Part 5 (1/2)

All the stupid ones can do is leam one or two very simple spells, and then spend the rest of their lives coasting on the reputation of being a witch or a magician. The real trouble

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comes when one of the stupid or lazy tries to do something beyond them. They establish a weak or useless hold on some dangerous entry, for example, then either get sucked into it or let out things that don't get along with our kind of life. It's pure h.e.l.l getting a mess like that straightened out again, especially if they happen to get sucked in and leave the entry behind them. People without the Sight can't See the entry, and end up getting sucked in right behind the bungler.”

”To disappear forever from the world they know,” he said with a shudder he made no attempt to hide. ”Truly is there a dark side to this thing called magic.”

”Only if you go at it stupidly,” I said, looking around at the cool, green woods we were just entering. ”There are some people, without the Sight, who make a wrong dis- tinction between white magic and black magic. They don't understand that the Sighted arc otherwise no different from me unSighted, some bright, some stupid, some decent and some warped by something inside them. What the warped try to do is use magic to advance themselves according to their own peculiar values, but they try to do it in a way that doesn't match reality. They See what me rest of us See, but the vision doesn't suit them so they try to tell themselves they're Seeing something else. When they be- gin describing that something else in a spell, the spell and me reality don't quite match up, but they're using very precise language that brings them a lot of power. We've discovered that that power-changes-the reality of what the warped one is looking at, but not the way normal magic changes things. To change something into something else is easy, but only if you have a sure grasp of what that something is to begin with; you're accepting its reality and working from there. To alter that reality to begin with is not black magic but something else entirely, and the sub- stance for the change has to come from somewhere other than thin air. The only place for the substance to come from is the warped one's own body, and that's where it does come from. They force reality to change to their view of it, but pay a terrible price for the accomplishment.

Every use of that kind of power diminishes them, but most 49.

of them won't admit it until mere isn't enough left of them to save.”

We were both silent for a while after that, the darker woods a fitting backdrop for the dark subject we'd been discussing, the happy chirps and squawks and chitterings all around both incongruous and at the same time warm- ing. Physical dark can never be as bad as the dark of the mind, and after the while pa.s.sed Kadrim Harra took a deep breath of the sweet air we rode through.

”And the spells which you spent me darkness learn- ing?” he said, bringing his attention back to me. ”As spells are merely descriptions of that which you see, for what reason did you need to leam of what is not yet before you?”

”The purpose of speaking a spelt is to gather power over the thing you're describing,” I said slowly, trying to keep from confusing him. ”If I can See something I can describe it in the language of spells, and if I speak the spell I have power over it. The problem is, although I can feel the power someone has or has used by speaking a spell, I can't See the spell itself-at least, not most spells.

If I can't See a spell sent to attack us, I can't defend against it, nor can even the strongest wizard alive. The only thing i can do is leam certain general defensive spells, which describe conditions rather than solid objects.

Developing those spells took a lot of time and a lot of dangerous work by very powerful wizards, and they must be learned exactly right or they won't work-or, worse than that, they'll work wrong. I could build us a house in the middle of these woods right now without any trouble at all, but I've Seen houses and can speak the spell without the least danger. UnSeen spheres and platforms and things are another matter entirely, so you can be sure I won't use those spells unless I absolutely have to.”

”A wise precaution,” he agreed with a distracted nod, again thinking about what he'd been told. ”No man of sense will use an untried and undependable weapon, save that his life hinges upon that use. These spells of protec- tion which were taught you-the wizard spoke them to you so that you would know them? Over and over till they were yours?”

SHARON OREEN.

50.

”Of course not,” I answered with a laugh, seeing it would take some time before he absorbed all the details of what magic was about. ”If Graythor had spoken the spells he would have invoked them, and then we would have spent the night surrounded by invisible spheres and walls and platforms. He had me leam them from his red Grimoire.”

The blank look I got then made me feel annoyed with myself, mainly for forgetting how little he knew about magic, but also for the tiredness that was weighing me down. I'd need to gather strength and alertness before the morning was even half over, something I hadn't thought would be necessary quite so soon. Maybe I was getting to be older than I thought.

”A Grimoire is a book of spells, and each wizard puts together his or her own,” I explained, tossing my head to get the hair back over my shoulders. ”Some of them are like Graythor's, simply written in the language of spells to be used by anyone with the Sight, but some are more involved- Spells that are written down deal with things that can't be Seen, and not all wizards are willing to share the work of decades with anyone who comes along. Those wizards disguise their spells to look like this language rather man the language of spells, and need a key before they can be read as spells. Those are usually also red Grimoires, but sometimes the same is done for safety purposes with black Grimoires.”

Again the blank look, but this time I was expecting it.

Maybe it was lack of sleep rather than age after all.

”There are two kinds of spells concerning the unSeen,”

I said, this time consciously noticing that the two men ahead of us were glancing back to make sure we were still with the group. Rikkan Addis had done that a few times before, but then he did still consider himself leader of our expedition. ”The first set of spells are like the ones I've learned, ones that have been developed and made reason- ably safe by wizards of power, spells that will work right if they're spoken right. The second kind of written spells are ones that aren't safe at all, ones that are speculation and have never been tried, ones that are tried but for some reason don't always do what they're supposed to, and ones 51.

that seem absolutely simple and safe, but will kill or erase anyone who uses mem. Spells like that are black magic, and are kept in black Grimoires, to let everyone know what they are, and to be in a handy place where they can be studied and tinkered with by any wizard who's grown tired of living. I don't ever expect to get that tired of living.”

”Nor I,*' he said with a chuckle, also having noticed the attention from ahead, but making no effort to hurry us into closing the gap we'd let grow. ”Life, I believe, is meant to be filled with enjoyment till it ends of its own self. At dinner last darkness, the wizard disallowed discus- sion upon the point of our former lives. Think you he meant the ban to continue for all of this journey?”

”If that's what he'd wanted, he would have said so,” I answered with a shrug, wondering why he would ask that, ”Or he would have used a spell to be sure no one could talk about themselves. Is there something about yourself that you wanted to say?”

”At the moment, no more man that 1 am a king in my own world,” he said, his smile faint beneath those steady blue eyes. ”It was you I wished to speak of, to learn what 1 might of one who deals so easily with that which others are unable to touch. Surely the power comes to you more swiftly and easily than to others.”