“We had a song about walking in a winter wonderland,” Wiz told Moira as they crunched their way along.
“It is a lovely phrase,” Moira said. “Did they have storms like this in your world?”
“In some places worse,” Wiz grinned. “But it never snowed in the place where I lived. People used to move there to get away from the snow.”
Moira looked around the clean whiteness and cathedral stillness of the Wild Wood. “I’m not sure I’d want to be away from snow forever,” she said.
“I had a friend who moved out from—well, from a place where it snowed a lot and I asked him if he moved because he didn’t like snow. You know what he told me? I like snow just fine, he said, it’s the slush I can’t stand.”
Moira chuckled, a wonderful bell-like sound. “There is that,” she said.
They had come into a clearing where the sun played brighter on the new snow. Wiz moved to a stump in the center and wiped the cap of snow off with the sleeve of his tunic.
“Would my lady care to sit?” he asked, bowing low.
Moira returned the bow with a curtsey and sat on the cleared stump. “You have your moments, Sparrow,” she said, unconsciously echoing the words she had said to Shiara on their arrival at the castle.
“I try, Lady,” Wiz said lightly.
Sitting there with her cheeks rosy from the cold and her hair hanging free she was beautiful, Wiz thought. So achingly beautiful. I haven’t felt this way about her since I first came to Heart’s Ease.
“But not as hard as you used to.” She smiled. “I like you the better for that.”
Wiz shrugged.
“Tell me, where do you go when you disappear all day?”
“I didn’t think you’d noticed,” he said, embarrassed.
“There have been one or two times when I have gone looking for you and you have been nowhere to be found.”
“Well, it’s kind of a secret.”
“Oh? A tryst with a wood nymph perhaps?” she said archly.
“Nothing like that. I’ve been working on a project.” He took a deep breath. It’s now or never, I guess.
“Actually I’ve been working out some theories I have on magic. You see . . .”
Moira’s mouth fell open. “Magic? You’ve been practicing magic ?”
“No, not really. I’ve been developing a spell-writing language, like those computer languages I told you about.”
“But you promised!” Moira said, aghast.
“Yes, but I’ve got it pretty well worked out now. Look,” he said, “I’ll show you.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the jay’s feather he had used in his experiment. “I’ll use a spell to make this feather rise.”
“I want nothing to do with this!”
“Just hold up a minute will you? I know I can make this work. I’ve been doing it in secret for weeks.”
“Weeks?”
Moira screeched. “Fortuna! Haven’t you listened to anything you’ve been told since you got here?”
“I’m telling you it works and I’ve been doing it for a long time,” Wiz said heatedly. “You haven’t seen any ill effects have you? In fact you didn’t even know I was working magic until I told you.”
Moira let out an exasperated sigh. “Listen. It is possible, just possible, that you have been able to do parlor tricks without hurting anything. But that doesn’t make you a magician! The first time you try something bigger there’s going to be trouble.”
“I tell you I can control it.”
“Those words are carved on many an apprentice’s tomb.”
“All right. Here, give me your shawl.”
“No. I’m going to tell Shiara.”
“Moira, please.”
Dubiously, Moira got off the stump and unwound the roughly woven square of cloth she wore around her neck under her cloak.
The shawl was bigger than anything Wiz had ever worked with, but he set it down on the stump confidently. Mentally he ran over the rising spell, making a couple of quick changes to adapt it for a heavier object. He muttered the alterations quickly and then thrust his hands upward dramatically.
“Rise!” he commanded.
The edges of the shawl rippled and stirred as a puff of air blew out from under the fabric. Then the cloth billowed and surged taut as the air pressure grew. Then the shawl leaped into the air borne on a stiff breeze rising from the stump. The wind began to gently ruffle Wiz’s hair as the air around the stump pushed in to replace what was forced aloft by the spell.