With a Single Spell

CHAPTER 26

“There must be dozens of them!” Karanissa wailed as she swatted ineffectually at a spriggan, sending it scampering out the door and down the corridor.

“I know,” Tobas said. “I know. It must have taken at least four or five of them to break open the box, and that was days ago.”

“Can’t you do something?”

“If I could find the mirror, I’d smash it; at least that would stop any more from appearing. Then maybe we could throw some out into the void, except that seems awfully cruel.”

“When the tapestry works again, we can herd them out through that,” Karanissa suggested. “There’s room enough for them in the World.”

Tobas nodded. “Good idea. First, though, we have to find the mirror. They’re not completely stupid; they must have hidden it somewhere.”

Karanissa started to say something, then stopped to pick a spriggan off a nearby chair and fling it out the door into the hallway. It ran away squeaking; she watched it go, then looked intently around the room.

“There aren’t any more in here, so we can make plans.”

“Are you sure? I do have an idea, but I don’t want them to hear it.”

“Of course I’m sure! I’m a witch; I can tell when someone’s listening.”

“Good. Kara, I don’t think we’re going to be able to get the mirror; we’re too big and obvious. But I don’t think they can see any better than we can; the servants should be invisible to them, just as they are to us-”

“To you, maybe,” she interrupted him. “I can see them if I try.”

“To me, then, or anyone who doesn’t have witch-sight. Anyway, if you order the servants to find the mirror and bring it to us, or just to smash it, I don’t think the spriggans will be able to stop them. We’ll have the problem halfway solved.”

“That’s a good idea, except how will they know which mirror to smash? I don’t want them breaking every mirror in the castle!”

“How many mirrors could be lying around out of place? Just to be sure, have them bring the mirror to me; I’ll know the right one when I see it.”

“All right, I’ll tell the sylphs; you can tell the little one.” “Nuisance, you mean.”

“Nuisance, yes. I still can’t get used to calling it that; Derry and I never had names for any of them.”

Tobas shrugged. “It’s useful, sometimes.”

“I know it is; I should have thought of it years ago, really. I’ve wasted so much time. I know I couldn’t have gotten out of here without a wizard, but it seems as if I could have done more while I was here. You’ve done more to the place in a couple of sixnights than I did in four hundred years, learning those spells, conjuring up the spriggans, and so forth.”

“Oh, it’s been more than a couple of sixnights, it must be more than a month by now, I’m sure.”

“Well, all the same, these spriggans hiding everywhere and getting into everything, they’ve reminded me what a mess this place is, all full of clutter that Derry left around. The servants keep it dusted, but they don’t know enough to put things away or keep cabinets and doors locked, and the spriggans have been all over the place.”

“They’re harmless, really,” Tobas said, hoping it was true. It seemed to be, so far.

“I know that, but they get into everything! Damn them anyway! If I see one more little footprint in my dinner, I swear I’ll start killing them, I’ll burn their slimy guts out! And when they spilled everything out of the drawers in my bedroom...”

“They were just exploring, I guess.”

“I know, exploring through all my private things! Scattering my clothes everywhere!”

“They don’t know any better.” Tobas hoped that was the reason and that the creatures didn’t have a malicious streak.

“I know, but my clothes...” Her voice trailed off, and for a moment they sat silently across from each other, Karanissa staring at the tabletop, Tobas letting his eyes roam about the room, but always coming back to the witch, her flowing black hair, her fine, dark features, her slender figure.

“Tobas,” she asked, looking up again “what do the women wear in Ethshar of the Spices?”

Startled, he answered, “I don’t know, just clothes. Tunic and skirt, mostly; the fine ladies and some of the magicians wear gowns.”

“Tunic and skirt?”

“Certainly, the same there as anywhere else.”

“What do they look like?”

Tobas began to laugh, then realized that her question was serious, that he had never seen her wear anything but gowns and dresses. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Your clothes are fine as they are; most women can’t afford any so fine.”

“I don’t want to seem strange, though. Four hundred years, styles must have changed.”

“I suppose they have, but really, you’ll be fine as you are.”

“What about hair? Do the women wear their hair long? Do they put it up?”

“I don’t really know,” Tobas admitted. “I mean, I never really thought about it. They don’t wear it short, but I’ve never seen any as long as yours.” Karanissa’s hair, worn loose, reached her waist. “I guess they trim it a little below the shoulders, or tie it up in back.”

The witch reached up and tugged at her hair. “Should I cut mine, then?”

