Below the Wizards' Tower (The Royal Wizard of Yurt Book 8)

by C. Dale Brittain

  “We could sing hymns to make the time pass,” suggested Joachim, but both Elerius and I ignored him.

  “Why don’t you tell me,” I said icily, “why you want me out of the way so badly—leaving me paralyzed for hours yesterday, then trapping me here today. Why do you want to make sure I never meet Marcus? And what plan, exactly, are you carrying out that requires that I not be a witness?”

  Elerius spread his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I? I had nothing to do with whatever renegade captured you. And you must think very poorly of me to imagine that I would contrive a plot that ended up trapping myself down in the cellars! I hope the Master and Zahlfast told you how hard I searched when you turned up missing. Of course I should have realized there would be sea-caves somewhere along the shore here, but unlike you and Titus, I grew up in a castle, not some hovel by the harbor….”

  His voice trailed off. Elerius had never shared any information on his background, and normally I would have liked to hear much more about this castle, but not today.

  “Does this involve the Royal Wizard of Caelrhon?” I demanded. “The man you thought should have been hired instead of Titus? Since I know him all too well, did you—”

  “Him? Of course not,” said Elerius, in a tone so genuine that I was close to believing him. “Certainly I thought he was more qualified, but I am nothing more than one of the school’s many graduates—as of course are you,” managing to sound patronizing. “It was not my place to tell the Master what to do.”

  “And yet,” put in Joachim mildly, “you must have had some purpose today in separating Daimbert from the young wizard who was supposed to help protect him, and in telling him that Marcus was here, when he clearly is not.”

  Elerius might be able to deny all my accusations easily, but he was having a harder time with Joachim. “Well, I certainly was told that he was here,” he said hastily. In the light from the glass fishing float, his eyes looked calculating. “Perhaps I misunderstood….”

  I would have pushed whatever advantage I now had, but suddenly there was a step in the corridor outside, and a voice speaking the heavy syllables of the Hidden Language. It was the Master’s voice.

  Elerius sprang to the door, put both hands on it, and added some spells of his own. In a few seconds the magic lock vanished, and the door flew open.

  “What are you doing down here, Daimbert?” the Master demanded. We filed out, and he gave Joachim a heavy frown from under shaggy eyebrows.

  “Elerius brought me here, claiming I would meet Marcus,” I said quickly, before Elerius could get in some lie.

  The Master made a low rumbling noise, not quite a dismissive snort. “That seems an odd reason to bring a priest into the school. And why would this Marcus be down in our cellars? You told me he wasn’t even a wizard.”

  “Elerius said he was here,” I tried again, feeling like a student who had messed up an exercise and was now trying to shift the blame.

  “I understood that he was working down here for Titus, and I knew Daimbert wanted to meet him,” said Elerius, when the Master turned his frosty gaze on him. He didn’t sound much more confident than I did.

  If Elerius didn’t sound confident, I told myself, it was because his cunning plan was falling apart. I gathered my courage. “Let’s go talk to Titus right now and get to the bottom of this,” I said while I had the momentary advantage.

  “I am staying with Daimbert,” said Joachim calmly when the Master frowned in his direction again. “I promise not to invoke the supernatural while here, to disturb any of your spells.”

  Another joke! I thought. Joachim dared make a joke to the Master of the wizards’ school, which was more than I would have been able to do. But his face was perfectly sober.

  “How did you find us?” I asked the Master as lightly as I could as we started upstairs—not the same staircase that we had descended.

  “When that young wizard came back and said that Elerius was now with you,” he rumbled, “I knew you should be safely back at the school soon. But when I sensed the two of you coming in, and there was a third man with you, curiosity got the better of me. And I could not imagine why you would have gone down to the cellars.”

  “It must be someone here in the school who has gone renegade,” said Elerius, his voice coming out just a little high. “Because someone put a powerful locking spell on the door.” I noticed that he was carefully deflecting the question of what we were doing in the first place in a cellar room that someone could magically lock.

