Chapter Ten

THE WIZARD'S SHOP WAS SMALL AND CLUTTERED; THE windows were draped with black, and a curtain of red beads hung in the doorway. He stepped inside. The interior was dim and smelled of incense and wax. "Is anyone here?" he called.

A velvet drapery at the back was pulled aside, and the wizard emerged; he was tall and thin but stooped with age, with a neatly trimmed fringe of white beard around his face and a completely bald head. He wore a simple black robe, very much like those worn in Teyzha. "May I help you?" he inquired politely.

"Are you Kurao?"

"I am."

"I want to learn about magic."

"I already have an apprentice; I'm sorry I can't help you." The wizard started to turn away.

"No, wait, that's not what I mean," Slant said; the mage paused and turned back. "I don't want to become a wizard; I just want to learn something about magic, perhaps a few little tricks."

Kurao looked him over carefully, but Slant felt no warning tingle and hoped that the old man was relying on his natural perceptions alone. "What for?" he asked at last. "That's my business."

"What will you pay?"

"I have gold. It's not local currency, but if s good." "How much?"

Slant pulled a large coin from his pocket and handed it to the wizard. Kurao looked at it disdainfully.

Slant added another.

The two coins vanished into the wizard's robe somewhere, and Kurao said, "I think that will do for a down-payment; well discuss the rest of the money later. What exactly did you want to know?"

"Is there somewhere more private we could talk?" He gestured toward the open door and the bead curtain.

"Certainly; follow me." The old man led the way past the velvet drapery to a small back room lit by a skylight and cluttered with the same sort of arcane miscellany as the laboratory Slant had found in Teyzha; the major furnishings were a table, three rough wooden stools, and an immense black metal cauldron hanging from a tripod over a small brazier. The walls were lined with shelves, and table and shelves were crammed with mystical apparatus: skulls, stuffed lizards, jars of powders and potions, carved sticks, polished stones, and other such things. There were very few books, in marked contrast to the Teyzhan equivalent.

Kurao perched himself atop one of the stools and motioned for Slant to do the same. The cyborg seated himself across the table from the wizard and considered where to begin.

"What exactly do you want to know?" Kurao asked.

"I want to know about magic. I'm from far away, where there are no wizards and magic is unknown; I don't understand it at all."

"Query: Advisability of direct questioning."

"It's definitely advisable. He thinks I'm a native of this planet, one of his own people, and has no reason not to trust me."

"Continue action."

"I scarcely know where to begin," the old man said as Slant and the computer conversed silently. "Magic is basically very simple. Anyone can be given the gift of wizardry, but it takes much time and effort to master it, so that it is passed on only to apprentices who study for years. Because it can be so dangerous, we wizards are very careful in choosing our apprentices."

It was not the social structure that interested Slant "You haven't told me what it is," he said.

"I don't understand."

"You haven't told me what magic is," he said. "I don't understand its basic nature. I have seen a wizard fly; I know wizards can tell when someone is lying. How do they do these things? What force is at work?"

"I'm afraid that's impossible to explain. A wizard learns to see things that ordinary people cannot, and by seeing them in this manner he learns to affect them without touching them in the normal sense."

Slant was not at all satisfied by this explanation. "You're being vague."

"Your questions are vague."

"Let me be specific, then. How does a wizard fly?"

"That is actually a difficult feat He must learn to see the force that holds us to the ground, and to move around it; I cannot explain it more clearly than that to anyone who does not have the wizard sight."

"Interrogation by friendly methods appears unproductive," the computer said.

"I was noticing that myself. He does seem to be talking about gravity, though." He looked at Kurao's bland face and wished he could tell when a wizard was lying as easily as wizards could tell when he was.

"It's all dependent upon this wizard sight, then?"

"You might say so,"

"And you say that's impossible to explain to someone who hasn't got it?"

"That's right."

"But it's really very simple, except it takes years to learn."

"It really is very simple, but learning to use it correctly and safely takes years."

"Does this sound like double-talk to you?" Slant asked the computer.

