Rick Cook - Wizard’s Bane

"See," he said triumphantly. "I told you I could make it work."

"Shut it off!" Moira’s green eyes were wide and her freckles stood out vividly against her suddenly pallid skin. "Please shut it off."

The wind was stronger now, a stiff force against Wiz’s back. Wisps of snow and leaves on the forest floor began to stir and move toward the rising air. Even as Wiz started the spell and the wind rose even higher. Moira’s shawl was long gone in the the uprising gale.

The wind grabbed leaves and twigs off the ground and hurled them into the sky. The trees around the clearing bowed inward and their branches clattered as they were forced toward the column of air rising out of the clearing.

"Do something!" Moira shouted over the force of the wind.

"I’m trying," Wiz shouted back. He recited the counter-spell, inaudible in the howling wind. Nothing happened. The gale grew stronger and Wiz backed up against a stout tree to keep from being pushed forward.

He realized he had made a mistake in the wording and swore under his breath Again he tried the counter spell. Again nothing.

In designing the spell Wiz had made a serious error. the only way to undo it was to reverse the process of creating it. There was no word which could shut the flow of air off quickly.

Meanwhile the wind was picking up, gaining even more force. Now the leaves and twigs were supplemented by small branches torn from the trees around them. With a tremendous CRACK and a thunderous CRASH, a nearby forest giant, rotten in its core, blew over and toppled halfway into the clearing.

The wind was so great Wiz was forced to cling to the tree trunk to keep from being swept up in the raging vortex of air. Moira was invisible through the mass of dirt, leaves, snow and debris being pulled into the air. Desperately Wiz tried the counterspell again. Again nothing.

The vertical hurricane carried denser ground air aloft. As it rose the pressure lessened and the water vapor in the air condensed out. Heart’s Ease was marked by a boiling, towering mushroom cloud that could be seen for miles.

In the heart of a raging hurricane Wiz forced himself to think calmly. Again he reviewed the spell, going through it step by step as if he were back in front of his terminal. Taking a deep breath and ignoring the howling in his ears, he recited the spell again, slowly and deliberately.

The wind cut off as if by a switch.

The clearing was quiet save for the sound of branches falling back to earth and crashing through the trees around them. Moira was wet and disheveled, her red hair a tangled mess from the buffetting it had received from the wind.

"Of course there are still a few bugs in the system," Wiz said lamely.

"Ohhh," Moira hissed. "I don’t want to talk to you." She spun away from him.

"All right. So it wasn’t perfect. But it worked didn’t it? And I shut it off didn’t I?"

Moira shuddered with barely suppressed rage. But when she turned to face him she was icy calm.

"What you have done is less than any new-entered apprentice could do, were his master so foolish as to allow it," she said coldly. "Not only have you proved that you have no aptitude for the Craft, you have shown you have no honor as well."

"Now wait a minute…"

"No!" Moira held up a hand to silence him. "You gave your word that you would not attempt to reduce the things Shiara told you to practice. Now you boast of having violated that oath almost from the beginning and with no shred of excuse. You were not driven to forswear yourself by need. You did so only for your own amusement."

"Shiara didn’t teach me…"

"Shiara taught you far more than was good for either of you," Moira snapped. "You have proven yourself unworthy of her teaching and of her trust." She paused and considered. "Normally a matter such as this would be handled by your master. But you," she sneered, "have no master."

The way she looked at him made Wiz feel as if he had crawled out from under some forest rock.

"Doubtless this matter will be placed before the Council and they will decide your fate. In the meantime you must be kept close and watched since it is obvious you cannot be trusted and your word cannot be relied upon."

She turned and stalked out of the clearing and back toward Heart’s Ease. Wiz opened his mouth to call after her, then trudged up the path in her wake, fuming.

"Moira, wait!" Wiz ran up the path after her. She kept walking, eyes straight ahead.

"Okay," Wiz said defensively, as he trotted along beside her. "So it got a little out of hand."

"A little out of hand?" Moira screamed. "A LITTLE out of hand. Ohhh… This is beyond all your stupidity. Not only do you learn nothing, you cannot even be trusted to keep your word."

"Now wait a minute…"

"Get back to the keep. You must be kept mewed for your own safety and ours as well." She threw him a contemptuous glance. "Tomorrow I will destroy your tools before they wreak more mischief."

"Destroy it? But I was right!"

"Go!" Moira commanded with a hefty shove in the small of his back. Wiz stumbled forward and gave his beloved a wounded look.

"Must I take you by the ear?" she demanded. "Now go!"

Shiara was collapsed in a chair with Ugo hovering about her. Her skin was ghastly pale and she was breathing in quick shallow pants.

"Magic," Ugo said. "Big magic and close pain her."

Wiz started guiltily. Of course. That much magic must have hurt her terribly. Seeing Shiara was even worse than Moira’s anger.

"It seems that our Sparrow adds untrustworthiness to his other accomplishments," Moira said tightly. "He has been using your ’purely theoretical discussions’ to learn to practice magic."

Ugo threw Wiz a look of poisonous hate.

Shiara clenched her fists on the chair arms so hard her knuckles turned white and levered herself erect. "Go to your room and remain there," she commanded. "We will decide what is to be done with you tomorrow."

"I’m getting damned tired of being ordered around," Wiz said.

"Your feelings and the state of your soul are of very little concern to me right now," Shiara said. "Now go. Or must Ugo escort you?"

"Look I’m sorry…"

"That too is of no concern to me. Ugo!"

"Okay, okay," Wiz backed off hastily as the wood goblin came toward him with fire in his eyes. "I’m going." He spun and started for the stairs.

"What was that?" The voice of Toth-Set-Ra boomed out in the head of the new master of the Sea of Scrying.

"I do not know, Dread Master. Something to the North…"

"Imbecile! I know that already." Toth-Set-Ra’s mental "voice" settled back into normal tones.

"It appears to come from a quiet zone in the Wild Wood."

There was a thoughtful pause. "Yessss. I know of the place. Send word that it is to be investigated. I want to know what caused that."

Toth-Set Ra turned back to the grimore he had been perusing. His hand caressed the elaborately illuminated parchment made from human skin but his eyes would not focus on the glowing runes that squirmed wormlike across the page. The end to you and all yours the demon’s voice echoed tinnily, mockingly, in his ears. A bane, a curse a plague upon the race of wizards. Magic beyond magics.

He slammed the book shut and stalked out of his chamber. "Send Atros to me by the Sea of Scrying" he flung over his shoulder to the goblin guards.

The watchers around the rim of the great copper bowl bowed low as he swept into the vaulted stone chamber and fell back respectfully as he approached the edge. Toth-Set-Ra ignored them and stared deep into the sea.

The waters within were stained the color of weak tea by the blood of virgin sacrifices but the map graved on the bottom was easy to read. Glowing gems marked the cities of the World. A blood-red ruby, pulsing fitfully with inner light, represented the City of Night on the southern shore of the Freshened Sea. To the north and inland was the blazing blue sapphire which represented the headquarters of the Council. Here and there other gems winked green or blue or red or orange, their depth of hue marking the strength of the magics to be found there.