Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress XXIV

by Unknown

  Crocker's mouth went sideways. "I do have a name, y'know, Teakettle."

  Shtasith's acorn of a head snapped back, his needle-sharp teeth bared less than an inch from Crocker's right eye. "When you have demonstrated that you are more than a slightly mobile and alarmingly malodorous perch, you will have a name! And in the meantime, you will refer to me as the Immolator!"

  "Uhh, Shtasith?" Cluny waited till the firedrake swung around to meet her gaze. "As long as we're talking about names, I've told you to call me 'Cluny.'"

  His pointed little ears went limp. "I...I cannot!"

  She let a whiff of power touch her words. "But you will."

  "I..." When he swallowed, Cluny could see the lump travel all the way down that neck. "I will try..."

  "Good." She gave them both her sunniest smile. "See? Now we all have things we can work on!"

  "Oh, really?" Crocker grinned back. "What's your assignment, O mighty wizard?"

  She crooked a thumb-claw over her shoulder. "I've got to look up the word 'inconspicuous,' remember?"

  He laughed, and Cluny let herself relax, breathed in the pre-springtime air, tangy with the first stirrings of sap and flowers. And who knew? Maybe this actually would work...

  They came out into sunlight not long after, five or six avian familiars ranging in size from a pigeon to a pelican squawking and laughing and tossing a ball back and forth in the blue sky over south campus, the oldest part of Huxley, the buildings squatting like ivy-covered rock formations among the trees covering the hillside ahead.

  Crocker stopped to consult the scroll. "'Podkamennaya Hall, 2nd floor' is all it says. "

  Cluny shaded her eyes with a paw. "Podkamennaya is Huxley's original library, so we're looking for something that's more than a thousand years old." She spread her whiskers into the breeze, let the quiet power of the place wash over her, and crooked a claw at a grassy lump the path wound past before disappearing around a row of lichen-covered two-story brick piles that she guessed were classrooms. "I think that's it."

  "What? Where?"

  A hiss from Shtasith. "Must you question everything?"

  "I just wanted to know—!"

  "Trust!" Shtasith had a hard note in his voice that Cluny had never heard before. "If you do not have utter faith in our...our Cluny, you do not deserve to be her creature!"

  Crocker's blush this time was so warm, Cluny could feel it. "You think I don't—??"

  "Guys?" She dug her claws into his robe and hauled herself up so she could look easily from one to the other. "We're not doing this right now. I'd prefer we not do it ever, but since I know that's asking way too much, let's just put every bit of discussion on hold till we're alone again." Far across the park, Huxley's carillon began chiming sext. "Right now, it's noon. We need to be inside that library; you, Crocker, need to be the eager young wizardry student; and you and me, Shtasith, we need to be the ever-so-helpful familiars. Got it?"

  Shtasith gave a snort without meeting her gaze, and Crocker straightened up, blinked, focused past her. "You think they'd have a door or something if they wanted people to get in."

  Cluny slid back into Crocker's pocket and felt the flow of power a bit more, the way it swirled around a little outcrop of rock beside the grassy lump ahead of them the way river water swirled around a submerged log. "There. I'll bet you can use that airball spell we worked out to pop the illusion over it."

  Crocker nodded and walked along the path to the outcrop. She could already smell his sweat, so she muttered, "Like a soap bubble, remember?"

  He nodded again, made a circle with his left thumb and forefinger, raised it, and blew through it. Cluny felt her fur rustle as he drew upon their shared power, and she breathed a little prayer to the gods of aeroturgy: practicing this spell had left the west wall of their dorm room looking like the surface of the moon, though it had given her the chance to develop this neat little scouring and spackling spell...

  The bubble was invisible, of course, but she could tell it had hit the outcrop when the stone surface peeled away like a banana skin to reveal a round door in the side of the hill. Crocker pushed through to a short corridor beyond, dust dancing in sunlight from windows that hadn't shown outside. The door clicked closed behind them, but other than that, all Cluny could hear was Crocker's shoes shuffling over the carpet, the air dry and musty and just exactly right for a library.

  At the end of the corridor lay a room criss-crossed with bookshelves, a mass of granite jutting up in the center with the word "Information" carved into it. A dark-haired girl with a flannel shirt over her robes sat cross-legged on top of the stone reading a magazine printed with runes; she glanced up when Crocker stepped in, and Cluny had to poke him before he blurted out, "My group! I mean, I'm, uhh, starting with an independent study thing today, and, uhh..." It took him three tries to unroll the scroll. "Second floor?" he got out at last.

