her.
She inched closer, as if to judge better the truth of what he
was saying. “Magic? What sort?”
He hesitated yet.
“Sleight of hand? Cloud spells?” she pressed. “Some sort
of vanishing act?”
“Yes,” he replied. She was waiting. “I have the ability to
make myself invisible when I wish.”
There was a long silence. He read the curiosity in her eyes.
“You command real magic, don’t you?” she said finally. “Not
the pretend kind that I use, where coins appear and disappear
and fire dances on the air. You have the sort that is forbidden.
That is why Padishar is so interested in you.” She paused.’ ‘Who
are you, Par Ohmsford? Tell me.”
It was still within the park now, the voices of the watch passed
from hearing, the night gone deep and silent once more. There
might have been no one else in all the world but the two of them.
par weighed the advisability of his reply. He was stepping on
stones that floated in quicksand.
“You can see who I am for yourself,” he said finally, hedg-
ing. “I am part Elf and that part of me carries the magic of my
forebears. I have their magic to command-or some small part
of it, at least.”
She looked at him for a long time men, thinking. At last she
seemed to have made up her mind. She crawled from the con-
cealment of the bushes, pulling him out with her. They stood
together in the shadows, brushing themselves off, breathing
deeply the cool night air. The park was deserted.
She came up to him and stood close. “I was bom in Tyrsis,
the child of a forger of weapons and his wife. I had one brother
and one sister, both older. When I was eight, the Federation
discovered my father was supplying arms to the Movement.
Someone-a friend, an acquaintance, I never knew who-
betrayed him. Seekers came to our house in the middle of the
night, fired it and burned it to the ground. My family was locked
inside and bumed with it. I escaped only because I was visiting
my aunt. Within a year she was dead as well, and I was forced
to live in the streets. That is where I grew up. My family was
all gone. I had no friends. A street magician took me as his
apprentice and taught me my trade. That has been my life.”
She paused. “You deserve to know why it is that I would never
betray anyone to the Federation.”
She reached up wnh her hand and her fingers brushed his
cheek for just a moment. Then her hand trailed down to his arm
and fastened there.
“Par, we must do whatever it is we are going to do tonight
or it will be too late. The Federation knows who they have.
Padishar Creel. They will send for Rimmer Dall and his Seekers
to question Padishar. Once that happens, rescue will be point-
less.” She paused, making certain that he took her meaning.
“We have to help them now.”
Par went cold at the thought of Coil and Morgan in the hands
of Rimmer Dall-let alone Padishar. What would the First
Seeker do to the leader of the Movement?
“Tonight,” she continued, her voice soft, but insistent.
“While they are not expecting it. They will still have Padishar
and the others in me cells at the Gatehouse. They won’t have
moved them yet. They will be tired, sleepy with the coming of
morning. We won’t get a better chance.”
He stared at her incredulously. “You and I?”
“If you agree to come with me.”
“But what can the two of us do?”
She pulled him close. Her red hair shimmered darkly in the
moonlight. “Tell me about your magic. What can you do with
it. Par Ohmsford?”
There was no hesitation now. “Make myself invisible,” he
said. “Make myself to appear to be different man I am. Make
others think they are seeing things that aren’t there.” He was
growing excited. “Just about anything that I want if it’s not for
too long and not too extended. It’s just illusion, you under-
stand.”
She walked away from him, paced into the trees close by and