Page 4 (1/2)

Marcia Overstrand

Marcia Overstrand strode out of her lofty tower bedroo roo and checked her appearance in the adjustable ht-point-three percent!" she instructed the mirror, which had a nervous disposition and dreaded theOver the years the mirror had come to read the footsteps as they crossed the wooden boards, and today they had y It stood to attention and, in its eagerness to please, made Marcia&039;s reflection 83 thinner so that she resery purple stick insect

"Idiot!" snapped Marcia

Thein the es on purpose Why couldn&039;t she be a nice round number thinner, like 5? Or, even better, 10 The mirror liked 10s; it could do theood

Marcia had on her winter ExtraOrdinary Wizard uniform And it suited her Her purple double silk cloak was lined with the softest indigo-blue angora fur It fell gracefully froathered itself obediently around her pointy feet Marcia&039;s feet were pointy because she liked pointy shoes, and she had them specially made They were made of snakeskin, shed from the purple python that the shoe shop kept in the backyard just for Marcia&039;s shoes Terry Tarsal, the shoemaker, hated snakes and was convinced that Marcia ordered snakeskin on purpose He ht Marcia&039;s purple python shoes shiold and platinum on her ExtraOrdinary Wizard belt flashed impressively Around her neck she wore the Akhu Amulet, symbol and source of the power of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard

Marcia was satisfied Today she needed to look impressive Impressive and just a little scary Well, quite a bit scary if necessary She just hoped it wouldn&039;t be necessary

Marcia wasn&039;t sure if she could do scary She tried a few expressions in the mirror, which shivered quietly to itself, but she wasn&039;t sure about any of theht she did scary very well indeed, and was in fact a coers "Back!" she snapped

The mirror showed her her back view

"Sides!"

The mirror showed her both side views

And then she was gone Down the stairs two at a time, down to the kitchen to terrorize the stove, which had heard her coht itself before she cah the door

It did not succeed, and Marcia was in a bad teh breakfast

Marcia left the breakfast things to wash themselves up and strode briskly out of the heavy purple door that led to her rooms The door closed with a soft, respectful clunk behind her as Marcia jumped onto the silver spiral staircase

"Down," she told the staircase It began to turn like a giant corkscrew, taking her slowly down through the tall Tower, past seely endless floors and various doors that all led into roo assortment of Wizards Fro practiced, chanted incantations, and general Wizard chitchat over breakfast The sely with the wafts of incense that floated up froently to a halt, Marcia stepped off feeling slightly queasy and looking forward to getting out into the fresh air She walked briskly through the Hall to the uarded the entrance to the WizardTower Marcia spoke the password, the doors silently swung open for her, and in a h the silver archway and outside into the bitter cold of a snowy

As Marcia descended the steep steps, treading carefully on the crisp snow in her thin pointy shoes, she surprised the sentry who had been idly throwing snowballs at a stray cat A snowball landed with a soft thud on the purple silk of her cloak

"Don&039;t do that!" snapped Marcia, brushing the snow off her cloak

The sentry jumped and stood to attention He looked terrified Marcia stared at the waiflike boy He earing the ceren made from thin cotton, a red and white striped tunic with purple frills around the sleeves He also wore a large floppy yellow hat, white tights and bright yellow boots, and in his left hand, which was bare and blue with cold, he held a heavy pikestaff

Marcia had objected when the first sentries arrived at the WizardTower She had told the Supre They could look after themselves perfectly well, thank you verysmile and blandly assured her that the sentries were for the Wizards&039; own safety Marcia suspected he had put thes but also to make the Wizards look ridiculous

Marcia looked at the snowball-throwing sentry His hat was too big for him; it had slipped down and come to rest on his ears, which conveniently stuck out at just the right places to stop the hat froave the boy&039;s thin, pinched face an unhealthy yellow tinge His two deep gray eyes stared out from under it in terror as the boy realized that his snowball had hit the ExtraOrdinary Wizard

He looked, thought Marcia, very sly

The sentry blushed No one like Marcia had ever looked at him before, let alone spoken to him

"T-ten, Madam"