The Spriggan Mirror loe-9

by Lawrence Watt-Evans

  The spriggans considered that for a moment, while Karanissa silently asked him, “Have you gone completely mad?”

  “Notice,” he told her mentally, “that I never said anything about not allowing other wizards to take the mirror from him, should they decide it to be necessary.”

  “If you agree to this,” Gresh called to the spriggans, “then just say so. I’ll work the magic, and we can all go have fun—no more guarding caves!”

  “You not hurt mirror?” a spriggan asked hesitantly.

  “I swear to you, by my true name and all the gods, that I do not intend to damage the mirror.”

  “Wizard not hurt mirror?”

  “I swear to you, by my true name and all the gods, that if you let us take the mirror away, I will enchant the wizard Tobas of Telven with Javan’s Geas so that he cannot damage the mirror.”

  For a moment, then, the cave was utterly silent, as Gresh looked out over the crowd of spriggans and they stared back.

  Then one voice somewhere in the back said, “Fun!”

  With that a chorus of squeaking and squealing erupted. Gresh could not make out most of what was being said, but after a moment he got the definite impression that he had convinced a majority of his listeners and that they were attempting to persuade the rest.

  “What if Tobas doesn’t agree to go along with this?” Karanissa asked silently.

  “I wasn’t planning to give him a choice,” Gresh replied.

  With that he reached down and pulled two jars out of the battered wooden box, one of bright orange powder and the other of dark red. Then he asked Karanissa, “Is the magic still reversed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then we’ll have to wait a few more minutes.” He sat down on a convenient rock, the two jars cradled in his lap.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  While they waited, Gresh thought over the situation.

  It seemed to him that they were reaching a satisfactory conclusion to matters. With any luck his message had been received and understood in the world from which spriggans were reflected, and the mirror would be shut away in a box somewhere, ending the supply of spriggans. That removed it as any serious threat to the World. The half-million spriggans already in existence might be a nuisance, but they could be accepted; he did not want to aid in exterminating them. Ending the existence of half a million beings bright enough to talk, answer questions, and do all the other things that spriggans did struck him as a horrible idea, an unnecessary and unfair slaughter—after all, a good many of the spriggans had never bothered anyone, but had stayed here in the mountains guarding the mirror. That was almost noble, in a way.

  As long as the mirror produced no more, Gresh considered the problem to be adequately solved.

  His actual agreement with the Wizards’ Guild had been to deliver the mirror to Tobas, and he had every intention of doing that, so there was no problem there—except for the usual one of getting the Guild to live up to its end of the agreement. Tobas would undoubtedly tell them how he had not used any amazing magic or superhuman skills, but had merely backtracked the spriggans with common sense and a little sorcery, and there would also be the issue of not actually ensuring the mirror’s destruction, so the Guild might well try to wiggle out of paying him the promised youth spell. He would need to have arguments ready, pointing out that he was more than living up to his end of the bargain, and that the Guild would be well-served to see that he continued in his business as their best supplier of exotic ingredients.

  Aside from preparing his arguments, there were still a few other loose ends, as well. He would need to see that the mirror was secure, tucked away somewhere no one untrustworthy would meddle with it, and where the spriggans couldn’t easily change their minds and steal it. If possible, he wanted to convince the Guild not to destroy it; that would be simpler if he could offer them a way to deal with troublesome existing spriggans. While he wanted the mirror shut away somewhere, it needed to be stored in such a way that if any more spriggans did emerge, the Guild would be alerted, and the matter could be dealt with.

  Whoever was in charge of the mirror would want to be very sure that if it did produce more spriggans, those newly emerged spriggans could not carry the mirror off somewhere and hide it, starting the whole thing over again.

  Besides the various aspects of the mirror and the spriggans and the Wizards’ Guild, there was one other loose end. He glanced at her.

  The reflection of Karanissa’s reflection was sitting on a rock in the dimming twilight, watching the spriggans curiously.

