Cluny looked back, watched Crocker run through the park toward Powell House, his robes grass-stained and tangling around his ankles. She shivered with the chill that came over her whenever they separated, the sick feeling of the link between them thinning to nothing, but that was normal till a sorcerous partnership matured. Not that she could imagine anyone ever using the word "mature" to describe Crocker...
Still, she couldn't stop a smile as he disappeared around the far corner of the building. He was coping pretty well with their strange situation, and Cluny guessed it wouldn't do any harm to go along with his stupid little gags once in a while. Besides, the sooner she got this over with, the sooner she could get back to studying for her metallurgy final...
She turned to the dorm, lights flicking on in various windows, but Michelle's only gave off a glow like the embers of a fireplace. Great. Probably wasn't even home. Still, the window stood slightly open, a jump of only a few feet, so Cluny set her jaw, scampered out along the branch, and sprang.
Too much, she realized the instant she launched; overcompensating for the armor's weight, she was going to sail right over the whole windowsill! She tried to turn in midair, struck out with her free paw, but all she managed to do was gouge a few splinters from the sill. Then she was falling, jangling, clattering into a heap on Michelle's carpet, her visor slamming shut over her snout again.
Several quick sounds: a tinkle of glass, a sharp hiss, a whispered "Oh, no." A rotten-egg stink curled her whiskers, and as Cluny sat up, blinking through the slits in her faceplate, the room before her burst into flames.
The heat hit her like a fist, made her start back; she caught a quick glimpse of cold blue light in the center of the fire before a shadow rose up in front of her and kicked her sideways. She rolled till she could stop herself, then she rattled upright and shoved the visor open.
Some sort of striped cloth hung in front of her, the pattern the same as Michelle's sofa. But before she could wonder who, why, or what, a voice above her growled, "What do you think you're doing?" Cluny turned, and there was Rennie glaring down at her, his pointed ears folded, his eyes solid black. "And what in Acheron are you dressed as??"
"Wait a minute." Cluny held up a paw, still a little shaky. "Where's Michelle? What's that smell? Why did—?"
"Shut up!" Rennie hissed. "You idiot! That's an unbound firedrake out there!"
"What?" Cluny blinked, then pushed past the fox to peer around the sofa. The light was fading from the window she had just fallen through, but in front of the now blazing fireplace, Cluny could see Michelle sprawled, a blue glow wrapped around her... and beside her, its wings tucked back, its long neck stretching up to sniff Michelle's face, stood a slender four-legged lizard about the same size as Rennie. Cluny forced a swallow. "What's a firedrake doing here?"
"Extra credit." Rennie's voice came from behind her. "You bind a guardian into your spellbook, it's just about an automatic 'A.'"
Cluny turned to stare up at him. "But a firedrake? What made you two think you could bind a firedrake?"
"Hey, squirrel, we had the thing caught, sealed, and just about set when you came crashing in! This is all your fault!" His voice grew softer. "I just hope that cold ward holds."
"Cold ward?"
Rennie gave her a look. "Don't they teach you frosh anything? You always have protection wards ready, especially when you're dealing with something as dangerous as—"
"OK, I knew that." Like the watery healing spell she'd come up with when she'd tried to teach Crocker how to make fireballs; a deep breath, and she forced herself to calm down. "But shouldn't we call the fire department or something?"
"Brilliant." The fox sniffed the air. "OK, here's the plan: you crawl out at the other end of the sofa and make as much noise as you can. The drake goes after you, and I go out the window to get help."
"Whoa, now: I do what?"
"You do what I say!" Rennie snatched her up between his paws, his breath against her whiskers making the hot air even hotter. "That's my Lady out there, and if she gets hurt, I swear I'll carve you up for appetizers!"
Cluny returned his glare, but she knew he was right. "Fine. Just let me skin Crocker before you eat me." She wriggled from Rennie's grip, slapped her visor down, grabbed the lance from where she'd dropped it, and started tromping along the wall for the other end of the sofa.
She reached it, stopped, looked back, and saw the fox waiting, his fur vibrating, his muscles tensed. Cluny took a breath, slipped out, scampered under the coffee table, and leaped into the room with a shout of "Ho, dragon!"
