Sourcery

'It's not bad,' he said. 'I should like to come here again.' He moved his hands in a complicated motion that seemed, in some unexplained way, to turn them inside out.

Now the wizards were back in the hall,and the boy was holding the shrinking Garden in hispalm. In the heavy, shocked silence he put it back into Billias's hands, and said: 'That was quite interesting. Now I will do some magic.'

He raised his hands, stared at Billias, and vanished him.

Pandemonium broke out, as it tends to on these occasions. In the centre of it stood Coin, totally composed, in a spreading cloud of greasy smoke.

Ignoring the tumult, Spelter bent down slowly and, with extreme care, picked a peacock feather off the floor. He rubbed it thoughtfully back and forth across his lips as he looked from the doorway to the boy to the vacant Archchancellor's chair, and his thin mouth narrowed, and he began to smile.

An hour later, as thunder began to roll in the clear skies above the city, and Rincewind was begi

There were six of them, and they were very worried.

They were so worried, Spelter noted, that they were listening to him, a mere fifth level wizard.

'He's gone to bed,' he said, 'with a hot milk drink.'

'Milk?' said one of the wizards, with tired horror in his voice.

'He's too young for alcohol', explained the bursar.

'Oh, yes. Silly of me.'

The hollow-eyed wizard opposite said: 'Did you see what he did to the door?'

'I know what he did to Billias!'

'What did he do?'

'I don't want to know!'

'Brothers, brothers,' said Spelter soothingly. He looked down at their worried faces and thought: too many di

Or one good pull ...

'I wonder if we really have, um, a problem here,' he said.

Gravie Derment of the Sages of the Unknown Shadow hit the table with his fist.

'Good grief, man!' he snapped. 'Some child wanders in out of the night, beats two of the University's finest, sits down in the Archchancellor's chair and you wonder if we have a problem? The boy's a natural! From what we've seen tonight, there isn't a wizard on the Disc who could stand against him!'

'Why should we stand against him?' said Spelter, in a reasonable tone of voice.

'Because he's more powerful than we are!'

'Yes?' Spelter's voice would have made a sheet of glass look like a ploughed field, it made honey look like gravel.

'It stands to reason-’

Gravie hesitated. Spelter gave him an encouraging smile.

'Ahem.'

The ahemmer was Marmaric Carding, head of the Hoodwinkers. He steepled his beringed fingers and peered sharply at Spelter over the top of them. The bursar disliked him intensely. He had considerable doubt about the man's intelligence. He suspected it might be quite high, and that behind those vein-crazed jowls was a mind full of brightly polished little wheels, spi

'He does not seem overly inclined to use that power,' said Carding.

'What about Billias and Virrid?'

'Childish pique,' said Carding.

The other wizards stared from him to the bursar. They were aware of something going on, and couldn't quite put their finger on it.

The reason that wizards didn't rule the Disc was quite simple. Hand any two wizards a piece of rope and they would instinctively pull in opposite directions. Something about their genetics or their training left them with an attitude towards mutual co-operation that made an old bull elephant with terminal toothache look like a worker ant.

Spelter spread his hands. 'Brothers,' he said again, 'do you not see what has happened? Here is a gifted youth, perhaps raised in isolation out in the untutored, um, countryside, who, feeling the ancient call of the magic in his bones, has journeyed far across tortuous terrain, through who knows what perils, and at last has reached his journey's end, alone and afraid, seeking only the steadying influence of us, his tutors, to shape and guide his talents? Who are we to turn him away, into the, um, wintry blast, shu

The oration was interrupted by Gravie blowing his nose.

'It's not winter,' said one of the other wizards flatly, 'and it's quite a warm night.'

'Out into the treacherously changeable spring weather,' snarled Spelter, 'and cursed indeed would be the man who failed, um, at this time-’

'It's nearly summer.'

Carding rubbed the side of his nose thoughtfully.

'The boy has a staff,' he said. 'Who gave it to him? Did you ask?'

'No,' said Spelter, still glowering at the almanackical interjector.

Carding started to look at his fingernails in what Spelter considered to be a meaningful way.

Well, whatever the problem, I feel sure it can wait until morning,' he said in what Spelter felt was an ostentatiously bored voice.

'Ye gods, he blew Billias away!' said Gravie. 'And they say there's nothing in Virrid's room but soot!'

'They were perhaps rather foolish,' said Carding smoothly. 'I am sure, my good brother, that you would not be defeated in affairs of the Art by a mere stripling?'

Gravie hesitated. 'Well, er,' he said, 'no. Of course not.' He looked at Carding's i

'Then let us all be cautious in the morning,' said Carding cheerfully. 'Brothers, let us adjourn this meeting. The boy sleeps, and in that at least he is showing us the way. This will look better in the light.'

'I have seen things that didn't,' said Gravie darkly, who didn't trust Youth. He held that no good ever came of it.

The senior wizards filed out and back to the Great Hall, where the di

For some unexplained reason Spelter and Carding were the last to leave. They sat at either end of the long table, watching each other like cats. Cats can sit at either end of a lane and watch each other for hours, performing the kind of mental manoeuvring that would make a grand master appear impulsive by comparison, but cats have got nothing on wizards. Neither was prepared to make a move until he had run the entire forthcoming conversation through his mind to see if it left him a move ahead.

Spelter weakened first.

'All wizards are brothers,' he said. 'We should trust one another. I have information.'

'I know,' said Carding. 'You know who the boy is.'

Spelter's lips moved soundlessly as he tried to foresee the next bit of the exchange. 'You can't be certain of that,' he said, after a while.