David Grace - The Accidental Magician

Castor and Buster led the way, with Mara and Grantin following a few paces behind. The guards heard their approach several seconds before the four became visible. Grantin and Mara swung into view, then stopped and examined all aspects of the small plaza that fronted on the gate. Directing the Ajaj to walk in front of them and arguing loudly with Grantin, Mara approached the guards.

"Well, where are they?" she demanded of the soldier who came forward to meet them.

"Where are who, my lady?"

"What the lady means, guardsman, is, you see, we were expecting-"

"-I know what I mean. Stop pampering these dolts! We are here for Lord Hazar's shipment. Where are they?"

"I know of no shipment for Lord Hazar, my lady."

"Incompetents, fools…!"

"I'm sorry, soldier. Please excuse the lady. She is very tired. It has been a long night, and now this special duty… This is the Lady Mara, Lord Hazar's chief enchantress, and… well, if the truth be known, he was less than pleased with certain of the companions with which he was provided. He roused my lady here and demanded that she immediately bring him the new shipment for his inspection. I am Grindle, one of my lord's under-apprentices. Since my Ajaj and I had an early errand at Topor's market we agreed to travel a bit out of the way and accompany Lady Mara."

"Shut up, you yellow-spined fool! That's why you arc only an under-apprentice. Come over here and look at this and you will learn something." Mara strode past the guards and walked to the closed inner panel of the gate.

"Look at this, just look at this," she said, pointing at the iron-reinforced timbers.

"My lady, no one is allowed to approach the gate," the guard ordered as he turned away from the First Circle and hurried to restrain Mara from touching the panel.

"How dare you lay hands on me, you oaf!" Mara shouted as she elbowed the guard in the stomach.

Now the second watchman came running. Together both struggled to remove Mara from the forbidden zone. As they wrestled a blurred gray-brown shadow sped across the small plaza and merged with the other shadows on the far side of the gate.

"Unhand me, unhand me! Very well, I shall leave you and your miserable contraption, but I warn you, Lord Hazar will hear of this ill treatment." Mara broke free from the soldiers and stalked off toward the center of the First Circle.

"I am sorry. You must forgive her," Grantin reassured the guards. "She will calm down in a few minutes. We will continue on around the circle and down to the market. The walk will do her good. She can come by again on her way back to see about Lord Hazar's shipment." Grantin trotted off and made a show of attempting to placate Mara.

Thirty feet past the edge of the gate Mara and Grantin exhaled a sigh of relief, veered to the edge of the wall, and increased their pace almost to a run. A few minutes later they approached their destination. Buster called a halt. On the far side of the street stood an alcove deeply recessed into the wall. At its back could barely be seen a worn plank door. Following Buster's lead, the escapees slipped into the recess while the Gray, using a tool which he carried slung inside his trousers, began to work on the lock. A few seconds later there sounded a metallic tinkle, followed by the noise of splintering wood. They bolted inside the darkened opening, and Chom used three of his four arms to force the door closed.

"Everyone stand still until I can find a light." Rustles and scrapes sounded in the shadowed chamber. The sounds of Buster's rumblings ceased as a dim green radiance glimmered in the far corner of the room. Grantin could see barrels, bales, packages, canisters, and boxes lining the chamber's walls. Obviously it was an infrequently used storeroom. Buster motioned the others to a point on the back wall opposite the window.

"Here,'' he whispered, pointing to an area piled high with wooden crates. "Under these crates the stones are loose. Beneath them is a metal plate which gives entrance to the cavern which leads to a cave in the hills a mile and a half northwest of the city. Hurry-we must move these boxes and be gone before the guards, at Bolam's gate make their report."

The fugitives began work on the crates in shifts, as there was room for no more than two persons at any one time. Mara and Grantin soon tired and took their places at the end of the line while Chom and Castor spelled them, the Fanist's extra pair of hands making up for the Ajaj's diminutive form.

"How did you get involved in all of this?" Grantin asked Mara. "You seem like such a nice person. I can't picture you drenched in blood in one of the Gogol sacrifices."

"My mother was a Gogol," Mara replied somewhat defensively. "And your father?"

"A Hartford, but being a Hartford did not mean that he was good any more than my being a Gogol means that I am bad."

"He was an evil man, then? Did he beat you? Is that why you came here?"

"No, he didn't beat me! What a thing to say! He… he loved me. I'm sure of it."

"And how did you end up back here? Did your mother kidnap you?"

"No, we just had to leave. My father threw my mother and me out. He was going to take me away from her. He hated her, so she brought me back here to the only place that was left for us."

"I don't understand. You say that he threw your mother and you out but that he also wanted to take you away from her. It sounds as though he wanted to keep you and just wished to be rid of her. What happened between them? Why did he want to throw her out?"

"I don't know."

"Well, he must have said something."

"My mother took me away before he could do the evil things that he was planning."

"I don't wish to butt into your private affairs, but in defense of myself and my fellow Hartfords, have you ever considered the possibility that your mother lied? Perhaps it was she who did not love your father and stole you away from him."

Mara's face contorted in a surprised expression, as if that possibility had never occurred to her. Just as suddenly a few seconds later she began to cry. Disconcerted by her tears, Grantin went back to the pile of crates and took over Castor's place.

"How much longer, do you think, until we get all of this out of the way?" he asked Buster, who, because of his crippled leg, now assumed the task of supervising the relocation of the boxes.

"With our four-armed friend here, perhaps only three or four minutes. I have almost come to believe that my scheme may work after all."

"Just the same, I'll feel better when we have left this accursed city behind."

With Buster trailing a few paces behind, Grantin walked back to Mara at the far end of the room. By now she had stopped crying and was attempting to wipe away the traces of her tears with her velveteen cuffs. In the background sounded the scrapes and thuds of Castor's and Chom's labors.

"Mara, I am sorry I made you cry. I shouldn't have interfered. Still, I have a favor I would like you to do for me."

"A favor? What is it?"

"You remember when you gave me this ring? Well, I'd like to take it off, but only you can remove it. It's a simple spell. I have it written down here. All you need do is read it and then pull on the ring."

"Remove the ring?" Buster hissed. "How will you do your magic without the ring?"

"I plan to do no more magic beyond a few elementary spells of self-gratification. This cursed ring has done nothing but bring me trouble. The sooner I am rid of it, the sooner I can return home and assume my normal station in life."

"But you must retain your powers-it is the only way the Gogols can be defeated. Mara can explain to you about Zaco's mine where the bloodstones are quarried. It is said that it is a place where in ancient times a meteor crashed into the earth and that the stones were formed as a result of the impact. Hazar will go there himself in a few days to pick up his last, shipment. When he has it his forces will be unstoppable. I have pledged my life and those of all my people to freeing you so that you could use the energy of the ring to prevent Hazar from completing his plan."