Ithanalin’s Restoration

Chapter Twenty-two

Kills ha stared when she saw who had knocked, but she quickly gathered at least a portion of her wits. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

The young man on the doorstep smiled. “It’s good to see you, too, Kili.”

Kilisha swung the door wide. “Come in!” she said. “I mean, I’m glad to see you, Opir, but what are you doing here? You know it’s not permitted for family to interfere with an apprentice’s train ing!”

“I’m not here to interfere in anything,” her brother replied. “I’m here to see whether there’s any truth to the rumors I’ve heard.” He looked around, taking in the furniture as it moved about the room and the tangled ropes leading from the various pieces to the fireplace, and added, “I’d say there must be some truth in them, all right.”

“What rumors?” Kilisha asked. “What have you heard? That some sort of magic has run wild and started bringing all your furniture to life, and nobody’s seen Ithanalin in days. He’s supposed to be holed up somewhere working on a counterspell. Or maybe he got turned into a coatrack-is that him in the corner?” He pointed.

“No,” Kilisha said, not wanting to be distracted by explanations just now. “Go on.”

“Or that he’s been spirited away by the Empress Tabaea, or that he’s secretly working for her, or that he’s been transformed into you, and the real Kilisha of Eastgate is imprisoned somewhere dreadful.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? What did you call your toy pig when you were little?”

Kilisha stared at him. “You mean Gruntpuppy?”

Opir smiled broadly. “It’s you, all right-I can’t imagine you’d ever tell anyone you named that pig Gruntpuppy.”

Kilisha shrugged. “I’d tell Ithanalin if he asked, because he’s my master and I’m an apprentice-but he’s never asked, and there’s no reason he would.” She closed the door behind Opir. “Where did you hear all these rumors?”

“From Mother, mostly. She collects them.”

Kilisha blinked, then grabbed the chair and sat down. “Lock, please,” she ordered the latch. The chair shifted beneath her, and she told it, “Hold still.” She gestured to Opir. “You can catch the bench if you like.”

Opir eyed it uneasily, then said, “I’ll stand.”

“Please yourself. Now, tell me more about where Mother’s been getting all these stories. I mean, Ithanalin’s only been... gone for about two days.”

“So he is gone?”

“Not really.” Kilisha sighed, “He’s in the workshop. But he can’t move-a spell went wrong and transferred his life force into all the furniture.”

“So you’re sitting on him?”

Kilisha closed her eyes and bit her lip as the chair shifted slightly. Her older brother had always had a knack for making everything she said or did sound stupid. “After a fashion,” she admitted. “Mostly, though, I’m sitting on the straight chair we keep here in the parlor. It just happens to have a little bit of Ith-analin’s spirit m it at the moment.”

“And the bench, too? And the coatrack?”

“All of it,” Kilisha said.

Opir looked around the parlor. “Where’s the couch?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Kilisha admitted. “That’s why I haven’t been able to restore him yet-I need all the pieces. I’ve got all the others, but the couch ran away and I haven’t found it yet.”

“Then why aren’t you out looking for it, or working a spell to locate it?”

“Because I’m obeying my mistress’s orders. I’ll find it later. Now, tell me about these rumors. Where did Mother hear them?”

“Didn’t you know she has spies all around here?”

Kilisha closed her eyes again and sighed deeply, then opened them. “No,” she said. “I didn’t know. What spies?”

“Lirrin, for one-Ithanalin’s daughter. And Thetta, Heshka’s wife. And Virinia’s little sister Fara, and that fellow Genzer of Northmark who’s been trying to court that cute apprentice of Tirin’s, and the two kids who help out in Kara’s Arcana, and that old woman across the court from your back door who calls herself Zinamdia, which isn’t any sort of real name I ever heard of. And probably others I don’t know about. You know Mother’s always been fond of gossip.”

“Yes, but she used to just talk to people in the courtyard at home, or m Eastgate Market. She didn’t come all the way over here to gather news!”

“But that was before she had her youngest apprenticed to a genuine wizard. You’re the first magician in our entire family, Kili-didn’t you realize how special that makes you?”

“No, I didn’t,” she lied.

In fact, she knew perfectly well that it made her the object of family pride and envy. That had been much of the point, really, after a childhood of being utterly ordinary. She had gotten tired of being dull; she had even bored herself, and had begged to be apprenticed to a wizard largely so she could escape that tedium. It had worked, too.

But she wasn’t about to admit that to her older brother.

“Well, you should have known,” Opir said. “After Ithanalin took you on Mother boasted about it constantly for sixnights- but after a while she needed new things to say about her daughter the wizard, and you hardly ever came home anymore, or wrote letters...”

“I don’t have time! I’m an apprentice!”

“I know that,” Opir said, grinning. “So did Mother. She didn’t want to do anything that might interfere or annoy Ithanalin, for fear he’d send you home in disgrace-”

“He can’t,” Kilisha interrupted. “Guild rules. I passed the point where he could send me home when I was thirteen.” She caught herself before explaining further-that once she had made herself an athame she could only leave the Wizards’ Guild by dying, and if she fouled up her apprenticeship badly enough that she couldn’t continue Ithanalin wouldn’t have sent her home, he’d have had her killed. Somehow she didn’t think she wanted her parents to hear that. She didn’t think she even wanted her brother to hear it.

“Really? We didn’t know that.”

“Really. And you weren’t supposed to.”

Opir hesitated, waiting to see if Kilisha would give any details, then turned up a palm and continued. “She didn’t want to cause you any trouble, but she really wanted to know what you were doing, so she started visiting along Wizard Street and the East Road. She’s been doing it for years. You didn’t know?”

“I didn’t know.”

