Sword and Sorceress 30

by Waters, Elisabeth

  “Well, there she is.” Alex didn’t seem terribly hopeful about this. “What should I do?”

  “I’ll need a place to sit where I can see all of her. Would it be okay to take a stool into the stall with her?”

  “Sure, I have a milking stool right over here.” He scooped up a short three-legged stool and opened the door to the stall, placing it in the front corner. “How’s that?”

  “Looks good. I’ll be in trance again, and it may take a while, so don’t feel like you have to stay.”

  “What if there’s nothing to see? Won’t you know that pretty quickly?”

  “Sometimes. There could still be traces from the beans’ influence, or other magic she’s come in contact with, and it can take a while to make sure those are all just traces of external influence and not something particular to the cow.” I gave him a lopsided smile. “If I could tell you exactly how this would go, it wouldn’t be magic.”

  As I walked into the stall and settled on my stool, Alex settled his arms along the top of the stall, looking like he planned to stay a while. “Mind if I watch for a bit? Just in case anything interesting happens with your unpredictable magic?”

  “Go right ahead.” I pushed Alex from my thoughts, and took a couple deep breaths to steady myself. I settled deeper into the stool, closed my eyes, and opened them again with my magesight up. Wisps of enchantment floated by on the air, with decidedly more coming from the direction of the road. Unlike looking into the past, I could see all the magic in the area, not just that which existed in the memory of the person I was watching. I focused on the cow, blocking out the other nearby magics. The cow glowed slightly with the magic of her life force, tracing the paths of her blood and nerves. I studied its ebb and flow throughout her body until I could separate it from any other wisps hanging about her. I saw a hint of the yellow of the magic beans, faint and already mostly faded. So they probably didn’t have a plan for the cow past getting her here. I began to search in earnest for evidence of enchantments on the cow.

  ~o0o~

  When I blinked my eyes open again this time, I realized I was stiff all over. I had to reach a hand out to the stall wall to steady myself as I got to my feet. I must have been sitting there for hours. I stretched out the worst of the kinks, patted the cow’s neck, and headed off to find Alex.

  Alex appeared at the front door almost before I’d finished knocking, a worried look on his face. “Are you okay? I didn’t think this would take all day.” He looked me over, as if expecting to see an evil imp hanging off of my elbow.

  “I didn’t expect it to take all day. It usually takes fifteen or twenty minutes. Your cow, though....” I trailed off, trying to put it into words.

  “Come on in and let me get you something to eat,” Alex said, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. My stomach woke up with a vengeance. He led me back into the kitchen, and sliced some bread and cheese for me. I started munching on that while he puttered around getting some apples, slicing some more cheese, and getting us tea.

  The edge of my hunger blunted, I felt more prepared to discuss the new cow. “I don’t think there’s anything there.” I rubbed my eyes. “I can’t see any enchantment, which should mean that she’s not magical, and doesn’t have any magical properties or curses, but something seems slightly off, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. There are a couple other things I can try, but I’ll have to get some ingredients from home. I can swing by tomorrow afternoon, if that works for you.”

  “Yeah, you can come by any time, the cow’ll still be in the barn. I’ll probably be out in the south field in the afternoon, but don’t let that stop you. And you don’t have to come by at all; it sounds like she’s probably a normal cow, and it seems unlikely that someone like me would end up with some sort of strange magic cow, anyway.”

  “True, but now it’s caught my interest. I’ve been perfecting my mage sight for years, and I haven’t had a challenge like this in some time.” I stood, and Alex stood with me as we made our way to the front door. I stepped out onto the step and looked back. “I do have another reason to want to head back this way tomorrow. Tom was spewing god-knows-what sort of magic into the air around here for most of the morning, from the look of it. I was nearly blinded when I came out of the barn. It will probably harmlessly dissipate unless it finds the demon or whatever that he was seeking, but with that amount of magic, I’ll want to make sure it’s starting to fade and not latching onto something surprising. It’s always best to catch those sorts of things early, and it seems unlikely that our court magician will clean up after himself.”