  “I don’t know if even I could have broken the spell alone,” commented the Master. “But when you added your magic to mine, it broke up so fast that I couldn’t tell who might have cast it originally. I hate to suspect any of the students, but they do sometimes carry their pranks too far….”

  Elerius broke his own spell before the Master could determine that it was his, I thought. But if I accused him he would simply deny it. “Let’s talk to Titus right away.”

  He was in his study between classes, quite surprised to find the four of us at his door. “Marcus?” he said when asked. “No, of course he wasn’t helping me. I’ve never even met him. I’ve just heard the name as someone of whom Daimbert reminded somebody. I don’t even think he’s a wizard.” He rattled off the names of the half dozen young wizards he had helping him identify and inventory the magical creatures spell-bound in the cellars.

  “Ah, that’s it, that’s the name that I mistakenly heard as Marcus,” said Elerius in tones of comprehension. “Well, Daimbert, I must make my excuses for misleading you.”

  The Master nodded in satisfaction. “If I don’t hurry I’ll be late for class,” said Titus apologetically and was gone.

  And where had Elerius gotten his story about finding Marcus and discovering that he came from the borderlands of wild magic and introducing him to Titus as an assistant? But the Master was already heading back toward his own study, and I had no one to whom to make accusations except Elerius himself—and Joachim, who had stayed quiet and in the background.

  “Elerius,” the Master’s voice suddenly came down the hall, and for a second I hoped that he too had seen through this flimsy story. “Did you bring the air cart back yet?”

  “No, not yet,” Elerius answered. The air cart was the skin of a purple flying beast; it kept on flying even in death, and the school used it for transporting heavy loads. “Remember, I asked if I could have it until late this evening. It’s an errand for my king.”

  For his king. I had a sudden sick feeling that all this capturing was intended to keep me out of Yurt, where I could have protected my own royal family from magical attacks. “I’ve got to use the telephone,” I said.

  Elerius waited in the hall outside the telephone room. The base of the school’s telephone lit up to show a servant, dressed in the blue and white livery of Yurt, hurrying to answer. Normally I felt a surge of pride when using a telephone with the far-seeing attachment I had invented, but not today. I was too worried.

  “Oh, hello, Wizard!” the servant said as soon as his own telephone lit up to show me. “Will you be home soon? The queen was just asking this morning if anyone knew how much longer you’d be away.”

  “But what’s happening? Is everyone all right?”

  “Everything here is fine,” he said, puzzled. “Oh, except the stable boy who was kicked by Prince Dominic’s stallion. Did that happen before you left? He’s not badly hurt, but the doctor thinks he has a cracked rib. The king is talking now of selling the stallion after all.”

  This did not sound like a magical attack on Yurt which I could have prevented. “Give everyone my greetings,” I said in profound relief, “and tell them I’ll be home in a few days.”

  Though I still had shopping to do. I had found the lace I had bought, water soaked and now dried into a hard ball, in the pocket of my ruined jacket. I hoped if I soaked it in fresh water it could be salvaged.

  Elerius put his head around the corner with a bright smile. “So, is everything we
ll back home in Yurt?” I didn’t trust him not to have listened. “I’m sure your king would be able to call on Caelrhon’s Royal Wizard if anything came up in your absence.”

  Elerius’s digs were always carefully worded so that no one could actually accuse him of being insulting. Ignoring the comment, I said, “You still haven’t told me where Marcus is, or why you don’t want me to meet him.”

  “Daimbert, you do have a vivid imagination,” he replied with a smile that did not fool me for a second. “As I already said, I am very sorry to have misled you, due to a simple misunderstanding. Now, there is much I need to do before heading home to my kingdom.”

  And at that he hurried off, closer to being caught in a bald lie than I had ever seen him.