  The girl looked at him some more, her search spells very sharp and defined; Cluny admired their designs while carefully blocking each one. She nodded, then, hopped down from the stone, and stuck out a hand. "Tzu Yin," she said. "I've been waiting for you. Stairs are over here."

  Crocker blinked, shook the hand, and managed to say his name before she turned for the stacks. "Eubie bet a silver you wouldn't even get here," Tzu Yin was going on, Crocker hurrying to catch up. "But everything I've heard about you says you break things, not that you get lost." She shrugged. "He'll try to weasel out of paying since you're late, but Tangle, his familiar, is a stoat, so I guess it's natural." She glanced back at him. "Having both a squirrel and a firedrake isn't natural at all, so I don't know what to make of you yet." Cluny deflected a couple more search spells, and Tzu Yin grinned. "Not knowing's a new thing for me. I kinda like it."

  Cluny could feel Crocker's heartbeat pick up. "Well," he said, "when you do figure me out, make sure to let me know."

  They came to a flight of stairs, and Tzu Yin led the way up to a high-ceilinged room, tables and bookshelves scattered at what seemed to be random intervals over such an expanse that Cluny could just make out the far walls, lost in shadows cast by light trickling in from the narrow, dirty windows. Under the nearest of these windows, three tables sat in a loose triangle, five more students in their robes shuffling books and papers, the power washing around them making Cluny's whiskers hum.

  A boy who looked even younger than Crocker scowled at them. "He's late, so the bet's off!"

  Tzu Yin glanced back at Crocker and waggled her eyebrows. "That's OK, Eubie," she called, moving toward the tables. "As long as he's here, we can get started."

  "Oh?" The blond girl waved her hand, and Cluny saw she was Jeanette Ahern, the star of Huxley's scrying team, and that the boy next to her was Ric Ibarrez, captain of both the academic decathlon team and the track team. Jeanette went on: "You planning on giving Mistress Ippolitov's lecture, Tzusy?"

  The other girl at the table snickered, her long black fingernails tapping musical notes onto a piece of lined paper. "If we're voting, I'd rather hear Tzu Yin talk about anything instead of Polly going on about the proper way to comb one's hair before astrally projecting." She turned a grin at Crocker. "Or maybe Newby here can tell us about squirrel maintenance."

  Cluny felt her ears go back and heard a little puff of breath from Tzu Yin. "Be nice, Meeshele."

  A snap of fingers made Cluny look at Ric. "I remember now! Terrence Crocker! You're the frosh who's so strong, you've gathered two familiars, but so weak, you can't function unless they're with you even when you're in class!" He stroked a thumbnail through the little patch of beard between his chin and lower lip. "I'd be interested in hearing what that's like."

  They were all looking at him now, and Cluny felt Crocker's heartbeat kick up another notch. "It's a learning experience every day," he said.

  His voice didn't waver, but Cluny could smell his sweat, so she tugged his lapel and said quietly, "Maybe we could sit down, Crocker? Get settled and like that?"

  Jeanette's eyebrow arched. "Your
familiar uses your name?"

  "She doesn't want to." Crocker grabbed at the nearest chair. "But I insist." He sat, and Cluny suddenly noticed something odd. The four students who'd already spoken—and Tzu Yin, too, now that she'd taken a seat—were bunched up together at one table. The second, right under the slit of a window, had a single empty chair at it while the only occupant of the third table—other than Crocker now—was a silent, nondescript boy, his hair very nearly the same sallow shade as his face and eyes.

  A ghost! Cluny thought for an instant, but then those eyes moved and focused on her, and she felt his power flow past a little jagged but otherwise normal for a regular human wizard. She nodded to him, but he didn't seem to notice, his gaze already sliding upward to fix on Crocker.

  The tiniest pin prick of pain between her ears shocked her into looking up as well. Crocker was smiling at Tzu Yin rather than the pale boy, but Shtasith was glaring straight at him. The firedrake drew back his head and hissed, and Eubie at the other table gave a snickering laugh. "Same thing ev'ryone says, buddy, first time they see Ghouly."

