Chapter 25
    
    An hour north of town, the two mages stopped to rest the 
stolen horses in the shelter of a grove of trees just off 
the royal road. When they had dismounted, Coelus gave Ellen 
a long hug. "I was afraid I was going to lose you."
    
    Barely visible in the thin moonlight, she shook her 
head. "Never. Who would you talk to?"
    
    "That too. But I am afraid we may be making a mistake."
    
    She looked up at him curiously. "In running from the 
Prince?"
    
    "No. In running to your parents.
    
    "I have been listening for pursuit and thinking about 
what the Prince will do. Chasing us would be risky; he can't 
afford to kill us and he has no way of knowing how willing 
you are to kill him or his people. Nor does he know what our 
limits are, especially after tonight. If I were the Prince I 
would have people following us, far enough away so that we 
wouldn't spot them; he may have someone whose perception is 
even better than yours. Once he knows where we have taken 
refuge he can recapture us at his leisure with as many of 
his people as he thinks he needs."
    
    Ellen looked unconvinced. "Can he afford to take that 
long?"
    
    "After what happened tonight, I think he will take as 
long as he thinks necessary. While he is looking for us he 
can have another team recreating the first Cascade, the way 
Iolen did, by trying to work out what went wrong. They don't 
have to know exactly what the problem was. I didn't. My best 
guess was that Maridon had tapped the sun, but I think the 
solution I came up with would have worked. Whoever is doing 
it only has to realize that there is some enormous source of 
fire out there to be tapped, then figure out how not to take 
too much of it."
    
    "What should we be doing, then?" Ellen spoke softly, but 
he could hear the note of worry in her voice.
    
    "Your woven protection, the one that makes you invisible 
to perception. That's part of the answer."
    
    "And if His Highness's mage spots two horses galloping 
side by side along the highway with nobody riding them?"
    
    "Is there any reason you can't weave it around the 
horses too?"
    
    There was a long silence before she spoke. "Have I ever 
mentioned that sometimes I am very stupid?"
    
    He shook his head. "I don't think so. One more thing we 
have in common."
    
    After another hour of riding Ellen led them off the 
Royal Road on a track that ran east, through a patchwork of 
field and forest. Before dawn she found a haystack in a 
field with no farmhouse in sight and a convenient stream 
where they could water the horses. The horses tethered to a 
nearby oak, the two mages burrowed into the haystack. Coelus 
forced his eyes open to put a final question.  "If someone 
happens to come by and sees two unguarded horses do we get 
to walk the rest of the way?"
    
    "Nobody is likely to see the horses unless he stumbles 
over them. I can't put a shadow cloak on them, or on you for 
that matter, but I wove protections into their manes that 
should make them hard to notice. Go to sleep."
    
    He half woke at noon, reached out, felt the reassuring 
solidity of Ellen beside him, fell back into a pleasant 
dream. It was mid afternoon when he reached out again, felt 
nothing, and came abruptly awake. He struggled clear of the 
hay, looked around. The horses were gone. A moment's panic 
before he heard splashing from the direction of the creek.
    
    When Ellen came back, leading both horses, her hair was 
dripping, her tunic damp; she stood in the sun steaming 
while she combed out her hair. Coelus watched for a moment 
before turning to the horses' gear, mostly hung up over 
branches the night before. The first saddle bag he checked 
turned out to contain courier's rations, dried fruit, meat 
and twice baked bread.
    
    "I suppose the horses were waiting in case His Highness 
needed to send a message somewhere in a hurry."
    
    Ellen nodded. "That was my guess when I spotted them and 
the groom. If nobody noticed where he was lying and woke him 
they may not have found out until morning. I've looked over 
horses and gear and I can't find any spells on them other 
than mine."
    
    At nightfall the two stopped again, this time in a 
forest with neither farm nor haystack in sight. The horses 
were unsaddled and tethered a little way off the road, 
rubbed down with cloths from the saddlebags. When they were 
done, Ellen reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a 
heavy roll of fabric. "Last time I came this way I put up in 
farm houses, but I don't want to risk word getting back to 
His Highness. So while you were sleeping like a log this 
afternoon, I was working."
    
    She shook it out, a yellow cloth thick as a quilt; he 
examined it curiously. "Straw?"
    
    She nodded. "It won't be missed, but I'll do something 
for the farmer in payment next time I come by."
    
     
    
    They made their bed under a tall pine from a pile of 
needles it had dropped that spring, with half the width of 
the cloth under them, the other half over. It was deep night 
when Coelus woke with Ellen sleeping quietly in his arms, 
her head against his chest. He lay watching the stars, 
listening to the soft sound of her breathing, before he fell 
back to sleep himself.
    
    The next morning, several miles farther along, Ellen was 
roused from her thoughts by Coelus' voice: "You're going the 
wrong way."
    
    She brought the horse to a stop at the left hand side of 
the fork. He had taken the right, and was now sitting atop 
his horse impatiently waiting for her to join him.
    
     
    
    "How do you know which is the right way? You've never 
been here before," she said.
    
    His expression shifted from impatient to puzzled. "I 
don't know; this just feels right."
    
    She nodded, thought a moment. "Close your eyes and think 
through your favorite song, words and music; just let your 
horse follow mine."
    
    "I don't have a favorite song; I can't sing. Will 
reciting the beginning of the First Treatise do?"
    
    "Admirably."
    
    In a few minutes she told him to open his eyes; he 
looked around curiously. "What was that about?"
    
    "Why you need me to find Mother; she has the house 
warded against mages. It doesn't affect anyone else, but 
there are two or three forks where a mage will go the wrong 
way. I'm so used to ignoring them that I forgot you 
weren't."
    
    It was late morning when Ellen finally turned her horse 
off the track; the path she followed led past an ancient oak 
and into a farmyard. The farmer waved. Ellen slid off her 
horse, walked it over to him; Coelus, after a moment's 
hesitation, did the same.
    