“Oh. Well, she’s been doing it, and for the past two days the gossip and rumors have just been pouring in-mostly other things, but a few about Ithanalin and you.” He glanced around at the furniture, then asked, “What really happened?”

“I told you-a spell went wrong. A spriggan tripped the master as he was stirring something, and it spilled, and the spell scattered his soul into all these different pieces.”

“A spriggan? So it doesn’t have anything to do with Empress Tabaea and her strange magic?”

“I don’t even know for certain who Empress Tabaea is,” Kil-isha said angrily. “You mean the usurper in Ethshar of the Sands?”

“That’s the one. Haven’t you been hearing about it? Word is that the whole Wizards’ Guild is going mad trying to deal with her.”

“I’ve been a bit distracted,” Kilisha said. “And the Guild hasn’t been helping me any-they’re too busy with this madwoman to do anything about my master.”

“Well, you can hardly blame them! She’s taken over an entire city and killed a dozen magicians!”

Kilisha hesitated. “She has?”

“Yes, she has!”

“I’ve been busy. I hadn’t heard the details.” Actually, she realized that she had heard that much, but hadn’t given it much thought, or remembered the specifics.

A dozen magicians? A dozen? If she had heard that before, she should have remembered it.

But she had been distracted by her own concerns.

“I’m surprised,” Opir said. “I thought all the wizards were involved in it.”

“I’ll start paying attention again once Ithanalin is restored!” she snapped. “As an apprentice, my first duty is to my master, and only to my master. When he’s back to normal I’ll worry about the usurper, and do what the Guild asks, but right now I need to work on the restorative spell and get all the pieces together.”

“Oh.” Opir looked around the room; the coatrack backed away, the table twirled on one leg and almost toppled over, and the bench flexed itself. “You know, Mother and Father didn’t send me, I came on my own. But they did tell me, since I was coming anyway, to ask whether there’s anything they can do to help out.”

“Is that why you came?”

“Well, and to find out what had really happened. And to find out if you knew anything about the empress; some of the neighbors were wondering whether it might be wise to flee the city until matters settle down.”

“I don’t know anything about her,” Kilisha said. “But if you want to be helpful, there is one thing-maybe Mother can set her informers and spies on this. I need the couch. I don’t know where it’s gone-we last saw it heading west on the East Road, toward Hillside and the Fortress. If anyone knows where it is, I need to know, as soon as possible. There might even be a reward, though I can’t promise that without talking to Yara.”

“I think we can ask around, certainly,” Opir said.

“Good. Now, get out of here before Yara gets back, or the children hear you-you shouldn’t be here!” She got to her feet and gave her brother a shove toward the door.

“I’m going,” Opir said.

Just then a crash sounded upstairs. Opir paused and asked, “What was that?”

“Lirrin and Telleth are playing with a spriggan. I should go check on them, so will you please go?”

“All right, I’m going.” He glanced at the ceiling, then reached for the door.

The latch popped open before he could touch it.

“I don’t think it likes you,” Kilisha said, as Opir stared at the latch.

“It’s alive?”

“For the moment. Now go!” She gave him another shove.

He opened the door-and almost collided with another young man who was standing on the step, about to knock.

“Istram?” Opir said.

“Go!” Kilisha shouted, pointing.

Istram stepped to one side, and Opir slipped past him.

“I’ll tell them to look,” Opir called back over his shoulder; then he marched off quickly, eastward along Wizard Street.

“What was that about?” Istram asked as he stepped inside.

“A family emergency,” Kilisha said. “What can I do for you, Journeyman?”

“Master,” Istram corrected her. “As of last month.”

“My apologies, Master Wizard. What was it you wanted?”

“I’m here to see Ithanalin,” Istram said. “On Guild business.”

“I’m afraid my master is indisposed just now,” Kilisha said.

“Indisposed?”

“Yes.”

“Indisposed howl?”

“Just indisposed.”

“Could I speak with him anyway?”

“No.”

“Because he’s indisposed?”

“Yes.”

Istram frowned. “I don’t think Kaligir will consider that an adequate explanation.”

Kilisha looked puzzled. “What does Kaligir have to do with anything?”

“Guildmaster Kaligir is organizing our efforts against the usurper calling herself empress in Ethshar of the Sands,” Istram said, drawing himself up to his full height-which was a good bit more than Kilisha’s. “He wants Ithanalin’s assistance, and is somewhat irked that our master hasn’t already joined the Guild’s meetings. I believe the Guild wants Ithanalin to make some homunculi to serve as spies in Tabaea’s palace.”

“She has a palace?”

“She has the overlord’s palace,” Istram said. “She chased Ederd out. Now, where’s Ithanalin?”

“Excuse me, but hasn’t anyone told Kaligir what happened to my master?”

Istram blinked in surprise, “Told him what?”

“Oh, this is stupid,” Kilisha mumbled. More clearly, she said, “Chorizel knows what happened-I told him about it two days ago! And Yara talked to Heshka and half a dozen others last night.”

“Well, the news hasn’t reached Kaligir or me,” Istram said. “Chorizel didn’t say anything. They sent me to fetch Ithanalin, since I was the only one who’d apprenticed under him. What’s happened? Where is he? Did Tabaca kill him?” He looked around the room, as if finally noticing that something was not quite as it should be.

“Tabaea has nothing to do with it,” Kilisha said wearily. “He’s in the workshop.” She led the way across the parlor; the coatrack cowered away, and the table danced aside.

“Why is all this furniture moving? What are all these ropes for?”

Kilisha turned up an empty palm without answering and marched into the workshop, where she snatched the sheet from Ithanalin’s head.

Istram stared. “What happened to him?” he asked.

Kilisha sighed, and explained the accident for what seemed like the hundredth time.