Chapter 15  

    After Ellen and the three magisters left the room, the 
Prince turned to Fieras. "You made this mess. Tell me how I 
am to get out of it and what I am to do with you."
    
    The mage looked surprised. "It seems simple enough. Make 
it clear that they have no business interfering in the work 
of your servants and send them off. Then find another earth 
mage, one more willing to tolerate fools than I am, and send 
him to them in my place. As for the girl, she is just on the 
other side of that door. If her companions object to 
whatever you intend to do with her, there are more than 
enough of us to deal with them."
    
    The Prince shook his head. "Replacing you is no longer 
possible. Most of the magisters feel strongly about 
violations of the bounds, as you have just seen, and about 
the independence of the College. Even Bertram, who hopes for 
a royal pension when he retires, is willing to risk 
offending me. Were I to be tactless enough to suggest any 
such thing, they would find one reason or another to 
politely decline it.
    
    "I will admit, though not to them, that I have from time 
to time turned a blind eye to illegal uses of magery by 
mages working for me. As the present situation demonstrates, 
that may have been a mistake. You have acted in a manner 
that left none of the three mages who charged you with any 
doubt of your guilt. They are all distinguished men; many of 
the leading mages in the kingdom have been their students or 
colleagues at one time or another.
    
    "To follow your suggestion would amount to a public 
declaration that I consider myself and my servants free of 
the restrictions that, by very ancient custom, bind all 
mages. I am not sure that it is in the interest of the 
kingdom for us to act in that way, and I am quite certain it 
is not in the interest of the kingdom for us to say that we 
do. I do not know how the kingdom's mages would respond to 
such an announcement. And I do not intend to find out."
    
    He paused a moment. "I do know what the response of one 
mage would be_he told me almost twenty years ago. In his 
final lecture Magister Hal explained that the present system 
of dealing with violations of the bounds supplemented, but 
did not replace, the traditional system. He then asked what 
should occur if the royal authorities became corrupt and 
refused to convict mages clearly guilty of violations. His 
answer was that the mages ought to act outside of the royal 
authority, in the traditional manner.
    
    "So, if a jury of local mages found you guilty, you 
would be banned forever from all use of magery. You would be 
subject to death, by any mage, for first violation of that 
ban. Not an attractive outcome."
    
    "Would anyone outside the college take such a procedure 
seriously? So far as I know, nothing of the sort has 
occurred in my lifetime."
    
    "That is because the mages have, on the whole, trusted 
the verdicts of the courts that I and my predecessors have 
established. The longer this is true, the less likely it is 
that anyone will revive the older procedure. But considering 
that Magister Hal is the leading authority in the kingdom on 
the law and custom of magery and that quite a large fraction 
of the more important mages have, like me, sat in his 
classroom, I think that if it did happen it would be taken 
seriously. That is why I intend to make sure that it does 
not.
    
    "You will be tried as charged, I expect convicted and 
banned from any future use of magic within the bounds of the 
kingdom. If you wish to remain in the royal service, His 
Majesty should be able find a use for a mage outside the 
kingdom. Now go pack. The trial will be held back at the 
capital, as quietly as I can manage it. We already have the 
testimony of the complainant and the witnesses."
    
    Fieras, for once speechless, left the room. The Prince 
turned to Alayn at his side: "Playing loose with the rules 
was a mistake. I cannot trust my servants either to refrain 
from breaking the bounds when it is not necessary, nor to 
take reasonable care not to be caught, when it is. My fault. 
I should have known Fieras better."
    
    Alayn nodded. "Fieras was the only earth mage available, 
your Highness, and it seemed a good way of keeping an eye on 
things. I should have warned your Highness that he was 
inclined to arrogance. I have heard complaints before about 
his treatment of anyone not a mage, but I hardly thought it 
a problem in a college of mages."
    
    The Prince shook his head. "My fault. Arrogance would 
not have been so bad had he not also been a fool.
    
    "At least we now have the young lady in the next room, 
although the circumstances considerably limit what I can do. 
Carrying her off to the capital by force or magery would 
make a bad situation a great deal worse."
    
    The Prince paused, struck by an idea. "I wonder _ ."
    
    "If she planned this result? It hardly seems likely, 
Highness. She's only a girl."
    
    "One who has just succeeded in twice outwitting a 
competent mage twice her age. And she seems to have made a 
considerable impression on Lady Mari, whose judgment I am 
inclined to trust. I look forward to meeting her."
    
    "Shall I bring her in, Highness?"
    
    The Prince nodded. There was a brief conversation at the 
door before Alayn escorted Ellen in.
    
    "As the complainant in this case," the Prince began, 
"you are entitled to know how I intend to treat it. I am 
convinced by the evidence you have offered that Fieras 
should be tried on both of your charges, the former by a 
jury of mages, the latter in an ordinary court; if you are 
willing to put your testimony in writing with the usual 
safeguards, your presence in court should not be necessary. 
While I cannot, of course, guarantee a verdict, I will be 
very much surprised if the former procedure does not find 
him guilty, making the temporary ban on him permanent, or at 
least of a decade or more. As to the criminal procedure, if 
convicted, as seems likely, I intend to recommend limiting 
his punishment to a fine, on the grounds that his acts, 
while illegal, did no actual harm.
    
    "As the complainant and the intended victim, would you 
find that outcome satisfactory?"
    
    Ellen thought a moment. "So far as Fieras is concerned, 
I would. But I would be better satisfied if I had reason to 
believe that your servants would not continue to act as if 
the bounds did not apply to them."
    
    "I apologize. Do you have any reason, beyond this 
incident, to believe that they do?"
    
    She nodded. "Joshua was brought here by a compulsion 
spell applied by three of your mages. If you doubt my 
account, you may ask Magister Coelus. He was a witness. So 
was the guard who accompanied them." She nodded in the 
direction of Alayne.
    
    "And yet no charges were brought in that case?"
    
    "I had no proof. Neither Coelus nor Joshua chose to act. 
Perhaps they had not so recently heard Magister Henryk 
lecture on the limits of royal authority."
    
    The Prince remained silent for a moment, thoughtful.
    
    "I remember the lecture and I concede the justice of 
your point. The King is not above the law. Nonetheless, I 
will not promise never to violate bounds or law myself, nor 
will I promise to instruct my servants never to do so. Law-
breaking is a bad thing, whether by the King's servants or 
anyone else, but there are worse things, some of which it is 
my responsibility to deal with. I will promise not to 
violate bounds or law save in the most extreme 
circumstances, and to do my best to see that my servants 
will not, so that incidents such as the two you have 
described do not occur again. If my people are charged, as 
Fieras was, I will do my best to see that they get an honest 
trial.
    
    "I am sorry, but that is the most I can offer. As to the 
worth of my promises you may consult with your friend Lady 
Mari. Her father and I move in the same circles and she has 
known me, off and on, since she was seven or eight."
    
    Ellen considered the matter for a while before 
responding. "Does Your Highness accept the same principle 
applied to others? If I, or some other mage, concludes that 
your Highness has become a peril to the kingdom or to the 
world, do you agree that it would then be proper to use 
magic to compel you to act as we believe you should, or 
destroy you?"
    
    "I see no flaw in the argument. Yes. Of course, should 
such a situation arise, I would no doubt think myself 
entitled to defend myself."
    
    He paused and said, "Will you do me a favor?"
    
    "That depends what it is."
    
    "Drop your veiling spell. I want to know what I'm 
dealing with."
    
    A long silence before he spoke again. "I see. Fieras was 
indeed fighting out of his class. I am only surprised that 
he survived the experience."
    
    Ellen looked puzzled. "Before I freed myself, I could 
not have killed him. After I freed myself, I had no right 
to."
    
    * * *
    
    "He let you go?" There was both surprise and relief in 
Coelus's voice.
    
    She nodded. "Yes. He asked me to tell no one about your 
Cascade project, I gave my word, and he accepted it. You 
expected him to try to hold me prisoner?"
    
    "I was afraid he might, and worse, ever since I heard 
you had gone to him. That was why I sent you that message, 
to warn you."
    
    "Why would the Prince want to do anything to me?"
    
    "To assure your silence. If word of the Cascade gets 
out, someone else might work out how to do it and use it 
against the Kingdom or the King. His Highness thinks that 
was what Maridon intended, to make himself into a second 
mage king using the power of the Cascade."
    
    "Very likely. Do you think the Prince will be able to 
keep the Cascade a secret?"
    
    Coelus nodded. "The only people who know about it are 
the two of us, the Prince, and the three mages who helped 
with the experiment that killed Maridon. I believe the 
Prince intends to destroy or at least lock up the memories 
of those mages. It is not that hard a spell to do, with 
competent people and the consent of the targets."
    
    "Would they consent? Having part of your memory missing 
is, must be, very odd."
    
    "They will if the alternative is being killed_which it 
probably is. The Prince will do whatever he thinks necessary 
to keep the secret from getting out. He wants the Cascade to 
use on behalf of the Kingdom, but he wants even more to make 
sure it doesn't get used by anyone else against the kingdom. 
That's why _"
    
    "_why you thought I would be at risk when he sent mages 
to fetch me. Because I know about it. I might have been, 
then. But this time I went to him as a complainant, accusing 
one of his people of criminal use of magery, backed by three 
magisters of the college. Everyone in the college knew I was 
studying with you. All the magisters knew you were the first 
person he spoke to when he arrived. If he had done anything 
to me, he could not have done it quietly. He might as well 
have made a public announcement that Magister Coelus was 
engaged in work the Royal Master of Mages wanted to keep 
secret."
    
    She paused. "That explains why he didn't kill me. But he 
could have asked me to testify against Fieras at the 
capital. Once gone from the college _ I might never have 
come back. Yet he didn't. I wonder why."
    
    Coelus looked at her carefully before he answered. 
"Because he believed you. Because you are you. Also, 
perhaps, for the same reason he let me come back to the 
College."
    
     
    
    "He let you come back to continue your work on the 
Cascade."
    
    Coelus shook his head. "No, I told him I wouldn't."
    
    She looked up at him in surprise. "Why not? It's what 
you want."
    
    He shook his head again. "What I did want. I was wrong. 
You were right. Between you and His Highness I am now 
persuaded of that."
    
    She was silent, waiting.
    
    "You showed me that even if I used the Cascade as I 
intended, to do good things, there was still a 
cost_everything the people I drew power from could no longer 
do.
   
   "The Prince showed me my other mistake. Forced me to face 
what Maridon had done_encouraged me to develop the Cascade 
in order to gain control of my magery, and yours and 
everyone's, for his own power. Maridon is dead. But once the 
Cascade schema is known, once it is known that such a thing 
can be done, someone else will see the same opportunity and 
try to take it. All the power of mages and common folk will 
be drained away. Not to stop a flood or cure a plague, like 
that which killed my parents, but only for power.
    
    "I was wrong; you were right. I told the Prince I would 
give him no aid in developing the Cascade. When I got back 
to my office I burned everything I had written that might 
contain a clue to how to do it."
    