    "Back for the summer art thou, Miss Ellen?"
    
    "Indeed, and a friend come with me to visit. Dan, this 
be my friend Coelus; Coelus, old Dan, who taught me to ride 
back when I needed a long ladder to reach the horse's back."
    
    The farmer looked Coelus over carefully, finally nodded 
to him, turned back to Ellen.
    
    "Expect thy ma'll be pleased then."
    
    Ellen nodded.
    
    "Expect she will. Canst board our horses? 'Twill be for 
longer than t'winter past."
    
    "In the back pasture, with thy old pa's pack mule. I'll 
rub them down for thee; thy ma will be hot to see thee I 
make no doubt."
    
    "Father is back?" Ellen was unsaddling her horse as she 
spoke.
    
    "Four days back, thou'lt not call me a liar if 'twas 
five. Doubt not he'll be glad to see thee as well."
    
    When both mounts had been stripped of saddle, saddle 
cloth, bridle and saddle bags she let the farmer lead them 
off, hoisted her saddle bags onto her shoulders, set off 
back to the road, Coelus following with his saddle bags.
    
    Another half hour brought them into the main and only 
street of a small village. Ellen led Coelus to one of the 
larger houses, surrounded by a less than orderly planting. 
Much of it was blue flax mostly blown, but some of the other 
colors were still bright. She stopped at the door, 
hesitating a moment. From inside came a cheerful voice.
    
    "Come in love, and your friend too."
    
    They went in. The speaker was a small woman sitting by a 
loom, a length of cloth half woven on it. Her hair was grey, 
face wrinkled. She rose, stepping around her loom, dodged a 
chair and a small table, and caught up her daughter in a 
hug. Kissing both cheeks, she let go of her to turn to her 
companion.
    
    "And this is the young man you have told me about? You 
are most welcome, learned sir, and more welcome if I can 
persuade you to explain a few things I could not get clear 
from my daughter's account."
    
    Coelus eyed her uncertainly. "I will be happy to do what 
I can. What sorts of things?"
    
    "Basis stars, mostly. Why we think there are only a 
fixed number and what you base your guess on about what that 
number is. Also concerning the elementals, or more precisely 
the pure forms, whether the elementals and the naturals and 
the rest can all exist at once, or if making one set declare 
themselves reduces the others to mere potentials. If  the 
Salamander and the sylph are real, does that mean that the 
web and the warmth are not? Also _"
    
    Ellen interrupted.
    
    "If you don't mind, Mother, we have more urgent matters  
to talk with you and Father about first. I will be happy to 
turn Coelus over to your tender mercies thereafter."
    
    Melia turned back to her daughter.
    
    "You mean the Prince? As your father will be delighted 
to report, His Highness is energetically searching the 
College and the village for you. So you should be safe 
enough here. His opinion of your abilities has been growing 
rapidly the past two days, although I expect he gives some 
of the credit to the learned magister here."
    
    "But we left the village two days ago."
    
    "I know that and you know that, but fortunately the 
Prince does not." The voice from the other side of the door 
was Ellen's father; a moment later he came through it. His 
hair was grey, his voice vigorous.
    
    Ellen gave him a look of mingled affection and 
irritation.
    
    "I am sure you have been very clever, father. Do you 
mind telling us just how?"
    
    "Not at all, love. But I would rather do it sitting if 
you don't mind."
    
    He sat down on a chest at one side of the doorway; Melia 
returned to her chair. Ellen pulled a second chair out of a 
corner for Coelus, sat down on a stool, and gave her father 
an inquiring look.
    
    "Two days ago, the morning after you left His Highness's 
hospitality, a messenger arrived for me from an old friend 
of ours in the capital. He hardly gets out nowadays but he 
is still well connected. He had heard that Lord Iolen had 
taken off north for the Forsting border with His Majesty's 
men in hot pursuit. His Highness, oddly enough, had gone 
east instead, with a substantial contingent. He thought I 
would be interested, so sent someone he trusts a three day 
ride with the news.
    
    "There was only one thing I could think of worth his 
Highness's attention in the east." Durilil nodded towards 
Coelus. "It took me a couple of hours of peering through 
various fires to see what had happened. Kieran has enough 
mages with him to run the Cascade and enough information 
about your first attempt to try to copy it. If he doesn't 
yet have a competent theorist to work on improving the 
schema, I expect he can find one." He looked up at Coelus; 
Coelus said nothing, only nodded. Durilil continued:
    
    "The four of us should be able to work our way through 
your present puzzle; Olver's messenger brought some 
suggestions that might help. But we aren't going to do it 
overnight, so I thought it prudent to slow things down a 
little."
    
    "How?" That was Ellen. Her father smiled.
    
    "At noon on the day after Kieran's little feast, every 
scrap of paper he and his people had with them caught fire 
and burned to ash. When they went to the College to arrange 
to run the Cascade inside the protective sphere, they 
couldn't get in; Magister gatekeeper couldn't or wouldn't 
open the sphere for them. That night they all had a cold 
dinner, because nobody in the inn could get a fire to 
light."
    
    "Wasn't that risky, father? Once they found out it was 
being done by someone from miles away?"
    
    Ellen stopped speaking, her face lost its puzzled 
expression. "Oh. I think I see."
    
    "More important, His Highness saw. He saw a fire mage of 
unknown abilities vanish from a guarded room after he had 
taken care to neutralize her power and chain her to the bed. 
And a second mage, one original enough to have contrived a 
spell that had been absorbing most of the Prince's 
attention, vanished at the same time, under circumstances 
strongly suggesting the use of powerful fire magic. At some 
point I want an account of how both of you did it. But not 
just now.
    
