Chapter 7

Serali placed the last few spell components into the pouches on her belt. Her clothes were already put away in her pack. The fancy dresses would stay behind, as would the jewelry. Her books were packed up and her lute case had been fitted with a strap for easy carrying. She looked around at the room, already looking bare and empty. Only a few more minutes and she would leave it behind. Strange to think that she had lived here for four years now. It seemed like it had been only yesterday that she had arrived. This was not the first time she had packed, of course. Her regular visits to her family had taken her away on occasion, and she had accompanied Janus on one of his trips to far lands in search of new spell components. This time, however, she would not be returning for years, if ever. She had earned the status of a journeyman wizard in an unheard-of two and a half years, possibly the shortest ever. She had not felt ready to leave then, so she had stayed on to complete a second course of study, this time in ritual wizardry. And now she could delay no longer. It was time to move on.

She realized that she was procrastinating. She had left places before, of course. Her family had moved to a new house when she was very young, and she had left her home to go with Janus, but it was not the same. Her family's move had only been from one house to another inside the same town. And even leaving home, she had known that she would come back. But she would likely never live in this room again. Oh, she might visit the tower again, but that day lay far in her future. She was setting off on a journey that might last for decades, even centuries, before she settled down again. She didn't think she'd be spending much of that time in Barona, the city or the kingdom. There was a lot more of the world out there and Serali meant to see as much of it as possible.

And besides, she thought, somewhere out there are dragons. My own kind. I want to find them, join them. Maybe with them I could find the place where I belong. With one last glance at all she was leaving behind she left the room and descended the tower stairs. Janus was waiting just inside the door. Without a word he opened the door and gestured to the courtyard outside. Serali walked through the door and Janus followed, closing and locking it behind him.

As she turned to go out the gate, Janus held up a hand. "Wait. There's one more thing we have to do before we go. Or did you forget about your horse?"

"No. I certainly wouldn't want to leave Orison here alone. I was going to pick him up from the boarding stable on our way out. We can drop him off at Lord Mortigen's."

"No, I've decided that he needs to come along."

"What? But I was planning on flying most of the way. I'm not sure I could even get off the ground with him, and I doubt he'd like it much if I could."

"No, not that either. I've got another plan. Would you like to help me cast a major working, just for practice, before we go?"

"Sure," said Serali dubiously. "If you want to."

"I do." Janus pulled a small book out of a pocket. "If you'll do a power raising, I will be doing a marvelously complicated technical change spell."

Serali nodded. She took the book when Janus handed it to her and read through the lines of the power chant. Janus always had her do the chanting because chants work better when chanted on pitch, and Janus was slightly tone deaf. She began, repeating the words over and over. Then Janus began speaking to the background of her chant. The chant was in the formal language of magic, the one used for most spells. Its purpose was to raise power for use in the other part of the spell, which Janus was speaking. He was speaking in the technical language of magic. It was not used as often because it was more difficult to speak, but for changing magic it was the best thing. The technical language could define anything precisely. It was used most often by sorcerers because giving orders to a demon in that language made sure that it couldn't twist the words and do something else.

As Serali listened, she realized that for the first part of the spell, the part where you set out what is going to be changed, he was defining her horse. As the spell continued, he started defining something else. Some thing so big and so heavy, with properties such and such. When he had finished defining, he spoke one final word and made a gesture. Serali immediately stopped chanting. There was no visible result, of course. Whatever change had taken place had done so at the boarding stable, not here.

Janus took back the book and grinned at her. "Shall we see what we've got?"

They went out the gate and strolled along the street to the boarding stable where Serali kept her horse, who she'd named Orison. It was only a few blocks away, so it didn't take long. When they arrived the man who ran the stable let them in. They made their way to Orison's stall. It appeared to be completely empty. When she looked closer, however, she noticed a tiny glint in the straw on the floor. She opened the door and picked up a statue of a golden horse, perhaps two inches tall, intricately detailed and extremely lifelike.

Janus came up behind her. "You can take him anywhere you go now. He'll stay in the statue until you decide to release him, and he can be taken out and put back into the statue with a word."

"In the statue?"

"Yes. When you release him he'll appear, but the statue won't disappear. You'll have them both. When you decide you need to put him back he'll go back. The spell wasn't just a shape changing spell. It actually changed the basic nature of your horse. He's become a dimensional spirit. He'll spend the time he isn't in this world gazing on grass in some otherworldly pasture. I decided to do that, even though it's more difficult than simply turning him into a statue, because the statue spell would have left him aware. It would probably be quite traumatic for him to be put in your pocket if he could see it happening." Janus grinned.

"You're sure that this isn't hurting him in any way?"

"Quite sure. He'll probably be happier in the alternate plane than he would be at Lord Mortigen's in fact."

"Thank you." She gave Janus a hug, somewhat to his surprise. "This is a marvelous gift! But we should get going."

"Well what are you waiting for then?"

Serali laughed, and together they left the stable and headed for the edge of town and the world beyond.