Deep Secret (Magids 1) - Page 68

“No need, as long as you swear,” I told him.

He swore, formally and devoutly, by the name of Koryfos the Great. Will winked at me. “Got enough candles, Rupe? Mine are all down in the Groundraker. Shall I get them?”

Just as Maree seemed to travel everywhere with her vet-case, I never go anywhere without a bag ready packed with the things I might need for a working. I fetched it from the stand and checked. I had eighteen plain white candles and a stack of wire stands for them. “These are enough,” I told Will. “I don’t want anyone leaving this room until we’re through. There are at least two powerful hostiles out there. You start setting up the strongest wards you can. I’ll find the road and explain to Nick.”

We both stood with our backs to the door, concentrating. I could feel Will building something so thick and strong that I began to feel as if I was working in a vault. He was doing it very carefully, separating us from the node and keeping us that way. I was grateful for that. It meant that I could put my entire mind to thinking through the Babylon verse that was mine, my piece of the deep secret.

Where is the road to Babylon?

Right beside your door.

Can I walk that road whenever I want?

No, three times and no more…

Nick and Rob were staring at us with nearly identical awed respect. Nick suddenly said throatily, “I need to pee. Is that all right?”

“Get it over with now,” I said. “Rob too. Go on.”

Nick sped to the bathroom. Rob slid all four hooves carefully to the floor, tossed aside the duvet and heaved upright. “Yow! he said. His hand clapped itself to Maree’s numerous stitchings along his side. Maree’s eyes turned to him with blurred professional interest. She was de

finitely more alive than she had been. She watched Rob as he tottered gingerly around the quack chicks and across to the bathroom. I supposed there was just space in there for him. Nick could help him. I turned my mind back to the rhyme again.

The road was there in the room, of course, more or less at my feet. It always would be, for me or anyone, since it was, in some sense, like itself. This Babylon working was old, old basic magic. I ignored Nick coming back, and then Rob, and paced out the part of it that lay inside the room. It lay in an odd slantwise way. I had to move Maree’s wheelchair against the bed in order to follow it right. When I had it, I came back towards the door, putting down a candle in its holder to the right of it, every few steps. The first two candles were only a step apart, the others had to be more, and then more, until there were nine laid in a line. Then I went back again, putting another candle opposite the first ones, until there were nine again that side, a foot or so away from the first nine. Then I went back to the door and looked to see if I had it right.

I had. Although I had put the candles down in two parallel lines, from where I stood at the door the lane of candles appeared to narrow sharply towards the further end. The illusion of perspective made the room seem suddenly twice the size.

I beckoned Nick over. “Listen carefully,” I said to him. “You and Maree are going on a journey. She has to walk. That’s why you have to go with her to help her. I can’t tell you much about the journey, because nobody knows much. But I know it won’t be easy. You’ll have your work cut out to get her there – and back. It’s just as important to get her back here as it is to get her there. Have you got that?” Nick nodded. “When you get wherever the end of the journey is,” I said, “it may look like a city, or a tower, or something quite other. We don’t know. But you’ll know when you get there. When you do, you are each allowed to ask for one thing only, and that thing has to be something you need very much. Make sure Maree asks to have the other half of herself restored. Keep telling her. You can ask for anything you like for yourself, but make sure Maree asks for the other half of herself or you’ll have wasted the working. OK?”

Nick nodded again, very seriously. “And we walk down there?” He pointed to the double row of unlit candles. He sounded as if he was trying hard not to seem incredulous.

“When the candles are lit,” I said, “you should be able to see the road. I hope so, but I’m not sure. This isn’t a thing we do every day. There is one other very important thing, though. You have to complete your journey – there and back – while the candles are still burning.”

“That’s only a few hours,” Nick said. “Isn’t it?”

“I’ll be working hard to force them to burn as slowly as possible,” I said. “But, yes, you can’t afford to hang about. Try to keep going, whatever happens. Have you got all that? Are you ready?”

Nick nodded. I went and helped Maree out of the wheelchair, small and tepid and light in my hands. She stood all right. She even walked when I tugged at her, but she went in a slow, tremulous shuffle, with her head bent limply sideways, watching the quack chicks still. Nick took hold of her firmly by her other arm.

“Come on, Maree,” he said. “You’ve got to walk. You’ve got to fight. You know how strong you can be when you get fierce. Get fierce – come on.”

Maree responded to this. Her head went round to look at Nick and I saw her lips mumble what seemed to be the word “fierce”. One hand made a small, vestigial gesture, trying to push her glasses up her nose.

“That’s it!” Nick said. He led her up beside the door, to the start of the two lines of candles. “What do we do now?”

“Will and I light the candles,” I said, “and we’ll say the words while we do. You join in with the part you know. And the moment you see the rest of the road, start walking. Ready?”

Nick, with Maree draped against him, gave a forced smile. “Going, ready or not.”

Will and I hurried to the far end of the line of candles. We both had petrol lighters. Candles are harder to light with those, but you do all old magics by striking flint with steel if you can. As soon as we had the first two candles alight, we went on to the next pair and began speaking the well-known part of the secret. Like all old spells, it contains its own instructions.

“How many miles to Babylon?

Three score miles and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, and back again.

Tags: Diana Wynne Jones Magids Fantasy
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