The firedrake had been tapping a claw against the glowing blue shell around Michelle's hand, but now it raised its head, its fiery eyes brightening as they fixed on Cluny. "Were you addressing me?" it asked, its voice like steam from a kettle.
Cluny leveled her lance and stepped forward. In what she hoped was a menacing voice, she said, "Begone from here, foul creature, or taste the wrath of my blade!"
The firedrake cocked its head. "Technically, a lance doesn't have a blade. It's more of a stabbing weapon."
She tried to keep her paws from shaking. "Just begone, or you'll taste it anyway!"
The lizard's grin showed hundreds of needle-like teeth, but Cluny's attention was caught by a white flash at the window: the tip of Rennie's brush disappearing over the sill. The firedrake saw it, too, its head snapping over, but by then, the fox was gone.
Smoke jetted from the drake's snout, and it slowly turned back to her. "So. You were the distraction. Well played." It rubbed its chin with a claw. "But while your friend may indeed return with help in time to stop me from demonstrating the joys of immolation to anyone else in this realm, I shall at least introduce them to you." The firedrake spread its wings. "En garde, knight."
Its neck snapped forward, and Cluny leaped sideways. Heat prickled the fur along her tail, and she heard the crackling whoosh of wood catching fire—the coffee table, no doubt. That would expand the thing's range of motion, she found herself remembering from evocation class: unbound firedrakes didn't like getting too far from open flames.
She rolled to her paws and found that she'd managed to put Michelle's glowing legs between herself and the drake. Mind racing, she hefted the lance... and remembered Professor Scuttle's lecture in metallurgy class about iron and how well it conducted magical energies: "Some critters," the old gnome had said, "you just gotta wave cold iron at 'em, an' it nigh to sucks the magic right out their bodies."
Were firedrakes like that? Cluny was trying to remember when she saw the reptile's head appear around Michelle's feet. "Ah, there you are." Its snaky neck came next, then the rest of it. "Now, where were we? Oh, yes." And it cocked its head back for another blast.
With a cry, Cluny leaped straight for it, the lance aimed at its chest. It sidestepped just the way she'd hoped, and she let the tip of the lance drop to jab her true target: the firedrake's front paw. She felt the squish of the point penetrating the thing's scales, heard the drake scream, spitting fire wildly, and using the lance as a pole, she vaulted up over the flames to land on Michelle's leg.
She spun, hoping to see the lizard writhing in agony at the steel's touch, but it was just standing there, licking its paw. "Ouch," it said, then raised its head to her. "First touch to you, knight. My turn now, though." Its head snapped forward, and fire burst out.
Cluny ducked, knew she was too late, cringed, waiting to feel her armor melt to slag around her. But when only a hot wind flowed past, she opened her eyes, the flames turning to ash as they met the blue glow of Michelle's ward.
The ward! Of course! Cluny sprang up, squinted through the smoke and the faceplate to see the drake on the floor spreading its wings and cocking its head again. A quick prayer to the gods of conductivity, and Cluny jabbed the butt of her lance against the blue at Michelle's knee. Cold bit into her paws, but she managed to hang on and swing the lance toward the firedrake; the lizard's chest was ballooning out with its breath, and the lance's tip just brushed its sca
les.
Blue fire stroked down the metal, the cold of the ward spraying into the firedrake, and it shrieked, its neck snapping out like a whip. The frost on her paws made Cluny grit her teeth, blue dancing over the drake's scales for a long moment. Then it toppled over.
Cluny wrenched her numb paws from the lance and blew on them, rubbing them warm. The lizard's sides barely fluttered, and Cluny leaped down, eyes on the window, when—
"Michelle?" came Crocker's muffled voice from the hallway. "Cluny? You guys in there?"
"Crocker!" Cluny spun, clattered for the door. "Run!"
The doorknob rattled, and Crocker's scruffy, chubby face peered in with a grin. The smile vanished immediately, and his eyes went wide. "Hey, what—?"
Cluny leaped for his robes and clawed her way up. "No time! We've gotta get outta here before—!"
A groan from behind cut her off; a glance back saw the firedrake rising to its paws, its head swinging like a pendulum. Cluny scrambled to Crocker's shoulder. "Move, Crocker!"
"A firedrake?" she heard him mutter. "Michelle?"
