“Alas, mistress! Things have gone very wrong indeed!”
“Where is Azzie?”
“That, milady, is what has gone most wrong. He is not here.”
“Not here? But where could he be?”
“I do not know,” Frike said, “but it wasn’t my fault!”
“Tell me what happened.”
“A few hours ago,” Frike said, “the master was preparing a solution to wash the hair of Princess Scarlet, since it had become dirty and tangled. He had finished it, and I was drying the lady’s hair. I recollect it was somewhat past the noon hour, for the sun was full and high when I went out to gather firewood- ”
“Get on with it,” Ylith said. “What happened?”
“I came in with the firewood and Master Azzie was humming a merry tune as he clipped Prince Charming’s fingernails-he always takes great care with details, you know. All of a sudden he stopped humming and looked about. I looked, too, though I had heard no sound. Master Azzie looked entirely around him, and when his gaze rested on me again, I could swear he was a changed demon. Some of the fire had gone out of his hair, and he had grown pale. I said to him, ‘Did you hear something, master?’ and he said, ‘Yes, a keening sound, and it will bring me no good. Quick, fetch me my Master Spell Book.’ And so saying, he slumped to his knees. I rushed to do his bidding. He had not the strength to open the book -it is that very large brass-bound one you see on the floor near your feet. He said to me, ‘Frike, help me turn the pages. Some cunning trick of weakness is undemoning me.’ I assisted him, and he said, ‘Faster, Frike, faster, before the heart goes out of me entirely.’ And so I turned the pages faster, doing it all myself now since the master’s hand had fallen away and it was all he could do to keep his eye, which had lost its usual luster, focused upon the page. And then he said, ‘Right, stop there. Now let me see. . . . ‘ And that was all.”
“All?” said Ylith. “What do you mean, all?”
“All that he said, mistress.”
“I understand that well enough. But what happened?”
“He vanished, Mistress Ylith.”
“Vanished?” Ylith said.
“Before my very eyes, he vanished entirely out of sight. I was beside myself, knowing not what to do. He had left no instructions. So I went into hysterics for a time, then decided it best simply to await your arrival.”
“Describe to me the manner of his vanishing,” Ylith said.
“The manner?” Frike asked.
“Yes. Was it a smoke vanishment, in which he dwindled quickly to nothing? Or was it a flash vanishment, in which he disappeared with perhaps a small clap of thunder? Or did he shrink down to the size of a point first?”
“I know not, mistress. I shut my eyes.”
“Shut your eyes! You are a fool, Frike!”
“Ah, mistress, but I peeked.”
“And what did your peek tell you?”
“I saw the master become very thin and slide off sidewise.”
“Which side?”
“The right side, mistress.”
“Did he slide away smoothly or with a sort of up-and-down motion?”
“With motion.”
“This is very important, Frike. Did he at any time change color before vanishing completely?”
“You’ve got it, Mistress Ylith! He changed color indeed, just before he slid away into nothingness!”
“What color did he change into?”
“Blue, milady.”
“It is as I thought,” Ylith said. “Now let us look at his conjuring book.”
Frike lifted the heavy volume to a lectern where Ylith could read it more easily. It was still turned to the page Azzie had regarded just before his disappearance. Ylith bent over it and quickly translated the runes.
“What is it?” Frike asked.
“It is a General Unbinding, Frike,” she told him. “This is the spell that demons use when something or someone is trying to conjure them. It is called the Grand Counterveillance.”
“Was he too late?”
“Obviously.”
“Conjured!” said Frike. “But the master is a conjurer himself!”
“Of course he is,” Ylith said, “and a very good one. But all who conjure, Frike, are subject themselves to conjuration. It is one of the great laws of the Unseen Realm.”