“All right, we’ll go back to our flying carpet,” Gresh announced. “Just make way, and we’ll go.”
The spriggans looked at one another and squeaked a few questions back and forth, but then a path gradually opened. Gresh took Karanissa’s hand and led her through the gap and across the meadow, toward the carpet.
Her fingers were warm and delicate; he was careful not to squeeze them.
They were soon clear of the main mass of spriggans. Even so, others were scattered along their route, forming loose lines along either side. Gresh was aware of dozens of bulging little eyes watching him as he released the witch’s hand, unslung his pack, and loosened the drawstring.
Karanissa said nothing. She did not need to ask any questions about his intentions; he was sure she was still sensing his thoughts, even if he was no longer trying to put them into words.
“What happened?” Tobas called, getting to his feet as they neared the carpet. “Did you get the mirror?”
“No,” Gresh said, pulling the box of prepared powders from his pack. “The spriggans don’t want it moved, and in case you haven’t noticed, there are hundreds of them guarding it.”
“Oh. Then what do… what are you doing?”
Gresh had slung his pack back on his shoulder and opened the box and was pulling out a jar of sparkling blue powder. “You killed a dragon once, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything? I doubt the spriggans are going to be impressed by my adventures.”
Gresh pulled the cork from the jar. “You did it, right? All by yourself? There isn’t a magic sword or anything involved?”
“Yes, I did it, with a spell, but I still don’t…oh, no. What’s that powder?”
“The Spell of the Revealed Power,” Gresh said, spilling powder into the palm of one hand. “I think you should step away from the carpet.” He managed to push the cork back in place without spilling the powder from his hand.
Tobas did more than step away; he turned and ran, eastward across the meadow toward the drop-off into the trees. Spriggans scattered from his path, squealing in fright.
With a muttered curse, Gresh closed his fist around the precious powder and called, “Come back here!” He dropped the jar back into the box, hastily closed it up, and thrust it back into his pack, all while continuing toward the fleeing wizard.
Tobas stopped and turned. “Gresh, I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Do you have a better one? A dragon can chase away the spriggans, and then Karanissa and I can get the mirror out of the cave, and we can get this over with.”
A few spriggans yelped and shrieked, as if in confirmation, and Gresh wished he had been a little more circumspect. He had just removed any doubt the spriggans might have had about his intentions.
That made it all the more urgent to get this done quickly. They really didn’t have time for a long argument, or a careful discussion of every option. There might already be spriggans hauling that mirror out of the cave, and if they did get it away, it would probably not be so easy to find next time. The spriggans would know he wanted to take it from them and wouldn’t answer his questions. They already had the idea of hiding it in a hole humans wouldn’t fit in; the next one might be completely inaccessible. He had to act immediately.
“But just to start, I don’t want to be a dragon,” Tobas said. “Isn’t there something else you can transform? One of your tools? A knife? Or what would it do to you? Haven’t you ever defeated anything powerful?”
“I have no idea what it would do to me,” Gresh admitted, ambling casually across the carpet, past Alorria and toward Tobas. He could understand why someone would be reluctant to be transformed, but he saw no other option. Really, they were fabulously lucky to have someone or something here that could be transformed into something as powerful as a dragon! They needed to take advantage of that good fortune. “That’s exactly why I won’t be trying it on myself. But you defeated a dragon! That’s perfect, Tobas, and I have Javan’s Restorative right here-you know that’s the standard counterspell, don’t you? There’s nothing to worry about. If anything goes wrong, I can change you back in a few seconds!”
“That’s not what worries me-well, yes, it is, but it’s not all that worries me…”
Gresh sighed. They didn’t have time for this. “Tobas, the Guild sent us here to get that mirror. They won’t like it if they find out you refused to help me. Think what they’re paying us! A Transporting Tapestry of your home in Dwomor-isn’t that worth spending a little time under a harmless enchantment?”
“I suppose it is,” Tobas admitted. “But it’s the ‘harmless’ part that worries me. All those spells like the Spell of the Revealed Power where some mysterious magical mechanism we don’t understand decides what the spell will actually do are tricky, untrustworthy things-you can’t be sure just what they’re going to do until you use them.”
“Well, this one should change you into a dragon, shouldn’t it? If we don’t get a dragon, or if there’s something else terribly wrong, I’ll reverse the spell,” Gresh said. “I’ve got the Restorative, and the Spell of Reversal, and Lirrim’s Rectification-I can undo just about anything.”
“I don’t know, Gresh,” Tobas said warily, as the merchant approached. “There’s something we didn’t tell you.”
“‘We’?” Gresh glanced back at the two women on the carpet, Karanissa standing and Alorria seated, both of them watching the two men.
“Yes-they know about it, but I guess Karanissa didn’t think of it. I don’t think that spell will…”
He was interrupted in mid-sentence by a faceful of powder, as Gresh got close enough to fling the glittering blue dust.
There was no point in arguing endlessly; this was their best chance, and Gresh intended to take it.
“Esku!” Gresh shouted the trigger word for the spell as the powder settled on Tobas’s face and shoulders, and a golden glow spread swiftly over the wizard’s entire body. Tobas began to enlarge rapidly, as if he were somehow being inflated, and to elongate. He bent forward at the waist.
Spriggans scattered, screaming like a flock of maddened birds.
“Gresh, you fool!” Tobas bellowed, in a voice that grew louder as he spoke. “The dragon wasn’t the most powerful thing I’ve defeated! I stopped the Seething Death in Ethshar of the Sands!”
The glow brightened, making it impossible to see exactly what was happening to Tobas; Gresh heard fabric tear. The thing that had been the young wizard was on all fours now and still expanding; a tail had thrust out behind it, and wings were unfurling from its back. Gresh had to retreat rapidly to avoid being crushed. Whatever Tobas was becoming was very large, and from the bits Gresh could glimpse through the shimmering glow, bluish- green in color.
Alorria screamed, wordlessly at first, her voice mingling with the shrieks of the spriggans. Finally she cried, “What did you do to my husband?!”
Then the glow abruptly vanished, and Gresh found himself face-to-face with an angry dragon-a very large angry dragon, a good sixty feet from snout to tail-tip, and with a wingspan almost twice that, standing over the torn and shredded remnants of Tobas’s clothes.
Gresh had seen dragons at fairly close quarters before, but never unchained, uncaged, and this close, and so extremely large. He stepped back.
“Gresh!” the monster bellowed, spewing a cloud of sparks and black smoke.
“You can talk!” Gresh said, startled, brushing a spark from his sleeve. He had expected Tobas to lose his voice.
“Of course I can… Oh.” The dragon blinked his immense red eyes, and his voice dropped from a roar like a thunderstorm to a deep rumble. “So I can.”
“Tobas!” Alorria shrieked, clutching the baby to her breast. Alris promptly began to cry hysterically, adding to the cacophony. Dozens of spriggans were still squealing and screaming.
“I’m fine, Ali,” the dragon said, raising his head to look over Gresh at the women on the carpet.
“Fine? You call that fine?”
“Yes, Ali, I do,” the dragon replied. “I’ve been turned into a dragon, but I’m still me. I can talk, I’m healthy and strong. I’d call that fine, given some of the alternatives.” Then he looked down at Gresh again. “You, though, have no idea how dangerous that was! Casting a spell on an unwilling wizard-what did you think you were doing? You’re very, very lucky that you were right, and I turned into a dragon.”
“Well, what else could you have become?” Gresh asked. “What’s more powerful than a dragon?”