    "If two mages with unknown powers had vanished an hour's 
ride out of the village and things suddenly started to go 
awry in the village itself in a mysterious, incendiary 
fashion, it was obvious who must be responsible. If they 
could do magic in the village they had to be in the village, 
or at least close. So there was no point in searching for 
them elsewhere.
    
    "That's why the Prince's people have been tearing the 
village and the adjacent countryside apart looking for you. 
They'd be tearing the College apart, too, if they could get 
in. The Prince, I suspect, has been racking his brains 
trying to figure out in what ingenious place and by the use 
of what exotic magic you could be hiding. The busier he is 
at that, the less time he has to spend on other things we 
don't want done."
    
    Durilil sat back, looking distinctly self-satisfied.
    
    Chapter 26
    
    "I have at least a little good news, Highness."
    
    Kieran, looking rather the worse for wear after two 
nights of little sleep, glanced up from his breakfast table 
at Alayn, a chunk of bread in one hand. "That being?"
    
    "The College is no longer sealed. One of their servants 
came out this morning; Johan went in and asked after 
Magister Coelus. He hasn't been in the College for days. 
Should we search it?"
    
    The Prince shook his head. "The only reason to think 
Coelus was there was that we couldn't enter; if it's now 
open, he isn't there. And my last attempt to get his 
cooperation was not so successful that I'm eager to try 
again. We're doing more harm here than good. The more we 
search for Coelus and his lady fire mage, the more likely 
others are to notice and draw conclusions."
    
    "Does it matter, Highness? Your secret is on its way to 
Forstmark with Lord Iolen. The odds are a hundred to one 
against stopping him."
    
    "The situation is bad, but perhaps not as bad as it 
seems. Running away to Forstmark is better than being 
beheaded for treason, which is the direction my unfortunate 
nephew seemed headed. But allying with the Forstings carries 
its own problems.
    
    "Suppose he tells the Forsting Einvald all he knows 
about Magister Coelus's spell. First the Einvald has to 
decide to believe him. Then he has to decide to reward Iolen 
instead of cutting his throat to make sure he doesn't try to 
resell the information to someone else. And then, the 
Einvald has to decide what to do with the spell."
    
    "Isn't it obvious?" Alayn said, sounding puzzled. "The 
spell would give them a huge advantage in any magical 
conflict. They've been getting up the nerve to attack us for 
the past two years. Wouldn't this settle the matter?"
    
    The Prince shook his head. "The spell gives huge power 
to one mage. The Einvald of Forstmark isn't a mage, any more 
than my brother is. He seized power four or five years ago; 
half the reason for all the war talk is to deter a fresh 
challenger any time soon. Where can he find a mage he can 
trust not to seize his throne from him either for himself or 
to install a puppet? It isn't as if the Mage's Guild was 
under the Einvald's control, or even solidly in his faction. 
If I were he and Lord Iolen showed up at my door, I would 
learn what I could from him, tell no-one, then have Iolen 
discreetly disposed of. Perhaps Iolen is counting for his 
protection on being of some use to them as a pretender to 
our throne, but _ ."
    
    "Surely Your Highness has considered that Iolen 
anticipates all this? If you were Iolen _ ."
    
    "If I were Iolen, I would consider presenting myself to 
the Einvald as a royal pretender to the throne of Esland 
while saying nothing about mage secrets. If the Forstings 
invade and install him as their puppet, he can surely find 
an opportunity to use the spell himself. If they continue to 
threaten without going to war, he might establish himself 
well enough to explore the spell on their side of the 
border. As a pretender, he is more useful to the Einvald 
alive than dead."
    
    "Unfortunately we cannot get this wise advice to your 
Highness's nephew."
    
    "That is one of the reasons why I would like to have the 
spell myself. Perhaps there is some compromise or some 
guarantee Magister Coelus would be willing to accept in 
exchange for its secret. But he is not here, and he is a 
stubborn man."
    
    "If Your Highness wishes to communicate with Magister 
Coelus, I can think of at least two ways of trying."
    
    The Prince looked at his guard commander curiously. "I 
did not realize that you too had become adept in new 
spells."
    
    "Those I leave to Your Highness and the other mages; I 
was thinking of more mundane solutions. The simplest is to 
leave a message for him in the College; once we leave, he 
will probably return to his post, and his duties."
    
    "And your other solution?"
    
    "The Lady Mari. Give her a message to pass on to her 
friend, who can pass it on to her companion. The students 
will in due time return to the college, and Magister Coelus' 
incendiary lady is also a student."
    
    * * *
    
    Ellen surveyed her old room, hers again with the 
beginning of fall term. The bed was made; someone had put 
fresh ink in the desk's inkwell. Several codices were 
missing, most notably her private copy of Olver's treatise; 
presumably Iolen's people had taken them in their search for 
clues to the workings of the Cascade.
    
    There was a knock on the door. She looked up.
    
    "Come in."
    
    Mari entered in traveling garb carrying a cloth wrapped 
package she set down on the desk.
    
    "His Highness wouldn't tell me anything, but he did give 
me this, and a message for you."
    
    She handed Ellen a tightly rolled scroll. Ellen glanced 
at the seal, put it in a drawer of her desk, and looked back 
at her friend.
    
    "And how was your summer?"
    
    "Not as exciting as yours. I hope whatever you did to 
him hasn't permanently frightened Kieran off lady mages."
    
    "Has it? You should be the first to know."
    
    "Not that I can see. He and Father had to deal with 
problems up north and we traveled together, so we saw a good 
deal of each other. Two days after we got back Jon showed up 
with your message and Kieran took off for the College. He 
paid us a visit when he came back. He was in an odd mood, as 
if he wasn't sure if he should be disappointed or glad."
    
    Ellen considered the virtues of silence, its cost, 
decided against. "His Highness tried to force me and 
Magister Coelus to do something we thought ought not to be 
done. He threatened me to persuade Coelus. We departed 
without his leave."
    
