Chapter One
The room was long, low ceilinged, and had the unusual attribute, of seeming to change size at times -- though that may only have been a fantasy of those suddenly entering it. It also would have been unimaginably cluttered had any other mistress been in charge.
In the numerous side cupboards were boxes, crocks, jars beyond any but a very patient numbering. Drawers were meticulously divided by strips between which lay stores of dried herbs, leaf, flower, root and stem, and more precious packets of foreign spices.
Down the long center table marched a line of bottles, of several sizes, each stoppered with a representation Of a grotesque -head, some clearly non-human, or outright beast -- things never to be seen in an honest cottage or its garden.
Though there was the first Impression of gloom and over many shadows, after one became accustomed to the long chamber, there was a measure of light. That past all natural laws appeared to gather and hold immediately about any busied occupant of which, on this brisk spring morning, there were two and a half-the half being represented by a large shadow-gray cat, sitting on the tabletop as stiff and upright as one of the bottles at his back.
He had something of the air of an overseer and the worker he watched so intently was indeed busy, her head bent a little as if she must keep a constant eye upon the rhythmic movements of one set of fingers.
Her tightly bound braids were of a medium brown and her pale, somewhat too chiseled features expressed complete concentration. For all of that she was young, and the shabby hearthside dress she wore was a dull green, girdled in by a workwoman's belt with loops for varioussmall knives, tools, and pouches. The robe bunched about her but not enough to disguise the fact that her body was childishly slim.
Twilla, apprentice to Wisewoman Hulde, raised her right hand out of a constant circling movement and inspected narrowly the small pads which covered each fingertip. She allowed the disk she had been working on to rest upon her knee and with her other hand worked off each finger a pad now worn to a near vanished thread web. Placing these discards carefully to one side, she reclothed. each finger with new pads taken from a store heaped near the table edge before her.
Once those were firmly in place, she returned to her task, smoothing the clear silver face of the disk with a series of motions, which formed a pattern in themselves and which did not vary.
" "Up and down, out and in,
Sun's path and widdershin.
Power answering to the call
Of flesh and blood and inner all."
Just such a singsong type of jingle as might girl children voice when skipping rope or bouncing a ball. But was no child's play and she repeated the words carefully knowing that they were not to be skimped, any more than her hour of mirror polishing each day was to be interrupted by anything-save perhaps a crashing of the house wall about her.
She had been eight years of age -- as far as the Kinderhost Keeper had been able to judge -- one of the pieces of flotsam which are to be found in a port city when it is well policed. Then the Wisewoman had come seeking a maid -- there were not many in Varvad who would think to apprentice their daughters to such an unchancy trade.
Even at those few years Twilla had learned suspicion the need for being alwaysself-guarded -- the harsh laws of survival. But she had not shrunk back hen Hulde, looking like horrow bird in her long flapping cloak, had pointed to her after surveying the five girls available.
There was nothing in the least maternal about Hulde. She was thin, tall, craggy of feature as a man, and her voice had the rasp note of one used to obedience. Yet Twilla had been pleased that it was she who scampered out of the Kinderhost at the Wisewoman's heels, taking an extra skip now and then to keep up with her now appointed mistress.
And after ten years under Hulde's direction Twilla realized very often, with thanks to whatever power might be listening, that she had some here. There had been months, years of testing, but she had learned, how she had learned -- as avidly as one lost in a desert might gulp down the water of an unexpected well.
Hulde's trade was not even to be mastered in a lifetime, as the Wisewoman had often said. She herself was still learning, stretching her powers a fraction at a time. While Twilla was yet but a beginning scholar still she had mastered the art of reading, of writing, of memorizing that which was so important. She knew the usage of countless herbs and had attended birthings and soul loosings with her mistress until the ceremonies and skills for each were as a second nature for hereven though she had never tested either truly on her own.
Now what she wrought would be her own by Hulde's decree. Some three months earlier the Wisewoman had produced this disk mirror. The reflecting side was dull as a fogged window pane, the back was of a greenish metal and wrought intricately to cover every inch with symbols and hints of creatures whichmight just be peering out between the swirl of lines which netted them.
To Twilla was given the finishing -- the polishing of the upper surface, which must be done with her fingers, each padded with silken pockets seeped in herbal mixtures so that her constant programmed rubbing brought forth scents as she worked, some pleasing and some baneful, but all to be accepted. She was intent upon her work but not so unseeing and unhearing as to miss the sudden action of the cat who had been watching her with a guardian, eye. Greykin had whipped to his feet, facing the outer door which was behind Twilla's stool, his yellow eyes were slit narrow and his tail bushed. From his throat came the low note of a fighter's growl.
Over a celebrated career that has already spanned six decades, Andre Norton has written many highly regarded works of fantasy and science fiction, including Scent of Magic, Mirror of Destiny, The Hands of Lyr, Brother to Shadows, and the popular Witch World and Beast Master series. She has received lifetime achievement awards in both science fiction and fantasy, the most prestigious honors in her field. Ms. Norton presently resides in Tennessee.