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The moment the Gray Wizard took Ferris’s arm, Giserre’s bedroom vanished. There wasn’t even time to scream. Instead, she found herself in the middle of an enormous, gloomy hall ringed by tall columns. Fornoch stood beside her at the bottom of a raised dais, a long stone bench at the top. Each step leading up to it was higher than her knees.
The Wizard regarded her with his all-dark eyes. Though her heart pounded terribly, Ferris returned his gaze, determined to show no fear. She wondered if Reiffen would come to gloat over her before she died.
“Who are you?” asked Fornoch, his voice as warm as steaming tea. “How have you come here? Through the chimneys, it would appear.”
Ferris tilted her chin higher, but it was hard to look Fornoch in the eye when she couldn’t find a pupil in all that blackness. “My name is Ferris.”
“Ferris of Valing? Reiffen’s lady love, come to rescue him a second time? Or have you finally thrown him over in favor of one of your other suitors?”
“I haven’t thrown anyone over. Reiffen did that himself.”
Though his eyes remained expressionless, a hint of sympathy peeked out at the corners of Fornoch’s massive mouth. “Quite right,” he said. “Your loyalty deserved far better. But it was necessary for Reiffen’s education to make certain he cut himself off from everything he held dear. Murdering Molio was not enough.”
Ferris had no idea who Molio was, but the knowledge that Reiffen had murdered more than nokken during his time in Ussene chilled her. She no longer knew him at all.
Fornoch went on in his low, soothing tone. “If you have come to rescue him again, I am afraid this time he would not have gone with you.”
The fact the Wizard didn’t know everything helped Ferris regain some of her courage. “We weren’t rescuing Reiffen,” she said rashly. “We were rescuing Giserre.”
“Giserre? How interesting. All these years, and suddenly fresh interest in Giserre? Surely she prefers to remain with her son. What danger could possibly threaten Giserre as long as Reiffen is close at hand?”
“More than you’ll—”
Ferris closed her mouth abruptly, realizing she had already said too much. Fornoch, with his soft words and pretended sympathy, had nearly gotten her to admit that Giserre, and all of Ussene, faced utter ruin. Clamping her jaw tight, she determined not to say another word.
Fornoch nodded, understanding everything. “Very well then. You need say nothing more, if that is your wish. But I hope you will excuse me if I leave you alone while I inspect the fortress for other signs of intrusion. I do not expect you have come all this way alone.”
Bowing, the Wizard was gone. Ferris waved her hand through the empty air, then looked around the room. A low gallery circled the hall behind the columns, reminding her of a similar chamber she and her friends had passed through deep in the dungeons seven years before. A fine, pale light drifted down from a ceiling too far away to see.
Doubting very much the Gray Wizard had left her a means of escape, Ferris began searching along the gallery for a door. Eventually she came to a pair of massive iron portals that, unfortunately, no amount of pushing or frustrated kicking could persuade to open. Time was rapidly running out and, if she didn’t find an exit soon, her fate would be the same as everyone else’s in Ussene.
She circled the room, but there were no other doors. Hope crushed, she slumped against the iron gates and decided she really had reached the end. Pressing her palms against the smooth stone, she felt for some faint sign of the Dwarves’ labor far below, but the floor was still. The stone was as dead as she soon would be.
The doors boomed behind her. Before Ferris could think to hide behind one of the pillars, a small, stocky form appeared in the middle of the exit.
“Nolo!” She threw herself into the Dwarf’s arms, bruising her hip and shoulder. Tears sprang to her eyes, but not from pain.
“Enough, lass. It may already be too late.”
“But how did you find me?”
“A sissit told me where the Three like to bring their new prisoners. It was a lucky chance I ran into him.”
Seizing the Dwarf’s hand, Ferris felt something wet and sticky across the back of his knuckles.
“Let’s go,” she said.
He led her back through the doors. A soldier lay crumpled on the other side. Beyond him stretched a long corridor. Dwarf and human hurried to the far end. They had covered nearly half the distance when a gray shape appeared out of the air before them.
