“Hold onto me, all of you!” I cried. “We’ve got to get out!”
Paul and Vor seized my arms at once, but Lucas clung to the cart’s edge. “You mean you’re going to start flying with all of us trying to hang onto you?”
That was exactly what I meant. “Yes, yes, hurry! I can’t break the cart out of the attraction spell.”
“And then you’ll drop off those of us you don’t like?”
“Come here!” I dragged him to me with magic and quickly started putting a lifting spell together. I had never tried to fly with three other people before.
But it was too late. As Lucas struggled in the grip of my magic, making it impossible for me to hold onto him and the other two at the same time, the cart began spiraling downward. Below us was a circular green plain rimmed with low dark hills, a dense grove of trees in the middle. We were heading for those trees.
The air cart swung low, tipping until all of us piled against one side, Lucas still struggling. With a twitch it tossed us out.
We spun out into the air, Paul and Vor nearly pulling my arms from the sockets. I applied enough lift to them to ease my arms and almost reluctantly looked for Lucas.
I caught him barely before he hit the first tree, just soon enough that he did not crash into it at full speed. But he disappeared from sight with a gratifying yell and a rapid breaking of twigs.
The air cart hesitated above us, abruptly freed from the attraction spell. I yelled commands at it in the Hidden Language and followed Lucas downward. The air cart shot off to the south, and we descended through a canopy of leaves to the thin grass below.
I came down prepared to face an unimaginable enemy but found only Lucas, green shadows, and an uneasy silence. Lucas, I was glad to see after all, seemed essentially intact. Paul and Vor collapsed without a word. The air that had been cool and brisk in Vor’s valley was here sensuously warm. I closed my eyes for a second, concluding that there really must be a saint who looked after wizards.
Paul raised himself on his elbow after a moment. “What happened?”
“Someone or something wanted us down here and didn’t particularly care how we got here.”
“Who is it?” He scrambled to his feet.
“I don’t know. I’m trying to locate him, but now that he’s no longer drawing us with magic, I’m having trouble.”
Paul had his sword out and looked around intently, but he had no more success with his eyes than I was having with magic. “How are we going to get back?”
“Walk to Vor’s valley. I sent the air cart there as soon as it was freed from the attraction spell.”
“Or we could ride,” Paul suggested, which made no sense at all.
“I can’t walk!” groaned Lucas. “You’ve broken my ankle!”
“You’re lucky I saved your life instead of killing you,” I said grimly. Dropping out of the sky had diverted my attention, but I had plenty of fury left. “It’s entirely your fault we’re here. If you hadn’t attacked me, I could have kept someone else from taking control of the air cart. If it weren’t for the oaths the school makes us swear to serve mankind, you’d not only be a frog but a very dead frog.”
Lucas looked quickly toward Paul and Vor, but it was clear he would get no reinforcements there. “So are you just going to stand there and threaten me?” he said, attempting a sardonic smile. It was not improved by a grimace of pain.
“No. But I am going to demand to know why you believe that wizards are conspiring against the nobility, and why you summoned a fanged gorgos to the bishop’s funeral.”
He reached for his sword, but I froze it in his sheath. “I thought you’d discovered that violence against a wizard won’t work, Lucas,” I said fiercely, standing in front of him with my arms crossed. “And I already know most of it. It starts with your plan to use a gorgos to discredit both the Church and organized magic!
“You and your brother,” I continued sternly, “have developed the foolish idea that the power of the aristocracy, even that of the kings of the western kingdoms, is being diminished. And you blame the priests and the wizards for this. Because you imagine that the kings could do better without their spiritual and magical advisers, you-”
“I know nothing of the gorgos,” interrupted Lucas. “I’m not going to dignify such accusations with a response. But the power of kings is being daily diminished by wizardly scorn!” Sometime soon I really would have to find out what purported failings had led to Sengrim’s final argument. Should I start suspecting Lucas of having murdered him, then deliberately replacing him with a renegade who paid no attention to the school and its oaths to help humanity?
Lucas looked as much toward Paul as me as he spoke. “Did you hear that wizard up on top of the mountain? ‘Young fellows,’ he called us. And it’s not just scorn for our position. It’s a determined effort to weaken us collectively! Even the feeblest and silliest kings are allowed to survive and flourish. Before the wizards’ school, when wizards owed their allegiance to their kings rather than the school in the City, bandits and ruffians were found in great numbers, and princes could earn their spurs in combat. Then a few short wars by the strongest took care of the weak and foolish, and kings could stand proudly in their castle halls, rather than amusing themselves with illusions and fairy-stories.”
Paul looked toward me with a forced smile, as though trying to persuade me he had never believed such things.
“Did you consider the gorgos a fairy-story?” I demanded of Lucas.
He ignored me. “Not very long ago, all my worst fears were confirmed. A nobleman from the City stopped by our castle on a journey. And this man, as it turns out, is a close friend of the Master of the wizards’ school. He confirmed that the school is plotting very soon to break all purported obedience to the aristocracy!”
“The Master has no close friends among the aristocracy,” I said, surprised. “Just who did this man claim to be?”
“He was an nobleman, all right,” said Lucas testily. “I don’t remember his name, but he had a black beard and hazel eyes-wore a big ring. And he seemed remarkably well informed on how the school operated.”
“I spent all spring at the school, and I never saw anyone who-” The words died on my lips. Standing before us, where a second ago there had been no one, was a pale green woman.
She was green all over, naked skin the color of the first leaves in spring, eyes and hair a rich jade hue. She had round, uplifted breasts, a tiny waist, and almost unbelievably long and graceful legs. Clouds of dancing lights, like tiny stars, surrounded her: almost, but not quite, keeping her decent.
“Is this one of your Little People?” I asked Vor in a low voice.
“She is not little,” he said with the hint of a smile. “She’s a nixie.”
“Of course I’m a nixie,” she said in a mellifluous voice, taking a step toward us. “And I’m delighted that four men have chosen to visit me.”
Vor turned to her, smiling fully now. “I wouldn’t have said we chose to visit you, Lady. But you do have a charming grove.”
“And even more charming treats await you, as I’m sure you realize.”
“I realize that, of course, but you must understand that this is rather startling for all of us.”
“Did you bring me here?” said Lucas, glowering balefully at her. “I am leaving now.”
“But you can’t leave,” she said with a tinkling laugh. “None of you can. Not until you’ve fully satisfied me. He knows what I mean,” with a glance at Vor, “and the rest of you will find out quickly. But don’t worry. You’ll enjoy it fully as well!” She leaned down, breasts near Lucas’s face, and kissed him on the top of the head.
Paul took an involuntary step backwards. His sword, forgotten in his hand, clanged against a root.