C. Dale Brittain_Wizard of Yurt 04

by The Witch;the Cathedral

  The street behind the cathedral was quiet once more. I hurried down to the dean's house and went inside. He was there, but I did not think he even heard me come in. He sat at the table, all in black, his face buried in his hands.

  I tiptoed past him and went into the room where I had been staying. The only thing I could do was leave at once. I gathered up my clothes and books and packed everything neatly in my box.

  But where could I go, and, even more importantly, where was Theodora? Maybe she had had a fit and died in the night. Maybe the old bishop, in dying, had reached out a demonic hand to take her soul with his.

  This last was too unlikely, even in my worried state. But I did not like my other ideas any better. Had she been kidnapped and dragged from the city? Had an evil wizard ambushed her and taken her to wherever he and his nefarious magic were hiding?

  Or, most devastating of all, did she not want to see me?

  "No," I said aloud. I could not think of this as the most devastating, no matter what it did to my self-esteem. I would rather have her alive and furious with me, for reasons I could not begin to fathom, than to have her in dire captivity or even dead.

  Had Theodora felt violated by my attentions? I found it hard to accept this; it was she who had led the way to the grove. Since I was a wizard, not a priest, I had, as I had told her, not sinned against institutionalized magic by being with her. But if I had somehow, unintentionally but horribly, frightened her or hurt her, I had sinned against Theodora herself. As I thought again of our walk back to the city last night, it became more and more clear that she did not want to marry me.

  Had she all along been the sort of witch I had feared when I first met her, only interested in men to satisfy her mad lusts? Maybe the woman I thought I had come to know and love this summer had all been a façade.

  "Theodora!" I shouted inside my mind. "Where are you?" Any wizard or witch within five miles should have been able to hear me.

  There was no response, but I had expected none. After sitting glumly on the bed for a few more minutes, I stood up abruptly to go out. Joachim had not moved. I closed the door quietly behind me as I stepped into the street.

  The rain had let up. As I came around to the front of the cathedral, I saw that the numbers of townspeople coming to pay their final respects to the bishop had grown.

  I headed out through the city gates and wandered through the long, wet grass, finding no clues and not even sure what I was seeking. I stared out along the road leading from the city, and, in the distance, could see a galloping horse coming toward me.

  It was a red roan stallion, and in a moment I could see that the rider was Paul. No one was with him, and he rode as though pursued by demons. My heart felt as though a hand had clutched it.

  With Theodora either held captive by an evil wizard or furious with me, and with Joachim lost to me forever, I had been thinking that nothing worse could possibly happen. But now I knew it could.

  PART FIVE - THE FUNERAL

  I

  Paul reined in the stallion and leaped off lightly. The sun broke from behind a cloud at the same time. "Wizard!" he cried with a smile. "I've come to look for you!"

  I went weak in the knees as I realized that nothing could be as horribly wrong in Yurt as I had feared. "But why are you alone?" I managed to ask. "And why were you riding so fast?"

  "Bonfire loves to run," he said nonchalantly. Indeed, the stallion did not seem at all winded by the gallop. "I must have left the other knights some miles back."

  "It's dangerous," I said sternly, "for a prince to ride around unprotected."

  Paul smiled again. I had not remembered that he was half a head taller than I. "I've got my sword and shield," he said, "and I know how to use them. And Bonfire can outrun any bandits in the western kingdoms. Besides, I don't think there even are many bandits anymore—haven't you wizards from the school gotten rid of most of them?"

  I would have been interested in Paul's thoughts about the wizards' school, but not now. "You haven't said why you're here."

  We went in through the city gates, the stallion's reins looped over Paul's arm. He saw the black ribbons along the street. "Has someone important died?"

  "Yes, the bishop. But why are you here?" I persisted.

  "Mother wanted to find out how you were doing, and she said she didn't like to telephone the cathedral to ask about a wizard. Did you find their monster?"

  "Not yet," I said cautiously, wondering what intention of the queen's might lie behind this terse message.

  "So the bishop died," said Paul. "He was very old, wasn't he? I wonder who the new bishop will be."

