She knew that it would be evening soon, and that was not a good time to be about in a foreign country. Local demons were apt to be abroad, and they could cause some rare mischief if they were of a mind to. There was no love lost between European and Asiatic demons in those days, and the wars between the two still awaits their chronicler.
The eyes she wrapped in a small silk handkerchief, then placed in a casket of rosewood which she kept on hand for the transport of delicate and precious objects. Then she turned and departed the cave.
Ylith stood tall as the light of the falling sun bounced off the ice peaks of the highest mountains. She shook out her glorious black flag of hair, mounted her powerbroom, and soared away into the west, the land of the dragon dwindling beneath her.
Chapter 7
It was still daylight when Ylith arrived in Augsburg, for, with a favorable tail wind, she had managed to outrace the sun itself. She came down near the front door of Azzie's mansion and banged hard with the big brass knocker. "Azzie! I'm back! I've got them!"
A cavernous silence followed. Although it was a summer afternoon, there was a chill in the air. Ylith felt faintly uneasy. Her witch's sense warned her that something was amiss. She touched the protective amulet of amber she wore around her neck. She knocked again.
At last the door was opened. Frike stood there, meager face screwed into an expression of grief.
"Frike! What is the matter!"
"Alas, mistress! Things have gone very wrong indeed!"
"Where is Azzie?"
"That, milady, is what has gone most wrong. He is not here."
"Not here? But where could he be?"
"I do not know," Frike said, "but it wasn't my fault!"
"Tell me what happened."
"A few hours ago," Frike said, "the master was preparing a solution to wash the hair of Princess Scarlet, since it had become dirty and tangled. He had finished it, and I was drying the lady's hair. I recollect it was somewhat past the noon hour, for the sun was full and high when I went out to gather firewood- "
"Get on with it," Ylith said. "What happened?"
"I came in with the firewood and Master Azzie was humming a merry tune as he clipped Prince Charming's fingernails-he always takes great care with details, you know. All of a sudden he stopped humming and looked about. I looked, too, though I had heard no sound. Master Azzie looked entirely around him, and when his gaze rested on me again, I could swear he was a changed demon. Some of the fire had gone out of his hair, and he had grown pale. I said to him, 'Did you hear something, master?' and he said, 'Yes, a keening sound, and it will bring me no good. Quick, fetch me my Master Spell Book.' And so saying, he slumped to his knees. I rushed to do his bidding. He had not the strength to open the book -it is that very large brass-bound one you see on the floor near your feet. He said to me, 'Frike, help me turn the pages. Some cunning trick of weakness is undemoning me.' I assisted him, and he said, 'Faster, Frike, faster, before the heart goes out of me entirely.' And so I turned the pages faster, doing it all myself now since the master's hand had fallen away and it was all he could do to keep his eye, which had lost its usual luster, focused upon the page. And then he said, 'Right, stop there. Now let me see... . ' And that was all."
"All?" said Ylith. "What do you mean, all?"
"All that he said, mistress."
"I understand that well enough. But what happened?"
"He vanished, Mistress Ylith."
"Vanished?" Ylith said.
"Before my very eyes, he vanished entirely out of sight. I was beside myself, knowing not what to do. He had left no instructions. So I went into hysterics for a time, then decided it best simply to await your arrival."
"Describe to me the manner of his vanishing," Ylith said.
"The manner?" Frike asked.
"Yes. Was it a smoke vanishment, in which he dwindled quickly to nothing? Or was it a flash vanishment, in which he disappeared with perhaps a small clap of thunder? Or did he shrink down to the size of a point first?"
"I know not, mistress. I shut my eyes."
"Shut your eyes! You are a fool, Frike!"
"Ah, mistress, but I peeked."
"And what did your peek tell you?"
"I saw the master become very thin and slide off sidewise."
"Which side?"
"The right side, mistress."
"Did he slide away smoothly or with a sort of up-and-down motion?"
"With motion."
"This is very important, Frike. Did he at any time change color before vanishing completely?"
"You've got it, Mistress Ylith! He changed color indeed, just before he slid away into nothingness!"
"What color did he change into?"
"Blue, milady."
"It is as I thought," Ylith said. "Now let us look at his conjuring book."
Frike lifted the heavy volume to a lectern where Ylith could read it more easily. It was still turned to the page Azzie had regarded just before his disappearance. Ylith bent over it and quickly translated the runes.
"What is it?" Frike asked.
"It is a General Unbinding, Frike," she told him. "This is the spell that demons use when something or someone is trying to conjure them. It is called the Grand Counterveillance."
"Was he too late?"
"Obviously."
"Conjured!" said Frike. "But the master is a conjurer himself!"
"Of course he is," Ylith said, "and a very good one. But all who conjure, Frike, are subject themselves to conjuration. It is one of the great laws of the Unseen Realm."
"So I have heard," Frike said. "But who could conjure the master away like that?"
"There are many possibilities," Ylith said. "But given the sequence of events, it is most likely that it was some mortal- a witch perhaps-or an alchemist, or some other demon-who had a hold of some sort over Azzie, and thus was able to call him away without his consent."
"But when will we see him again?" Frike asked.
"I have no idea," Ylith said. "It depends on who did the conjuration, the spell used, and the nature of the obligation that Azzie had incurred."
"But will he be back soon?"
Ylith shrugged. "He could be back in an instant. Or he could be gone for days, months, years, even forever. It is difficult to unravel the truth of these matters a posteriori."
"I'd be glad to sacrifice my posterior if it would bring him back!" cried Frike. He wrung his hands in grief and uncertainty, and then a thought crossed the shadowy places of his mind and he called out afresh, "Oh, no!"
"What is it?" Ylith asked.
"The bodies!"
"What about them?"
"They run peril of decaying, lady! For only this morning we used up our last bit of ice, and we're very low on ichor. I reminded the master of this as soon as he arose, and he said, 'Never fear, Frike, I'll call Supply and get some more as soon as I've had my nap.' "
"Nap? But you said he had just arisen."
"He liked a nap soon upon awakening, mistress."
"Now that you mention it, I remember it well," Ylith said.
She went to the part of the laboratory where the bodies slept in their coffin-shaped open boxes, side by side, awaiting resuscitation. The ice of the high Alps was gone. In the bottom of each box was no more than a little pool of ichor.
"Your master has been very slack," Ylith said.
"He had not expected to be conjured, mistress," Frike said.
"I suppose not. Well, first things first. We must refrigerate these bodies, Frike."
"Beg pardon, mistress?"
"We must find a means of lowering their temperature."
"Can you call up glacial ice, mistress?"
"Not I," said Ylith. "Witches' conjurations do not lean to that sort of thing. Fetching things is demons' work. But our demon has been taken from us. This is a tricky situation." She crossed to the couch and sat down. "Stop whimpering, Frike, and let me think."