by Mage Quest
This sent him into a new round of laughter, leaving me a few seconds for rapid thought. Arnulf had heard of this magic horse from his agents and coveted it fiercely. But the price Kaz-alrhun had put on it was something he did not have. The price was a ring from Yurt.
For a second, I almost thought I understood it all. Arnulf had not dared to go to Xantium himself. Therefore he had sent Joachim in his place, knowing that his agents here would mistake the chaplain for him, at least at first, and lead him to Kaz-alrhun's magic horse. Even though the chaplain had refused to conduct any business deals for his brother's firm, Arnulf assumed that once here Joachim would bargain honestly, buying the horse for his brother—the only person, in fact, whom he could trust not to keep the ebony horse for himself. And Joachim would have the price with him. Claudia had not been successful in wheedling him into agreeing to conduct the transaction, which made it more risky. But he was still supposed to have the "gift" which Claudia had given him on parting, since he would accept something from her with far less suspicion than from Arnulf himself.
But here my reasoning broke down. Arnulf certainly had no ring from Yurt to send to Xantium—or if so, I couldn't imagine where he had gotten it. Dominic stood only a short distance from the booth, his father's ruby ring winking on his finger, the magic ring which I would have thought the mage really wanted, except that he seemed to show no interest in it.
"Tell me about this ring you claim I was supposed to bring you," I said casually, as though negotiating myself.
"You know well this ring and its properties," the mage said, holding me with his eyes. "You have received a free ride, but do not anticipate any more until you can deliver it."
"Perhaps I could obtain this ring for you," I suggested, "if I knew what powers it was supposed to have."
"If you are from Yurt," said Kaz-alrhun, abruptly not smiling at all, "you already know. And you already know its relation to the Wadi Harhammi." He watched me closely for my reaction to his mention of the Wadi; I did my best not to show how surprised I was. "You have amused me mightily, Daimbert," the mage continued, "not least because I see so few western wizards, but I do not like dissimulation."
Neither did I, and Arnulf had lied to us thoroughly. "Maybe I'll be back tomorrow," I said lightly. "Perhaps by then you'll have decided you'd be willing to take something other than this ring."
"Or perhaps by then you will have decided to produce it," growled Kaz-alrhun.
I turned without any sort of farewell. This would be a dangerous mage to have angry with me, and at the moment I had no way to placate him. My companions were still waiting a short distance away, but Arnulf's agents were gone.
Joachim gripped me by the arm before I could speak. "Are you all right? Does that horse move with the supernatural power of evil?"
"Come on," I said to all of them with a jerk of my head. "It moves by magic alone, but let's get back to the inn while we're still alive."
It took us ten minutes to find our way to the edge of the Market, and another ten to find the street on which we had come in, but then Ascelin was able to locate our position on the map and we retraced our steps hastily.
But we had only gone a quarter mile when I saw a boy's ragged form waiting for us ahead. Maffi stood with a fist on one cocked hip, looking pleased with himself. "So did you do your business in the Thieves' Market, my masters?"
The king objected as Ascelin started to yank him off the ground by the front of his shirt. The prince set him down but shifted his grip at once to the boy's arm. "Were you hired to bring us there?"
"Of course!" he said saucily. "In the sight of all-knowing God, you hired me yourself! Now, you promised to pay me what my guidance was worth. Did I not bring you there safely, just as I promised?"
"Those men in turbans didn't hire you?" Ascelin persisted.
"Of course not," said Maffi agreeably. "And I was very pleased to see that they had not harmed you."
Ascelin let him go, disgusted. "I'm not going to get any clear story out of him, that's certain."
But King Haimeric took a coin from his belt. "You did bring us safely to the Thieves' Market, just as you promised, and you deserve your fee." Maffi took the coin and examined it with interest.
Ascelin started to speak and instead turned away. But I stepped forward quickly.
"Maffi, maybe you can help us some more."
