Salamander

by David D. Friedman

  Ellen looked curious and uncomprehending; he again thought a moment before explaining. "I'm going to have to oversimplify, ignore the differences among mages, the effects of distance and geography, and a lot more. Imagine you are starting with a pool of four mages plus one focus. The focus needs his power to control the process.

  "Pulling someone into the Cascade costs you power, but doing it gains you power—both the new member's current pool and his ability to slowly refill it. Suppose each mage added to the Cascade costs you twice as much power as he brings. You start with four mages, use up their pooled power bringing in two, use up their pooled power bringing in one. You now have seven mages in the Cascade and not enough power to bring in another—the series converges. If you are patient enough, and if you can hold the present group together without spending power, you could wait a day or two for the pools to refill and get about five more, but it would be a slow process.

  "Suppose instead that each mage added costs you half as much power as he brings. Four bring in eight, eight bring in sixteen, sixteen bring in thirty-two. The series diverges. In almost no time you pull everyone in the region into the pool.

  "Generalizing, if the efficiency is below one, the series converges and the Cascade breaks down. If it is above one the Cascade works. When I wrote my first schema for the Cascade, its efficiency was at about eight parts out of ten; ten mages had enough power to pull in eight. By the time I did the full scale experiment, it was up to nearly eleven. I might be able to get it a little higher, but not much."

  "So the series diverges, the Cascade works, but barely, and you end up with most of your mages depleted?"

  "For a while. But remember you still have their inflow. You end up with pooled power from the final layer of additions, the inflow from everyone. As I said, I'm leaving out a lot, but that's the basic logic of it."

  Ellen thought a moment, spoke slowly: "So if you could somehow push the efficiency down a little, by making the cost of pulling someone in a little higher, the Cascade breaks down?"

  Coelus nodded. "But I don't see how. It's hard enough to put a protective sphere around the King with a whole team of mages. Now you want to put one around every mage in the kingdom."

  Ellen nodded. "Smaller bubbles are a lot easier. And weak bubbles; they don't have to stop the Cascade, just make it a little harder. I'm not sure we can do it, but I'm not sure we can't."

  "It still sounds impossible,” Coelus said, “but I agree that it is worth trying to follow out that line to be sure. Most ideas don't work; you just have to keep trying until you find one that does."

  Ellen looked again at his face, gave a relieved smile. "I have an idea that will work."

  "And what is that, most original of students?"

  "Sleep. Both of us need it; it's past matins. Good night; I'm for my room."

  She went out of the room. Coelus looked after her for a moment, then turned back to his wax tablet, stared at it blindly for several minutes before getting up from his chair.

  Chapter 14

  "You asked for an audience. What can one of my uncle's mages want from me?"

  The room was bare of ornament save for a richly woven rug whose blue and silver echoed the silk robes of its owner. Fieras paused a moment to be sure he had his carefully rehearsed speech clearly in mind. "I am no longer in His Highness's service, my lord. For causes that are closely linked to my reasons for coming to you."

  Lord Iolen said nothing, waited.

  "I discovered His Highness engaged in a project about which I had serious suspicions. When I raised them, he arranged to have me accused of misuse of magic, convicted me, and on that excuse released me from his service."

  "It must have been a serious matter to lead to such consequences. Tell me about this project."

  Fieras paused a moment, did his best to look undecided. "His Highness is a powerful man, and I will be telling things he does not wish known. Can your lordship promise me your protection?"

  "I am not without resources. If what you tell me can be used against my uncle, I will protect you so far as I am able. If I cannot, I will at least do my best to get you safely out of the kingdom."

  "I rely upon it, my Lord."

  Fieras paused. "What does your Lordship know of the mage's college at Southdale and of a mage there named Coelus?"

  "It has the patronage of His Highness and His Majesty. Some of its graduates are in my service, more in my uncle's. I am familiar with none of the mages who teach there. What more should I know?"

  Fieras spoke carefully. "Magister Coelus is, at least in His Highness's view, talented not so much in the use of magery as in its invention. He has created spells, some in common use. He is now creating a spell so powerful that His Highness, on learning of it, dropped everything he was doing and set off for Southdale. I accompanied him. He has made arrangements with all who knew of the spell intended to prevent anyone else from learning of it."

  "Secrecy has been so high that its nature has been kept even from those in his service. His excuse was that a group of mages wielding the spell would constitute a threat to His Majesty; he feared enemies outside the kingdom, if they learned of it, might work out the necessary schema for themselves. It is most disturbing that His Highness wishes to restrict knowledge of so potent a weapon to himself and a handful of mages under his control, especially since he is himself both a mage and heir presumptive."

  Fieras fell silent. Iolen thought a moment before speaking: “I understand your concern. What do you propose that I do?”

  “Your Lordship has contacts within the military. If some high ranking officer friendly to your Lordship was willing to detach a suitable force, on the understanding that the secret you searched for would be of great use in war … . His Highness is now considering how to deal with the Forstings at the far northern reaches of the Kingdom, or so it is said. The College will soon be empty of students and half empty of magisters. Coelus might well be persuaded, threatened or spelled to yield up his secrets, to serve the kingdom.”

