by Rick Cook
"Are you sure you’re all right? Do you want to go lie down?"
"No, I am fine."
"You don’t look it," Danny put in. "You’re white as a sheet and you look awful." Moira looked up. "A fine thing to tell a woman, I am sure."
"Well, you do," Danny said defensively.
"Perhaps you had better go lie down, darling. You really don’t look well." Moira reached out and patted Wiz’s hand. "Perhaps I will. Dealing with strange magics seems to take a lot out of me."
"Well," came a female voice from the door, "all alive I see."
Wiz looked up and saw a stout woman standing at the door. A boy and girl were peeking around her from either side and a dragon was looking over her shoulder.
"Oh, hello Shauna," Wiz said. "Any reason why we shouldn’t be?"
Shauna was nurse to Ian, Danny and June’s son, and mother of Ian’s playmate Caitlin. In addition to looking after the children and mothering June as needed, she provided a strong dose of common sense for the programming team.
"Fortune, but you should hear the stories being bandied about in the town!" She looked at Moira, "Do you know you and Wiz both are dead a dozen times over? And each death grislier than the last?"
In spite of himself Wiz grinned. "And there are a dozen eyewitnesses to each death, no doubt." He took a pull on his mug of tea.
"Folk are bolting their doors strong tonight," the stocky woman agreed. "Fact is, I’ve never seen them so frightened. It will put a damper on this year’s fair, I’ll tell you."
Moira stood up suddenly. Then I am going back to the fair."
Wiz spewed tea all over the table. "What?"
Moira reached for her cloak. "I said I am going back. The people need reassurance."
"You’re sick and you’re going to bed."
"People need my help and I am well enough for that"
Wiz started to protest, realized this was another one of those arguments he wasn’t going to win and changed course.
"Then I’m going with you," he said grimly.
"How much reassurance is there if I am in the company of the mightiest wizard of the North? No, if this is to be effective you must not come."
"Look, we don’t know what that thing was or what it can do. I’m not going to let you go down there alone."
Moira put her cloak down on the table and turned to face him. That ’thing’ is gone."
"And what happens if you nearly pass out like you did this morning? That’ll be a lot of reassurance for everyone."
"I will manage."
"You’ll manage better with the proper company, My Lady," Shauna said, looking closely at Moira. "No, not you," she added before Wiz could open his mouth. "I’m the one to go with her."
Wiz had the feeling he’d just missed something important and an even stronger feeling that the situation was getting out of control.
"Still, I’m not sure it’s safe."
"As safe as anywhere," Moira retorted.
Arianne nodded. Three of the Mighty have examined the rest of the fair and found nothing more. This thing harmed no one and I have alerted the Watchers in the castle. With them on guard it will not be able to sneak close again. Meanwhile, Bal-Simba has summoned the Council of the North to meet to consider what more is to be done."
"Besides, Fluffy will protect us!" Ian said.
Wiz raised his eyebrows and looked past the boy at the twenty-foot dragon standing behind him. The dragon’s tongue was lolling out and he was panting like a particularly dumb dog.
Fluffy was a very young dragon, hardly older than Ian. Like all immature dragons he was not very smart. But unlike most of them he was more or less a house pet- a circumstance that aroused considerable comment in the Wizards’ Keep and even more among the townsfolk.
Fluffy had attached himself to the programmers as a housecat-sized hatchling. When Ian was born, the two became inseparable. Originally the programmers had called him Little Red Dragon, or LRD for short. But Ian insisted his name was Fluffy and, wildly inappropriate as the monicker was, it stuck.
If there was trouble the dragon was only likely to make it worse, but separating Ian and Fluffy made them both mope, so if Ian went to the fair it was a foregone conclusion that Fluffy was going too. The prospect did nothing to raise Wiz’s enthusiasm for the expedition.
Danny, meanwhile, had grasped the critical point "Us?" he demanded of his son.
"Who said anything about you going?"
"Shauna’s going," Ian said. "You always said we should stay close to Shauna, especially if there’s trouble."
