Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress XXV

by contributors, various

  That made Cluny grin. "So, Jian." She nudged him with a claw. "Something we can help you with?"

  "Ah." His black eyes darted away. "In truth, I am sent to summon you before the Familiars' Council."

  "The—" She looked at Shtasith, his eye ridges curled and quizzical, then turned to Jian again. "Familiars' Council?"

  "It does not advertise its existence." He fluttered his wings. "But the two of you have come to the Councils' attention since your situation is so...so..." His voice trailed off.

  Cluny sighed. "It is, yes." Shaking herself, she gave Shtasith a smile. "Well, shall we go see what they want?"

  The firedrake glanced at Crocker, snoring lightly, and Jian fluttered his wings some more. "Oh, no! Your master mustn't know!" His eyes went down again. "In some academies, the Council is expressly forbidden. Here, it is tolerated so long as no one acknowledges it openly." His gaze came up, and Cluny couldn't mistake the whiff of fear drifting from his feathers. "The Council does much good, but it cannot be questioned." He ducked outside and darted a glance back at them.

  Shtasith's spines had tightened along his neck. "We have many such secret societies in the Realms of Fire," he muttered. "I did not care overly much for them there."

  "Still..." Cluny ran a paw along his scales. "If it's something we familiars do, we ought to do it, don't you think?"

  He nodded slowly and slithered under the sash, Cluny scooting right behind him. Relief wafted up from Jian, and he spread his wings. "It will be faster if we fly."

  Shtasith squatted, and Cluny swung up to stretch along his narrow back, her paws gripping his neck ridge. Jian sprang away, and Cluny couldn't help clenching her eyes as Shtasith billowed his wings out and followed.

  Their window sat three stories above the greensward around Eldritch Park, the semi-wild woods at the center of Huxley's campus, and while Cluny's usual route was a simple scamper down the wall and across the grass, she knew she had to get used to this sensation of hurtling through the air, her fur slicking back, her whiskers tickling, her eyes streaming. Like leaping from treetop to treetop, she told herself. In a windstorm. With the trees doing backflips the whole time...

  Swallowing hard and blinking, she finally managed to gain some sort of balance, but when she peered over Shtasith's side, instead of the forest she'd been expecting, she saw bungalow roofs, mowed lawns and well-tended stable yards, the trees large but in regular groups and rows, clearly domesticated. Roads wound among the lawns and copses, magical and mechanical carriages as well as the usual horse-drawn varieties parked here and there, but— "Where are we?" she called to Jian, gliding along beside them.

  "Graduate student housing!" he chirped. "This way!" Swooping into a shabby looking cul-de-sac, he darted between the duplexes at the end, gentle hills rolling the grass below them. A section of something that almost looked like a forest loomed ahead, and Jian dove toward a dilapidated stable slumping against the old-growth trees and underbrush. He landed in the bare dirt before the stable's gaping doorway, and after a second's hesitation, Shtasith did the same, Cluny sliding from his back, her ears humming in the sudden stillness.

  Although the more she thought about it, the odder it seemed that the campus and the neighborhoods had been so quiet as they'd flown overhead. She hadn't actually seen anyone, human or familiar, during the whole trip....

  "Yes," came a growl from inside the stable, and Raine padded out into the sunlight. "Humans tend to overindulge during the various end-of-term celebrations, so this is the best morning of the year for us." The she-wolf cocked her head. "I trust you two are feeling well?"

  It took an effort for Cluny to keep her tail from frizzing. Whenever she, Crocker and Shtasith would arrive in Master Gollantz's office for their meetings, the magister would send his familiar away, something Raine resented, Cluny could tell. She understood entirely, too: wizards keeping secrets from their familiars ran against every precept the academy taught. But she doubted it would help the situation for the big wolf to know she agreed. "We're fine, thank you, ma'am," she said with a bow.

  Shtasith snorted beside her. "Have you convened this miniature tribunal merely to inquire after our health, Madame? Or may we at last know the reason for our summoning?"

  Cluny's ears folded, but Raine's tongue lolled out in a canine smile. "Such directness, I know, is a sign of respect in the Fire Realms. So I shall invite you all in, and we shall begin." She turned and slipped back into the shadows.

