Powers of Detection

“No taint of magic,” he murmured, with a puzzled look.

“As I said, my spells couldn’t detect anything either,” the castle mage said, a little defensively.

“Your spells couldn’t detect a turd in your soup tureen,” the duke said. “Leave this to a real mage.”

But the duke’s tone made Gwy

“A fascinating puzzle,” Justinian said.

He gestured again, then frowned. Gwy

Justinian sighed and rubbed his forehead as if it hurt. Gwy

Although he could be in for a miserable few days in the meantime.

“So what are we standing about for?” the duke asked.

“Your grace-” the castle mage began.

“Now that the expert’s here, shouldn’t you be seeing about the wards?” the duke asked.

The castle mage looked, if possible, even more anxious.

“I’ve already tried everything I know,” he protested. “I was hoping Master Justinian…”

“Of course,” Justinian said. “My assistant will go and… um… begin ru

“Me?” Gwy

“Ah, there you are, Reg,” the duke ordered, seeing that his manservant had arrived carrying a covered platter. “Show her to the gatehouse.”

“Just pretend it’s a class exercise and try to find out what’s wrong with the wards,” Justinian murmured, picking up her small carpet bag and handing it to her as carefully as if it were full of volatile potions. “If the duke’s magician hasn’t brought down the castle walls trying to fix it, you’re not likely to do any harm. If you fix it, marvelous; if not, I’ll deal with it when I’m finished with this.”

Gwy

“Latest expert on warding spells,” Reg said, turning her over to the captain of the guard, who, after quirking one eyebrow, seemed to accept Gwy

“Not sure what you can do about the damned thing,” the captain said. “Works one minute and not the next. Apparently that’s a lot harder to fix than if it just flat out didn’t work.”

Unfortunately, he was right, Gwy

Gwy

Besides, she was a little worried about what would happen when Justinian saw the warding spell’s control device: a perfect little miniature of the duke’s castle, complete with a working drawbridge and portcullis. Justinian’s intense passion for disassembling small mechanical objects was matched only by his complete inability to reassemble them. What if the Maestro decided he needed to take the model apart to repair the spell? Gwy

If she hadn’t been so worried, she’d have found the model castle fascinating herself. You could keep track of everything that went on in the castle-outdoors, at any rate-by watching the small, ghostly figures that moved around in it. Gwy

“There really doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it,” Gwy

“Useless things, these magical devices,” said Reg, from the doorway. Gwy

Suddenly the bells began ringing. Gwy

“It was working fine a minute ago,” the captain said.

“If you say so,” Reg said, with a shrug. “I’ve never seen it work right myself.”

“Send some of the Gypsies in and out of the gate,” Gwy

The captain shouted some orders down into the courtyard. The wards ignored the Gypsies plodding in and out, though they continued to show the purely imaginary trolls wandering about the courtyard.

Or were they imaginary? Gwy

“Watch the courtyard and tell me what you see,” she told the captain and Reg.

And then she gestured.

“I don’t see anything,” Reg said. The captain shook his head as well.

Of course they didn’t see anything, Gwy

What was different now?

“I don’t hold with magic,” Reg said, lounging in the window. “Useless stuff. Never works the way it’s supposed to.”

Gwy

“I want you to help with something,” she told Reg. She rummaged through her carpet bag and handed him a small crystal. “Here, take this. Go down to the gate, walk out and keep going in as straight a line as you can until I call for you to stop.”

“Whatever you like,” Reg said, with a sneer. He shoved the crystal in his pocket and sauntered out.

“Keep the Gypsies going in and out,” Gwy

Gwy

“Do you see that?” she asked the captain.

“Now it’s working,” he said.