While Danny was at a loss over the eight-year-old’s logic, Shauna’s daughter saw her opportunity and moved in for the kill. Caitlin was a couple of years older than Ian, with a mop of jet-black hair, apple cheeks and great dark eyes. She had her Ph.D. in cute with advanced graduate work in wheedling.
"We want to go to the fair," Caitlin protested.
Danny tried for a compromise. "You can go to the fair tomorrow when it’s open." Tomorrow’s too late," Ian protested "Everything will be up by then." Wiz wasn’t sure why it was more interesting to watch the booths go up than to see them once they were up and open, but that was clearly the general opinion. Even Fluffy managed to droop sadly at what he’d be missing.
"All right, then I’m going too," Danny said.
"You would be almost as bad as Wiz," Moira told him. "You had best stay here as well."
June stood close behind her son with a hand on his shoulder. "I go too." Which figured, since June was as protective of Ian as a mother tiger is of her cub. Danny looked over at June and Ian and scowled, but he nodded.
"Well, all right but you stay close, you hear?" And then, as Caitlin and Ian cheered, Shauna added: "And keep that creature on the leash!"
Ian had obviously been anticipating victory because he had the dragons collar and braided leather leash tucked in his belt.
Fluffy drooped his head so Ian could attach his collar. In fact the leash was strictly for show. Fluffy wouldn’t allow anyone but Ian to lead him and there was no way the boy could have held the dragon against his will. As it was Fluffy had a tendency to jerk Ian off his feet with a casual toss of his head. But the sight of the leash made townsfolk slightly more comfortable around the dragon and Fluffy seemed to understand that the leash meant he was to be on his best behavior. Besides, Ian was inordinately proud of his job "controlling" Fluffy.
"Okay," Wiz said to his wife. "You won’t take me and you won’t take Danny. What about Jerry?"
Moira raised an eyebrow and looked over at Arianne. The tall woman stroked her chin in thought. "Appropriate enough," she said finally.
"I dunno," the big programmer demurred. "I’ve got this homicidal screen saver I’m working on."
Caitlin tugged on his arm and looked up at him with enormous dark eyes.
"Please, Unca Jerry. It won’t be any fun without you. Please come." Jerry suddenly found he was not at all immune to the wiles of a little girl. In fact, like most men without children of their own, he could be twisted around a tiny pinky almost without effort.
"Sure," he sighed. "I’ll go back with you. That way the kids can see what’s going on."
Wiz looked down at the dark stain of spilled tea on his shirt. "Well, darling," he sighed, "at least keep your eyes open and yell at the first sign of trouble. I think that thing was after you."
Arianne looked at him closely. "Can you be sure it is aimed at Moira?"
"I don’t like the way it looked at her."
"You said it seemed to be surveying the crowd."
"Yeah, but:" Wiz lapsed into an unhappy silence.
"Oh, don’t brood love," Moira said. "It is perfectly safe and I will have Jerry with me should need arise."
"Plus two kids," Wiz added. There was an insistent whuff over his shoulder. "And a dragon."
"Shauna and June will be along as well," Moira countered.
That carried some weight, Wiz had to admit. Shauna could keep the lads under contr
ol and June was likely to be at least some help. Danny’s wife was strange and half wild from growing up in an elf hill, but she was no one to trifle with. On one memorable occasion Wiz had seen her take out three fully armed hobgoblins with the knife she always carried.
"Well, I still don’t like it."
Moira reached out and put her hand on his arm. "Pooh. You heard Arianne. There is no danger now. But the townsfolk must be reassured, so it needs to be done."
"We’ve got to do something about this Calvinist sense of duty of yours," Wiz said as Moira picked up her cloak
"Who is Calvin?"
"He designed genes," Wiz said absently, "and he gave you the heavy-duty kind." Moira did what she usually did when she didn’t understand her husband, which was to change the subject.
"You’re a fine one to talk about duty. All a dragon has to do is show up and make some threats and you go off with him and we don’t hear from you for weeks."
"That was different," Wiz said with some dignity- hoping reverently Moira wouldn’t ask him how it was different. She settled for cocking a coppery eyebrow and fastening the cloak at her throat.