    There was a long silence. At last Ellen broke it. "Why 
did the Prince let you come back if you were no longer of 
use to him? Just to avoid calling attention to what you had 
been doing?"
    
    "Perhaps, but there was another reason as well. He was 
afraid that the Cascade might be used against the king by 
traitors or foreign enemies. It had occurred to him, as it 
had not to me, that the royal mages could not defend against 
it, since their power would be drawn into the Cascade to be 
used against them.
    
    "I offered to try to design a defense, like the 
containment sphere, to be formed around His Majesty and a 
group of his mages. I have been working on it for the past 
several days. I hoped that this project was one you would be 
willing to help me with."
    
    She considered the matter for a while before responding. 
"I am willing to help you design defenses against the 
Cascade, but there is one condition. The Cascade is a secret 
of yours I agree to keep. I have other secrets. I will not 
lie to you, but there are things I cannot tell you. I am 
sorry, but if you wish me to work with you, you will have to 
trust me."
    
    Coelus looked back at her, spoke slowly. "There is 
nobody I would more willingly trust. I accept your terms."
    
    * * *
    
    "The first step is to figure out the containment sphere, 
how it works and how to create something similar. You were 
working on that problem. Perhaps together we can solve it."
    
    "That will not be necessary. I already know the 
equations of the sphere and the schema for creating it."
    
    He gave her an astonished look.
    
    "You figured all of that out in the month since we last 
discussed it?"
    
    She shook her head. "I did not figure it out. I was able 
to obtain an account by one of the mages who created the 
sphere."
    
    "In the library? I would have sworn I had searched it."
    
    She shook her head. "Not in the library."
    
    "Where then?"
    
    She said nothing. He gave her a puzzled look, paused, 
spoke. "This is one of your secrets?"
    
    "Part of one, yes. I did warn you."
    
    "Was I right? Was it done by pooling fire and weaving, 
by two mages?"
    
    She nodded. "Yes. The schema was mostly designed by 
Olver, but it was implemented by a fire mage and a weaving 
mage working together."
    
    "So in order to do it we must find a weaving mage. 
Perhaps someone here knows of a healer who will do. When Dag 
comes back I can ask him if he came across any_it won't be 
easy. Weavers are mostly women, so of course there isn't one 
on the faculty, not even one of the tutors. We've never had 
a woman on the faculty. I was hoping you would be the 
first."
    
    "I did not realize you were planning my future for me."
    
    Coelus looked embarrassed. "I don't want to lose you; 
you are the first person I have found who I can work with. I 
can't ask you to stay as a student for three years. We don't 
have three years worth of knowledge here to teach you. After 
your second year you will surely have accomplished enough to 
make it clear, even to my colleagues, that you should be on 
the faculty."
    
    "I do not know what I will want then. What I want now is 
to devise a defense against the Cascade. And you will not 
have to search for a weaving mage."
    
    "I won't? I thought you said ..."
    
    She looked at him bemusedly. "Have I ever commented that 
you are not very observant?"
    
    "Not that I can remember. You did describe me as very 
stupid on one notable occasion. What have I failed to 
observe?"
    
    "For the past several months I have been creating, and 
several times told you I was creating, spells of woven fire. 
You were so confident in your first guess about me _"
    
    "Of course; I should have seen it the first day."
    
    "The first day?"
    
    "The first day I saw you, when you had let down the 
veil. Fire, a lot of fire, but you didn't look like other 
fire mages. I had never observed a weaving mage before. So 
you pool both fire and weaving. Meaning you can build the 
thing by yourself?"
    
    "I can build a sphere. I have built one. But it was only 
about a foot across so I do not think you can fit His 
Majesty and a troop of mages into it."
    
    "What limits the size?"
    
    "Weaving provides structure, fire provides power. It is 
the power that determines the size. I might manage two feet 
across if I wasn't planning to do anything else for the next 
day or two, but that is about the limit."
    
    "Then how was the containment sphere built? Durilil was 
stronger than you are, but not a hundred times stronger. How 
did he manage a sphere almost three hundred feet across?"
    
    "You can expand it over time, especially with several 
fire mages. You just keep pumping in fire. It does not all 
have to come from the mages so long as there are fire mages 
to control it. When you have the sphere as bright as it can 
be without bursting, you expand it. Keep repeating the 
process and you can get it as big as you want_if you have 
enough time and enough fire. Big enough to hold the royal 
palace won't be easy, though. And at that size it will take 
quite a lot of fire to maintain it."
    
    "That was the problem we started with; how the 
containment sphere maintained itself all these years. You 
thought it might be drawing power from the mages inside of 
it."
    
    "I was wrong. The answer is much simpler. The creators 
of the sphere made arrangements for additional fire to be 
added from the outside from time to time to make up for the 
losses."
    
    "And kept doing it for forty years. How in the world did 
they manage it?"
    
    Ellen said nothing.
    
    "I see. And you cannot tell me more."
    
    "I cannot tell you more. But it did occur to me _"
    
    Coelus broke in. "That the containment sphere is more 
than we actually need."
    
    She nodded. "The sphere blocks physical force, sight, 
and a wide range of magic. All we need is something the 
Cascade won't penetrate. I thought, since you devised the 
Cascade, that you should be able to work out the least 
protection that would block it."
    
    Coelus thought a moment, then shook his head.
    
    "It is not that simple, I'm afraid. We have to defend 
against any cascade that might be invented. Mine was based 
on the elemental star. Someone else's might not be.
    
    "Still you are correct that it should not take something 
as powerful as the sphere. How much less ..."
    
    He closed his eyes, thought a minute, opened them and 
his wax tablet, and began to scribble.
    
    * * *
    
    Coelus stopped pacing, turned to Ellen. "His Majesty can 
be protected, but _"
    
    She finished the sentence: "Not very well."
    
    He nodded agreement. "We have a schema that will enclose 
a building of significant size in a sphere sufficient to 
block expansion of a cascade.  But defending it from the 
power of a cascade in the hands of an outside enemy won't be 
easy. It might defend against another Maridon, with magery 
and nothing else. But it won't slow down an invading army 
armed both with the Cascade and a substantial team of battle 
mages very much."  Coelus' face, usually bright with 
enthusiasm, grew grim.
    
    "We've exhausted that line, we need to try another 
tack," said Ellen. "You know more about the Cascade than 
anyone else. What were the hardest problems in making it 
work? Is there any way we could make them harder?"
    
    "Telling you more about the Cascade makes you more of a 
risk for the Prince. It might be dangerous."
    
    "Not as dangerous as leaving the problem unsolved. What 
we have so far is a paper solution_we have to do better. 
Tell me."
    
    He hesitated, thinking. "There were about half a dozen 
hard problems, ones that looked as though they would make it 
impossible. I don't see how any of them will help us, but I 
suppose the most likely is the efficiency ratio."
    
    Ellen looked curious and uncomprehending; he again 
thought a moment before explaining. "I'm going to have to 
oversimplify, ignore the differences among mages, the 
effects of distance and geography, and a lot more. Imagine 
you are starting with a pool of four mages plus one focus. 
The focus needs his power to control the process.
    
    "Pulling someone into the Cascade costs you power, but 
doing it gains you power_both the new member's current pool 
and his ability to slowly refill it. Suppose each mage added 
to the Cascade costs you twice as much power as he brings. 
You start with four mages, use up their pooled power 
bringing in two, use up their pooled power bringing in one. 
You now have seven mages in the Cascade and not enough power 
to bring in another_the series converges. If you are patient 
enough, and if you can hold the present group together 
without spending power, you could wait a day or two for the 
pools to refill and get about five more, but it would be a 
slow process.
    
    "Suppose instead that each mage added costs you half as 
much power as he brings. Four bring in eight, eight bring in 
sixteen, sixteen bring in thirty-two. The series diverges. 
In almost no time you pull everyone in the region.
    
    "Generalizing, if the efficiency is below one, the 
series converges and the Cascade breaks down. If it is above 
one the Cascade works. When I wrote my first schema for the 
Cascade, its efficiency was at about eight parts out of ten; 
ten mages had enough power to pull in eight. By the time I 
did the full scale experiment, it was up to nearly eleven. I 
might be able to get it a little higher, but not much."
    
    "So the series diverges, the Cascade works, but barely, 
and you end up with most of your mages depleted?"
    
    "For a while. But remember you still have their inflow. 
You end up with pooled power from the final layer of 
additions, the inflow from everyone. As I said, I'm leaving 
out a lot, but that's the basic logic of it."
    
    Ellen thought a moment, spoke slowly: "So if you could 
somehow push the efficiency down a little, by making the 
cost of pulling someone in a little higher, the Cascade 
breaks down?"
    
    Coelus nodded. "But I don't see how. It's hard enough to 
put a protective sphere around the King with a whole team of 
mages. Now you want to put one around every mage in the 
kingdom."
    
    Ellen nodded. "Smaller bubbles are a lot easier. And 
weak bubbles; they don't have to stop the Cascade, just make 
it a little harder. I'm not sure we can do it, but I'm not 
sure we can't."
    
    "It still sounds impossible, but I agree that it is 
worth trying to follow out that line to be sure. Most ideas 
don't work; you just have to keep trying until you find one 
that does."
    
    Ellen looked again at his face, gave a relieved smile. 
"I have an idea that will work."
    
    "And what is that, most original of students?"
    
    "Sleep. Both of us need it; it's past matins. Good 
night; I'm for my room."
    
    She went out of the room. Coelus looked after her for a 
moment, then turned back to his wax tablet, stared at it 
blindly for several minutes before getting up from his 
chair.
    
    Chapter 16  
    
    "You asked for an audience. What can one of my uncle's 
mages want from me?"
    
    The room was bare of ornament save for a richly woven 
rug whose blue and silver echoed the silk robes of its 
owner. Fieras paused a moment to be sure he had his 
carefully rehearsed speech clearly in mind. "I am no longer 
in His Highness's service, my lord. For causes that are 
closely linked to my reasons for coming to you."
    
    Lord Iolen said nothing, waited.
    
    "I discovered His Highness engaged in a project about 
which I had serious suspicions. When I raised them, he 
arranged to have me accused of misuse of magic, convicted 
me, and on that excuse released me from his service."
    
    "It must have been a serious matter to lead to such 
consequences. Tell me about this project."
    
    Fieras paused a moment, did his best to look undecided. 
"His Highness is a powerful man, and I will be telling 
things he does not wish known. Can your lordship promise me 
your protection?"
    
    "I am not without resources. If what you tell me can be 
used against my uncle, I will protect you so far as I am 
able; if I cannot I will at least do my best to get you 
safely out of the kingdom."
    
    "I rely upon it, my Lord."
    
    Fieras paused. "What does your Lordship know of the 
mage's college at Southdale and of a mage there named 
Coelus?"
    
    "It has the patronage of His Highness and his Majesty. 
Some of its graduates are in my service, more in my uncle's. 
I am familiar with none of the mages who teach there. What 
more should I know?"
    