    Mari looked concerned. "I see. That explains both his 
disappointment and his relief."
    
     Ellen nodded. "Yes. I do not think Kieran is a bad man, 
but he is too used to having his way."
    
    "A fault, but perhaps not incurable. And how is Magister 
Coelus?"
    
    "I took him home to Mother. Between teaching her theory 
and learning about weaving magic from her, I fear he got 
very little rest. He now plans to persuade his colleagues 
that since women students have talents neither the magisters 
nor the tutors are competent to train, they need to recruit 
women tutors."
    
    "Witches as tutors? That will take some persuasion."
    
    Ellen nodded. "Diplomacy is not among Coelus' talents. 
Since his arguments are correct, the rest must of course 
accept them."
    
    Mari pointed at the package she had brought. "Aren't you 
going to open it?"
    
    Ellen looked the package over carefully before 
unwrapping the cloth. It contained two bound codices, a thin 
stack of paper covered with neat writing, and a note which 
she read, smiling.
    
    "Iolen made off with some things of mine. His Highness 
is returning them."
    
    After Mari had left, Ellen took the scroll out of her 
desk, broke the seal, unrolled the paper, and watched with 
only mild surprise as the writing, once read, faded away. A 
few minutes later she was in Magister Coelus's office. "Mari 
is back, and she brought me a message from His Highness."
    
    "One for me as well. What did yours say?"
    
    "A qualified apology, a promise of good behavior in the 
future, and a brief description of his plans. He thinks 
Iolen hasn't told his hosts about the Cascade and will hold 
it in reserve against future opportunities. His Highness 
won't use it now, does intend to be able to if necessary. Do 
you think he can manage it successfully?"
    
    Coelus nodded. "Yes. He's got Hewry working for him now, 
one of my students from a few years back. Hew is competent 
enough, if a bit slow, and I expect he can produce a version 
of the schema that will work tolerably well. His Highness 
would still have to find someone he trusts enough to control 
the spell."
    
    Ellen shook her head.
    
    "If His Highness does the Cascade, I expect he'll be the 
focus. He can trust himself."
    
    "And His Majesty?"
    
    "His Majesty trusts Kieran absolutely. According to 
Mari, during the succession troubles King Thoma was willing 
to support Kieran instead of Josep. The King wanted anyone 
but his eldest son and Kieran was more popular with the 
lords. Kieran ignored his father's hints as long as he 
could, then left court. When the King finally moved against 
Petrus, Kieran hid his brother until their father finished 
dying, then helped him deal with Josep and his supporters.
    
    "Kieran is the one mage His Majesty can trust. If the 
situation is bad enough to require the Cascade, it will be 
with Kieran at focus."
    
    They were silent for a few minutes, thinking; at last 
Coelus spoke. "I doubt that anyone will do the Cascade in 
the immediate future. But eventually someone, Kieran or 
Iolen, will. That means we have to find a way of blocking it 
first.
    
    "It comes down to two problems: how to protect a mage 
against being pulled into the Cascade, well enough so that 
more magery will be needed to pull him in than can be pulled 
out of him, making the Cascade converge. I think we know how 
to do that. Then, how to spread that to enough people to 
keep the Cascade from working."
    
    Ellen cut in: "Would it be enough to protect only the 
mages? Once other people are in the pool they contribute, 
but in the initial stage do they yield as much as it costs 
to pull them in?"
    
    Coelus shook his head. "No. Good point. In my original 
design, surplus from the mages pulled other people in. Most 
would not get pulled in until after all the mages were in 
the pool. So we only have to protect the mages. But I still 
don't see how we are going to do it."
    
    "Can we design the protective spell so that it spreads? 
Put a bubble around one mage, and gradually draw enough 
power from him to put another bubble around a second 
mage_the same principle as the Cascade?"
    
    Coelus considered the idea briefly.
    
    "The Cascade pours its power into the pool; the mage at 
focus uses that power to pull in more people. The bubbles we 
designed are pretty simple; what you are proposing is much 
more elaborate, a static spell that could cascade itself _ . 
I don't see how to do it, and if I did I would worry about 
what else could be done with it."
    
    Ellen got up. "It's late; we won't solve the problem 
tonight."
    
    "No. But we have to solve it soon. The first half we can 
do, but we want to do it better. Somehow we need not only to 
make the Cascade converge but let the bubbles get thicker 
over time, using some of the power the Cascade is pulling 
out of protected mages, so that eventually the mages that 
were pulled into the Cascade drop out again. Otherwise, even 
if the Cascade converges _"
    
    Ellen finished his thought. "Even if it converges, the 
mages in the pool gradually recover their magic. If they 
have enough time they can do another round, and another, and 
gradually spread the pool. I don't know what the limit is to 
how long one person can hold the focus, or whether once the 
pool is well established the first focus could pass it on to 
someone else. You're right. We need to design a better 
bubble. But not tonight."
    
    * * *
    
    The next day Ellen and Mari took lunch into the orchard, 
joined by Alys, who put her first question to Mari while 
sitting down. "What is the Prince like? Set a date for the 
wedding yet?"
    
    Mari looked amused. "What wedding, Alys? Are you 
marrying someone?"
    
    Alys, undeterred, shook her head. "Not me, you. Everyone 
says that Prince Kieran is going to marry you."
    
    "Then everyone is better informed on the subject than I 
am."
    
    "But you spent the whole summer with him, didn't you?"
    
    "I spent the summer with my father. For the early part 
of it His Highness guested with us at Northpass Keep, where 
he and my father were inspecting its defenses."
    
    Alys grinned. "I'm told that His Highness is very 
handsome. No doubt defenses were the sole topic discussed." 
Over her shoulder Mari saw Jon and Edwin come into the 
orchard, headed in their direction. As they sat down, Alys 
tried again, this time with Ellen.
    