He smiled broadly up at me. His face was streaked with dirt, but his eyes were bright. For a second, I wondered if he had any home or any family to take care of him, or if he had to live on Xantium's streets by his wits. If so, I would pay him even if he was lying to us. But he might also be very useful.
"As you guessed, we are indeed looking for something, something stolen from us earlier. It's a ring."
Dominic started to say something and thought better of it.
"Westerners like us would become hopelessly lost and cheated in the Thieves' Market. That's why I need you to look for it for us. Meet me—" I hesitated, not wanting to tell him the address of our inn if he didn't already know it. "Meet me tomorrow at noon on the steps of the Church of Holy Wisdom. Then you can tell me if you've located it, and if so we'll go together to buy it."
"Will any ring do?"
This was a problem, because I wasn't sure what I was looking for myself. "No, this is a special one." I wasn't about to tell him I'd never seen it. "It's had a magic spell put on it, and it's clearly identifiable as being from Yurt. Don't ask for a magic ring specifically, because then they may try to cheat you with a plain one, but—"
Maffi interrupted with a laugh. "You need not teach me how to bargain. I was born in the Thieves' Market! Same payment schedule as today?"
"Same as today," I said, and he raced away back toward the Market.
Ascelin frowned deeply. "Would you like to tell us, Wizard, what you're doing?"
"Of course. But let's get back to the inn and have dinner. The magic flying horse made me hungry."
The inn served us fried eggplant for dinner. King Haimeric had never had eggplant before; even in the City, it was uncommon outside a few eastern restaurants. He ate his slowly, telling us one minute that he liked it tremendously and the next that he didn't, trying to decide if the queen would like it or if the royal cook could find a better way to prepare it.
"What's this ring you're trying to find?" asked Ascelin as the waiter brought us pastries sticky with honey and cups of spiced tea.
"I think it's what the chaplain's sister-in-law gave him, what the bandits stole from us," I said slowly. I went on to explain my theory that Joachim's brother had intended using him as his representative in buying the ebony horse from the mage, while concealing from him that that was what he was doing.
The chaplain shook his head. "I cannot believe in such a deception. Claudia gave me a present, I presume in memory of our old friendship, but it wasn't anything important or valuable. She told me so herself when I apologized for losing it."
But no one paid attention to this. "Why do you think the ring will have traveled from the mountains across the eastern kingdoms to Xantium?" asked Hugo.
"It shouldn't have," I agreed. "But I think it's worth looking for. After all, if Arnulf had heard there was a flying horse for sale here, with the price a magic ring, Warin may have heard it too. Kaz-alrhun seems fairly determined to have it. The real flaw in my theory," I added, "is that Kaz-alrhun was expecting something from Yurt. He'd heard of the kingdom and thought it important, even if he'd only heard of it from Evrard—by the way, did you hear him saying he'd met Evrard?"
"We already knew Sir Hugo's party passed through Xantium," said the king. "Since everyone here wants to guide us to the Thieves' Market, the same thing must have happened to them."
"He said he wanted a ring from Yurt only in order to mislead you," said Dominic. "It's my ruby ring he's after, and he must have seen it on my hand today. That wizard in the eastern kingdoms certainly wanted it. Somehow the story got out that the spell to reveal the, the—whatever my
father had found in the Wadi—was hidden in his snake ring. That's why someone had opened his tomb."
"But neither the mage nor Arnulf himself made any attempt to get your ring away from you," I said. "Maybe Arnulf had gotten hold of a different magic ring, with different properties, to swap to Kaz-alrhun for the ebony horse, yet for some reason it's important for it to be from Yurt."
"I still don't understand," said Joachim, "even if my brother did send a magic ring with us, why he could possibly want a flying horse. I would not believe it even now if his agents had not been so sure. He does not even employ a wizard. My father and grandfather never had wizards either—I wouldn't have thought anyone in our family was interested in magic."
"It's not the horse itself," I said suddenly. "He wants the horse for transportation. Since he thinks King Solomon's Pearl has been located, he wants some way to get very quickly to where it's hidden, and then to get away safely just as fast."
