Wizard (The Key to Magic)

by H. Jonas Rhynedahll

  Mar did not deign to answer.

  Byon, looking as if he still did not fully believe what had happened, walked about in a small circle as he made demonstrative gestures with both hands. "That was ... amazing!"

  Surveilling the ether to watch for unpleasant surprises, Mar ignored this as well.

  "And fun, too!" Nali said, unhurriedly turning a stretch into a full body extension. She rose upon her toes, arching her back, and pushed her arms above her head to their fullest extent. The pose was delightfully innocent but undeniably sensual at the same time.

  Byon stopped walking and hand waving and stared unabashedly.

  Annoyed, Mar demanded of him, "How do we contact your friends?"

  "Ah? What's that?"

  "Your friends. Your five friends."

  With a visible effort, Byon tore his eyes from the captivating vision. "Oh! Right. Get me to a comm. That's all I need."

  SEVENTEEN

  Byon located the roof access with no trouble at all.

  "All these K-series apartment blocks follow a single set of plans," he explained as he opened the door. "A different color veneer here or there, but they're all basically identical."

  "You're an architect?" Nali asked, just sounding curious as she peeked around the other former prisoner to look into the stairwell.

  "I was getting ready to take my fifth term finals a month before the Faction set aside the Assembly. When the yellow jackets reorganized the universities, they cut my program."

  "Bad break. What's subversive about architecture?"

  "The professors and the students."

  "Oh."

  Mar said, "There's no one down for at least three flights."

  Byon opened the door and slipped in. "I'd ask how you know, but it's clear that you're a sorcerer."

  "Yes, he is," Nali confirmed as she followed. "He's the best that I've ever seen."

  Mar was content to let the other two take the lead; this was their time and their city. "Nali, you have a comm, don't you?"

  "I've got a spare at the warehouse, if that's what you mean, but we can't go back there."

  "The Compliance Officers know about all of your hiding places?"

  "I don't know that they know about any of them, but if they sift through the port logs, they'll be able to trace everywhere that I've been in the last week."

  "She's right," Byon agreed. "The Faction has been quietly adding surveillance hexes to all the public port stations and as of last month ninety percent of them are monitored. Getting about is going to be difficult. We'll have to avoid the stations and also popular plazas, businesses, and social venues."

  "I used the ports all day and didn't have any trouble," Mar countered as Byon stopped on the second landing to lean over the railing and to take a precautionary look down the well.

  "Nali and I have been in custody," Byon said, resuming his quick descent. "Our images and flux signatures are now in the system. We set foot within a furlong of a station and a tangle hex will drop, setting off every alarm in the city."

  While Mar understood the language of the phrase "images and flux signatures are now in the system," some of the concepts came across fuzzily, but he did not worry over the deficit. The key detail was that the port stations were guarded with magical traps, a fact that he had not previously suspected.

  After three more landings, Byon abruptly stopped. "We'll need to get Nali some clothes."

  Nali trilled a laugh. "You don't care for my current ensemble?"

  "I think it's splendid, but even citizens who despise the Faction will report a nude woman traipsing about."

  Mar pointed across the landing. "No one is in the apartment on the other side of that wall."

  Byon looked at the wall, then back at Mar in askance. "All of these major interior partitions have intrinsic privacy wards. I thought only classified military magic could read through that."

  Mar shrugged. "I had no trouble."

  "The apartment might be just vacant," Nali cautioned.

  "No, I can sense cloth and wood and small spells -- there's furniture and garments at a minimum."

  "How do we get in?" Byon asked.

  Mar moved around the two to the door on the left side of the landing. "Through the front door."

  As Mar already knew, the long brown-carpeted passageway on the other side was empty and the entrance to their target the first of many doors on the right. The lock was magical and simple, and he had it open by the time he placed his hand on the handle. Lamps came on as soon as he, with the others right on his heels, went inside.

  The main room was a salon with couches, padded chairs, small tables, shelves with knickknacks, and an array of concealed magical devices. Two door openings led from the salon, one into an area furnished with a large dining table, matching chairs, and sideboards, and the other into a short hall.

  "Don't disturb or take anything that's in plain view," he warned both of them, then pointed at the short hall. "Nali, you'll find clothing in the rooms off there. Look for an outfit that seems as if it hasn't been worn in a while, something shoved in the back of a cupboard. If we don't give the owners any reason to notice that we've been here, it'll be a while before they realize that they've been robbed."

  As the courtesan trotted off to obey, Byon said, "You've done all this before, obviously. Were you trained as a commando?"

  The Faction medic's language spell intimated that the meaning of this last word was "secretive armsman."

  Mar shook his head. "No. I was a thief."

  Byon chuckled as if he thought Mar had made a joke.

  Mar gestured at the furnishings. "Would there be a comm here?"

  "Maybe. All the people that I know keep their comms with them all the time, but a lot of people have spares. I'll have to open drawers and cabinets. Is that allowed?"

  "Yes, just so long as you leave everything exactly as you find it."

  Byon puttered about the salon for a moment, then went into the dining room.