Nolo pulled up short. “The other way, lass! I’ll hold him off while you escape.”
“But there’s no other way out!”
“Then go back anyway. I’ll fight him better without you around to worry about.”
Fornoch’s calm voice filled the hall. “There is no need to fight, Bryddin. Your brethren are nearly finished. I find myself powerless to stop them.”
“Then save yourself and let us do the same.”
“I fear there is not time enough for you to do that.” The Wizard’s gray robes flowed across the floor as he approached. “The nearest exit is too far for you to reach. I, on the other hand, can easily save your friend. You, my magic cannot help.”
Shouting defiance, Nolo swung his mallet. Fornoch dodged easily. Instead of bothering to strike a blow in return, he reached out a long arm and grabbed Ferris by the shoulder. Nolo swung blindly at the sound of Ferris’s pained cry, catching the Wizard in the side. Fornoch grunted, but still didn’t fight back. Something dropped from his robe and rolled across the floor: an egg-shaped stone as large as the Dwarf’s head.
The floor opened. Walls and ceiling shook. Ferris drowned in crashing sound. Showers of dust and fine stone cascaded around them as the fortress began to fall apart. Desperately Nolo lunged for the edge as he dropped into the sudden chasm. His fingers dug into the rock. Another crevice gaped as a second shudder shook the hall. Clinging tightly to his chunk of falling stone, Nolo disappeared into the dark smoke below. The Wizard’s egg-shaped rock tumbled in beside him.
Once again the room disappeared. Ferris caught a last glimpse of stones crashing down from the ceiling and fresh cracks opening in the floor before the Wizard whisked her away once more.
***
Mindrell replaced the mirror in his pocket and absently fingered the thimble on his left hand. His instructions were clear. Reiffen expected to return to Ussene by early morning and wanted his mother and Mindrell to be ready for him in the apartment.
The bard called to the sleeper lying on her pallet beside the dull glow of the hearth. “Spit. Wake your mistress.”
Yawning, the slave rose and did as she was told. Mindrell lowered his eyes as Giserre appeared at her door, though his first instinct was to stare openly. Never did Giserre look more lovely than when her long, dark hair was draped loosely around her shoulders in the morning.
“Have you heard from Reiffen?” she asked.
The bard nodded. “He plans to return in the second hour after sunrise and wants us ready to meet him.”
He was toasting bread at the hearth when Giserre returned, dressed and gripping her healing satchels in her hands. Spit had already gone off to start her morning chores.
“No time for breakfast,” commanded the lady. “I have to make sure the last batch of medicine gets Downstairs. I knew we should have done this last night.”
Deftly Mindrell plucked his half-cooked slice of bread from the toasting fork and tucked it in his pocket. “If I might suggest, milady, it might be better to wait here. What if Reiffen returns early?”
“This must be done first. We still have plenty of time. We shall be back before Spit has even finished the mopping.”
Bowing, Mindrell made no further argument. Giserre accepted his presence much more easily when he did as he was told. Hefting the heavier of the two bags, he followed her out the door.
They were on their way back to the upper levels, their satchels empty, when Spit found them.
“Mistress!” The poor woman collapsed miserably in the filth in the passage as she threw herself at Giserre’s feet. “Save me! Save us all!”
“Save you?” Pulling her skirts out of Spit’s grasp, Giserre glanced quickly at Mindrell. “What is there to save you from? All the soldiers are gone.”
“An avalanche!” The poor woman scrabbled forward till she was clutching Giserre’s ankles once more. “Snow and ice! It’s going to bury us all!”
“Snow and ice? Calm down, woman.” Giserre lifted Spit to her feet. “This is summer. There is no snow. Nor avalanches.”
“But that’s what the woman said, my lady!”
“Please, Spit. What woman? And why would you believe her?”
Her hands trembling like leaves, Spit made some effort to do as her mistress asked. She pushed her hair back from her face and rubbed her fingers across her eyes.
“A terrible creature, milady, covered in black like Him! And her face and hands as black as her clothes!”
“Who was she?”
