Part 19 (1/2)

”Because,” Gar said, ”he's the Lord High Warlock of Gramarye.”

”Warlock?” Gianni stared a moment, not understanding. Then the implication hit him. ”The Wizard! He never haunted my dreams till I met you! Now you're leaving, and he told me only an hour ago that I would never see him again!”

Gar nodded slowly.

”Then it was you who put the Wizard in my mind!”

”More than that,” Gar said softly. ”I am the Wizard.”

CHAPTER 16.

Gianni stared. Then skepticism rose, and he smiled, amused. ”Very good, Gar.

You almost had me believing it.”

”I a.s.sure you, it's true,” Gar said, unperturbed. ”Oh, come now!” Gianni scoffed.

”If you really are the Wizard, put your thoughts in my mind right now.” He closed his eyes. ”Go ahead-put a picture into the darkness behind my eyelids!”

”As you wish,” said Gar, and suddenly the Wizard was there in Gianni's mind, saying, Now do you believe me?

Gianni stiffened, eyes flying open, and the Wizard disappeared. He stared at Gar incredulously, but the big man only nodded gravely, and he wasn't smiling now.

Realizations exploded in Gianni's mind like the chain of explosions as the causeway blew up. ”But if you could put that picture of the Wizard in my mind- then you can read minds! That's how you knew when the Stilettos were coming!

That's why the soldiers didn't see us when they were searching for us! Why the Gypsies fell asleep, why the sentries in the castle slept!” He paused to draw breath. ”Was that why we had no more trouble traveling between Castello Raginaldi and Pirogia, too?”

Gar nodded gravely.

”But-dear Lord, the_ power that gives you!” Gianni turned ashen, remembering his secret thoughts.

Gar frowned. ”I don't read other people's minds without a very good reason, Gianni. I do have some standards of right and wrong. But when the other side has an overwhelming advantage, well ... that's when I don't feel any hesitation about using my own.”

”So that's what you meant when you said the time for fair play was over!”

”Oh, yes indeed,” Gar said softly. ”And how you lit the fire!”

Gar looked at him in surprise. ”I don't remember doing that.”

”That's right, you were really an idiot then, recovering from the blow on the head.” Gianni frowned. ”But I saw the Wizard that night.”

”Did you really?” Gar stared. ”I remember planning that, before the fight. My mind must have done it straight from memory!”

”But the locks? You didn't really tear them open by brute force, did you?”

”No, I didn't.” Gar closed his eyes. ”They were simple locks, Gianni. I could have opened them with even a simple mind.”

A horrible thought struck. ”How did the Gypsies learn about your plan for a league of merchants? And how did they come to blame it on my father?”

”Not from me,” Gar a.s.sured him. ”They had a spy inside Pirogia-I'm fairly sure they had such a spy in each of the merchant cities, and some of the inland ones.

No, I didn't put the ideas in their minds.”

”And your gifts to my parents?”

”I'm not that much of a wizard! No, Herkimer printed out those books-magically, unless you want to spend a year learning the explanation-and dropped them gently in your father's yard in the middle of the night.”

”How do you drop something gently? No, don't tell me, I know! 'Magic'!”

”No, science,” Gar replied.

”Magic by any other name!” Gianni said with disgust. ”And that's how you knew what the lords were thinking, wasn't it? That's why you only needed to prove to us that they were dealing with the Lurgan Company!”

Gar nodded. ”That's why I had to have us all caught and taken to Castello Raginaldi. Yes.”

”But-when the cannonb.a.l.l.s sped true, when the spear thrusts turned aside! Was that your doing, too?”

”Very good, Signor Braccalese.” The note in Gar's voice went beyond approval.

”Yes. I can move things with my mind, too.”

”But-the other presence in my mind!” The dreadfulness of the thought hit Gianni, and he turned beetred. ”The Dream Dancer, the woman! Did you...?” He broke off, unable to finish the thought.

”No.” Gar turned to him, amused. ”I found only echoes of her in your mind-but that was enough to tell me I wasn't the only mind reader on this planet.”