by Mage Quest
Kaz-alrhun's spell twisted and turned beneath my probing almost as if it were alive. I recognized the shape of the spell from Melecherius's book, but I still could not unravel it. Several times I thought I had it, and each time it eluded me. I reminded myself grimly that I had wanted to see eastern magic.
I soon felt as though I was caught not just by a spell but by a nightmare. As breathing took more and more effort, I gave up even trying to undo the spell that held me. I hovered on the edge of consciousness, between dreaming and hallucinating. It seemed like an eternity, though it was probably closer to three hours, when the cart beneath me stopped moving.
"Well," said a voice, "shall we look at what Kaz-alrhun sent with us?"
The tarpaulin was jerked off, letting in sun-baked air that tasted deliciously refreshing as I sucked it desperately into my lungs.
I blinked my eyes then and looked up at the two men bending over me. They were Arnulf's agents.
I tried to speak and discovered my voice had returned. A glance downward showed that the illusion that made me into a parcel had also worn off. "I've been put in a binding spell," I croaked. "Help me up and give me something to drink."
"It's— It's a man!" said one of them. Maybe the sun was slowing his reasoning powers as badly as it affected me.
They pulled me into a sitting position and offered me water out of a leather bag. It was lukewarm and absolutely delicious, even if it did dribble down my chin. I was too grateful to accuse them of taking part in a plot to kill innocent wizards. By now, I thought, the mage must have seized Dominic's ring—and maybe even Dominic himself. I would have to formulate a plan of action as soon as I could act—or, for that matter, think clearly again.
"It is— Are you not the mage who was with Arnulf?" asked one of the turbaned men.
"Yes," I said, giving up the effort of persuading them that Joachim was not his brother. I glanced at the long, curved swords at their sides, but they showed no sign of drawing them. "And your friend Kaz-alrhun wanted to get rid of me."
"But why?" they said in what appeared to be real distress. "Has he broken his agreement?"
I shook my head and made a new effort to understand the magic that held me. "We didn't give him the ring he demanded in return for his ebony horse."
"But Arnulf told us before he came that he would have it!"
For a moment I had thought I understood at last, that Kaz-alrhun wanted the ruby ring to get into the Wadi himself, but this ring Arnulf had sent with us to buy the flying horse seemed to be something entirely different.
"I was carrying a magical parchment," I said, "which seemed to please Kaz-alrhun, though I certainly hadn't meant to give it to him. This binding spell appears to be his punishment for riding his horse without any intention of giving him what he wanted."
"But if he has the parchment, now," said one of the agents, "and if he thinks it will do just as well as the ring, then Arnulf should be able to take the horse! Kaz-alrhun may work out of the Thieves' Market, but we have found that he honors his bargains."
I couldn't even begin to agree, but it was too complicated for an argument. I glanced up while struggling anew with the spell and saw a dark shape, not quite a cloud, scuttling low through the sky. "An Ifrit!" I cried involuntarily, panicked because of my helplessness. Back in Yurt, I had said I wanted to see an Ifrit—all my wishes were coming true with a vengeance.
V
The two men whirled, but then they relaxed and laughed. "That is not an Ifrit. It's just a bit of a sandstorm. The wind will pick up sand and dust and carry it some distance. Sand demons, they are sometimes called."
I didn't like this talk of demons, but if we were, at least momentarily, safe from Ifriti, I wanted to get free of the binding spell before the next danger appeared. Suddenly I saw how it went together, with an ingenious twist I had never seen before, though Melecherius hinted at it. In a few more seconds I was able to dissolve the spell and finally stretch my cramped arms.
Arnulf's agents stepped back abruptly as I moved, and I realized they might be as frightened of my anger as I was irritated with them. If Arnulf's negotiations had all gone amiss, then both he and "his" wizard would have good reason to be furious with the agents who had sent him word that everything was ready.
I took another pull of water and massaged my temples. I looked around, at the mule-drawn carts whose drivers were now sitting off the road in the shade, at the dusty and empty road itself, and at the sage-covered hillside leading down to the sun-flecked Central Sea. Xantium was a dark mass in the distance.
