The Spriggan Mirror

by Lawrence Watt-Evans

  A spriggan—one spriggan—began to climb out of the mirror and found Gresh’s palm in the way. Gresh quickly turned the disk over and lowered his hand so that the creature could escape.

  “So we have the mirror,” he said. “And smashing it isn’t a good idea—if we’d broken it into a hundred pieces we’d probably all have smothered to death.” He glanced up at the dragon. “Well, all but Tobas, anyway.”

  “No smash,” a spriggan said timidly. “Please?”

  Gresh looked down at the little creature, which blinked up at him from a niche in the cave wall. “No smash,” he agreed.

  For a moment he wondered why the spriggan didn’t want the mirror broken. After all, it only seemed to produce more spriggans. Perhaps the little creature didn’t like crowds, or recognized that the World didn’t have room for all those spriggans?

  Though that made the creatures’ unwillingness to give up the mirror that much more mysterious. If they didn’t want more spriggans, why were they so determined to protect the mirror?

  “Then what do we do with it?” Karanissa asked, interrupting his thoughts.

  “Well, it seems to me that our first goal here is to prevent it from making any more spriggans,” Gresh said. “Isn’t it? The Guild’s worried that the whole World might fill up with spriggans, so if we can stop the mirror from making more, that’s a good start. Dealing with the spriggans we already have is a separate issue, as is destroying it permanently. The first thing we want is to stop it from producing more.”

  “How do you propose to do that, if we can’t just smash it?” Karanissa asked.

  “We could take it to the dead area....” Tobas began, but the resulting squeals and screams from the spriggans deterred even a dragon from finishing the sentence.

  “Give back mirror,” a spriggan called from atop a nearby rock. “You give back, spriggans take it and go away, and give back flying rug and lady and baby. No give mirror, no lady, no baby, no rug.”

  “And we’d be back where we started,” Gresh said. “No, I don’t think we’ll do that.”

  “I don’t know, Gresh,” Karanissa said. “What about Ali and the baby?”

  “They aren’t trying to hurt them,” Gresh said, though not as confidently as he would have liked.

  “If we tried to take the mirror to the no-wizardry area they probably would.”

  “True enough,” Gresh admitted. “If we can’t take the mirror to the dead zone....” He looked up at Tobas. “You made that no-spell place, didn’t you?”

  “The one over there?” Tobas said, waving his head toward the opposite slope. “No. That’s been there for centuries. A wizard named Seth Thorun’s son did it.”

  “What about the one in Ethshar of the Sands?”

  “I made that, yes.”

  “Could you do it again, here?”

  Several spriggans squeaked in protest at this suggestion. The dragon ignored them, as he snorted smoke and said, “Not in this shape. Not to mention that it’s forbidden—the Guild outlawed the spell long ago. They gave me a special dispensation for what I did before, but I don’t have any dispensation to do it again. On top of that, I didn’t bring the ingredients, since it is forbidden, and I never expected to have a use for it.”

  “Well, what ingredients do you need?”

  “Oh, no—I’m not telling you that. It’s forbidden. Using it carries the death penalty. Besides, I can’t do it as a dragon, and if you turned me back now, how long do you think it would be before all these spriggans swarmed over us and took the mirror away from us? Not to mention that they’d interrupt the spell—it takes several minutes.”

  “Swarm...?” Gresh looked out and realized that Tobas was right. The dragon had interposed himself between the cave and the horde filling the meadow. A few spriggans were indeed in the cave, but the main body was out there, apparently kept away only by Tobas’s presence.

  So Tobas would have to remain a dragon for now, and that meant they had no wizardry available except for the powders and potions in Gresh’s box.

  Well, he had chosen those spells for exactly this purpose. None of these were intended to destroy the mirror outright, but he hoped one of them might break the enchantment on it and turn it into a harmless disk of silvered glass.

  He would have preferred to try them under more controlled circumstances, but that didn’t appear to be an option. He had to do something to end this stand-off without giving the mirror back to the spriggans, and he had brought all this prepared magic, with the Guild’s blessing. He might as well see whether any of it would do the job.

