Tanya Huff - We Two May Meet

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WE TWO MAY MEET

Tanya Huff

MAGDELENE was beside herself when she woke that first morning home

from Venitcia—which wasn't really surprising as she'd never been much of

a morning person. If truth be told, she was more of a midafternoon, heading

into cocktail hour kind of a person.

What was surprising was that the self she was beside appeared to be

snoring

Mistress?" Kali's red eyes widened as two wizards walked into the

kitchen—identical but for the fact that one had her thick chestnut hair pulled

back into a tight bun and seemed to be wearing an outfit in which all the items

not only complemented each other but covered her from neck to knees. The

demon housekeeper turned to the other wizard, whose hair fell in the usual

messy cascade and who was wearing a vest and skirt in virulently opposing

shades of green. "Mistress, there are two of you."

"No." The first Magdelene crossed the kitchen and pulled a mug embossed

with the words The most powerful wizard in the world off the shelf. "There's

still only one of me. I just seem to nave gone to pieces."

Kali sighed, but said, as was expected, "Well, pull yourself together."

"Not without a cup of coffee."

'Very funny," the second Magdelene snorted. "But neither Displaced humor

nor your unseemly addiction to that beverage is getting us any closer to solving

our problem!"

"We've managed to determine that she's my unfun bits," Magdelene-one

informed the demon, sinking into a chair and reaching for a muffin.

"I hope you're not having butter on that!"

"Also my nagging, uptight bits."

"Mistress, how did this happen?"

Magdelene-one shrugged, spreading butter liberally on the muffin. "Beats

the heck out of me. She was there when I woke up; large as life and twice as

tidy."

"And I can't seem to get her to care," growled Magdalene-two through

clenched teeth. "We must find out who did this to us and why."

"It's too hot to care." One stuck her foot out into a patch of sunlight and

grinned down at the shadow of her bare toes on the tile floor.

"Mistress, if there is a wizard powerful enough to do this . . ."

"What difference does it make? I mean, really? It's been done."

"You see? You see what I've had to put up with?" Two glared down at

her double. "Well, fine. I don't need you—I was only including you in the

process to be thorough. I can get the answers on my own." Pivoting on one

well-shod heel, she stomped out of the room, the door slamming behind her.

"What a bitch," One snorted.

"Mistress, if she is a part of you . . ."

"Then I'm well rid of her."

The door swung open hard enough to crash against the wall. "What have

you done to my house!"

Magdelene-one sighed, reaching for another muffin. "What do you mean,

your house? Try, my house."

"The tower is missingl"

"Is not."

Shaking her head, Kali went out into the hall. Not only was the tower

missing but two of the hall's four doors opened into the garden and the door that

should have returned her to the kitchen led sequentially to the sitting room, the

bathing room, Joah's old room, and a room the demon didn't recognize although,

from the piles of debris, it appeared to be a storeroom of sorts. A halfgrown

calico cat meowed indignantly down at her from a stack of crates.

"I have no idea," she said, closing the door again. If the house vvas causing

the cats problems, things were even more serious than they appeared.

A fifth attempt finally took her back to the kitchen. Magdelene-one was

licking the jam spoon while Magdelene-two made notes on Kali's recipe slate.

"The house," she announced, "is out of control."

"That's just so unlikely," Magdelene-one scoffed stickily.

"Nevertheless, Mistress, it is the case."

Sighing heavily, Magdelene-one heaved herself up out of the chair and

sauntered over to the door, Magdelene-two following close behind, arms folded

and lips pressed into a thin line. They walked out of the kitchen and stood in a

square hall, warmly lit by the large skylight overhead.

"Sitting room, bathroom, stairs to the Netherhells . . ." The doors opened

and closed showing the rooms behind them as they were named. ". . . stairs to

the tower." Magdelene-one rolled her eyes and headed back to the kitchen.

"You guys make such a fuss over nothing."

As the door closed behind her, the house shifted and the green-and-gold

lizard who had moments before been sunning himself in the garden stared up at

Magdelene-two in shock.

"You're right," she told it. "The situation is completely unacceptable.

Fortunately, a reasoned analysis finds a simple solution." Opening a door, she

reached into the kitchen, grabbed her other self by the back of the vest and

hauled her into the hall. The lizard disappeared, the doors returned. "Clearly,

we must stay together in order to maintain the house."

"Clearly," Magdelene-one mocked. "Why?"

"Let me think . . ."

"Oh, you're thinking. I can smell the smoke." Magdelene-two ignored her.

"As you observed previously, there is still only one of us, we have merely

been separated into pieces. It's therefore logical to assume that our power has

been equally divided between us. Together, we remain the most power-ful

wizard in the world. Separate, we are merely powerful—and not powerful

enough to mindlessly support old magics."

"That sort of sucks."

"Indeed. We need answers." Clutching her other self's elbow,

Magdelene-two threw open a door and marched them both up the steps to the

cupola on the top of the tower.

"Stairs; what was I thinking?"

From the outside, the turquoise house on the headland seemed to be only

one story tall. From the cupola, the two wizards had an uninterrupted view of

the surrounding countryside from fifty feet in the air.

Magdelene-one gazed down at the cove and the fishing village that hugged

the shore. "Nothing much happening there. Wait a minute, that's Miguel working

on his boat. Would you look at the shoulders on the man. And the ass—you

could bounce clams off that ass." Leaning forward, she whispered something as

if in Miguel's ear. The fisherman turned and waved. Even at such a distance,

they could see his broad smile.

"What did you say to him?" Magdelene-two demanded suspiciously.

One giggled. "I told him that if the kaylie weren't running I knew something

else he could spend the morning spearing."

"Have you no concern for your dignity? And if not," she continued, before

her double could reply, "have you no concern for mine? We are the most

powerful wizard in the world and we have position to maintain!"

"Prude."

"Slut."

Magdelene-one stuck out her tongue, flickered once, and glared across the

room. "You stopped me! How dare you stop me!"

Hands on her hips, Two returned the glare. "Have you forgotten why we

came up here?" A half turn and a sharp wave toward the large oval mirror in the

rosewood stand. "We must discover who did this to us!"

"Why?"

"So that we can undo it."

"Why?" One asked again, dropping down onto the huge pile of

multicolored cushions that filled most of the floor space. "Personally, I think I'm

better off without you dragging me down."

"Me dragging you down?" the other Magdelene snorted, turning to the

mirror. "Oh, that's a laugh."

The mirror—an expensive replacement after a wizard wannabe had broken

her original trying to use the demon trapped inside— showed nothing but a

reflection of both Magdelenes.

"You've broken it!"

"I haven't done anything."

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Tanya Huff - We Two May Meet

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