"Affirmative.''

"I don't think he's going to cooperate much more, but I don't want to resort to violence yet. Any suggestions?"

"It is possible subject cannot explain gravitational disturbances. Query: How certain is identification of this subject as enemy weapons researcher?"

"That's a good point; I haven't seen him use any magic."

Kurao sat silently through what appeared to him a moment of contemplation on Slant's part; his gaze was beginning to wander idly about the room when Slant asked, "Could you demonstrate your magic for me?"

"Certainly; it will cost another three of those coins, though."

That did not surprise Slant in the least; he passed two coins across the table. "Start with those; I'll give you two more if I'm pleased with the demonstration."

Kurao shrugged and slipped the coins out of sight "What sort of demonstration would you like?" he asked. "What can you do?"

"I can do a great many things. Usually I am called on to sell aphrodisiacs and automata, but I know many wizardry arts; I can fly, and make rain, and all the usual stunts."

"Automata?"

"Yes; you know, artificial creatures. They can be very useful. People use them to spy on one another, or to carry messages—"

"I don't know what you're talking about. You can make these things?"

"Yes, exactly; I make them, and bring them to life."

"That sounds like a good demonstration."

"You'll have to pay for the materials."

"Haven't I paid enough already?" He was beginning to tire of the wizard's greed.

"Oh, well. ..."

Slant passed another coin across the table.

Kurao smiled. "I'll start right away." He stood and crossed to the shelves; after poking about for several minutes, he turned back toward Slant, holding up a large stuffed lizard. "Will this do?"

Slant shrugged. "I suppose it will." He had no idea what the wizard was talking about Nodding absently, Kurao wandered from shelf to shelf, collecting various jars and other objects; at last, his arms full, he returned to the table and dumped his assortment of junk in front of the cyborg. "I don't really need all of this," he admitted apologetically, "but it helps."

Slant still didn't know what he was talking about; he said nothing. The computer was less agreeable.

"Recommend subject be restricted to necessary elements of demonstration."

"Oh, shut up. If this other stuff will help him with his nonsense, it doesn't matter."

"Recommend subject be required to provide step-by-step explanation."

"That's a good idea." Kurao was sorting out his collection; Slant got his attention with a gesture and said,

"Would you mind explaining as you go along?"

"Well . . . suppose, instead, you ask questions. I may be too busy."

"Is that acceptable?" -

"Affirmative."

"All right. Go ahead."

"Thank you." Kurao took a pouch of yellow powder from the heap on the table, stooped beside the hanging cauldron, and blew on the coals in the brazier. They flared up redly; Slant had not realized they were lit. The wizard poured the contents of the pouch on the burning coals. A thin wisp of smoke arose, and a sweet smell reached Slant's nose.

"What is that?"

"Powdered tree bark."

"What's it for?"

"It burns cleanly, smells pleasant; it's a good thing to start a spell with."

"Is it necessary?"

"No, it's mostly for effect. It helps set the proper mood." He fanned the brazier, and another curl of smoke drifted upward. "You must have pleasant surroundings, as the least distraction or irritation is likely to make you miss something."

He rose, returned to the table, and pulled out the stuffed lizard. "The object you plan to animate must have the proper shape, you understand. It has to be a shape that can do whatever the automaton is supposed to do. If you want it to talk, it has to have a mouth and throat; if you want it to walk it has to have legs; if you want it to fly it must have wings. If you want it to write it has to have hands and fingers; paws won't do. You might be able to add legs and whatever later, but they'll never work right if they weren't there from the beginning. You understand?"

"It seems clear."

"Explanation is ambiguous and unclear."

"Shut up."