Then, seeing his expression, Moira reached out and took his hand. "Please, Wiz." Wiz hesitated and then relented. "As long as it’s safe."
She kissed him on the cheek. "Oh, we’ll be fine," she told him. "You worry too much."
Far and far away, in a place below the earth, a thing considered.
It was enough. It had found what it needed. Now there was only the harvest. Danny and Wiz stood at a window and watched the group cross the courtyard and pass out the castle gate.
"I guess they’re right," Wiz said, as much for his own reassurance as Danny’s.
"It’s perfectly safe." He sighed. "I wonder if I’m getting paranoid in my old age."
"I know I’m paranoid," Danny said grimly. "I just don’t know if I’m paranoid enough."
THREE
THE FAIR AGAIN
The fair was very different in the afternoon than it had been that morning. Intermittent clouds hid the sun and the air that had been crisp and invigorating in the morning was now chill and damp. Even the mud seemed deeper.
All of which could have been her imagination, Moira admitted, but there were other changes which clearly were not.
The crowds of gawkers were gone, leaving only the fair workers, merchants and here and there a knot of guardsmen, armed and alert. There was less shouting and no laughter as people struggled to get their goods unloaded and their tents up. None of which mattered to the children. Ian and Caitlin went whooping and shouting among the booths, avoiding most of the uninteresting mud puddles and seeming to be everywhere at once. Fluffy trotted along with them, head high like a show dog in the ring. Shauna puffed along behind, calling out admonishments and generally trying to keep them under control. June floated along near Ian, close and silent as always.
It would have been a perfectly normal scene, Moira thought, if June didn’t keep one hand always on her knife.
She dug Jerry in the ribs with her elbow. "Smile," she commanded out of the side of her mouth. Then, putting on her best beauty-pageant smile, she and Jerry began to stroll among the booths.
Moira paused frequently to admire goods on display or to chat with someone she knew. Jerry contented himself with smiling until his jaw ached and responding to any pleasantries directed to him.
Ian and Caitlin were disappointed at the pace, especially since June and Shauna would not let them get too far ahead of the others. Still they managed to find all sorts of interesting things to look at and interesting questions to ask. They even cajoled a chestnut vendor into blowing up his fire to roast some nuts for them.
They had gone perhaps halfway down the main aisle when Shamus, the captain of the castle’s guards, separated himself from a knot of his men and came over to greet them.
"A pleasure to see you, My Lady," he said loudly as he smiled and bowed. His eyes never stopped moving.
Moira nodded to the guard captain. "Good afternoon, Shamus," she said equally loudly. "Oh, I would not have missed it."
The guardsman took her hand as if to loss it and used that as an excuse to move closer.
"Thanks for coming," he muttered. "The whole place is nervous as a bunch of half-wild dragons. Want an escort?"
Moira dimpled as if she had been paid a compliment "It would ruin the effect," she said without moving her lips.
Shamus bowed as if taking his leave. "Need anything just sing out." With that he turned and strolled away as if he had not a care in the world. Moira noticed his sword was loose in its sheath.
What with one thing and another it took them the better part of two hours to tour the fairgrounds. Moira stopped and chatted with everyone she knew even casually and Jerry thought he’d never get his jaw unclenched. Even when Fluffy knocked over a pile of baskets with a careless twitch of his tail, Moira managed to turn the gaffe into a social triumph, getting down on her knees to help the stall owner gather up her spilled merchandise and talking gaily all the while. By the time the group turned back toward the castle the mood in the fairgrounds had lightened perceptibly. Ian had fallen asleep on Shauna’s shoulder with Fluffy’s leash still clutched tight in his fist. Caitlin was chattering away, but she was content to walk alongside her mother instead of scampering everywhere.
The older members of the party were doing no better.
"My feet hurt," Jerry said as they picked their way up the muddy main aisle back toward the town gate.
Moira smiled at him. "It was in a good cause, My Lord. Thank you for coming." Something in the way she said it made Jerry look at her more closely. "You’re really wiped, aren’t you?"
A vagrant breeze drew a lock of coppery hair over the hedge witch’s cheek, emphasizing the paleness of her skin. "I am rather tired, but very content." She sighed.
