A Bad Spell in Yurt - Wizard of Yurt - 1 (27 page)

Against my wil , I felt hope surging up.

"Think what you could do if you and I just added a few details to our bargain. It would be easy enough for me to offer you whatever you want."

"I don't want anything."

He laughed again. "You know that's not true. You're just being stubborn. I know perfectly wel what you want, Daimbert. You want to be a master wizard."

He had me there. I closed my eyes and clamped my jaw shut.

"Why should you and I be enemies? You and I are so similar in so many ways. We've both failed: you in being a competent wizard, and me in being an angel. You knew, didn't you, that demons are fal en angels?"

"I have nothing in common with you," I said through clenched teeth.

"You've had to get by with halfway knowledge and the occasional bril iant improvisation," the demon continued, his high voice almost gentle. "Think about it: with me working with you, you could have magic powers beyond the imaginings of any of the other students of your wizards' school, even beyond that of the teachers."

I kept my eyes closed, but a series of images raced across my unwil ing mind. I could see myself returning to the school in triumph, performing magic that would stun Zahlfast and the other teachers. "No," I said to these images, and "No," I managed to say out loud. "I'm not becoming involved in black magic. I want to save the Lady Maria's soul, but I'm not going to lose my own."

"And why are you so sure about that?" asked the demon, softer than ever. "Did you ever think that you might belong to the devil already?"

At this I had to open my eyes, although I immediately wished I hadn't, for the demon smiled at my expression, and his mouth was ful of dozens of razor-sharp teeth. As he grew, he looked less and less human.

"Yes, Daimbert," he said companionably. "Your soul is already 'lost.' You can't give me an argument about free wil there. I know your soul, and I know the sins you have already committed."

"You're lying." I felt I was rapidly losing whatever advantage I might once have had, but there seemed no way to stop this conversation.

"Not at al . Think about it for yourself: have you always had the impossibly 'pure' mind and heart that your religion laughingly makes the condition for what it cal s salvation? As long as you belong to the devil anyway, why not take advantage of it during the next two hundred years?"

I almost believed him. But the
Diplomatica Diabolica
made it clear how ful of trickery a demon could be. I had no more competence or good ideas; al I had left was stubbornness. "No,"

I said again. "You wouldn't now be offering me anything for my soul if you already had it."

"So you aren't interested in the powers black magic could give you," the demon said thoughtful y. "Maybe
this
wil interest you. I can offer you the queen."

I gasped so suddenly that my mouth was ful of the evil fumes I had been trying hard not to breathe. By the time I had finished coughing, I was able to make my lips say, "No," although at the last moment they almost said, "Yes."

"But think about it!" I
was
thinking about it. "That head of midnight hair lying on the pil ow next to yours, those emerald eyes and that smile greeting you every morning, those soft arms greeting you every night--"

"You can't know what I think!" I cried.

"And you could prolong her life to match your own. Two hundred years of bliss together! And for what? Agreeing to give up a soul you've already thrown away years ago. I'd even let the Lady Maria go."

"But--what about the king?"

"He's an old man already. He won't be a problem."

I breathed very shal owly, feeling I was choking. "You've made a mistake there, Demon. I'm not going to do anything that would hurt the king. You lost your chance that the Lady Maria gave you, to take the rest of his years from him, and you're not going to get a second chance from me."

"So wait a little while, and the problem wil solve itself anyway," said the demon casual y. "When he dies natural y, as you know he wil within a few years, I can make sure the queen's affections turn at once toward you."

"No," I repeated, looking at the floor because I did not dare look at him. A viper was crawling near my foot but I didn't even bother to move. "I would not consider two hundred years with her as two hundred years of bliss if I knew I owed her love to you."

The demon laughed, a deep laugh now that seemed to resonate in his bel y. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you liked the Lady Maria better than the queen!"

The viper moved away. I forced myself to look up again. His mention of the Lady Maria brought me back to the knowledge of why I was here in the first place. "I'm only making one bargain with you," I said. I had to drag this discussion back to the reason I had original y come, before the demon tricked me out of my soul without conceding anything, or he simply kil ed me with fear.