    "Magister Coelus is, at least in His Highness's view, 
talented not so much in the use of magery as in its 
invention. He has created spells, some in common use. He is 
now creating a spell so powerful that His Highness, on 
learning of it, dropped everything he was doing and set off 
for Southdale. I accompanied him. He has made arrangements 
with all who knew of the spell intended to prevent anyone 
else from learning of it."
    
    "Secrecy has been so high that its nature has been kept 
even from those in his service. His excuse was that a group 
of mages wielding the spell would constitute a threat to His 
Majesty; he feared enemies outside the kingdom, if they 
learned of it, might work out the necessary schema for 
themselves. It is most disturbing that His Highness wishes 
to restrict knowledge of so potent a weapon to himself and a 
handful of mages under his control, especially since he is 
both a mage and heir presumptive."
    
    Fieras fell silent. Iolen thought a moment before 
speaking: "I understand your concern. What do you propose 
that I do?"
    
    "Your Lordship has contacts within the military. If some 
high ranking officer friendly to your Lordship was willing 
to detach a suitable force, on the understanding that the 
secret you searched for would be of great use in war _  .  
His Highness is now considering how to deal with the 
Forstings at the far northern reaches of the Kingdom, or so 
it is said. The College will soon be empty of students and 
half empty of magisters. Coelus might well be persuaded, 
threatened or spelled to yield up his secrets, to serve the 
kingdom."
    
    "An interesting plan, and a token of your loyalty. I 
will consider it. Meanwhile I suggest that you move your 
possessions here. I shall instruct my people to provide you 
with suitable accommodations. The fewer who know of these 
matters the better, I think_though not quite so few as my 
uncle would prefer."
    
    "I thank your Lordship. There is one more thing I ought 
to mention."
    
    Iolen said nothing, waited.
    
    "The three mages who took part in an early trial of the 
spell are in His Highness's custody. I believe I know where. 
He intends to block their memories, which will take time. If 
your lordship could find a way of getting to them and the 
information they hold, you would have as much information as 
His Highness does. If we are unable to obtain the services 
of the mage who invented the spell, we might obtain clues 
from them."
    
    Lord Iolen thought a moment, nodded. "Access should not 
be difficult; the golden key opens all doors. We cannot 
seize them, but there may be another solution."
    
     
    Chapter 17
    
    The two girls watched the coach rumble out of sight 
bearing their friends home for the summer break. "Edwin 
wasn't with them," Ellen remarked to Mari. "Isn't he going 
home?"
    
    "He took the coach yesterday, and skipped the dinner 
last night."
    
    "That's odd. Did he say why? Something wrong at home?"
    
    "He didn't say, but it was obvious enough," Mari said. 
"He didn't want to spend two days in the same coach with 
Alys."
    
    "He spent a lot of time with her last break," Ellen 
said, puzzled. "I thought they were friends."
    
    "They were friends. The problem is that that was all 
Alys wanted to be."
    
    "And Edwin?"
    
    "Last week Edwin asked her to marry him. He's in love. 
He wanted her permission to request his parents over break 
to speak to hers."
    
    "And Alys doesn't want to?"
    
    "Alys is happy to have men in love with her, three or 
four at a time by preference. College would be perfect for 
her, if only she didn't have to actually learn something 
here. She keeps them all interested by not favoring any one 
too much. When she drew the line with Edwin, he, being a 
nice boy, proposed. Having no desire for a big belly with or 
without a wedding ring to accompany it, she turned him 
down."
    
    "He has been quieter than usual the last few days.  I 
thought it was just the end of term, with everyone about to 
go off. How did you _  ?"
    
    "How do you see things with your eyes closed? It's been 
obvious for the past month. And I have had the story from 
both of them separately. Poor Edwin. Two days in a coach 
with Alys would amuse her, but he'd be a wreck. Besides, a 
girl who likes lots of men in love with her is a bad 
prospect for a wife. I just hope he can get over it. He 
needs someone else. There are many more girls in the capital 
than here, so with luck _ ."
    
    The two fell silent, Mari watching Ellen. After a minute 
she spoke again: "Edwin isn't the only man in the college 
who is in love."
    
    Ellen said nothing.
    
    "Alys is right, you know; anyone with eyes can see it. 
When you and Coelus are in the same room, he is almost 
always looking at you. The tone of his voice when he speaks 
to you is different. It's as if, for him, the rest of us are 
only half real. One of these days, or months, or years, he 
is going to ask you if he can speak to your mother. If you 
don't want that to happen, you should be thinking now of 
what to do. If you do want it _ . "
    
    "And what about me?" Ellen's tone was light, almost 
careless, if the listener had not known her. "What can 
anyone with eyes see?"
    
    "You have more practice hiding things than he does. 
Seeing you together it might be only a partnership of minds. 
But the tone of your voice when you mention him is 
different, just a little, from when you talk about anyone 
else."
    
    Ellen looked down a moment, then back at Mari. "Suppose 
you had been living in a foreign country for a long time, 
doing your best to speak their language, dress the way they 
do, fit in, and then you met someone from your own country 
who spoke your language and understood you when you spoke 
it. That is what it is like. I am not sure if I'm in love 
with him_but I know that the College would feel cold and 
empty if he left."
    
    Mari nodded her understanding, gave her friend a quick 
hug. It was some time before Ellen spoke again, this time in 
a deliberately casual tone.
    
    "How are you getting home?"
    
    "Riding, thanks be. Father wanted to send a coach, but 
since you weren't willing to accompany me to Northpass, I 
persuaded him to send two men and my favorite mare 
instead_they're at the inn waiting for me. It's beautiful 
weather, nice countryside, good roads. What about you?"
    
    "I'm staying for another couple of weeks to finish a 
project with Magister Coelus. After that I plan to go home 
for a while. I have quite a lot to tell Mother and I hope 
she will have ideas that will help me with my work. Will you 
be at Northpass all summer?"
    
    Mari shrugged. "I expect to be with the family all 
summer. Father thinks the Forstings on the other side of the 
pass are up to something. After he and Prince Kieran deal 
with it or prove Father wrong, I expect to be back at our 
townhouse in the capital. If you have time free later in the 
summer, you might visit. If I am still up north I can leave 
word to lend you a horse. You can ride up_it's only about 
four days travel, the last through pretty empty country, but 
I expect you can protect yourself well enough."
    
    Ellen nodded. "Yes. And thank you for not saying so last 
time, when Alys was being silly about my riding home alone. 
I expect I am less at risk than anyone else in the College, 
but it doesn't do to say so."
    
     The two girls were quiet for a while, absorbed in their 
own thoughts, until a familiar voice interrupted.
    
    "Did everyone get off all right? I would've said 
goodbye, but something came up." Jon stopped for a moment. 
Ellen, correctly reading his glowing face, put the question. 
"What sort of something? Did your plan to get a free ride 
work out?"
    
    "Not yet. I'm not sure if they needed an extra groom or 
not. I expect I will manage, one way or another, but not 
this week."
    
    Mari interrupted him. "Because? You look like my younger 
brother, opening gifts on midwinter day. Tell us what 
happened."
    
    "It's the library. Magister Jerik offered me room and 
board for the next two weeks in exchange for helping with 
the manuscripts in the back room. There are all sorts of 
things there," he turned to Ellen, "including a draft of 
Olver's first treatise in his own handwriting! I thought you 
would find that interesting."
    
    "Very. So will Coelus. It might clear up some of the 
things we were not sure about when we read through the 
treatise. Could you tell how close it was to the published 
text?"
    
    Jon shook his head. "No. After the first few pages, I 
get lost. It's for you and Magister Coelus, not me. But 
there are a lot of other interesting things there, and I get 
to read all of them! I need to go home eventually_mother and 
father and all the younger ones will want to see me. But I 
can wait until the coach people are willing to trade a free 
ride for help with the horses, and the longer it takes _ "
    
    "_ the more of the library you get to absorb. Mari is 
leaving, but I'll be here a bit longer, so if you want my 
help, just ask."
    
    Chapter 18  
    
    Fieras entered the room, a thick sheaf of papers in one 
hand, and bowed to Lord Iolen.
    
    "You have read it all?"
    
    "I have. I am impressed. I am not sure I want to know 
how your Lordship managed it, but I am curious to know how 
the three mages are and how soon His Highness will discover 
that someone else has gotten at them."
    
    Iolen responded with a cold smile:
    
    "Sometimes a little thought does more than either force 
or magery. The three mages are in the same condition my man 
found them in. With reasonable luck, my uncle will never 
know."
    
    Fieras said nothing, but his face spoke for him.
    
    "How did I do it? My man, a mage skilled in the art of 
improving recollection, visited each of the three. He 
explained that, to implement the process for memory 
elimination, a complete account was required. He wrote it 
down. We now have a better description of the Cascade 
experiment than His Highness does."
    
    Fieras looked down at the papers. "What each did, where 
he stood, what the symbols were, what the other mages did. 
All here. Have you further stratagems for possessing the 
Cascade, now that we know what we are looking for?"
    
    "I have. I considered simply reporting to His Majesty 
his brother's plot against him. But that might only rouse 
his ire. His Majesty is unfortunately only too willing to 
trust His Highness.
    
    "Better, perhaps, to seize possession of the spell 
ourselves. For His Majesty's use in the defense of the 
kingdom, of course." Lord Iolen nodded towards the papers in 
Fieras's hands. "It seems that His Highness knows of the 
Cascade but does not yet possess the spell in a safely 
usable form. Performed only once, it killed the mage casting 
it. The mage who devised it, with further efforts, should be 
able to perfect it. I do not know why my uncle has not yet 
required him to do so, but his failure is our opportunity."
    
    Fieras paused, then spoke. "Magister Coelus refused to 
cooperate. I am not sure why. Perhaps he no longer cares to 
see his creation put to use. There was also a girl, his 
leman, I presume; her role is uncertain. His Highness now 
hesitates to put pressure on Coelus. Perhaps he thinks it 
best to wait and watch and develop the spell himself in 
secret until it is usable. The recent difficulties in the 
north _ "
    
    "Interrupted him in that plan, giving us our 
opportunity. I intend to take it.
    
    "I have sent a message to Captain Geffron, commander of 
the nearest garrison to Southdale. He owes his present 
position to my patronage, and is a patriot. For a spell 
useful in the defense of the kingdom, he would not scruple 
to provide us any aid within his power.
    
    "Reveal nothing of the precise nature of the spell to 
anyone. I have means of assuring the silence of the memory 
mage who obtained it for me. Consult with the learned Rikard 
about what resources we will require and which mages we will 
want to employ. I have instructed him to put a protective 
spell on the papers I have given you. You will take care to 
reveal nothing, to anyone."
    
    Lord Iolen cast Fieras a stern look. The mage nodded. "I 
understand, your Lordship, and I will obey."
    
    "See that you do. I am able to properly reward 
obedience. Also disobedience. I will send Rikard to your 
room in a little while; be there."
    