“No, don’t! It’s beautiful just the way it is, really!” He half rose and reached out, taking he hand that held the hair.

“I want to fit in, though. I’ve been listening to you and working on my accent, not just with witchcraft, because I want it to stay even when I don’t think about it. Had you noticed?”

Tobas grimaced. “I didn’t realize it was intentional,” he said. “But I had noticed, and I had meant to warn you about it. I have a Pirate Towns accent, as it’s called; you don’t want to talk the way I do.”

“But the language must have changed...” “Oh, yes, it certainly has, in Dwomor it’s an entirely different tongue now. But your accent is lovely; it’s old-fashioned, elegant.”

“I don’t want to be old-fashioned, though; I want to fit in.”

“You’ll never fit in; you’re too beautiful. You’ll always stand out.”

“Oh, you’re just being silly!” She pushed his hand away.

“No, I mean it!” He took her hand again, then leaned forward and kissed her, more to his own surprise than hers.

The table lifted slightly and slid out of the way, which Tobas took as encouragement; witchcraft could be handy.

Almost an hour later a spriggan glanced in the door and squealed; Tobas heaved a convenient boot at it, and it ran off.

Karanissa giggled.

“What are you laughing at, woman?” Tobas demanded.

“Oh, I don’t know, the spriggan, I guess. They are kind of cute.”

“A little while ago you were threatening to flash-fry the little monsters.”

“A little while ago I was frustrated and angry.”

“Well, I’m glad I was able to help with that; now, if I could get rid of the spriggans’ mirror and find us a way out of the castle, we’d be all set. Nuisance! Here, Nuisance!”

Wet footsteps pattered into the room, and something foul began dripping on the carpet. “Nuisance, I want you to find the mirror those spriggans took from the study and bring it to me; got that?”

Nuisance made a noise like a strangled cat and scampered away. Tobas sighed. “Do you think he understood?”

“Oh, probably,” Karanissa said. She turned and addressed empty air, giving the two sylphs the same instructions Tobas had given Nuisance. The air stirred slightly, and they were gone.

“You know,” Tobas said, “I wonder whether Derithon made Nuisance intentionally, or whether it was an accident like the spriggans. I can’t find any spell in the book that would produce something like that.”

Karanissa shrugged. “I really don’t know; it was in the castle when I first came here, and I never thought to ask. I just took it for granted, another little bit of wizardry, as incomprehensible as the rest.”

“Wizardry doesn’t all have to be incomprehensible — at least, I don’t think it does.”

“Compared to witchcraft, it’s all madness, if you ask me, remember, wizardry uses raw chaos.”

“Well, maybe, but it makes order out of it, sort of.”

“Oh, it does, does it? Like that jar-opening spell? That’s so orderly and efficient.”

Tobas grinned. “You argue well, witch.”

She punched him in the ribs; he retaliated by grabbing her around the waist and pulling her toward him, and the two of them rolled, giggling, across the carpet.

They ended up against a wall, Karanissa on her back and Tobas sitting astride her. “Aha, wench!” he said. “You’re in my power now!”

She laughed, then put the back of one hand to her forehead. “Oh, mercy, master! What will you have of me?”

“What have you got?” he asked wryly.

“Only my poor self, you fiend!” She burst out giggling.

“Oh, that’s good enough,” Tobas said. “I’ll take it.”

“You already have,” she pointed out.

“Oh, but I mean to keep it!” He turned serious, and asked, “Karanissa, would you marry me?”

Her giggling subsided. “I don’t know,” she said. “How do you mean that?”

“Is there more than one way?”

“There were in my time, civilian marriages were different from military marriages, and there were various more casual affairs as well.” She pushed him off and sat up. “That doesn’t matter, though. Tobas, I like you — maybe I love you, I’m not sure — but I am not going to marry anyone until we’re out of this castle.”

“Good enough,” he replied. “We don’t have the witness we need here, anyway.”

“Only one? In my day you needed three.”

“Well, more are better, but one will do.” Tobas got to his feet and retrieved his boot from the hallway, where it had landed when thrown at the spriggan.

“What do you want your boots for?”

“I don’t like walking around barefoot, especially not with the spriggans around, and Nuisance did something to my slippers so that they’re all sticky.”

“Well, tell it to clean it off! Or have one of the sylphs do it!”

“The sylphs won’t obey me, you never told them to. And it never occurred to me to tell Nuisance to wipe it up.” Since the incident of the spilled chamberpot he had avoided telling Nuisance to clean up anything.