He was now more than twice as large as I was. An enormous bel y hung over his knees, and he leered down at me from near the ceiling. "You can't bargain for the Lady Maria. She sold herself to the devil."

"One can
always
bargain with the devil," I said with as much confidence as I could. I was moving back now toward the points set out in the
Diplomatica Diabolica.
But I wondered how I could ever have imagined the negotiations would be straightforward.

"A soul for a soul, of course," said the demon in deep, resonant tones. "But why should the devil make any bargains for your soul when it already belongs to him?"

"I do not offer my soul," I said formal y in the Hidden Language. "Besides," I added firmly, "my soul does not belong to the devil." The black despair in the pit of my stomach did not believe that, but maybe the demon did. "I offer only my life."

"A life for a soul is not a good bargain."

"It is if the soul isn't real y yours to begin with!" I stopped myself. This was not the prescribed negotiating language, but I did not think I had made any serious mistakes so far. "Binding negotiations!" I remembered then to say.

The demon nodded his enormous head. He once again had grown horns.

I put my hand over my eyes, visualizing the page in the book. "First and most importantly, her intention was never evil. A soul is judged on intent, and if you took her soul you took it on the flimsiest grounds. Secondly!" as the demon seemed about to interrupt. "She may have gained some advantages for herself, but she brought no evil to anyone else."

"She nearly kil ed the king," said the demon with another leer.

"No,
you
nearly kil ed the king. She has never wished any harm to anyone."

The demon did not answer. Taking his silence for agreement, I pushed desperately on. "Her soul may be yours, but only on the slimmest technicality. Therefore!" I paused to make sure I had the words absolutely right before I spoke. "I have come to offer you the fol owing bargain. You shal release the Lady Maria's soul and return at once without it to hel . Before you go, you can take my life, but my soul must be judged on its own merits."

"But I like it here in Yurt," said the demon with what would have been petulance in a smal er being.

The last of my strength gathered itself into fury. If the demon was able to delay for only a few more moments, I would throw myself at his feet and promise anything in return for my life, and he knew it. "Binding negotiations!" I cried. "You
have
to answer!"

"Al right," he said with a slow smile. "I would be delighted to take your life. I agree."

"Formal y!" I shouted as the enormous mouth opened, revealing more teeth than ever. "You must agree formal y!"

The mouth closed slowly, and long flames darted from the demon's eyes. "By Satan, by Beelzebub, by Lucifer and Mephistopheles," he said final y.

This at last was the beginning of the correct terms of a binding engagement. I concentrated as hard as I could through the roaring in my ears, watching for the slightest deviant word.

"In the space of what you in the natural world cal one minute, I shal return to hel , not to return to this world unless deliberately summoned by woman or man."

Joachim had told me, I reminded myself, that he thought that someone who gave his life for another would save his own soul. But I also remembered that he would have to ask the bishop to be sure in a case like this.

"I release, give up, and free the soul of the Lady Maria."

So far, so good.

"But before I go, you shal die." The demon's last semblance of a human form was going fast, but he stil had a face that grinned at me. "Agreed and accepted?"

I started to speak, could not, swal owed twice, and tried again. "Agreed and accepted."

My eyes went black as the enormous mouth ful of razor-sharp teeth bent toward my neck. The last thing I heard was the demon's booming voice. "See you in the afterlife, Daimbert!" The last thing I felt, even before the jaws reached me, was his iron forefinger burning against my chest. It passed effortlessly through skin, muscle, and bone, until it touched my heart, which leaped once more and was stil .

I I

The afterlife was wet and extremely cold. For a long time, which could have been hours and could have been months--although I expected they reckoned time differently here--there had been nothing but confusion, of colors, black, white, and red, of giant wings, of spaces in which I knew nothing and spaces in which I could hear myself screaming. But now everything was calm and completely dark.

