Dark Moon Light Page 12
“Can you magic her?” I asked.
“I can't even tell which is which!” he croaked.
I done forgot about that. “That one!”
There was a little tiny flash. It didn't seem to do nothing, but the dark lady gave him a look that promised revenge, and then the cage blew away like smoke, and Werin and the wizard fell out of the sky.
I guess I just hoped that he could distract her, like he done when I was working them rings, give the bright lady a chance at winning, and now all I could think was that I killed him. And then somehow things changed and I wasn't so scared no more, because my heart was burning and I was mad. I stumbled over to Werin and fetched out the pouch of trinkets that he had brought so he could steal from a sorcerer. I'd give her a distraction! There was this belt that made a blue glow around you, and a thingy that turned off locks, and a couple rings, and a bracelet and when I got them out from under him I realized that I didn't know how to work them. So I started throwing them at her, one by one, hoping to bounce one off her ear, at the very least. I was gasping and screeching, and spitting in anger, like I was a cat in a cat fight, and too mad to care if I made things worse.
As I lined up and let go with the last of my trinkets, I thought I heard the whisper of a word from the crumpled form of Getuinskaff-- and the ring I was throwing lit up and started spitting magic sparks. The dark goddess looked up, and raised her hand to ward it off, and the other lady's magic burst out of the shadow bounds, and flew at the dark lady. “Time to go home!” the bright lady said in her gently dissaproving voice.
There was a bright flash, and both ladies disappeared.
And then the moon went dark.
The night was black, and still, except for a muffled groan from the wizard, and I dropped down and felt for him. “Will you live?”
“I'm not a good wizard, you see,” he whispered. “I can't do anything big. But it doesn't take much to turn on those things. The hard part is always making them.”
I guess that's another thing I'd know about if I'd gone to the orphanage school, but I still didn't see no use in talking about it. “I'll call the University Police,” I told him. “They'll get someone to take care of you. I figure, they'll be too happy you got rid of that lady to punish you for thieving.”
“I wasn't thieving,” he answered weakly. “I was copying someone's secret notes. I never do anything illegal if I can help it. I'm not dying either... I just hurt a lot.”
I guessed that he needed help anyhow, and I was getting to my feet when I remembered Werin. I turned back towards his still form and almost started to touch him.
“He's dead,” Getuinskaff whispered.
I had gotten those things out of his pouch and thrown them, and I hadn't thought about it then, but now that the words were said, I knew he was dead then, and I withdrew my hand very, very slowly.
“I'd be dead too, if not for you,” the wizard continued. “Why didn't you stay where you were?”
I guess I didn't have no answer. Helping him was as stupid as him trying to help Werin. Maybe it was catching, like the plague.
“You're a streety?”
I didn't figure that I could have lived through all that and still be a streety. They didn't do nothing like this. But I weren't going to be a thief no more, and I didn't have the schooling for sorcery or been born a wizard. “They call me Raff.”
“Getuinskaff the Great.” He didn't sound too great to me. His voice seemed to be fading. “My shingle's on Tanner Way. You have a free meal and a roof there, whenever you want.”
At the rate he was going, he'd slip off before I could collect. “You lie still,” I told him. “I'll get help.”
I guess it was the first time I ever ran to the Police, and it was nervousing, but I knew I didn't need to be scared of them, and that felt good. Now I had a place to hole up, there weren't no need to be scared of the winter, anymore, neither. A future I never figured to have stretched out in front and I was eager to see what I could make of it.