Lamma's Night (anthology)

Ysetta looked startled. 'Marius said I hadn't the Gift.'

'You don't,' Amber agreed, suddenly realizing what she had been seeing every time she looked at Ysetta lately, 'but your daughter does.'

Ysetta sat down suddenly on the stool, her hands going to her belly in a protective gesture. She smiled, and Amber realized it was the first time she had seen the girl smile. It transformed her from a pretty girl into a radiantly beautiful young woman. No doubt this was what Marius had seen in her.

If her father casts her out when he finds out about the baby, Amber thought, I'll take her home with me. She can study herbs at the school, and we can probably find her a suitable husband. Or if she doesn't wish to marry, she can stay at school and raise her daughter there. The masters will allow it; that child is going to be a strong mage.

Amber drew the book to her. It was an old grimoire, a motley group of spells some doubtless long-dead mage had collected for his personal use. 'I don't suppose you remember what page this was open to when you found it.'

Ysetta, still staring in wonderment at her unborn child, absently shook her head.

Amber balanced the book on its spine and allowed it to fall open where it would. Luck was with her; it fell open precisely, like a cookbook falling open to the recipe most often used, She repeated the process three times, getting the same page each time. 'I think this is it,' she said, shoving it toward Ysetta. 'Does this look like the page it was open to when you found it?'

'I think so,' Ysetta said. 'I didn't look closely, but it certainly could be that page.'

Amber nodded, pulled the book to her, and began to read the spell silently, taking care not to move her lips. Some spells required very little to activate them. But as she read on, she relaxed on that point. This was indeed a major spell and, as she had suspected, it required a strong anchor to the mundane world. For some spells it was enough to have lain with a woman; that link would suffice. For this one, the union must produce offspring in order for the link to be strong enough to draw the traveler back to earth. For this was a spell that allowed a mage to travel on the higher planes. Amber had never tried such a journey, but the subject had been covered in her lessons. The higher planes branched away from the earth quickly and were notorious for their lack of landmarks. A magician with nothing to draw him back to earth could easily become lost there, unable to, return to his body, which would then perish, leaving the mage drifting aimlessly.

But Marius had Ysetta and his daughter, so what happened to him?

'Ysetta? Did you save the potion that was next to the book?'

'It's in the blue flask on the top shelf of the cupboard.' Ysetta stood up and put a hand on the stool. 'I'll get it for you.'

'Sit down,' Amber said. 'You shouldn't be balancing precariously on anything in your condition. You want to take good care of your baby, don't you?'

Ysetta subsided, and Amber dragged her stool over to the cupboard and carefully removed the blue flask. Its contents were precisely what she had suspected: an abortifacient. Damn that man! He'd have given this to her, made sympathetic noises when she miscarried, and then, no doubt, cried off from the betrothal on the grounds that he didn't want a barren wife.

And that's why he never made it back to his body, she realized. He had the physical link, but he had dissolved it on the non-physical level. When he made this potion for 'Ysetta, he broke the link between himself and her and the child. 'Magic is a matter of symbolism and intent'—and his intent was wrong. But since the physical link still existed, he could find this place again, even if it was too late to save his body. If he wasn't back here before I came and started working magic in his old house, he's certainly back now.

Well, there's no help for it now, I'll simply have to banish him. And may the gods deal with him as he deserves.

Amber flipped through the grimoire, looking for a spell to free an earthbound spirit. 'Here we are!' she said with satisfaction, finding one she was familiar with.

'What have you found?' Ysetta asked.

'A banishing spell,' Amber said.

'What?' Ysetta looked horrified.

I may as well tell her, Amber thought ruefully. With a Gifted child, she's likely to need the knowledge someday.

'Marius was using a spell to travel in magical realms, separated from earth,' Amber explained. 'He couldn't get back to his body, so it died, but his spirit is still trapped nearby. This spell,' she tapped the page lightly with her fingertip, 'will free his spirit to go on to the afterlife.'

A page fell against her fingertip, and Amber pulled her hand back in startled reflex. Several pages of the book turned, apparently of their own accord, then the book lay open to a new page. Amber reached to turn them back, but Ysetta's hand shot out to hold the book open at the new page. She turned the book to her and looked at it. 'Amber,' she said excitedly, 'look at this!'

Amber crossed to Ysetta's side of the table. 'Ysetta, just because the wind turns a few pages doesn't mean it's significant.'

'There's no wind this morning,' Ysetta replied promptly. 'I noticed that when I was weeding. And if you look at this spell you'll see that it is significant.'

Amber looked, and a chill slid down her spine. This spell was very similar in form to the banishment spell, but the end result was different. Instead of sending the spirit away, this spell called a mage's spirit back into the world, to take flesh and live again.

'Do you realize what this means?' Ysetta was elated. 'You can bring him back, and he and I can be married, and I won't have to raise our child alone—'

'You don't have to do that in any case,' Amber said. 'If you wish, you can come with me and raise your daughter at my magic school. You would both be welcome there. Are you certain that you want Marius back? After all, he has been dead for nearly six weeks.'