  The Master, meanwhile, was doubtless preparing to question all the wizardry students, as to why they had locked up two of the school’s graduates and a priest in the cellars. I felt sorry for the students, but since at this point the Master was not going to believe that Elerius had locked us in himself, there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.

  Yurt was apparently still unharmed, but I was beginning to have doubts about Caelrhon. Elerius had brought the kingdom up several times in conversation, suggesting it was on his mind.

  “You may need to get back to Caelrhon very soon,” I said to Joachim. “There may be something happening there.” I paused. “But I need you.”

  His eyes gave a quick flash. “I am not leaving while you are in danger.”

  Probably both his own bishop and the chancellor here would be irritated with him. I didn’t care.

  I should fly there immediately. Except that I was supposed to have another wizard chaperoning me at all times, and I could not fly while carrying Joachim. I could have taken the air cart, except that Elerius had, ever so conveniently, borrowed it himself for the whole day.

  I made a sudden decision. “Come on,” I said to Joachim, loudly in case anyone was listening. “I’ll see you to the door—the school can be confusing if you don’t know the layout, and I’m sure a priest would prefer to spend as little time here as possible, especially after being accidentally locked up!”

  Joachim gave me an odd look but followed as I walked briskly to the side door where Elerius had brought us in. We went outside together.

  Then I murmured, “Get back to Caelrhon as soon as you can. I’ll be there before you.” And quickly, before he could give me an argument, or the Master and Zahlfast could realize that I was venturing out without another wizard to protect me, I shot into the air and headed inland.

  Only two hundred miles to go. Good thing I had had a large lunch.

  VII

  Something was happening, something that Elerius did not want me to see. His original plan, I thought, had been to leave me paralyzed in a cave for two days while he carried out—whatever he was carrying out. After Titus rescued me yesterday, he had thought today to put me somewhere equally difficult to find, but Joachim had thwarted that by insisting on staying with me. Elerius’s fallback plan was to lock all of us in the cellars, giving himself a perfect alibi in the process, but the Master had found us far faster than he had hoped.

  This would all make more sense if I knew why he wanted me out of the way.

  Flying is hard physical and mental work. A better wizard than I would be able to fly faster than an air cart. My only hope was that if Elerius was using the air cart to deliver some destructive power on Caelrhon, as I had now convinced myself he was, that I would get there not long thereafter.

  At first I kept looking over my shoulder for pursuit but saw none. When the Master realized I had gone, he must have assumed I was on my way back to Yurt and decided it was not worth trying to protect someone who did not want to be protected.

  Fields, woods, villages, rivers, and small towns passed below me. At the end of the afternoon, I spotted the spires of Caelrhon cathedral, their shadow stretching across the city. No sign of destructive flames or a ravening dragon.

  I dropped into a quiet street without attracting attention, caught my breath for a moment, and walked quickly toward the municipal building that housed the city council chambers and the mayor’s office. Time to get some allies.

  Even though I felt a desperate urgency, I realized that here in Caelrhon I felt more confident of my abilities to face whatever Elerius might do next. Back in the City, I had been a boy again, a student wizard again, but I had already been a Royal Wizard the first time I had come to Caelrhon.

  No time to think about that now. I had to warn the city leaders that something terrible was about to happen, even if I didn’t know what it was, even if I would have to tell them to trust me, a wizard, about something another wizard was plotting.

  “The mayor’s gone home for the day,” a clerk told me, with the implication that an old white-haired man ought to know something as simple as the hours that the office was open.

  “How can I reach him? I need to warn him, Caelrhon may soon experience a magical attack.”

  This sounded as unlikely in my own ears as it clearly did in the clerk’s. “We are not experiencing any magical attacks,” he said crisply, “and if we were, we have our own Royal Wizard to protect us.” He pushed the door firmly shut, and I could hear him locking it.

  He had mistaken me for some carnival magician, I thought. Windblown and exhausted from a long flight, I certainly did not look like a dignified Royal Wizard. I needed to find someone who at least would recognize me and then listen to me.