  “Karanissa, could you keep the spriggans away for a moment?” he asked, as he seated himself cross-legged on the cave floor. He set the mirror on his lap, then pulled over the box of spells.

  He wanted to be as cautious as possible, starting out with the spells least likely to have unforeseen effects. That made his first choice fairly simple. Javan’s Geas could be used to command anyone not to do something, and it lasted indefinitely—but no one ever used it on inanimate objects, for obvious reasons. The mirror might be something more than a mere inanimate object, though, so Gresh pulled out the appropriate jar and sprinkled a pinch of dark red powder on the mirror.

  This was exciting, using magic himself. He had certainly seen plenty of magic, but he had rarely gotten to use it himself. Turning Tobas into a dragon might have been reckless, even frightening, but it had also been fun. It had given him a sensation of power. This experiment with the mirror was far less likely to produce spectacular results, but it was still a bit of a thrill.

  He could hear spriggans protesting, but none interrupted him. Apparently Karanissa’s witchcraft was up to the task of keeping them away. “Make no more spriggans—by this spell I charge you,” he proclaimed. “Esku.”

  The powder flashed into non-existence, but the mirror appeared unchanged.

  “Make no more spriggans,” Gresh repeated, just in case he had misremembered and the command was supposed to come after the invocation.

  “How do we know it worked?” Karanissa asked, looking down at the mirror. She was panting slightly from the effort of keeping the spriggans back.

  “We just wait and see whether any more spriggans appear,” Gresh answered, as he closed the jar and slid it back into its place in the box. “After all, they’ve been popping out often enough! No wonder there are half a million of the little pests, if they appear this.... Oh, drat.”

  A spriggan was heaving itself up out of the mirror.

  “It didn’t work,” Karanissa said.

  “It didn’t work,” Gresh agreed. He reached for the box.

  The glittering white powder of Lirrim’s Rectification flashed silver instead of gold, but had no visible effect at all, and after a five-minute wait the mirror produced another spriggan, demonstrating that the original spell was still working. The spriggan appeared just the same as the others. If the Rectification had had any effect at all, it wasn’t obvious.

  “I’d hoped that would turn it into Lugwiler’s Haunting Phantasm,” Gresh said. “I’m not sure why it didn’t—after all, that’s what the spell was originally intended to be.”

  “Maybe wizardry just doesn’t work on the mirror,” Karanissa said, as she slumped against the cave wall, exhausted.

  “That’s possible,” Gresh admitted. “But I really hope that’s not the case.”

  “Maybe it’s been too long since the original spell,” Tobas said, peering down through the opening where the cave roof used to be.

  “That doesn’t seem likely,” Gresh said. “From what I’m told, wizardry usually isn’t time-limited that way—I mean, you can always reverse Fendel’s Superior Petrifaction, even if the victim’s been stone for centuries.” He glanced around. “It might be because there are half a million spriggans out there who think this version of the mirror is exactly what it should be.”

  “That could be,” Tobas said.

  Gresh tried Javan’s Restorative next, over the dragon’s objecti
ons. Tobas pointed out that they had already used the Restorative on the mirror once without removing the enchantment and argued that they really shouldn’t waste another portion of their very limited supply of a very precious spell.

  Gresh ignored him and cast the spell, which did absolutely nothing. Spriggans continued to emerge from the mirror at irregular intervals.

  The horde of spriggans in the meadow continued to hold Alorria, Alris, and the flying carpet hostage. They bickered and squeaked among themselves, but made no attempt to charge past the dragon. Every so often one would try to sneak past alone, but Tobas spotted most of these and chased them away.

  “What does that leave?” Tobas asked, as he brushed a few unusually courageous spriggans back with his tail. “What else have you got in that box?”

  “The potions obviously won’t help,” Gresh said. “The mirror can’t drink them. The two powders we haven’t tried are the Spell of the Revealed Power and the Spell of Reversal.”

