Then she caught her visitors’ mood and sobered. "Is something wrong?"
"A great deal, I am afraid," Bronwyn told her.
Moira stepped up to the bed. "My Lady, you know that Wiz and the others were hiding in the halfway world to use a computer?"
Judith nodded, eyes wide.
"They were…" Moira stopped and took a deep, ragged breath. "They were discovered there and apparently overwhelmed."
"Oh shit!" Judith breathed. Her eyes began to fill with tears. "I’m really sorry, Moira."
Moira reached out and patted her hand. Then she gathered herself. "Our one chance now is to strike quickly against these other two wizards from your world, but we have no one who is expert with the new magic."
"You have me," Judith said quietly. "I may not be in Wiz’s league, but I helped write the compiler and I’m a pretty damn good programmer."
Moira sighed. "Thank you, my Lady. I had hoped you would say that."
"There is more," Bronwyn put in sharply. "Lady, before you can do anything, you must be further healed. The spells to do so are dangerous and could harm you."
Judith didn’t say anything.
"I know this is difficult," Moira said sympathetically. "Craig is your friend."
"Ex-friend," Judith said coldly. She looked up at Moira, her face white and her lips pressed into a bloodless line.
"Do you understand what he did to me?" she asked, her voice shaking. "He came to me when I was helpless and he used me! He pried things out of me I never intended to tell anyone. Then he took that information and he turned it against my friends." Her eyes glittered with a mixture of tears and rage.
"I feel like I’ve been raped. If there is anything I can do to get back at that son of a bitch, I’m for it."
"Even at the cost of your health?" Bronwyn asked sharply. "Understand Lady, this healing spell could leave you worse than you are now with no hope of recovery."
"I don’t care if it leaves me confined to a goddamn iron lung! If I can take that slimy little bastard down with me it will be worth it."
Bronwyn nodded and motioned Moira to one side.
"Well?" Moira demanded. "She is willing."
"She is blinded by anger," Bronwyn said coldly. "She is not thinking rationally." She held up a hand to cut off the protest. "But nevertheless I will do it."
It was the work of a few moments to prepare for the spell. Bronwyn summoned her two most senior assistants and they prepared the brazier and candles while the chief healer traced the warding circle about the bed.
Judith sat in the center of things and watched. "This isn’t the spell you used on Wiz, is it?" she asked.
Bronwyn finished the warding circle and looked up. "You are more seriously ill, Lady." She stepped back and regarded Judith carefully. "You may still withdraw."
"Not on your life."
Bronwyn nodded. One assistant reached into the sleeve of his robe and pulled out a packet of herbs which he threw on the brazier. As the fragrant smoke billowed up, Bronwyn and her other assistant raised their wands and began the chant. The first assistant joined in in a minor key. Judith’s eyes widened and her mouth formed a little "O" of surprise as the spell took effect. She lay back on the pillows and jerked spasmodically, her breath coming in short gasps. Moira caught her breath, but Bronwyn and her assistants continued the chant uninterrupted.
The chant soared, dropped and finally died away like the after note of a great bell. Judith twitched once more and lay still. The smoke dissipated and Bronwyn ritually defaced the circle before stepping to the bedside.
"Is she all right?" Moira demanded.
"Only time will tell that," the healer said.
"But the convulsions…"
"Nerves knitting together and forming new pathways. I have seen worse."
Judith’s eyes fluttered and she breathed in great wracking gasps. Moira reached to her, but Bronwyn placed a hand on her arm.
"Can you hear me, Lady?" the healer asked gently.
Judith opened her eyes and her mouth worked convulsively. "Wwww…" she gasped.
"Yes, Lady?"
"Wwwater," Judith forced out.
"Here, Lady," Bronwyn took a bowl from one of her assistants and held it to Judith’s lips. "Sip, now. Just sip." Judith slurped the liquid in the bowl, choked and spluttered.
Bronwyn removed the bowl. "That is enough for now," she said. Judith sank back against the pillow and breathed strongly and regularly. In a moment she was asleep and snoring gently. The healer nodded and motioned for them to withdraw. Already her assistants were carrying out the brazier, candles and other paraphernalia.
"She will probably sleep for a few hours," Bronwyn told Moira as they left the room. "We will know more when she awakens."
"Do you have any idea?"
"Well," the chief healer said judiciously, "she is not dead. That is something."
Moira couldn’t bear the thought of going back to the apartment she had shared with Wiz, so she went to her office off the programmers’ quarters. She hoped that work would help, but after she went over the same list of supplies three times without being able to remember what was what from the top to the bottom of the tablet, she gave up the idea of doing anything useful. Instead she contented herself with trying to file some of the stacks of wooden tablets and sheets of parchment that had accumulated on her desk while she was in the Bubble World. Vaguely she realized she would probably never be able to find half the material again, but she didn’t really care. At least it kept her from breaking down completely.
"Hi."
Moira looked up from her filing and saw Judith standing in the door of her office.
"Lady!" she whooped, knocking over a pile of files in her haste to get around the desk. "Are you all right?"
"Never better," Judith said as the hedge witch hugged her tight. "Hungry as hell, but I feel great and I don’t think I’ve weighed this little since I was sixteen." She stood back and patted her now-concave stomach. "Hell of a way to lose weight, though."
"I’m so glad."
"Bronwyn says I’m fine, so I thought I’d come and surprise you. Now let’s go get some dinner. I haven’t eaten in-oh-fifteen minutes." Her voice hardened. "And then we need a council of war."
In the event, the council was combined with dinner. For the first half-hour or so, Judith tore into a heaping selection of meats, fruits, bread and cheeses laid out on the table in Bal-Simba’s study while Moira, Bal-Simba and Arianne filled her in. Then as she started to dawdle over her food instead of wolfing it, she began to ask questions and contribute information.