  Nali, having been gone less than five minutes, came back then. Now dressed, she wore a shimmering-purple pleated skirt that was short enough to show her knees, calf-length cherry red boots with a blinding shine, and a long-sleeved brown sweater with Common writing embossed across the chest. Leaving a wide strip at her waist bare and outlining every contour, the sweater looked at least two sizes too small.

  Seeing Mar's look, she demanded, "What's wrong with this?"

  "You couldn't find anything less conspicuous?"

  She made a moue. "What's conspicuous about this?"

  Byon reentered the salon holding a round green ovoid the size of a crabapple. "He means that you're going to get ogled -- and deservedly so -- by every man that we pass." He showed the ovoid to Mar. "I found this. It's an obsolete model, but it works."

  Nali showed Byon a wicked grin. "That's true, but none of them are likely to notice the two of you at all and it's certain that none of the oglers will have even a whiff of a thought to make a report about me."

  Byon smiled back. "I think you have a point."

  "The three of us won't be travelling together," Mar said in a firm tone. "I think it likely that the Faction is searching for a trio and that means that we need to split up. Nali, is there anywhere that you could go? Could your friend from the Bazaar hide you out?"

  Nali frowned. "She might if I could contact her. Fynd doesn't have what you would call a permanent address."

  "What about your bolt hole?"

  "I think that I'd be safer with you."

  "You'll be safer going to ground. No matter what, after I get Byon back to his friends and get what I need, I'm leaving."

  She awarded him a half hopeful look. "I could go with you."

  "That's not possible."

  Drawing back slightly, she pressed her lips together, pursed them back and forth in agitation for a moment, then shrugged. "You're right. I'll be better off if I'm not in the company of the two most wanted men in Dhiloeckmyur. I know some people that know some people
that can get me out of the city. Anyway, I deserve a holiday." She went to the door. "Byon, look me up in six months at the Bazaar."

  The man grinned. "I'll do that."

  She opened the door, went right, and was gone.

  EIGHTEEN

  2170 by the Common Reckoning

  (3211 Before the Founding of the Empire)

  Secured City of Dhiloeckmyur

  Seething, Nali stepped into the lift. "Lobby."

  After the lift started down, she cast the beacon charm. "Mhashlecklsha!"

  Zso appeared in the corner. "I see that all is proceeding well."

  "I went through all that for nothing!" Nali accused, flushing. "He threw me aside like an old shoe!"

  "Leaving you, who he has every reason to believe is a capable and resourceful person, to your own devices is not the same as being cast out like rubbish, my dear Nali," the wizard countered. "The outcome of this episode actually indicates substantial progress toward our goal. There was a significant though not overwhelming probability that he would just leave you in the cell. That he did not do so indicates some concern for your wellbeing."

  "If he thinks anything about me at all, I can't tell it and I normally can read men very well. I may be crazy, but somehow I get the feeling that he doesn't think that I'm actually real."

  "In point of fact, to him you are not. You will understand this eventually. This is a race of baby steps, my dear, and the finish is a long while yet. There are many elements of the plan that have still to unfold. When all is in readiness, he will be receptive and you will be there."

  "If you had allowed me to take a more direct approach, he'd be more than receptive now."

  "The probability that an overt attempt at seduction would fail has increased by thirteen percentage points since the monks' last calculation and now stands at ninety-eight percent -- a virtual certainty. For various genetic and experiential reasons that would take too long to explain, Mar has greater mental acuity than the average man. One side-effect of this is that he has a vise-like grip on his own impulses, romantic and otherwise. Your normal arsenal of temptations will have no effect, as I am sure that you have already determined. You must follow the plan."

  Nali sighed. "What now?"

  "You have the pleasure of accompanying me again."

  "Will it hurt as bad as the last time?" She gave an involuntary shudder.

  "No, my dear, this time it will be most restful."

  NINETEEN

  Byon used the stolen comm in a service tunnel beneath the apartment building.

  Curious about the magic, Mar watched as the man keyed the spell with a sequence of taps that used the four fingers of his right hand. Focusing on the flux modulation, he listened with only half an ear as Byon spoke into the device.

  "Kaliope. Eight. Oxbow. Three."

  "Scaffold. Six." The answering voice that sprang from the air near the device was overlaid with a low pitched buzz that made it impossible to determine whether it was a man or a woman.

  "I'm in play."

  "How?"

  "The individual that you sent. He wants to meet."

  "Regular place and time foxhound. Understand?"

  "Yes." Byon rubbed his thumb across the ovoid, canceling the spell, then dropped the device and kicked it away.

  "Midnight," he informed Mar. "I'll lead you to the place. It'll take at least two hours on foot, so we had better get moving."

  "Can you locate the spot from the air?"

  "Of course. You want to fly?"

  "I certainly don't want to walk for two hours."

  "We'll be spotted. And there are wards all over the area that we have to pass through."

  "I have a strong glamour that will keep us from being seen. That's why the automatons -- I think you call them drones -- didn't follow us when we fled the Faction stronghold. We'll steer wide of the towers and I should be able to sense any strong spells in time to divert around them. We won't have any trouble."

