Hugh Cook - The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster

"The Mahendo Mahunduk," said Iva-Italis.

"The Mahendo Mahunduk," said Guest Gulkan, repeating the words – and, from the way he said those words, Sken-Pitilkin knew the boy was committing them to memory.

"This is power I have given you tonight," said Iva-Italis.

"What kind of power have I given you?"

"Leverage," said Guest Gulkan promptly.

"Good!" said Iva-Italis. "Good. I have given you leverage.

Leverage to use with your wizard, or else with the world. With such leverage, your wizard will help you win through to Obooloo.

When you win to Obooloo, you will rescue the Great God Jocasta.

Then the Great God will make you a wizard in your own right."Guest Gulkan looked at Iva-Italis then looked at Sken-Pitilkin.

"Well?" said Guest Gulkan, with a note of challenge.

"I," said Sken-Pitilkin, "will have nothing whatsoever to do with this mad quest of demons and gods. Regardless of this – this leverage, so called. I will not be compelled."

"You will not," said Guest Gulkan, in a way which suggested that Sken-Pitilkin might be well advised to reconsider his opinion.

"I will not," said Sken-Pitilkin.

He would not unsay it.

So -

"Sken-Pitilkin is thinking that he may have to kill you after all," said Iva-Italis.

This time there was no reaction from Sken-Pitilkin. The wizard's mind was clear: frog-spawn cold and ice-block lucid. He was calculating his chances of getting out of this room alive. Of getting off Alozay alive. Once clear of the island, he could perhaps win his way to Port Domax, ship himself to Ashmolea, then claw a passage south to the Ebrell Islands. From the Ebrells, he could dare himself westward to the Inner Waters and the realms of the Confederation.

"Sken-Pitilkin is thinking of his precious Confederation," said Iva-Italis softly. "Long has Hostaja Sken-Pitilkin been at odds with the Confederation of Wizards, but now he thinks to make his peace with that Confederation and to bring its might against me."

"The Confederation would well reward anyone who aided me in such an enterprise," said Sken-Pitilkin.

"So!" said Iva-Italis. "He tempts you, Guest! But what I will do – what I will do is to tempt him in turn. Sken-Pitilkin. My friend. My dearest. My brother. My love."

"Speak," said Sken-Pitilkin curtly.

Iva-Italis chuckled.

"We were talking of wizards," said Iva-Italis. "They are by their nature hostile to the living creation which sustains us.

Such is the truth – a truth you deny no longer."

"Get on with it," said Sken-Pitilkin.

"If we were alone," said Iva-Italis, "then our dialog could be speedy. But Guest Gulkan is an equal partner in our future, is he not? He must know. He must understand. He has a right to be treated with that dignity which befits his manhood."

"Since the young man has proved such a passionate student of all the philosophies," said Sken-Pitilkin, "doubtless he will welcome the acquisition of a second tutor."

"Speak," said Guest Gulkan, addressing himself to Iva-Italis.

"Speak, for I am listening."

"Very well," said the demon. "Guest, wizards win power through the Meditations of Power and preserve it against destruction by means of the Meditations of Balance. That much you know. But on the continent of Argan stands the flame trench Drangsturm, a barrier which guards the northern lands against the monsters of the south. For generations that gulf of molten rock has boiled in prodigious torment."

"So I have heard," said Guest.

"Wizards of Arl made that flame trench," said Iva-Italis,

"yet its power exceeds their own. How then did they build it?"

"I have no idea," said Guest.

"Tell him," said Iva-Italis to Sken-Pitilkin.

"You tell him," said Sken-Pitilkin.

By now, the sagacious wizard of Skatzabratzumon was sure that Iva-Italis knew all – or at least all that was of any importance.

But habits bred of ancient caution could not be lightly dismissed.

"I will tell, then," said the demon. "Guest… since a wizard's power is inimical to the natural order of things, a wizard will be destroyed unless that power is shielded with the aid of the Meditations of Balance. Once naked to the universe, a wizard is destroyed."

"In fire," said Guest Gulkan.

"In fire, yes," said Iva-Italis.

"And screams," said Guest, as if he liked the idea.

"Usually it is too quick for any screaming to be entered into," said Iva-Italis.

"But there is pain," said Guest.

"Perhaps," said Iva-Italis, betraying a touch of irritation.

"But the essential point is that a wizard naked to the cosmos is destroyed, and any of his works likewise."

"Destroyed in fire," said Guest. "Destroyed in fire, in screams of fire and raging storms of agony."

"An image fit to delight the sanguinary temperament of a boy," said Iva-Italis sharply. "But I thought we were through and done with that image. I thought myself to be addressing a man."

"My lord," said Guest, commanding himself from boyhood to manhood in a moment. "Speak on."

"Well, Guest," said Iva-Italis. "We know the fate of a naked wizard. But now… suppose the wizard to be but partly naked."

"Our wizard is at war, is he not?" said Guest. "The world is his enemy, the battle unrelenting. The Balance, the Meditations of Balance – this is his armor. Given a hole in that armor, he rightly dies, though fast or slow I cannot say."

"Fast, usually," said Iva-Italis. "But now… let us turn from a wizard to one of his works. Suppose a wizard creates an artefact of power yet leaves it fractionally unshielded as regards the destructive facility of the universe. What then?"

"Then the thing is destroyed, likewise," said Guest. "Though, ah

… you're talking about Drangsturm, aren't you? The thing is destroying itself, is that what you're saying?"

"Almost, but not quite," said Iva-Italis. "Drangsturm is a work of wizards. Drangsturm is an artefact of power created in such a way that some fractions of it are unshielded. In consequence, the universe strives to destroy the thing. Hence powers of destruction pour themselves into Drangsturm. But the thing is designed to seize that power and shape it."

"So," said Guest, understanding. "Drangsturm is not a source but a seizer and shaper."

At this, Sken-Pitilkin realized that he had educated the boy better than he had thought. Though Guest Gulkan was no scholar, he had been tutored by Sken-Pitilkin since his fifth birthday, and after a full decade of unrelenting education he was proving uncomfortably competent in his grapplings with the unknown.

"A seizer and shaper," said Iva-Italis. "Exactly. So now we come to the matter of the temptation of Sken-Pitilkin. If he consents to yield to my will, then I will give him the secret of seizing and shaping power sufficient to facilitate sustained flight."

"So now we see the truth of the demon's revelation," said Sken-Pitilkin sourly. "The thing invites me to kill myself by mad experiment."

"There are dangers, admittedly," said Iva-Italis, now addressing himself directly to Sken-Pitilkin. "You would be exposing some artefact to destruction and seeking to master the power-flow which followed. Still, the dangers – "

"The dangers are known, and many have died to give proof to them," said Sken-Pitilkin. "The triumph of Arl is no secret to the Confederation. The arts of Arl are the arts of fire, and fire has proved amenable to the disciplines of sustained and controlled destruction of which you speak. But there are eight orders, each different in its powers. Mine commands the powers of levitation, and these, being more subtle and refined than those of fire, cannot be so easily controlled."

"Not by a wizard's intelligence," said Iva-Italis. "For a mere wizard lacks the skills required to compute the interplay of the forces involved. But I speak for the Great God Jocasta, and the Great God is possessed of the necessary computational power.