A Sudden Wild Magic

Marcus knew him at once. „Dib!“ he cried in desperate sorrow, and advanced with one hand out and his face crumpled for crying. „Dib dead!“

The tallest mage whirled around. Before Zillah could move, he had fielded Marcus with large, gentle hands — hands from which a blue shimmering stained with blood rapidly disappeared as they met Marcus— and turned him back toward Zillah. „I don’t think this is quite the right moment to bring the child in here,“ he said, looking down on her with awkward shy firmness.

Zillah recognized the curiously small, boylike face of the head doctor- mage. What was his name? Edward. He was nice and he seemed to like her. This made her feel truly bad about bursting in here. „I’m so sorry. Marcus just — just brought us here. I didn’t know — I didn’t realize you’d be doing autopsies. I’ll — I’ll take him away at once.“

„For now. You’re welcome to bring him back in a day or so,“ Edward said. He made it sound as if it were all his fault. Then, as Zillah started for the door with Marcus, and Judy turned dumbly to go with them, his large hand fell on Judy’s shoulder, stopping her. „She’d better stay,“ he said. „She needs more healing than I knew.“

Before Zillah was aware, she was out on the ramp again without Judy, rather taken aback at the power of this medical mage. At another time she might have been almost destroyed with embarrassment — blundering in on an autopsy like that! — but Marcus claimed her full attention. He was very upset. „Dib!“ he said desolately, over and over, as he stumped downward.

Zillah had not realized even that Marcus knew Tam, and she certainly had had no idea that he liked Tam enough to give him a special name. As far as she knew, Tam had twice, but only twice, briefly visited Amanda, but evidently that had been plenty of time for him to make a hit with Marcus.

„Dib’s all right,“ she explained as they stumped she knew not whither, except that Marcus firmly led her downward. „He doesn’t hurt, Marcus. It’s like being asleep, only better,“ she said, and found herself saying all the things adults do say to a child confronted by death. And they were so inadequate. Marcus had known instantly that Tam was dead. He always knew so much more than she gave him credit for.

They came down to another wide veiling, blue fluting filling a sizable archway, which gave way into a sudden open space. Zillah was relieved. Here was something that might distract Marcus. The large, open square she had seen from the orbiting capsule stretched in front of them. It was possibly a parade ground, for it was nothing but a stretch of gravel with one carefully tended strip of grass around the perimeter. Here, sure enough, Marcus forgot his sorrow and ran gleefully out into the large, sandy space. Zillah followed, pretending to chase him—„I’ll catch you, I’ll catch you!“ — to keep his mind on other things. She had to quell an attack of some kind of agoraphobia as she ran. Blue sky was overhead. The blue buildings around the square, reduced by distance to the height of cottages, might have concealed landscape beyond, except that she knew they did not. The blue sky was all there was beyond them. She had to keep her eyes on Marcus’s small trotting figure, and even that became the center of vertigo. For a moment the whole flat space swung upside down, and Marcus was trotting across a ceiling.

It was a parade ground. With immense relief, her eye caught a disciplined group of blue uniforms over in the right-hand corner. They were just breaking ranks after some kind of exercise and streaming toward another of those veiled archways. Some were detaching themselves in twos and threes and making for other exits. The sight helped a little. She now saw everything at a steep slant. No, it was worse. She was absolutely going to fall. But Marcus had changed direction and was now running toward three of those detached figures, arms stretched out, for some reason in an ecstasy of delight. Zillah swerved after him. Her knees bent and she had to restrain an urge to trail her knuckles along the gravel.

„Ort! Ort!“ Marcus was shouting.

It was the centaur again, now wearing a smart blue jacket on his human torso. The degree of illusion in this place became apparent when Marcus pounded up to the centaur and his companions in remarkably few strides. Or maybe the centaur moved swiftly to meet him.

„Ort! Ort!“ Marcus cried, relief and joy all over him. Zillah realized that it was in hopes of meeting the centaur again that Marcus had gone to that medical place. Perhaps he had even been afraid that the centaur was dead too.

The centaur reached down and swung Marcus up level with his face. „How did you know I came from the Orthe?“ he asked, through Marcus’s squeals of pleasure. He was quite as delighted as Marcus. His pale, mottled face was shining.

Zillah, as she sloped up, decided it would not be tactful to point out that Marcus had been saying something else.