"Come on, come on, come on!" Cluny pounded the side of his head. "Before it wakes up!"
"Too late," came a familiar breathy voice; Cluny looked down, saw the firedrake with wings spread, its head cocked. "I'm afraid, O knight in shining armor, that I cannot allow either you or your steed to leave this place." Fire burned at its muzzle, and the thing's head lashed forward, a ball of twisting flame bursting toward her.
No time to run, nowhere to go, nothing she could do but—
She brought her paws up, mentally wrapped Crocker's power around her shoulders like a cloak, and shouted the words for her old watery healing spell. The air went thick and damp just as the drake's fire splashed into her, and clouds of steam sizzled up to fill the room. Cluny kept chanting, kept replenishing the water till the firedrake's breath gave out, till she saw the lizard draw its head back for another blast.
A quick change of wording, certain components she knew were in every standard projectile spell, and Cluny thrust her paws forward, felt a big bubble of the water she was generating sploosh away from her, aimed it as well as she could for the startled look on the firedrake's face, and let it plop right on top of the thing.
Shouts echoed from down the hall, but Cluny was staring at the globe of water now sitting on Michelle's floor, the firedrake floating inside, its head twisting one way, then the other. She couldn't stop a little laugh from getting loose: it wouldn't even drown, she realized, what with all the healing elements she'd put into that spell...
Crocker's panting was the next thing she noticed; she turned on his shoulder and saw him staring with open mouth at the firedrake swimming around. Then the voices were coming up behind her, a particularly harsh one asking, "What's this?"
Cluny turned. Novices and familiars jammed the hallway, and Master Watts, the Resident Mage at Powell House, was pushing his way through them, his scowl making him look more like a scarecrow than usual. Something moved at his feet, and Cluny heard Rennie shouting, "Get out of the way, you idiots!"
Of course, Crocker was standing in the doorway, but with the sudden crowd, he couldn't move back. So he stepped in as Rennie rushed past, Master Watts dousing the burning coffee table and bringing the lights up with a snap of his fingers, then squatting to poke Michelle's foot, the blue glow around her beginning to sparkle and fade. He squinted at the globe, the firedrake blinking back, then stood and rounded on Crocker and Cluny. "You there. You did this?"
Crocker's breath had slowed, but Cluny knew he wasn't up to talking yet. So she bowed and said, "Yes, sir. This is Terrence Crocker, and I'm Cluny; we're at Mayfield House."
"Mayfield?" His scowl grew. "But that's a frosh dorm."
"Yes, sir; we're both—"
"Michelle!" The word burst from Crocker's mouth; Cluny had to grab hold as a shudder wracked his entire body. He blinked several times, then put his hands to his forehead. "Cluny? What just happened? I feel like a wall fell on me."
She tapped his ear. "Crocker? Open your eyes."
Crocker peered out from behind his hands, then dropped them and jerked back against the wall. "Master Watts! Where, uh, I mean, how—?"
"Back among us, eh, Crocker?" Something close to a smile creased the R.M.'s thin cheeks. "You throw an interesting ward for a frosh. I haven't seen your name on the Magister's List; where have you been hiding yourself?"
"Hiding? I, uh, I mean, I haven't, sir! I, uh, just—"
A groan from Michelle, and Master Watts turned to her. "Slowly, Steiverson: you've had a bit of a shock."
Michelle's eyes widened. "The firedrake! Where—?"
"There." Master Watts waved at the bubble, all trace of his smile gone. "I encourage experimentation here at Powell House, Steiverson, but in this profession, we must know our limitations. Firedrakes are not to be trifled with, and attempting to bind one unsupervised is nothing short of foolhardy." He shook his head. "Had Crocker here not come by, I shudder to think what might have occurred."
From the floor beside Michelle, Rennie turned and glared at Cluny. Cluny gritted her teeth. "Uh, actually, sir, Michelle and Rennie had everything pretty much in hand till I came crashing through the window."
Crocker's face went pale. "Oh, no. You mean you—"
"No, I mean you." Cluny reached up to jab a claw into his nose. "It was your stupid joke, remember?"
Crocker covered his eyes again, and Master Watts crossed his arms. "Come along," the mage said. "Out with it."
