The Mage's Daughter 2: Book Two: Enlightenment

by LeRoy Clary

  Prin held out her cup, more so Maude would have to look at her as she said again, “That’s our cat.”

  “I’ve introduced myself. Would you be so kind as to do the same?” Maude asked, ignoring Prin’s comment.

  Sara set her teacup down harder than necessary. “No, I don’t think we will.”

  “Oh, dear, have I offended?”

  Sara threw Prin a warning glance, then said, “There are people looking for us. Hunting us. Dangerous people. Sipping tea and chatting is not what we’re here for.”

  Maude said, “Why in the world would dangerous people be after you? Have you done something terrible?”

  Sara picked up her teacup again and sipped, stalling for time, in Prin’s opinion. She had seen Sara do much the same on other occasions. She waited for an answer before continuing. And with good reason, since Maude evaded answering. While Maude seemed an overly friendly matron, they had no doubt she was a sorceress of the highest class, but didn’t speak or act like any they’d ever heard of. Sara said, “Is your husband at home?”

  “Randall died before you were born, my dear. I live alone, so I love it when occasional company comes to visit.”

  Prin glanced around at the size of the room, the doors leading to other rooms, perhaps to whole wings of rooms. Not a speck of dust, nothing out of place, nor sign of anyone else. Who cleaned and cooked for Maude, who made her clothing, cared for the grounds, and a hundred other things required in a home as large as a small castle? Yet, she’d not seen a single person.

  She understood that Sara was getting upset, and Brice had no idea of what was happening but remaining silent as instructed. Prin stood, attracting the attention of all. “Your home is beautiful. Do you clean it yourself?”

  “Mercy, no. I live here by myself and don’t allow it to get dirty.”

  Prin said as if speaking offhandedly, “Do you do the dusting?”

  “I cast a spell for that. But, since you are a sorceress, you knew that already, dear.” Maude smiled sweetly to take any sting from the words.

  Prin saw through the sweet smile but remained calm. “Do you have people to help with the cooking, gardening and the rest?”

  “I enjoy cooking on occasion. As for the gardens, when a tree or shrub grows to the right size and has been neatly trimmed, I throw a spell on it to make it remain the same. That way, I always have roses in full bloom, cherries on my trees, and so on. Of course, nobody else can see what I do. Just us.”

  Sara said, “You speak freely with our male friend sitting right here.”

  “The mage? He’s almost one of us, like a step-sister, don’t you think? Still part of the family.”

  They hadn’t told her anything about Brice. Prin glanced at the cat again. “I said earlier, that’s our cat. How did you know what it looked like and where to send it to find us?”

  Maude poured more tea. “I have many cats roaming the streets of Gallium, ordinary cats in every way, at least to everyone else. But if a sorceress looks at them, she sees a cat she is fond of, and when she looks closer, she notices the magic dots in the eyes and follows them here. I’m notified when someone follows the cat, and I get my teapot ready. I do love visitors, don’t you?”

  “That’s not our cat?” Prin asked.

  Maude mumbled a few words and the huge white and gray cat shrunk in size and changed colors to become a smaller tabby. “We should not always trust our eyes, should we?”

  Sara relaxed, while Prin and Brice became more excited and he nudged Prin with his elbow. Brice said, “Did you see that? I saw it. The cat changed.”

  Sara said, “No wonder the cat wouldn’t let me touch it. I’d have felt a smaller cat while seeing a larger one.”

  Brice said, “So what? As a sorceress, you already knew it had a spell cast on it, right?”

  Maude chuckled and said, “The boy is quick. However, I did not invent the spell, I copied it from an acquaintance so long ago that I forget her name, but I do remember she cast quite a spell.”

  Prin glanced at a window and saw the sun sinking fast. She often used her age to beguile others, so she said in a charming voice, “As we mentioned, men are chasing us, including several mages who wish us dead. Me dead. We were going to head out to the country to pick apples so we could hide from them when your cat distracted us.”