    "You have to tell me all about it, the Prince and Lord 
Iolen and everything. Did Magister Coelus really get a spell 
wrong and go crazy? I saw he was back; are you sure it is 
safe to have him for your tutor?"
    
    Ellen said nothing. Mari looked up at the curve of the 
containment dome, glowing with dispersed sunlight.
    
    "Nice weather we are having, isn't it?"
    
    Edwin sat down on the other side of Mari and Ellen from 
Alys. "I heard from one of the grooms on the coach that both 
the Prince and Lord Iolen were in the village this summer 
and there was a lot of commotion. There seem to be six or 
seven different stories about what was happening. I hoped 
somebody in the College could tell me which one was true. 
Were any of you here then?"
    
    "You say Lord Iolen was here? In the College?"
    
    The speaker was a stranger, a large young man, well 
dressed. Alys looked up at him, patted the grass at her 
side. "Come join us. Ellen and Mari usually know everything; 
I'm trying to get them to tell, and could use some help. Do 
you know Lord Iolen?"
    
    "You are welcome to join us," said Ellen. "We're all 
friends from last year; are you new here?"
    
    "Not new. I was here year before last but took last year 
off. Now I'm back, most of my friends have graduated, and it 
feels like one of those dreams where you are walking through 
the courtyard into your own hall and all the faces have 
changed. My name is Anders."
    
    The group introduced themselves. "You might want to 
fetch some food from the refectory if you're hungry. As you 
can see, we have moved our lunch outside."
    
    Anders sat down between Alys and Ellen. "Thank you. I 
had lunch early, but would be happy to join your 
conversation. Was Lord Iolen here?"
    
    Ellen nodded. "He spent several days in the village this 
summer. Do you know him?"
    
    "Not exactly know, but I've met him; Father holds from 
Earl Eirick, and Iolen is married to the Earl's eldest 
daughter. I know about him, that he ought to be on the 
throne if he had his rights."
    
    That got Jon's attention. "Why do you think Lord Iolen's 
claim is better than His Majesty's?"
    
    "Because the old king, Thoma, named Josep, Iolen's 
father, as his heir. Petrus ended up King only because he 
and the youngest prince murdered Josep and usurped his 
throne."
    
    Jon looked puzzled. "But surely Petrus was the older. 
It's true that King Theodrick chose his heir, but none of 
his sons were alive and he had to choose among the 
grandsons. The eldest son inherits, or so Gerrit says in his 
History of the Kings; I was just reading it yesterday in the 
library."
    
    Anders shook his head. "I don't know what the books say, 
but in the North we have long memories. Ever since Esland 
broke free from the League and Theodrick reestablished the 
monarchy, custom has always been election by the great lords 
from among the royal household. It's true that the eldest 
son usually gets elected, but King Thoma summoned the Lords 
and they confirmed his choice of Josep."
    
    Mari looked up. "How many Great Lords make up the 
Council?" By her tone, she might have been asking about the 
weather.
    
    "Forty, I think."
    
    "Yes. And how many were present at the meeting at which 
King Thoma named Josep as his heir?"
    
    "I don't know, but it doesn't matter; they approved it."
    
    "It doesn't matter? If Thoma invited three of the Great 
Lords to consult with him and two approved his choice, would 
that be election according to the ancient customs?"
    
    "Of course not, but it wasn't just three."
    
    "No. Six of the northern lords came to Council at the 
King's command; five supported his choice. Three came from 
the court itself, two of whom had had their offices from 
Thoma's hand. Eight votes out of forty. Learned as you are 
in custom, does that suffice?" Mari's voice was still calm.
    
    "If it's true that only nine lords came to Council, 
that's the fault of all the other lords who stayed away. "
    
    Jon interrupted.
    
    "Gerrit's book discusses that, actually. The old custom 
was election by a majority of the Great Lords, not of 
whatever lords came to council. Without that, the King could 
control the succession by when and where he called council."
    
    Anders turned back towards Mari. "How do you know how 
many came, or how they voted? Did you read that in a history 
book too, or were you there counting?"
    
    Mari shrugged. "The count is my father's. He was one of 
those not present, being at the other end of the kingdom 
when His Majesty sent out a summons for a council three days 
later."
    
    It occurred to Ellen that Anders looked a bit like a 
bull doing his best to ignore the flies that were biting 
him.
    
    "Perhaps there wasn't a majority, but it doesn't really 
matter, because everyone knew that Petrus wasn't really King 
Thoma's son; that's why the King didn't want him as heir."
    
    Mari's voice was still calm, but with an edge to it:
    
    "Do you know why they say the hyena is the most prudent 
of beasts?"
    
    "No. Why?" Anders replied.
    
    "Because it waits to attack its prey until it is safely 
dead. The Queen Dowager Elinor was a formidable lady; it is 
surely prudent to wait to slander her honor until she is 
four years in her grave."
    
    For a moment everyone was silent, Mari's face 
expressionless, Anders' flushing with anger. Jon's voice 
broke it. "Did you know that the library is older than the 
college?"
    
    For a moment nobody responded, then Ellen picked up on 
the line. "No. Was it the oldest part of the old monastery?"
    
    Jon shook his head. "I don't mean the building, I mean 
the collection. When Durilil and Feremund started here, it 
wasn't really a college. Just two mages, their apprentices, 
and a library."
    
    The distraction having succeeded_at least, neither Mari 
nor Anders had tried to interrupt_Jon continued with growing 
enthusiasm. "In the old days, mages didn't share their 
spells except with their apprentices. Which was one of the 
reasons to be an apprentice, so that the mage would pass his 
spells down to you.  It was the library here, our library, 
that changed that.
    
