Date: Sun, 13 Nov 1994 21:17:11 EST From: fraser@vax.library.utoronto.ca Subject: New contribution: Nothing Short of Magic, pt 1 This is a fantasy novel. No vampires, druids, ghosts, witches, werewolves or ghouls. There are demons, though. And wizards. And sorcerers. And a nice Toronto girl named Ariadne York. In other words, this novel is: NOTHING SHORT OF MAGIC copyright 1994 by Anne Fraser _________ "What you need," said Chas, "Is a wizard." Ari blinked at him. He was right, in a way. She was in a terrible mess and nothing short of magic was ging to get her out of it. But magic was hard to find in the heart of downtown Toronto in the '90's. "Sure," she answered. "I keep one in the closet for emergencies, right beside the candles and spare fuses." One of Ari's other guests went to the closet and looked. "Nobody here," Elaine said, poking behind Ari's clutter of books, boots and all the other sundry articles that accumulate in closets. "Maybe he went out for dinner." "This isn't funny," Cam spoke up in Ari's defense. Dear Cam, Ari thought. If onlyhe weren't so adamantly against all things fantasy-related, he'd be quite a decent human being. For a lawyer. "Ari's in real trouble," Cam went on. "Surely we can think of a way to get her out." They'd been trying to think of such a way for days, ever since learning that Ari's live-in lover had fled for parts unknown with most of the valueable and portable items from the apartment. Hal's desertion, coming on top of the fact that Ari's bookstore/giftshop was floundering financially, had driven poor Ari to the brink of depression. None of Ari's friends had enough money to help her out substantially, and the banks had just laughed at her. She'd had no insurance on the goods in the apartment. "How are you making out with that slip of paper you found?" Linda asked to change the subject. Ari's eyes lit up at a chance to discuss something other than her situation. The piece of paper in question had fallen out of a crack in the wall of her store when she'd been redecorating. It had been written in a strange language and what looked like a runic alphabet. "I took it to the linguistics department at U of T," Ari told Linda, referring to the University of Toronto. "A professor there accused me of playing a joke. He said there was no such alphabet." She retreived the paper from her desk top. "I can't make any sense of it." "Can I see?" Chas asked. He examined the peculiar writing. "Well, it's sure not Elvish." "Oh, do you read Elvish fluently?" Cam demanded of him. Chas shot the lawyer a withering look. Cam, as the only member of the group who didn't read fantasy novels by the dozen, was often regarded as being illiterate by the others. "He means Tolkien's alphabet, Cam," Ari explained. She took the paper back from Chas. "I need a Rosetta stone," she sighed. Cam stood up and looked at the paper over Ari's shoulder. "You never did show it to me," he complained. "You know, those look more like backwards numbers than letters." Ari stared at the paper. "They never looked like that before," she said, feeling her scalp prickle. Something spooky had just happened. The script on the page had indeed changed from what had resembled a cross between Inuit and Arabic to what looked precisely like backwards numbers. "Oh, well, I love a mystery!" she exclaimed, deciding that there were some things better left unexplained. "Let's decode this sucker!" It took the five friends three hours and two pizzas to finally decode the message. The cipher turned out to be an ordinary numeric one, in that one equalled "a", two "b" and so forth. What took them a while to realize was the fact that, since the numbers were backwards, so was the message. "'If thou wouldst summon wizardly aid,'" Ari read aloud, "'Prepare a four-cornered pattern on thy floor. Place thou the element of Earth on the northwest corner, the element of Air on the southwest corner, the element of Fire on the southeast corner and the element of Water on the northeast corner. Stand thou in the middle and recite the summoning verse.' Can you believe this?" "Sounds like somebody went to a lot of trouble to play a joke," Cam said. "Let's try it!" Elaine urged. "Let's not," Cam responded. "It's a joke." "Oh, come on," Chas stood up. "I've got a compass. Got any chalk, Ari?" Ari considered the situation. "What the hey," she grinned uncertainly. "We've got nothing to lose. If this paper is a joke, whoever left it isn't going to see us making idiots of ourselves." She went off in search of chalk. "Earth," Cam muttered. "Air, Fire, Water. Where are we going to get them?" "I've got an Earth, Wind and Fire tape in my Walkman," Linda offered. "I