  Mar's prediction proved accurate and the trip was uneventful. Like Mhajhkaei save only tenfold more so, Dhiloeckmyur was a city that went about its business all through the night. The promenades and ground level streets were lit as bright as a sunny morning with floating lamps and the pedestrian traffic diminished only marginally. As far as he could tell, his glamour continued to conceal the two of them from all eyes as they swooped over and through the spiderwork.

  The building to which Byon directed him was another unremarkable structure similar in its external facade to the water treatment plant, with its entrance equally unobserved. Like the warehouse, the interior of this new magical marvel was another vast open space inhabited by legions of mindless, uncaring automatons and contained what he could only think of as a farm. Troughs filled with orange-glowing liquid were arranged in rows that covered the entire floor and rose in levels suspended from nothing up to the roof. Lit bright enough to cause him to squint, the entire farm produced a single crop that he believed must be a type of bean.

  "Since we're early, will we have to wait?" Mar asked Byon, thinking about trying to go out to buy something to eat.

  "No, they'll know that we're here."

  Byon led him down a stair and along a circuitous, constricted route through a cellar crowded with stuttering pumps and humming pipelines. In just a few minutes, they came to a small room tucked into a corner.

  Apparently a storeroom, the bright, gray-walled chamber had a few dozen dust-covered metal barrels stacked to one side. Here they found the group of unnamed already present. The five were standing together but not speaking and were watching the door as if they had known exactly when Mar and Byon would enter.

  With a squeal of joy, Young Woman instantly dashed forward to envelope Byon in an embrace that he energetically reciprocated. The hug contained affection rather than passion and seeing the two standing together, Mar could readily identify a familial resemblance. As their ages were similar, he guessed them to be siblings.

  While the two continued their quiet but emotional reunion, he turned to the other four. "I've completed your task. I'm ready for you to make good on your end of the bargain."

  Bearded Man held up a hand in negation. "There was no bargain. We made no promises."

  Mar's expression hardened. "I could always put Byon back where I found him."

  Clearly discomfited by the prospect, Byon disengaged from his sister. "I would prefer that you didn't."

  "It's a bluff," Auburn Hair declared.

  "Let's not let this triumph descend into conflict," Short Man urged in a soothing tone. "We're all on the same side here."

  "The only side that I am on is my own," Mar said.

  Short Man nodded in accommodation. "But like us you oppose the Faction and the wise thing to do would be to form an alliance."

  Young Woman, Byon's sister, spoke up with enthusiasm. "We'd like to ask you to join us. We want you to become a part of our righteous crusade to end the scourge of tyranny on this continent."

  "We -- those of us here and many others throughout the provinces -- are members of a secret movement whose goal is to combat the evils of the Oaurlervy Faction," Short Man explained. "We seek the overthrow of the illegal dictatorial regime and the reinstitution of popular government in the Commonwealth."

  Mar threw up his hands before the serial argument could gain ramming speed. "None of that has anything to do with me. The only thing that I am interested in from you is instruction in wizardry."

  Auburn Hair twitched in a way that was almost dismissive. "Under the current circumstance, putting you in contact with a wizard is not as easy as you make it sound. The borders of the Commonwealth are constantly patrolled and the frontier wards are some of the strongest in the world. Getting a single message out takes months. Smuggling a person out might take as much as a year of preparation."

  "I don't have time to wait."

  In every sense of the word, this was true. More than ever, he felt a compulsion to return to his own age. If he could find no one to teac
h him, then he would attempt wizardry once more on his own and work, as he had done with all of his magic, to learn what he needed to know. Though he had hoped for a sample to carry with him, he believed that his delving of the rifle at the Bazaar had given him sufficient understanding of its spells, mechanical parts, and alchemical components to eventually recreate it. He would be able to give the armsmen of the Empire weapons that would combat the Brotherhood's steel beetles and he had no further need to tarry here in this lost age. It was long passed time to return to where he belonged.

  "You took the time to rescue Byon and I, at least, am extremely grateful for that," Young Woman said. "Can you not spare just a bit more time to allow us to make our case?"

  Mar clenched his jaws together, but turned out one hand in an uncaring gesture.

  "Every sorcerer on this continent is a member of the Faction or has been killed by the yellow jackets," Byon told him with earnest sincerity. "They have established a near monopoly on higher order magic and absolutely control the production of all everyday magical devices."

  "We are a people oppressed by our own common technology," Auburn Hair groused. "No aspect of our lives can proceed without monitoring and oversight. Any attempt at creating new spells or utilizing devices that violate the Faction's Internal Magic Regulations is instantly suppressed."

  "The yellow jackets come in broad day and drag people away," Young Woman said. "Most of those people are never seen again. Our parents were taken four years ago and we've heard nothing of them since."

  Short Man's expression worked as if he were wrestling with grief. "A lot of people have disappeared. Even children."

  "The yellow jackets have slaughtered their way to power," Bearded Man said. "Only force will be able to drive them from it."

  Byon again took up the plea. "We can and will fight, but without sorcerers of our own, any rebellion that we raise will be put down immediately by the combat trained Compliance Officers. Our only chance is to recruit equally powerful sorcerers to our cause. While we could hire foreign mercenaries, we could not trust them not to betray us for higher pay."