  Out of the corner of her eye, Cluny saw the pale boy raise a finger, and Eubie's laughter choked off. "It's Goulet," the boy said, and his voice, flat and drab as a piece of cardboard, made Cluny's tail frizz up behind her. She hadn't learned to read auras yet, but something about this kid-

  Crocker shifted, seemed to notice the boy for the first time, and stuck a hand out. "Hi, Goulet. I'm Crocker."

  "So I heard," the boy said, lowering his finger. "And I have to say I'm not at all pleased to meet you."

  A snort from Jeanette. "Gods and goddesses, Ghoul! Are you ever happy about anything??"

  The boy sighed. "I was going to be very happy about today. But, well..." Goulet reached into a backpack beside his chair, and set a lop-sided glass globe onto the table in front of him. "Killing the five of you won't be nearly as satisfying with the death of an innocent attached."

  For half a heartbeat, Cluny could only stare. Then Goulet poked the glass thing, and fire pulsed across her every nerve ending, the squeak that tore from her throat covered by the strangled gasps of the students at the other table.

  The pain vanished immediately, though, burned to ashes in the fire she felt from Shtasith and smothered under Crocker's warm softness. She managed to take a breath just as Crocker cried out, "What was that??" and Shtasith hissed, "Foul magics, master! Shall I incinerate this beast??"

  Goulet raised his finger again. "If your creature moves, Crocker, I'll set this thing to maximum and kill every living being on this entire campus." A smug smile pulled his lips. "I'd tell the rest of you jerkwads not to do anything, either, but I've never seen you show any intestinal fortitude before. So I'm not going to worry about it now."

  Cluny chanced a glance at the others and thought for an instant they'd been frozen. But they were twitching slightly—Eubie's eyelids, a tendon in Meeshele's neck—and while Cluny could feel energy all around as spiky as a paw full of nettles, she couldn't begin to guess what Goulet had done.

  She looked back at the boy, Crocker above her saying: "OK, let's just...take it easy, OK? No one wants to kill anyone!"

  Goulet gave a strangled laugh and rubbed the silky hair along his chin. "I'm going to disagree with that. I'm also going to be momentarily intrigued as to why my mana flayer seems to have no effect on you."

  The very thing Cluny had been wondering. Was it the strange way she and Crocker and Shtasith were linked? Or maybe this mana flayer thing was one of those spells mitigated by the presence of familiars: since regular students weren't allowed to have theirs in class, she was the only one here with that support right now. So how could she take advantage of—?

  "Oh, well." Goulet sighed again and brought both his hands up. "I've been planning my revenge for far too long to let your resistance threaten it. So I'm afraid I'll have to—"

  Crocker's burst of laughter caught Cluny by surprise. "Me? A threat? No, it's just that I'm not really a wizard: that's why whatever you're doing doesn't bother me."

  The boy's pale forehead wrinkled. "Not really a—?"

  "I'll show you!" Crocker spread his arms. "If I send my familiars away, you can see I've got less magic than a baby!"

  "Send them away?" Goulet's frown deepened. "So they can call for help? How stupid do you think—?"

  "OK, not away!" Crocker's voice kept getting more and more frantic, but Cluny could feel his heart beat slow and steady through his robes, not a whiff of panic in his scent. "Just across the room or something! Then you'll see I'm not a threat to anyone, and maybe...I mean, I just...I don't wanna die without knowing why! Please? Can't you...can't you tell me what they did to you?" He gestured to the others.

  Goulet slowly moved a hand to start stroking the fuzz on his chin again, and Cluny felt a spark of hope. If Crocker could hold Goulet's attention, she and Shtasith could—

  Do what? Well, something, certainly!

  "Fair enough," Goulet said then. "Send your familiars to sit on those rafters." He pointed, and Cluny stretched, peered past Crocker, saw a place above the stairwell where several beams jutted from the wall. "If they move from there, I'll trigger the flayer and kill us all—no matter how little magic you have. But yes, you do deserve to know the reasons."

  Crocker nodded, and Cluny felt his hand behind her, lifting her to his shoulder beside Shtasith, the firedrake's front claws digging into the rumpled cloth of his robes. "You heard the man, Cluny," Crocker said. "You and Shtasith. Up there. OK?"