don't think that'll work," said Elaine. She went into the kitchen and poured a glass of water. "One down." Entering reluctantly into the spirit of the game, Cam dug some soil out of a potted plant. "Two," he said, putting his find on a piece of paper towel. "Sorry, Melrose," he said to the plant. Linda retrieved a candle from the closet and lit it. "Three," she declared. "Sure, leave me the hardest one," Chas grumbled. He turned to Ari, who was emerging, chalk in hand, from her bedroom. "Got any balloons?" She nodded, and after some searching produced one with a teddy bear on it. Chas grumbled about the design, but blew it up and tied it. "Air," he panted. Cam raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't the balloon be rising?" he asked. "Very funny," Chas snarled. "It's lawyers who exude hot air, not engineers." "Oh, stop it," Ari intervened. "Let's get this square chalked." Using Chas' compass and a yardstick, they soon had a square chalked in the middle of Ari's living room floor. She was glad that it was an old carpet. "Make sure there aren't any gaps," Chas warned, "and don't smudge the line." "I'm not totally stupid," ARi shot back. She took the four elements from her friends and set them at the requisite corners. She was careful not to disturb the chalk marks. Then, paper in hand, she stepped into the centre of the sqare. "'Recite thou the summoning verse,'" she read again. "Okay, here goes nothing!" She cleared her throat. "My need is great, my hours short, Dark fates conspire 'gainst my soul Appear to me, oh magic sage, Afore the knell my life doth toll. Forces of Earth, and Air, and Fire, And Water summon thee. Obey their call, oh magic sage, Come at once to me." "That is the absolute worst poetry I've ever heard," Linda said. "It's a summoning spell, not a ballad!" Elaine shot back. "All the best magic rhymes, you know." "So, what did it summon?" Cam drawled. The five of them looked around the apartment. There was no flash of lightning, or puff of smoke. No wizard appeared. Ari reached down and snuffed out the candle, leaving behind the scent of scorched wick and bayberry. "My goodness, look at the time!" Cam exclaimed. "I have to be in court first thing in the morning! Need a lift, Elaine?" They lived two blocks from each other. "Sure, thanks." Elaine looked at her hostess. "Are you going to be okay, Ari?" "Yeah, I guess," came the reply. "Do you want me to stay here tonight?" Linda offered as Ari stepped out of the square. "Thanks, Lin, but I'll be okay," Ari answered, giving her friend a quick hug. "I could stay overnight," Chas suggested, wiggling his eyebrows. Elaine punched him in the ribs. "Ooof!" "No, you couldn't," Ari stated, with a flash of her old sense of humour. "It's cold out on the balcony." "My intentions are honourable," Chas declared. He struck a dramatic pose in front of the coffee table. "Sure, and the summoning spell worked." Ari sat down tiredly on the old easy chair in the corner. "It should've worked," Elaine said. "If anyone ever needed wizardly aid, it's you." "No kidding." "It's going to be all right, Ari," Cam came over and lowered himself onto his haunches in front of Ari. "You'll see. You don't deserve to have all these things happen to you." She put a hand over his and smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Cam," she said. "It's like a conspiracy, or something," Elaine declared. "An evil force is plotting against you." Cam stood up and glared at the small Asian woman. "This is real life," he said, disgusted. "It's a run of bad luck. There are no evil forces at work, no curses or spells. Come on, Elaine, we've got to get moving." "I thought lawyers never hurried," Elaine grumbled, pulling on her winter coat and boots. "I'll give you a call tomorrow, Ari." There was a chorus of good-nights, a brief spate of leaving activity, and the four guests departed. Ari was left alone with her thoughts, the chalk marks on the floor, and the empty pizza boxes. Oddly, she couldn't find the piece of paper with the summoning spell on it. Maybe Chas had palmed it to try for himself. She left the cleaning up for morning and went and brushed her teeth. She almost wished she had accepted either Linda's or Chas' offer to stay the night. It would have been good not to be alone in the apartment, but Ari knew she was going to have to get used to that. Hal wasn't coming back. Sighing, Ari left the bathroom and headed for her bedroom. She was brought up short in her path by the sight of a man standing in the middle of her living room. He was standing in the exact middle of the chalked square on her floor. He was tall, bearded, and wearing a long blue robe that shimmered in the dim light. His hair was long, past his shoulders, and reddish-brown. The beard was short-trimmed, and the mouth above it was smiling. Ari took all this in before staggering against the edge of the kitchen wall for support. The front door was locked and chained. She'd drawn the chain herself after seeing the last of her friends out. The balcony door was not only locked, it was frozen shut. She lived on the twelfth floor, and the windows didn't open, anyway. She pinched herself. He didn't go away. The telephone was on the other side of the living room, and what would she tell 911, anyway? 