Salamander (14 page)

There was a brief silence. The Prince broke it. "I hope I may be able to give you further reasons to thank me. I confess that my purposes are not purely social. Among my responsibilities to His Majesty, I felt obligated to inquire as to the death of one of your colleagues, since it seemed clear that it was in some way due to magery. I spent some time with Magister Coelus yesterday and today and I believe now that I understand the unfortunate accident which cost the life of Magister Maridon. I do not expect that any further investigation will be required.

"His death has left you short a magister. Since he was the only earth mage on your faculty, his absence creates a problem for those students whose talents lie in that direction. Fieras here, an accomplished earth mage, has volunteered to take over Maridon's tutorials until you find a suitable replacement. While not a graduate of the College, he is a mage who has worked with me for some years and I have given him, I believe, a sense of what is required. Since he is already being compensated by the Crown for his services to me, there will be no additional expense for the College. I hope you gentleman will find that arrangement satisfactory. I insist only that you make no effort to lure him away on a permanent basis; I need his services."

Bertram was the first to respond. "I cannot speak for my colleagues, but the arrangement seems to me entirely proper, and it is one that leaves us even further in Your Highness's debt."

"Indeed it does." Simon looked around the room a moment. "If there is no objection, allow me to offer a toast to our new colleague." He nodded to a servant standing in the open door. A moment later a second servant appeared, bearing a tray with a bottle and glasses.

* * *

Fieras looked up at the knock on his door. "Come in."

The visitor was a girl, by her dress a student.

"I am Ellen. You sent a message that you wished to see me."

He looked her over carefully. Short, broad, dark hair. An amulet on a cord around her neck. Some talent, but not a great deal. Probably a waste of time—she did not look likely to conceal dangerous secrets—but if the Prince wanted to talk with her, talk with her he would, whether she wished it or not. "Yes, have a seat, this may take some time. His Highness wanted me to ask you some questions concerning your work with Magister Coelus." He motioned to the chair in front of his desk.

Ellen sat down, froze. Fieras got up and walked around the desk to her.

"Now what is this, I wonder." He lifted the amulet, twisted off the cap, teased out the scroll with the tip of his pen knife, read it. "Very useful, I'm sure." He dropped the scroll on the desk, stepped back.

"I do not expect you have studied quick-trigger static spells yet. As you can see, they have their uses. The last time His Highness wished to speak with you, you arranged to be elsewhere. This time you will not. Get up."

She stood.

"Follow me." He opened the door, went through it. She followed.

A few minutes brought them to gatehouse and gatemaster. The old man rose and grasped the iron ring to the massive front door of the college. Beyond the door the stone walk, bordered on each side by high hedges, crossed the front lawn, vanished at the brink of the containment sphere. The old man spoke a Word; Fieras watched curiously as the sphere dilated, opening a half circle hole, and turned back to the gatemaster. "Half the circle is below the ground?" The man nodded. Ellen was silent.

Fieras turned and strode through the gate, through the sphere, and up the hill slope beyond, towards the village, then turned to look back. The road behind him was empty.

The gatemaster, summoned by the entering bell, responded to the mage’s questions with a shrug of his shoulders. The magister had gone through the gate, the student had turned back. He had no idea where she had gone or why.

After a half hour search through the College, it occurred to Fieras to ask someone where the girl's room was. As he came through the door, Ellen looked up from her desk and the sheet of paper she was studying. "The custom is to knock before entering," she said, mildly.

"The custom is for students to obey magisters. Enough of this nonsense; get up and follow me."

Ellen looked at him curiously. "What makes you expect people to obey you when you give them orders?"

"I am a magister and a mage—you are a student and a girl at that. You are under my authority and will do what I tell you, willingly or not. I thought I had already demonstrated that. And you will not discuss the matter with others."

Ellen shook her head. "Even if I were willing to obey your orders, it is too late for that one."

"What do you mean? Have you been gossiping with the other students?"

"Not with the students. As soon as I was free of your compulsion spell I went to the senior common room and informed the magisters present that I was charging you with violation of the bounds and the criminal use of magic. I expect they will want to speak with you."

Fieras was speechless for a moment. "You charged me? And what authority do you think you have?"

"What authority do I need? The use of compulsion spells is a violation of the bounds of magery, whomever they are used against. If you know that, you know you are guilty of the offense. If you do not know it, then you have no business practicing magic in this kingdom."

The final words were spoken to the empty air. Ellen got up from her chair and set off after him for the senior common room.