"Now, since even the simplest automaton is alive, more or less, it needs much the same things inside as you or I or any other animal. A stuffed lizard like this hasn't any digestive tract or anything except a gut full of sawdust, so you need the proper materials. Transmutation would take too long; if you tried to make what you need out of the sawdust the part you made first would rot before you were finished, and the poor thing would die by pieces. You need these." He pulled several jars out of the heap, calling off their contents as he did. "Dried bones; dried blood; liver paste—I'd intended to eat that sometime, but it's going bad; powdered newts—very handy stuff—it has all the trace elements you'll need; bird's wings, for the muscles, nice and compact; hydrochloric acid for the digestion. ..." The list went on for quite some time, as Slant merely stared. What was the old fool talking about? Was he claiming he would build a live lizard?

"Ordinarily I don't explain this, I just do it; it's harder when I have to think about it." He picked up the jar of dried bones. "These are from a lizard about this size." He opened the jar and pulled out a handful of thin white objects that reminded Slant of chicken bones; the wizard's face went slack for an instant, then taut, his lips compressed into a thin line, his beard bristling, as Slant felt again the electric prickle of nearby magic.

The wizard placed the bones quickly, one by one, atop the stuffed lizard; Slant stared in amazement as they sank into the green hide, vanishing completely, apparently sucked through the scaly skin as if it were water. He paid no attention to the computer's statement, "Gravitational anomaly representing enemy weapons research occurring in immediate vicinity of cyborg unit."

"What did you do? How did you do that?"

Kurao apparently didn't hear him; he was concentrating his entire attention on his work. When he had finished with the bones, he opened the jar of pigeon wings and began arranging those carefully on the lizard; as he did they fell to pieces, feathers and bones scattering and rattling on the table, the muscles and cartilage vanishing, like the dried bones, into the skin.

"Wait! Stop and tell me what you're doing!"

"Can't" Dried blood was next, disappearing as soon as it touched the scales.

"You've got to explain!"

"Can't; it'll die." More ingredients were absorbed without a sound, leaving no sign they had ever been.

"It's already dead!"

"Visual input incomprehensible. Please verify."

Slant was too agitated to obey immediately; he watched as water and acid were spooned out, to vanish in midair even before touching the lizard's hide.

"Please verify."

"I don't understand it either; the stuff is disappearing."

Kurao continued to concentrate on the lizard; when he had put into it all the ingredients he had gathered, he still stared at it. Slant continued to demand an explanation.

He stopped talking abruptly when he saw the lizard's foot-long tail twitch.

A moment later Kurao slumped back on his stool, and the lizard turned its head to stare at Slant through green glass eyes.

"Gravitational anomalies representing enemy weapons research have subsided to steady low level; visual anomalies continue."

Slant stared back at the lizard for several seconds. "Is that really alive?"

"Information insufficient."

"No, not really. It lives only as long as I want it to. If I want, it'll be nothing but skin and sawdust and garbage again."

"What did you do? You rearranged those things until it had all its internal organs again?"

"Hligosh, no; am I a god? It's nowhere near as complex as a real lizard. It has no nervous system, no muscles except legs, neck, tail, and heart; it has to eat predigested mush. With everything I can do it probably won't live a week. It's a plaything, really. People like to have them as novelties. They're good for going places people can't fit—cleaning blocked drains and finding lost jewelry and so forth. I'll be glad to sell you this one. It'll do whatever I want it to, unless I turn it over to someone else; then it will obey its new master. If you buy it it will be as much under your control as your own hand—except that it hasn't got any nervous system, so it can't feel anything."

"Can it see?"

"I can see through its eyes, if I close my own; not very well even then, I'm afraid, and I can't transfer that I've always had trouble with eyes."

Slant stared at the motionless lizard in awe. He still didn't understand the source or type of energy the locals used, or how they used it, but it was undeniably impressive. The lizard lashed its tail, and turned its head back and forth. He could see that it wasn't truly a lizard; its tongue hung limp and unmoving from its mouth and it never blinked. Still, it moved as if alive.

"Require further explanation," the computer told him.

"How did you do that?"

"How did I do what?"

"Bring it to life."

"By wizardry, of course."

"What machines did you use?"

"None; you saw me." Kurao was surprised by the question.

"Subject is apparently lying."

Slant wasn't so certain of that any more, and made no reply.