  Alex squinted out at the road, obviously not seeing the swirls of orange and chartreuse currently dancing across his lawn. “There’s something there? Magic?”

  “Way too much of it.” I surveyed the clashing charms once more. “They almost certainly won’t interact, or cause any harm, but the intersection of random magic is always unstable. Just like the Crimauld Bog.”

  Alex grinned. “Wouldn’t want to start anything like that here. You know where I’ll be, and if you need anything, the kitchen door’s usually unlocked.”

  ~o0o~

  The center of town seemed fairly quiet as I walked through on my way to Alex’s the next day, herbs and powders in my bag. I had almost expected Tom to be wreaking havoc here as well, though a glance at the coffee pot reminded me that he didn’t need to be around to cause problems. I hadn’t been able to do the setup for my spells comfortably at home, since the shortest way to Alex’s took me right by the damn thing. One day I was going to get so fed up that I’d do something about it, Queen’s edict or not.

  Thoughts of the horrible things I would do to Tom when his works caught up with him kept me distracted for the rest of the walk. Lost in my thoughts of Tom, I almost walked right past Alex’s farm. I was looking for his dissipating magic, and there was nothing here.

  Literally nothing. I increased my mage sight, looking closer. Typically, the amount of magic that Tom had been throwing around would take weeks to fade. I upped my mage sight further, and still couldn’t see anything. I turned in a circle, looking for something the magic could have attached itself to, but nothing had the kind of magic that Tom had been throwing around.

  On a hunch, I walked over to the barn. It had the same dusty hay smell as yesterday, and nothing looked different. I walked over to the cow’s stall and looked at her closely.

  She looked back up at me, chewing contentedly. She looked exactly the same as she had yesterday; no magic, just something subtly off. It was easier to notice this time, since I’d spent all day yesterday studying it, an almost visible pattern just on the edge of detection. It didn’t look like the magic had attached itself to the cow, so that particular mystery could wait while I double checked things outside. A magic spell with a mind of its own was much worse than a mostly normal cow.

  I settled cross-legged onto the lawn, placing my bag within easy reach of my right hand. I wiggled to get comfortable, then closed my eyes and dropped into my meditation space. Once I was calm and centered, I opened my eyes again, looking for the drifts of magic that naturally flow through our world. They were there, as always: small motes of magic flowing on the wind, and living in the grass. However, there was no sign of any imposed magic, a spell like the ones Tom was throwing around yesterday. Nothing seemed enchanted, or odd in any way.

  My magesight was the most finely honed of my magic skills, and it didn’t usually steer me wrong. However, not all magicians had magesight as strong as mine, and so there were several common spells that were used to determine the presence of magic. I hadn’t had to use them since my apprenticeship, and had only brought the materials out of a sense of thoroughness, not any thought that I might actually use them. If there was magic here, I should have been able to see it. I always had before. But it also shouldn’t have been able to vanish like that. I swallowed my pride and started measuring out the rosemary.

  Once the herbs were mixed, I held the bowl in bot
h hands in front of my face, chanted the brief spell, and threw the herbs into the air. With my mage sight on, I could see the cloud of magic collect around the herbs, and hold them in place briefly as they sought a magical presence strong enough to draw them in. They hovered, then dropped slowly to the ground.

  I tried the other three common spells for detection of magic, and all I got was more frustration and the ghosts of my own spells floating over the lawn. My best attempts thwarted, I slumped back onto my hands and decided that, whatever had happened, the magic had to have vanished. Clearly it wasn’t there, if all these attempts had failed.

