This was exciting, using magic himself. He had certainly seen plenty of magic, but he had rarely gotten to use it himself. Turning Tobas into a dragon might have been reckless, even frightening, but it had also been fun. It had given him a sensation of power. This experiment with the mirror was far less likely to produce spectacular results, but it was still a bit of a thrill.
He could hear spriggans protesting, but none interrupted him. Apparently Karanissa’s witchcraft was up to the task of keeping them away. “Make no more spriggans—by this spell I charge you,” he proclaimed. “Esku.”
The powder flashed into non-existence, but the mirror appeared unchanged.
“Make no more spriggans,” Gresh repeated, just in case he had misremembered and the command was supposed to come after the invocation.
“How do we know it worked?” Karanissa asked, looking down at the mirror. She was panting slightly from the effort of keeping the spriggans back.
“We just wait and see whether any more spriggans appear,” Gresh answered, as he closed the jar and slid it back into its place in the box. “After all, they’ve been popping out often enough! No wonder there are half a million of the little pests, if they appear this... Oh, drat.”
A spriggan was heaving itself up out of the mirror.
“It didn’t work,” Karanissa said.
“It didn’t work,” Gresh agreed. He reached for the box.
The glittering white powder of Lirrim’s Rectification flashed silver instead of gold, but had no visible effect at all, and after a five-minute wait the mirror produced another spriggan, demonstrating that the original spell was still working. The spriggan appeared just the same as the others. If the Rectification had had any effect at all, it wasn’t obvious.
“I’d hoped that would turn it into Lugwiler’s Haunting Phantasm,” Gresh said. “I’m not sure why it didn’t—after all, that’s what the spell was originally intended to be.”
“Maybe wizardry just doesn’t work on the mirror,” Karanissa said, as she slumped against the cave wall, exhausted.
“That’s possible,” Gresh admitted. “But I really hope that’s not the case.”
“Maybe it’s been too long since the original spell,” Tobas said, peering down through the opening where the cave roof used to be.
“That doesn’t seem likely,” Gresh said. “From what I’m told, wizardry usually isn’t time-limited that way—I mean, you can always reverse Fendel’s Superior Petrifaction, even if the victim’s been stone for centuries.” He glanced around. “It might be because there are half a million spriggans out there who think this version of the mirror is exactly what it should be.”
“That could be,” Tobas said.
Gresh tried Javan’s Restorative next, over the dragon’s objections. Tobas pointed out that they had already used the Restorative on the mirror once without removing the enchantment and argued that they really shouldn’t waste another portion of their very limited supply of a very precious spell.
Gresh ignored him and cast the spell, which did absolutely nothing. Spriggans continued to emerge from the mirror at irregular intervals.
The horde of spriggans in the meadow continued to hold Alorria, Alris, and the flying carpet hostage. They bickered and squeaked among themselves, but made no attempt to charge past the dragon. Every so often one would try to sneak past alone, but Tobas spotted most of these and chased them away.
“What does that leave?” Tobas asked, as he brushed a few unusually courageous spriggans back with his tail. “What else have you got in that box?”
“The potions obviously won’t help,” Gresh said. “The mirror can’t drink them. The two powders we haven’t tried are the Spell of the Revealed Power and the Spell of Reversal.”
“The mirror’s been enchanted for years, so I don’t know what the Spell of Reversal could do,” Tobas remarked.
“Make the mirror suck spriggans back in, perhaps?” Karanissa suggested.
Gresh and Tobas exchanged glances, man to dragon.
“I suppose it might,” Gresh said.
“Well, what would the Spell of the Revealed Power do?”
“Who knows?” Gresh replied. “It might show us why the spriggans are so determined to protect this thing, when they say they don’t care whether any more appear out of it.”
“It may be bringing the spriggans from somewhere else,” Tobas suggested. “Instead of creating them, I mean. The Spell of the Revealed Power might transform it into an actual doorway into that realm, whatever and wherever it may be.”
“And if it did...” Gresh blinked. “If it did, maybe we could send all the spriggans back where they came from! Maybe that’s what they actually want it for!”
“And maybe it’s not,” Karanissa said. “Maybe instead it’ll dump another half-million spriggans on us all at once!”
“I’ll have Javan’s Restorative handy,” Gresh said.
“The Spell of Reversal,” Tobas grumbled. “Use that, and save the Restorative!”
“Maybe I will,” Gresh said, as he pulled the jar of blue powder from the box. “Let’s just see what it does...”
“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Karanissa said, backing away.
“She may have a point,” Tobas said. “What if it releases an infinite quantity of spriggans, and we’re smothered to death before you can use a counterspell?”
“That would be unfortunate,” Gresh said, as he sprinkled blue powder on the mirror. He had come this far, and did not want to give up. Besides, he had just cast three high-order spells that had done exactly nothing, and was beginning to think wizardry simply didn’t work on the mirror. He wanted to find something that would affect the glass.
“It would be unfortunate,” he repeated. “But I don’t think it’ll happen. Why would it? What power would that reveal? Esku!”
Chapter Nineteen
There was a golden flash, and the man, woman, and dragon stared down at the little mirror.
It remained a mirror, a round piece of silvered glass about the size of a man’s hand. It did not transform into a gateway, portal, dragon, spriggan, or monster of any sort.
“It would appear,” Karanissa said, staring at it, “that it has never mastered anything more powerful than itself.”
“How annoying,” Gresh said.
A spriggan suddenly popped up out of the mirror, jumped to a nearby rock, teetered on its edge for a moment, then scampered away. It looked just like any number of the other spriggans. The Spell of the Revealed Power had apparently not changed a thing.
“How very annoying,” Gresh said.
“You know,” Tobas said, “you’d make a terrible wizard, Gresh—assuming you survived your apprenticeship. You have a habit of throwing magic around much too carelessly. That spell really might have killed us all. Turning me into a dragon, and all the rest—you really ought to use a little more caution.”
This admonishment, especially coming from Tobas, whose carelessness with magic had created in the first place, stung more than Gresh cared to admit—but he could not completely deny that there was some justice in it. “I take some risks, yes,” he said. “I don’t think they’re excessive. I have a box of counterspells right here, after all, and this is what the Guild gave me these spells for. I brought them here to use.”
“But none of them have done anything useful to the mirror,” Karanissa said.
“I know. But there’s one more to try,” Gresh replied.
“The Spell of Reversal? What can that do?” Tobas asked.
“Maybe Karanissa’s right, and it really will suck spriggans back in,” Gresh said.
“Even if it does, it will only work for half an hour,” Tobas pointed out.