The Unwelcome Warlock

to the attic stair.

“We need to be careful to stay out of the area that’s shown in the other tapestry,” Hanner said, as they climbed the steps. “If the reality doesn’t exactly match the image, the spell may not work.”

Nerra looked back over her shoulder. “Match how?”

“Well, if we were anywhere in the attic that’s visible in the image, that could block the magic, because we aren’t in the image.”

Nerra frowned. “You mean that if we stood in the middle of the floor, she’d be trapped in that other world?”

“Yes,” Hanner said. “Or she might be, anyway — there’s some variation from one tapestry to another. Quite a lot of variation, really. It’s one reason these tapestries aren’t more widely used — the wizards can’t tell in advance just how easily the spell will be to disrupt. They can be very delicate.”

“Are the stairs in the image?”

Hanner tried to remember; it had been a few days since his brief sojourn in his magical refuge. “No, I’m pretty sure they aren’t,” he said. “We designed it to have as few variables as we could, so the window isn’t visible, and I’m fairly certain the stairs aren’t, either.”

“We should stay back, though,” Nerra said, stopping a step below the attic floor.

Hanner stopped as well, a few steps lower, and backed down a step so as not to crowd his sister.

His foot hit something, and it was all he could do to keep from tumbling down the stairs when whatever he had stepped on let out a high-pitched squeal and slapped at his ankle.

“What in the World?..” He looked down to see a pointy-eared froglike green face glaring up at him angrily.

“Hanner? What’s going on?” Nerra turned.

“It’s one of those...those little green things,” Hanner said, pointing. He had forgotten what the creatures were called.

“What little green...oh, it’s a spriggan. What are you doing here?”

“Wanted to see magic!” it squeaked.

“Well, don’t get underfoot, or you’ll get stepped on,” Nerra told it. The spriggan started to reply, and to climb up the next step, but she cut it off. “And don’t go out there in the attic, or the magic won’t work.”

“Where spriggan go, then?” it protested.

Hanner stared at it, fascinated, as Nerra said, “I don’t care where you go, as long as you stay out of the way.”

“Here,” Hanner said. “Would you like to climb on my shoulder?”

“Oooh! Oooh!” the spriggan replied, jumping up and down. “Yes, yes, yes!”

Hanner held out a hand, intending to lift the little creature, but instead it jumped up, grabbed his wrist, pulled itself up onto his forearm, and scampered up to his shoulder. Then, using his ear as a ladder, it scrambled to the top of his head, where it clung to his hair, swaying unsteadily, its own head missing the rafters by no more than an inch or two.

“That’s not what I —” Hanner began.

“Wanna see magic!” it shrieked, drumming its heels on Hanner’s temples.

Nerra gave her brother a disgusted look. “Don’t encourage it,” she said.

“Why not?” Hanner said. “It seems friendly enough. Maybe these things could be useful. Maybe we could train them to run errands.”

“It’s been tried,” Nerra assured him. “Yes, they’re friendly enough, but they’re stupid. You can’t count on them to remember what they’re supposed to be doing. They get into everything, they break things and make messes. Even if you did train one to run your errands, it wouldn’t be worth the aggravation.”

“Is true,” the spriggan said, nodding sadly. “Spriggan very stupid. Make messes everywhere.”

Hanner had a suspicion that the spriggan might not be as stupid as it wanted everyone to think it was. Maybe it didn’t want to be trained to run errands. If that was the case he could hardly blame it; he had never liked running other people’s errands, either. “Well, don’t make a mess here,” he said. “We need this attic to stay exactly as it is, so the magic will work.”

“Spriggan try.” It started to nod again, but whacked its head on a rafter and stopped, looking up resentfully at the wooden beam it had hit.

Nerra looked at the spriggan, then at her brother’s face, then back at the empty attic. “No sign of her.”

Hanner turned up an empty palm.

They waited another few minutes in silence. Then Nerra asked, “You went through that tapestry?”

“Yes.”

“How long did it take you to come back out?”

“You’d probably know better than I do,” Hanner said. “There’s no way to tell time in the other world, or at least I didn’t notice any, and I don’t know what time it was when I emerged because I was Called the instant I was back in Ethshar.”

Nerra considered that, frowning. “I don’t remember how long you were gone — if I ever actually knew. You hadn’t told me what you were doing.”

“However long it was, it doesn’t mean much. I didn’t rush. I enjoyed the sensation of not having the Call muttering at me all the time. Rudhira should be quicker.”

“Or maybe she’ll take time to enjoy the sunshine, too.”

“Maybe,” Hanner admitted. “And she does need to walk over the hill and find the right house.”

“So we could be here all night.”

“I don’t think the tapestry will even work after sunset. The image shows the attic in daylight. Dim daylight, but daylight.”

Nerra considered that. “So if she doesn’t reappear soon, she won’t until morning?”

Hanner had not noticed how late in the day it was, but now that Nerra mentioned it he could see that the daylight was indeed starting to fade. “Probably,” he said.

Nerra turned to face Hanner. “Maybe we should just settle in —”

She was interrupted by a squeal from the spriggan, and there Rudhira was, standing in the middle of the attic. She had arrived facing away from the stairs, but upon hearing the creature’s noise she turned.

“It seems to work,” she said. She started toward the stairs, then stopped.

Hanner realized she was staring at the spriggan, and he reached up to grab it, whereupon it sprang away, bouncing off the sloping ceiling and tumbling awkwardly to the floor. It did not appear to be hurt by the impact, as it quickly regained its feet and scampered over to embrace Rudhira’s ankle. “Pretty hair!” it said.

“Not on my leg,” Rudhira retorted, kicking it gently away. She looked at Hanner. “What is this thing doing here?”

“It wanted to see magic,” Hanner explained.

“How was it on the other side of the tapestry?” Nerra asked.

“Lovely,” Rudhira replied. “In fact, I want to go back. I’d have stayed, but I didn’t want to worry you.”

“You can go back,” Hanner told her. “Now that we know it’s safe, and that there’s a way out.”

“All right,” Rudhira said. She gave him a look that Hanner couldn’t quite interpret. “What about you?”

“Oh, I’ll stay here for now,” he said. “I need to keep an eye on things. But now we have somewhere to put all those people downstairs.”

Rudhira nodded. “It’s nice there. At least, the parts I saw. For one thing, it’s warm.”

“And the return tapestry works, so they can come back any time they want,” Hanner said.

“They’ll still need food,” Nerra said. “And other things.”

“I know,” Hanner said. “Still, it’s a start.” He turned and headed down the stairs.

Nerra followed closely. Rudhira took a final look around the attic, then came along on Nerra’s heels.

Hanner wasn’t sure whether he really heard, or merely imagined, Rudhira’s voice murmuring, “A start to what?”