Salamander Read Free Page A

in their first year, but by the time you finish Magister Coelus's theory course next spring it should be clear enough. That’s the bell for the fourth period; my tutor will be expecting me. I hope we can talk more later."
    He gave Mari a formal bow, nodded to Ellen, went out the door.
    Mari turned with an arched eyebrow back to Ellen. "Well, perhaps you understand it?"
    Ellen nodded. "But I don't think he does. Mixes are a loose way of putting it and misleading, for just the reason you saw. The superposition has phase as well as amplitude; the air and earth cancel when you put hot and dry together with the right phase to get back to fire. How much mathematics have you learned?"
    Mari looked at her helplessly. "When I add up numbers I can usually get the same answers twice running."
    "There is a class next semester that you could take to get the basics—the math, not the magic theory. Then the real math class next fall. And then Magister Coelus' advanced theory class in the spring. He is supposed to be very good. Mother says he has been responsible for more progress in basic theory than anyone else in the past twenty years."
    "Your mother is a witch? Or,” Mari corrected herself, “a mage, I suppose I should say?"
    "Mother is a weaving mage, which, outside the College, is a witch. She finds theory fascinating. She taught me as much as she could and then sent me here to learn more. When I'm done I expect she'll want me to come back and teach it to her."
    "No wonder you know so much already. It would be a great favor to me if you would keep on explaining things to me. You are so much easier to understand than the magisters."
    "Of course.” Ellen looked down, back up, and smiled. “Mother says teaching is the best way of learning things, so it isn't really a favor at all. Besides … I’m happy to be your friend. But, I must go now to prepare for my next class.”
    Mari watched her go. One problem solved. The next would be how to politely discourage Joshua. Not that there was anything wrong with rich merchants or their sons. But she did not think that was what her father was planning for her. And, in this case, hoped not. She wondered if the boy had forgotten that the schedule for all three years—with tutorials in the fifth and sixth periods, not the fourth—was posted on the corridor wall outside the refectory, or if he simply assumed she had not bothered to read it.
     

Chapter 3  
     
    Magister Bertram waited until the room was silent before beginning.
    “ You are here to learn to make use of magery. To that lesson there are three parts.
    “The first is to gain understanding of how magery works. This training you will receive from Magister Coelus, whose first lecture you had yesterday morning. I hope you are all continuing to ponder the wisdom it contained.
    “The second part is how to do magery, how, with the power within you and through the knowledge of the names of things, using spells constructed by wise men of old, to cause effects in the world. Before you learn that, you must first learn from Magister Simon an understanding of names in the true speech, which is the language in which the world is told, the language in which spells are spoken. Or written. Or thought. Not in our common tongue.
    “The third part is how to use your power. That is our subject today.
    “A spell has a direct effect and an indirect effect. The direct effect is commonly called magic. It is what the spell does. The indirect effect is what you do with the spell. The direct effect is to set one stalk of straw alight. The indirect effect, of which the direct is the cause, is that stalk setting a field ablaze.
    “As you grow wiser you will see further, to effects of which the burning field is itself a cause, and beyond. To do magic is only the beginning. Beyond that you will be using wisdom, knowledge, in order, by the use of magic, to alter the world.
    “Magery is a tool. The first step to wisdom is to learn what sort of a tool it