"It was..." Crocker stopped, cleared his throat. "I... I thought Michelle had been studying too hard, so I sent Cluny up here to surprise her. I didn't know she was binding a firedrake, and I... I..." His voice petered out, and he brushed at the grass stains on his robe.
"I see." Master Watts's voice seemed to echo. "Who is your advisor, Crocker?"
Crocker swallowed so hard, Cluny could feel it where she sat on his shoulder. "Master Gollantz, sir."
"The Magister himself?" Master Watts looked from Crocker to Cluny and back again, the pressure of his gaze combing through Cluny's fur like a winter wind. "There is definitely more to you two than meets the eye...."
Cluny swallowed then, but Master Watts just turned away. "I shall speak to him on this matter, have no doubt of that. Oh, and don't forget your drake when you go." He waved, and the bubble on the floor popped; Cluny looked down to see the firedrake shaking water from its wings.
A gasp rose from the students, and what little color remained in Crocker's face drained away. "You bound it, after all," Master Watts went on, "and they do make fine familiars, much better then common animals: I'm sure your squirrel can find some other novice."
Cluny started to object, but she heard a hiss from the floor below. "You? My master? This cannot be!"
Panic prickling her whiskers, she leaped from Crocker's shoulder, landed with a crash of armor beside the drake, its eyes whirling and fixed on her, and crooked a claw at its face. "You will acknowledge our master, wyrm!" She swept her claw away to point at Crocker. "You've been bested and bound, and you will acknowledge him!"
The drake's power washed over her, a hot dry rush that made her head feel like an expanding balloon. It struggled against her, tried to overwhelm her, but she was still dripping with the water she'd made, the water she'd bound him in, and she smothered his rebellion—his? How did she suddenly know that this firedrake was a male?—with a single thought.
More hissing from the drake, then he turned and bowed his head to Crocker. "I find myself obliged to call you master."
Crocker was still staring, his mouth open, but he had regained at least enough presence of mind to bow back to the lizard. "Excellent," came Master Watts's voice from the hallway. "Back to your studies, now, the rest of you!"
A few moments of muttered voices, Michelle standing shakily and moving to the sofa, Rennie hopping into her lap. Then silence in the hall and in the room till Michelle burst out with: "Well, that's just great! I do all the work, and
you end up with my firedrake!"
The lizard hissed beside Cluny. "Speak respectfully!" It snapped its head to her. "Shall I devour her, master?"
"No!" Cluny yelled at the same time as Crocker.
"Just..." Michelle slumped further into the sofa, her head lolling back and her eyes closing. "Just leave me alone, OK, Crocker?"
Crocker slumped, too. "I'm sorry, Michelle. I—"
Rennie's fur bristled. "She asked you to leave."
Cluny tapped Crocker's ear. "C'mon," she whispered. "We'll get this settled tomorrow."
For a moment, she wasn't sure if he'd heard. Then with a sigh, he turned and moved out into the hallway.
Wings behind her: Cluny looked back to see the drake fluttering after them. "You better carry him, Crocker. He's likely to give someone a heart attack flying like that."
Crocker gave a groan and spun around. "Like me, for instance! Cluny, what're we gonna do with this thing?"
"Thing?" The firedrake pulled up to hover in front of Crocker, its eyes swirling. "I am Shtasith the Immolator! And were it not for the sufferance of our common master, I would show you the true power of my name!"
"Shhh!" Cluny looked up and down the hall, but no one seemed to be around. "Let's just get out of here before anything else happens, OK? Shtasith, let Crocker carry you."
Steam gusted from the firedrake's snout, but he held still while Crocker took him in shaking hands and tucked him against his still-damp robes. "This is insane, Cluny! What... what... what're we gonna do?"
Cluny took a deep breath, Crocker's warm familiar scent and power mixing with the firedrake's, spicy and wild. "We're going to study hard, be very careful, and show these people magic like they've never seen before!"
Hope for the Dawn
by Catherine Soto
Catherine Soto's work first appeared in Sword & Sorceress 21, so this is her third appearance, as well as her third story in the Temple Cats series. She says that bronze fish, with the name of the nation and the month they were to be admitted to the capital, actually were used as tokens for diplomatic embassies during the Tang Dynasty; they were divided in half, and the halves were matched up when the embassy arrived and sought admittance.
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress XXIII Page 26