  She considered herself a person, but Gresh was not at all sure she was right. Presumably she was just as indestructible as the mirror’s other creations, just as bound to the mirror’s condition. She did not seem hostile or difficult—in fact, she seemed more passive than the original Karanissa—but simply letting her wander off into the mountains did not seem safe or humane.

  Karanissa had said she wasn’t whole—perhaps something could be done about that. Gresh looked down at his open pack and the box of magical powders in the top.

  Javan’s Restorative would not do any good; she had never been complete. Lirrim’s Rectification, though, might turn her into the fully human creature she was meant to be. She would still look just like Karanissa, but that was not really much of a problem. Gresh had met identical twins who seemed to lead individual lives.

  Lirrim’s Rectification turned things into what they were meant to be, more or less. It was not always clear just what that was, since whatever power guided the spell did not always seem to use human logic, but in this case Gresh could see very few possibilities. It might do nothing, as it had on the mirror itself, but he thought it was more likely that it would turn a solidified image into whatever it was an image of. If so, it would turn the copy of Karanissa into a human being, and it would turn an ordinary spriggan into a real spriggan.

  If it worked that way, then the Guild could use Lirrim’s Rectification on troublesome spriggans. They would become real spriggans, which were presumably mortal and could be harmed, imprisoned, or killed. Such a transformation would surely be an adequate threat and appropriate penalty for misbehaving reflections.

  It would also mean there would be no need to destroy the mirror, though doing so would probably be far, far easier than casting Lirrim’s Rectification half a million times.

  Of course, no one knew just what real spriggans were like. They were presumably somewhat larger than their images, but there might be other differences, as well. Gresh was not about to try the Rectification on any spriggans. Let some wizard make the experiment.

  Gresh was not going to rush into using the spell on the image of Karanissa, either. For the present he just wanted to get the mirror safely stashed away somewhere such as Dwomor Keep. Once that was done...

  “There,” Karanissa said. “It’s returned to normal.”

  “Ah, good,” Gresh said. He lifted the pack off the mirror and quickly wrapped the glass in soft cloth, then tucked it away in the pack, below the box of powders.

  Dozens of spriggans watched him do this; none moved to intervene. Apparently his partisans had convinced the rest.

  He hoped his message had gotten through and been acted on—if not, he was going to have spriggans appearing in his backpack, which would be inconvenient, and he would need to find some other way to render the mirror harmless.

  “You’ll let us go back to Dwomor now?” he asked the spriggans.

  “Make promise! Make promise!”

  “Yes, of course—but then we can go and take the mirror with us?”

  “Take spriggans with you,” a large one said as solemnly as an eight-inch pop-eyed creature with a squeaky voice could.

  Gresh stopped. “What?”

  “Take spriggans!” several voices chorused.

  Gresh considered for a moment.

  They couldn’t mean they wanted to jam all half a million onto the carpet, or even just the thousand or two guarding the cave; even spriggans weren
’t that stupid.

  “You want to have a few spriggans there to make sure we take good care of the mirror?”

  “Yes! Yes!”

  “How many?” he asked.

  “Five?”

  “Four?”

  “Six?”

  “Lots!”

  “I’ll take four,” Gresh announced. “That should be enough.”

  There was some squeaking and muttering in response to that, but the objections did not seem very serious, so Gresh ignored them and started for the mouth of the cave.

  The sun was well down now, the sky darkening. Clambering over the rocks was not particularly enjoyable in the fading light. Gresh had to watch his footing. Once he emerged onto the meadow, though, he looked up and found a pair of huge red eyes staring at him.

  “Has anyone ever mentioned to you,” Tobas said conversationally, “that dragons have exceptionally good hearing?”

  Gresh blinked. “I can’t say I knew that,” he replied warily.

  “I hadn’t known it myself until I became a dragon,” Tobas said. “But I’ve found it’s quite true. Remarkably so. I heard every word you said to the spriggans.”

