Chapter 13
By
the time the three reached Kathryn's cottage/castle, it was almost evening.
"What
were you doing this far from home in the first place?" gasped
Magbert, catching his breath.
"Kathryn
sets her traps in areas that fairies or sprites populate heavily. A quick
teleportation spell is all she needs to get her from place to place," said
Drianna quietly, looking at the place she had called home for the past 15 or 16
years with an onerous dread. "We should probably go in, since she knows
I'm here."
The
other two followed without argument through a large oaken door, then down a
long hallway which led to a small library/sitting room. Sure enough, there sat
Kathryn in an easy chair waiting for them.
"Drianna,
my dear," she said coldly. "So good to see you. Wait upstairs in your
room whilst I take care of this riff-raff."
Drianna,
suddenly confronted with the routine of authority, bowed her head murmuring,
"Yes, mistress" and walked from the room.
"As
for you two," said Kathryn to the more than surprised pair. "You must
be severely punished..." She rose and Lokey reached for his staff while Magbert
leapt into diplomatic mode.
"Now,
hold on a minute, we didn't kidnap your apprentice; she came of her own free
will," he said hurriedly, causing Kathryn to pause. "At least we
thought so. But you...you did kidnap our friend, my girlfriend, didn't you?"
"I
might have made arrangements for an exchange," said Kathryn, producing a
sphere from her pocket. Crystal, who still sat inside, looked up in the sudden
light, then saw Lokey and Magbert and leaned forward anxiously on her knees,
putting her hands against the sphere in weary hope.
Magbert
looked at his obviously traumatized sprite to the self-satisfied sorceress.
Blocking all better judgement, he lunged at the latter. Lokey grabbed him
before he could incur any damage, but not before Kathryn had tossed the sphere
into the air. It disappeared it mid-air, leaving both Lokey and Magbert gaping.
"What
did you do with her?" asked Lokey for Magbert, who was too infuriated to
speak.
"She
is hidden within the castle," said Kathryn, simply. "You may search
for her if you wish."
For
a moment, the two stood doubting, then Magbert said, "If we don't find her
alive, we'll be back."
"No,
you stay," said Kathryn, pointing to him. "I wish to speak with
you."
Magbert
started to protest, but Lokey laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'll find her,
he muttered to him reassuringly. "Just give me ten minutes."
"Five,"
said Kathryn, overhearing. An overturned hourglass appeared next to her. Lokey
turned and left and Kathyrn looked at Magbert. "Sit down," she said,
moving a chair from the corner underneath him. It bumped the back of his knees,
causing him to fall into it abruptly. He tried to get up, but found the seat
magically binding him. It was obviously a bit of magic, but Magbert wisely
decidedly to listen and fight later.
"What
do you want from me?" he demanded.
"I
want to know," said she, "what you see in such a lesser being as
that...sprite. A fairy one might understand or, at least, make allowances for,
but a sprite! She shows no talent, no initiative...good heavens, the
flighty little thing isn't even pretty!"
"You
kidnap her from the safety of her friends, lock her up in some little bubble
and treat her like some insignificant creature by proving you're more powerful
than her and you expect heroics? She's a sprite, not a sorceress!
Her best move would be to bide her time until a way to escape pops up. She
probably doesn't think she stands a chance, if she even considered herself able
to try. And I think," he added, with conviction, "she's the
most beautiful being that walks this Earth."
"Why?"
asked Kathryn. "Are you spellbound to her?"
"Yes,
in a way," he replied. "Her spell of allure is in her personality. No
real magic is necessary. I am simply in love with her."
"It's
like being in love with an insect."
"Hardly.
An insect hasn't the capacity to capture my heart or love me back."
Magbert paused. "You seem to be under the delusion that anything of lesser
stature is inferior."
"Those
of lesser magic are. Size is a natural hinder to power, therefore, I cannot
consider her even a semi-equal. Were I not interested in your dealings with
this sprite, I would not deign speak to you either."
"Which
is probably why you sit here holding on for dear life to your last
apprentice," muttered Magbert.
"What?"
He
sighed, then plunged in. "No one will ever equal you or your power, so
you'll never have anyone to talk with, except maybe your apprentice, who
realized with us that there are others that may be smaller or of lesser power,
but are no less equal. That's why she's trying to leave you and you know it and
that why you won't let her; because you'll have no one to talk to."
Magbert finished and looked at Kathyrn, who had calmly watched this discourse.
She rose and Magbert took a moment to mentally kiss his life and love goodbye.
"You,"
she said, looking down at him, "are quite right."
"Ex-cuse
me?" he asked, tearing himself away from his own funeral preparations.
"Exactly
what I said. You are correct." Still, Magbert looked confused, so she
began to explain, pacing the floor in front of him as she did. "I am
getting old, so old I've stopped bothering to count. I was, at last count, over
130 years old.
Magbert
gawked. "You've held your age well," he said.
"Thank
you," she said briefly. "I found Wenlin when her village put her out
to die, as they do so often to those beyond their understanding. I took her in
and taught her all I had learned about taking magic from the person instead of
the spell; shaping it to fit required needs and taking it back for reuse later.
It is a complicated process, one that had taken me decades to perfect, but took
her years, sometimes mere months to master."
"Drianna,
as she has renamed herself, has reached the end of her studies and has become
weary of her existence. She knows not what she wants, because she has yet to
see what the outside world has to offer. Yet she greatly fears leaving my side.
Soon, she will become bitter and reclusive." Kathryn clenched a fist at
her side as she continued. "So much power and so little idea of what to do
with it As much as I shall miss her company, I cannot and will not allow this
happen to my favorite apprentice. She must decide what she wants and decide
now. She is too young to go the way of her mistress." She seemed to become
distant for a moment, then she looked at Magbert and firmly added, "If her
wish is to leave and travel with your party, then so be it. But if her
conviction is not solid, she will stay and your little feminine companion,
unfortunately, will have to be disposed of as a lesson to Drianna."
"But...but
that's unfair!" sputtered Magbert. "She didn't do anything to
her!"
Kathryn
shrugged. "My concern is for my apprentice, not for some scatterbrained
little sprite."
"If
you try to kill her, you'll have to go through us first," said Magbert
resolutely.
"I
assumed that," said Kathryn. "Which means you shall die with
her." Magbert became extremely agitated as he began struggling to escape.
"Pathos, take care of our guest while we wait for his friends to
return," she added.
Realizing
she was not speaking to him, Magbert turned and found a large demonic figure
behind him, eyes glowing like greenish-yellow coals.
"Yes,
mistress," said the beast in a sepulchral voice, grabbing Magbert up by
the front of his collar with one scaly red claw and pinning him to the nearest
wall.
"Take
heart, gnome" said Kathryn, reseating herself as Magbert struggled to
breath more freely. "Drianna may change her mind after all."