. We are THE COUNCIL OF WIZARDS. What are you? You have no crystal! You have no robe!"
"I wondered when we were going to get to that," Magdelene murmured.
Gillian surged to her feet, eyes blazing. "And yet you dare to place us in danger! Power confers a responsibility you have chosen to ignore. You have given us no choice. We are forced to remove your power!"
The silence that fell was terrible and profound. The council stared at Magdelene, their expressions ranging from gentile superiority to barely concealed glee. Magdelene stared back at the council, her expression nearly making it to polite interest.
"You think," Gillian continued, crystal swinging back against her chest with a meaty thud, "that we can't do this. We have heard you call yourself the most powerful wizard in the world." Her eyes narrowed. "But there are five of us and only one of you. I think you'll find that our combined power is not to be scoffed at."
"Was I scoffing?"
"Research has proven," Manuel
said smoothly, "That you can not win if you choose to fight."
"Fight?" Magdelene rested one hand against her breast. "Me? I readily admit to being lazier than any other five wizards of my acquaintance. You'll get no fight from me."
Gillian lowered herself slowly back into her chair. "I'm glad to see you're being so reasonable about the inevitable. You'll find we can be reasonable as well; have you any words to speak in your defence?"
"No." Magdelene stood and brushed her hair back out of her eyes. "But I have a couple to say about yours. One." She ticked the points on her fingers. "You might just as well transport in and out of this place; there's enough power gathered here that every map in the Netherhells has this place marked with a big red x. I may have stirred up the demonkind, but if they attack here it's not my fault. Large concentrations of wizards never last long."
"We have lasted over two and a half centuries," Wang Fu sneered.
Magdelene sighed. "I have hickeys older than that. Two, rules and regulations won't work against the demonkind. They don't follow your rules, they follow their own, and those change without notice. Three," she spread her hands, "you'd be a lot more comfortable out of those robes."
"Enough of this mockery!" Gillian bellowed, slamming her fist down on the table. "We will deal with you now! Draw the circles. Light the incense."
Magdelene obliged.
"Not you!" Gillian shrieked.
With varying degrees of annoyance, the council moved to enclose Magdelene in their midst.
"Should I sit, stand, what?" she asked.
"It doesn't matter," Tatianya spat, taking her position. "You'll soon be put in your place."
On Gillian's signal, the council began to chant. With right hands cupped around crystals, they extended the left so that a quintet of palms faced inward. It didn't take long. The five crystals flared briefly then dimmed. The five members of the council looked pleased with themselves.
Magdelene scratched her nose. "So, I assume if I throw myself on the mercy of the council I can get a lift home?"
* * * *
Kali turned from the sink at the crack of displaced air. "Back already, Mistress?"