'Please help me, there's a man in my apartment who must have materialized here?' "You hath summonded me," he spoke, making Ari jump. He had a pleasant voice, neither deep nor high, and an unplaceable accent. "What is thy will?" Ari blinked. 'Get a grip, York,' she told herself. "W-who are you?" she croaked outloud. Oh, good one! "I am Edan." The man bowed. "May I know who hath summoned me?" He looked at her steadily, leaning slightly on the staff at his side. Ari wondered how she'd managed to overlook the fact that he was armed with five-and-a-half feet or so of inch-thick wood. Edan. He had a name. He had a shimmering blue robe, a staff, and a beard. Granted, it was a short beard and it wasn't snow white or grey -- but it was still a beard. He could not have entered the apartment by any conventional means. He was either a wizard, or one of Ari's friends had slipped her a heavy-duty drug in her pizza. Licking her lips, Ari managed to reply, "M-my name's Ariadne York. My friends calls me Ari." "You dost seem surprised at my appearance, Lady Ariadne," said the man in the chalk square. "Didst you not summon wizardly aid?" "I didst -- I mean, I did, but I didn't expect it to work." The stranger looked puzzled, his eyebrows drawing together and his eyes crinkling up. "Wherefore should it not?" he inquired. "The spell is meant for those who truly need aid." "Then why did it take you so long to get here?" Ari demanded. "You pardon, milady. The distances to be covered were vast. I came with all due haste, I do assure you." "Oh." Ari wondered what else to say to him. She let go of the kitchen wall and drew a little closer, not quite daring to get within reach of that staff. "Vast distances, eh?" she asked. "Yes. What place and time be this, if I may ask?" His eyes, a clear blue, twinkled at her. He looked like a nice guy. Ari knew better than to trust to appearances. "This is Toronto, Ontario, Canada, North American, the planet Earth, in the year 1994 A.D.," Ari informed him. "Where are you from?" Assuming he wasn't from Central Casting, or some new designer drug, of course... "'Tis difficult to explain, milady," he said with a slight bow. "Suffice to say you knowest not my world, which those that dwell there name Faranon." "Not Middle Earth?" "Where?" "Never mind -- uh, what did you say your name was again?" "Edan, milady, son of Larok and Sithon. At your service." "Look, Edan," Ari sighed. "First of all, I'm not a lady. The name is Ari, okay? And stop bowing! It makes me dizzy. Can you leave the square, or are you stuck there?" "I leave it at your invitation, milady." He cocked his head at her expectantly, looking rather like a tall spaniel. "Then get out here," Ari said, and stepped back as he obeyed her. "Second, I didn't expect that summoning spell to work, so you'll have to excuse me if I don't believe in you." Edan leaned gracefully on his staff. "What would convince you?" he asked, and his expressive eyes were positively dancing. "Do some magic," Ari suggested. "I mean, just because you're wearing a robe, carrying a staff and have a beard, that doesn't mean you're a wizard." If possible, Edan's eyes danced even more merrily. He bowed gravely. "Your will, milady," he said. He made a slight gesture with the staff and Ari backed up. Into a tree. A small forest had erupted in her living room. She reached out and felt the rough surface of corrugated bark under her hand. The scent of pine needles filled the room and twigs crunched underfoot as she stepped inadvertently forward. "Oh, God," Ari breathed as she slowly crumpled a leaf from the undergrowth in her hand and smelled the sharp scent it gave off. "You're _real_. You're a real wizard, and you're really here." Edan bowed again, made another gesture, and the forest disappeared. He stroked his staff, the wood from which he'd been able to cast the magic. It had not been precisely an illusion, for the staff had conjured up the forest from which it had come. It had not been precisely "real", either. "I am here," he said to Ari. "What troubles