Spit shrugged.
“Where did she come from?”
Spit shrugged again.
Giserre pursed her mouth impatiently. “What, exactly, did this woman in black tell you?”
“That the fortress is going to be destroyed in a terrible avalanche and everyone has to get away. And she wants you, milady, to come meet her first. In the sitting room.”
It was Giserre’s turn to be surprised. “Meet her! Why?”
“She didn’t say, ma’am. Only that you should hurry.”
“A trick, my lady.” Mindrell turned to the servant. “Did this woman in black mention Reiffen?”
Spit shook her head.
The bard rubbed his thimble. “Wild talk of the fortress being destroyed, counsel that’s the opposite of what Reiffen gave me an hour ago. I think it’s time to follow the course Reiffen set out if I ever thought you were threatened.”
“I agree,” said Giserre.
Mindrell held up his little finger. “I don’t know where this will take us, but Reiffen assured me no one could follow.”
“Can I come?” asked Spit.
“Of course,” Giserre assured her.
“I have to warn the slaves, first.” Spit set her mouth firmly as she spoke, in a way Mindrell thought she had learned from her mistress. “The woman told me to do that.”
“What this woman told you is most likely false,” said Giserre. “You might not return to us in time.”
“I can’t let myself be afraid, my lady, not if there’s any chance I can help my old friends. You taught me that.”
“Go then. But know we cannot wait long.”
Dropping a quick curtsy, the servant vanished down the dim passage. Mindrell wasn’t sorry to see her go. She would have made an uncomfortable encumbrance, and Giserre would have insisted he guard her as fully as herself.
“She won’t make it back, you know,” he said.
Giserre laid her hand on his arm. “We can wait a little while.”
“Can we? What if the White Wizard catches us? Reiffen won’t be happy if I fail.” He clasped the hand on his arm with his own.
Giserre withdrew her touch. Mindrell waited beside her, his nervousness growing. The dark minutes crept along. Finally he said, “My lady, I must insist. Your danger increases with every moment.”
Frowning, she returned her hand to his arm. Fatigue and worry faulted the corners of her mouth. Mindrell took the little finger of his left hand in his right.
“I would we could have saved her,” she said.
“Return,” he answered, removing the thimble as Reiffen had taught him.
***
Avender ducked as a roof replaced the sky. The black fields disappeared, and Ossdonc’s body as well. On the other side of Reiffen, Redburr’s fur stuck straight out the way it sometimes did just before a thunderstorm.
They stood in a woman’s bedroom, the three of them crowding the stone chamber tightly. Avender recognized the needlework on the pillows as Giserre’s.
Frowning, Reiffen poked his head out the door into the next room. “Giserre was supposed to meet me here.”
“Well, there’s no time to look for her.” Redburr sniffed underneath the bed.
“Why not?”
“This place isn’t safe.”
“We knew that before we came,” said Avender.
“I’m not talking about Wizards, boy. Nolo and the Bryddin have mined the bottom out from under the fortress. For all I know they’re about to bring it down around our heads right now.”
Reiffen broke into a smile. “Really? That will save me a lot of trouble. I hadn’t expected to accomplish much more than slay Ossdonc and escape this time around.”
“What about Giserre?” asked Avender. “We can’t just leave her.”
“My mother will be safe,” answered Reiffen. “Her escort has strict orders to flee at the first sign of trouble.”
“How’re they going to do that?” Avender leaned out the window and studied the long drop to the valley below.
Reiffen raised his hand, displaying his second thimble. “Her escort has one of these. Moreover, it will take them to the same place as mine.”
“Then let’s get on with it,” growled the bear. His teeth showed wickedly yellow against his black muzzle. “This place isn’t healthy for me. And there’s no sense waiting around for a Wizard to find us.”
“Very well.” Reiffen gestured for his companions to grasp his shoulders. For the second time they watched as he took one hand in the other and spoke the word “Return.”
This time Avender tried not to blink as Reiffen swept them across the world, but he wasn’t sure he succeeded. One moment they were in the sitting room, the pale morning light washing across them from the window; the next they were in the shadows of a much darker cave, the only light coming from a blazing hearth.
