“It doesn’t? I’m in the business of selling things to wizards that they need in their spells. Tobas wanted this particular item, and I agreed to sell it to him, on certain conditions, and set my price. He may have turned his end of the agreement over to the Guild, but I don’t see how that changes anything. What else needs to be settled?”

“Several things. The Wizards’ Guild does not tolerate any sort of deception or insubordination in our hirelings.”

The last trace of Gresh’s smile vanished. “I’m not deceiving anyone, and I’m not subordinate to anyone, either.”

“You are now. You’re dealing with the Guild itself now, not an individual wizard-the Guild that sets rules kings and overlords obey if they wish to live, rules that every magician of every school of magic in the World must heed. We take a direct interest in anyone with a magically extended lifespan, just as we do rulers or magicians, since such people have the time to have a disproportionate influence on the World. By setting the price you have you have drawn our interest, and the Guild’s authority, once invoked, cannot be resisted.”

Gresh did not like the sound of that at all. “I’m just selling you a mirror; we’ve agreed on a price. What else does the Guild care about?”

“Times, for one thing. Penalties for non-performance, for another.”

“I’m not sure I understand. Perhaps you would like to sit down, so that we can discuss this?”

“I’ll stand, thank you,” Kaligir said. “What I believe you may have missed is the urgency of this task. The Wizards’ Guild is notoriously slow to act on many issues, but when we do act, we want immediate results.”

“Of course.”

“It has occurred to us that you might well agree to fetch the mirror and then find excuses to put it off-that one reason you demanded a youth spell is that you expect to spend a significant part of a human lifetime in planning and preparation. The possibility was also mentioned that once you have the mirror in your possession-if you ever do-you might decide to alter your price and demand more than a youth spell. I am here to make absolutely certain you understand that nothing of this sort will be acceptable.”

Gresh stared silently at the wizard. He had honestly not known he could still be so deeply offended by…well, anyone.

“Sir,” he said at last. “I am an honest tradesman, with a reputation to uphold. I will have your mirror for you as quickly as I can and at the agreed-upon price-eternal youth and payment in gold equal to a hundred and ten percent of my expenses, with one hundred rounds of gold as a down-payment. Not an iron bit more or less than that and with delivery as prompt as I can make it.”

“How prompt is that?”

“I can’t possibly know. I know it’s in a cave on the eastern slope of a mountain somewhere between Calimor and Vlagmor, within sight of a ruin, but that leaves a great deal of territory to search. I might find it the first day, or not for months.”

Kaligir blinked, and then it was his turn to stare silently. The silence was interrupted by Twilfa passing through the room with a tray of mugs and a pitcher of beer. The wizard watched her slip out the front door, then turned back to Gresh.

“You know that, do you?” His tone was much more conciliatory now. He had gotten rather strident in the course of the conversation, and that stridency had abruptly vanished.

“Yes, I do,” Gresh replied. “And that information cost me goods valued at five rounds of gold, which will be included in my bill for expenses, though of course the down payment will more than cover it. Did you think I wouldn’t have begun my investigation?”

Kaligir hesitated, then admitted, “To be honest, yes, I did. I suspected, in fact, that you had set your price on the assumption we wouldn’t meet it and that you had no intention of finding the mirror.”

“I believe you owe me an apology, then.”

“Yes, I believe I do, and you have it. I have apparently misjudged you; I apologize.”

“Thank you.” Gresh’s own voice, which had also crept up in volume, lowered a little.

“Nonetheless, I still need to explain the terms further.”

Gresh frowned. “Why?”

“Because I am speaking for the Wizards’ Guild as a whole. We agreed on terms in council, and I have no authority to modify them. Resentment of the spriggans has reached a remarkable level of ferocity, and it was impressed on me that despite our own years of dawdling, we want results quickly. We have therefore settled upon…well, I now wish we hadn’t, that we had trusted in your good faith, but alas, we did not. Your reputation for greed exceeded your reputation for honesty.”

This was sounding worse and worse; Gresh had begun to wish he had simply told Karanissa the shop was closed the other morning, and refused to get involved with any of this. “And?” he said.

“And the Wizards’ Guild has declared your shop and your services to be forbidden to all wizards until such time as you find the mirror. You will sell not so much as a drop of virgin’s blood until the mirror has been dealt with.”

“By all the gods who hear! That’s outrageous!”

Kaligir turned up a palm. “Think of it as incentive.”

+ “It’s insulting.”

“Yes, I suppose it is. I’m sorry. On the other hand, there is a reason I brought half a dozen other master wizards with me today.”

“Oh?”

“To speed you on your way and make certain of your success, we are volunteering, on behalf of the Guild, to equip your expedition with magic you may think would be useful-potions, powders, perhaps the loan of an enchanted jewel or dagger. Within reasonable limits, of course.”

That sounded like a bit of good news, finally, but Gresh was wary. “I had assumed that Tobas would accompany me and provide me with spells as needed,” he said.

“And he will, if you want-but Tobas’s apprenticeship had certain…irregularities, and his training is spotty. While he has access to a great many spells, many of them unique and remarkably powerful, he can’t always perform them reliably, and he hasn’t learned certain commonplace spells. Furthermore, as you know, some spells take hours or days, and we thought it might be useful to have them in more immediately accessible form.”

Gresh remembered his interrupted conversation with Dina. “It would indeed,” he said.

“Well, we are here to supply that-each wizard here, myself included, knows how to prepare powders and potions. Choose what spells you want-given your line of work I’m sure you know much of what we have available-and we’ll prepare them for you.”

That was good news-though the bit about Tobas being improperly trained wasn’t, and there were still some things that needed explanation. “Ah…why so many wizards? Why not just one good one?”

“Because each spell takes time, and we will be preparing them simultaneously, one per wizard. Depending just what you request, having one wizard do them all might take sixnights, or even months. Besides, we are unpaid volunteers, doing this on the Guild’s behalf for the general good, and no one of us is that generous with his time and energy. We’re all eager to get back to our own concerns.”

That made sense. Gresh nodded. “You said powders and potions, or loans? What about making talismans for me?”

Kaligir frowned. “Don’t ask too much, Gresh,” he said. “Tolnor’s Forging is not undertaken lightly and takes a sixnight or more for every spell-the slightest slip, and a day’s work has to be repeated until it’s perfect. You can’t stop partway through. There have been wizards who spent years trying to get a single enchantment right, having to snatch naps when they could, being fed quick bites by their apprentices or families because they couldn’t leave the work area. No one is volunteering for that; most of us aren’t even capable of it.”

“Oh.” Gresh had never actually known just what was involved in creating enchanted objects that carried reusable spells, but given the rarity of such artifacts it made sense that the spell would be difficult and expensive. He just hadn’t realized how difficult and expensive.