Heart's Magic by Gail Dayton Read Free Book Online

of the
wizards still watching near the dais.
    Allsup took a deep whiff
and coughed at the aroma doubtless made even more pungent by being
closed in the small flask. He scowled at Cranshaw and passed the
flask on. "It is the same potion." The next wizard
agreed.
    Apparently, Elinor decided,
they were more angry with Cranshaw for trying to cheat than they
were over her challenge. Honor among wizards and all
that.
    One by one, they handed it
down the line until the last wizard, old Beddowes, carefully
screwed the cap back onto the flask so it wouldn't spill while he
tottered the few more steps to the supervising Briganti, where he
handed it over. The Briganti, who was an alchemist and had come to
Harry's house and therefore was someone whose name Elinor should
know, took the old wizard's elbow and walked him back to the chair
someone had found for him.
    After the old man was seated
again, the Briganti-- Norwood --that was his name. Norwood
strode briskly back toward the quartet gathered at the table.
Elinor had been so focused on watching the flask's progress and
trying to recall Norwood's name that Cranshaw's scream of rage
caught her by surprise.
    "No!" His denial was bound
into the scream. "No, I will not be subjected to the corruption,
the foulness and evil this female has concocted. She does not
belong here. She is lies and wickedness throughout and has blinded
you all to the truth!"
    Elinor straightened from
her flinch as Cranshaw spouted his irrational rant. She threw off
Dr. Rosato's protective hand and reached into her quiver, selecting
the alder wand by feel. She shifted the maple wand to her other
hand. She didn't know what the other wizard might do, but she would
be ready.
    "He is mad," Rosato
whispered, staring at Cranshaw.
    Norwood came on, ignoring
Cranshaw's raving, bringing the flask with the potion for the mad
wizard to unspell and drink. Norwood took up the pewter goblet with
a little flip of the cup and shook out the last few drops of
Cranshaw's neutralized potion. He thumped it down on Cranshaw's
side of the table and began to unscrew the cap on the
flask.
    "No!" Cranshaw shouted.
"No, I won't do it. She is a cheat. A liar. She has--"
    "The only cheat I see here
is you," Norwood growled.
    "She has bewitched you."
Cranshaw's eyes rolled wide and white as he backed from the table.
"She has bewitched you all!"
    Elinor tightened her grip
on her wands, using the maple to taste the magic in the air, hoping
for some warning if Cranshaw broke.
    Norwood grimly upended the
flask to pour Elinor's potion into the goblet. Cranshaw's hand
darted into his pocket and came out again to throw--
    "Look out!" Elinor
cried.
    Cranshaw threw an
alchemist's fireball at point blank range at the goblet, uncaring
that Norwood and Dodd were standing over it, Dr. Rosato only a step
away.
    Elinor threw her alder
wand. She couldn't hope to strike the clay pellet with it. Her aim
was terrible. Besides, the fire had already ignited, blowing
forward at the goblet and the men. The magic in the maple wand
seemed to slow down time, allowing her to see the alder hit the
fire magic and shatter.
    Alder was wood and wood
burned, which drove the magic inside it even faster. It spread over
the men to protect them from Cranshaw's reckless act. Elinor was
already drawing her next wand. The rowan had been loaded with
protective magic as well.
    "Back away," she ordered
the noncombatants.
    They hadn't been hurt by
the illegal fire, she saw with the maple's aid. Good. Norwood took
the goblet with him as he moved out of the combat zone, pushing
Dodd and Rosato ahead of him.
    Elinor stirred her rowan
wand in the air over the Book, taking up more magic as she skirted
the edge of the table, advancing on Cranshaw. He backed away,
fumbling in his pockets again. How many firebombs did he have? She
was down to five wands and the maple didn't have either aggressive
or protective magic, so really--four. Three. The pine hadn't been
loaded at all.
    "Nigel Cranshaw--"