you, that you assayed the summoning spell?" No longer caring if this was madness, Ari told him her troubles. About Hal, with whom she's lived quite happily for three years before he'd walked out and taken everything not nailed down. About the store, which should have done well and which had had nothing but disaster. About her nerves, badly shaken and nearly at the breaking point. About finding the spell, and only being able to decipher it that night. "Strange," Edan mused, stroking his beard. "If your need was so dire, there should have been no impediment to reading the spell. This bodes not well." He looked at her, his eyes very serious. "You are in graver danger than you think, Lady Ariadne." "I told you, the name's Ari. And I don't see that I'm in any danger, except of going bankrupt." "Nay, dark forces gather 'gainst thee. Oh, I beg your pardon. I did call you "thee" without permission." He looked abject. "Um, these days everyone uses "you", Edan, even for friends. No one says "thee" anymore, except in poetry." She backtracked mentally. "What dark forces?" she demanded. "Mayhap it is not meet to speak of such things in the dead of night, milady," the wizard replied. "We will take council in the morn, an it please you." "Yeah, okay," said Ari, who read enough Shakespeare and high fantasy to translate this. "That sounds like a good idea. You can sleep on the sofa. It pulls out into a bed. I guess Hal thought it was too heavy." Ari went over to the bed-chesterfield and demonstrated. "What a wondrous device!" exclaimed the wizard admiringly. "You time is not without marvels, milady." "Ri-ight. If you're really nice to me, I'll show you television." She had a small second-hand set. Hal had taken the big one. She vanished into the closet and emerged with sheets and blankets, to find Edan erasing the remnants of the chalk square on the floor. "What did you do that for?" she asked. He stood up. "'Tis unsafe to leave it thus," he explained. "It could pull unwanted forces into your dwelling. What is this device that doth hold Air?" He held up the balloon, staring fascinated at its teddy bear design. "It's called a balloon," Ari replied, picking up the dirt on its paper towel. She restored it to the philodendron it had been taken from and threw out the paper towel. The glass of water she put in the sink, and she placed the candle on the table in the living room. All sings of the square were now gone. "Come on," she said to the wizard, who was examining the balloon as if it were a cure for the common cold. "If you want to see marvels, I'll show you the bathroom." Calling forth hot and cold water without either a spell or a fire delighted Ari's strange visitor past speech. He seemed likely to play with the taps all night. She explained the function of the strange device that made loud noises and swirled the water like a whirlpool, and left him to his own devices. She made up the sofa bed, and grinned to hear the toilet flush several times. Edan finally came out of the bathroom, water dripping from his beard and a look of sheer amazement on his features. "Are there more such miracles that you can show me?" he asked. "Sure," Ari said. "You ought to get a real kick out of the subway." "What manner of beast is that?" "You'll see. You'd better get some sleep. You've had a long trip, and I want to get up early tomorrow and take you to the shop." "Whatsoever milady wishes. I am at your service. I bid you goodnight, then." He bowed. She showed him how to turn the lights (which also astounded him) and said goodnight. Ari woke up in the morning, half-convinced that she'd been dreaming. Just in case she hadn't been, she wrapped her housecoat around her pajamas and shuffled sleepily out of her bedroom. Her apartment was set up so that there was no way anyone on the couch could avoid seeing the bedroom door. Edan was staring out the living-room window, still dressed in his colourful robe. He turned and beamed at Ari. "Good morn, my lady!" he called out cheerfully. "I trust you slept well?" "Oh, God," Ari groaned. "I hate a person who's cheerful in the morning. Let me grab a shower, and get dressed, then I'll tell you how I slept." "If you will but tell me how one doth seize a rainfall, I will be glad to assist," Edan offered. "'Seize a rain--'? Oh, Edan, that's not what 'grab a shower' means! It means I want to wash. Uh, bathe." "Is that not what that other device you did call a 'sink' be for? I cleansed myself therin upon arising." "The shower's a bit easier. I'll demonstrate later." She made her way to the bathroom. If Edan had washed in the sink, he's been incredibly neat about it. He'd even left the towels clean and