Approaching, she heard raised voices. Peering through the door, she saw Fieras on one side of the room, Simon and Bertram on the other. Fieras spluttering, "And I say it is outrageous! Why should you believe a student, a girl student, over a mage recommended to you by His Highness?"

Simon responded calmly. "The accusation is indeed surprising, but we must determine its truth before deciding which of you has committed an outrage. The girl told us her story and offered to repeat it in the presence of a truthteller. If you are willing to give your account under the same conditions, we should be able to determine what happened easily enough."

"No! Even if I were willing to go through with such a thing, it would be useless. I am shielded against any magic that deals in any way with the contents of my mind."

"If the accusation is false, drop the shielding for long enough to prove it."

"I cannot. The spells are keyed to the Prince. Only he can cancel them. What would be the use of shielding my mind if any thug willing to apply sufficient force, or sufficiently persuasive threats, could force me to drop the shield?"

Bertram nodded. "It is a common enough precaution among servants of His Majesty, at least those entrusted with information of importance."

"And since that is settled," Fieras spoke in a tone to override dissent, "you may dismiss the charges and let me deal with the girl. Unless you wish to provoke not only my annoyance but that of my master."

Another voice broke in. Magister Hal was standing in the doorway. "Tell us what happened. Truthtellers are not the only means of determining truth."

Fieras shook his head. "I asked the girl to follow me to the village to speak with the Prince about matters I will not discuss here. When I saw she was not following me, I came back for her."

Hal came into the room, joined the other two magisters. "She charges you with the use of a compulsion spell. Is it true?"

"She is a student, not a mage. How could she judge?"

"You can judge. Is it true?"

Fieras hesitated.

Hal continued. "She also charges that, while she was held by the spell, you opened the protective amulet she was wearing and removed the scroll, in order to make sure it did not interfere with your spell. Is that not correct, Ellen?"

Fieras spun around and glared at Ellen, who came into view behind Hal in the doorway.

"It is." She spoke quietly but clearly.

"Nonsense. You are still wearing your amulet."

"Yes. But the case is now empty."

"And for all I know it always was. I have no idea where your scroll is, if it ever existed."

Hal broke into the exchange. "I, however, do." He held out his hand. "I found it on your desk a few minutes ago."

"You found a scroll on my desk? Aside from the discourtesy of searching my room, what does that show? Are you surprised to find scrolls on the desk of a mage?"

"This scroll, as it happens, has Ellen's name in the inscription. Also, I spoke to the Magister gatekeeper. His account accords with hers."

Ellen carefully drew the amulet's cord up and over her head, turned to Hal. "You may want to examine this also; it retains the spell cast on me. But be careful …"

Fieras took two long steps towards Ellen, reached out and snatched the amulet and cord from her hand. Froze. Ellen went on, calmly. "The spell on the scroll was a protection against mosquitoes and bedbugs, which seemed to amuse Magister Fieras. The spell woven into the cord was a protection against magery, including compulsion spells. By the time we reached the outer gate, it had absorbed enough of his spell to free me. Since it was a protection for me alone, it released the spell as soon as anyone else touched it." She gestured towards Fieras, still frozen. "As you can see. He is bound by his own spell."

Hal stepped over to the motionless mage. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes." Fieras’s voice was a monotone.

"What is the release for the spell you are under?"

"The word 'unbind' in the true speech releases the spell."

Hal turned to Simon, who spoke the Word. Fieras looked around the room, blinking and speechless. For a moment there was silence. Hal broke it.

"Fellow mages. Gentlemen. I believe we have seen enough and more than enough support for these charges to put our fellow mage under ban, as law and custom require, until the matter can be fully judged. Do any here disagree?"

Nobody spoke. In a moment Hal continued, speaking directly to Fieras.

"By judgment of myself, Magister Henryk, and by judgment of all mages here present, you are held to be under suspicion of violation of the bounds of magery and accordingly banned from all use of the art until the matter is finally judged. You have the right, if you wish, to demand that we summon any additional mages nearby, put the facts to them, and ask if they will join in our judgment.”

Fieras said nothing; Hal waited a moment, then continued. “You shall be taken to His Highness that he may arrange for trial according to law and custom. That will require at least two mages to accompany you. A damned nuisance, but I see no help for it."

Fieras finally spoke. "As it happens, they will not have to accompany me far. His Highness was not planning to leave the village until tomorrow morning. You—we—will find him at the inn, where I expect he will dispose of this nonsense, although with what consequences for you and the College, I cannot say."

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 be killed, by any mage, for first violation of that ban. Not an attractive outcome."