    Once back in his room, Fieras considered his situation. 
It would be prudent, for the moment, to seem to be entirely 
obedient to his lord's commands. But something in the 
conversation _ Once Iolen had the schema for the Cascade, 
there was one reliable way of ensuring the silence of others 
who knew of it. A pity he hadn't the name of the memory 
mage.
    
    Chapter 19  
    
    Coelus looked up from the pile of old letters on his 
desk, face alight, as Ellen came through the open door. 
"I've found her."
    
    Ellen looked puzzled. "Found who? What are those?"
    
    "Letters; your friend Jon found them, going through 
stacks of documents in the back room of the library. When I 
searched the library three years ago I was looking for 
records and treatises. I must have skipped right over 
these."
    
    "What sort of letters?"
    
    "Letters from a mage named Ascun, one of the magisters 
here, to another mage named Ger. Ger must have become a 
magister later; that would explain how the letters ended up 
here." He paused a moment. "They were written forty-eight 
years ago. "
    
    There was an expectant silence.
    
    "Just before the sphere was created?"
    
    "Yes. Less than a year before if I have worked the dates 
out correctly."
    
    "And what did you find in the letters?"
    
    "A name. Melia."
    
    Ellen gave him a surprised look, said nothing, waited.
    
    "Melia was a weaving mage close to Durilil. Ascun calls 
her a witch, of course. A very accomplished weaving mage. 
Lovers or friends, nobody seems to know."
    
    He paused, then looked at Ellen. "But everyone knew that 
they were working together. Weaving mages are not that 
common. Odds are a hundred to one that she's the other mage, 
the weaver who helped him build the sphere."
    
    Ellen said nothing, so he went on. "Durilil was in his 
sixties, but she was younger. If she was thirty then, she 
could easily be still alive now. The schema for the sphere 
that we have is only the final step of their work; she must 
know a lot more. Someone must have heard of her around the 
College, or perhaps the Prince_  ."
    
    Ellen finally spoke. "You wish to find Melia and speak 
with her about her work on the sphere?"
    
    Coelus gave her a puzzled look. "Yes. Of course. The 
problem is how to find her."
    
    Ellen shook her head. "That won't be a problem."
    
    For a moment Coelus was silent with surprise. "You know 
where she is? You have met her? You know her?"
    
    Ellen nodded. "I've known her all my life. She's my 
mother."
    
    * * *
    
    "Is your end ready?"
    
    Coelus looked up from the crowded work bench. "Almost."
    
    Ellen leaned over his shoulder to see. The miniature 
star was complete_at one corner a lighted candle, at the 
next a goblet of water, then a saucer full of soil, and 
finally a tiny bladder blown tight and tied. Each token sat 
on a small square of paper, each paper had its glyph. Coelus 
finished the glyph on a final square, added his name, placed 
it carefully in the center, stood up. "Your turn."
    
    Ellen moved back to the other end of the table, where a 
small lamp was burning, next to it an unlit candle. She 
reached into the flame. With quick movements and a few 
murmured words, she wove a tiny sphere of flame, a soap 
bubble some four inches across around the candle. A final 
gesture and the candle sprang alight. "Ready."
    
    Coelus picked up from the bench a thin rod of polished 
wood, touched one of the two glyphs on the central square 
and then, one after another, the glyphs sitting under the 
elemental tokens. Ellen watched fascinated as the faint star 
of elemental lines appeared, so thin as to be barely visible 
even to her. Coelus looked down at his work, shook his head. 
"Is it there?"
    
    "Yes. I can see it."
    
    He stood back as far from the table as he could and 
stretched out the wand to touch his name on the central 
square and then the glyph next to it. He closed his eyes. 
From the center of the star, where the four lines joined, 
the shadow of a line leapt towards the bubble at the other 
end of the table. For a few seconds it wavered, as if 
looking for a way through to the candle. The two mages 
watched, fascinated. Then the shadow line vanished. Ellen 
looked up from the table. "The star is gone. I think it 
worked."
    
    "That's at least some evidence. I don't see what else we 
can do to test the schema, short of building the thing to 
full scale and running a cascade outside it. Which _"
    
    Ellen finished the sentence. "Does not seem like a good 
idea. I don't see what more we can do along this line 
either. But at least it works in miniature; there wasn't a 
trace of fire coming back from the candle to the pool, so 
the Cascade wasn't getting through. And I built the sphere 
using our most recent schema, so it wouldn't take enormous 
amounts of power to do the full sized version."
    
    Coelus nodded agreement. "Yes. That line is done and 
tested, as far as we can test it. I think we both deserve a 
small celebration."
    
    He opened the door of the cabinet next to the work 
bench. Inside was a tray, on it two glass goblets, a small 
pitcher. He took the tray out, set it on the empty middle of 
the workbench, poured wine into both goblets and handed one 
to Ellen.
    
    The two sat for a few minutes after their silent toast. 
Coelus started to say something, stopped, finally spoke. "I 
think I understand your secret now. Your mother didn't 
want_"
    
    "_Mother likes a quiet life. Where we live, people know 
her as a healer, respect her. Mari said something once about 
daydreams of being a famous mage. That isn't what mother 
wanted."
    
    "And Durilil. Do you know?"
    
    Ellen hesitated a moment. "She was twenty-two when they 
built the sphere. Like me she came early to power. Beyond 
that_it isn't the sort of question one asks a mother."
    
    "I suppose not." He hesitated a moment. "My mother died 
when I was nine. My father was one of the first plague 
victims that year. She nursed him and died a week after he 
did."
    
    "I'm sorry. I had a much easier time of it." Her hand on 
the work bench moved and, almost without her willing it, 
touched his. For a while neither spoke. Coelus closed his 
eyes, remembering how he had first seen her, in woven fire. 
Fire and weaving. Durilil and Melia. If Durilil had not 
vanished, it would make perfect sense_if a man past ninety 
could father a child. Finally he broke the silence. "If you 
were thirty years older, I wouldn't have to ask. You would 
be the answer."
    
    Chapter 20  
    
    Magister Bertram looked up as the porter entered. 
"Visitors at the front gate, Sir. They asked to see someone 
in charge here. Magister Gatekeeper sent me for you."
    
    Bertram stood up, pulled out the wrinkles in his robe, 
brushed off a bit of dust and followed the porter out. A few 
minutes brought him to the gatehouse into which the magister 
gatekeeper and half a dozen visitors had crowded. One 
stepped forward, tall and elegantly attired: "I am Lord 
Iolen, nephew to His Highness Prince Kieran, who, as you may 
know, has been working with one of your colleagues on a 
project of importance. He was called away on a matter of 
some urgency, so I have come on his behalf. This is Captain 
Geffron, whom I believe you know."
    
    The captain stepped forward, nodded. Bertram bowed to 
both men. "It remains only for you to say what I, and the 
College, can do to serve you gentlemen."
    
    An hour later, Bertram and Lord Iolen met with Coelus in 
the senior common room. Bertram introduced the other two to 
each other.
    
    "Lord Iolen is here from His Highness; I expect you know 
better than I the work he has come to assist you with."
    
    Coelus looked a moment puzzled. "I did assure His 
Highness of my cooperation in one of the projects we 
discussed, and Ellen and I have made substantial progress, 
though not as much as I would have wished. I do not think 
any assistance is needed. When His Highness comes back, I 
will be glad to explain our work to him so far."
    
    Iolen paused a moment before replying. "I have a number 
of skilled mages with me, whom I was given to understand 
might be needed for your work. His Highness is concerned 
about the secrecy of the project. I am prepared to take 
precautions to prevent word from getting out."
    
    "Wouldn't making a fuss be more likely to draw attention 
than avoid it? I confess that I know little about such 
matters. I welcome your cooperation, as long as you do not 
interfere with our work."
    
    * * *
    
    Jon looked up from the scroll. The hand tugging at his 
sleeve was Ellen's. "What is it?"
    
    "I need your help," she whispered.
    
    "What for?"
    
    "You remember what Mari told us about Lord Iolen, the 
Prince's nephew?"
    
    "Son of the prince who lost out when King Thoma died? 
The one who hates Prince Kieran with a passion?"
    
    Ellen nodded. "He's here, with a bunch of mages and 
soldiers. He claims he has come from the Prince, to help 
with work Magister Coelus is doing for His Highness. He's 
obviously lying. I think I know why, and someone must get a 
message to the Prince. The easiest way is through Mari. 
She's either at her father's town house in the capital or in 
Northpass Keep. I can give you money to rent a horse and pay 
for food and lodging. If you can get out of the college 
without raising any suspicion and ride as fast as you can to 
the capital, you can get my message to Mari and she can pass 
it on. You must be careful, Iolen may have guards watching 
the entrance."
    
    Jon nodded. "Yes. Do you have the message?"
    
    Ellen passed him a folded piece of paper, sealed.
    
    "It's for the Prince. Mari can look at it if she wants. 
And you'll need this."
    
    She handed him a small, heavy leather bag. He glanced in 
it.
   
   "That's gold. It's more than I'll need."
    
    "Better too much than too little. I have more. If I were 
you I would stop dressing as a student once out of sight of 
the gate. I don't know what precautions Iolen is taking. 
Good luck." She squeezed his hand, turned, left the library.
    
    Another few minutes brought her to her room. She had the 
trunk open, both layers of her usual clothing off, and the 
tunic her mother had woven for her part of the way on when 
there was a knock on the door. She finished drawing it on 
before speaking.
    
    "Yes?"
    
    "You are wanted by Magister Coelus. I'll take you to 
him." The voice was a strange one.
    
    "Just a minute. I was changing."
    
    She pulled on her over tunic, checked that the amulet 
with its cord was around her neck and quietly closed the 
chest. Standing on her bed she unlatched the window 
shutters, pulled herself up to sit on the sill and slid feet 
first through the window.
    
    "Very fetching. Stand still."
    
    The speaker was a mage, standing by the wall ten or 
fifteen feet from the window. He gestured towards a soldier 
at his side, who lifted the bent crossbow he was holding.
    
    "You probably know a little magic, but if you try 
anything tricky, you will very much regret it. Take the 
amulet and cord off and toss them in this direction." Ellen 
obeyed.
    
    "Very good; glad to see that you are a sensible girl."
    
     
    
    The mage raised both hands, moved them in a complicated 
gesture, said a Word. For a moment Ellen felt a flush of 
warmth, from neck to upper thigh, where the protective 
garment lay against her skin.
    
    The mage stopped moving, hands still raised. There was a 
loud snapping sound. The soldier looked down at his bow, now 
unbent, the string broken, the quarrel still sitting in its 
channel. He dropped the weapon, reached for his short sword 
and snatched his hand away with a curse.
    
    Ellen spoke calmly. "I am a fire mage. I burned your 
bowstring and the handle of your sword. If necessary I will 
burn out your eyes. You are going to escort me to the front 
gate and out. If anyone asks, Lord Iolen commanded you to 
take me to the inn. If you do anything to raise suspicion, 
you will never see again. Do you understand me?"
    