  “Oh, my. That’s dreadful, child. Is there any reason you cannot spend time here instead of an orchard? I love company, and it has been so long since I’ve had young people around.”

  Prin saw an opening and dived in. “We’d love to. And since Sara and I know almost no spells, would you teach us some? I mean just a few basic things to amuse ourselves?”

  Maude threw her arms wide and said, “I used to be a teacher of magic, you know. Oh, it was a long time ago, but such fun when a student felt the spark of learning.”

  “Is that a yes?” Prin asked.

  “Of course, it is. Why I have rooms in this big old house I haven’t entered in ages. I’ll teach you if you share your stories. I sense there are three of them, one for each of you, and I’d like to hear them all.”

  “Will we be safe here?” Sara asked.

  “Quite safe, I assure you. Anyone wish more tea?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Maude left for the kitchen and returned almost before she arrived there, telling them she had dinner almost prepared. She insisted on showing them to three adjoining rooms first, each as fresh and clean as if a crew of maids had departed moments earlier. Prin smelled the scent of soap and washed linen. Fresh cut flowers filled vases in each room.

  The bedrooms were just off the main room with the massive fireplace, but a hallway extended so far away that the end was lost to view. Prin counted ten doors on each side before they blurred in the distance. She promised herself a trip to the end of the hall when she had time.

  Inside each room was a bed, dresser, chest of drawers, and a pair of chairs with a small table between. Each room had a set of double doors leading outside into the garden. Stepping stones formed winding trails past pools with fish swimming, trees with fruit hanging, and the entire garden was walled so nothing inside it could be seen from the street or any nearby house.

  Prin detected a now familiar shimmer of magic at the top of the wall that was short enough for a household ladder to reach the top. She asked Maude what the shimmer did.

  “Oh, that’s just a wall of dislike, a simple spell most anyone can cast.”

  “I don’t know what that is, or what it means,” Prin said.

  Maude rubbed her hands together as if they were sharing a conspiracy, which they were. She said, “It’s too hard to make people stay away. I mean burglars and such. So, what the top of my wall does is to convince them that what is in here is harmful in some way. Some people see big angry dogs, others poison oak or ivy, and some see household guards with their swords drawn. Whatever they don’t want is what they see, so they go away without looking.”

  Sara said, “So a man in a bad marriage might look in here and see twenty of his wives?”

  “Well, that’s one I hadn’t considered,” Maude said, laughing, “But that sure would keep out a few.”

  Prin said, “Are we free to roam around the garden? Is there anything to hurt us?”

  “Oh, I don’t think there’s anything to be afraid of. The mage might watch his step here and there, so he doesn’t trip a spell, but you two will see the magic before you reach it.”

  “My father was a mage,” Prin said. “In his apartment at the king’s castle, he a workspace for his things, and his studies.”

  “That explains a lot,” Maude said.

  “That he has a workspace?” Prin asked.

  “No, I was talking about explaining about you, dear. Sara here, is a sorceress, one I believe with superior abilities, if not yet honed. Brice is a fledgling mage, but you can never tell what they will become until they reach their mid-years, at least thirty. But you, you are a strange one. You have not learned how to wield your
powers, but I would not wish to anger you.”

  “I’m just a little girl.”

  Maude furrowed her brow. “And a tiger-scorpion with a sting that kills a man in ten heartbeats is just a little insect—an arachnid if you want to be precise. Yes, you are just a little girl, you say. To answer your question about my workshop and teaching you, I’d like to ask one in return so I can prepare a curriculum, of sorts. What is your timeline? I mean, how long do you wish to live here?”

  Prin said, “Would thirty or forty days be too long?”

  “I was hoping for more,” Maude said. “Oh well, anyone else hungry?”

  She escorted them to a small, informal dining room, the table for four laden with food. Two roasted chickens lay steaming on small platters, carrots filled a bowl, peas another. Three kinds of bread fresh from warming ovens sat beside bowls, butter and two different kinds of preserves. At each of the four places was a small knife and two-pronged fork.