"You’d better rest up tonight if you want to be in shape for the ceremony tomorrow."
The breeze turned suddenly chilly and Moira shivered and drew her green wool cloak closer around her. "I will," she promised. "Just now nothing sounds so good as a hot bath and a warm bed."
"Momma, I’m cold." Caitlin pressed herself closer to Shauna.
"That’s what you get for not wearing so much as a cloak, like I told you to." Then she hugged her daughter close against the cold wind. "Never you mind. We’ll be home soon enough."
Jerry shivered and pulled his cloak tighter. "I wish I’d brought something heavier. This wind’s picking up."
Even Fluffy seemed to notice the wind. The dragon lowered his neck and turned his head to shelter from the full force behind Shauna’s bulk. Ian stirred and whimpered on Shauna’s shoulder.
Moira looked at the tents beginning to flap against their ropes and squinted her eyes against the sting of wind-borne dirt. "Perhaps we had better rest a few minutes inside the city gate," she said. "I think I need to sit down." Jerry raised his voice to be heard over the wind. "We’re only halfway there. Want to rest in one of the pavilions?"
"Let us go on. It is only a few hundred paces."
They had reached the spot in the center of the fairgrounds where the main ways crossed. Here the aisles widened out into an impromptu square and the wind tore at them as they stepped out of the relative shelter of the narrower ways. It tore and howled at them, kicking up dirt and debris until they could hardly see the far side of the square. The wind moaned through the tent ropes and made the canvas boom until it sounded like a chorus of lost souls. Jerry put his head down and pushed forward against the wind, clutching Moira’s arm to help her along.
He felt Moira stiffen and slow in spite of his efforts to help her along.
"Jerry:" she began, and he looked up.
There were things in the wind. At first Jerry thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but they seemed to grow darker and more solid as he watched. Then they were black clouds within a lighter cloud, indistinct forms that grew and writhed as they moved toward him.
They ha
d no arms, but they seemed to reach out to clutch. They had no heads, but they seemed to fasten their attention on Jerry and Moira with the intentness of a hunting eagle. They had no mouths, but their voices seemed to call out for them, eagerly, hungrily. Moira whimpered and shrank back against Jerry’s shoulder as the things drew close.
Jerry stepped in front and threw up his hands in a warding spell. A foggy tentacle lashed out to touch him and he collapsed like a sack of meal. In the excitement Ian dropped Fluffy’s leash. With a wheep of dragonish rage the young dragon lumbered into the fray, tail lashing left and right, upsetting tables and knocking down a pavilion. He snapped at the cloud things but his jaws closed on nothing at all with the sound of a rifle shot.
"Wiz!" Moira screamed.
And Wiz was there. Cloakless, hatless, bootless, his wizard’s staff clutched before him in both hands. He looked around wide-eyed, then leaped over his friend’s prostrate body to put himself between the shadows and Moira, but he did not let the things touch him. Instead he raised his staff, shouting a magic word as he did so.
Wiz swung his staff overhead in a mighty bash. There was an eye-searing burst of purple fire as magic met magic and an ear-piercing peal of thunder as the thing disintegrated. Without hesitating he lashed out again and another monster disappeared with the same flash and roar. Again and again Wiz laid about him at the encircling fog things. Behind him Bal-Simba popped into the square. With an inarticulate roar the big wizard charged into the battle. Behind him wizard after wizard popped into existence as the Mighty of the North rallied to protect their own. The square echoed and flashed with the blasts of magic. Wiz tried to reach Moira but Fluffy was in his way. So he put his back against the dragon and struck out furiously at the things in the whirlwind. And then it was over.
As suddenly as they had come the things were gone. The wind dropped to nothing, the air cleared and only wizards and their allies were left in the open space. Wiz looked around. Two of the wizards rushed to where Jerry lay senseless on the ground. The others stood or milled around, alert for their enemy. Pressed up against the tents, Shauna stood with Ian and Caitlin gathered behind her skirts. June stood next to her, knife drawn, nostrils flared, and showing white all the way around her pupils like a frightened animal. She only relaxed when Danny rushed to her side.