“Even your life?” she asked.
“My life!” Palin was bitter. “Of what value is my life to me now? My wife is right. The old magic is gone, the new magic is dead. I am nothing without the magic!”
“I do not believe that the new magic is dead,” Jenna said gravely. “Nor do I believe those who say that we ‘used it all up.’ Does one use up water? Does one use up air? The magic is a part of this world. We could not consume it.”
“Then what has happened to it?” Palin demanded impatiently. “Why do our spells fail? Why do even simple spells require so much energy that one has to go to bed for a week after casting them?”
“Do you remember that old test they used to give us in school?”
Jenna asked. “The one where they put an object on the table and tell you to move it without touching it. You do, and then they put the object on a table behind a brick wall and tell you to move it. Suddenly, it’s much more difficult. Since you can’t see the object, it’s difficult to focus your magic on it. I feel the same when I try to cast a spell—as if something is in the way. A brick wall, if you will. Goldmoon told me her healers were experiencing similar feelings—”
“Goldmoon!” Tas cried eagerly. “Where is Goldmoon? If anyone could fix things around here, it’s Goldmoon.” He was on his feet, as if he would run out the door that instant. “She’ll know what to do. Where is she?”
“Goldmoon? Who brought up Goldmoon? What does she have to do with anything?” Palin glowered at the kender. “Please sit down and be quiet! You’ve interrupted my thoughts!”
“I’d really like to see Goldmoon,” Tas said, but he said it quietly, under his breath, so as not to disturb Palin.
The mage lifted the device carefully in his hand, turned it over, examined it, caressed it.
“Your wife was right,” Jenna stated. “You’re going to use the device, aren’t you, Palin?”
“Yes, I am,” he replied, closing his hands over it.
“No matter what I say?”
“No matter what anyone says.” He glanced at her, appeared embarrased. “Thank you for your help. I’m certain my sister can find you a room at the Inn. I’ll send word.”
“Did you really think I would leave and miss this?” Jenna asked,amused.
“It’s dangerous. You said—”
“These days, walking across the street is dangerous.” Jenna shrugged. “Besides, you will need a witness. Or at the very least,” she added lightly, “you’ll need someone to identify your body.”
“Thank you very much,” Palin said, but he managed a smile, the first Tas had seen the mage wear. Palin drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly. His hands holding the device trembled.
“When should we try this?” he asked.
“No time like the present,” Jenna said and grinned.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Journey Back
“And that’s the rhyme,” said Tasslehoff. “Do you want me to repeat it again?”
“No, I have it memorized,” Palin said.
“Are you sure?” Tas was anxious. “You’ll need to recite it to return to this time. Unless you want to take me with you?” he added excitedly. “Then I could bring us.”
“I am quite sure I have the spell memorized,” Palin said firmly. And, indeed, the words were emblazoned in his mind. It seemed to him that he could see their fiery images on the backs of his eyes. “ And, no, I’m not taking you with me. Someone needs to stay here and keep Mistress Jenna company.”
“And to identify the body,” Tas said, nodding and settling down in his chair, kicking his feet against the rungs. “Sorry, I forgot about that. I’ll stay here. You won’t be gone long anyway. Unless you don’t come back at all,” he mentioned, as an afterthought. Twisting in his chair, he looked at Jenna, who had dragged her chair to a far comer in the kitchen. “Do you really think he’ll blow up?”
Palin carefully ignored the kender.
“I will chant the magic that activates the device. If the spell works, I believe that I will vanish from your sight. As the kender says, I should not be gone long. I do not plan to stay in the past. I am going to my father’s first funeral where, hopefully, I will be able talk to Dalamar. Perhaps I’ll even talk to myself.” He smiled grimly. “I’ll try to find out what went wrong—”
“Take no action, Palin,” Jenna warned. “If you do find out anything useful, return and report. We will need to think long and hard before acting upon it.”
“Who is ‘we’?” Palin demanded, frowning.
“I suggest a gathering of the wise,” Jenna said. “The elven king Gilthas, his mother Laurana, Goldmoon, Lady Crysania—”
“And while we are spreading the word of what we’ve found far and wide and waiting for all these people to come together, Beryl murders us and steals the device,” Palin said acerbically.
“She uses it, and we’re all dead.”
“Palin, you are talking about altering the past,” Jenna said in stern rebuke. “We have no idea what the ramifications would be to those of us living in the present.”
“I know,” he said, after a moment. “I understand. I will return and report. But we must be prepared to act rapidly after that.”
“We will. How long do you think you will be gone?”
“According to Tasslehoff, hundreds of days will pass for me for each second of time that passes for you. I estimate that I may be gone an hour or two marked by our time.”
“Good fortune on your journey,” Jenna said quietly. “Kender, come over here and stand beside me.”
Palin took hold of the device, moved to the center of the kitchen. The jewels glinted and sparkled in the sunshine.
He closed his eyes. He stood for long moments in deep thought and concentration. His hands cherished the device. He delighted in the feel of the magic. He began to give himself to the magic, let it cherish him, caress him. The dark years slipped away like receding waves, leaving memory’s shoreline smooth and clean. Palin was, for a moment, young and filled with hope and promise. Tears blurred his vision.
“Holding the pendant in my hand, I repeat the first verse, turning the face of the device up toward myself.” Palin recited the first words of the spelclass="underline" “ ‘Thy time is thy own.’ ” Acting as he had been instructed, he twisted the face plate of the device.
“Next, at the second verse, I move the face plate from the right to the left.” He moved the face of the device in the direction indicated and recited the second verse of the chant: “ ‘Though across it you travel.’
“At the recitation of the third verse, the back plate drops to form two spheres connected by rods. ‘Its expanses you see.’”
Palin gave the device another twist and smiled with pleasure when it performed as designed. He no longer held an egg-shaped bauble in his hand but something that resembled a scepter. “At the fourth verse, twist the top clockwise—a chain will drop down.”
Palin repeated the fourth verse: “ ‘Whirling across forever.’”
The chain dropped as Tas had foretold. Palin’s heartbeat increased with excitement and exultation. The spell was working.
“The fifth verse warns me to make certain that the chain is clear of the mechanism. As the sixth verse instructs, I hold the device by each sphere and rotate the spheres forward, while reciting the seventh verse. The chain will wind itself into the body. I hold the device over my head, repeating the final verse, and summon a clear vision of where I want to be and the time I want to be there.”
Palin drew in a deep breath. Manipulating the device as instructed, he recited the rest of the chant: “ ‘Obstruct not its flow. Grasp firmly the end and the beginning. Turn them forward upon themselves. All that is loose shall be secure. Destiny will be over your own head.’”