Lamma's Night (anthology)

The spell was a musical progression to be sung (thank the Powers I could carry a tune!) over and over again, each time with the emphasis on a different note. As I chanted the monotonous phrase, I felt the familiar tingle run up my spine, the first hint that magic was building properly. The spell gathered itself almost frighteningly fast after that, trying to pull itself free of my control. The wind, with a fine sense of drama, rose to a scream, nearly staggering me; the air was sharp with unspent Power. This was where Tiern had fallen, this moment when the magic was screaming, that it would be—no, no, it must be released, and I screamed with it, shouting out what could no longer even remotely be called a song. The wind shrilled, clouds raced across the moon, and in the wildness and the uncertain light I saw swirls of mist and in that mist not one but two figures, alike—or so I guessed in the dimness—as brothers of one birth. But the sight was unstable, the spell was unstable, and I must choose only one or both would be lost and myself with them. Yet choose which? All I could do was shout out a frantic, inane:

'Who are you?'

'Tiern!' cried one, voice thin against the wind. 'Let me live!'

But: 'Let me live!' cried the other as well.

'I am Tiern!' the first screamed. 'That is no one, that is demon!'

The wind roared, drowning out the other's words. 'True?' I asked, shouting over the roar. 'Demon?'

'Yes!' That was the one who claimed to be Tiern.

'Yes,' said the other.

I couldn't let a demon live; even if Tiern's life hadn't been at stake, I'd seen demons' work in the War. And yet—

'If I choose you,' I shouted over the wind, 'what will you do?'

'What do you think?' That was surely the one who named himself Tiern. 'Continue my studies, of course. Hurry, the spell's tearing itself apart! Let me live!'

'And you?' I asked the demon. 'What will you do?''

'Learn,' it—he?—said, so softly I almost failed to hear.

'Learn what?'

A long pause, while I fought with the wind and the spell and wondered if they were going to tear me apart between them. 'Learn what?' I repeated, gasping.

'Peace,' the demon said.

'Nonsense!' Tiern shrilled. 'It will destroy us!'

The smallest warning rang in my mind. 'You can't know that.'

'I know!' It was a frantic shout. 'I summoned the thing!'

'Live,' I said, and closed the spell. The wind whirled me off my feet, and slammed me against the ground, and that was it for me for a time.

My mind slowly cleared. I was lying face down at the edge of the road, chilled to the bone, and a blade of grass was tickling my nose. Muscles complaining, I pushed myself up to my knees, shivering. I'd been unconscious for quite some time, it seemed, for the storm and the night both had passed, and the sky held that dull gray glow that presages morning.

Wait, now! Where—

Ah. A man, clad in clothing such as they wear in Woodedge but blatantly never from that place, was sitting quietly, watching me. His face was olive-skinned, his hair dark as my own; I must have unconsciously shaped him like one of my own race. His eyes were dark, too, and deep with shadows. 'Why save me?'

'Of the two, you mean?' I sat back on the grass with a grunt. 'Good question, demon. You are the demon, aren't you?'

'I... was.'

It was the sort of statement I had been hoping to hear. 'But aren't any longer?' I prodded; gods, if I'd made a mistake...

'I hope not, no.'

I shook my head, then winced: not wise to move suddenly just yet. 'There's your answer.'

'I don't understand.'

'You could have claimed to be Tiern, claimed that he, not you, was the demon; you two looked exactly alike in the mist. Yet you didn't even try to lie. Tiern pleaded with me—ha, no, he ordered me to save him; you could have done the same. Yet you said nothing. Ach, don't look at me like that! I'm not a sentimental little girl! Tiern admitted conjuring you. Yes, yes, I know you don't mean any harm; you already had a good chance to kill me while I was unconscious, yet didn't take it, and there's not the slightest aura of evil about you. But Tiern couldn't have known he was going to get a... well, what are you? A pacifistic demon?'

He almost choked on what must surely have been his first true laugh. 'Something like that.'

'Your... ah... people aren't going to be coming after you, are they?'

'No. I am human now.' He paused, considering that with a slight frown, then added, 'Mortal. They cannot.'

Amen to that. 'So. A village has no possible need for demonic powers. Tiern had to have known it. Yet he had already risked Woodedge once and would have gone right on putting it in peril.'

The demon blinked. 'Why?'