    The archer looked at her, nodded.
    
    She turned back to the mage. "On my command you will lie 
down, close your eyes and fall asleep. When you wake you 
will remember nothing that has happened in the past ten 
minutes. Do you understand?"
    
    "I understand." The voice was flat, toneless.
    
    "Make it so."
    
    * * *
    
    "His Highness made it clear that I was not to discuss my 
work with anyone. I think that includes you. It certainly 
includes them." Coelus gestured to the two mages standing 
behind Iolen.
    
    "An admirable precaution. These, however, are two of the 
mages who are to assist you with the Cascade."
    
    Coelus gave him a puzzled look. "The Cascade? I have 
told His Highness that I would not work on that. I thought 
you were here about my work on precautions to protect His 
Majesty."
    
    "That is important too. But our first priority is 
developing the Cascade itself. You cast the spell once 
already. By now you surely should have contrived a second 
and better version. It is that which I have come to help you 
with."
    
    "Then you can go again; I made the situation clear 
enough to His Highness."
    
    "And I am making it clear to you. Your orders are to 
provide a detailed description of how best to implement the 
Cascade. My men will act on that description and I expect 
the spell to work. If it does not, you will find what is 
wrong and fix it. Do you understand?"
    
    "I understand your commands. What I do not understand is 
why I should obey them."
    
    "Because if you do not, both you and your leman will 
suffer for it."
    
    It took Coelus a moment to understand. "The lady in 
question is my student and nothing more. The last mage who 
tried to force her to do something ended up convicted of 
violation of the bounds and banned from the use of magery. 
You are not a mage, but your servants are. If they intend to 
impose compulsions upon either of us, they might consider 
the consequences."
    
    For a moment there was silence; Iolen broke it. He 
stepped to the door; in a moment two men came in, armed with 
crossbows.
    
    "I suggest that you not move," Iolen said. "Unless your 
spells can disable all five of us, it would be wiser not to 
cast them."
    
    Coelus said nothing. In a few moments he found himself 
gagged, his feet tied to the legs of the chair he was 
sitting in, his hands free. Iolen spoke again. "I am leaving 
you with a pen and a stack of paper; you are to use them to 
write the information I require of you."
    
    He turned to the two guards. "In a little while he 
should start writing. Let him do so; if he tries to destroy 
what he has written, prevent him.  Is that clear?"
    
    The guards nodded assent; Iolen and his accompanying 
mages left the room.
    
    * * *
    
    Ellen burst through the door of Master Dur's shop, which 
was fortunately empty of customers. "Lord Iolen, the King's 
nephew, is here with men, soldiers and mages. They have the 
College, they have Magister Coelus. They must know about the 
Cascade; it's the only reason they would be doing this. What 
can we do?"
    
    Dur nodded. "Coelus is in his office, guarded; I've been 
watching. Iolen's people are probably setting up the 
Cascade; we had better get there to stop them. I'll tell you 
the rest as we go."
    
    The two hurried out of the shop and down the path to the 
College. "Your friend Fieras is with them. The Prince must 
have let something slip to him. Fieras has four mages with 
him, one for each element, which probably means he's going 
to be the focus. I spent the past half hour pumping fire 
into the containment sphere, in case I need it.  If nothing 
better occurs to me I will wait till the last moment and 
burn him to a crisp; we should be able to get your young man 
out of the place in the confusion. And since Fieras is under 
ban, killing him when he is using magic is not only well 
deserved but entirely legal. With luck, Iolen will assume 
that Fieras went the way of Maridon. Cut left here; there 
may be men at the gate."
    
    They angled off the grass towards the edge of the 
containment sphere. In a few minutes, Ellen stopped. 
"Father, look."
    
    She was pointing at a group of men, three of them in 
armor, clustered around a tree a little distance outside the 
dome. Dur stopped, stood still a moment with his eyes closed 
before speaking. "Lord Iolen is being careful; sensible 
man."
    
    Ellen gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
    
    "The Cascade is being created in the same location that 
Coelus created it, the magisters' lawn. Iolen has crossbow 
men stationed on the other side of the barrier. I'll give 
you high odds their instructions are to watch the barrier 
and, if a hole appears, put a crossbow bolt through it into 
any mage in sight. That doesn't protect the people inside 
the sphere, but it means that if whoever is the focus wants 
to imitate Maridon and try to expand across the countryside, 
the odds are good that he will fail. If they don't get the 
mage responsible_and he's the one who would be closest to 
the barrier_I expect that killing one of the others would 
still break the pool and stop the Cascade."
    
    Ellen nodded. "The focus could still take control over 
everyone inside, then work from there. What's to keep Fieras 
from putting a compulsion on Iolen himself?"
    
    "I don't know, but I expect the problem has occurred to 
Iolen. Whatever else he is, he isn't a fool."
    
    Ellen touched his arm, pointed. "They've seen us; one of 
them is coming this way."
    
    Durilil again closed his eyes for a moment, turned 
towards the barrier. "Get us through." He turned back 
towards the approaching soldier, gestured. Ellen lifted her 
hand, spoke a Word; the barrier rippled, dilated. The two 
mages passed through it, stepped over a low wall onto a path 
through the college herb garden. 
    
    Dur stood still a moment, eyes closed, as the hole in 
the barrier shrank to a point and vanished. "We are in time; 
the mages are arranged at the points but he hasn't started 
the schema yet. It is indeed Fieras at focus; surely Iolen 
has more sense than to trust him."
    
    Ellen nodded agreement. "I don't know what Iolen has 
planned, but I have an idea. If it doesn't work, use yours."
    
    * * *
    
    On the magisters' lawn the four mages had arrayed 
themselves on the marks Fieras had drawn. Fieras stepped to 
the center but was stopped by Lord Iolen's voice.
    
    "One moment, please." He motioned to the mage beside 
him. Two men with crossbows at the edge of the lawn, their 
backs to the wall of the magister's wing, raised their 
weapons.
    
    "Before you start, there is one small precaution to be 
taken. Rikard is about to cast a spell on you. You will not 
resist it." He glanced at the archers to make his meaning 
clear.
    
    Fieras stood frozen, his face a mask of surprise. "What 
sort of spell, My Lord?" he asked.
    
    "A loyalty spell. Such spells do not last long on mages, 
but it should suffice. Rikard has written out a scroll with 
a second loyalty spell. As soon as the Cascade is active and 
you have the necessary power, cast it on Magister Coelus. 
You will tell us if it is necessary to fetch him or if it 
can be done from here. When you have cast both spells, 
release the pool and the Cascade. If you cannot see how to 
do so, you will use the athame on the table next to you to 
cut one of the lines."
    
    He nodded to Rikard, who began the invocation. Fieras, 
after one desperate glance around, did nothing. Finished, 
Rikard approached Fieras and handed him a scroll; Fieras 
took it. Iolen spoke; "You may now begin the schema."
    
    Everyone fell silent as Fieras began the first 
invocation of the schema. Rikard saw the first line of the 
star spring up, red as fire, as the first of the four mages 
spoke his Word. A second line, a third, a fourth. Fieras, at 
the center of the star, raised his hand, opened his mouth.
    
    Ellen, watching with her eyes closed, separated from 
lawn and mages by brick and stone, spoke a Word. In front of 
Fieras the surface of the containment sphere rippled and 
began to dilate; through the hole the watchers saw grass, a 
tree, men. Iolen opened his mouth to yell. From the far side 
of the barrier the twang of a plucked string, then another. 
Fieras looked down, astonished to see the feathered end of a 
crossbow bolt protruding from his chest, then dropped to one 
knee, and another. Slowly, he collapsed. A third twang; the 
mage on the fire point of the schema, in front of Fieras at 
his right, clutched at his stomach, doubled up, and fell.
    
    * * *
    
    As soon as Coelus heard through the open window of his 
room the first word of the invocation he picked up the pen 
and began to write. A moment later, he beckoned one of the 
two guards over. The man looked down at the paper. It was 
covered with symbols, each a cluster of what looked like 
stylized pictures. He leaned over, looked more closely. 
Something about them _ .
    
    As the guard slowly raised his head, Coelus nodded in 
the direction of the other. The first guard motioned the 
other over. "Take a look at this."
    
    The other guard bent down to look. The first guard 
untied the cord holding the gag in Coelus' mouth as the 
other bent to free his legs. Coelus stood unsteadily, picked 
up the sheet of paper, folded it, and slid it into his 
pouch.
    
    "You were instructed to remain here until I returned," 
he said, softly. "Do so. Remember nothing more."
    
    His cloak was hanging by the door; he put it on and left 
the room.
    
    * * *
    
    Dur turned to his daughter. "Good work. With luck, Iolen 
will think Fieras opened the hole. We have to find Coelus 
and get him out of here. I don't want to look like this when 
we find him, so we only have half an hour or so. There is a 
limit to how much fire the sphere can hold for me."
    
    Ellen nodded, closed her eyes, in a moment spoke.
    
    "He got himself out; I don't know how. He's on his way 
to the front gate."
    
    "Can you get us to him before he reaches it? There are 
guards at the gate."
    
    Ellen nodded, led her father into the north wing, out a 
door opening on the paved courtyard that separated the 
kitchen from the magister's wing. At its south edge another 
door gave access to the main corridor.
    
    Coelus saw the door open. Through it, to his surprise 
and relief, came Ellen followed by a stranger, a man of 
about forty with a vaguely familiar face. Coelus was the 
first to speak. "You are all right? They didn't do anything 
to you?"
    
    "I'm fine, but we have to get out of here; follow me." 
She turned back through the door.
    
    "You can't; that doesn't lead to the gate."
    
    The stranger spoke: "Just follow her; you'll see."
    
    Chapter 21  
    
    Iolen looked around the lawn, turned to Rikard. "You're 
the mage; you tell me. How did Fieras overcome your loyalty 
spell? Did he somehow use the spell he was casting?"
    
    Rikard considered his lord's question for a moment 
before answering. "I am not sure he did overcome it, my 
Lord. I saw him do nothing related to the containment sphere 
in the seconds before it opened."
    
    "The mage who died before had made a hole in the sphere, 
trying to spread the Cascade across the kingdom. So did 
Fieras."
    
    "What mage who died?"
    
    Lord Iolen's puzzled look vanished. "Of course. You 
haven't seen the report on the Cascade_I was trying to keep 
it to as few people as possible. Take Fieras' copy over 
there on the table, underneath his athame. Take your spell 
off it first; a stack of blank pages won't be of much use to 
us.
   
   "We just tried to replicate Coelus's experiment of months 
ago_a spell to permit one mage, with the help of four 
others, to drain power from all the mages he can reach. One 
of Coelus's colleagues was the focus. He took control, 
breached the containment sphere, and was about to spread the 
Cascade outside the sphere when something burned him up. I 
had men stationed on the other side of the boundary in case 
it happened again."
    