Two figures stood on the other side of the fire. Avender’s hand went to his sword.
“Mother. Are you all right?” asked Reiffen.
“I am fine, my son.”
Reiffen bowed to the man standing beside Giserre. “Thank you, Mindrell. You have done everything I asked. I release you from my service.”
“A bit soon for that, Your Majesty. I think I’ll wait till we get back to the surface before accepting your offer.”
The bear padded into the light, his claws clicking on the stone. “Reiffen, you’ve certainly picked your friends strangely these last few years, but the harper is right. Let’s get out of here.”
“That will take some time.”
“I already told you, we don’t have a lot of time.”
“This place is far from Ussene. What the Dwarves do there will not affect us here.”
“What makes you think Usseis and Fornoch won’t follow us as soon as Ussene is destroyed?”
“Ussene is actually going to be destroyed?” Giserre glanced quickly at the bard. “Then the woman Spit saw told her the truth.”
“What woman?” asked Reiffen.
“Spit saw her, not I. She wanted me to meet her.”
“Who’s Spit?” asked Avender.
The bear tossed his large head impatiently. “None of this matters now. We have to get out of here as soon as possible. Come on, Reiffen. Chant the spell, pull the secret lever. Let’s go, however you do it.”
“It’s not that simple. To cast a traveling spell without a link requires preparation. And even then I may not be strong enough to take everyone at once. But I assure you, there is no need to hurry. Usseis doesn’t know where this place is, and Fornoch is no fighter. There is more difference among the Three than you might think.”
“Are you sure? What if Fornoch has told Usseis about this place? Will we be safe then? Do you trust the Wizard that much?”
“Very well.” Avender thought Reiffen was simply humoring the bear. “Perhaps I should take some precautions, but the magic itself cannot be rushed. Mother, if you and Mindrell would arrange yourselves around the empty table.”
Handing Avender the Inach sword he had borrowed from Brizen, he went on. “I shall be too busy for guard duty. And I am sure you are a better swordsman than I, anyway.”
With his back to the center of the room, the young wizard sketched a square in the air and chanted,
“Magic mine, and nothing more,
May pass this line
From roof to floor.”
The square Reiffen had traced shimmered with a faint silver light, as if Hern’s best tea tray hung suspended in the air before him. Taking hold of each of the upper corners, he flung them left and right. The tea tray turned into a thin silver sheet that unfolded in the air. For a moment it hovered above the table, a shiver of tiny stars cascading from ceiling to floor at its edges. The stars winked out and all trace of the spell disappeared.
“Is it still there?” Mindrell reached out a tentative hand.
“It’s there until I end it,” replied Reiffen. “But it will only block magic, so take care if anything solid comes your way.”
The first spell cast, Reiffen began the next. While Avender and Redburr guarded the ends of the empty table, Reiffen collected a variety of bottles, bowls, and beakers from a second bench. Ugly odors filled the room as he mixed the contents into a thick paste which he poured into two small pots. With a pair of tongs, he plucked a dull red coal from the fire to light them. The nasty smell thickened.
“Now comes the tricky part.” Reiffen set the smoking pots at either end of the empty table. “It might take fifteen minutes for me to find the precise memory I need. In the meantime everyone must keep touching me while I’m concentrating. My shins and ankles will probably be best.”
No one dared speak as Reiffen lay down on the table between the smudges, for fear of disturbing his focus. Redburr snuffled, and his muzzle drooping guiltily in response to his companions’ reproving glares. The minutes passed, slow as mist beading on a pane of glass.
A white blur stepped out of the fire. Usseis’s long shadow blackened the floor. Mindrell pulled Giserre around to the far side of the table while Avender pointed the heavy sword at the White Wizard’s chest. His concentration broken, Reiffen came quickly to his feet and emerged from the protective barrier of his magic.
Flames from the fire licked the hem of Usseis’s robe. “Too late I find that Fornoch was wrong to trust you,” he said, “and Ossdonc foolish in his preference for pleasure and power. My way was always best. So it shall be henceforth.”
