rationally.” She held up a hand to cut off the protest. “But nevertheless
I will do it.”
It was the work of a few moments to prepare for the spell. Bronwyn
summoned her two most senior assistants and they prepared the brazier and
candles while the chief healer traced the warding circle about the bed.
Judith sat in the center of things and watched. “This isn’t the spell you
used on Wiz, is it?” she asked.
Bronwyn finished the warding circle and looked up. “You are more seriously
ill, Lady.” She stepped back and regarded Judith carefully. “You may still
withdraw.”
“Not on your life.”
Bronwyn nodded. One assistant reached into the sleeve of his robe and
pulled out a packet of herbs which he threw on the brazier. As the
fragrant smoke billowed up, Bronwyn and her other assistant raised their
wands and began the chant. The first assistant joined in in a minor key.
Judith’s eyes widened and her mouth formed a little “O” of surprise as the
spell took effect. She lay back on the pillows and jerked spasmodically,
her breath coming in short gasps. Moira caught her breath, but Bronwyn and
her assistants continued the chant uninterrupted.
The chant soared, dropped and finally died away like the after note of a
great bell. Judith twitched once more and lay still. The smoke dissipated
and Bronwyn ritually defaced the circle before stepping to the bedside.
“Is she all right?” Moira demanded.
“Only time will tell that,” the healer said.
“But the convulsions . . .”
“Nerves knitting together and forming new pathways. I have seen worse.”
Judith’s eyes fluttered and she breathed in great wracking gasps. Moira
reached to her, but Bronwyn placed a hand on her arm.
“Can you hear me, Lady?” the healer asked gently.
Judith opened her eyes and her mouth worked convulsively. “Wwww . . .” she
gasped.
“Yes, Lady?”
“Wwwater,” Judith forced out.
“Here, Lady,” Bronwyn took a bowl from one of her assistants and held it
to Judith’s lips. “Sip, now. Just sip.” Judith slurped the liquid in the
bowl, choked and spluttered.
Bronwyn removed the bowl. “That is enough for now,” she said. Judith sank
back against the pillow and breathed strongly and regularly. In a moment
she was asleep and snoring gently. The healer nodded and motioned for them
to withdraw. Already her assistants were carrying out the brazier, candles
and other paraphernalia.
“She will probably sleep for a few hours,” Bronwyn told Moira as they left
the room. “We will know more when she awakens.”
“Do you have any idea?”
“Well,” the chief healer said judiciously, “she is not dead. That is
something.”
Moira couldn’t bear the thought of going back to the apartment she had
shared with Wiz, so she went to her office off the programmers’ quarters.
She hoped that work would help, but after she went over the same list of
supplies three times without being able to remember what was what from the
top to the bottom of the tablet, she gave up the idea of doing anything
useful. Instead she contented herself with trying to file some of the
stacks of wooden tablets and sheets of parchment that had accumulated on
her desk while she was in the Bubble World. Vaguely she realized she would
probably never be able to find half the material again, but she didn’t
really care. At least it kept her from breaking down completely.
“Hi.”
Moira looked up from her filing and saw Judith standing in the door of her
office.
“Lady!” she whooped, knocking over a pile of files in her haste to get
around the desk. “Are you all right?”
“Never better,” Judith said as the hedge witch hugged her tight. “Hungry
as hell, but I feel great and I don’t think I’ve weighed this little since
I was sixteen.” She stood back and patted her now-concave stomach. “Hell
of a way to lose weight, though.”
“I’m so glad.”
“Bronwyn says I’m fine, so I thought I’d come and surprise you. Now let’s
go get some dinner. I haven’t eaten in-oh-fifteen minutes.” Her voice
hardened. “And then we need a council of war.”
In the event, the council was combined with dinner. For the first