  I sat, idly watching the spell-ghosts drift, as I pondered what, if anything, I should do next. I must’ve sat there, staring off into space, for twenty minutes before I blinked myself back to an awareness of my surroundings. I was obviously out of ideas, and if I came up with something, I’d come back here and try again. Decided, I stood up briskly and grabbed my bag. I straightened up, took one last glance around, and paused. The magic from my spells, small as they were, weren’t behaving normally. They all appeared to be slowly drifting toward the barn. I slipped back into the barn, just in time to see my first spell disappear into the cow’s stall.

  I ran toward the stall, hopeful that somehow both the mystery of Tom’s missing charms and the oddness of the cow were about to be solved. Once I rounded the corner, however, all evidence of the spell was gone. Undeterred, I grabbed the stool from yesterday and stuck it in my corner of the stall to wait for the next spell.

  ~o0o~

  I was sitting at Alex’s kitchen table, staring at a glass of milk, when Alex came in from the field. He paused, seeing me there, then went to wash up. As he came back in to the kitchen, he pulled a bottle down from the top shelf. “I know that expression,” he commented as he poured a thumbful into two glasses, “and it’s the sort of expression that is more easily dealt with when you have something a little stronger than milk to hand.”

  I glanced up from the milk, which I’d still been focused on, and gave Alex a half smile. “Well, the good news is, I think I know what’s going on with your cow. The bad news is, I’m not sure what to do with the knowledge.”

  “Well, let’s hear it, then.”

  I sighed. “Remember how I said that Tom had strewn spells all over your front yard yesterday?” At his nod, I continued. “There was no trace of them today, which is not how magic usually behaves.” I frowned in memory. “I went to extreme measures to figure out where that magic was hiding, but it was entirely gone. I didn’t know where, until I saw the remains of my own spells drifting toward your barn.” I met Alex’s eye. “Your cow appears to have the ability to consume magic. She absorbs the spells, and they collect in her milk. Once she absorbs the spell, you can see the magic collecting in her udder. I took a sample,” I gestured to the milk on the table, “and it appears to be pure magic, uncontained by any sort of spell.”

  A look of dawning horror on Alex’s face confirmed my previous realization. “Presumably, any milk you drank this morning would have also been magical, with the magic from Tom’s spells. Do you have any left?”

  Alex got up, and pulled a jug from the fridge. Even from across the room, it radiated unconstrained magic. “I had a cup with breakfast. I didn’t feel anything different….” Alex trailed off, obviously at a loss. “Would it have done something to me?” he asked, sounding lost.

  “If you didn’t notice anything, probably not, though I’d still like to check.” At his nod, I dropped back into my trance. This time, it only took a moment before I saw the magic flowing in his blood. It didn’t appear to be part of a spell, just a larger collection of magic than Alex, as a non-magician, usually held in his body.

  I blinked my eyes to pull myself out. “It doesn’t seem to be hurting you, but I do have a suspicion. Do you have a candle somewhere?”

  Alex got up heavily and put a wide, half-burned candle on the table. “This is going to seem a little crazy, but anything involving a cow who eats magic is going to be a little crazy, right?” He gave me a hint of a smile, which seemed to be all he was capable of right now. “I’d like you to stare at the wick of the candle, focus all your attention on it. Once you have it firmly in your mind, picture a flame there.”

  Alex gave me a startled look, then focused on the candle. When nothing happened after a moment, he looked up at me again. “Anything else, or was that it?”

  I frowned. This was the first intentional magic that most magicians did, and was often used as a test for those with magic. If he could use magic, he should have been able to light the candle, but he appeared to both have magic and not be able to light anything. “Focus on it again. Think about your life burning with a small flame in your center, and picture that flame reaching out to the candle.”

  This time, I saw a flicker as the magic reached toward the table. “Just like that. Stretch out with your life force, and once that touches the candle, it will burst into flame.” On the heels of my words, the candle burst into flame. I smiled, and looked up at Alex.

  He was white as a sheet. He swayed on his chair, and for a minute I thought he was going to fall over. “I did that? I’m a magician now? What has happened to me?”