Grandly, the White Wizard lifted his right arm and spread his fingers wide. Reiffen made a sweeping motion with his hand.
“Enough,” he said. “Your will no longer has the strength to force mine.”
The Wizard’s black eyes gaped like night sky between bright stars. Sword in hand, Avender followed Reiffen out of the magic circle and felt himself drawn immediately into those hollow depths. The Wizard’s eyes compelled him forward, the same way the Abyss sometimes beckoned when he turned his gaze downward too long from the heights of Issinlough. What was he doing, taking orders from Reiffen anyway? Hadn’t he bested his former friend in every contest they had ever fought? Crowns and power were one thing: Avender had never wanted those. But there were other prizes more precious, and Avender deserved them far more than any turncoat prince. All he had to do—
Reiffen stepped between his old friend and the Wizard. Avender blinked, as if a cloud had crossed the sky, and tried to remember what he had been thinking.
“You will not compel my friends, either,” said Reiffen.
“So be it,” said the Wizard. “We shall see how good you have become with cruder magics.”
He raised a hand. Strength and power rippled across his dead black eyes.
“Catch,” answered Reiffen, though Usseis had made no rhyme.
The air burst in a clap of thunder; a slim dagger appeared in the air. Lightning blazed around the iron blade like waves on the rocks in Valing gorge. Avender staggered at the shock.
Usseis pushed at the air with his hand a second time.
“Quench,” said Reiffen.
Warm spray splashed across the cave. The fire in the hearth fizzled, but stayed lit. Despite the discomfort of being soaked, nothing worse followed.
Usseis raised his arms; the sleeves of his cloak fell to the floor like a white marble wall. His fingers clawed wide like sunbeams striking through dark clouds.
“Form,” he said, voicing his spell for the first time.
The walls began to writhe. Small creatures bulged from the stone. Like an army of ants sliding off a tilted tray, the things broke free of the rock and slipped scrabbling to the floor. Pincers clicked; stingers jabbed blindly.
“Ground,” responded Reiffen.
The floor swallowed the creatures as quickly as they were vomited from the walls.
Light and clamor and blood blasted the cave as Reiffen countered each of the Wizard’s attacks with a single word. A rain of vipers was answered by a wave of cold; a choking fog by a cleansing wind; a cloud of wasps by a flock of darting blackbirds. But nothing the Wizard sent penetrated the barrier Reiffen had placed around Ferris and the others, and everything was dispelled before Reiffen or Avender was harmed.
But the strain of countering the Wizard’s spells was showing. The hollow, anguished look in Reiffen’s face that had greeted them that morning was now stretched thin as a starving mask. Nor was he able to attack in any way, but only defend, while Usseis’s power had not diminished at all. Avender wondered how long his former friend could continue. Hate him or not, Reiffen was the only thing standing between them and the White Wizard. If someone didn’t help him soon, they were all going to die. Or worse.
“Sand,” said Reiffen. A storm of jagged stones crumbled to stinging dust, but the force behind it remained powerful enough to knock the weary spellcaster to the ground. Avender leapt over his fallen friend and thrust his Inach sword at the White Wizard’s broad chest.
Absently, as if Avender were less than a conjured wasp, Usseis raised an arm to ward the attack. Only when the sharp edge of the sword bit deeply into his forearm did the Wizard realize he faced no ordinary weapon. With a growl of anger and pain, he swung viciously at Avender with his other hand. Avender dodged, but Usseis still struck him glancingly across the chest.
Fields of stars burst across the young man’s eyes. His chest felt as if it had collapsed against his back, but at least the pain reassured him he was still alive. Gasping for breath, he realized he had lost Brizen’s sword.
He opened his eyes. Usseis was flailing away at Reiffen in the middle of the room, the Wizard’s bloody arm scratching crimson trails through the air. Redburr worried his leg like a giant dog. But Usseis couldn’t turn to deal with the Shaper because Reiffen had the Inach sword. Instead the White Wizard dragged the bear around the room, trying to knock the weapon out of Reiffen’s hand, while Reiffen darted back and forth in search of an opening to stab and slash.