"So do you normally transport Kaz-alrhun's victims out of Xantium, when you're not plotting to betray your employer?" I asked conversationally. If the mage had attacked Dominic to get his ruby ring, the prince might be on the next caravan. But if Kaz-alrhun had wanted a different ring, Arnulf's ring, badly enough to give his flying horse for it, then Dominic's ring might not have any real interest for him after all.
"No, no!" the agents said together. "We have never done anything against Arnulf's interests!" When I frowned, one added, "We did not realize the mage's parcel was a man."
I stood up slowly. "Perhaps Arnulf will appreciate that, in Xantium, you have to put a powerful mage's interests ahead of his," I said with deliberate sarcasm. "Are you heading north now?"
"No," said one of the agents. "We were about to return to Xantium. Whichever market Arnulf's caravans make for, we always travel with them the first ten miles or so out of the city, until they are out of easy range of city-based thieves. Certainly if Kaz-alrhun pays us to add an occasional parcel to the load, we are willing to accommodate him, but that does not mean we're working against Arnulf's interests!" He paused for a moment, then added, "You will explain to him, will you not, that we never meant any harm to you?"
"We'll see," I said gravely. At least they hadn't asked me yet to pay them for their trouble. The drivers took my standing up as the signal to start again. They remounted the wagons and snapped their whips over the mules' backs. With shouts and creaks, the caravan started off along the dusty road.
By this time, Dominic's ring would be gone beyond easy recovery. I felt too tired for the concentration flying required, so I started walking with Arnulf's agents. They were eager now to be helpful and pleasant.
"I've heard that a number of Arnulf's caravans had been captured by an Ifrit," I said. "Is that part of the reason you don't accompany them very far?"
They looked at each other in surprise. "I do not know where you could have heard such a story," said one. "Only one caravan has disappeared completely, off to the east of here. And we cannot be absolutely sure its disappearance was due to an Ifrit, because no one saw it. The drivers described a whoosh of air, then they and their mules were left standing and the carts were gone. If caravans really were disappearing in large numbers, all the mages in Xantium would bend their magic to prevent it."
I wondered if there was any truth at all in Arnulf's story. "It did seem fairly unlikely to me. And wouldn't it be odd for an Ifrit to leave the sign of the cross?"
The agents looked at each other again. "We had not heard anything about the sign of the cross," said one in distaste.
Then the entire account of Ifriti capturing caravans, I thought, was Arnulf's invention, an excuse to bring Joachim into his affairs. I still had no firm sense whether his story of the Black Pearl reappearing was real or an additional invention, but I tended toward the latter. I was distracted from this speculation by another thought. "You aren't Christian?"
"Of course not," with dignity. "We follow the teachings of the Prophet."
Since Xantium was, at least in its government, a Christian city, I was intrigued that Arnulf should employ non-Christians as his agents here. Maybe that was why he had no chaplain: he didn't want someone piously trying to introduce religion into sound business decisions. "I know almost nothing about the Prophet," I said. "Could you tell me a little as we walk?"
By the time the walls of Xantium rose before us at the end of
the day, I had learned much more comparative religion than I had ever imagined. I had not realized before that the People of the Prophet had been pagans before the Prophet came to them, nor that he had incorporated what he considered the best elements of the rather inadequate religions—as he saw it—of Abraham and of Christ. I had to be fairly noncommittal in my responses to conceal the fact that these men also knew much more about Christianity than I did.
But as we talked I was also thinking. The bit of sandstorm, the sand demon, might in fact have been Kaz-alrhun on his magic ebony horse, off to the Wadi Harhammi. I remembered Ascelin commenting, back in the eastern kingdoms, that a number of events seemed to have been managed for our benefit. Could the mage have been behind them all?
Or was the shadowy and rather ominous figure I thought I sensed, manipulating and maneuvering us, King Warin, or Arnulf, or someone else entirely? Whatever we had stumbled onto must be something much more complicated than the disappearance of Sir Hugo's party.