    "Durilil and Feremund wrote all the spells they knew 
down and made an open offer to every other mage in the 
kingdom. Any who could tell them a spell they didn't already 
know got to pick any spell from their collection and learn 
it. So mages could share a spell they didn't think of much 
importance and get the most useful spell they didn't already 
know from the collection. Of course, the library could use 
the same spell in trade over and over again; it wasn't 
losing spells, it was gaining them.
    
    Edwin cut in. "But wouldn't that mean that the library 
got mostly minor spells, for banishing horseflies and the 
like?"
    
    Jon shook his head. "A spell that banished horseflies 
wouldn't seem all that minor if you lived on a farm. And a 
mage who had seen ten spells in the collection that he 
wanted and only had eight he didn't mind sharing might end 
up sharing a couple of his better ones. But the idea wasn't 
to get powerful spells anyway, it was to get a lot of 
different spells in the hope of figuring out more about 
magic, more about how spells were put together."
    
    Ellen nodded. "Then Olver showed up, and what he had 
been looking for was sitting in the library waiting for him. 
Olver didn't need powerful spells. What he needed were 
multiple spells doing the same thing in different ways, 
using different talents. If you could banish horseflies with 
a spell of fire and air and get exactly the same result with 
a spell built only on heat, that meant that in some fashion 
heat was fire plus air. How the spell was constructed let 
you figure out just how the air and fire were put together. 
Olver started with more than forty multiples_two or more 
spells that did the same thing in different ways. When he 
was finished he had the science of magic as we now know 
it_the different basis stars, the central paradox that any 
one star spans all of magery, and the rest. That was the 
first big breakthrough in three hundred years, since the 
Dorayans worked out the basic principles by trial and error.
    
    "If he had a spell that used warmth he could make one 
using air and fire, so mages were no longer limited to using 
only spells that fit their particular talents. Jon is right; 
the library came first. The theory of magic was built on the 
library; the College was built on the theory of magic. The 
talented came here because it was the only place in the 
world where they could learn not only what worked but why."
    
    Jon looked over at Anders, listening intently. "Welcome 
to Ellen's noontime seminar. But one thing is still missing; 
we do, after all, have our traditions. Mari?"
    
    Mari reached into her wallet, removed a small wheel of 
cheese covered in wax, cut a slice and held it out to Jon. 
He took it. She cut more pieces for each of the others, 
finally a last piece that she offered to Anders.
    
    He looked at her uncertainly.
    
    "Take it. I should not have spoken so harshly; you were 
only repeating what you have been told. I don't suppose you 
ever met Elinor, so how could you know how impossible that 
old slander was to anyone who knew her?"
    
    Anders hesitated a moment, then reached out, took the 
slice.
    
    * * *
    
    "Will Lady Mari be coming to visit again?"
    
    Prince Kieran looked up from his book, struck by the 
tone more than the words; it was not an idle question.
    
    "Not soon. She has resumed her studies at the College. 
It is a long day by horseback, even the way Mari rides, and 
two days by coach. I doubt we will see her until midwinter 
break."
    
    "But she will be back?"
    
    "I expect so. She knows she is welcome here. Do you like 
her?"
    
    Kir nodded. "Yes. She is the only one of the ladies who 
doesn't bring me sweets."
    
    "You like Mari because she doesn't bring you sweets?"
    
    "They want me to persuade you to marry them. Mari is the 
only one who treats me like a person, not a pet. I've been 
teaching her chess and she has been telling me about magic. 
She is very nice."
    
    Kieran waited a moment, was about to return to his book, 
when Kir spoke again. "Are you going to marry her?"
    
    Kieran's first thought was his usual noncommittal 
answer. But there was no one, with the possible exception of 
his brother the King, with a better right to the truth. "Do 
you want me to?"
    
    Kir nodded. "Then she would be here all the time. And 
she's much nicer than _ . I think Mother would have liked 
her."
    
    Kieran reached out, pulled his son into his lap_at ten 
Kir still fit comfortably_hugged him, the boy's head against 
his father's shoulder. "I intend to ask Mari to marry me 
when she is home for midwinter. I think she will say yes, 
but that is her decision and her father's, not mine."
    
    Chapter 27  
    
    "I have found a solution to the second half of our 
problem. Or, more precisely, you have," Coelus announced. 
His face was aglow. Ellen closed the door of his office and 
took a chair.
    
    "The first half of the problem is how to shield someone 
against the Cascade. We've solved it, and I have an idea for 
an improvement, a way of diverting the magery tapped for the 
Cascade to strengthen the barrier. When it gets strong 
enough to cut off the flow, the mage the barrier protects 
drops out of the pool. Once I write it out in full, I'll 
show it to you and you can poke holes in it.
    
    "The other half is how to get enough power to protect 
everyone. It occurred to me last night that you gave me the 
answer to that almost a year ago."
    
    Ellen looked puzzled. "That was before we started 
working on the problem."
    
    "You were solving a different problem at the time. One 
of those I set you."
    
    He stopped, waited; enlightenment took only a few 
seconds.
    
    "The elementals."
    
    Coelus nodded. "The elementals. You pointed out some of 
the things one could do if only one had use of one or more 
elementals. Now we do." 
    
    "Only one."
    
    "One is enough. We need a pool that spans all of magery, 
which means all four elements. We can get that with four 
mages plus a fifth at focus_just like the Cascade. We can 
also get it _"
    
    "With four mages and an elemental; of course. Unlimited 
power, even if only in one element. If we design the spell 
to _ I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I'll have to 
consult with Father; he knows more about the practical end 
of that problem than we do. Who do we get for the other 
mages?"
    
    Coelus thought a moment. "We need earth and water. The 
problem is finding ones we can trust who will be willing to 
help. You might think about whether any of the second or 
third year students are possibles; you probably know them 
better than I do. And we will have to be careful; if the 
Prince hears about it _"
    
    "How will he know what we are doing?"
    
    "He won't. But if he knows we are trying to put together 
an elemental star of mages, he will conclude that we plan to 
do the Cascade and use it somehow to stop him."
    
