The Flying Sorcerers

The sap-gathering was well under way. I headed down to the Lower Village. Bellis the Potter would have to supply us with everything he had that we could use to hold housetree blood — we weren’t going to run out again.

When I told him, he was delighted. It meant a great deal of work, he kept bouncing up and down and shouting, “Oh, goody, goody, goody — spell tokens, spell tokens!”

I shrugged and left him. My head still hurt. I went up the river to look for Purple. I couldn’t even find where he had been working. The surf was already crashing in around his blackened housetree stump.

Half the Lower Village was underwater, the Speakers’ clearing and the graves of the two boys as well. The river had long since seeped over its banks.

Lower Village families had been trickling up the hill to occupy the housetrees we had prepared for them for some time now, but I had not realized just how high the water had risen. It had been a while since I had been to this part of the village.

I found Purple with Trone the Coppersmith. The two of them were hard at work with wood and metal. I couldn’t fathom what they were doing, but it seemed odd that Trone, a layman, should be working on a magical device.

When I pointed this out, Trone only snarled at me. Purple said, “I need his skills, Lant. He’s the only man who can make what I need. We’ve got the copper wire — now, I need a way to insulate it.”

“Insulate? I wish you’d speak like a man, Purple.”

“It means trap the magic in the wire. That way it can’t take short cuts. I can make it go round and round in a spiral, but if the wire touches itself — I wonder, maybe if I coated the wires with sap …”

“We have more housetree blood, Purple. The gathering crews are busily working in the Upper Village right now. All those trees we deconsecrated —”

“I remember, I remember.” Purple clutched at his head.

“Ooh. I’ve got a head you wouldn’t believe …”

True enough. I hadn’t believed Purple’s head the first time I saw it. But I had come on weightier matters. I said:

“Your housetree was destroyed last night, Purple —”

“No matter. There are others —”

“But your battery —?”

He held it up. “Safe!” he said. “I have kept it with me always.”

“Have you worked out a way to restore its power?”

That’s what we’re working on now.” He indicated the device on Trone’s bench. “This one is only a model, but as soon as Trone gets more copper wire, we will be building larger ones. We still have to wind these two iron uprights with copper wire. Then, between them, we will mount a long cylinder of iron so that it can spin between the two uprights. We must wind that with wire too, as much as can be fitted on. Then we must run leads for half a mile.”

“Half a mile? That’s a tradesman’s ransom in metal!”

“In your old village it may have been,” snorted Trone. “Here metal is more plentiful.”

“Besides,” said Purple, “we dare not risk bringing the electrissy maker any closer. A stray spark from it might set off all the hydrogen bags.”

“Set off?”

“Explode,” said Purple. “Catch fire.”

“You mean like the ones over your housetree?”

“Exactly,” said Purple. “Only we will be using bigger airbags for the flying machine — we must be very careful with them.”

“Oh, yes,” I said. “Oh, yes. By all means. Use a mile of wire if necessary, two miles — a dozen — as much as you need.”

Purple laughed at that. “Don’t worry, Lant. The danger will be minimal.”

“That’s what Shoogar said, just before the last con-junction.”

He missed the point, began poking at his device again.

“What is it that will make the magic?” I asked.

“The spinner here,” he pointed at the iron bar which would be mounted between the other two uprights. “One must turn this core to make the magic flow. When the wire is wrapped properly, the core will resist turning. We have already mounted the crank here. For the larger ones we will use a set of bicycle pedals and a seat for the pedaller.”

“That means more work for my sons,” I said. “They will have to build a bicycle frame for your devices, won’t they?”

He frowned, “Yes, they will. I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll go and tell them.”

“Don’t bother. I’m going up there; I will mention it to them.”

“Yes,” said Trone to Purple, “you will have to stay here and help me melt this copper into wire. You work the bellows.”