Rick Cook - Wizard’s Bane

Wiz’s breath caught and he tried to sink into the dirt. Instinctively he grabbed Moira’s hand and they clung together like frightened children while the nightmare beast swooped above trees and turned to cross the meadow from another direction.

Clearly the monster had seen something on the water meadow. Again it glided across and again it flew directly over the bush where Wiz and Moira cowered. Wiz felt as if the dragon’s gaze had stripped him naked.

Four times the dragon flew over the meadow and four times Wiz trembled and shrank under Moira’s cloak. Finally it pulled up and disappeared over the trees.

For long minutes after Wiz and Moira lay huddled and shaking. At last Moira threw the cloak back and sat up. Reluctantly, Wiz followed suit.

"Was that thing looking for us?" he breathed at last.

"Very likely," Moira said, scanning the skies warily.

"Are there more of them?"

"Dragons are usually solitary creatures and one so big would need a large hunting territory."

She frowned. "Still, I do not know of any like that who live nearby. Wild dragons make ill neighbors. It may be the one from the southern lake or it might be one of the ones who lair in the hills to the east. If it is coursing this far afield there may be others."

"Wonderful," Wiz muttered.

Moira sighed shakily. "I dislike playing hideabout with dragons, but we should be safe enough if we stay under the trees and are careful about crossing open spaces."

"Sounds good to me."

"There is risk, of course," Moira continued, half to herself. "The forested ways are not always the most free of magic. Besides, with the forest close around us we will not have as much warning of the approach of others."

"Others?"

"Trolls, wolves, evil men and others who do the League’s work."

"Great," Wiz said.

Moira missed the irony entirely. "Not great, but our best chance, I think." She folded the cloak. "Now come. Quickly."

"Well?" Atros demanded.

"The searchers are out as you commanded, Master," said the new Master of the Sea of Scrying. "But so far nothing."

"With all the magic of the League you cannot find two insignificant mortals?" Atros rumbled.

The Master, only hours in his post, licked his lips and tried not to look past Atros’s shoulder at the place where a newly flayed skin hung, still oozing blood, on the stone wall of the chamber. The skin of a very fat man.

"It is not easy Master. Bal-Simba—cursed be his name!—has been casting confusion spells, muddying the trail at the beginning. The Council’s Watchers are on the alert and we cannot penetrate too deeply nor see too clearly." He paused. "We do know he has not taken the Wizard’s Way."

Atros rubbed his chin. Walking the Wizard’s Way was the preferred method of travel for those who had the magical skill to use it. But it was also easy to detect anyone upon it. Perhaps this strange wizard preferred stealth to speed.

"And those already in the North," he asked, "behind the Watchers’ shield of spells?"

"Our best servants are creatures of the dark. On Mid-Summer’s Day their power is at its weakest. Our dragon allies and our others seek as best they can, but there is so much magic upon the land that it is hard to scan." He gestured into the Sea of Scrying. Atros looked and saw sparks and patches of magic everywhere.

"Someone mighty enough to be worth the risk of a wizard like Patrius must leave a track even through that," the giant magician objected.

The newly made black robe lowered his head. "We have found no sign, Master."

Atros bit his lip thoughtfully. It was possible for a magician to hide his presence through cloaking spells, but such spells usually betrayed that something was being hidden. Either the League’s servants were unusually inept or this magician from beyond the World was extremely powerful. Someone that powerful might indeed tip the balance against the League.

Unless…

"Is there sign of aught unusual in the cities of the North?"

"Nothing, Master, save what you know. Nothing unusual anywhere in the North’s territories."

"Then perhaps he whom we seek is not within the North’s territories," Atros said suddenly. "Patrius performed his Great Summoning on the Fringe of the Wild Wood? Then search the Fringe most carefully. And extend your search into the Wild Wood itself."

"Thy Will, Master," said the Watcher. "But there is no sign of anything unusual on the Fringe. Besides, it will mean weakening our search of the North’s lands."

"If he was in the North’s lands we would have some sign ere now," Atros said. "Perhaps he goes another way to mislead us."

It was the Master’s turn to rub his chin thoughtfully. "If he pushes into the Wild Wood he brings himself closer to our servants and his magic will stand out even more strongly against the non-human magics of that place."

"Only if he uses magic," Atros said. "If he weaves little or none he will be much harder to find, will he not?"

"What kind of wizard travels without magical protection?"

"A most powerful and dangerous one. So search carefully." Atros paused for a moment, looking down into the Sea once more.

"But our alien wizard will not find it so easy to shield his travelling companion," he said. "Tell your searchers to look carefully for signs of a hedge witch in the Wild Wood. That should stand out strongly enough."

They camped where dusk found them, spreading their cloaks against a fallen log. Moira would not allow a fire, so their dinner consisted of some bits of jerked meat and a handful of leathery dried fruit. Normally Wiz didn’t eat red meat, but things were decidedly not normal and he gnawed gratefully on the pieces Moira placed in his hand.

As the twilight faded Moira took a stick and drew a design around them and their resting place.

"The circle will offer us some small protection," she told him. "Do not leave it tonight for anything."

"Not even for… ?"

"Not for anything," she repeated firmly.

Without another word Moira rolled herself in her cloak and turned away from Wiz. He sat with his back to the log staring up at the unfamiliar stars.

"This is soooo weird," Wiz said, more to himself than Moira.

"Sleeping outdoors is not what I am used to either," she said.

"No, I mean this whole business. Dragons. The magic and all. It’s just not like anything I’m used to."

Moira rolled over to face him. "You mean you really do not have magic where you come from?"

"The closest I ever came to magic was working with Unix wizards," said Wiz.

"Eunuchs wizards? Did they do that to themselves to gain power?"

"Huh? No. Not Eunuchs, Unix. Spelled…" Wiz realized he couldn’t spell the word. He recognized the shapes of the letters, but they twisted and crawled in his mind and no meaning attached to them. When he tried to sound the word out only runes appeared in his head.

"Never mind, but it’s not that at all. It’s an operating system."

"Operating system?" Moira said frowning.

"An operating system is a program which organizes the resources of a computer and virtualizes their interfaces," Wiz quoted.

"A computer? One who thinks?"

For the thousandth time in his life, Wiz wished he were better at making explanations. "Well, kind of. But it is a machine, not alive."

"A machine is some kind of non-living thing then. But this machine thinks?"

"Well, it doesn’t really think. It follows preprogrammed instructions. The programmer can make it act like it is thinking."

"Is it a demon of some kind?"

"Uh, no. A demon’s something else. It’s a program that does something automatically when called. Unless of course it’s a daemon, then it’s active all the time."

Moira wrinkled her brow. "Let us go back a bit. What do you have to do with these creatures?"