unwrinkled. Maybe he'd magicked them that way. It could be very interesting to have a wizard for a houseguest--if he'd just stop calling her "milady"! The shower woke Ari up sufficiently that she was able to face getting dressed and making breakfast. Luckily, she'd had the foresight to bring clothes into the bathroom. She pulled on jeans and a unicorn sweatshirt, then went back to the living-room. Edan had folded up the sofa bed and neatly tidied up the bedclothes. "You didn't have to do that," Ari said. "T'would have been ill-mannered not to," the wizard replied. He stared at her sweatshirt. "Does this world know the unicorn?" he asked. "Only as a legend, more's the pity. Listen, Edan, you'd better magic up some clothes that look like this for yourself. Nobody wears robes these days." "Whatsoever milady desires," he bowed. In a second, he was standing in an exact copy of her outfit, only tailored to his six-foot, muscular frame. "Is this more correct?" he asked. "Well... maybe you'd better find a different creature than a unicorn," Ari suggested, biting her lip to keep from laughing. "And ditch the bunny slippers." That did it. She lost it, and doubled up laughing. "Is that what these creatures be?" Edan looked down at his fuzzy-clad feet, blushing. A pass of his staff changed his footgear to boots and the picture on his sweatshirt to a fire-breathing dragon. "Better," Ari gasped when she could talk. "I'm sorry, but the sight of a wizard in bunny slippers was just too much!" Edan grinned. In jeans and a sweatshirt, he looked less intimidating and more like just a really nice guy. Ari again cautioned herself not to judge on appearance--although, he'd had ample opportunity to do something evil last night. "I have much to learn about your world, milady," the wizard admitted. "How about breakfast?" Ari asked him. "What would be your desire?" "No, no, I'm not asking you to _make_ it. I'm asking what you'd like." He bowed his head. "I stand corrected. What food is consumed of a morn in Toronto?" He grinned with pleasure at remembering the name. "That depends on the person's tastes. How hungry are you?" "Greatly, I fear," Edan replied. "Travel across the voids leaveth one with a hearty appetite." "Right. One hearty breakfast, coming up." Luckily, she'd stocked up on groceries. Ari wasn't much of a breakfast eater. Hal had usually just grabbed a coffee and a doughnut. She didn't think that would do for Edan. She made him a large helping of scrambled eggs, peameal bacon, toast and jam, and coffee. She made herself some toast. Edan ate with pleasure, but said he did not care much for coffee. Ari poured him a glass of milk, with which he was quite happy. "How is it that you are not eating?" he asked when he paused in between mouthfuls. "I'm not very hungry in the mornings," she replied. "I don't usually wake up til around noon." The wizard frowned. "Your husband did not leave you with a small gift in return for taking your possessions, I trust?" "What? No, I'm not pregnant, if that's what you're asking. I'm just not a morning person. And Hal wasn't my husband." The wizard didn't look shocked, as Ari had assumed he would. He merely nodded. "Then 'tis a blessing he did not leave you with child," he remarked. "Wait a minute!" Ari exclaimed. "You mean you're not shocked and appalled?" Edan's eyebrows drew up and his nose crinkled. "Shouldst I be?" he asked, plainly puzzled. "Well... I mean, do people where you come from live together like man and wife without being married?" He grinned. "Assuredly. What sort of society do you think Faranon hast, milady?" "To be frank, medieval. Feudal. You know, peasants tilling the soil as loyal vassals to their lord; and everyone living in fear of God and the devil. You talk the right way for a medieval society; and in them days, people didn't sleep together without being married." "No disrespect, milady, but can you truly say what people did in 'them' days?" His eyes were twinkling. A wizard with a sense of humour--wonderful. She stared at him, stunned. "Well, no," she admitted. "But all the history books--" "The writers of yon books know less than yourself of such matters, if they record such lies. Man and woman have always foolowed the call of love, no matter what society they dwell in. If they prefer not to wed, who is to gainsay them?" "The Church?" Ari tried. Edan just laughed and finished his eggs. "Enough of such foolishness," he said, reaching for another piece of toast as Ari began to wonder how much feeding him was going to cost. "Will you guide me to your shop? I feel that therein doth lie the heart of your present woes." "I'll take you if you promise to try and talk