Ithanalin's Restoration

She wondered what weird portion of Ithanalin's mind had wound up in the couch to drive it to this sort of behavior. All his fears and irrational whims, perhaps? Whatever the reason, the couch was clearly insane, perhaps suicidal.

She groped in her pouch for the other potions. Both of them were levitation spells, and since the big threat was a fall there ought to be some way to use those here…

The overlord recorked the vial and tucked it into his belt.

"Thank you," he said. "I feel better already." He started to roach tor his ankle.

The couch leaned dangerously seaward. Soldiers started forward, then froze.

"My lord!" Kilisha called. "Wait a moment, please!"

"Urk," Wulran said, as he felt the couch shift. He cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder at the watery western horizon again, and straightened up.

"I have another potion," she called. She pulled out more vials and glanced at the labels.

"If you think it would help," Wulran said.

V'S LEV. and T'S lev., she read. She hadn't really thought out whether Tracel's or Varen's would be more appropriate, but these were what she had. She quickly tossed one to the overlord.

He caught it, glanced at the label, and looked puzzled. "Tra-cel's what?" he said.

"Just drink it," Kilisha said desperately. "About a fourth of it." She reached down and uncorked her own vial.

The overlord shrugged, pulled the cork, and lifted the potion to his lips. Kilisha took a step forward.

And at that, the couch teetered one last time, then plunged over the edge.

Chapter Thirty

Kilisha did not hesitate for an instant; she dashed forward and dove through the crenelation after the couch. As she dove she screamed, "Drink it now!"

Behind her she heard several shouts and screams, but she ignored them.

She jammed her own vial of potion between her teeth as she pushed off from the parapet, before she really even began falling; then she reached up to brush the hair from her eyes.

She was falling through empty air, the rocks and breaking waves rushing up at her at hideous speed, and there was the couch, and the overlord, falling just ahead of her, and the overlord was drinking the potion. She grabbed for the couch, felt her hand close on it; she tipped her head back and swallowed.

And she was suddenly weightless. She stopped falling so suddenly that her head snapped back, dazing her, and her gorge rose. The couch jerked at her arm, and she felt as if her shoulder was coming apart. For an instant everything vanished in a burst of pain; then she opened her eyes.

She was hanging in midair a few feet out from the wall of the Fortress, several stories below the parapet but a few feet above where the gray stone wall rested on the cliff. The couch was hanging from her right hand, which was closed tight around one of its legs. The overlord was still on the couch, still pi

"You drank the potion, my lord?" she said.

The couch squirmed in her grasp as Wulran nodded. She tightened her grip, pleasantly aware of her own superhuman strength.

"Then get your foot loose," she said. "You won't fall."

Wulran stared down at the rocks. "You're sure of that?"

"I'm sure," Kilisha said. "It's Tracel's Levitation, the same thing that's keeping me from falling. You'll stay at this height until you say the release word."

Wulran glanced up at her, then back down at the sea. "Young woman, I trust you realize that if I die today, you'll be in an absolutely amazing amount of trouble."

Kilisha managed to laugh. "Oh, believe me, my lord, I'm very well aware of that!"

"All right, then." He bent down.

The couch thrashed wildly.

Suddenly nervous, Kilisha called, "Do you have the rest of the potion?"

"Yes," Wulran said warily, holding up the vial. "Why do you ask?"

Kilisha laughed again. "Well, I'm only an apprentice. I think you'll levitate right where you are, but if I'm wrong, you'll have a couple of seconds to drink the rest of that before you hit."

"Oh, you are so comforting!" Wulran glanced up past her, then bent down again and pried at the wooden arm encircling his ankle.

The couch struggled, and Kilisha had to devote her entire attention to keeping her grip on it. She could hear wood creak as the overlord fought to free his foot.

"Hurry, please," she said. "This strength spell only has a few more minutes left."

"Now you tell me!"

Wood cracked suddenly, and the overlord's leg jerked up-but his boot, still caught, pulled off and fell.

Both of them watched silently as the empty boot spiraled down and splashed into the surf-but now the overlord was hanging alone in midair, a few inches of space separating him from the couch. He looked around, taking in his situation, then reached out and pushed himself away from the couch so that it could not grab him again, extending that few inches to almost a yard.

And the couch seemed suddenly heavier in Kilisha's grasp. She realized she really did only have a few minutes before the Spell of Optimum Strength wore off, and when that happened she wouldn't be able to hold the couch. She would be safe, and the overlord as well, but the couch would fall, and probably be smashed on the rocks or swept out to sea.

After all this, she did not want to let Ithanalin down.

With her left hand she reached across and pawed at her belt pouch, and managed to find another vial. She turned it in her fingers and read the label.

V'S lev.

She lifted it to her mouth, pulled the cork with her teeth, then spat the cork out. It fell and vanished.

Varen's Levitation took two forms, and she knew which one she wanted-but would the potion do that?

When the spell was cast directly it could be placed on either the wizard casting it, which would allow him or her to walk on air, or it could be cast on an object, which could then be placed at any height and would stay there. Could a potion cast a spell on an object? It ought to be possible, and she had certainly thought it was when she prepared the potion, but she realized now that she wasn't sure how to determine which form the spell took from a potion. She couldn't place the lantern on the chosen object when she had no lantern.

She hoped she could choose simply by willing it. If so, then she could suspend the couch here and come back for it at leisure.

If not, though…

She decided not to risk it after all. She would walk up, carrying the couch and hoping that the Spell of Optimum Strength lasted until she got it safely back in the Fortress.

And there was also the question of whether she could use Varen's Levitation at all while Tracel's Levitation was still in effect.

She wouldn't try it. Spells could interact in dangerous ways. She would break Tracel's Levitation, then use Varen's.

"My lord," she said, "I'm going to say a word, and then I'm going to fall, and then I hope I'll catch myself and levitate myself and the couch back up away from here. I'm afraid that will leave you hanging here, drifting-but I'm sure someone will come for you soon."

"Wait a minute," Wulran began, but Kilisha ignored him. She had no time to spare.

She tilted the vial, and as the first drop of potion touched her lips she spoke the single word that negated Tracel's Levitation.

She and the couch dropped instantly, plummeting past the overlord as she quickly gulped the potion.

They were falling down the cliff, the rocks zooming toward them, the pounding of the surf increasing from a quiet whooshing to a roar, and then she took a step and caught herself on air.

As before, the couch's weight jerked hard at her shoulder as she came to a stop, but again she held on.