"That still leaves why." Morwen pulled a chair up to the table and sat down. "You can explain over dinner."
"Something smells good up here," Scorn said from the staircase, poking her black nose over the top of the last step. "Hey, Horatio, there's cream!"
"If i don't get any, I will be very upset," said Trouble, lashing his tail for emphasis as the other two cats bounded out of the stairwell and headed for the bowls Brandel had left on the floor.
Cimorene smiled absently at the cats and joined Morwen at the table.
"It's-well, dragons aren't very patient at the best of times. And we haven't run into any wizards yet, and Kazul wasn't sure your enchanted pantry would be up to feeding a dragon. So since I was worried about Mendanbar-" "And since Mendanbar said something about wizards in the Enchanted Forest when you talked to him last night-" Morwen said.
And since there's not much dragon food in the swamp-" Killer put in.
"-Kazul offered to go home and-and see what's going on." Cimorene took a large helping of the roast boar and dug in with relish.
"It may be just as well." Morwen took a much smaller portion of the boar and looked at it doubtfully, wondering whether her stomach was up to it. "Once we have the sword, we'll want to return to the Enchanted Forest immediately. Telemain won't be fit for much for a day or so, but-" "Oh no! Morwen, we can't afford to sit around here for a whole day!"
"If you have a better idea, I'd like to hear it," said Morwen.
"Besides, we haven't got the slightest idea where we're going, so rushing off won't get us there any quicker. We'll be better off if we take time to plan."
"I suppose so," Cimorene said, but she didn't sound happy about it.
"As I was saying: By tomorrow morning, I'll have some idea when Telemain will be able to do a proper transport spell again. Without Kazul, he can take us considerably farther each time and still stay within the safety position."
Cimorene swallowed a mouthful of potato. "That's good. The faster we go, the sooner we'll get the sword back to the Enchanted Forest."
"Exactly." With some regret, Morwen set down her fork. "For tonight, the best thing we all can do is rest. Brandel, will you help us with Telemain?"
"I don't need help," Telemain said unexpectedly from the floor in front of the fire. "I need dinner. Where are we, and why is there a cat on my chest?"
"He was supposed to be making sure you stayed asleep," Morwen said, turning to give Trouble a reproving look.
"It's not my fault," Trouble said. "He doesn't react right. I've never had to use that spell on a magician before; maybe that's why."
He rose and stepped carefully down from Telemain's chest. "Are there any sardines left?"
Telemain sat up and looked at Trouble with dislike. "That animal is remarkably heavy for something that looks that skinny."
"That's gratitude for you," said Trouble. "He should be glad I'm not Chaos."
"How are you feeling?" Cimorene asked Telemain anxiously.
"Squashed," said Telemain. "And may I point out that as yet no one has answered my first question. Where are we?"
"The Smoking Swamp," Morwen told him. "And this is Brandel. We were fortunate enough to find his tower in time to spend the night, or you'd be sleeping in mud."
"I appear to have done that already," Telemain said, picking flakes of dried mud from the left shoulder of his vest. Suddenly, he looked up, frowning.
"Spend the night?"
"You got an unusually heavy Dose of backshock when you lost control of the transportation spell," Morwen told him. "You've been unconscious all day."
"Ridiculous," said Telemain. "I did not lose control of the transportation spell, and I am not suffering from backshock."
"Well, this certainly isn't the edge of the Great Southern Desert," Cimorene said. "And something knocked you out for most of the day."
"I had to carry you," Killer said, bobbing his head up and down for emphasis. "You're heavy."
Morwen's eyes narrowed. "If it isn't backshock, what is it?"
"The opposite of backshock," Telemain said. "I don't believe there is a word for it."
"Explain."
"Backshock occurs when the accumulated magical energy contained within an enchantment-in-process rebounds upon the magician casting the spell due to his inability to maintain control," Telemain said.
"He's feeling better, all right," said Trouble, glancing up from the sardines.
"Mrrow vrow?" said Horatio.
"Yes," said Scorn. "Sometimes he's even worse."
"In this instance, both the disruption of the transportation spell and the prolonged unconsciousness that followed resulted from an expropriation of magical energy as a result of the partial absorption of my enchantment-inprocess by a similar but much more extensive enchantment."
"What?" said Brandel.
"You're sure?" Morwen said, frowning.
"Positive," said Telemain. "The sensation was quite unmistakable. And I must also point out that the normal secondary consequences of backshock are not in evidence."
"What does that mean?" Cimorene said.
"It means I'm starving," Telemain said, climbing to his feet. "Can we finish this discussion over dinner?"
"Most of us have eaten," Morwen said. "You can have dinner while the rest of us discuss. About this other spell-"
"What other spell?" Cimorene said. "Morwen, will one of you please explain what you're talking about?"
"Sorry," Morwen said. "Telemain said that he didn't lose control of the transportation spell. Somebody else was transporting at the same time-" "A very large somebody else," Telemain said, piling a plate with slices of roast boar and heaps of vegetables. "Or possibly someone moving a moderately large house."
"-and the second spell sucked up enough of Telemain's magic to break his spell right in the middle of things."
"Sucked up Telemain's magic?" Cimorene scowled. "That sounds an awful lot like wizards."
"Aren't you jumping to conclusions?" Brandel said. "I know wizards have a bad reputation, but they aren't thieves."
"They took Mendanbar's sword."
"And they've been stealing magic on a small scale for years," Morwen said. 'Just ask the dragons."
"But if it was wizards, where were they going?" Cimorene tapped her fingers nervously against the arm of her chair. "And what were they planning to do when they got there? Oh, I wish I'd been able to reach Mendanbar."
Telemain made a questioning noise, so Morwen explained about Brandel's magic mirror. "I thought the spell might be incompatible with the one in the castle," she finished. "Do you feel up to checking, once you're done eating?"
"I can certainly try," Telemain said. "If that's the problem, though, I doubt that I'll be able to do anything about it until tomorrow. It takes time to rebuild magical reserves."
But when Telemain examined the mirror, he shook his head. "It's an old universal-application single-unit enchantment. Quite an impressive antique, and I can see that it's been well maintained. The connective interface is pretty basic, therefore-" "Can you fix it to get through to Mendanbar or not?" Cimorene asked.
"I was getting to that." Telemain looked at the expression on Cimorene's face and sighed. "I'm afraid it doesn't need adjusting," he said with unusual gentleness. "There's nothing wrong with the spell, and it shouldn't be incompatible with the castle mirror. The problem is somewhere else."
"I knew it," Cimorene said. She rose and began to pace in front of the fireplace. "Something is wrong at home."
16
In Which They Learn Something Worth Knowing
Both Morwen and Telemain agreed with Cimorene, at least in part, but even if they had wanted to, they could not have done anything that night.
Telemain was much too drained to cast another transportation spell, and they had no other way of getting back to the Enchanted Forest in a hurry.
Furthermore, there was not much point in going back without the sword.