  “Ah,” Gresh said, noticing just how large the dragon’s fangs were and that he could see a faint smoldering glow coming from somewhere behind those fangs.

  “Tobas...” Karanissa began, from behind Gresh.

  “Fortunately,” the dragon said, interrupting her, “I think it’s a reasonable agreement. Still, I would appreciate it if in the future you would at least try to obtain my consent before casting spells on me.”

  “I was planning to,” Gresh said, trying to hide just how relieved he was. “I just wanted to get the hard part out of the way first, and I was fairly sure it would be easier to talk sense to you than to a horde of spriggans.”

  “Hmph,” said Tobas, producing a faint shower of sparks. Gresh quickly brushed off one that landed on the shoulder of his tunic. “Shall we get on with it, then?”

  “Keep the Spell of the Revealed Power handy, in case the spriggans change their minds,” Karanissa urged.

  Gresh glanced at her, trying to assess whether she was genuinely just trying to offer a helpful suggestion, or if there was some other reason she might want her husband turned into a dragon again, or if she was being sarcastic.

  He couldn’t tell. He liked to think he was fairly good at figuring women out, after growing up among twelve sisters, but he could read nothing from Karanissa’s expression. He decided not to worry about it as he readied the jar of orange powder that would cast Javan’s Restorative.

  “You might want to tell Ali what’s happening,” Karanissa suggested.

  “She’s feeding the baby,” Tobas said.

  “All the more reason to avoid any big surprises.”

  “Um,” Tobas said. He lifted his head and called, “Ali, Gresh is about to turn me back!”

  “Good!” Alorria shouted back. “Your clothes are... well, I did my best.”

  Gresh grimaced.

  The dragon’s immense head swung back around and lowered down toward Gresh as he raised a generous pinch of orange powder. He flung it at the dragon and shouted, “Esku!”

  The transformation was not quite as spectacular in this direction; rather than a golden flash and extensive reshaping, there was merely a flicker of blue, an odd shrinking, and then Tobas was standing in the meadow in human form, naked and blinking.

  “Hai,” he said. “That was odd.” His voice was faint and unsteady. He turned his head to one side, then to the other. “It’s so stiff,” he said. “And everything’s so dim and warm and quiet.”

  “What’s stiff?” Gresh asked.

  “My neck.” The wizard stretched, rolling his head from side to side. “That long neck was really rather convenient.”

  “You’ll have to tell us about it sometime,” Gresh said. “But first...” He flung a pinch of dark red powder at Tobas and proclaimed, “Never give anyone the spriggan mirror—esku!”

  The powder flashed and vanished.

  Another pinch followed before Tobas had even finished blinking.

  “Never harm the spriggan mirror in any way—esku!”

  Several nearby spriggans applauded at that.

  Tobas raised an arm to shield his eyes as Gresh flung a third dose and announced, “Never take to a place where wizardry does not work—esku!”

  The spriggans applauded more vigorously as Gresh capped the jars of powder and put them away. Tobas stood, looking around at the hundreds of leaping, cheering creatures.

  Then Gresh pulled the wrapped mirror from his pack and ceremoniously handed it to Tobas.

  “Your mirror, sir,” he said. “I expect my fee will be paid at the first opportunity.”

  Tobas accepted it gingerly. He partially unwrapped it and peered at it in the gloom as he said, “You might have waited until I had my clothes on. And I can hardly see anything in this light!”

  Karanissa stepped forward with a hand raised; a dull orange glow illuminated the glass disk in the wizard’s hand.

  “That looks like it,” Tobas agreed, studying the mirror.

  “We saw it produce spriggans,” Gresh said. “Unless there are two of the confounded things, that’s it.”

  Tobas looked up. “But it’s not producing any spriggans now?”

  “No. And with luck, it never will again. I can explain it to you later, if you like.”

