Marion Zimmer Bradley by Lythande

Author:Lythande
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-11-23T21:08:15+00:00

“I will take a lodging for the night, and a meal served in private in my room, no more.” And though both the fisherman and his wife pressed Lythande to accept the ring and other gifts, even to the profits of a year’s fishing, the wizard would accept nothing more.

But the others in the room crowded near, clamoring.

“No such magic has ever been seen in these parts! Surely you can free us, with your magic, from this evil wizardry! We beg you, we are at your mercy-we have nothing worthy of you, but such as we can, we will give… . “

Lythande listened, impassive, to the pleading. It was to be expected; magic had been demonstrated, and knowing what it could do, they were greedy for more. Yet it was not greed alone. Their lives and their livelihood were at stake. These poor folk could not continue to live by the fishing if the mermaid continued to lure them onto the rocks, to be wrecked or eaten by sea-monsters, or, if they came safe and alive to their homes, to live on rapt away by the memory.

Yet what reason could this mermaid have for her evildoing? Lythande was well acquainted with the laws of magic, and magical things did not exercise their powers only out of a desire to make mischief among men. Why, after all, had this mermaid come to sing and enchant these simple shore folk? What could her purpose be?

“I will have a meal served in private, that I may consider this,” the magician said, “and tomorrow I will speak with everyone in the village who has heard this creature’s song or looked upon her. And then I will decide whether my magic can do anything for you. Further than that I will not go.”

When the woman had departed, leaving the tray of food, Lythande locked and double-locked the door of the room behind her. A fine baked fish lay on a clean white napkin-Lythande suspected it was the best of the meager catch brought in by the young girls, which alone kept the village from starving. The fish was seasoned with fragrant herbs, and there was a hot, coarse loaf of maize-bread, with butter and cream, and a dish of sweet boiled seaweed on the tray.

First Lythande cast about the room, the Blue Star blazing between the narrow brows, seeking hidden spyholes or magical traps. Eternal vigilance was the price of safety for any Adept of the Blue Star, even in a village as isolated as this one.

It was not likely that some enemy had trailed Lythande here, nor prearranged a trap, but stranger things had happened in the Adept’s long life.

But the room was nowhere overlooked and seemed

impregnable, so that at last Lythande was free to take off the voluminous mage-robe and even to ungird the belt with the two swords, and draw off the soft dyed-leather boots. So revealed, Lythande presented still the outward appearance of a slender, beardless man, tall and strongly framed and sexless; yet, free of observation, Lythande was revealed as what she was; a woman.

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