  I realized we were walking briskly through the city streets as we talked. "Where are we going, anyway?"

  "To the castle, of course," said Paul in surprise. "That's where I'll be staying."

  "But Prince Lucas is there."

  Paul was even more surprised. "Prince Lucas? Mother mentioned that she'd sent him permission to make a brief stay, but he should have been gone weeks ago." He grinned disarmingly. "Well, we're both royal princes, but I'll be king of Yurt in not much more than a month, whereas he may not be king of Caelrhon for years, and it is, after all, our castle!" He continued on, apparently looking forward to putting Prince Lucas out by force if necessary.

  I hurried behind him. "I've never known," I said as I caught up again, "why only the king of Yurt has a castle here in the cathedral city when the city is located within the kingdom of Caelrhon."

  "Did you never study the history of Yurt?" asked Paul.

  "Of course not," I said in exasperation. I felt myself fortunate to know what little I did about the history of wizardry.

  "Well, Father taught it to me. It's actually quite interesting now, with Mother planning to marry Vincent, because—"

  He stopped without finishing the sentence. Before I could do more than note that he now seemed capable of speaking of his mother's marriage without despair, he reached into his pocket. "I'm sorry, I almost forgot. Mother said to give this to you."

  It was a large white envelope, sealed with the queen's crimson seal, and much too heavy to have been sent by the pigeons. The image on the seal was a tiny picture of a crowned woman, and around the edge ran the inscription, "Regina Regensque Yurtiae," Queen and Regent of Yurt.

  I tore the envelope open while Paul stood a short distance away, trying to appear politely uninterested in my correspondence. At first I thought the letter was shaking, and then I realized it was my hands.

  In spite of Theodora, I realized as I saw the familiar black sprawling handwriting, I was still in love with the queen. A very faint scent came from the letter; it must have been a perfume she always wore of which I had never before been consciously aware.

  The message was brief. "I don't know what you have thought or what you have imagined, but you are still Royal Wizard of Yurt. Come home as soon as you can. Give our love to Father Joachim." At the bottom of the page, squeezed in as though an afterthought, were the words, "Paul and Vincent and I all need you."

  I was still wizard of Yurt, even if she sent her love only to Joachim and not to me. I didn't know if I was glad or not. I looked up and met Paul's inquiring eyes. "Your mother wanted to make sure I was back for your coming of age ceremony," I said.

  He smiled. "But I told her you'd promised to be there! And of course," he added casually, "you'll be there for the wedding the next day."

  I caught my breath between my teeth. "Her wedding?" I said slowly over the hard pounding of my heart. "I thought she didn't plan to marry for months and months!" I was the cause of this, I thought. My impetuous avowals had made the queen move up her wedding to avoid anything similar in the future.

  "That's because she and Vincent had originally planned to be married in the cathedral here," said Paul. He spoke without concern, but for a second I thought I spotted behind his calm words a determination not to make a childish fuss over something he could not change. "But then they realized that as soon as I'm king, there will be
nothing improper about the queen-mother marrying the prince of the neighboring kingdom. So they'll have the ceremony when everyone is already assembled at Yurt for my coronation."

  I found I had nothing to say. We turned a corner and reached the little castle that belonged to the royal family of Yurt. Paul stepped boldly up to the knight in Caelrhon's livery who stood at the door. "Inform your master," he said, resting his hand casually on the pommel of his sword, "that the heir to Yurt demands that he vacate this castle at once and make it available for our use."

  Inwardly I smiled, distracted for the moment from the devastating news about the queen. Paul was so confident, so bold, and still so young. A stray beam of sunlight made his hair shine like a crown of pale gold. I waited, ready in case the knight tried to oppose him by force.

  But after one hard glance at us the knight grunted, "Wait here," and disappeared into the castle. While we waited, I took the queen's letter back out and looked at it again. Apparently she was willing to go on living in the same castle with me on the same terms as during the previous nineteen years; the only question was whether I was equally willing.

  This thought shocked me. How could I even be considering going on as wizard of Yurt when I loved Theodora?