  How it was cooked, arrived on the table, and a hundred other questions leaped into Prin’s mind, but she caught the scent of the food, and how it got there became far less important. They sat down and devoured the food. For her part, Prin tried to use manners, as she’d seen other nobles do, but failed. It was the best food she’d eaten in her life, and when soft-cakes smothered in ripe strawberries, and sweet cream appeared on a side table, she believed there could be no place better than at that table.

  After dinner, they adjourned to the main room, where candles now burned. Maude reached for her knitting and asked questions of each of them, and as Prin watched her hands leave the knitting needles to reach for something, the needles continued to knit without dropping a single stitch.

  The woman who seemed a doddering old fool, asked penetrating questions about each of them, as she heard their stories. She often listened, then asked what had not been shared, as if she could see into the minds and what they wished to hide or leave unsaid. It would be no fun to be this woman’s child.

  When Prin went to use the outhouse, she decided to clean the kitchen for Maude when she returned, however, the table was already cleared, a new tablecloth in place, and even the chairs were carefully placed under the table, each lined in perfect order with the others. When she peeked into the kitchen, it was as clean as any she’d ever seen, no dirty tub of water, no dishes, and even the floor sparkled.

  It didn’t surprise her.

  Maude hadn’t left them to cook, so why would she do so to clean? She had told them as much when she said dust was not allowed in the house. While some sorceress might concentrate on solving the personal problems of others, Maude took care of herself.

  Back in the main room, Sara said, “That was an incredible meal. I know you want to hear our stories, but I’d like to ask a couple of questions.”

  Maude said, “Don’t make them too personal, and I’ll try to answer.”

  “There are spells all over the house. I think some are old. But the spells I know fade with time. Can you explain?” Sara asked.

  Maude chuckled and held her arms out wide. “Your question tells me the answer to a question I mentioned before dinner. I must develop a course of study for the three of you but needed a starting point. From your question, I assume you have never studied formally, and if informally, only for a short time.”

  “Not even that much for me,” Prin said.

  Brice said nothing but drew the steady gaze of Maude. “You?”

  “Until a yesterday, I just knew I was different, and that I upset people.”

  “Ah, that explains even more,” Maude said. “Interesting.”

  Prin hadn’t expected that reaction. Brice was a mage, an entirely different set of rules applied to him. She said, “You can teach Brice, too?”

  Maude said, “I believe that it’s time the three of you learned what is the most basic of concepts, and they apply to all magic.” She lifted her teacup, sipped and said, “It’s cooled.”

  Then she waited.

  Sara realized they should respond and with a smile, she said, “What did you expect? That it would remain hot?”

  Maude turned to her. “The spells for attracting love you sold, how long did they last?”

  “The good ones, a few days.”

  “Why not a lifetime?”

  Sara was seated on the end of a sofa. Perched on the edge would be more accurate. The woman had Sara’s total concentration, and Prin settled back to watch. She didn’t know what the two of them were trying to communicate but understood it to be important.

  Sara finally answered, “Spells wear out.”

  “All of them?”

  “All that I know,” Sara said.

  “As sorceresses and mages, we can neither create nor destroy the basics of the world around us. We alter or concentrate, no more. No less.” Maude held her teacup up higher. “My tea was hot, now it is warm. Soon it will be the same temperature as this room. If I pour it out and fetch cool water from a spring in my cup, it will be almost cold, but over time it will also return to its natural temperature of this room.”

  “What about explosions?” Prin asked. “I saw my father make them.”

  Maude turned her dark eyes to Prin. “This is really going to be exciting and fun. None of you accept what I tell you without questions. Now, to your question. Your father may have blown things up with his powers, but the powers that made the explosions were a concentration of power drawn from elsewhere. In some form, it returned to its origination, much as my tea has cooled.”

