Part 23 (1/2)
Wiglaf finally regained his senses enough to understand, but realized his outrageous spell was the only thing holding the creature at bay.
He held his arms firmly forward.
On and on, the dragon was pelted with representatives of every single member of a major food group, until it shook its head and finally took a breath to eradicate this problem once and for all.
Wiglaf knew he couldn't hold out for long now that the great creature had drawn a bead on him, but there was no other choice. He was a dead man, yes. But if he stopped casting, there would be nothing standing in the dragon's way.
He would not run. At least he would give some people the chance to take cover, to save themselves. At least he would end his life in dignity and service. Wiglaf let a deep sigh escape him, then closed his eyes in determination and waited for the end to come.
He heard some mumbling behind him. An instant later, the stream of vegetables was joined by a stream of flame.
Now the dragon was faced with a gargantuan gout of fire aimed at its head, not to mention that the foodstuffs tasking its eyes and nose were now roasting hot-and, Wiglaf noticed, smelling delicious on the way up. There comes a time when every creature, no matter how large or small, meek or fierce, wise or wanton, has finally reached its limit of pain, tolerance, and plain exasperation. At the business end of a torrent of steaming, stinging vegetables, the miserable dragon finally gave up, and swiftly flew away.
A shaken Wiglaf dropped his hands and turned to meet his benefactor.
The belcher. The lockpicker.
Fenzig was a magic-user.
Fenzig balled his hands into fists, and the fire disappeared instantly and utterly. He extended his fingers again, blew on them as if to cool them off, and winked. Then he smacked his hands sharply together. Then again. And again.
Tuka and Sasha ran toward them, making the same hand motions, and before long everyone in the square was applauding as well.
”You!” Wiglaf recoiled in shock. This is your robe. You let me take it away.”
”We've been expecting you,” said the man the others had called Fenzig, drawing close to Wiglaf for privacy, ”ever since your teacher told me you had resigned.”
”M-My teach...”
”Magicians who form friends.h.i.+ps are a close fraternity, boy. Your former instructor thinks you have great potential, despite your laziness, and one day you might convince me of that as well. He thought you needed a sterner taskmaster-but first I had to get your attention. I trust I have it now.””You were wonderful, magic man,” said Sasha as she arrived.
”So this was all an act? You three together?”
”n.o.body told the dragon about it,” panted Tuka. ”I thought we were gone. I really did.”
”You stopped it, Wiglaf,” Sasha said. ”Your magic. Your courage.”
”I couldn't have done it without-” He looked up into a face that had grown infinitely wiser in the last few moments; a face that would impart great knowledge in the coming years, now that he was ready to receive it. ”-my master?”
”I'll take my robe back now,” said the mage. ”And in exchange, I'll show you how to do that little stunt whenever you want. Invent a spell yourself. Well call it... cast vegetables.”
Wiglaf s new life began when he slipped off. . . this robe.
”This very one?” asked the young apprentice. ”You're telling me this is the robe that undid Wiglaf?”
”It's a robe of wild magic,” the old man said. ”As you could easily tell if you recognized this sigil. See? A warning.
To anyone experienced in reading it, it says, 'wild magic, dum-dum. Makes spellcasting completely unpredictable. Only one of its kind. Tends to favor the caster if he really needs help, but that is Mystra's munificence, at least that's how the story goes. I have no idea who actually fas.h.i.+oned this thing, and I would never try to make one. This robe is completely useless except for one purpose: reminding younglings like you that there is no quick subst.i.tute for listening to ancient ones like me, and learning what we a.s.sign.”
”That's a terrific story,” said the lad.
”Be thankful that you learned this lesson by hearing a story, and not the way Wiglaf had to. But keep it learned, all the same. Now let's begin by working with components. A simple alteration. Fetch me some vegetables and chop them up, boy.”
The apprentice looked up in wonder. The truth had struck him. ”For cast vegetables, sir?”
The master's stern expression was still in place, but his eyes were twinkling.
Of course-how else could the old man have known what Wiglafwas thinking?
”Later, my lad, later. These are for a stew. To go with whatever Sasha's managed to hunt for us today.”
A WORM TOO SOFT...
J. Robert King.
The stone was as big as an ogre's head, as green as dragon bile, and as clear as Evermead. Unlike most emeralds, though, this one wasn't cut along fracture lines, but perfectly spherical and smooth. On its satin belly I saw myself, all six-foot-three of me dwarfed into a six-and-three-sixteenths-inch doll, my hawk-nose warped to match in size my brawny chest. I saw, too, my slim, demure hostess curved beside me, watching me as I watched the rock.
Now that Olivia Verdlar, proprietor of the Stranded Tern and owner of this peerless rock, had gotten an eyeful of me, I hoped she, too, knew why she'd flown me out from Waterdeep-pegasus-back, no less.
”Impressive,” I said, and leaned away from the enormous stone.
She slid back into my line of sight. Impressive, indeed. Her green eyes matched the rock, hue and l.u.s.ter, and her dark hair and slim figure were the ideal setting for such gems. Knowing the power of those eyes, she knew she didn't have to say a word in response.
I'd been drawn off by worse wenches, so I bit: ”You say it came from the crop of a great green . . . ?” The word dragon hovered behind my question, but it didn't need to be spoken. After all, the rock had been christened ”the Dragon's Pearl.”
She nodded, and that slight motion sent an ally-ally-oxenfree down past her hips. ”It's one of a hundred gem-stones that got polished in the thing's belly. Seems Xantrithicus the Greedy didn't trust his h.o.a.rd to a cave, preferring to hold it in his gut.” She made a gesture toward her own slim waist, knowing I'd look there. I did. ”Seems that way his spendthrift mate, Tarith the Green, couldn't even get two coppers to rub together.”
”One of a hundred gems,” I mused. It was time to win back some self-respect. ”That's got to decrease the value of the pearl.”
Was that a little color I saw in her high cheekbones? ”This is by far the largest of the hundred. Most of the rest are fist-sized, or pebble-sized. If the gemologists are to be believed, this is also the most ancient of the h.o.a.rd, in the wyrm's gut for nearly two thousand years. I can little imagine its size when the polis.h.i.+ng began.”
I nodded, thinking, letting her words hang in the air as she had let mine, and hoping my dark-brown eyes were something of a match for her stunning green ones. I thought of the building around us: the cut-stone severity of this inner vault, the sorcerous impregnability of the outer vault, the ivory-towered fortress above, the glacial fastness of the mountain peaks. Every aspect of the Stranded Tern pleasure dome reeked of magic . . . everything except me, so I began again to wonder why she'd summoned me.
”Seems your magical defenses would be enough to guard this treasure,” I said. ”So, why bring a back-alley finder from Waterdeep across half the world to this icy palace?”
Olivia's small, hot hand was upon my biceps again, as it had been when the winged horse had touched down on the icy lip of the landing bay. She must keep those hands in a very warm place, I thought.
”Muscle and sneakiness have certain . . . powers that magic cannot provide.”
G.o.ds, I wished that touch did not so thrill me. Keepyour head, Bolton. She's your new boss. With her next words, the hot fingers drifted away.
”Besides, the pearl resists magical protections. The mage who slew old Xantrithicus found that out when some quite ordinary banditti slew him, who were then in their own turn slain, and again, and again, until my agents retrieved the thing.”
”So you called me out to defend an undefendable hunk of stone?”