  “I heard most of it—dragons really do have good ears—but I’ll want you to do that.” He turned. “Ali, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Can we go home now?”

  “Yes,” Tobas said happily. “Yes, we can, as soon as I’m dressed.” He trotted toward the carpet holding the mirror triumphantly before him, while the spriggans cleared a path for him.

  “Come on,” Gresh said, following in the naked wizard’s wake.

  Karanissa hesitated. “Wait a minute,” she said. “What about my duplicate?”

  Gresh paused, startled, then looked back.

  The other Karanissa was still in the cave, watching events with evident incomprehension.

  “Come on,” Gresh called to her, beckoning. “We’ll take you with us.”

  The reflection hesitated, then followed.

  A moment later, when the mirror was safely tucked away in the wizard’s leather valise and Tobas was pulling his rather damaged tunic over his head, Gresh and the two Karanissas arrived at the carpet; Alorria stared up at them in shocked horror.

  “Two of her! Tobas, what’s going on? How can there be two of Kara?”

  “We had a little magical accident,” Gresh explained. “Don’t worry about her; she’s quite harmless—and she’s not really another Karanissa. She just looks like her. See, she’s two inches shorter?”

  “But...” Alorria was plainly not happy, but was having trouble finding the words to express her displeasure. She looked down at baby Alris, who had fallen asleep at the breast and was not helping her mother convey her annoyance.

  “Ask her, Ali,” Karanissa said. “She’ll tell you she isn’t me.”

  “I don’t know exactly who I am,” the reflection said. “I was only created a little over an hour ago.”

  “Are you married to my husband?” Alorria demanded, pointing at Tobas as he struggled to get his left arm into a badly sewn sleeve. Her motion jiggled Alris, who burped without awakening.

  “Not that I know of,” the image replied, puzzled. “Wasn’t he a dragon originally? You were married to a dragon?”

  “Only for a little while,” Gresh said. “I turned Tobas into a dragon for a few hours, and now he’s back to his proper form.”

  “Oh,” the reflection said, sounding unconvinced. “I’m fairly sure I never married a dragon. Or anyone else, for that matter. Isn’t there some sort of ceremony when one gets married?”

  “It is customary,” Gresh agreed. “So if we’ve established that Tobas has not acquired a third wife, could we please get moving? It’s already almost
dark, and it’s a long way to Dwomor Keep.”

  “But if she isn’t really Karanissa, why is she coming with us?” Alorria asked.

  “Because stranding her alone in the mountains at night seems rude,” Gresh said. “Now, may we please find seats?”

  Alorria did not seem entirely satisfied, but she moved to one side and let the others crowd onto the rug.

  “Four spriggans!” a spriggan reminded Gresh, as he pushed several of the little creatures clear of the carpet. “You take four!”

  “Right,” he said. He pointed to four who happened to be nearby. “You, you, you, and you. The rest of you, clear away.”

  The chosen four squealed with delight and clambered onto Gresh’s lap, pushing at one another to make room. One of them yipped, “Fun!”

  “We’re taking them with us?” Alorria protested, staring at the foursome in horror and clutching her sleeping child to her breast.

  “Yes,” Tobas and Karanissa said in unison, as they took their own seats. Karanissa took a moment to get her reflection settled onto the fabric; then Tobas turned to look at the others. He gave Alorria an embarrassed glance, then whispered to Gresh, “Could you use the Restorative on my clothes? I know it’s waste to use high-level magic for such a thing, and Ali did her best, but she hadn’t come prepared, and I’m afraid these breeches are chafing horribly.”

  “If it will get us airborne,” Gresh said, fumbling to find the right jar of powder. Karanissa provided a handful of light, and a moment later a faint blue shimmer suddenly settled Tobas’s rumpled garments back into their proper shapes.

  Gresh was still tucking the box back into his shoulder-pack when Tobas settled cross-legged on the fabric and gestured. The carpet rose silently and smoothly.