    * * *
    
    "If it comes to a vote, you will lose."
    
    Coelus responded to Hal_the two were alone in the senior 
common room_in a puzzled tone. "How can I? It's obviously 
the right thing to do."
    
    "Obvious to you."
    
    "Obvious to anyone. It's always been our policy to 
provide tutors for all the kinds of magery, up to the bounds 
of what is permitted. That's why Reymer comes for spring 
semester, because none of us is a competent truth teller. 
Healing is magery. Important magery. We have students who 
want to learn it, so we need a tutor who can teach it. All 
of the really competent healers are women, so _ ."
    
    Hal considered, not for the first time, the problem of 
making the facts of life and their application to academic 
politics  clear to his friend. "You assume that all that 
anybody cares about is what is true, what arguments are 
right or wrong. Truth isn't the only thing that matters to 
people."
    
    Coelus shook his head. "Not the only thing. But truth is 
a means to all other ends. Staying alive might be more 
important to someone than the truth about how magic works, 
but how can you know how to stay alive without knowing the 
truth as to whether the food put before you is poisoned or 
the horse you plan to ride likely to throw you?"
    
    "What if admitting that truth prevented you from 
achieving some other end you desired_getting a royal pension 
on retirement, persuading more parents to send their 
children here, or being respected by colleagues you value? 
Olver's view that witchery is merely another application of 
the laws that govern all magery has only started to spread 
beyond this College in recent years. Most of the senior 
mages in the Kingdom and practically all of the people whom 
we hope will send their talented children here grew up with 
the view that witchery was only a useful craft, magery the 
noblest of sciences. It makes no more sense to them for us 
to teach witchery than for a master painter to give lessons 
to his apprentices in painting barns."
    
    "But the evidence is perfectly clear. Olver made the 
case nearly forty years ago, and Henneck proved it 
experimentally twenty years later, and I ... "
    
    "And most of the people I am talking about, not to 
mention a fair number of our colleagues, have never read 
Olver and wouldn't understand him if they did. Or Henneck. 
Or you. And besides, once people learn something most of 
them never unlearn it. If you did manage to persuade our 
colleagues that, having decided to admit women as students, 
we now have to hire one as a tutor, they would conclude that 
the first decision was a mistake. I don't think that's the 
result you want."
    
    For a moment Coelus was too shocked to answer. "They 
couldn't. Ellen proves that decision was right; she's the 
best student we've had since I came here. Easily the best 
theorist and one of the best applied mages as well. If you 
don't believe me, ask His Highness."
    
    "I believe you; I'm not the one you have to convince. I 
would be perfectly happy to have a healer here as a tutor, 
although I'm not sure that with only six girls in the second 
year class there will be enough students to keep her busy."
    
    The puzzled expression had returned to the younger 
mage's face.
    
    "What does the number of girls have to do with it? You 
weren't assuming that only women would want to learn 
healing, were you?"
    
    "I was, actually. Was I wrong?"
    
    "Of course. Part of the point of what Olver taught us is 
that the same spells can be performed with more than one set 
of talents; you just have to work out the correspondences 
and go from there. The average man may not be as well suited 
to healing as the average woman, but some male mages have 
talent mixes that would work, and many more could do at 
least minor healing using reagents to fill in for the 
missing talents. I did the rough calculations last month, 
after spending some time with a very accomplished healer; my 
estimate is that almost a quarter of our students could 
learn a useful amount of healing_more than what war mages 
learn now. Of all the kinds of mages, healers are what we 
need most; think of how many people die each year because 
the nearest healer is a day's travel away, often more."
    
    "I suspect that hiring a woman to train our male 
students, whether in healing or anything else, will be even 
less popular with our more conservative colleagues than 
hiring a woman to tutor female students. So we still have a 
problem. To which I think I have a solution."
    
    "Other than forcing our colleagues to agree that two and 
two make four and that being healed is better than dying?"
    
    "Forcing people to agree to things doesn't usually work 
very well.
    
    "On the other hand," Hal continued, "since being healed 
is better than dying, especially if you are the one who is 
dying, most of our colleagues would be delighted for the 
College to have a healer of its own instead of relying on 
Janis from the village or one of the handful of healing 
spells we happen to know. Three years ago, as you may 
remember, Bertram came close to dying before we managed to 
bring a sufficiently accomplished healer from the Capital to 
get his heart working properly again. Instead of hiring a 
healer as a tutor, we should get a healer to move to the 
village on retainer from the College _ .
    
    "Once there is a competent healer in the village, there 
is no good reason why she shouldn't tutor anyone who wants 
to learn healing. She wouldn't be called a tutor, at least 
not until more of our colleagues get used to the idea. What 
she was doing wouldn't count officially as a tutorial, but 
what matters is what students know, not what our records 
show. Your friend Ellen has been teaching some of the other 
students for the past year; Lady Mariel, at least, refers to 
their lunches as Ellen's tutorial. It isn't on the College 
records, but that doesn't mean nobody is learning anything 
from it. If she wanted to do the same thing after she 
graduates _ ."
    
    Coelus shook his head. "Ellen wouldn't want to set up as 
a healer; it isn't really what she does. But I know a very 
accomplished one with the makings of a first rate theorist 
as well; I only wish the students in my class were as 
interested in learning what I have to teach as she was. I 
don't know if I can persuade her to come here, but if I 
could _ ."
    
    Hal considered how to put the obvious question 
tactfully. "It's none of my business, but you don't think 
Ellen would be uncomfortable if you brought another female 
mage here? You and she are obviously pretty close."
    
    Coelus shook his head. "I don't think that would be a 
problem in this case."
    
    * * *
    
    "_and so, with gratitude for Your Grace's kind 
invitation, I must regretfully decline."
    