  “An interesting plan, and a token of your loyalty. I will consider it. Meanwhile I suggest that you move your possessions here. I shall instruct my people to provide you with suitable accommodations. The fewer who know of these matters the better, I think—though not quite so few as my uncle would prefer.”

  “I thank your Lordship. There is one more thing I ought to mention.”

  Iolen said nothing, waited.

  “Three mages who took part in an early trial of the spell are in His Highness’s custody. I believe I know where. He intends to block their memories, which will take time. If your lordship could find a way of getting to them and the knowledge they hold, you would have as much information as His Highness does. If we are unable to obtain the services of the mage who invented the spell, we might obtain clues from them.”

  Lord Iolen thought a moment, nodded. "Access should not be difficult; the golden key opens all doors. We cannot seize them, but there may be another solution."

  ***

  The two girls watched the coach rumble out of sight bearing their friends home for the summer break. "Edwin wasn't with them,” Ellen remarked to Mari. “Isn't he going home?"

  "He took the coach yesterday, and skipped the dinner last night."

  "That's odd. Did he say why? Something wrong at home?"

  "He didn't say, but it was obvious enough,” Mari said. “He didn't want to spend two days in the same coach with Alys."

  "He spent a lot of time with her last break,” Ellen said, puzzled. “I thought they were friends."

  "They were friends. The problem is that that was all Alys wanted to be."

  "And Edwin?"

  "Last week Edwin asked her to marry him. He’s in love. He wanted her permission to request his parents over break to speak to hers."

  "And Alys doesn't want to?" Ellen asked.

  "Alys is happy to have men in love with her, three or four at a time by preference. College would be perfect for her, if only she didn't hav
e to actually learn something here. She keeps them all interested by not favoring any one too much. When she drew the line with Edwin, he, being a nice boy, proposed. Having no desire for a big belly with or without a wedding ring to accompany it, she turned him down."

  "He has been quieter than usual the last few days. I thought it was just the end of term, with everyone about to go off. How did you … ?"

  "How do you see things with your eyes closed? It's been obvious for the past month. And I have had the story from both of them separately. Poor Edwin. Two days in a coach with Alys would amuse her, but he’d be a wreck. Besides, a girl who likes lots of men in love with her is a bad prospect for a wife. I just hope he can get over it. He needs someone else. There are many more girls in the capital than here, so with luck … ."

  The two fell silent, Mari watching Ellen. After a minute she spoke again: "Edwin isn't the only man in the college who is in love."

  Ellen said nothing.

  "Alys is right, you know; anyone with eyes can see it. When you and Coelus are in the same room, he is almost always looking at you. The tone of his voice when he speaks to you is different. It's as if, for him, the rest of us are only half real. One of these days, or months, or years, he is going to ask you if he can speak to your mother. If you don't want that to happen, you should be thinking now of what to do. If you do want it … . "

  "And what about me?" Ellen's tone was light, almost careless, if the listener had not known her. "What can anyone with eyes see?"

  "You have more practice hiding things than he does. Seeing you together it might be only a partnership of minds. But the tone of your voice when you mention him is different, just a little, from when you talk about anyone else."

  Ellen looked down a moment, then back at Mari. "Suppose you had been living in a foreign country for a long time, doing your best to speak their language, dress the way they do, fit in, and then you met someone from your own country who spoke your language and understood you when you spoke it. That is what it is like. I am not sure if I'm in love with him—but I know that the College would feel cold and empty if he left."

  Mari nodded her understanding, gave her friend a quick hug. It was some time before Ellen spoke again, this time in a deliberately casual tone.

  "How are you getting home?"

  "Riding, thanks be. Father wanted to send a coach, but since you weren't willing to accompany me to Northpass, I persuaded him to send two men and my favorite mare instead—they're at the inn waiting for me. It's beautiful weather, nice countryside, good roads. What about you?"

  "I'm staying for another couple of weeks to finish a project with Magister Coelus. After that I plan to go home for a while. I have quite a lot to tell Mother and I hope she will have ideas that will help me with my work. Will you be at Northpass all summer?"

  Mari shrugged. "I expect to be with the family all summer. Father thinks the Forstings on the other side of the pass are up to something. After he and Prince Kieron deal with it or prove Father wrong, I expect to be back at our townhouse in the capital. If you have time free later in the summer, you might visit. If I am still up north I can leave word to lend you a horse. You can ride up—it's only about four days travel, the last through pretty empty country, but I expect you can protect yourself well enough."

  Ellen nodded. "Yes. And thank you for not saying so last time, when Alys was being silly about my riding home alone. I expect I am less at risk than anyone else in the College, but it doesn't do to say so."

  The two girls were quiet for a while, absorbed in their own thoughts, until a familiar voice interrupted.

  "Did everyone get off all right? Would’ve said goodbye, but something came up." Jon stopped for a moment. Ellen, correctly reading his glowing face, put the question. "What sort of something? Did your plan to get a free ride work out?"

  "Not yet. Not sure if they needed an extra groom or not. Expect I will manage, one way or another, but not this week."

  Mari interrupted him. "Because? You look like my younger brother, opening gifts on midwinter day. Tell us what happened."