“No wonder it gives you so much trouble! You let it get away with making a mess. If you made it clean up after itself, it would behave itself better.”

Tobas shrugged. “Maybe that’s it.” He settled in a chair and began pulling on the boots.

“You still haven’t told me why you need anything on your feet; where are you going?”

“Well, if you won’t marry me until I get us out of here, I thought I’d go check on the tapestry again and, if it’s still not working, try sending Peren another dream.”

“Wait a minute. I’ll come with you.” Karanissa stood up, straightening her crumpled skirt and pulling her bodice back into place.

Tobas waited, and a moment later the two of them were ambling slowly down the hall toward the tapestry, arms about one another. They paused while Tobas opened the door to the chamber, and he took advantage of the opportunity to kiss her lingeringly.

Their little interlude was interrupted by a furious chorus of squeaks and squeals, and the soggy sound of Nuisance running desperately toward them, gasping out hideous noises.

Tobas turned, and saw the spriggan mirror bouncing toward them, obviously carried by Nuisance, with a horde of spriggans in hot pursuit.

“Good boy!” he called, ignoring momentarily the fact that Nuisance’s gender, if any, was unknown. “Bring it here!”

Nuisance tried, but before it could reach its master, a pair of spriggans jumped it; the mirror fell to the floor and rolled free.

Tobas dived for it and snatched it up, but a spriggan was in the process of climbing out of it and let out an ear-piercing shriek of sheer terror. Tobas ignored the creature as he tried to dash the glass against the wall.

The spriggan wrapped itself around his hand, clinging for dear life and incidentally forming a very effective cushion. Tobas started to pry it loose with his other hand, but after a glance back down the hallway he thought better of it.

Every spriggan in the castle, three or four dozen of them, was charging directly toward him. Clawless and toothless they might be, but that many of them could still be formidable. He got to his feet and scrambled into the tapestry chamber, dragging Karanissa with him, and then slammed the door in the faces of the onrushing mob.

The latch did not engage, and an instant later he was swept off his feet by a wave of squirming, squeaking spriggans.

He rolled over, trying to force them to drop off to avoid being crushed; most of the little creatures panicked and jumped clear. Holding the mirror high, he tried to get to his feet once again.

A dozen spriggans jumped him. With others close underfoot, he lost his balance and staggered backward. He wobbled, then fell.

The lights went out, and he felt a sudden rush of cool air about him. When he hit the floor, it was at a steep angle, so that he rolled involuntarily. Startled, he loosened his grip and felt the spriggans pry the mirror from his grasp.

That goal achieved, they ran off in every direction, squeaking like an entire castle’s complement of rusty hinges, all swinging at once.

Tobas got slowly to his feet, discovering as he did so that the floor had tilted somehow. His eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, and he realized that Karanissa was not in the room; he was alone.

Only then did it register that he was not in the room he had been in, and, after a moment of wild fancies about secret doorways and trick walls, he realized that the tapestry was working again. He had gone through it! The sloping floor told him immediately where he had landed — the bare, empty chamber in the downed flying castle where his tapestry had once hung.

He had been afraid of that. He had hoped that the tapestries, being a pair, were somehow linked, so that he would emerge in the little cottage a good distance closer to Dwomor Keep; but since this was the chamber the tapestry showed, he was not surprised to find himself in it.

He had half expected to find Peren waiting for him, though. “Hello?” he called.

No one answered. He felt his way forward; the darkness was so complete that he could see almost nothing of his surroundings. He found a wall and groped his way along it, rounding a corner.

The instant he had cleared the corner, he heard a footstep behind him. A familiar female voice called, “Tobas?”

“Kara?” He realized that she had been unable to use the tapestry until he had removed himself from the scene and cursed himself for not doing so more promptly.

“I’m right here,” she replied. “Why is it so dark? Where are we?”

“In the flying castle. I’m not sure why it’s dark.” His eyes were still adjusting; he could see now that he was in the narrow, vaulted corridor leading to Derithon’s study. Turning around, he could make out, dimly, Karanissa, standing unsteadily on the slanting floor.

“I don’t suppose you went back to the study and got that pack of supplies I had prepared,” he said.

“No,” she admitted, “I didn’t think of it. I didn’t bring anything.”

He could see that she was still wearing the light gown she had on when he fell through the tapestry; that was hardly surprising, since she had had no time to change.

They were poorly dressed for the journey to Dwomor, all their supplies were back in Derithon’s study, and they had made no definite plans beyond this point, but the tapestry was working again.

“Well,” he said aloud, “at least we’re out.”