  “The mirror’s been enchanted for years, so I don’t know what the Spell of Reversal could do,” Tobas remarked.

  “Make the mirror suck spriggans back in, perhaps?” Karanissa suggested.

  Gresh and Tobas exchanged glances, man to dragon.

  “I suppose it might,” Gresh said.

  “Well, what would the Spell of the Revealed Power do?”

  “Who knows?” Gresh replied. “It might show us why the spriggans are so determined to protect this thing, when they say they don’t care whether any more appear out of it.”

  “It may be bringing the spriggans from somewhere else,” Tobas suggested. “Instead of creating them, I mean. The Spell of the Revealed Power might transform it into an actual doorway into that realm, whatever and wherever it may be.”

  “And if it did....” Gresh blinked. “If it did, maybe we could send all the spriggans back where they came from! Maybe that’s what they actually want it for!”

  “And maybe it’s not,” Karanissa said. “Maybe instead it’ll dump another half-million spriggans on us all at once!”

  “I’ll have Javan’s Restorative handy,” Gresh said.

  “The Spell of Reversal,” Tobas grumbled. “Use that, and save the Restorative!”

  “Maybe I will,” Gresh said, as he pulled the jar of blue powder from the box. “Let’s just see what it does....”

  “I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Karanissa said, backing away.

  “She may have a point,” Tobas said. “What if it releases an infinite quantity of spriggans, and we’re smothered to death before you can use a counterspell?”

  “That would be unfortunate,” Gresh said, as he sprinkled blue powder on the mirror. He had come this far, and did not want to give up. Besides, he had just cast three high-order spells that had done exactly nothing, and was beginning to think wizardry simply didn’t work on the mirror. He wanted to find something that would affect the glass.

  “It would be unfortunate,” he repeated. “But I don’t think it’ll happen. Why would it? What power would that reveal? Esku!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  There was a golden flash, and the man, woman, and dragon stared down at the little mirror.

  It remained a mirror, a round piece of silvered glass about the size of a man’s hand. It did not transform into a gateway, portal, dragon, spriggan, or monster of any sort.

  “It would appear,” Karanissa said, staring at it, “that it has never mastered anything more powerful than itself.”

  “How annoying,” Gresh said.

  A spriggan suddenly popped up out of the mirror, jumped to a nearby rock, teetered on its edge for a moment, then scampered away. It looked just like any number of the other spriggans. The Spell of the Revealed Power had apparently not changed a thing.

  “How very annoying,” Gresh said.

  “You know,” Tobas said, “you’d make a terrible wizard, Gresh—assuming you survived your apprenticeship. You have a habit of throwing magic around much too carelessly. That spell really might have killed us all. Turning me into a dragon, and all the rest—you really ought to use a little more caution.”

  This admonishment, especially coming from Tobas, whose carelessness with magic had created the spriggan mirror in the first place, stung more than Gresh cared to admit— but he could not completely deny that there was some justice in it. “I take some risks, yes,” he said. “I don’t think they’re excessive. I have a box of counterspells right here, after all, and this is what the Guild gave me these spells for. I brought them here to use.”

  “But none of them have done anything useful to the mirror,” Karanissa said.

  “I know. But there’s one more to try,” Gresh replied.

  “The Spell of Reversal? What can that do?” Tobas asked.

  “Maybe Karanissa’s right, and it really will suck spriggans back in,” Gresh said.

  “Even if it does, it will only work for half an hour,” Tobas pointed out.

  “That’s surely better than nothing,” Gresh said. “Perhaps we can find a way to keep on casting it, over and over?” He looked up, and even on a dragon’s face the dubious expression Tobas wore was easy to recognize.

  “Well, let’s see what it does,” Gresh said, stubbornly. “We might as well.”

  “I admit I don’t see what harm that one can do,” Tobas said. “Unless it breaks the mirror into four pieces again.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Gresh said, with a tug at his beard. “It might, mightn’t it?”

  “We could wait until it’s more than half an hour since the mirror was repaired,” Karanissa suggested.

