LITMIR.BIZ

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I've sometimes wondered if this thing doesn't have some magic of its own."

      "It's iron." I snapped. "Iron hates magic. How can you wear it? I thought you had some magic."

      "I don't find it very comfortable its true, but my powers are very slight and I'm used to not using them. On the other hand I've given it to some of the mages I've had under my care and it's been very useful. Wearing it seems to cut you off from any magic you've recently performed, disguising the traces. And it helps to confuse searchers using magic too. I think you should wear it when we are in Moria, Dion. For safety's sake."

      I was appalled. It was like suggesting I tie up my hands and feet. "Of course I'm not going to wear it."

      He took my hand. "I know you don't like it, but your best protection against Witch Hunters is their ignorance."

      "It will make me a helpless target."

      "Well if that happens it's easy to take off. It's not a witch manacle."

      "It might as well be."

      "Dion, what about last night?"

      Last night waking in panic from dreams of the stone woman, I had thrown out a mage light without even thinking twice. Last night my brothers had been happy enough to be woken from similar dreams by the light.

      "Could you stop yourself from putting forth that magic light when you wake up with a fright? Can you honestly say that?"

      "No," I said. It was second nature to me; something I had learned to do as a child afraid of the dark.

      "Then you see the sense of wearing this then. You don't want to bring the Witch Hunters down on us before we've even got to Annac, do you? And you know how they are trained. They'll come for you in a group, maybe more than one group and even you may have trouble beating them in an open battle. And once you're a couple of days ride inside Moria, it won't be easy to escape."

      "No," I said, glumly because he was right. Unfortunately.

      "It is possible Marnie foresaw this need when she gave me this necklace for you," said Tomas.

      This seemed far-fetched, though I tried to let it make me feel better. I agreed to wear the necklace. I even agreed to try out sleeping in the necklace that night. Though I did not much like it, I saw the sense in Tomas' scheme. It had also occurred to me that the necklace might be useful for my own purposes.

      Although I was known as the Demonslayer, I had only really banished Andre/Bedazzer from this plain. He was still very much alive in his own demon world and like all demons closely in touch with the worlds of magic. He had the ability to reach me in dreams or through mirrors and a famished longing to get back into this world and as I was his only connection here it was unlikely that he would forget about me. For the last three years I had hidden from him in a house without mirrors and slept behind walls covered with the runes of Protection, Distraction and Blindness. Travelling in Moria I would not be covered by the Protective runes and I would be unable to make more. Maybe the necklace would make it harder for him to find me. He was certain to be still looking.

      A parish healer cannot in all conscience just up and leave her parish. I had to inform the Parish Board that I was going, and see to the patients who I was supplying with long term treatments.

      So later that day, I set out on Pony to do all these tasks.

      I called to see Parrus first, but he was not at home. I managed to catch a couple of the other Board Members at home however. The Parish Board consisted mostly of owners of the districts larger farms who had clubbed together to raise sums of money for community improvements such as bridges and healers. The two I spoke to were horrified when I told them that I was going. They were both of them good-hearted men, who agreed that, yes indeed I must go back to Gallia to nurse my ailing sister (this being the story I told them). Both of them begged me to return as soon as I could in a way that made me feel both proud and guilty. Cardun was such a poor parish and as far from the city of Gallia as you could get and still be in the same country. It had been eighteen months without a healer before I came and they had been desperate enough to take me even though I had not had the proper healing training and had no degree. They would have trouble replacing me and once I went the nearest official healer would be 10 miles away in the next parish. The patients I saw after them only added to their pleas to stay.

      I felt thoroughly depressed by the time I left the last one. To make it worse, I met the parish priest, one of the few members of the Parish board that I did not like. Mages and priests never get on well, but our feud was a particularly strong one. Basically the priest, as is the way of his kind, believed that chastity was the highest feminine ideal. Since it was a quality that seemed to be lacking in my nature however, I took the more practical view that it was a nice ideal, but if any local girl asked me to dispense a potion to prevent her conceiving a child, I wasn't going to ask any questions. Unmarried motherhood was not something I'd wish on any village lass. The parish priest was outraged at my "encouraging immorality” among the local people especially since the other healers had never gone against the church in this respect. (It was one of the few issues Jerusha and I disagreed on) He had even preached a sermon against me. I promised to stop, but I just kept on doing it behind his back and everybody knew it. I could tell by the big pleased grin on his skinny face that he'd heard the news, though he was polite enough to try and conceal his triumph.

      On the way home I felt so depressed that only the certainty that I must go and find my sister held me to my purpose. The people of Cardun had treated me with great warmth and acceptance over the years, helping me change from a scared eighteen year old terrified of disapproval to someone who was brave enough to disobey priests and indulge in illicit love affairs. How could I abandon these people like this?

      The last thing I needed was difficult questions from Tomas. They came anyway.

      "That fellow who was here yesterday came round again today. Parrus. So what's going on between you two?"

      "Nothing," I said a little too quickly.

      "Oh yes? It's just from the guilty way he acted I felt sure you must be sleeping together."

      "Tomas!" I'd seen enough of village life to know that brothers like priests were notorious for valuing chastity in their sisters, if not in themselves. I'd been seventeen years without a brother and I was going to nip this brother thing in the bud before it got out of hand and Tomas got the idea he had the right to defend my honor.

      His next remark was disarming however.

      "Look Dion, I'm not such a fool to interfere with the loves of my sisters. I was just wondering, that's all."

      "I see." If I didn't protest and didn't admit to anything, I figured he'd lose interest quickly enough.

      I was wrong.

      "I just wondered if it was just a casual fling or if there was anything to it, you know ... He'd be quite a good match, young Parrus."

      "What! What are you talking about? He's a Lord's son. Don't be ridiculous."

      "Not so ridiculous. It's not such a great family and he's not the oldest son. If nothing else you could breed some pretty powerful mages together."

      "Tomas! You're talking rubbish. Anyway Parrus doesn't even know about my magecraft."

      "Yes so I gathered. Oh don't worry, I didn't tell him."

      "You gathered? How long where you talking for?'

      "Oh... I invited him in. He's very interested in Moria, isn't he? His Morians not half bad either."

      That was how Parrus and I had met. He'd come to me initially to learn Morian. Things had gone on from there. We'd both come to desire each other and after Andre ... It seemed kind of pointless to go round saying no to men, just because that was what a nice woman was supposed to do. Life's too short and I was hardly a nice woman to start with.

      "You had quite a little heart to heart then," I said sarcastically.

      "We had a few drinks," said Tomas smiling blandly as he slid away.

      They had had a few drinks too. One of my bottles

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