Even though the school had heard nothing of the Pearl's reappearance, the lord of the red sandstone castle was ready to turn bandit for something hidden in a shipment of luxury silks, perhaps one of the "parcels" Arnulf's agents had been willing to transport for Kaz-alrhun. Our arrival in King Warin's kingdom had been intriguing enough for him to set real bandits on us, and our passage through the eastern kingdoms had led Prince Vlad to set in motion extensive troop movements and even wars, for the purpose of bringing us to his castle. We had heard of very strange rumors coming out of the East, but it seemed instead that everyone else, except for us, felt that something very strange was coming out of Yurt.
"Tell Arnulf to go himself to talk to Kaz-alrhun," said one of the agents as we reached the west gate of the city. "We certainly tried to negotiate fairly for the horse."
"And reassure Arnulf that we had nothing to do with your kid napping," added the other. "Kaz-alrhun likes to have a little fun sometimes, but he means no real harm."
I didn't like to think what the mage did when he actually meant real harm, but I was footsore and hungry, with painful ribs and a bad headache.
But then my eye was caught by a small form under the gate. As I spotted him he saw me and turned to run.
With new energy I flew under the gate after him. A frog was too good for him. I started putting together the first words of the Hid den Language to transmogrify him into a deformed cockroach.
"I found him, my masters, I found him!" I heard Maffi shouting.
And suddenly Ascelin stood before me, his sword out and a grim expression on his face. Maffi hid behind him, peeking at me past his leg.
I dropped to the ground in surprise as Hugo stepped out of a side street. Both his and Ascelin's expressions changed at once, to relief tempered with exasperation. "There you are, Wizard!"
"Where are the others? Has Dominic been attacked?"
"Everyone's looking for you," said Hugo, "and no one has been attacked." That was a real relief. "Where have you been all day? Didn't you realize we'd be afraid that now our party too was going to start disappearing?"
I glanced behind me and saw no sign of Arnulf's agents. "I was kidnapped," I said, "thanks to that boy there."
"I told you I'd find him!" cried Maffi, still not coming out from behind Ascelin.
The prince sheathed his sword, reached down, and dragged him forward by the collar. "You didn't tell us you'd led the wizard into ambush," he said coldly.
"But I didn't!" the boy protested. It was his absence of fear or even respect that was perhaps the most irritating. "I led him to the Thieves' Market, just as he asked, to someone who had the ring he wanted to buy."
"He led me to Kaz-alrhun, who took the parchment I'd found in Dominic's father's ring," I said. "Don't tell me the boy then offered to help you find me."
"At least we didn't pay him yet," said Hugo.
"And you didn't pay me yet, either, Mage!" said Maffi, turning his bright eyes toward me.
Ascelin shook his head, lifted the boy off the ground, and tossed him away. Maffi landed in a heap but sprang up at once. "I'll be around if you want to hire me again!" he called and scampered off.
I sighed. "I'd been about to turn him into a cockroach, but it's too much effort."
"Since we're leaving Xantium tomorrow," said Ascelin, "we shouldn't have to see him again."
"The king and Dominic have been trying to get in to see the governor," said Hugo as we started walking through the narrow city streets, "and the chaplain's gone to talk to the bishop, but none of them thought they'd have much success. We were all going to meet back at the inn in a little while. Ascelin and I had been trying—without any luck—to get some sense out of the people in the Thieves' Market when Maffi found us."
I was touched that they had all been concerned for me. But if the king was having trouble getting to see the city's governor to tell him about the very real disappearance of a wizard, then there was no hope for the vague plan I had made on the way back to Xantium, of enlisting the governor's help to deal with what might be a political plot so vague I couldn't even explain it to myself. "We may—though probably not—now own the ebony horse. I'll tell you about it once I have something to eat."
VI
The sun-drenched road from Xantium to the Holy Land led southeast across a tawny landscape. I could see I would have to revise upwards my ideas of far, dry, and hot. Away to our left, we could see the trade route along which silk from the Far East came after a journey of thousands of miles to this end of the Central Sea, after being transferred to several or even dozens of different caravans.
