Rick Cook - The Wizardry Consulted

"Allaying her suspicions about what you’ve been up to with her. The big black wizard is in the front parlor, along with one of your friends." She grinned. "They’re supposed to be meditating, but every so often they get so deep in thought they start to snore. Your other friend is upstairs working at your desk. Says he’s surfing, but there’s not a wave to be seen."

"That’s just a figure of speech," Wiz told her. "What about you?"

"Oh, I’ve got some errands to run." She paused. "Leaving, eh?"

"Probably tomorrow. I’m done here."

She nodded. "That’s the way of it."

There was a longer pause.

"What about you? What are you going to do once I’ve left?"

Malkin laughed. "Oh, I’ll go back to the Bog Side, away from all these high-toned folk like the town council and their fancy ways. I’ll be taking the air, as you might say. You’ve stirred up a right hornet’s nest here and I’m minded to see how it goes on for a bit."

"I mean, you’ll be all right and everything?"

Malkin laughed again and Wiz thought it sounded a bit brittle.

"Me? Fortuna, I’ve looked out for meself all these years. I’ll do just fine on my own. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an errand to run." She loped up the stairs toward her room.

"Malkin."

The tall thief paused at the top of the stairs and looked back. "Yes?"

"I meant what I said about appreciating your help. Thanks again."

"Any time, Wizard. Any time." With that she disappeared down the hall.

As Wiz turned back toward the kitchen there was a hammering on the front door.

"What in the… ?" Anna was halfway up from the kitchen, but he waved her back and tugged the door open himself.

As soon as the door cleared the latch it flew open, sending Wiz reeling backward. Llewllyn burst through, waving his arms. He was flushed, sweaty and almost completely out of breath.

"Flee!" he gasped. "There’s a dragon… Anna. Run. We must… run or be… burned where we stand."

He tried to push past to the kitchen but Wiz put his arm around him.

"Relax. The dragon’s dead. It’s all over."

Llewllyn turned back to Wiz and blinked. "Dead?"

"Very dead. There’s no danger."

"But… but, but…"

"Look, we’ve got houseful of company, so if you can just put off seeing Anna until tonight I’m sure she can explain the whole thing." He gently turned the sometime bard and would-be magician around and guided him back toward the front door.

Wiz almost had him out the door when Bal-Simba came out of the parlor, rubbing the "meditation" from his eyes.

"Sparrow, I…"

Llewllyn gaped. He might never have been near the Wizard’s Keep, but even people who had barely heard of the Council of the North recognized its leader on sight. Even in our world how many six-foot-eight, 380-pound guys do you see-outside of the NFL? And even NFL linemen don’t file their teeth to points.

"I am sorry, Sparrow," the huge wizard said, "I did not know you had a visitor."

Llewllyn’s head was swiveling back and forth between them convulsively. His mouth hung open and he had suddenly gone pasty white.

"Uh, leave us for a minute will you, My Lord?"

"Of course," Bal-Simba rumbled. "I will be in the parlor."

"You knew," Llewllyn said dully as soon as Bal-Simba closed the parlor door. "You knew what I was all along."

"It was a little hard for me not to," Wiz said dryly.

Llewllyn struck a noble pose, chin-high. "Well, go ahead. Denounce me to the council. Have them stake me out for the dragons to rend and tear. Or will you simply turn me into a toad?"

It was awfully tempting, but Wiz shook his head.

"I’ve got a better idea. I’m leaving tomorrow and I’m going to make you my successor."

Llewllyn stopped posing and gawked. "But, My Lord, I am a liar! A charlatan! A back-stabbing schemer!"

Wiz smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "I can’t think of a better set of qualifications for this job."

It is also, he thought, called making the punishment fit the crime.

"Besides," Wiz continued, "Anna needs you."

Llewllyn looked blank. "Anna, My Lord?"

"My housekeeper. You know, the woman at whose merest whim you’d lay down your life. The very light of your existence. You are in love with her, aren’t you?"

"You know I am, My Lord," Llewllyn said quietly. "But why is she your concern now that you are leaving?" His eyes narrowed. "Or was there something between you?"

"Would it make a difference to you if there was?"

Llewllyn looked at him levelly. "Only that I’d have your heart for trifling with her, be you wizard or no."

Wiz suddenly discovered Llewllyn could be amazingly convincing under the right circumstances.

"No, there was nothing between us. But she’s a good kid and she deserves to be happy. You are apparently what makes her happy, so…" He shrugged.

The blond man bowed. "I will endeavor to see that she is happy, My Lord."

"Do that. Meanwhile, come back later." With that he pushed him out the door.

"Excuse me, My Lord," Anna said from the top of the kitchen stairs. "But Llewllyn, what did he want?"

"Mostly to tell you about the dragon. I asked him to come back this evening."

Anna frowned, prettily. "The one you killed? But I already knew that."

"Yes, but he didn’t."

"My Lord?" It was a good thing Anna looked so pretty when she was confused, Wiz thought, because she spent so much time being confused.

"He’ll explain it to you this evening. But I wanted to talk to you anyway."

A shadow darkened the maid’s beautiful, empty brow. "Have I done something wrong, My Lord?"

"No, no. Not at all. It’s just that… Look, you know I’m leaving here tomorrow with my friends?"

The maid nodded. "I know and I’m so happy." Then she went crimson. "Oh, that’s not what I mean at all. I mean…"

"I know what you mean," Wiz said reassuringly.

"I mean it has been a pleasure serving you, My Lord, but I, I mean," then the words came in a rush. "I mean Llewllyn has asked me to marry him and I said yes and oh, I’m the happiest girl in the world!"

Wiz ignored the disembodied snort from over his shoulder. "Congratulations. When is the happy event?"

"As soon as can be." Her eyes sparkled. "He is wonderful and I love him so. Besides," her voice dropped. "I have been so alone since Grandma died. Oh you have been kind, My Lord, but there’s been no one for me to turn to for advice and Llewllyn," she sighed, "why he knows everything!"

Wiz held up his hand, checking the explosion of spectral wrath behind him.

"Well, since I’m not going to be here for the wedding, I’d better give you your present early."

The girl flushed again. "Oh My Lord, that is not necessary."

"Still, I am going to give you this house. As a wedding present, you might say." Anna’s jaw dropped and her face lit up like a child’s at Christmas. He waved a finger. "Now mind, I am giving this to you personally. Not to the two of you. I’ve arranged it with the council that it shall be yours alone."