A Wizard Abroad

by Diane Duane

  Johnny was standing by the Queen's steed. He looked up at her now, and said, “Well, madam, you asked me a question once. Would your world ever draw closer to Timeheart, and end your exile? And I could only give you the answer that the bards gave us long ago: not until the Champion comes with His Spear, and the world of your desire is lost." He laughed softly. “But then the fulfillment of a prophecy rarely looks like our images of it. There is no journeying from your world to Timeheart… for Timeheart is widening to take your world in. Will this do?"

  She bowed her head. 'This will do, Senior. Do you take your people home, for shortly this world will perfect itself beyond their ability to bear it… at least, just yet. And we...” She looked towards the sunset and said, “We will prepare for the dawn."

  Johnny looked at Nita's aunt. “We've got a dawn of our own waiting for us," he said. “Do the honors?"

  She lifted Fragarach. It burned like a star in her hands, and the other Treasures blazed in answer as the wind rose in the east and blew into the opening gap in the air before her. The dark outline of Castle Matrix grew in the early morning of their own world, and the song of a single early blackbird drifted through it.

  As one the heads of the People of the Hill turned towards that thin, sweet music. But then one by one they looked towards the light slowly growing in their own northeastern sky; sunrise following hard on the heels of sunset, as was normal in this part of the world, in the heart of summer. The splendor of morning in a world growing ever nearer to Timeheart began to swell in the sky, blinding, glorious. . .

  The wizards looked around them with regret and moved through the doorway in the air. Nita and Kit and Tualha, followed by Ronan, were near the rear of the group; they turned, there in the parking lot of Castle Matrix, and looked through the gateway back into Tir na nOg.

  “I am sorry," Nita's aunt said softly to Johnny,"to have to leave our dead there. Another world, so far away…”

  Johnny looked sorrowful as well - but there was a strange edge of thoughtfulness to the look, an expression of mystery, almost of joy. 'Yes, but… look what's happening to the place. It won't be just another world for long… it's being drawn into the very centre of things. Can you really be dead if you're in Timeheart?" he said. “Can anything …?"

  Northeastward, over the sea, a line of light, blinding, brighter than a sun, broke over the water. The Spear Luin in Ronan's hands flamed at the touch of that light on its steel. All that country on the other side of the gateway flushed with a light more powerful, seemingly more solid than the solid things it fell on, and burned, transfigured. . .

  The gateway closed.

  'So," Johnny said, turning away.”Little by little, we make the Oath come true…”

  Nita and Kit and Ronan looked at each other. Behind them, the blackbird sang: and they heard the young wizard in the leather jacket say, “Oh, well. What's for breakfast?"

  They went to find out.

  “Now that things have quietened down somewhat," Johnny was saying to Nita's aunt in her kitchen the day after next,"the Chalice goes back to the museum, obviously. And the Stone naturally stays where it is. But Fragarach…”

  “You take it," Aunt Annie said. “The neighbors would talk, if they saw something like that in here. You've got a castle… hang it on the wall there some place."

  “The Spear," Johnny said, “will stay with Ronan, naturally."

  “I wouldn't try to take it away from him," Kit said from the living-room, where he was playing with the teletext functions of the TV set. “It'd probably eat you alive."

  “Quite." He chuckled. “And I see that we're losing you two."

  “My mum," Nita said,"says they can change my flight home after all. So I go home at the weekend. Not that it hasn't been worthwhile… but every wizard knows her own patch of ground best." And she smiled at Ronan.

  He smiled back and said nothing that the others could hear.

  “Well, you come back any time," her aunt said, and grabbed her and hugged her one-armed. “She always does the washing-up," she said to Johnny. “And without wizardry, even."

  “Impressive," Johnny said. “But there was something else I was meaning to tell you. . .“ He sipped his tea. “Oh, that was it. I'd say the odd things aren't quite done happening yet."

  “Oh?" Everyone at the table looked at him.

  “No. I was out for a walk after things settled down last night, and I saw the strangest thing. A party of cats carrying a little coffin. I stopped to watch them go by, and one of them said to me, "This is Magrath. Magrath na Chualainn is dead." And they walked off. . .“

  Tualha's eyes flew open at that. “What?" she cried. “What? Did you say Magrath?"

  “Why, uh, yes. . .“ Johnny said, sounding uncertain, and concerned. “If it's a relative, I'm. . .“

  “Relative, never mind that, what relative! Great Powers about us, if Magrath is dead, then I'm the Queen of the Cats!"