  Another snort, and Shtasith followed, his claws and tail barbs stirring up dust. Cluny sucked in a breath and tasted Jian's fear again, the little hawk a clenched fist of feathers beside her. "Jian?" she asked.

  He coughed and fluffed his wings. "After you, Cluny."

  Fighting to keep her own fear from blossoming, Cluny scampered through the doorway, the cool darkness dry as old hay on her whiskers. Animal scents reached her, too, and her eyes adjusted to show her at least thirty familiars in a semi-circle along the partially-collapsed back wall. Mice, rats, birds, ferrets, cats, foxes, and in the middle, three figures who dominated the rest: Raine, of course, in the center with her paws stretched in front of her, but to her right squatted a large turtleish individual, his eyes half-closed, the fringe of hair around the indented top of his head identifying him as a kappa. And to Raine's left, white and silver, barely the size of a foal and so delicate in this rough place—

  Cluny caught her breath. There had only been three unicorn familiars in the entirety of recorded history, and having Hesper and her mistress Evantrue on the faculty had made Huxley the first choice for serious students of the healing arts. But all the stories Cluny had heard about the effects of a unicorn's presence didn't prepare her for the electric thrill of those liquid amber eyes meeting hers, that golden coiled horn actually pointing at her. She froze in her tracks and just plain gaped.

  Even Shtasith seemed to feel it: Cluny saw him touch his left front claws to his chest, his long neck bowing. "My Lady Hesper," he said, then to Cluny's further surprise, he bowed to the kappa. "Esteemed Tadon. Had I known such worthies would be in attendance, I would have made myself more presentable."

  The kappa waved a flippery hand, water sloshing slightly in that head-top depression. "Most admirable, young Shtasith," he said, his voice as damp and thick as custard. "I am further inclined to welcome your arrival since you bring the number of mystical familiars here at Huxley to a nice even dozen among the vast majority of our non-mystical brethren." He gave a lazy smile. "But then I see you've brought one of those with you."

  The others in the group stirred uneasily, Raine's ears flicking back. "And that, Esteemed Tadon," she said, "is exactly the matter that concerns us here today: one wizard holding two familiars." Her nose wrinkled. "Wizards of that sort have a long and unpleasant history, especially those who hold both mystical and natural."

  More stirring, and Cluny knew they were all thinking of the Jade Sorceress, Esmeralda Stone, whose reign of terror 130 years ago had been greatly aided by Clarity, her raven familiar, and Jinx, her glass cat. "Oh, come on!" Cluny blurted out, scurrying to settle beside Shtasith. "Crocker? A danger? Ev'ryone keeps mistaking him for one of the janitors!"

  "Indeed?" Esteemed Tadon touched a stubby claw to his chin. "And does your master resent such slights?"

  Cluny forced her voice to stay calm. "I've never seen him resent anything for more than a couple minutes, sir. I mean, when moths get into our room, he catches 'em in a cup and takes 'em outside!" Shtasith's power had begun throbbing in the back of her brain, but magic wasn't even remotely an option here; instead, she picked out some familiars she knew in the group. "Russell! Cherisse! Ash-Morgan! You've been in classes with us all year! Have you ever seen anyone less likely to be an evil genius than Crocker??"

  Their various ears drooped, but Raine spoke up: "I've been observing Crocker as well this past term, Cluny, and I have to say that my assessment agrees with yours."

  More than a few heads twisted toward the wolf, and Cluny could only blink
for several seconds. "But...if...you—"

  A wet blorch from Esteemed Tadon's lips. "My dear Raine, I was told you had information concerning some great threat to Huxley in particular and all of wizardry in general!"

  "Forgive me, sir." Raine gave the kappa a slight bow. "What I've found may signal a seismic shift in power between wizards and familiars, yes. But I wouldn't call it a threat." She looked back at Cluny, nothing but avarice and excitement in her gaze. "Not to us familiars, at least."

  Cluny's tail froze. Raine knew! Somehow, she knew!

  "By my assessment," the wolf was going on, "I'd barely deem Crocker worthy to be called a novice. And yet the marvels that have occurred in his vicinity this year cannot be discounted. It has all led me to one surpassingly unorthodox yet inescapable conclusion." The intensity in Raine's eyes held Cluny like a spell. "You're no familiar, are you, Cluny?"