  Prince Lucas's knight returned. "He will receive you within, sir."

  Paul handed him the stallion's reins. "Watch him for me until I return. But be careful. He's wild, and he'll kill anyone but me who tries to mount." He grinned as we went up the steps, leaving the knight looking dubiously at the stallion. "In fact, Bonfire is as gentle as a kitten," he said in a whisper.

  Prince Lucas met us in the castle's great hall, doing his best to appear gracious; I did not judge the effort a great success. "I am delighted to see you, Prince," he said to Paul, but looking at me with thorough disapproval. "I just wish you had warned me of your coming to Caelrhon, so that we might have been prepared to greet you more suitably."

  The two princes kissed each other on the cheeks, their hands stiffly placed on each other's shoulders. Paul was as tall as Lucas, although I doubted he weighed more than half as much.

  "My mother and I are deeply surprised to find you still here in our castle," said Paul with comparable courtesy. "If you had warned us you wished to extend your stay, it would not now be necessary to ask you to leave."

  "Let me make a suggestion," said Lucas. "We were unavoidably detained in the city by certain business, and now, with the bishop dead and the funeral scheduled for tomorrow, it seems inappropriate to leave immediately. There is plenty of room for both of us. I will vacate the royal chamber, of course, but it would be unsuitable for a prince such as yourself to stay here alone."

  "I have three knights coming to town behind me," said Paul, "and of course our Royal Wizard will stay with me. But for one night we are willing that you stay here as well. The royal heirs of the twin kingdoms will be suitable representatives at the bishop's funeral."

  Prince Lucas looked at me even more sourly but nodded. "May I have a few hours to make the appropriate arrangements?"

  "Certainly," said Paul. "I'll be back later this afternoon." He gave me another grin as we went back out of the castle, proud at how he had handled a potentially delicate situation.

  "I think I know," he said, once we were outside and he had reclaimed his stallion, "why Lucas stayed on in the city all this time. He was hoping to outwait you."

  "Outwait me?"

  "Of course," said Paul. "He must assume that you're here on some secret business of the royal house of Yurt. Since he knows he can't discover your real business, he has to wait until you actually do what you're planning to do."

  "But what sort of secret business could there be?"

  "That's right; you don't know anything about the history of Yurt. Remind me to tell you later. Where are we going, by the way?"

  "To the cathedral," I said. "I've been staying at the dean's house and need to get my things."

  Paul waited at the end of the street. Joachim's door was locked, and no one answered. I unlocked the door and went in. The house was completely silent except for the distant sound of the cathedral organ. I got my box and went out again. For a second I hesitated on the porch, Joachim's spare key in my hand, then locked the door and slipped the key under the mat. I doubted I would ever be back.

  "Yurt and Caelrhon used to be all one kingdom," said Paul. We sat at a table in the inn, having dinner. The royal heir to Yurt seemed to be enjoying eating with the ordinary townspeople of Caelrhon. The last time I had been here was with Theodora.

  For a terrifying moment I feared that the events of the last six weeks had all been imagined. In many ways Theodora was the woman of my youthful dreams, coming to meet me a generation later. But then rationality reasserted itself. My memories were much too vivid to be illusory. Besides, if I had been creating an imaginary woman for myself, I would not have created an amethyst-eyed witch who climbed steep cliffs unaided by magic.

  I dragged my attention back to Paul, who was giving me a quizzical look. "I'm sorry," I said. "So Yurt and Caelrhon used to be all one kingdom? How long ago was that?"

  "Until—" he paused to calculate "—until two hundred and fourteen years ago. That's when the twin heirs to Yurt decided not to fight any longer but divide the kingdom between them." He put down his knife and fork to explain more fully. Although I had no appetite, Paul had been eating with gusto. The three knights from Yurt, who had finally reached the city at the end of the afternoon and were seated across the room, seemed likewise absorbed in dinner.

  "The one twin, the younger, took the part of the kingdom with the cathedral city in it, and indeed his share was larger in terms of total area. The older brother took the smaller share, but his had much richer land, and he kept the royal castle of Yurt. The younger brother had to settle for making what had been a small, dependent castle into the royal castle of Caelrhon. And of course it was understood that Yurt was the senior kingdom."