    Rikard began to speak but changed his mind. Bowing to 
Iolen, he crossed the lawn to gather Fieras's papers and 
returned. "I will read these. Maybe they will help me 
understand what happened. Who else here knows about the 
containment sphere and how one opens it, your Lordship?"
    
    "Magister Bertram is the most senior of the magisters 
still here," Iolen replied. "If he does not know, he 
probably can tell us who does; report to me at the inn after 
you have spoken with him. Bring all that you can find in 
Magister Coelus' office that might be of use, anything in 
his writing."
    
    An hour and a half later, Rikard, on his way up to 
Iolen, passed a worried Captain Geffron coming down the inn 
stairs. A servant brought in goblets of wine, then withdrew. 
"I saw the Captain coming out, my Lord," said Rikard.
    
    Iolen nodded. "I told him Magister Coelus had vanished, 
kidnapped, perhaps, by Forsting agents using a compulsion 
spell. I offered two of my men who know what Coelus looks 
like, one for the forces watching the road and one for those 
searching the village. I also offered your help; a truth 
teller should be useful in the search. If anyone asks, you 
are looking for a missing magister who had a spell go wrong 
and might be a bit off his head as a result. With luck, if 
Coelus starts talking, nobody will believe him. What have 
you learned about how Fieras got through the containment 
sphere?"
    
    Rikard had spent some time thinking about what to say. 
His lord was, on the whole, a fair as well as a generous 
master, but pushing the argument too far might be risky.
    
    "As far as Magister Bertram knows, the entrance gate is 
the only way through the sphere and only the gatekeeper, a 
retired magister who knows the spell, can open it.  I don't 
know what they would do if the gatekeeper happened to drop 
dead.  But I learned two other things. The papers you gave 
me say that Maridon didn't breach the sphere until after the 
spell was complete, and the power of everyone inside the 
sphere had been gathered. And he did it by walking up to the 
surface of the sphere and literally ripping it open with his 
hands. That doesn't accord with what we saw Fieras do."
    
    Iolen thought a moment before answering. "Fieras had 
read the account, had plenty of time to make his own plans. 
Even if we don't know how he managed it, we did see him do 
it."
    
    Rikard hesitated a moment, then made up his mind. "We 
saw the hole, my Lord. We do not know if Fieras was the one 
who made it. I learned something else."
    
    Iolen waited, said nothing, his face unreadable.
    
    "Magister Coelus knew more about magic than anyone else 
in the College. He was interested in the sphere and had one 
of his students studying it for him. His office overlooks 
the magisters' lawn; when the sphere opened, he was not 
fifty feet from it."
    
    "You think he somehow opened the sphere. How and why? He 
was bound and gagged."
    
    "And got free just as Fieras was casting the spell, 
slipped two guards and left them with no memory of what 
happened or where he had gone. Perhaps he was planning to 
make a hole and leave through it and somehow got the 
placement wrong."
    
    Iolen shook his head. "Speak up. If I made a mistake I 
want you to tell me, not polite lies."
    
    Rikard relaxed; he was over the tricky bit. "As your 
Lordship commands. I think he somehow knew, or guessed, the 
precaution your Lordship had taken. How I do not know, any 
more than I know how his leman managed to get away from two 
mages and a guard. There's much going on here I don't 
understand."
    
    "You think Coelus opened the hole as Fieras was 
finishing the spell so he would be shot down by our own 
people?" Iolen said, evenly.
    
    Rikard nodded. "Yes, My Lord. I don't know how he did 
it, but it makes the most sense. The only other mage who 
could have done it is the gatekeeper. And that makes no 
sense at all."
    
    "And he sent us_me_haring off on a false trail, 
Fieras's. If so, our Magister Coelus is a very clever and 
very dangerous man."
    
    "Yes, My Lord. I am afraid he is."
    
    Iolen closed his eyes for a minute, sat thinking. 
Finally he opened them again. "If you were Coelus, what 
would you be doing now, other than laughing at us as fools?"
    
    Rikard pondered. "If Magister Coelus is loyal to His 
Highness, he may be headed there. If in service to the 
Forsting or another faction, he may be playing for time 
until he has something to sell to them, or he may be on his 
way out of the kingdom along with his leman. If he is loyal 
to His Majesty and falsely suspects your Lordship is not _ 
."
  
  Rikard faltered. Should Lord Iolen ever be arrested for 
treason, it would be useful to be able truthfully to say he 
knew nothing. Iolen finished his sentence for him.
    
    "_then he is off to His Majesty. I have taken 
precautions to avoid any misunderstandings along those 
lines_His Majesty is not all that easy to get to, and I have 
friends at Court_but there is always some risk. The road to 
the capital goes past the garrison, and they will stop 
anyone suspicious. I only hope it isn't too late. Have you a 
fourth alternative?"
    
    Rikard nodded. "Coelus said he told His Highness he 
would no longer work on the Cascade. He did not say why. 
Perhaps he believes that you are in truth working with his 
Highness, and is hiding from both of you.
    
    "We have half a dozen competent mages available, and 
Gyrgas may survive. There must be many things associated 
with Magister Coelus in his rooms. If he is still nearby, I 
expect we can find him."
    
    * * *
    
    Coelus looked around the room curiously_a chair, a desk 
and a shelf containing several codices, a clay bowl with a 
spoon in it, and a mug. A single bed. He turned to the 
stranger. "I wasn't paying attention; where are we?"
    
    "A room over one of the shops_we came in by the back 
door." He gestured to the ladder in the corner, "That goes 
to a trap door to the roof. If Iolen's people come looking 
for you, go to the roof and hide behind the low wall there. 
Ellen and I will dispose of the ladder."
    
    "Don't they know about Ellen? The Prince did. She needs 
to hide too."
    
    The other nodded: "She will. But hiding you from eyes 
and ears won't be enough; if Iolen decides to search for you 
he will have mages out as well. Ellen needs to make both of 
you invisible to them."
    
    Ellen turned to Coelus. "I am going to weave you the 
same protection I used, making you invisible to a mage's 
perception. Unless one is familiar with it, it blocks in 
both directions, so you will have to depend on your eyes for 
a while. And you have to stand still while I do it."
    
    Coelus, standing still, closed his eyes, and took a last 
opportunity to examine the other man. Either not a mage or a 
very tight veil, tight enough to hold even at a range of a 
few feet. What else he was _ .
    
    Ellen gestured toward the lamp on the table; it flamed 
alight. From it she drew a thin thread of flame. Coelus 
watched, rapt, as her flickering fingers wove it into a 
fabric, formed the fabric about his body. He closed his eyes 
again; for a moment his world was flame, entirely 
surrounding him. The flame faded, but the world beyond him 
remained invisible. He opened his eyes. The other man was 
speaking.
    
    "Don't forget yourself, love."
    
    For a moment Coelus stopped breathing as he watched 
Ellen, with a gesture he had seen before, pull a final 
thread of flame from the lamp, stroke it down her body, and 
sit down on the bed. The stranger closed his eyes, turned 
from one to the other.
    
    "That should be sufficient; I can barely see you, and 
I'm a lot closer than Iolen's mages will be." Which meant 
that, whatever else he was, he was a mage.
    
    "Since Iolen won't be looking for me, I'll fetch dinner 
in a little from the cook shop. Before I do, it might be 
prudent to put together what we know to try to figure out 
what Iolen is doing and what he is going to do. Why don't 
you start." He nodded to Coelus.
    
    "Before I tell you what I know," Coelus said, 
deliberately, "I need to know a little more. In particular, 
who you are."
    
    The other smiled. "Very prudent; you would not want to 
be telling a random stranger all about the Cascade. His 
Highness' warning seems to have done some good."
    
    "You are from the Prince?"
    
     
    
    "No; I have been watching both you and him for my own 
purposes. I think Ellen should make the introductions."
    
    "I'm sorry; I should have. But everything was happening 
so fast." She stood up. "Father, this is Magister Coelus. 
Magister Coelus, this is my father."
    
    A long silence. Coelus' expression was a mixture of 
surprise and relief; Dur, who looked quietly amused, was the 
first to speak.
    
    "So that, at least, is one thing you do not need to 
worry about. As far as keeping secrets is concerned, I think 
I know at least as much about the Cascade as either Ellen or 
Iolen and his people. As I gather you already know, Ellen's 
mother helped create the containment sphere; one advantage 
of knowing how it was constructed is that it becomes 
possible, with practice, to see things happening inside it.
    
    "We may not have a lot of time. What was Iolen up to 
with you, and how did you get away?"
    
    "I don't know Iolen's purpose; he claimed to be coming 
from the Prince, but I doubt it. He wanted me to tell him 
how to do the Cascade. I refused. He had me gagged so I 
couldn't speak any spells, tied my feet to the chair, but 
left my hands free under guard by two of his men. I was to 
write what he wanted, and my guards were instructed to stop 
me if I tried to destroy anything I wrote.
    
    "I think he planned to run the Cascade inside the 
containment sphere, using whatever he had gleaned from the 
mages who helped last time. The mage at the focus was to 
cast a loyalty spell on me while the Cascade was draining my 
power into his. I would be unable to resist, and with that 
much power behind it, the spell should hold for a 
considerable time. I knew what he wanted. Once made loyal to 
him I would do it.
    
    "I waited long enough so the guards would think the 
spell had been cast, then used paper and pen to perform a 
spell of my own, using glyphs instead of words. I got one of 
the guards to take a look at it. He drew the other one over, 
then both of them untied me. I didn't know when or if 
Iolen's mages would manage to accomplish the Cascade. I was 
trying to get to the outside of the sphere before they did 
so, when you met me."
    
    Dur nodded approvingly. "Very sensible, and reasonably 
accurate. Iolen first had one of his mages cast a loyalty 
spell on the focus_Ellen's friend Fieras. The plan was to 
have the focus start the Cascade, use the power to cast a 
loyalty spell on you, then dissolve the Cascade and let you 
tell them how to do it better next time. Just in case 
something went wrong and Fieras managed to get control and 
break through the sphere as Maridon had, Iolen had crossbow 
men stationed on the other side with orders to watch for a 
hole in the barrier to open and, if it did, shoot the mage 
on the other side of it. A well thought out scheme, if a 
little on the elaborate side. I had my own plan for stopping 
him, but my clever daughter came up with a better one." He 
turned to Ellen, waited.
    
    "All I did was to open a hole in the barrier, about 
where Maridon did, just before Fieras finished starting the 
Cascade. The later done, the more likely that Iolen would 
assume Fieras was responsible."
    
    "And? Did Fieras finish the Cascade and start casting 
spells?"
    
    Dur shook his head. "Not with two crossbow bolts in him 
he didn't. The third hit their fire mage; I don't know if he 
survived or not. I told you she was being clever. What we 
don't know is whether we fooled Iolen, or what he plans to 
do next. He met with several of his people at the inn not 
long ago, but he has strong privacy spells and I haven't yet 
gotten through them."
    