  Gresh looked out across the meadow, past Tobas in the draconic form he did not want to keep, at Alorria, who was sitting on the carpet, holding Alris in one arm and tugging at Tobas’s ruined clothes with the other. He looked at the hordes of spriggans milling about, some of them clearly looking for ways to get at the mirror.

  “I don’t think we should wait,” he said. “I have the Restorative, or I could even just use the Spell of Reversal again.” He pulled the final unopened jar from his box, wiggled the cork free, then sprinkled a little purple powder over the mirror, and said, “Esku!”

  The flash was bluish this time, but after it had faded away the mirror lay on the cave floor just as before and still in one piece. Relieved that it was intact and disappointed that it was not doing anything obvious to reduce the spriggan population, Gresh leaned over and looked into it. He saw only his own reflection looking back at him.

  “Nothing,” he said.

  Karanissa suddenly reached out and grabbed a spriggan before it had time to react. She held it with one hand around its legs, the other pinning one arm to its body.

  The other arm waved wildly about as it squealed, “No no! No hurt! No hurt!”

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” Karanissa told it. “I’m going to see if I can send you back where you belong.” She tossed the creature onto the mirror.

  It landed on the glass with a soggy thump, got up, brushed itself off, and scampered away unhurt, giggling hysterically.

  “I’d say it isn’t exactly sucking them back in,” Gresh remarked.

  Karanissa leaned over and peered down into the mirror, holding her long hair back out of the way with one hand. “It would seem not,” she agreed.

  “So that didn’t work, and we have no other spells to try, so we’re back to trying to figure out some way to get it out of here and across the valley to the no-wizardry zone,” Gresh said.

  “Maybe,” Karanissa said, still staring into the mirror. “Or maybe not.”

  Gresh looked at her. “Maybe not?” He looked down at the mirror. “Why maybe not?”

  “Well, look at it,” the witch said. “Maybe the spriggan didn’t get sucked in, but have you seen anything come out of it since you cast that spell?”

  Gresh blinked. He stared at the mirror. No spriggans were climbing out of it—but it had only been a couple of minutes. He felt a twinge of hope, but q
uickly suppressed it.

  “Not yet,” he said. “But that may not mean anything.”

  “It feels different,” Karanissa said. “It’s still magical, still enchanted, it hasn’t gotten any weaker or stronger, but it feels different.”

  “Can you tell how?”

  Karanissa turned up an empty palm. “No,” she said.

  “Tobas?” a distant voice called.

  “Ali?” The dragon had been watching the events in the cave with interest, but now he lifted his scaly head and turned to look at Alorria. Gresh, too, glanced in her direction.

  “What’s going on?” Alorria asked, the words barely intelligible over the intervening distance. “How long are these spriggans going to keep us here? The sun’s going down. Are we going to be stuck here all night?”

  The dragon’s head swung back to the cave for a moment. “Excuse me,” Tobas said, “but I’ve been neglecting Ali.” He started to turn away—this time not just by bending his neck, but by turning his entire body.

  “Wait a moment,” Gresh called. “If you leave, we’ll be overrun by spriggans, and they’ll take the mirror.”

  “If you get too close to the carpet you may panic them into doing something unfortunate,” Karanissa said. “Or you may do something unfortunate, without meaning to.”

  The dragon hesitated, then said, “I’ll just turn around and talk to Ali from a safe distance.”

  Karanissa and Gresh exchanged glances. “That should work,” Gresh acknowledged.

  “Good.” With that, and with much scraping of scale on rock and rustling of gigantic wings, the dragon turned around, sending spriggans running in various directions squeaking madly, until at last the very tip of his tail slithered across the rocks he had ripped out of the mountainside and curled into the mouth of the cave.

  “She’s right that the sun’s setting,” Karanissa said, once the dragon had completed his rotation.

  Gresh’s reply was drowned out by the dragon roaring across the meadow to Alorria, reassuring her that everything was fine, and that the other two were just experimenting with the mirror to see if they could remove the enchantment.