Hugo pushed back the hood of his cloak to let the wind ruffle his hair. "It's good to be on the road again!" he said. "Once we find my father, let's keep on going, right across the desert, down to the jungles of the ultimate south, or else off to the far east where they eat nothing but spices!"
Whirlwind was nervous and restless after two days in the stables of the inn and two weeks before that on board ship. After trying unsuccessfully to hold his chestnut stallion in, Dominic finally said, "I'll be back!" and took off at a gallop.
Ascelin, being on foot, did not need to keep to the road. For the first mile he was almost as full of restless energy as the stallion, ranging ahead, climbing up on the rocks on either hand for a better look into the distance, stooping to examine an odd print. But then he came back to the pace the king had set with his mare and strode beside me.
"I'm wondering about something," I said to him, looking off toward the trade route. "Arnulf's agents suggested that an Ifrit had attacked a silk caravan east of Xantium, but Arnulf himself told us that it was specifically his caravans that were attacked. I would have thought they weren't his caravans until his agents in the city had bought the silk from whoever transported it from the east."
"I haven't believed anything Arnulf told us yet," said Ascelin.
"But the agents did confirm his story about a caravan's disappearance," I objected, "even if they did say it was only one caravan."
Before I could pursue this further, Hugo called out. "Wizard, come look! I think there's something very strange in here!"
He had stopped abruptly, looking back at the pack horse he was leading. I swung down from my mare and approached slowly, probing with magic. There was certainly something alive in one of the packs.
And I thought it was human. Ascelin and I carefully unbuckled the straps that held the tents, then abruptly let them drop to the ground. A startled cry came from within their folds. Ascelin poked at the canvas with his foot. It unrolled further, and a shaggy black head emerged.
"Greetings, my masters!" said Maffi, looking at us with shining eyes. "May God be praised, it is good to be out in the air again."
"I thought we'd seen the last of you," said Ascelin in disgust.
"I didn't have a chance to tell you when we met yesterday evening," said Maffi to me, ignoring the prince, "but I found the ring you wanted!"
"Liar," muttered Ascelin.
But I sa
id, "Wait," as he reached for the boy. "Maffi, are you trying to say that the ring Kaz-alrhun told me he wanted for his flying horse actually exists?"
"Of course it does," he said with a bright smile, putting his hand into his pocket. "And here it is!"
I took the ring from him slowly. It was an onyx in a plain gold setting. Most startling at all, carved into the stone in tiny but clear letters was the word "Yurt."
I probed it with magic. There was certainly some kind of spell attached to the onyx. It seemed virtually new, even its tiny crevices free of dust. I held the ring carefully on my palm and looked across it to Maffi.
"So did I do well, my masters? Will you reward me handsomely?"
"Tell me where you got this," I said evenly. All my previous assumptions were crumbling. It had seemed unlikely all along that the bandits who had stolen Claudia's package from us would sell it to someone who would bring it to the Thieves' Market in Xantium. It now seemed more unlikely than ever.
"I stole it from Kaz-alrhun last night," said Maffi with a grin.
"Kaz-alrhun told me he wanted a ring which in fact he already had," I replied, "and which, completely by coincidence, he had acquired through the thieves' network. And you stole it, after leading me to him so he could ship me out of the city. Is that what you're trying to tell me?"
Dominic came galloping back at this point, his stallion damp with sweat but not breathing particularly hard. He started to speak but stopped when he saw the boy. "Good," said Maffi, glancing up at him. "I was afraid you'd decided to leave one of your party behind in Xantium. That would not have been a good idea. Nice horse, by the way."
"You haven't answered my question," I persisted.
"You're from Yurt, aren't you? That's why I thought you'd want this ring. Give me something to drink, and I'll tell you the whole story."
While Ascelin gave him a waterskin, I probed the ring again. Because magic is a natural force, a spell is often hard to recognize unless it is actually in action. But the onyx seemed imbued, unexpectedly, with school magic. It was powerful magic, too, the work of a master wizard.