The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(42)
He left this hanging as a question but Eliza saw no reason to answer him.
“Stop moving,” she said angrily, and he stopped. It did not occur to her, at that moment, that a wizard was likely rather more powerful than she. Her fury carried her like a great wave and the wizard was so frightened by it that it did not occur to him, either, that she might not be equal to him in power. “Tell me what you are doing here.”
The wizard hesitated, rather transparently trying to assemble a good story. Eliza pointed her dagger straight at his throat and ground out between her teeth, “The truth, Uri Mon Lil. I will know if you’re lying.” Of course, this was altogether untrue, but the wizard was rattled and believed her.
“Lil is an island in the Far Sea,” he explained in a rush. “I have lived there many years. It is a beautiful place.”
“I didnay ask you to tell me about your home town,” said Eliza impatiently. “I want to know why you’re here. You shouldnay be here.”
“Of course, yes. Please don’t interrupt me! It will be gone soon! I heard the Great Sorceress had defeated the Mancers and that many beings were crossing over. Oh dear, oh dear, it will be gone in a moment.... The Library of the Mancers is known in both worlds to contain the Deepest Secrets, the most ancient Texts. I feared the Cra or some other kind of stupid and malicious creature would burn the Citadel down and destroy the books. I came for the books but they are empty! Empty! Do you see? How will I help my poor Gautelen?” He sat down on a heap of books, dropped his staff, and burst into tears, which made it very difficult to keep pointing a dagger at him. Eliza hesitated, then lowered her weapon, still keeping a ready grip on it however.
“The Sorceress emptied the books,” she said coldly. She wanted to know more about this wizard. It was dawning on her that if he could be trusted, she could greatly use his help in trying to break the spell on Foss. He did not seem very powerful (after all, he was afraid of her) but if he was really a wizard he would surely know quite a lot of Magic. The wizard continued to sob for a while but at last his tears subsided and he looked up at her with a face damp and crumpled with grief.
“I apologize,” said the wizard. “Who are you?”
“I’ll tell you, aye,” said Eliza, making up her mind and putting her dagger back in her coat. “My name is Eliza and I am the Shang Sorceress.”
“I see. And...I beg your pardon, but...who am I?”
Eliza stared at him. “You just told me you are Uri Mon Lil, wizard of Lil,” she said.
“I see. And, excuse me for asking, but where are we?”
This was too much for Eliza to fathom. The little wizard seemed entirely earnest, looking up at her with eyes of the deepest, shining blue, still wet with the tears he had shed.
“Why are you asking me these questions?” she asked him, beginning to be afraid it was some kind of dupe.
The wizard shook his head pitifully. “I don’t remember anything. I am so terribly unhappy and I don’t even remember why.” He looked around at the vast Library and the floor swamped with books. “By the Ancients! What a mess! What happened here?” He looked at the book in his own hands and opened it. “Ah!” he sighed. “Everything is explained here.”
He became immediately deeply absorbed, turning the pages rapidly, sometimes gasping aloud and sometimes letting tears trickle down his wrinkled face and drip onto the pages. The pages were warped and worn and Eliza suspected he had wept over them a great many times.
“I see,” he murmured when he had done. “It must be obvious to you that I am under a Curse. This is the work of the King of the Faeries and I shall forget it all again in twenty-nine minutes. How terrible.” He looked up at Eliza with his head cocked on one side, his fear of her entirely gone. “How long have we known each other? You are not in my book.”
“We just met a moment ago,” said Eliza.
“Ah! I must write it down immediately.” The wizard took a pen from the thicket of his hair. Peering over at his book Eliza saw instructions on the last page relating where he would find a pen and that he must write down any new and relevant information.
“You said you were Eliza, the Shang Sorceress?” he confirmed, writing it down with a brief description of her that she couldn’t help reading upside-down, young, funny face, big hair. Except for the young part, it sounded just as much like a description of him, she thought indignantly.
“And are we friends? Or, on friendly terms at least?”
“That remains to be seen, aye,” said Eliza. Crestfallen, the wizard wrote down undecided relationship.
“But you are a powerful Sorceress, are you not? I might have guessed that! You will drive the others from this place and, and, and...” he glanced at the stone figure of Foss. “It is one of the Mancers, is it not?”
“He’s my teacher,” said Eliza. “I need you to help me break the Curse on him.”
Uri Mon Lil leaped to his feet. Although he was spindly and bow-legged, with white hair exploding around a wizened little face, he was very spry. “Madam Sorceress, I am absolutely and one hundred percent at your service! It would be an honour to help you and the good and noble Mancers, Keepers of Knowledge, as my book calls them.”
“Good,” said Eliza. “Lah, if we have only twenty-nine minutes, tell me what you’ve just read. Why has the King of the Faeries done this to you?” Knowing what she did of this King, she was inclined to think well of the wizard for somehow incurring his wrath.