Hugo and Ascelin both shot me unexpected smiles, and Hugo said, "That's it! Especially if it's guarded by an Ifrit, he can't possibly get to it by normal transportation."
"I hope for Arnulf's sake," said Ascelin, "that this ring he supposedly sent with us isn't also supposed to reveal the Black Pearl. Otherwise he and the mage could have a very unpleasant meeting at the Pearl's hiding-place, he with the horse and the mage with the ring."
"If by some chance, Joachim," I said, "your brother ever does buy that magic horse, tell him not to worry about staying on. Instead, tell him to be sure to look for the second pin to help guide it."
IV
I found my way through the narrow streets to the Church of the Holy Wisdom at noon, as a wailing from the minarets again called the faithful People of the Prophet to prayer. I did not expect to see Maffi, or, if so, assumed I would find him ready with some woeful story why he couldn't find the ring I wanted. It was because I doubted he would even be there that I had refused Ascelin's offer to accompany me. But the way Maffi leaned against the door frame of the great church, waiting, exuded confidence.
"You found it?" I asked in amazement.
But he just gave me a mysterious smile. "Maybe. Come and look for yourself."
As I hurried after him, I wondered how many powerful magic rings were circulating through the east, in search of how many significant magic objects. There was Dominic's ruby ring for starters, then the ring Arnulf had sent with us, the ebony flying horse, then the Black Pearl, whatever Dominic's father had found in the Wadi Harhammi, and now whatever Kaz-alrhun hoped to discover with the ring from Arnulf.
I looked at the boy darting down the street in front of me, sandals slapping on the paving, and felt foolish to have pitied him. Whether he had a family or not he did not need anyone to look after him. He seemed without any difficulty to have found a ring I had not been completely sure even existed.
I was beginning to recognize the narrow streets that led down the far side of Xantium's hill toward the Thieves' Market, but the sounds and smells of the Market struck me afresh as we came out among the striped awnings. "Over this way," said Maffi confidently. He slipped easily around booths, under tables, through knots of men who looked at me impassively from under folded headdress that hid most of their faces. I caught up with the boy in the far corner of the Market.
It was slightly quieter here. I felt a prickle of unease. An ebony chess piece, a rook, was lying on the ground, and it looked strangely familiar. "Wait," I said, "before we go any further. Who is this person who has the ring? Did he tell you how he obtained it, or how much he wants for it?"
"It's the right ring, all right," said Maffi with a grin. "He'll tell you how much he wants himself." He gestured toward a booth whose striped awning was drawn shut, though a sandaled foot showed beneath it. "Go ahead!"
I still hesitated, but he turned at once and disappeared into the crowd. Oh well, I thought. If he didn't even wait to be paid, it wasn't my fault. I could always find my own way back to the inn by flying high enough to see the harbor and then locating it from there. I stepped resolutely up to the booth.
I expected the awning to be pulled back, but instead the foot disappeared. I pushed the fabric aside myself and looked into shadows so dark that it was impossible to make out any detail, although I thought I saw a pair of shining dark eyes.
"Hello? I heard you have a ring for sale?"
"Come in, come further in," said a muffled voice. "I have it here at the back."
I entered slowly, letting the awning drop behind me. "I can't see anything," I protested. "If you've really got a ring I'd be interested in, let's look at it in daylight."
The air crackled, giving me half a second's warning: not nearly enough to resist the binding spell that abruptly held me tight. I toppled over with a painful thump.
"Push back the awning," said the muffled voice. "Let us see what he has brought."
I lay, paralyzed from the collar bone down, on the filthy paving stones of the Market with several men bent over me. Someone let in a little daylight, and in a moment my eyes grew accustomed enough to the dim light so that I could make them out. As I should have expected, one of them was the enormous black shape of Kaz-alrhun.
"Let him keep that eagle ring," he said, "but see what else he has."
Hands reached into my pockets. They pulled the knife from my belt and the piece of parchment from inside my jacket.
"A piece of paper with an eggplant recipe, a smooth stone, and what looks like a buckle off a harness," said one of the other men, examining what had come from my pockets.