  Mind spinning, Cluny stared. Her whiskers weren't picking up the hum of any truth spells, but she couldn't cast her full array of detection magic without revealing what she was supposed to be hiding! She also remembered hearing that unicorns could sense lies; would Hester be able to tell if she—??

  Another blorch from Esteemed Tadon. "This has gone beyond absurdity! Are you positing that this...this rodent possesses wizardly abilities?" He leaned forward, his big nostrils flaring. "For in truth, I find barely enough chi in her to support the basest familiar spell! How can you possibly—?"

  "With respect, sir," Raine snapped, nothing but impatience in her tone, "if sniffing or squinting or measuring some semi-electrical waver were all it took to detect magical ability, the academy could save a great deal of time and effort by doing away with the battery of tests we subject our wizardry and familiar candidates to and simply applying your nose to them all!"

  The kappa went a lighter shade of green, Raine glaring from one side of the assembly to the other. "No one is more shocked by my conclusion than I am, but I assure you, my evidence will withstand all scrutiny! And consider for a moment! True wizardly power vested in one of our number!" The growl in her voice deepened, a wildness there Cluny had never even imagined. "No longer second-class citizen, subject to the whims of those who consider themselves our betters, we could finally rise to our full potential and take our rightful places at—!"

  Cluny heard herself snort, the magma of Shtasith's power making her indignation bubble up till she couldn't keep it inside. "Because we live such dreadful lives, don't we, Raine?"

  Teeth bared, the wolf spun to face her, and Cluny stalked forward, let her tail bristle. "You're, what, 150 years old? You know exactly when your next meal's coming, you never have to worry about getting sick or injured or even bruised, and you can do things other humans and animal folks only dream of!"

  Everyone's attention latched onto her so intently, Cluny itched and quivered, buried feelings bursting to the surface. "We are privileged to be here, Raine, because some quirk in our genetics lets us tap into the aetheric power welling from the earth, drifting up from water, swirling out of fire, tumbling in the wind or pooling in still air! And sure, most of the 'master-familiar' relationship rules stink, but that's a person-to-person issue, not something you can solve by getting a big stick to hit all of humankind over the head with!"

  She stopped in front of Raine, stretched herself to her full height, and shook a claw several inches from the wolf's startled face. "Whatever you think I am, I'm not the answer to a problem that's been around since the first cave wizard and the first sabre-tooth familiar discovered what they could do if they teamed up! I'm not interested in your petty power plays or your delusions of grandeur or the way you misunderstand—!"

  An instant before it happened—Raine's ears folding, her eyes flaring, sparks crackling the fur along her neck—Cluny saw what was coming, and the triggers for her spell arsenal flashed to the front of her thoughts. Another thought came just as quickly, though, and sending up a prayer to the Squirrel Mother, Cluny forced herself to do nothing, let the lightning explode from Raine's muzzle directly into her, the force bowling her back and over, spinning and burning, slamming her hard into the far wall of the stable, her left arm and several ribs cracking.

  "Cluny!" she heard Shtasith shout, then more shouting, shrieks and barks and yowls just beyond the jabbing, tearing pain that flooded her every—

  "This will end," came a golden whisper, and Cluny could breathe, straighten, blink at the scene before her: more holes now in the stable's walls; Shtasith with his claws dug into the shield spell surrounding Raine; the other familiars on their paws or gliding to perch again. Above Cluny, Hesper stood with her hoofs spread, her horn glowing, her mane streaming with a light that smoothed every shadow. "I will have calmness in this place," she said, her voice both firm and gentle.

  Shtasith wrenched himself free, dropped to the ground, gave the unicorn a quick furious bow, and Raine's shield crumbled, nothing but horror on her face. "You...," she stammered. "You didn't...didn't even try to—" Anger touched her again. "But I know what you can do, damn it! I know you're a wizard!"