  "It's the library. Magister Jerik offered me room and board the next two weeks, exchange for helping with the manuscripts in the back room. There are all sorts of things there," he turned to Ellen, "including a draft of Olver's first treatise in his own handwriting! Thought you would find that interesting."

  "Very. So will Coelus. It might clear up some of the things we were not sure about when we read through the treatise. Could you tell how close it was to the published text?"

  Jon shook his head. "No. After the first few pages, I get lost. It’s for you and Magister Coelus, not me. But a lot of other interesting things there, and I get to read all of them! Need to go home eventually—mother and father and all the younger ones will want to see me. But I can wait till the coach people are willing to trade a free ride for help with the horses, and the longer it takes … "

  "… the more of the library you get to absorb. Mari is leaving, but I'll be here a bit longer, so if you want my help, just ask."

  ***

  Fieras entered the room, a thick sheaf of papers in one hand, bowed to Lord Iolen.

  "You have read it all?"

  "I have. I am impressed. I am not sure I want to know how your Lordship managed it, but I am curious to know what the condition of the three mages is and how soon His Highness will discover that someone else has gotten at them."

  Iolen responded with a cold smile:

  "Sometimes a little thought does more than either force or magery. The three mages are in the same condition my man found them in. With reasonable luck, my uncle will never know."

  Fieras said nothing, but his face spoke for him.

  "How did I do it? My man, a mage skilled in the art of improving recollection, visited each of the three. He explained that, to implement the process for memory elimination, a complete account was required. He wrote it down. We now have a better description of the Cascade experiment than His Highness does."

  Fieras looked down at the papers. "What each did, where he stood, what the symbols were, what the other mages did. All here. Have you further stratagems for possessing the Cascade, now that we know what we are looking for?"

  "I have. I considered simply reporting to His Majesty his brother's plot against him. But that might only rouse his ire. His Majesty is unfortunately only too willing to trust His Highness.

  "Better, perhaps, to seize possession of the spell ourselves. For His Majesty’s use in the defense of the kingdom, of course.” Lord Iolen nodded towards the papers in Fieras’s hands. “It seems that His Highness knows of the Cascade but does not yet possess the spell in a safely usable form. Performed only once, it killed the mage casting it. The mage who devised it, with further efforts, should be able to perfect it. I do not know why my uncle has not yet arranged for him to do so, but his failure is our opportunity."

  Fieras paused, then spoke. "I believe that Magister Coelus was reluctant to cooperate; I am not sure why. Perhaps he no longer cared to see his creation put to use. There was also a girl, his leman, I presume; her role is uncertain. His Highness would no doubt have finished dealing with the matter, but the recent difficulties in the north … "

  "Interrupted him, giving us our opportunity. I intend to take it.

  "I have sent a message to Captain Geffron, commander of the nearest garrison to Southdale. He owes his present position to my patronage, and is a patriot. For a spell useful in the defense of the kingdom, he would not scruple to provide us any aid within his power.

  "Reveal nothing of the precise nature of the spell to anyone. I have means of assuring the silence of the memory mage who obtained it for me. Consult with the learned Rikard about what resources we will require and which mages we will want to employ. I have instructed him to put a protective spell on the papers I have given you. You will take care to reveal nothing, to anyone."

  Lord Iolen cast Fieras a stern look. The mage nodded. "I understand, your Lordship, and I will
obey."

  "See that you do. I am able to properly reward obedience. Also disobedience. I will send Rikard to your room in a little while; be there."

  Once back in his room, Fieras considered his situation. It would be prudent, for the moment, to seem to be entirely obedient to his lord's commands. But something in the conversation … Once Iolen had the schema for the Cascade, there was one reliable way of ensuring the silence of others who knew of it. A pity he hadn’t the name of the memory mage.

  Coelus looked up from the pile of papers on his desk, face alight, as Ellen came through the open door. "I've found her."

  Ellen looked puzzled. "Found who? What are those?"

  "Letters; your friend Jon found them, going through stacks of documents in the back room of the library. When I searched the library three years ago I was looking for records and treatises. I must have skipped right over these."

  "What sort of letters?"

  "Letters from a mage named Ascun, one of the magisters here, to another mage named Ger. Ger must have become a magister later; that would explain how the letters ended up here." He paused a moment. "They were written forty-eight years ago. "

  There was an expectant silence.

  "Just before the sphere was created?"

  "Yes. Less than a year before if I have worked the dates out correctly."

  "And what did you find in the letters?"

  "A name. Melia."

  Ellen gave him a surprised look, said nothing, waited.

  "Melia was a weaving mage close to Durilil. Ascun calls her a witch, of course. A very accomplished weaving mage. Lovers or friends, nobody seems to know."

  He paused, then looked at Ellen. "But everyone knew that they were working together. Weaving mages are not that common. Odds are a hundred to one that she's the other mage, the weaver who helped him build the sphere."

  Ellen said nothing, so he went on. "Durilil was in his sixties, but she was younger. If she was thirty then, she could easily be still alive now. The schema for the sphere that we have is only the final step of their work; she must know a lot more. Someone must have heard of her around the College, or perhaps the Prince… ."