But Kaz-alrhun was looking at the piece of parchment, reading Prince Dominic's letter to his family, and his black eyes grew round. "Well, Daimbert, I knew you had brought more with you to Xantium than you cared to say. Your party is dressed as pilgrims, but I see that your goal lies far beyond the Holy Land. If you had told me you had this at once, all this trouble might have been unnecessary! Tell me, where did you obtain the parchment?"
"It was magically concealed inside a ring," I said in resignation.
"Well, since you cooperated at the last, Daimbert," Kaz-alrhun said with a chuckle, "even if not entirely voluntarily!" he paused for another laugh, "I have a mind to let you live. What do you think?"
"I think it's a fine idea," I said cautiously. Even though I could not move, I could feel all sorts of damp things soaking through my clothes, and my shoulders were sore and stiff. I tried a spell to lift myself off the ground and found that this binding spell not only held me physically, but also blocked my access to all but a few words of the Hidden Language. The only bright spot was imagining turning Maffi into a frog the next time I saw him, preferably a frog about to be eaten by a water-snake.
"But you attempted to mock me, Daimbert," the mage said, "coming to the Thieves' Market with the ruby ring and then trying to buy my horse with a different ring entirely." His laughter was gone now. "I do not like to be mocked."
It sounded as though he thought I knew far more than I in fact did. I wondered resignedly what it was.
"And I do not wish you to cause me any more problems at once," Kaz-alrhun added thoughtfully. "I think you will just leave town, immediately. Perhaps in a few days you shall have determined, even with your western magic, how to break my binding spell!"
"What do you mean, leave town?" I said, trying to keep panic out of my voice.
"On a trade caravan, of course. Laugh at your fate, Daimbert! No man can in dread change the day of his death, but he can with laughter chase dire dread away."
One of the men with Kaz-alrhun scooped me up and tossed me over his shoulder. I didn't feel like laughing, even to chase dire dread away.
"You'll never get away with this," I said. "My friends knew I was coming here today." This was not strictly true, but Ascelin would certainly come to the Thieves' Market if I didn't return to the inn. "They'll be very cautious when I don't return, and you'll never be able to steal the ruby ring."
"But you and I both know that none of them is a mage," said Kaz-alrhun
in a good-natured bellow. "You do not have the pieces to win this phase of the game, Daimbert. When your tall swordsman friend seeks you here, there will be nothing to see." He nodded to the man who held me. "There should be a caravan leaving from the north gate within the half hour."
The man darted out of the dimness of the booth into the brilliant sun, with me slung over his shoulder. He turned quickly from side to side for a moment, then set off at a trot.
I opened my mouth to say something, to try to negotiate with him, and found my vocal chords frozen. I was hanging upside down on his back, and a glance at my upper body showed that I had been covered with illusion to look like some sort of paper-wrapped parcel.
And what would the mage do to Dominic? While we hurried along the less crowded streets through the back of Xantium, I tried probing the spell that held me. I had new sympathy for the castellan and knights I had made stand in binding spells all night. Parts of my body felt numb and others itched almost unbearably, but there was nothing I could do about it.
I lost track of where we were long before I had any idea how this spell worked. We came suddenly under the arch of a stone gate, and by stretching my neck around, the only part of my body not held motionless, I could see a small collection of mule-drawn carts.
Turbaned men were tying down the loads and shouting to each other. The man carrying me stepped up to the last cart and said something I didn't catch, though I heard a clink of coins. The next moment, I had been dumped amidst bales of what felt like cloth and had a tarpaulin pulled across me. I was still struggling unsuccessfully to find a way to unravel Kaz-alrhun's spell when I heard a shout, the cart beneath me creaked, and the caravan began to move.
There wasn't much air beneath the tarpaulin, and in the sun it almost immediately grew extremely hot. I breathed shallowly, sweat running down my face, trying to imagine what my companions would do when I didn't return—and when the mage appeared among them with a flash of light and demanded Dominic's ring.