more like I do," Ari replied. "People are going to stare if you keep up with the Shakespearian English. And for heaven's sake, stop calling me "milady"!" "Whatsoever you desire, mi-- what would you prefer that I address you as?" "For the hundredth time, it's Ari. I'd better put my boots on, it's snowing again." She removed her bunny slippers and took her winter boots out of the closet. She showed Edan her ski jacket. "Can you make yourself one like this?" she asked. "But better make it dark blue, not pink." He complied, and again at her suggestion, conjured up a toque and gloves. She studied the results. "Not bad," Ari decided. "If you can just guard the way you talk, you'll pass as a genuine hoser." "A genuine what?" >"Not bad," Ari decided. "If you can just guard the way you talk, you'll pass as a genunine hoser." >"A genunine what?" "Never mind." She grabbed her purse. "Let's go. Uh..." she stopped and looked at her tall, long-haired, bearded guest. "You aren't going to take that staff along, are you?" The thought of walking downtown with someone armed with a quarterstaff wasn't very reassuring. "Nay," Edan assured her. "'Tis a focus only, and not truly necessary." He left it leaning in one corner of the apartment. "Good." She ushered him out and locked the door. Edan stood locking at the lock and made a subtle motion with his long, expressive fingers. "What?" Ari asked. "A ward," Edan told her, "so that none may enter in our absence." "Hokay." She led the way to the elevators and pressed the button. That in itself elicited no comment from the wizard, although he looked a bit puzzled, but he drew back in alarm when the elevator doors opened. "What manner of sorcery is this?" he demanded, much to the amusement of the two teenaged girls in the car. "He's from a small town," Ari said lamely, dragging Edan into the elevator. "What, all the buildings have only one floor?" asked one of the girls, popping her gum at Edan. The wizard stared at the girls, both of whom were almost wearing the uniform for the Catholic high school they went to. Ari remembered when it was more important to her to be cool than to be warm, and pitied the peer pressure that called for hiked-up skirts and thin leather jackets in January. Never before had the ride to the ground floor seemed so long. If an elevator phased her companion, how was she ever going to get him onto the subway? "It's okay, Edan," she said when they reached ground level. "It's safe now." "What is this magic?" He wasted no time leaving the car. "It isn't magic. It's called an elevator. It is a box pulled by ropes, which travels up and down a shaft. People use it to get into tall buildings." "In sooth? They use it each day, and it does not slay them?" "Not often." The closest subway station was across the street from Ari's apartment building. She took Edan out the side entrance rather than go the long way through the shopping mall in the lobby. One strange thing at a time, she reasoned. The wizard was delighted with snow, explaining that he usually only saw it at a distance, in the far-off mountains. Faranon was starting to sound like paradise to Ari. She pulled Edan away from the snow, and guided him to the street. He raised an eyebrow at the busy traffic, the loud metal boxes on wheels that passed at unimaginable speeds and made strange smells and noises. Traffic, he understood, but not like this. "What are these things?" he asked. Ari explained as best she could. Edan wanted to know what made cold metal so alive, but Ari did not know much about the internal combustion engine. "I'll tell you later," she finally said. "Come on, Edan, we've really got to get to the shop." She held his hand to guide him across the street. When they reached the subway station, Ari realized that Edan's hand was still tightly clamped around her fingers. "You can let go, Edan. The cars can't get you here." He released her, flushing. "Your pardon, Ari. I did not mean to so presume. I will grow more used to this world in time." Something captured his interest, and he tapped her on the shoulder. "What means yon mystic rune?" She followed his pointing finger and saw nothing more mystic than the golden arches on the fast food chain that had opened a stand in the Dundas West station. "It means they sell food," she said. "Sort of food, anyway." She steered him into the station, bought some tokens, and managed to get him through the turnstiles without incident. Then he spotted the transfer machines, where an elderly couple were obtaining transfers. "Another marvel!" he cried out, as Ari covered her eyes and moaned. The collector in the booth gave Edan a searching look and the old couple