    Dur added his signature, put the letter aside to dry. 
The regret was real enough, even if not, as Mari's mother 
would assume, for a lost commission. Almost fifty years 
since he had visited the Northfire and come away with its 
heart; it would be interesting to see its present condition. 
And no doubt there would be doings of note in Northpass 
Keep. As always, it was a temptation to meddle.
    
    Most of a week each way in a coach as Master Dur, a week 
more in the keep itself, would be difficult and perhaps 
dangerous. If he was correct about what the Duchess wanted 
him for, the Prince would be there as well, a further risk. 
Better not.
    
    But for the Northfire itself, he did not have to send 
his body; his mind would do. His link with the Salamander 
was stronger now than then; it should be safe enough. Dur 
considered the matter for a few minutes more before standing 
up from the desk and going down to his workshop.
    
    It was nearly an hour later that he finally eased 
himself free and let the cold world wash back over him. The 
signs were clear. Something was happening under Fire 
Mountain that was no work of his. Something he had best deal 
with.
    
    He would have to write Her Grace another letter.
    
    * * *
    
    A knock on the door; Ellen looked up from the paper on 
her desk, wondered what Mari could want; in another half 
hour they would both be at dinner. "Come in."
    
    Mari opened the door, came in, politely averted her eyes 
from Ellen's unmade bed. Ellen laughed and said, "You have 
had servants to wait on you all your life; I have never had 
a servant. So why is it that you manage to keep your bed, 
and your rooms, so much neater than I do?"
    
    Mari, used to her friend's random curiosity, considered 
the matter briefly before answering. "You grew up learning 
to do magic; I grew up learning how to run a household. As 
my mother pointed out to me long ago, you cannot get 
servants to do something properly unless you know how to do 
it yourself. That includes making beds, cooking dinner, 
sewing, and quite a lot of other things.
    
    "What I wonder," glancing around Ellen's room, "is how 
you can have both such a messy room and such a tidy mind. 
But that isn't what I came to ask. Come visit us at 
Northkeep for Midwinter break. I can offer you my company, 
as much snow and mountain as you want, and a bath every 
day_the hot spring is inside the walls."
    
    "A hot spring? Are there volcanoes? I've never seen 
one."
    
    "One volcano, Fire Mountain; the pass goes by one side 
of it. But it's dead since long before I was born. An old 
man in the Keep told me that when he was a child he saw it 
erupt, but that must have been at least fifty years ago, 
probably more, assuming he wasn't just repeating a story he 
had heard. Still, you are welcome to investigate the 
volcano, as best you can without burning yourself up or 
freezing to death in the snow.
    
    "And I expect my mother and father would enjoy meeting 
you. You might find meeting my father useful as well as 
interesting."
    
    Ellen gave her a puzzled look. "Useful how?"
    
    "Useful if you have to deal with the Prince, or Lord 
Iolen, or other powerful men. Kingdom politics is a 
complicated web; the more people you know the less power any 
one of them has over you. Speaking of which, I should warn 
you that the Prince will almost certainly be there too; I 
don't know what terms you and he are on at the moment. And 
Father asked me to invite Magister Coelus on his behalf, to 
help him and the Prince figure out what the Forsting mages 
have been up to all this time."
    
    "It's tempting; let me think about it. Is Northpass Keep 
where you grew up?"
    
    Mari shook her head. "I grew up in our lands, in the 
East. The Keep isn't ours; it belongs to His Majesty. Father 
just takes care of it for him."
    
    "Why your father, and not _"
    
    "One of the northern lords, such as Earl Eirick? You 
know the history of the succession troubles, that Anders was 
talking about the first time we met him?"
    
    "Only the parts you have told me about; I don't think 
Northpass Keep came into that."
    
    "During the troubles, Father kept as far from court as 
he could. Anders was right about that part, although I 
couldn't say so. Father got messages from both sides and 
ignored all of them. As it happened, the Castellan of 
Northpass was one of our people in the royal service. Father 
could see what was going to happen, so while the Princes and 
His Majesty feuded, he did everything he could to get 
Northpass Keep ready, spent money repairing the defenses, 
hired troops, recruited mages. When the Forstings decided we 
were close enough to a civil war for them to intervene they 
brought an army over the pass; the Keep refused to surrender 
so they laid siege to it. After three months they gave up 
and went home.
    
    "His Majesty, who has more sense than his father did, 
decided it would be prudent to put that key to the kingdom 
in the hands of a lord more concerned with protecting Esland 
than trying to decide who was king. So Father tells His 
Majesty who he should appoint as Castellan and His Majesty 
appoints him; His Majesty pays the official garrison and 
supplies it, and Father provides whatever else he thinks the 
Keep needs.
    
    "Anders is a fair sample of the Marcher lords. Prince 
Josep's wife, Iolen's mother, was from the north, and most 
of her kin supported Josep's claim. Nobody ever found out if 
the Forstings were coming in on their invitation, but His 
Majesty garrisons the Keep with his own people, not local 
levies."
    
    An hour later, at dinner, the question of Northpass and 
the Forstings came up again, this time raised by Alys. 
"Isn't it terribly dangerous for you and your family to 
spend Break there? Everyone says there's going to be another 
war; if the Forstings invade you could end up trapped. And 
if they take the Keep _ ."
    
    Mari failed to react with appropriate horror.
    
    "If they take the Keep, all sorts of terrible things 
could happen. But to take the Keep in midwinter they first 
have to learn to fly, which doesn't seem likely. That's why 
our skirmishes are always in spring or summer; this time of 
year the pass is ten feet deep in snow and ice. It might be 
possible to get a few men on snowshoes over Northpass, but 
not an army. We'll be at least as safe in Northpass Keep as 
you will be in the capital, probably safer. After all, we 
have a garrison of loyal soldiers to protect us; you're at 
the mercy of any passing footpad."
    
    And with that, Mari turned back to her plate.