    Coelus interrupted. "Do you know what he is doing, what 
the point of all of this is?"
    
    Dur nodded, turned to his daughter. "Thanks to Mari, you 
know the politics better than I. During the six months that 
King Thoma was dying I was busy dealing with an infant fire 
mage; good thing your mother is a healer."
    
    Ellen gave him a rueful smile, spoke to Coelus. "Don't 
believe him; I started early, but not that early. I think 
he's been saving that line up for the past seventeen years, 
waiting for someone to tell it to."
    
    "Nonetheless, I paid little attention to kingdom 
politics back when the old king was dying; babies take up a 
lot of time and attention even if they aren't setting 
everything in sight ablaze. Tell Coelus what Mari said."
    
    "The old king, Thoma, never got along with his eldest 
son; there were rumors, but nobody seems to really know why. 
On his deathbed he tried to get the great lords of the realm 
to support his second son for the succession. His third son, 
Prince Kieran, supported the eldest brother; they had always 
been close. Near the end Kieran hid Prince Petrus from their 
father's people until the old king died, then helped him put 
down their brother and his supporters.
    
    "By the time it was over and Petrus was crowned, Josep, 
the second son, was dead. Josep's son Iolen inherited his 
lands and his surviving supporters. He has, of course, sworn 
allegiance to His Majesty but hates the Prince and does what 
he can to oppose him in court.
    
    "So Iolen claiming to be acting on behalf of Prince 
Kieran was surely a lie. I couldn't get word to you safely 
then. He had to be here about the Cascade, meaning you'd be 
the first they went after; I thought our best chance was get 
word to the Prince. I asked Jon to take a message to Mari 
for His Highness. Then I fetched Father and we slipped back 
into the College, skipping the front gate, to see what we 
could do about stopping Iolen and getting you out."
    
    She fell silent. Dur continued. "Clearly, Iolen found 
out about the Cascade and decided to stake all on getting it 
to work under his control, then using it to eliminate his 
uncles and seize the throne. The question now is how he will 
attempt to cover his tracks. All the possibilities that 
occur to me involve a lot of blood, some of it yours. If all 
else fails, he might run for the border and hope the 
Forstings have some use for a royal pretender_. What's 
that?"
    
    A voice below, and a hammering on a door. Dur pointed at 
the ladder; Coelus caught Ellen's eyes.
    
    "I'll be all right. Go."
    
    He fled up the ladder, Dur down the stairs. Ellen slid 
the ladder under the bed, then followed her father.
    
    The hammering at Master Dur's closed front door proved 
to be his neighbor, the manager of the cookshop, with four 
other men, three of them armed, one a mage. Dur opened the 
door and stood back to let them come in. His neighbor turned 
to one of the armed men.
    
    "This is Master Dur, the jeweler who lives here." He 
noticed the girl coming through from the back room. "Your 
granddaughter?"
    
    Dur put his arm around her, gave her a hug. "My own 
flesh and blood. Her mother lives a few days east of here, 
but she's visiting. What's the problem?"
    
    One of the armed men came forward. "We're looking for 
one of the magisters from the college, a man named Coelus; 
do you know him?"
    
    Dur nodded. "Younger than the rest? I think I've sold 
things to him from time to time. What do you need him for?"
    
    "Apparently he was trying out some spell or other and 
something went wrong. He's nowhere to be found and his 
colleagues are afraid he may be wandering around with his 
memory gone, or thinking he's a squirrel, or whatever 
happens to mages when they make a mistake. He might be with 
a student of his, a girl, maybe five or six years older than 
your granddaughter."
    
    Dur shook his head. "Wherever he is, he isn't inside 
this house. And, aside from my little sweetheart here, I 
haven't seen any girls around this evening. I'll keep an eye 
out. If I see something I think you ought to know about, 
where do I send word?"
    
    "Captain Geffron is in charge of the search; he's at the 
inn." The officer turned to look at the mage behind him. The 
mage nodded; the group of men left the shop. Dur closed the 
door, bolted it, turned back to Ellen.
    
    "Before we fetch your young man down from the roof you 
might want to put back a few years and change back into what 
you were wearing. No need to confuse him_or give him ideas."
    
    She nodded: "And you might want to take a few years back 
off."
    
    Chapter 22  
    
    Lord Iolen looked around the inn room. Two of his own 
people_Rikard for the mages and Ivert, commander of his 
guards_and Captain Geffron. A second mage was standing in 
the doorway; he nodded to his lord, left the room. Iolen 
waited a moment to be sure he had the attention of the 
others before he spoke.
    
    "We are as secure as magic can make us, so it is time to 
sum up our present situation and tell you my plans. We have 
no further need for the assistance of Captain Geffron, so he 
may take his men back to their garrison under strict orders 
of confidentiality, to await his call to the capital to 
confirm my report to His Majesty on this matter.
    
    "Magister Coelus and the missing student have eluded us. 
Coelus, we must assume, is the Prince's creature and has 
gone to his master. When I report to His Majesty, I shall 
argue that His Highness has tried, treasonously, to obtain 
the secret of Coelus' work for himself, without informing 
His Majesty."
    
    He stopped a moment, looked at the other two, continued.
    
    "My coming here myself without informing His Majesty was 
of course justified by the need for my actions not to reach 
the ears of certain of His Highness's friends at court, 
since His Highness was then in a position to implement the 
spell with Coelus before he could be stopped.
    
    "You are free to pass on as much of this to our people 
as you think prudent, save only that nothing should be said 
concerning the nature of the spell we were seeking. Make it 
clear that, in case of difficulties, I will continue to 
protect them. Are there any questions?"
    
    Ivert got up. "None, my lord. With your leave I will 
make the arrangements for our departure in the morning."
    
    Rikard waited until the guard commander had left before 
speaking.
    
    "My lord. What if the Prince hears what we have been up 
to and attempts to seize power for himself immediately by 
implementing the spell? Should we not forestall him by doing 
so ourselves? There is some risk to whatever mage serves as 
the focus, but since Your lordship and I are now the only 
members of our party who have read the complete report on 
the previous attempt _ ."
    
    He fell silent; Iolen responded with a cold smile. "If 
we do, and it works, how are you proposing that the spell 
should be used?"
    
    "His Highness depends for protection chiefly on his own 
mages. The mage at the focus will have an enormous amount of 
magery at his command_including the power of the mages 
protecting His Highness and of His Highness himself. That 
should make it possible to breach any protections His 
Highness may have established, determine if he is in fact 
engaged in treason, and if so take suitable actions against 
him."
    
    Iolen's face did not change.
    
    "I presume that would require skill as well as power?"
    
    "It would, my lord. I propose that we attempt the 
Cascade once, here, using Albin as the focus. I will first 
cast a loyalty spell on him; your lordship will instruct him 
to terminate the Cascade as soon as it is clearly 
established. If that succeeds, I propose that for the second 
attempt, somewhere closer to his Highness, I should be the 
focus."
    
    There was a long silence before Iolen spoke.
    
    "Yes. Write out the instructions for Albin; the other 
four should still have their copies. As before, each only 
needs to know his own part."
    
    * * *
    
    Dur lifted his hand from the lid of the small furnace, 
exposing the fire rune inlaid into its center, turned to his 
daughter, spoke softly.
    
    "Your young man is asleep?"
    
    "Magister Coelus was asleep a minute ago. Did you get 
through them?"
    
    Dur nodded. "If you two ever create an adequate privacy 
shield, Iolen should be your first customer. They're going 
to try again tomorrow morning_outside the College. In the 
inn, in fact; the main dining room is big enough."
    
    "How do we stop them from doing it?"
    
    He shook his head. "We don't stop them from doing it, we 
stop it from working. You haven't figured out yet how to 
push the Cascade's efficiency below its critical value, so 
we need to try something simpler. Can you weave your 
mother's shadow cloak?"
    
    An hour later, Ellen was moving furtively through the 
village, stepping off the path into a dark passage between 
the inn and a neighboring house as a handful of travelers 
passed out through the inn's brightly lit door.  Once 
through the doorway herself she moved quickly into a corner 
where nobody was likely to run into her, stood still 
watching the stairway and the area at its foot.
    
    Her first attempt got only as far as the landing. A man 
appeared at the head of the stairs heading down; she 
considered briefly the size of the landing, chose the more 
prudent alternative. The second attempt succeeded, bringing 
her to the top of the empty stairway, from there to the 
corner farthest from the doors to the second floor rooms.
    
    Two men emerged from the upstairs dining room. One went 
down the stairs, the other, the mage who had tried to 
capture her outside her own window three days before, turned 
right and went into one of the bedrooms. He put the papers  
he was carrying down on the small table between the beds, 
one already occupied, turned, closed the door.
    
    Ellen waited as the inn gradually grew quiet, with 
guests straggling out the front door, the thud of doors 
closing on rooms. The upper hallway, lit faintly by the 
light of a lamp at each end, was empty. Closing her eyes, 
Ellen let her mind pass through the door in front of her. 
Inside both men slept. The guards at the hall's far end were 
awake, absorbed in a game of dice; a fourth guard stood at 
the front door of the inn, now shut. Iolen and one of his 
mages occupied a second bedroom, on the other side of the 
large upstairs room where Mari had entertained her friends. 
The lord seemed to be asleep; the mage riffled studiously 
through a stack of papers.
    
    The lamp at her end of the hall  went out. Ellen waited 
a few moments to be sure no inn servant was coming to 
relight it, then moved to the door of the room and eased it 
open. Its occupants were still asleep, one with his face 
towards the wall, the other on his back, snoring peacefully. 
She moved to put her body between him and the papers on the 
table before calling a tiny flame from her fingertip to read 
by its light the top sheet of paper.
    
    The writing was in a clear hand, a set of instructions 
interspersed with single words written in the true speech, 
once a whole phrase. In some places words, in one a whole 
line, had been crossed out and replaced. From the wallet at 
her side she drew out a quill, a tightly stoppered bottle of 
ink.
    
    In a few minutes she was done, quill and ink back in her 
wallet, and had slipped back out the door. She stopped at 
the head of the stairs, looking down to be sure there was 
nobody between her and the front door; the space was lighted 
by several lamps and the dull glow from the fireplace. The 
door was closed, the guard seated in a chair blocking it.
    
    Ellen closed her eyes, pulled shadow out of the corners 
of the room, and wove it about the man's head. Gradually his 
neck bent his head forward onto his chest; there was the 
faintest sound of a snore. She drew a long breath and 
started down the stairs.
    
    A blow from behind. Ellen stumbled down, caught herself 
on the landing and turned.
     
    "What the_ ."
    
    It was one of the guards, looking straight at her. For a 
moment neither moved.
    
    Suddenly, all the lamps and torchlights went out. The 
guard grabbed for her arm. She twisted free and fled down 
the stairs through the dark, the guard blundering down after 
her, calling out for help. The guard at the door, still half 
asleep, took a few steps towards the stair. She dodged 
around him, pushed the door open_the bar was off_and a 
moment later was running down the street through the night.
    