  I considered but almost instantly rejected Caelrhon’s Royal Wizard, the man in whom the mayor’s clerk put such confidence. He would not be here in the city, but a few miles away in the royal castle. More importantly, I suspected him of working with Elerius.

  The cathedral might be my best chance. I had come over to Caelrhon from Yurt shortly after Joachim joined the cathedral chapter, and he had introduced me to several of the other priests. The dean, I remembered, was the head of the cathedral chapter, second in authority only to the bishop. The bishop, always leery of wizardry, would doubtless start with the assumption that a wizard was bringing demonic magic into his church, but I might be able to get somewhere with the dean.

  As I followed the narrow, twisting streets toward the cathedral, passing shoppers making final purchases and workers heading home for the evening, I noticed how much shorter the towers and spires were than those of the cathedral of the great City. Maybe that was why they were talking here of building a new edifice themselves.

  Sounds of singing came from the cathedral. Evening service, I thought. I waited respectfully outside, by the door that led into the cobbled street where the cathedral officers had their houses, trying to comb my hair and beard with my fingers, until the service was finally over.

  When the priests emerged, I spotted the dean at once, a frail old man who walked with a cane. I hurried up to him, doing my best to have a respectful expression.

  “Excuse me, Father, I don’t know if you remember me. I’m the Royal Wizard of Yurt, and I—”

  He interrupted. “Of course I remember you. I may need a cane, but I don’t yet forget from one hour to the next!”

  One hour to the next? I pushed on. “I’ve come to warn you that there may be some sort of magical attack on Caelrhon, and—”

  This time it was a young acolyte who interrupted, one who was supporting the dean by the elbow. “You really did not need to come around again, especially after what you said earlier! Now, please. Can’t you see that the dean does not wish to be bothered?” And he escorted him briskly down to his house at the end of the street.

  What I had said earlier? I stood still as the rest of the cathedral priests hurried past me, some pulling their vestments aside as though wanting to avoid all contact.

  In a few seconds I managed to reassure myself that I had not, months ago, said anything grossly insulting to the dean when I had first met him. If I had, Joachim would have pointed it out. He might be my friend, but he had never been strong on tact.

  I
nstead someone else had been here, probably today, claiming to be me.

  Marcus. But why would someone who charmed all the women and lost his money in the tavern be here, asserting that he was a wizard and saying impolitic things to the cathedral officers of Caelrhon?

  It had to be Elerius. But I had even less idea than before what plot he could possibly be hatching.

  It didn’t look as though anyone was going to listen to me until it was too late. The mayor still seemed my best potential ally, because the townspeople would believe him if he told them they had to prepare for something, but I would have to wait until morning to find him.

  Should I spend the night preparing myself? It was hard to know where to begin. And besides, I was completely worn out, both from my ordeal yesterday and from the long flight today. Better to go to the little castle here in the city, where the royal court of Yurt stayed whenever they came to Caelrhon. With a good night’s sleep I might have some ideas in the morning.

  I started across the city, which now was growing dark. Shutters were closed, but yellow light emerged in thin strips, and I could hear the sounds of conversation and the clink of forks. That reminded me. I was hungry and hoped there would be something to eat at the castle.

  But when I came around the corner to the little square in front of it, I found it dark and forbidding. The towers were a darker shade of night against the sky. No light peeked through the shutters here, and when I tried the door I found it locked.

  Well, I was a wizard, I could get inside, but I had better find something to eat first. Back down the street I went, listening for the louder voices and clinks that would mark an inn. I found one just a few streets away, warm firelight streaming out open doors. Someone was singing loudly, not quite in tune. Something smelled very good—at a guess, beef stew.

  But as I stepped into the doorway I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Escaped, eh? Hope you didn’t think you could slip back here unnoticed!”

  I swung around, spells all prepared against Elerius. But it was a uniformed member of the municipal guard.