With a loud rip, Usseis pulled himself free from Redburr’s sharp teeth and kicked the enormous bear across the room. Tossing the torn fabric to the floor, Redburr leapt after the Wizard again, but he was too late. In the short moment his legs were free, Usseis caught Reiffen a blow with his good arm that knocked the human to the floor. He landed on his back, his head twisted horribly to the side. The sword flew out of his hands.
The Wizard bounded forward. But Redburr had him by the leg again, so Mindrell was faster. The bard pounced on the blade, lifting it with both hands. At the same time Giserre, leaving the safety of Reiffen’s shield, seized the scrap of the Wizard’s robe. With the long practice of one who had made beds for years in Valing, she tossed the piece of fabric so that it billowed open like a sheet across the Wizard’s face, blocking his view. As Usseis clawed the cloth away Mindrell thrust the Inach sword straight through the fabric and up into the White Wizard’s chest.
A line of crimson thickened on the cloth. Usseis dropped to his knees. His face contorted with disbelief, he toppled to the floor. Black blood welled out beneath him.
Giserre rushed to Reiffen’s side. Bones crunched as Redburr made sure the Wizard was dead. Avender, hardly daring to breathe because of the pain in his chest, braced himself for Giserre’s grief.
But Reiffen was alive. “Is the Wizard dead?” he asked as Giserre cradled his head in her lap, his voice far stronger than it should have been.
Tenderly Giserre brushed Reiffen’s hair away from his face. “He is, my son. Mindrell struck the blow.”
The bard bowed modestly, his preening confidence strangely absent. “With your help, my lady. It was your deft touch that turned the tide.”
“It was all of us,” said Reiffen. “Everyone had a part.”
Avender struggled to draw a breath deep enough to speak so he could let everyone know that he, too, was still alive. However many ribs it turned out he had broken, his chest hurt more now than it had after his stabbing in Banking. It felt like he was slowly suffocating as well. But Redburr hadn’t forgotten him and, after pausing for one last lap at the Wizard’s blood, came over to give him a sniff. Avender tried to speak again, going so far as to open his mouth, but no words came out.
“Don’t talk, boy,” said the Shaper. Then, turning to the others, “This one’s alive too. Though I’m not so surprised at him as I am at Reiffen.”
“Killing things is not all that magic is good for.” Sitting up in his mother’s arms, Reiffen twisted his neck. An ugly crack echoed across the workshop, but his head sat correctly on his shoulders again when he was done.
“If you’re feeling that much better,” growled the bear, “maybe it’s time to try getting out of here again. I’d just as soon not be around if Fornoch shows up too. I don’t think we can survive another fight like that last one.”
“I lack the strength for any magic right now,” said Reiffen. “It might be some time before I recover.”
“Then it is just as well I have arrived.”
Fornoch emerged from the shadows at the back of the room leading a filthy Ferris by the arm.
“Redburr!” she cried, wrestling against the Gray Wizard’s grip. “Help me!”
Wondering how Fornoch had captured her, Avender tried to push himself up from the cold stone but collapsed back, breathless and in pain. Rage at everything that had happened rushed through him, but there was nothing his broken body could do. First Reiffen, then Skimmer, now Ferris. It would be just as well if he received his death blow from the Wizards too.
Holding his captive tightly, Fornoch stopped close beside Usseis’s body. His black eyes flicked around the room like a pair of hovering bees.
“Quite impressive. You have killed both my brothers in a single day. I congratulate you, Reiffen. You have far exceeded my expectations.”
“Expectations?” asked the bear.
“Reiffen didn’t do this.” Ferris struck at the Wizard’s arm with her fist. “He’s on your side.”
Fornoch paid no attention to her. “Do you actually believe all this has happened without my allowing it?” he told the Shaper.
“I do. It would be just like you to claim authorship of events you had nothing to do with.”
“It would,” the Wizard agreed.