  She leaped off the table and tore away into the living-room. There was a brief sound of scrabbling, and then from the living-room, sounding slightly bemused, Kit said, “Uh, Annie, your cat just went up the chimney. . .”

  There was a moment of silence in the kitchen. “Ahem," Nita's aunt said to her after a breath or two. “. . .Welcome to Ireland. . .”

  “Are you sure you don't want to stay another couple of weeks?" Johnny said.

  Nita smiled at him, and went out to the caravan to start packing.

  The End

  ∞…∞…∞

  A Small Glossary

  ban-gall: Gall-woman. Possibly an insult, depending on who says it and how they feel about gallain (q.v.).

  'Blow-in': A foreigner who settles in Ireland, and is presumed to be likely to leave suddenly; not seen as being seriously attached to the place as it really is, but 'in love' with some romanticized and inaccurate version of it.

  the Dáil (pr. 'Doyle'): The 'lower house' of the Irish Parliament (the Oireachtas ['oyROCKtas']), more or less equivalent to the House of Representatives in the US, or the House of Commons in the UK. A member of the Dáil is called a Teachta Dáil ('TOCKta DOYLE') or T.D. The upper house of the Oireachtas is the Seanad ('SHAHnad') or Senate.

  Faery: One of the inhabitants of the Otherworlds, in this case particularly Tir na nOg: or something that has to do with them. Originally derived from the Latin fatae or 'fates', in this case meaning the Powers that involve Themselves in the destinies of living things. Unfortunately the term has been corrupted by various storytellers, from Shakespeare down to the mushier writers of Victorian children's moralistic tales, so that it now summons up imagery of tiny flying beings who ride butterflies, live in flowers, etc etc ad nauseam. True Faery is beautiful, but extremely dangerous; the casualty rate of those who interact willingly with it is high, even among wizards.

  Gael: A member or descendant of the Gaelic or Goidelic Celts, who settled in Britain and Ireland during and after the Iron and Bronze Ages. The Welsh, Irish, Scots, and some of the Celts of Brittany and parts of Spain are included in this group.

  Gall (pi. gallain, pronounced like 'gallon'): A non-Gael.

  'Guards, the' - The Garda Siochona (GARda shiKOna) or Civil Guards: the Irish equivalent of police. Also found as 'Garda' (one policeman) or ban-Garda (policewoman): the plural is Gardaí, (pr. 'garDEE').

  Lia Fail (pr. LEEuh FAIL): the Stone of Destiny, supposedly near the Hill of Tara.

  rath (pr. 'rawth'): A hill-fort. Sometimes the term includes whatever buildings (halls, towers, etc) are built into or on the rath.

  Sidhe (pr."shee'): the Faery People of Ireland. Sometimes (most inaccurately) confused with elves. Usually considered to be the Tuatha de Danaan, the original Children of the Goddess Danu, one of the mother-Goddesses of Ireland; or descendants of those Children. Some legends identify them with 'weak-minded' fallen angels, too good to be damned, but too fallible for Heaven. Considered by wizards to be descendants of those of the Powers that Be who could not bear to leave the place they had, under the in
struction of the One, built. They are deathless except by violence, and are expert in some forms of wizardry, especially music, shapechange, illusion, and the manipulation of time; but humans are usually physically stronger, and their wizardries have much more effect on the physical world. Often referred to as'the Good Folk' or'the Good People of the Parish',"the Gentry',"the People of the Hills," (from which is derived their commonest name in Gailge, daoine sidhe,*) and other euphemistic idioms meant to keep from offending them by invoking their real names, or reminding them of portions of their history they prefer to forget.

  Slán (pr."shlawn'): Hello, or goodbye.

  Taoiseach (pr. TEEshock): the Prime Minister of Ireland. Leader of the political party presently in power, has legislative and political powers somewhat like those of the President of the US or the Prime Minister of the UK. By contrast, the Presidency of Ireland is largely a ceremonial position and is considered to be 'above polities'.

  Tir na nOg (pr. TEER naNOHG): the Land of Youth (or of the Ever-Young), the alternate universe or other-Ireland inhabited by the Sidhe. Time runs at a different rate in this universe, or rather entropy does: experience continues unabated while bodily aging proceeds at an infinitesimal fraction of its usual speed, if at all. Humans who venture there frequently experience untoward side effects on attempting to return to universes with different time/entropy rates. See the legend of Oisin for an example.