Brechalon by Wesley Allison Page B

back against the stone floor. Then she lifted it up
and slammed it back down again: once, twice, three times, till
there was a bloody spot on the floor and a bloody contusion on her
forehead. The walls of the cell had all returned to their original
stone texture. Not even the arcane bloody scrawling
remained.
    Schwarztogrube really was proof against magic.
She had summoned the most ancient magic in the universe, a feat
only possible because of the eclipse, and had used it to release
the dead demon-gods that awaited beyond the edge of sanity. But
even they had not been able to completely pierce the veil. Even
that magic was not enough. Without the power of the eclipse, it was
not enough, and the eclipse had not lasted long enough. And it
would be a long time before the next full eclipse over
Schwarztogrube.
    “ Eight thousand four hundred thirty
seven days,” Zurfina wailed. “Kafira’s bloody twat!”
    She looked up at the ceiling as if she could
see the sky beyond it and dared the Zaeri-Kafirite God and his
crucified daughter to strike her dead. Could even his magic
penetrate this magic-proof hell? Prove it!
    * * * * *
    “ Is it over?” asked
Senta.
    “ Yup.” Maro stood up from the
pin-hole camera that he had made to watch the eclipse, in actuality
nothing but a small pasteboard box with a hole cut in the side.
Shining in through the tiny hole, the image of the sun had been
visible on the back side, and as the moon had moved across the sun,
the small white orb in the box had been covered and then
uncovered.
    “ That was pretty ace, wasn’t
it?”
    “ I guess so,” said Senta. “I wish
we could have watched the real thing.”
    “ You’d be blinded.”
    “ Yeah. I’m glad you were able to
make it with only eight fingers.”
    Maro nodded and looked at the three remaining
fingers on his right hand.
    “ Maybe someday you’ll be really
rich and you can pay a wizard to regrow your fingers for you,”
offered Senta.
    “ Maybe I’ll get so used to having
eight fingers I won’t want my other ones back. I bet pretty soon
I’ll be able to do my eight times as good as you can do your
tens.”
    “ What’s seven times
eight?”
    “ Fifty six.”
    “ Is that right?”
    “ Yup.”
    “ Wow.” Senta looked impressed and
she was. “What are we doing now?”
    “ I don’t know what you’re doing,
but I’m going to play Mirsannan cricket at the park. You can’t go
because you’re a girl.”
    “ Then I’m going to the toy store
and buy a doll.”
    “ You don’t have enough money to buy
a doll.”
    “ Uh-huh. For pretend.”
    “ Yeah, alright.”
    “ You know when you said my mom
didn’t want me?”
    “ Yeah.”
    “ I don’t understand it.”
    “ What?”
    “ Well, look at me. I’m just
cute.”
    * * * * *
    “ Eight thousand four hundred thirty
seven days,” Zurfina told herself. “I’ll be old. Well, I’ll be
older.”
    The sorceress was already far older than she
appeared. Thanks to magic used long ago, her body was much younger
than it should have been. But it was aging now. Here in this place
where magic had no hold, it was aging. In eight thousand four
hundred thirty seven days, she would most surely begin to look
old—not as old as her true age, but old. Too old. She would have no
youth, just as now she had no magic. She couldn’t wait eight
thousand four hundred thirty seven days. She had to get out. But
she couldn’t use magic. What could she use? What did she
have?
    She had her youth… for now. She had her beauty…
for now. She had this body, this body that men wanted.… for now.
She had to use what she had.

Chapter Nine: One Month
Later
    “ I wish you didn’t have to leave,”
said Iolanthe, as she brushed a stray piece of lint from her
brother’s navy blue uniform.
    “ The army needs me.”
    “ I know you will do the family
proud, and while you are away, you may leave everything in my
capable hands.”
    “ Yes, I know.”
    “ And as always, come back with