I wondered with mild curiosity where I was. Purgatory, probably, which meant that they hadn't yet decided what to do with me. At least hel would have to be warmer than lying in purgatory in half an inch of icy water.

Very far away, I heard a door creaking. Maybe they had made up their minds. Steps were coming toward me, deliberate and slow. I turned my head stiffly, interested enough to want to know if it was an angel coming for me or the devil. To my surprise, it was carrying a candle. Somehow I had not expected them to need candles in the afterlife.

I couldn't see the angel's or devil's face behind the candle, although the fact that I couldn't keep my eyes open properly may have had much to do with it. I lay back and awaited my fate.

The candle was put down by my head. I could see its light, pink through my closed eyelids. There was a slight creak of joints as the angel or the devil knelt beside me.

He put his hand lightly over my heart, and then I could feel his hair tickle my nose as he put his ear to my mouth. He was so gentle that I decided he had to be an angel.

"Thank God," said the angel in Joachim's voice. "He is alive."

I tried to speak but managed only a faint croak. I moved one of my arms experimental y and was able slowly to reach up to feel a pair of clasped hands and a cheek wet with tears.

Joachim put his arms around me, under my shoulders, and drew me partly up and out of the water. "Can you hear me?" he asked quietly. "I've got to get you out of here."

I tried again to speak. This time I was more successful. "I thought I was dead."

"I think you were. But it's no good your coming back from the dead if you then die of pneumonia."

"Did you ever contact the bishop?" I croaked. It had been my final thought.

"Yes; I asked him to send me an answer here in Yurt, and it was here when I arrived." He tried to ease me into a sitting position. "He said that if someone lets himself be kil ed, even kil ed by a demon, for completely pure reasons, his soul wil go straight to heaven."

Just my luck. Probably the only time in my entire adult life my soul would ever be completely pure, and I'd wasted my chance by coming back to life.

"But how did you get here?" I asked, realizing I had last seen him thirty miles away, in the duchess's castle.

"When you flew away, I knew at once I had to fol ow you. As soon as I'd sent the message to the bishop, I went to the stable and took the queen's stal ion--I didn't give the stable boys a chance to argue. I was here by mid afternoon." There was a sound that would have been a chuckle from anyone else. "I've never been on a horse that went that fast. I found the drawbridge down when I arrived."

"I'd lowered it."

"I had intended to rush down into the cel ars after you. But great choking clouds of yel ow brimstone were bil owing out, and vipers and scorpions were crawling up the stairs. It was clear that no one could walk a dozen yards into the cel ars and live. I got as far as the door and couldn't go any further. I knew then the only way I could help you was through prayer.

"So I rubbed down the stal ion, went to the dovecot in the south tower for the bishop's answer, and then to the chapel, and I've been there ever since."

He tried to pul me further out of the water. "Do you think you could walk if I supported you? I could probably carry you, but I'm afraid of dropping you with the floor so slippery."

"Help me up." Although al my joints ached excruciatingly, I could actual y stand. I checked my throat for fang marks and my chest for a hole and found nothing. But my red velvet jacket streamed with water, now as thoroughly ruined as my new suit.

"But why did you come down
now
?"

"Just now, fifteen minutes ago, I felt a sudden certainty that whatever was going to happen was over. Whether the demon would go or stay, or you would live or die--and when I reached the cel ars, most of the brimstone was gone."

We proceeded slowly up a long slope, out of the standing water, me half col apsed against Joachim and both his arms around me. Abruptly I stopped, and he stopped with me. "Oh, no,"

I said. "I've broken the agreement by coming back to life. The demon must stil be here."

"Is he?" asked Joachim, very low in my ear.

I took a breath and managed to find enough words of the Hidden Language to probe for evil. There was none. When I had walked down this corridor into the cel ars, the air had been so permeated with evil I had barely been able to move. Now there was nothing but abandoned store rooms whose floors flowed with icy water. I probed further. There was no evil mind in the castle, not even the oblique touch of the demon when he had been hiding from me. He was indeed gone.