hurried away. Edan advanced cautiously on the machines, and hesitantly pressed the button on the first one. It spat out a transfer at him, and his face lit up as he took it. "Will the spell work twice?" he asked Ari. "He's under medication," Ari told the collector. "He's out on a day pass." "Is he dangerous?" asked the TTC official. "Only when he sees dragons." She pulled on Edan's arm. "Come on, now, Merlin, we have to get back to Camelot." Edan seemed to realize that he was making a scene. He bowed to the collector and followed Ari, transfer clutched him his hand. "Why did you call me Merlin?" he asked as he and Ari walked down the steps. "Where is Camelot?" "Merlin was a wizard in a famous story. Camelot was where he lived. I had to tell the collector something, or he would have called the cops." "I have embarrassed you. I apologize." His eyes were abject. Ari repressed an urge to hug him. "It's okay," she said. "Just ry and control your reactions, all right?" "I will try. May I keep the paper?" He showed her the transfer. "You can have a dozen of them, if you like," Ari said. "What is that noise?" The roar of the trains could be heard grumbling from their subterranean lair. "That's the subway." Once again, she found herself trying to explain a totally foreign concept to him in terms he would understand. They descended to the eastbound platform. Edan gazed in awe at his surroundings. The dirty green-grey linoleum on the walls (bathroom architecture, it had often been called), the thin metal lines of the tracks, the dark tunnel suddenly and briefly emerging into daylight then plunging back into darkness to the west, the clock and its accompanying LED advertisements, the lights and crowds; all must have looked strange, even frightening to the wizard. "T'is a cave," Edan declared in a whisper, "and this subway a tame dragon. Those metal bars are the tracks this dragon must follow?" "Yes. It's not too good if the subway leaves those metal bars. Here it comes, so be prepared." Edan's blue eyes nearly popped out of his head when he beheld the subway, but he behaved splendidly. He did not shrink back against the wall, or even exclaim in wonder. He looked a little uncertain about stepping into this monster, but seeing that people could get back out reassured him. This was, apparently, a tame dragon; one that consented to carry people in its belly and not consume them. Perhaps the small pieces of paper were spells to propitiate the beast. Rush hour was over and Ari found them seats, almost having to yank Edan down into his. Now that he knew the dragon was not going to devour him, he wanted to explore it. "Tell me, Ari," he turned to her, "with this great tame dragon at the ready, who do some people choose to travel in those small boxes we saw above?" He remembered to keep his voice down, not that anybody ever listened to other people on the TTC. "Cars are faster," Ari replied, "and the subway does not go to every place that people want to get to." "I see. Such a large dragon would be difficult to take some places. Why do you not have a ... a car?" "Can't afford one. They're very expensive." AT the next stop, a skinny teenaged punk with a bleached mohawk, dog collar, studded and zippered leather jacket, and blue jeans that had more holes than denim got on the subway and sat sprawling across from Edan. The wizard gazed for a moment at the teenager, whose gender was not immediately obvious, then turned again to Ari. "What manner of creature is that? And why is it allowed to mingle freely with humans?" "It _is_ human, Edan," Ari answered, hoping the punk couldn't hear them. "Sort of." "It has a jewel set in its nose." "He's protesting against the conventions of society." "Why?" "Ask him." To her horror, Edan rose up and crossed to the punk. "I beg your pardon, but I have never seen your like before. May I ask why you comport yourself like this?" "You makin' fun of me, hair-face?" the punk snarled. "I do not jest." "It's my thing. What's it to you?" "I just wish to knwo." "Look, man, you Yuppies had your thing. Now it's our turn. Punk rules!" The teenager, a male if the voice was any indicator, made a fist, revealing that his knuckles were encased in studded leather. "I see," said Edan gravely. "Thank you." He made his way back to Ari. "Don't ever do that again," she gasped. "He might have killed you." "But you told me to ask him." "I can see I'll have to teach you to understand sarcasm." He sat in silence until they reached the Yonge station, where they had to switch lines. As he followed her out of the subway, he once again tapped her on the shoulder. "Ari," he asked, "What are Yuppies?" _____ End of chapter one