  "No." Cluny swallowed, stood, hoped against hope that she could pull this off now that she was committed to it. "You said it yourself, Raine: I'm not even a familiar. I barely qualified to get into Huxley, and not a single novice wanted to partner with me." It still rankled, the humiliation of those mixers the week before classes began, every field mouse and wren getting picked by the incoming wizardry students while she watched and fumed, and she put every ounce of that into her words. "I was hours away from being sent back to my parents' orchard outside Haverston, hours away from never knowing the wonders I'd longed for my entire life. And then—"

  She stopped, let the joy of the memory wash through her. "Then Crocker walked in, grinned at me, and...and I knew my life was never going to be the same." Now for the tricky part. "Because, yes, he's every bit as powerful as they say, but...but he doesn't believe that he is. I mean, if you look at his qualifying exams, he did even worse than I did!" She forced herself to look up at Hesper, around the stable at the other familiars, then settled her gaze on Raine. "A mental block, Master Gollantz calls it. Crocker's convinced that he can only utilize the full extent of his power if I'm there with him."

  "You mean..." Raine's jaw fell. "You're a totem, a fetish, an object upon which his delusion manifests itself! Of course! That would explain the masking spells that spin around you both! His subconscious channels power to you which his conscious mind then draws upon! But...the danger of feedback would be monumental! No wonder my master is so concerned!"

  Cluny nodded and kept her elation carefully hidden under a sodden weight of fear and sadness. "It's why I'm glad Shtasith came along. He acts as a pressure valve, Master Gollantz says, so the flow of power won't burn Crocker or me out." She put on her best innocent forest creature face. "I'm sorry I got upset earlier, ma'am, but I've got kin who don't even qualify as sapient, and I'm just so tired of hiding the truth, it...it gets me a little edgy."

  "Yes." Raine ran a claw through her whiskers. "This information changes the entire equation. Shtasith is obviously Crocker's true familiar, and this squirrel a mere prop for his various neuroses." The wolf stood, took a few steps toward the others, then looked back over her shoulder. "And since this is a gathering of familiars, I must ask you to leave."

  Silence, their attention again squeezing Cluny, and it took more effort than she'd thought it would to bow, drop to all fours, and scurry out the stable's crooked doorway, the dusty morning sunlight making her squint and sneeze. And sure, her plan was working perfectly—even better than she'd hoped, in fact. But that didn't mean she needed to like it.

  She reached the ragged grass surrounding the remains of the stable yard, cast a variation of her shadow spell to make those idiots back there think she was still moving steadily away, then slipped between layers of space to pop into her favorite part of Eldritch Park: a fern grotto beside one of the little streams that wove through the forest. Usually, the sound and scent of the trickling wat
er relaxed her, the green diffusion of the light overhead the only thing she needed to loosen the muscles along her back. But today...

  Part of her wanted to fold up, curl into the tightest ball she could manage and just cry till she had no liquid left in her body. But the rest of her wanted to start smashing things, let loose every piece of destructive magic she could, pound this whole damn place into powder, turn the powder into rain, and let it wash away. She could, too, could draw upon the vast aetheric reserves swirling around her, and after last night, after finally feeling like she belonged here, she should show those arrogant, useless know-nothings exactly what—!

  A splash behind her. She spun, and Crocker was standing in the middle of the creek, scowling down at the calf-deep water. Pulling up the sodden hem of his robe, he sloshed out, flopped down on the stones of the stream's bank, and began untying his shoes. "Couldn'ta grabbed my boots, now, could I?"

  Fury vibrating her every hair, Cluny didn't move, didn't call out, tried to push away the gentle warmth that always stroked her whenever Crocker was around. "Come on, Cluny." He poured water from his left shoe. "You feel like a lump of cafeteria oatmeal lodged right here..." He thumped a fist against his chest, belched, and looked over his shoulder. "Now, you gonna tell me about it, or do I hafta get rough?"

  His dark hair a jumble, a smile on his bread-dough face, and all at once, she was rushing him, leaping up his back, sliding around his neck, his arms there to catch her, to hold her to his chest, her claws gripping his robe, her snout pressed into the wonderful smell of him as it all tumbled out: the Council and Raine and Jian and Tadon and Hesper and the lie she'd told them all. "I don't want to be anyone's standard-bearer or stooge! A revolutionary or a monster or anything like that!" she finished, her words finally petering out. "I just...I just want to be me! Is...is that so bad?"

  His gentle fingers stroked the fur along her back. "We'll be OK, Cluny," she heard him say. "I mean, as OK as an insane but ultra-powerful wizard like me and a regular ol' squirrel like you can be..."