"Suggest interrogation by threat."

Reluctantly, Slant agreed. "You may be right. Let me try one more thing first" He looked from the lizard to Kurao and asked, "What if I want to team some simple wizardry? Just enough to do a few stunts?"

"You can't do that You're either a wizard or you're not, you see."

"What if I want you to make me a wizard?"

"I won't do it. It's forbidden, unless I take you on as an apprentice, and I already have an apprentice."

"What if I force you to do it?"

"You can't force me. I'm a wizard, and you're not even armed."

"How do you make someone a wizard?"

"By magic, of course." Kurao smiled.

Slant conceded to himself that he was getting nowhere, reached under his vest, and brought out his snark.

Kurao looked at it curiously.

"This is a weapon from the Bad Times. I know how to use it, and protective spells don't stop it. It can kill you very quickly and messily. I really don't want to use it, but I may have to if you don't start cooperating more fully. Don't move suddenly, don't call out and don't try using any magic on me. If you do as I say, I wont hurt you; I'll even pay you the other two coins I promised. Understand?" Slant delivered this speech slowly and clearly; Kurao listened intently.

"Yes, I understand."

Slant felt a very faint tingle; the computer informed him, "Minor gravitional anomaly occurring in immediate vicinity of cyborg unit"

"I know; shut up." To Kurao he said, "Stop it"

"I'm not doing anything."

Slant pointed the snark at the cauldron and pressed the trigger; black dust puffed out. The vessel rang dully as a hole a quarter meter across appeared in its side and the far side of the interior began to bubble like melting cheese.

He coughed from the dust once as he took the pressure off the trigger and pointed the weapon at the wizard. "Stop it, I said."

"Gravitational anomaly has ceased."

"That's better."

Kurao stared at the mouth of the snark but said nothing.

"Now, I want to know about magic. Are there any machines or devices used?"

"No, I swear, there is nothing concealed. There's no need to hide anything, because nonwizards couldn't do anything anyway."

"Query: Reliability of statement."

"I don't know; hold on a moment" He reached out with his free left hand and took hold of Kurao's right wrist. "Let me ask again; do you use any hidden machines or devices?" His thumb located the wizard's pulse.

"No."

"No detectable variation in pulse or respiration."

"I think he's telling the truth."

"Query: Possibility of antiinterrogation conditioning.''

"Extremely remote."

"Continue action."

"If there are no devices, then what does a wizard use to work magic? What does he need?"

"Nothing."

There was still no change in Kurao's pulse. "What makes a wizard different? Why can he do things ordinary people cannot?"

"He's been changed by another wizard."

"What's been changed?"

"The structure of the brain."

"Explain that a bit more."

"Well . . . you know, the brain is where all thought and emotion occur, where the personality is."

"Yes, I know that"

"The human brain is made up of millions of smaller parts—"

"I know all this; I don't need a lecture on anatomy."

"You know that everything is controlled by the connections between the cells of the brain?"

"Yes."

"Well, a person becomes a wizard when another wizard rearranges those connections in a particular way; it allows one to use wizard sight, to see the underlying forces of the world and to manipulate them."

"What do you think?"

"Explanation tentatively satisfactory. Term 'magic' would apply to theoretical concept 'psionics.'"

"Good. Can we get out of here, then?"

"Negative. Orders require capture of enemy weapons research if possible, destruction of enemy capability if capture is not possible."

"How do we capture psi powers?"

"Require detailed description of modification of human brain required to induce psionic capability."

"Right." He shifted his grip on Kurao's wrist 'Tell me exactly what you have to change, which connections you rearrange."

"I can't explain in words."

"Could you explain if you had a diagram of a brain?"

"I don't think so."

"You do know how to make someone a wizard?"

"Of course; I've trained three apprentices."

"Why can't you explain it, then?"

"I don't know; I just can't. It's a matter of feel. I just feel what has to be changed."

"You became a wizard the same way, yourself?"

"Of course."

"And the wizard who trained you?"

"He had his master, too."

