THE AUTUMN AFTER NEXT
By MARGARET ST. CLAIR
Being a wizard missionary to
the Free'l needed more than
magic—it called for a miracle!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, January 1960.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The spell the Free'l were casting ought to have drawn the moon downfrom the heavens, made water run uphill, and inverted the order of theseasons. But, since they had got broor's blood instead of newt's, wereusing alganon instead of vervet juice, and were three days later thanthe solstice anyhow, nothing happened.
Neeshan watched their antics with a bitter smile.
He'd tried hard with them. The Free'l were really a challenge toevangelical wizardry. They had some natural talent for magic, as wasevinced by the frequent attempts they made to perform it, and they wereinterested in what he told them about its capacities. But they simplywouldn't take the trouble to do it right.
How long had they been stamping around in their circle, anyhow? Sinceearly moonset, and it was now almost dawn. No doubt they would go onstamping all next day, if not interrupted. It was time to call a halt.
Neeshan strode into the middle of the circle. Rhn, the village chief,looked up from his drumming.
"Go away," he said. "You'll spoil the charm."
"What charm? Can't you see by now, Rhn, that it isn't going to work?"
"Of course it will. It just takes time."
"Hell it will. Hell it does. Watch."
Neeshan pushed Rhn to one side and squatted down in the center of thecircle. From the pockets of his black robe he produced stylus, dragon'sblood, oil of anointing, and salt.
He drew a design on the ground with the stylus, dropped dragon's bloodat the corners of the parallelogram, and touched the inner cusps withthe oil. Then, sighting carefully at the double red and white sun,which was just coming up, he touched the outer cusps with salt. Anintense smoke sprang up.
When the smoke died away, a small lizardlike creature was visible inthe parallelogram.
"Tell the demon what you want," Neeshan ordered the Free'l.
The Free'l hesitated. They had few wants, after all, which was one ofthe things that made teaching them magic difficult.
"Two big dyla melons," one of the younger ones said at last.
"A new andana necklace," said another.
"A tooter like the one you have," said Rhn, who was ambitious.
"Straw for a new roof on my hut," said one of the older females.
"That's enough for now," Neeshan interrupted. "The demon can't bringyou a tooter, Rhn—you have to ask another sort of demon for that. Theother things he can get. Sammel, to work!"
The lizard in the parallelogram twitched its tail. It disappeared, andreturned almost immediately with melons, a handsome necklace, and anenormous heap of straw.
"Can I go now?" it asked.
"Yes." Neeshan turned to the Free'l, who were sharing the dyla melonsout around their circle. "You see? That's how it ought to be. Youcast a spell. You're careful with it. And it works. Right away."
"When you do it, it works," Rhn answered.
"Magic works when anybody does it. But you have to do it right."
Rhn raised his mud-plastered shoulders in a shrug. "It's such a lotof dreeze, doing it that way. Magic ought to be fun." He walked away,munching on a slice of the melon the demon had brought.
Neeshan star