“Still works,” the spriggan said. “No problem.”

“So if we somehow made this change permanent, you spriggans would be happy?”

“Would depend on other things. Not happy when it rains, or when spriggans all get really hungry. Hungry now-you have food?”

“No,” Gresh lied. He had a few things to eat in his pack, but he had no intention of giving them to the spriggans. “I meant, you wouldn’t mind the change in the spell?”

“Not mind. Magic still working.”

Gresh nodded.

That really seemed to explain everything. He tried to think of other things to ask the spriggan before releasing it, and nothing came to mind.

Taking the mirror into the no-wizardry area and destroying it would put an end to the spriggans’ indestructibility. If the link was as strong as the quadrupling of the spriggan population when they broke the mirror implied, destroying it might destroy the spriggans, as well, wiping them from existence.

He hadn’t really thought that was likely a few hours ago, but the population explosion had changed his mind, and the news about spriggan invulnerability also being connected to the mirror-well, there was clearly a very strong link. So destroying the mirror might destroy them all.

Or it might not. They hadn’t ceased to exist when the mirror was in the no-wizardry zone before; they had merely lost their magic.

Either way, the spriggans hated the idea of letting the mirror be destroyed or taken into the no-wizardry area and would fight furiously to prevent it. They had no objection to things that merely prevented the mirror from producing more spriggans. If there were some way to make the Spell of Reversal permanent…

But Gresh was fairly certain there wasn’t. Besides, he had agreed to sell the mirror to Tobas and the Guild, he had not contracted to merely stop the production of spriggans.

“Do you think the Guild would be satisfied if we just prevented the mirror from making more of them?” he asked Karanissa.

“I have no idea,” she replied. “I’ve never known what to expect of the Wizards’ Guild. They might be.”

“I had thought that anything that would stop it from producing spriggans would break the spell on it, or completely change it, but that doesn’t seem to be what happened here, with the Spell of Reversal. Not that I really know what did happen. You said it feels different; can you add anything? Has it changed any further?”

“No.”

Gresh sighed. This was all getting very complicated, whereas his original plan had seemed simple. “If we could just get it across the valley to the ruins, we could destroy it-smash it to powder, maybe.”

“The spriggans would do everything they could to stop us.”

“I know.” He grimaced. “But we do have a good-sized dragon on our side. Maybe Tobas could clear us a path.”

“What about Alorria and the baby?”

Gresh sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know whether the spriggans would really hurt them or not.”

Karanissa glanced around at the dozens of little eyes watching them from various corners of the cave. “They would try,” she said. “I’m not sure what they could do, but they would try.”

He did not doubt her; after all, she was a witch. “What if we took the mirror back to Ethshar? That wouldn’t block the magic they want. What would they do then?”

“You know they want to keep it under their own control,” Karanissa said. “I don’t think they’d be as desperate as if we were heading to the ruins, but they’d still try to stop us. And how could we do it? They’re all over the flying carpet, and it would take months to get back to Ethshar on foot, and during those months they’d be constantly trying to steal the mirror back. Every time we slept, the spriggans would grab it.”

“What if we got the carpet off the ground with all of us and a few hundred spriggans on it, then dumped all the spriggans off?”

“This would be after you turned Tobas back to a human? How would we get to the carpet through that mob?” She pointed out at the meadow, still swarming with spriggans. “They might also fling so many of themselves on the carpet it couldn’t get off the ground.”

Gresh sighed.

“All we need to do,” he said, “is to get the mirror back to Ethshar and give it to the Guild-then it’s their problem. We don’t need to deal with it permanently ourselves.”

“Well, you don’t,” Karanissa agreed. “Tobas and I-well, we made some promises. Our agreement with the Guild is to put an end to the problem of spriggans, not just to deliver the mirror.”

“Just…put an end to the problem?” Gresh considered that. “So if we did make the Spell of Reversal permanent, would that be enough?”

“It might be,” Karanissa said. “I’m not sure. There would still be half a million spriggans running around loose.”

“But there would never be any more than that.”

“That’s why it might be enough.”

Gresh looked down at the mirror. “Stupid thing,” he said. Then he reached for the box of powders-the temptation to play with magic was still strong, and after all, this was what these spells were for.

“I think I’ll try a few things,” he said.

The Spriggan Mirror

A Legend of Ethshar

“Don’t turn back -esku!” Gresh shouted, as he sprinkled red powder on the mirror.

It flashed gold.

“How will you know whether that worked?” Karanissa asked.

“The half-hour will be up in a few minutes,” Gresh said. “You should be able to sense whether the spell reverts, shouldn’t you?”

“Probably,” the witch admitted.

“If you can’t, we’ll know when spriggans start appearing, or when we’ve gone an hour or two without any.”

“I suppose so.”

The two of them stood staring down at the mirror. In addition to Javan’s Geas, Gresh had also tried Lirrim’s Rectification again, to see whether it did anything, but there was no discernible effect.

The sun was definitely behind the mountaintop now, and the Spell of Reversal was due to expire at any moment. Tobas was still standing guard in front of the cave, roaring reassurances to Alorria. The flying carpet was still partially buried in spriggans and quite thoroughly surrounded by them, but none were touching mother or daughter.

A sudden thump startled Gresh; he turned to see Tobas staring down at one of his front feet, which was planted firmly on the ground. Then the dragon’s face contorted, his neck twisted oddly, and he began making a very odd noise.

“What is that?” Gresh asked, startled. “Is he all right?”

“He’s…he’s laughing,” Karanissa said. “I never heard a dragon laugh before.”

“I didn’t know dragons could laugh!” Gresh exclaimed.

Then Tobas lifted the taloned foot, saying, “That tickles!” A spriggan squirmed up out of the spot where the dragon’s foot had been and scampered away.

Gresh called, “What was that about?”

Tobas turned to look at him. “Oh, nothing much,” the dragon explained. “That spriggan tried to slip by me, so I stepped on it. It didn’t squash, though, and it just kept wriggling around under my foot; it tickled dreadfully.”

“Oh,” Gresh said. The dragon put his claw back on the ground and turned his attention back to Alorria, calling new reassurances to her.

Gresh turned to Karanissa. “I guess they really can’t be seriously harmed,” he said. “If being stamped on by a dragon doesn’t hurt them, what will?”

“Nothing,” Karanissa said. “I told you. That’s the problem.”

“I know, I’ve been thinking about it, and our little hostage explained it, but still, seeing it demonstrated like that…” He turned up an empty palm.

“It is strange,” Karanissa agreed. “It’s strange seeing my husband in the shape of a dragon, too-especially since he’s taken it so calmly, once the actual transformation was complete.”