  Prin said, “But it destroyed.”

  “The use of his magic destroyed other things, but the power did not destroy itself. Let me try to explain better. If a mage wants an explosion, he draws power from another source and concentrates it. If he wants a lightning bolt, he draws energy from iron, or flint, or copper. Just a little from the source, or sources, then combines it into one flash of lightning that lasts an instant. Like my tea, the origin of the power will work its way back to equilibrium.” Maude sipped her warm tea, and with a slight smile, she refilled her cup.

  Prin said, “I think I understand. If I put my finger in your hot tea, I’ll burn it. The tea remains tea, but my finger hurts.”

  Maude said, “There, I knew such a complex subject would be understood by the three of you with one explanation.”

  Prin and Maude looked at Sara and Brice, then laughed at the confused expressions.

  Brice said, “Can I ask questions, too? I know I was supposed to be quiet, but I don’t understand. What puzzles me most is the difference in a mage and a sorceress. It seems they are the same.”

  Maude drew in a breath to speak but was too slow. Prin leaped to her feet and almost shouted in excitement, “I know. Can I tell him?”

  Maude motioned with a gentle wave of a hand, giving Prin the floor.

  “Sir James explained it to me. He said, if you have a mule that refuses to pull your wagon, a mage will transform the straw clinging to the mule’s butt by lighting it on fire. The mule will feel the burn back there and snap awake, hopefully walking faster to get away from the source of the pain. But a sorceress would cast a spell telling the mule a good meal is waiting just over the crest of the next hill. The mule would walk faster to get the meal. Same end result, just different ways to reach it.”

  “And that,” Maude said with a wide grin, “is the perfect explanation.”

  Brice said, “Hey, I think I understand. Sort of.”

  Maude still watched Prin from the corner of her eye, the teacup almost, but not quite, touching her lips. She said, “Would you like to explain why a person cannot be both?”

  Prin said, “To be both a mage and sorceress? The answer is, no, it cannot happen. They are like fire and water. You can’t mix the two magics.”

  “That is what I’ve always learned from those who taught me, so I guess it must be true.”

  She still held Prin fixed with her green eyes. Prin pulled herself away and said, “I’m going to go look at the gardens.”

  Once
out the door, she tried to relax. Maude knew too much. Sara knew she was also a mage, but somehow Maude seemed to know everything. At least, she knew Prin was not an ordinary sorceress if there was such a thing.

  She strode down the winding stone paths as if she had a destination, but eventually slowed at the beauty of the garden. Each plant was perfect. The grass was cut at an even height, and there was not a single weed in sight. She estimated the garden more than a hundred steps in any direction.

  Near the far end of the garden, she found fruits she had never seen and wondered if the trees had been grown with particular climates because it felt hotter and wetter than nearer the house. Prin glanced at the house and stumbled to a stop.

  From this angle, Maude’s house was no larger than the building where they had rented the apartment on the upper floor! She recalled the hallway that continued out of sight from the door to her room where she’d counted at least ten more doors on each side. Where was that hallway when looking at the outside of the house?

  Magic. It had to be. The ordinary-looking house, as seen from the street, didn’t match what was inside. The main room alone would fill the house she looked at. It’s bigger inside than outside.

  Prin placed that idea aside, but with the intention of asking about it when she went back inside. She made a small turn, searching for the magic Maude had indicated she would find in the garden. There were several places where the shimmer of spells drew her attention, but she didn’t know what any did so she stayed away.

  Her mind drifted to the city of Indore, and to the dog she’d purchased to guard their home. It had a small yard, but the dog would love to have a yard like this one to run around in. She missed the dog, even though she’d never had one, and she looked forward to strolling the bazaar with it on a leash. She would feel safer with the dog to protect her.

  But her mind wasn’t fully concentrating on the dog or the small yard. It was adding ideas, sifting through what she knew and what she didn’t. Calculating. Drawing information from there and inserting it here.