  "OK," she managed to squeak, wondering for the first time if Shtasith could carry her. The firedrake was looking a little doubtful, too, but he sprang into the air, the wind from his wings washing her fur. She reached up, thinking to climb his hind legs onto his back, but he was suddenly swooping over her, his front claws sliding around and scooping her off of Crocker. She couldn't stop another squeak, the tables falling away, the walls spinning closer, then he was dropping her; she grabbed the rough wood of the beam and blinked at Crocker and Goulet below and a good twenty yards across the room, Shtasith curling into the space behind her.

  She almost panicked at the emptiness inside where Crocker's warmth usually glowed, but she swallowed it down, saw Crocker spread his hands. "Check me out however you want to."

  Goulet focused on Crocker, and Cluny clenched her paws. Even if she and Shtasith could sneak out somehow to bring help, the students already here would still be trapped. No, she had to get the others out first while Crocker kept Goulet—

  Misdirected! Her doppelganger spell! The one she used in class to transfer her spell-casting movements to Crocker!

  She'd need to modify the parameters, and— Furiously, she started scratching the formulae into the top of the rafter. Include an invisibility component, some sound dampening and power shielding, a bit of blood magic to attract and hold the flayer's effects and any search spells Goulet might send out—

  Gritting her teeth, she jabbed a claw into the base of her tail. What little she knew about blood magic said she wouldn't need much; she squeezed two drops onto the beam, then spun on Shtasith. "I need you to cut yourself!" she whispered.

  "What?" His eyes whirled with specks of red and black. "How? And why? I—"

  "Shtasith!"

  Too loud! She cringed, glanced over her shoulder, saw that Goulet still had his attention fixed on Crocker: "A nothing like you," the pale boy was saying, "praised over a genius like me!"

  Looking back at the firedrake, she did her best to keep her voice quiet. "I know you can bleed 'cause I stabbed you with that lance when I first captured you! Now do it!"

  Eyes still spinning, he crooked his right foreclaw and scratched the top of his left forepaw. Cluny dabbed at the welling blood, tapped two drops onto the wood beside her own, and recited the cobbled-together spell.

  Dizziness splashed over her like sudden rain, and Shtasith gave a little gasp. She grabbed his neck to steady herself and whispered, "OK! Pick me up and fly us down there!" She gestured toward the
tables where Goulet was now waving his arms, Crocker nodding, then shaking his head, then nodding again.

  "But—"

  "No time!" She thrust her muzzle into the firedrake's ear. "You get us under that table right now!"

  He tried to pull away, and she was just about to send a blast along their connection when he hissed, "You must release me, Cluny, or I'll have no chance to get either of us aloft!"

  She wrenched her paws away, and he was suddenly slithering sideways, his wings billowing, his head sliding around and between her legs, swooping her up again; Cluny found herself clinging to his back as he shot swift as an arrow through the air to the library floor, hard and black with layers of filth so old, she couldn't tell where the dirt stopped and the wood began. Leaping off the firedrake, she cast a quick glance back at the rafter and felt like cheering when she saw herself still sitting there, a double of Shtasith peering over her shoulder.

  The doppelganger part was working! Now to see if...

  Cluny motioned Shtasith to follow her and scampered over to Tzu Yin's sandals. A murmured apology, and she slashed the top of the girl's toe, drew just enough blood to splash two drops onto the floor, and with a breath to center herself, whispered the words to activate the spell again.

  She was ready for the dizziness this time, but the spell apparently had a larger effect on humans: Tzu Yin jerked sideways, fell right out of the chair—and left her image behind, frozen in place by the flayer. The real Tzu Yin stared up from the floor at the doppelganger, her eyes going wide, and Cluny ran forward, a foreclaw pressed to her snout: the sound-dampening component of this piecemeal spell was way too fragile to muffle anything as loud as a gasp.

  Tzu Yin's stare shifted to Cluny, and the girl didn't cry out; Cluny scrambled up the arm of her flannel shirt, whispered, "He can't see you! Get help! Hurry!" and sprang away for Eubie's blue canvas and rubber lace-up shoes, the dizziness not quite abating as it had before.

  Eubie's socks were filthy but so loose, Cluny didn't have to reach very far up his leg to find bare skin; she slashed him and was setting the blood drops onto the floor when movement made her look up, Tzu Yin getting to her feet and starting unsteadily for the stairwell. Cluny sent out another quick prayer to the gods of invocation and muttered the spell for the third time.