Song of Sorcery Read Online Free PDF Page A

milady.”
    “At least stop calling me ‘milady’, then. My sister is the lady in the family, whatever your songs say to the contrary. I was born into what you might call the unauthorized distaff branch of the family. Dad didn’t marry my mother until I was two. Maggie Brown, apprentice witch, is my entire noble title. A simple ‘Maggie’ will suffice.”
    Colin grinned suddenly. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a long journey after all. He began to whistle softly and had gotten through four choruses before he caught Maggie’s baleful eye and realized he was humming the very song that had caused him to sprout feathers. He offered a sheepish smile. “I know you don’t like the words but it is a rather catchy tune, don’t you think?”
    “Definitely not,” It was, though.
    “Well, madam, I DO take requests.”
    Maggie stopped herself just in time from requesting silence. Instead she asked. “Do you know of a place up ahead, oh guide, where we could stop to eat?”
    “No, but hum a few bars and I’ll improvise.” He almost fell off his horse laughing at his own cleverness.
    “Forget it,” Maggie groaned. “I just lost my appetite.”
    Though Colin’s laughter could hardly have disturbed Ching, who was able to sleep through the numerous explosions resulting from Gran’s arcane experiments, the cat nevertheless chose to open an eye and extend a black paw up the side of his basket. “ I have not lost my appetite,” he informed Maggie, aborting the stretch as he recalled his precarious position. “One hardly expects, when traveling with a hearthcrafter, to grow lean in the process.”
    “Too right, cat,” Maggie apologized, feeling irritably at the same time that all the apologizing she was doing was getting to be a nasty habit, “Sorry if I was inconsiderate.”
    “Oh, that’s alright,” Colin replied, thinking she was addressing him, “Just having a bit of fun. There’s a little knoll ahead that ought to be fairly dry and not too muddy.”
    They found the knoll and tied their horses to a tree at its base. Extracting a light lunch of cheese and dried apples, which Maggie reconstituted to fresh, and bread from the horses’ saddlebags, Maggie divided them between Colin and herself. She took out a packet of dried fish, expecting to find Ching at her heels, eager to devour it. Instead, she had to look all around the hill before she saw him, crouched at its base farthest from the road, switching his tail with concentration. “Chingachgook, here’s your lunch.”
    “Not now, dammit,” he hissed. “I’m trying to hear what he’s saying.”
    “What who’s saying?”
    “Whoever’s in there, of course.”
    Maggie started down the hill. “It’s not polite to eavesdrop.”
    “Well, he sounds very upset about something and I only wanted to know what,” Ching said, sitting up and giving her his best innocent-wide-eyed-kitten look, which was somewhat spoiled by his coloring, white chin and nose with eyes and ears a black, furry bandit’s mask.
    “What is it, Maggie?” Colin called through a bite of apple as he trotted down the hill to join them.
    “Ching hears something in there. Look, there’s a little doorway!” A semi-circular piece of sod quaked and cracked away from the rest of the knoll.
    “Yes, and it’s opening ,” Ching hissed, crouched and whisker twitching once more.
    The wet-faced, red-eyed gnome who emerged was indignant. “Can’t a fellow even mourn the fate of his best friend without you nosy mortals hollering on his rooftop?”
    “I wonder what those taste like,” Ching mused.
    Maggie shoved him back. “Behave yourself, cat.”
    “We’re sorry to intrude on your grief, sir,” Colin said, removing his cap and leaning over a bit so the diminutive person would not have to look up so far to him. “It’s obvious you’re in some sort of trouble. We extend our condolences, and would do what we may to alleviate your pain and atone for our rudeness.” It was always extremely