THE AUTUMN AFTER NEXT By MARGARET ST. CLAIR _Being a wizard missionary to the Free'l needed more than magic--it called for a miracle!_ [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, January 1960. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] The spell the Free'l were casting ought to have drawn the moon down from the heavens, made water run uphill, and inverted the order of the seasons. But, since they had got broor's blood instead of newt's, were using alganon instead of vervet juice, and were three days later than the solstice anyhow, nothing happened. Neeshan watched their antics with a bitter smile. He'd tried hard with them. The Free'l were really a challenge to evangelical wizardry. They had some natural talent for magic, as was evinced by the frequent attempts they made to perform it, and they were interested in what he told them about its capacities. But they simply wouldn't take the trouble to do it right. How long had they been stamping around in their circle, anyhow? Since early moonset, and it was now almost dawn. No doubt they would go on stamping all next day, if not interrupted. It was time to call a halt. Neeshan strode into the middle of the circle. Rhn, the village chief, looked up from his drumming. "Go away," he said. "You'll spoil the charm." "What charm? Can't you see by now, Rhn, that it isn't going to work?" "Of course it will. It just takes time." "Hell it will. Hell it does. Watch." Neeshan pushed Rhn to one side and squatted down in the center of the circle. From the pockets of his black robe he produced stylus, dragon's blood, oil of anointing, and salt. He drew a design on the ground with the stylus, dropped dragon's blood at the corners of the parallelogram, and touched the inner cusps with the oil. Then, sighting carefully at the double red and white sun, which was just coming up, he touched the _outer_ cusps with salt. An intense smoke sprang up. * * * * * When the smoke died away, a small lizardlike creature was visible in the parallelogram. "Tell the demon what you want," Neeshan ordered the Free'l. The Free'l hesitated. They had few wants, after all, which was one of the things that made teaching them magic difficult. "Two big dyla melons," one of the younger ones said at last. "A new andana necklace," said another. "A tooter like the one you have," said Rhn, who was ambitious. "Straw for a new roof on my hut," said one of the older females. "That's enough for now," Neeshan interrupted. "The demon can't bring you a tooter, Rhn--you have to ask another sort of demon for that. The other things he can get. Sammel, to work!" The lizard in the parallelogram twitched its tail. It disappeared, and returned almost immediately with melons, a handsome necklace, and an enormous heap of straw. "Can I go now?" it asked.