"It must have started somewhere."

"Oh, there are legends about a first, original wizard; she was said to have come from somewhere near Setharipoor. That was right after the Bad Times, when things were still pretty much of a mess, so the stories are vague. I don't know much about her."

"The legends give no explanation of how she acquired the ability?"

"No. I suppose it was just natural, something she was born with."

"Any comment?"

"The possibility of psionic capability as a result of induced mutation has been theorized."

"You think this first wizard was a mutant? Wouldn't some of her children have inherited the trait, then?

There would be hereditary wizards as well as the apprenticed ones."

"There is no evidence to indicate that the theoretical first wizard produced offspring."

"Oh. That's true." Some mutants were sterile, after all; that might have been the case here, he thought, or perhaps she simply hadn't bothered with children. He considered for a moment. "Have there ever been any such mutations reported?"

"Negative. No evidence of practical psionic capability has been reported prior to detection of gravitational anomalies on this planet."

"That's what I thought. What now?"

"If no detailed plans or explanations are available, orders call for the capture of a working model of each new weapon, to be analyzed."

Slant looked at the almost-lizard. He would like to be able to do such things, he realized, and the best way to capture this new weapon was to carry it back in his own head. "Could you make me a wizard?"

he asked Kurao.

"Anyone can become a wizard—but I won't do it. It's dangerous and forbidden."

Slant tapped the snark's plastic case on the tabletop. "I think you should reconsider," he said.

Kurao looked at the weapon and said nothing.

"Take a look at my brain, then, and see if it would be possible." It had occurred to him that the local population might be a variation on human stock incompatible with his own.

The familiar electric tingle returned, and Slant forestalled the computer by reporting, "I know, I know; he's using magic." t

The eerie sensation stopped, and Kurao asked, "What are you?" His eyes were wide. "I thought you'd just found that thing, but you're all wrong inside; there's metal all through you, and something strange in your head, and your nervous system is put together wrong."

"I'm a weapon from the Bad Times, just as much as the snark. Can you make me a wizard?"

"I'm not sure. I think so, but it would take hours; your brain is full of blocks and traps, and some connections are spliced together with metal."

"How long does it usually take?"

"About a quarter of an hour."

"If I insist," Slant asked, lifting the snark, "would you make me a wizard?"

Kurao looked at the weapon again. "I wish I knew how to ruin that thing without making it explode."

"Well?"

"Yes, I'll make you a wizard—at least, I'll try."

"Good. Shall I have him start? If he makes me a wizard, I'll have the weapon in my head."

"Negative."

"What? Why not?"

"Exact nature of neurological modification unknown. Risk of impairment of cyborg unit functioning, loyalty, intelligence, and/or conditioning precludes any such experimental modification. Furthermore, this procedure would require the cooperation of untrustworthy enemy personnel."

"What do you want, then?"

"Capture and analysis of working model."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Exact nature of neurological modification must be analyzed."

"You said that; how am I supposed to do it?"

"Dissection of working model designated 'Kurao' would be most efficient."

"The hell it would!" Slant exclaimed aloud.

"What? What are you talking about? I didn't say anything." Confusion was plain on Kurao's face.

"He's a human being, not a weapon!"

"Who are you talking to?"

"Subject is both human being and weapon. There is no contradiction."

Slant could not argue with that, having just referred to himself as a weapon. "I can't dissect him!" He started to protest further but caught himself, remembering the computer's warning about further dysfunction; he groped about for something to say.

"Primary cyborg personality will not be required to perform actions suited to medical programming."

Slant started to frame another objection, something about antagonizing neutral natives, when he felt the familiar crawling of his skin; there was a moment of confusion, as he slipped between possible reactions.

The stimulus was not one that any of his specialized personae were conditioned to respond to. Instead, the computer's override cut in, and he twisted jerkily, his finger pressing the snark's trigger convulsively; the wizard's mouth flew open in shock and pain as the beam cut into his chest, and blood spewed out across the table and the twitching body of the newly animated lizard.