  I paid proper attention now. "And is your mother's marriage to Prince Vincent going to reunite the two kingdoms?"

  "Of course not," said Paul, with disdain for my inferior understanding. "Vincent is the younger son, not the heir, and besides, I'm going to be king of Yurt, so it won't matter whom Mother marries. But one thing I did find out from Prince Vincent—although I don't think he realizes I know this—is that certain members of the royal family of Caelrhon, especially Prince Lucas, are terrified that Yurt is planning to reconquer their kingdom."

  "You aren't, are you?" I asked dubiously.

  Paul laughed. "Yurt and Caelrhon will still be separate kingdoms. Prince Lucas has waited too long to be king to want to risk losing the crown."

  "Would he like to unify the two countries himself?"

  "He'd have to get rid of me first," said Paul, young enough to feel immortal.

  "But he fears I'm the spearhead of a reconquest?" This was rapidly becoming too complicated for me in my present state of mind. "But why then is Vincent marrying the queen?"

  "Vincent thinks that his older brother doesn't entirely approve," said Paul, as though this explained everything. "You know," with an expression of disgust, "they really do act as though they're in love."

  And I was in love with Theodora. I dropped my forehead onto my fist and tried again to reach her mind. But I hesitated to use the most powerful spells, the ones I had already tried unsuccessfully against the wizard, which should reveal almost anyone trying to shield his mind from magic. If she was deliberately hiding from me it would be unfair to use my better knowledge of magic to force her out of hiding.

  Paul was saying something, and I looked up quickly. "Are you feeling all right?"

  "Oh, yes." It did not sound convincing in my own ears.

  But Paul seemed ready to believe me. "Anyway, as I was saying, some of Vincent's ideas make excellent sense. On this he and his brother do agree. It really is true that the kings of the western kingdoms have acted in the last few generations as though we're not truly rulers of our own peop
les and destinies."

  Now I was alarmed. I pushed my uneaten plate of food away, half-nauseated from the vertiginous feeling of being flung from one emotion to another. "But what is Vincent planning to do?"

  "Everyone knows the saying about the ‘three who rule the world,’" Paul continued, staring fixedly at the candle flame. Although he spoke fairly casually, I realized he did not want to meet my eyes. "But the world is in many ways ruled only by two, the church and wizardry, and it's only because those two have a traditional rivalry that the aristocracy is allowed even the smallest role."

  This did not sound at all like Paul. Won over by the gift of a red roan stallion, he seemed willing to believe whatever Vincent told him.

  "The princes have relied too long on the advice of their advisers," Paul went on as though repeating something he had been told. "It is very well to be guided by the Royal Chaplain and the Royal Wizard in affairs of the soul or in magic spells. But the Church has long had its own organization and institutional goals, and the wizards have molded their school on the seminary system, only making it more centralized. Now that there are wizards being placed in every castle and manor-house in the western kingdoms, no aristocrat will be able to have an independent thought again. When the wizards first started putting an end to warfare, everyone accepted it at first as an excellent improvement. But only now, when it's almost too late, are the aristocrats realizing that the real purpose behind it all—"

  I had to stop him before he went any further. Several people at adjoining tables were looking toward the prince with surprise. I put my hand on his arm, making him jump. "Paul," I said gently, "I'm a wizard, and my chief concern is the welfare of the kingdom of Yurt."

  He looked at me then, his eyes wide. "I didn't mean you."

  "But I think Prince Vincent did."

  "This isn't something Vincent told me; I worked it out for myself."

  "Come on, Paul. Your Aunt Maria told me what Vincent had been saying to the court. You know that we wizards tend to fight among ourselves so much it's lucky we get anything accomplished at all." If I were conspiring to give the aristocracy more power, I thought, I would have started by trying to discredit organized religion, but the princes of Caelrhon seemed to have started with organized magic. "If you keep on believing in a wizardly conspiracy," I continued, "soon you'll start sounding like the young chaplain."