Reiffen struggled painfully to his feet, his hand on his mother’s shoulder. “Hello, Ferris.” Turning to the Gray Wizard, he asked, “So, this was your plan? To have me kill your rivals so you might have your way unopposed?”
“There was never any plan, Reiffen. Matters have found their own course, like water running to the sea. I have sought no one’s death.”
“Yet somehow you managed to reveal this place to Usseis. Despite assuring me you would not.”
The Gray Wizard shrugged amiably, admitting his fault. “When he discovered I had placed a workshop at your disposal, he insisted on knowing its location. I had to tell him, otherwise he would have suspected us of concealing secrets. Fool that he was, his suspicions have led him to his own death. I followed as soon as I learned he was here. To help, one way or the other.”
“In other words,” said Giserre, “you thought to take advantage of whatever situation you found.”
“That is Fornoch’s way, Mother,” said her son. “He knew some day it would come to this, for all his twisting words. Ossdonc was the easy one, but the outcome with Usseis was always in doubt.”
Fornoch smiled, as if he was proud of Reiffen’s cleverness. “I admit, some such encounter was inevitable. Usseis’s mistake was to underestimate others’ strength. He did not understand that even a mere actor might cling to life so tightly he reemerges as a stone. Always Usseis has wanted too much control over things living and dead. And Ossdonc believed only in destruction.”
“And you?” asked the bear.
“I seek only to suggest.”
Giserre looked into Fornoch’s hollow eyes. “You use words, Wizard, the way your brothers used spells and swords. Words whispered in the night like daggers tipped with poison.”
“Words have many meanings, my lady. As I said before, I came to help.” Fornoch smiled again, but this time his good humor reminded Avender of shopkeepers in Malmoret whose goods were worth less than their words.
“If you really want to help,” growled Redburr, “do us all a favor and leave. Without the girl.”
“I would be happy to leave,” said the Wizard. “But you might want me to do the same for the rest of you before I go.”
“Don’t listen to him!” Ferris pulled again at the Wizard’s iron grip. “Who knows where he’ll take us? We might end up on top of High Enossin, or in the middle of the Outer Sea. He left Nolo behind in Ussene when it was destroyed and made me watch it all from the next mountain over. It was horrible.”
“True, there is the risk I might be lying. Life has its uncertainties.” With his free hand the Wizard reached inside his robe. Bear and humans tensed, fearing the worst and knowing they could do nothing about it. Instead Fornoch brought out a puppy, tail wagging, and set it on the floor. Not until it took a few delighted hops did anyone notice it only had three legs. The fourth was capped at the knee with a small cup of iron.
“What have you done?” asked Ferris, aghast.
“Magic has its price,” replied the Wizard.
“I see what you have fashioned,” said Reiffen. “An interesting variation. May I ask where you placed the other limb?”
“In the barracks near the Valley Gate. They still stand, but you had better hurry. Some things escaped the general destruction. I assume they are hungry, and a tender young dog’s leg is just the sort of treat they love.”
“We don’t need your help, Wizard,” said Giserre. “We can wait for my son to be rested enough to cast his spell.”
“Can you? With my brother’s body rotting beside you? There is much magic in this room, and much in Usseis’s flesh as well. Even I cannot predict how the two may interact.”
As if on cue, a narrow split cracked the ceiling. Small stones pattered to the floor. Tail wagging, the puppy left off pawing a dead blackbird and tripped over to sniff the debris.
Reiffen looked angrily at the Wizard. “What’s going on? You said this place was far from Ussene.”
“It is.” Fornoch folded his hands solemnly into his sleeves. “But Usseis is here and he is dead. There are repercussions.”
“I suggest we leave,” said the bear. Gently he picked up the puppy with his large yellow teeth.
“Why do you help us?” Giserre demanded. “What profit is yours?”
“Maybe I’m not as bad as I seem.” Fornoch released his grip on Ferris’s arm, setting her free to join her friends. “And maybe I’m not as good, either. What matters is your son return to the world with everything he has learned.”
He disappeared.