  “Well, let’s see. Please give me your hand.” I reached across the table, slightly miffed at his appalled reaction to something most kids dream about, but trying to hide it with professionalism. I quickly dropped back into a trace, and looked at Alex.

  The magic flowed in Alex’s blood, suffusing his body. However, it didn’t seem to actually come from anywhere. Magicians have an internal source of magic, which will slowly refill their power once they use it. Alex did not appear to have a reservoir, which made sense, as he’d never been a magician before. “I think it’s just from the milk, and it should wear off in a day or two.”

  Alex tried not to look too relieved. “But I can cause some sort of magical problem before then? I don’t have any training, or know what not to do.”

  “Actually, I have an idea about that.” I took Alex back out to the barn, and sat him on my stool near the cow. “She can pull charms out of the air, so presumably she can pull the magic out of you as well, since it’s not really a part of you. It’s actually a really interesting process; there are very few documented methods of giving magic to a non-magician, and none that are reliable.”

  “My cow can turn people into magicians.” Alex still looked fairly overwhelmed.

  “Ah, there it goes; she’s starting to draw out the magic. Just another few minutes.” I watched as the magic was drawn out of him, and if I was slightly more intent on the man than the magic, none but the cow could see.

  ~o0o~

  I trudged back home, thinking about what it meant to be able to become a magician quickly and easily. I had told Alex not to mention the cow’s powers to anyone for now, until we had a better handle on what it could mean. People would kill for that sort of power, and people like Tom would stop at nothing to be able to increase their power dramatically. Alex had enough on his plate running the farm; I couldn’t imagine that he’d want to deal with managing power for the hordes of magicians who would show up looking for an easy solution to all their magical needs. Honestly, I hoped Alex would decide to keep her a secret. I saw one very good reason for that up ahead of me on the road.

  “Ah! Clara! I was wondering what you’d been up to. Are you trying to get that boy on the Dowers’ old farm to marry you? You are starting to get on in years, best to sort out these things before you get too wrinkled. I might be persuaded to help with a love charm, if things are going poorly.”

  “Actually, I was out on business,” I said coldly. The nerve! Trying to marry the boy on the Dowers’ farm, indeed.

  “That’s right, you used to fancy yourself a magician. If you like, I could help you out with some charms while I’m in the neighborhood. Maybe a nice lamp charm, or something to keep you from burning yourself on the stove.”

  Tom never had believed that anyone else who lived in
this town was capable of doing anything, which reminder usually helped me manage his more condescending moments. He insisted on taking his horse to the next town over to have shoes put on, and their blacksmith had been one of our blacksmith’s apprentices ten years ago. I was pretty sure that all the townspeople were enjoying pulling one over on him too much to have mentioned it to him, and he’d been away too long to know how all those sorts of relationships worked. “I’m doing quite well, actually. I just had a paper accepted in Charms Quarterly. I’ve been working with Abe Finklestat on novel uses for magesight.”

  “You know, you should do a piece on my coffee pot. The queen herself declared it a treasure, and, as one of the townspeople, you could give your perspective on how greatly it improves your daily life. It was a marvelous accomplishment, I must say. Most of the other royal magicians couldn’t do anything even close to it. Why, half of them don’t deserve to have finished their apprenticeships. Don’t worry, though, I’ll be back there soon enough and help keep things under control, for the good of the people.”

  I’d been walking more and more quickly through this last speech, and finally seemed to have gotten far enough away that he appeared to be musing to himself, not actively talking at me. I hoped the Lord Deveril didn’t stay angry with him much longer; having him in town was driving me batty.

  ~o0o~

  “As long as she’s not around magic, her milk should be normal, so I don’t think it will be as hard to hide as you might think. I know that trading your magic beans brought attention to the situation, but it should pass shortly as everyone finds something else to gossip about.”

  “But what would distract them from that?” He looked honestly perplexed.