“That was an accident,” Gresh said. He pointed. “That’s Karanissa.” His finger moved. “And that’s a magical image of her that doesn’t have a name yet.”
“An image?” The dragon cocked his head and glared at the reflection with one baleful red eye. “Is it solid, or just an illusion?”
“I’m solid enough,” the image replied.
“It talks.”
“Oh, yes,” Gresh said. “In fact, it’s indestructible, just like a spriggan. I told you, we found out how the mirror works, and we did it by accidentally creating... well, her.”
“It’s permanent?”
“Very much so, yes.”
“Kara, what’s going on? What is that thing?”
Before the real Karanissa could reply, the copy shouted, “I’m a person! Stop calling me ‘it’ and talking about me as if I weren’t here!”
This outburst startled Gresh; until now the reflection had been calm and quiet and cooperative. Like Tobas, he hadn’t been thinking of it as entirely human—he had just been more tactful than the dragon. It seemed there was more to it than he had thought, though.
The dragon stared at the image for a moment; she stared angrily back. Gresh and Karanissa waited.
Finally the dragon said, “I’m sorry, whoever you are. I didn’t realize you were, well, real.”
“That’s better,” the reflection said, crossing her arms over her chest.
The dragon peered at her for a few seconds more, then asked, “But can someone explain to me what’s going on? Do we have the mirror? Can we take it with us and get out of here before it gets dark? How much longer do I need to be a dragon? Ali is getting upset.”
Gresh thought Alorria had been upset for quite some time now, but was not stupid enough to say so.
“I’m not sure what the situation is myself,” Karanissa answered.
“I don’t know what’s going on at all,” the reflection said.
“I do know what’s going on, but I’m not sure how to explain it,” Gresh said. “I know that in, oh, an hour or so I ought to be able to put an end to the production of new spriggans. I don’t know any safe way to destroy the mirror, though, and I’m not sure there is one, or that we should use it if there is.”
That was more or less a lie; Gresh was quite sure there were several ways to destroy the mirror. At least one of them was probably safe. There were spells that could do virtually anything, after all. The problem was that he doubted anyone knew which ones were safe, and he suspected the Guild might try a few that weren’t.
Simply destroying it, given enough magic, couldn’t really be that hard. The trick was to not leave any residue at all, and there were definitely spells that could do that, even if Gresh didn’t know what they were.
He suspected that Tobas didn’t know any of them, either. After all, Tobas might be a wizard, but Gresh was a wizards’ supplier; they were both familiar, at least in theory, with all the common spells. If Gresh couldn’t think of a safe way to destroy the mirror, he doubted Tobas could, either.
There were a few methods that might work—throwing it through a Transporting Tapestry to a place outside the World, letting a warlock destroy it, stuffing it face-down into a bottomless bag, feeding it to a demon. Gresh was not going to suggest any of those. It was all too likely that there were unforeseen flaws in them all.
“If there’s a safe way to destroy it, why shouldn’t we use it?” Tobas demanded.
Gresh’s real reason was simply that he decided he did not want to wipe out half a million semi-intelligent beings, but he did not think Tobas would accept that immediately—especially not when he was in dragon form. The wizard had already acknowledged that his shape was influencing his thoughts and behavior. Gresh doubted a real dragon would hesitate for a second before exterminating the spriggans.
Instead of admitting his unwillingness to play exterminator, Gresh said, “Because it might wipe all the spriggans out of existence, or it might turn them mortal, or it might multiply them infinitely —remember when we multiplied them by four? Destroying the mirror might do the same thing a hundred times over—or a thousand.”
The dragon stared at him for a moment, then said, “That would be bad.”
“I think so, yes,” Gresh agreed.
“So what are we going to do, then, if we can’t destroy the mirror safely?”
“Well, what I intend to do is ensure that the mirror won’t produce any more spriggans. Next, if possible—and I’m not entirely sure about this part—I’ll give it to you, with the understanding that you will not attempt to destroy it. I think I can convince the spriggans to allow that. What I contracted to do was to deliver the mirror to you, the Guild’s representative, so after that I’ve done my job—more than my job, since preventing it from generating new spriggans wasn’t anything I’d promised. If you like I’ll be happy, as yet another bonus, to try to help you convince the Guild that this is an adequate solution to the spriggan problem. I think that’s more than fair.”
“But the Guild...” The dragon hesitated.
“Oh, and I’m perfectly willing to leave you in either human or dragon form, if you think one might be more useful in negotiating with Kaligir and his friends.”
Tobas snorted sparks. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll turn me human. I can’t accept the mirror in this form; I’d probably break it into a dozen pieces and smother you all in spriggans.”
“Good point. Well, you can deliver the mirror to the Guild, if you like—with the appropriate warnings—and let them worry about it.”
“I can, can’t I?” The dragon cocked his head thoughtfully.
“Personally, I’d much rather you just sealed it away in a box somewhere and didn’t let them meddle with it,” Gresh said. “This all assumes that we can actually get it out of this cave, and I’m not entirely certain of that part yet. I do have some ideas.”
“How long is this going to take?”
“Putting an end to new spriggans should take maybe an hour, I’d say. Giving you the mirror and leaving here safely could take five minutes or it could take days, if I can do it at all.”
“It’ll be dark in an hour.”
“I know.”
“Ali won’t like that.”
“I know.”
“I don’t like the idea of flying in the dark.”
“I don’t blame you. And I may not be done until well into the night. I just don’t know. If I do have everything settled fairly quickly, I think I can convince the spriggans to go away and let us leave, and I can turn you human again. If we can’t fly safely, we’ll just take shelter in the cave until morning. You and Alorria are welcome to join the rest of us here, of course.”
“You think we’ll be here all night?”
“I’m afraid it’s likely, yes.”
“Ali won’t like that. Ali’s parents won’t like that.”
“She insisted on coming along; it wasn’t our idea.”
“I don’t think that’s going to make any difference.”
Gresh turned up a palm. “I know it won’t—so lie. Tell her I messed up a spell and can’t turn you human until the sun rises again, if you like.”
“That might do. There’s no food, though, and she’s a nursing mother.”
“I have a few things in my pack—not much, but a little. We should be able to go back at first light, I think.”
“I suppose.” The dragon looked at the two women. “Will you be all right, Kara?”
“I’m fine,” the witch replied.
“And what about you?”
“I don’t know,” the reflection said. “I’ve never seen night before.”