    * * *
    
    "My Lord."
    
    Iolen finished pulling on his over tunic, turned to 
Rikard. "Something wrong?"
    
    "Perhaps, My Lord. Last night, after we went to bed, one 
of the guards, coming down the staircase,  ran into 
someone."
    
    "And? Had he been drinking?"
    
    "I don't think so, My Lord. It was a woman.  Everything 
went dark; she pulled away and went running down the stairs. 
By the time they got the lamps lit again, she was gone."
    
    Iolen said nothing, waited for the mage to continue.
    
    "All the lamps and the fire on the hearth went out at 
the same time, just after the guard ran into the woman on 
the staircase. The guards couldn't see in the dark; the 
woman had no trouble getting down the stairs, around the 
guard at the door, and out."
    
    "You believe it was magery?'
    
    "Yes, My Lord."
    
    Iolen though for a moment. "Can a mage make himself 
invisible?"
    
    "I can't, My Lord. I wouldn't be astonished if someone 
else could; I've heard of things at least close. Coelus, by 
all accounts, is a mage who invents new spells."
    
    "And his missing student is a woman.  So, you think it 
was she?"
    
    "Something like that, My Lord. Coelus is air, not fire, 
so I'm not sure he could put out the hearth fire that fast."
    
    "Did she get anything?"
    
    "Not as far as I can tell, My Lord. I checked the chest 
with the papers in it; the spells hadn't been touched. 
Getting through them would not have been easy for a trained 
mage, let alone a girl and a student.  We don't know what 
she might have heard."
    
    "There has been no time for a message to the Prince to 
bring anyone from his camp here yet. Either Coelus had 
people in the village or someone else is taking a hand. 
Who?"
    
    Rikard shook his head. "This time of year there are 
hardly any mages at the College. Perhaps someone else at 
court got word of where you were going, or why?"
    
    "You think one of our people _"
    
    "Isn't. We can question them all."
    
    "While you do that I will secure the main dining room of 
the inn to reinvoke the spell in; I'll tell the innkeeper we 
are having a conference and want none of his people within 
earshot. Have Ivert station one guard outside the door, 
another outside the windows. What am I forgetting?"
    
    Rikard thought a moment.
    
    "We will need to clear the floor; I'll borrow one of the 
guards to help move furniture. Easiest if you have everyone 
meet in the upstairs room for morning meal, keep them out of 
the way until needed. I'll let you know when we're ready."
    
    An hour later, Rikard, Iolen and the five mages filed 
into the big downstairs room which had been cleared, with 
positions for the mages marked in chalk on the floor, each 
with its proper symbol. The mages assumed their places, 
along with their written instructions. Albin took the 
central position, gave Rikard an enquiring look; Rikard 
turned to Iolen.
    
    "We are ready, My Lord."
    
    "Albin understands his instructions?"
    
    Albin turned his head. "First, Rikard will enspell me. 
As soon as I feel power flowing into me beyond our five, I 
will dismiss the spell I have just cast. If I cannot, I am 
to cut the nearest line with my athame."
    
    Albin nodded. Rikard raised his hand, spoke a long 
sentence in the true speech, let his hand fall. Albin began 
the first invocation; the other mages joining in in turn, 
each answered by Albin. Rikard, watching with his eyes 
closed, saw the first line appear, the second, the third. 
Albin spoke the final word.
    
    "It isn't working." Rikard turned to Albin. "What did 
you feel?"
    
     "A trickle from Gilbert, Vyncent and Gregor, nothing 
from Steffan. The last word, that was supposed to start the 
Cascade, didn't do anything."
    
    "Are you sure you got everything right? I didn't see 
anything happen when Stef was supposed to come in. And 
something sounded off_not quite as I remembered it."
    
    "I said it just as you wrote it. See for yourself."
    
    Rikard peered at the sheet of paper. "That's not my 
writing. Not all of it."
    
    Iolen was the first to react. "Something got changed?"
    
    "Yes, My Lord. In two places what I wrote has been 
crossed out, inked over so it can't be read, and different 
words written above to replace it."
    
    Iolen turned to Albin. "When you went to sleep last 
night, where was the paper?"
    
    "On the table by my bed, My Lord. I studied it before I 
went to sleep, went over it again in the morning to be sure 
I had it right.
    
    Iolen smiled. "So that was what last night's visitor was 
up to. Clever, but not clever enough. Rikard, come with me; 
the rest of you stay here. We'll be back shortly."
    
    On the way up the stairs, Iolen spoke again. "If you 
hadn't looked at the paper, their trick would have worked. 
Since you did _We can get one of the sets of notes out of 
the chest, redo the instructions from that. Then run the 
schema again.
    
     "And it will work."
    
    Rikard looked at his lord curiously. "Because?"
    
    "Because if what we were doing wasn't going to work they 
wouldn't have risked getting one of their people caught 
trying to stop us."
    
    * * *
    
    Dur turned to Ellen and opened his eyes. "Rikard spotted 
your improvements to his instructions. That means I have to 
work quickly." Coelus was seated on the bed. "Stay here; we 
will be back shortly."
    
    Ellen went into the front of the shop to bolt the door, 
checked the back door as well, then joined her father by the 
small furnace. Taking a deep breath, he put his right hand 
down over the glyph on the cover of the small furnace and 
closed his eyes.
    
    The fire poured into him, more and more fire, 
intoxication, pleasure verging closer and closer to the 
limit of what flesh could bear. With an effort he pulled 
back from the brink, found again the knife edge balance 
between the world of fire and the world of matter, between 
ecstasy and life. He let out the held breath, raised his 
left hand, pointing, held the pose for a long minute as he 
brushed past the privacy spells about the inn to explore one 
room and its contents.
    
    "I think that should do."
    
    "Father."
    
    He looked up into Ellen's worried face, raised his hand 
to feel his hair. A strand came off, dead white.  "That is 
the other risk." He leaned down, this time with both hands 
on the furnace. As she watched, fascinated, the wrinkles in 
the ancient face smoothed, and the twisted veins in the 
hands shrunk away. When Dur stood up again, his white hair 
was the only visible change from his appearance an hour 
before.
    
    Coelus spoke in a tone of astonished wonder. "You are 
all three of them." He paused at the head of the stairs 
before descending.
    
    "Ellen's father, of course. And Master Dur, the old 
jeweler whose shop this must be; a minute ago you were even 
older than that. And the portrait of Durilil that used to 
hang in the lecture room. I thought you looked familiar the 
first time I saw you."
    
    Durilil nodded. "I should have burned it up twenty years 
earlier, but it was a good painting and I hated to destroy 
another man's work. Once I decided to live here, there was 
no choice; I made Master Dur twenty years older than the 
picture, but someone with an eye for faces might still have 
recognized me from it."
    
    Coelus was still thinking. "So the Salamander did not 
burn you up after all."
    
    He stopped a moment, looked around the room. "You found 
it. You must have. That's why _ ."
    
    "King Theodrick had a team of mages. I have something 
better." He gestured to the furnace. It took Coelus only a 
moment to understand.
    
    "I thought the glyph was a warning, wondered why it 
wasn't in some form ordinary people could read. I forgot 
that the fire symbol has another meaning. Is it part of the 
binding?"
    
    Durilil shook his head. "You cannot bind an elemental, 
as you of all people should know; you got things mostly 
right in your thesis. The glyph is a road sign to help keep 
the Salamander where it wants to be. When your world is 
nothing but fire it is quite easy to get lost, at least what 
we would call lost.
    
    Another thought occurred to Coelus. "It was the 
Salamander that killed Maridon?"
    
    Durilil nodded. "Quite unintentionally. I assume you had 
the spell devised so that some fraction of the power 
absorbed from the Cascade went to channel the rest, 
otherwise no mage could survive being the focus."
    
    "Yes. But it didn't work."
    
    "How could it? When Maridon tapped the Salamander, all 
he had to protect him was the power of ten or twenty mages. 
He went up like a moth in a furnace."
    
    * * *
    
    Iolen and Rikard were at the top of the stairs when they 
smelled the smoke. Iolen stepped forward towards the door; 
Rikard caught his arm. "Just a moment, My Lord. It might be 
a trap."
    
    He spoke a brief sentence, accompanied it with a 
gesture, stepped to the door, unlocked it and flung it wide, 
stepping back as he did so. The room was full of smoke. As 
it cleared, the two men could see that the pile of papers on 
the table had been mostly reduced to ash.
    
    "Coelus' papers from his office?"
    
    "Yes, My Lord. I was looking through them for clues to 
how the spell worked last night."
    
    "Is the chest safe?"
    
    Rikard said nothing, bent over the small chest sitting 
by the head of Iolen's bed, said something softly. "You can 
unlock it now, My Lord."
    
    Iolen reached into his tunic and drew out a key hanging 
on a cord around his neck. In a moment the chest was 
unlocked. Rikard spoke more words over it before lifting the 
lid.
    
    Smoke billowed out. The sheets at one end had been 
entirely consumed, reduced to a fine ash, but papers at the 
other end had fared better. Rikard lifted them out 
carefully. All were scorched, some destroyed, but many were 
at least partly legible.
    
    Iolen was the first to speak. "I thought you had the 
chest protected."
    
    Rikard looked up from the pages. "A skilled and very 
powerful mage standing next to the chest could perhaps have 
defeated its spells, although I doubt it. But the room was 
locked, the inn guarded. I don't believe any invisibility 
spell could be strong enough to have gotten a mage to the 
side of the chest undetected, after the precautions I took 
last night. No mage alive could have gotten a fire spell 
from outside the inn to inside that chest."
    
    "And yet someone did."
    
    Rikard shook his head. "I don't think so, My Lord. He 
didn't get the spell into the chest, we did."
    
    He stopped a moment; Iolen looked at him blankly. Rikard 
thought a moment before continuing. "The first things we saw 
burning were Magister Coelus' papers on the table. His 
papers in the chest were what started the fire there. Ours, 
the two copies of the notes you obtained on the Cascade, 
weren't burned by a spell, but from lying next to burning 
paper. That's why some are left."
    
    "Whether the spell set our papers alight or his, it 
still had to get through your protections to do so."
    
    "No, My Lord. Magister Coelus must have put a spell on 
his papers, with a trigger to ignite if they were away from 
him, or out of his room, or out of the College for more than 
a certain length of time. Like the spell I put on the notes 
you gave to Fieras which turned pages blank. So the spell 
was already inside the chest when the protective spells went 
on. Have you another copy somewhere?"
    
    Iolen shook his head. "Too risky."
    
    "Then I am afraid you will have to go back to whomever 
you got the information from and have him provide a fresh 
copy."
    
    Iolen's smile was cold.
    
    "I am afraid that will not be possible. Retrieve what 
you can from what we have; with luck one copy may provide 
some of what the other has lost. Tell the others that we 
will be on our way home as soon as possible. I expect His 
Majesty can find someone to recreate the spell from what we 
have."