“Elerius was very concerned to hear you were missing,” Zahlfast continued. “He was distressed when he thought he might have been the last person to see you alive. You know he always speaks well of you, especially of your improvisational abilities.”
If Elerius had actually said that, I was sure he meant it as an insult—good old Daimbert doesn’t understand magic very well, but he can usually improvise his way out of the scrapes he gets himself into, bless his heart.
Except that Elerius would not bless my heart.
And if Elerius had been the wizard who captured me, then claiming to be concerned about me and searching for the “true perpetrator” would be an excellent way to divert suspicion.
“Marcus isn’t a wizard,” I tried again. “But someone with powerful magical abilities wants to make sure I don’t meet him and is willing to do a great deal to be sure that doesn’t happen. So I do need to find him, right away.”
“I think it would be best, Daimbert,” said the Master, “if you stayed close to the school for a while. Let others look for whoever captured you and, if you like, for this Marcus. If that priest comes back again, you could always go to lunch somewhere close by with him—of course we couldn’t have him here—but you’ll want another wizard to accompany you. Isn’t he the priest who was in your party on the trip to the East? Now, I’ve been waiting to hear all about that trip!”
So I ended up talking for the next two hours about the East and about what I had learned of Ifriti. “The spells the mages use there aren’t our school spells,” I concluded, “but they’re related. I think here we’ve made magic into a science,” the Master smiled and nodded, as he, after all, had been the founder of the school and its methods, “but for the mages, magic is more of an art.”
“Elerius has been saying we may need to broaden the curriculum to include other branches of magic,” commented Zahlfast.
It really didn’t look as though I was going to get away from Elerius.
“We’re fairly close to having all the Royal Wizards in the West school-trained,” said the Master, with a touch of justifiable pride. “Once that happens, we may want to start inviting some of those eastern mages to come here too, both to learn a more organized and rational method and to offer any insights of their own they may have.”
My own magic had never been especially organized and rational, but maybe that was just me.
The Master rose. “It was very interesting and worthwhile to learn about your adventures in the East,” he said. “I may have some more questions for you over the next few days.”
“But I’d thought I’d be going home to Yurt tomorrow,” I said, remembering my shopping list and wondering what had happened to the package of lace.
“We think you’re safer here,” said Zahlfast. “You’d be all alone in that little kingdom of yours.”
I appreciated their concern, but I personally thought I would be safer away from the City—and from Elerius.
But if I was going to have to stay here, then I was going to spend the time trying to find Marcus. He must be the key to the problem. “Well,” I said brightly, “then I might as well take advantage of being in the City with a few more good restaurant meals. I’d like to go back to where Titus took me the other night.”
“Titus may not be free to accompany you,” said the Master thoughtfully. “But you do need another wizard, for protection.”
“Not Elerius,” I said quickly.
“We were not going to suggest him,” he replied mildly, lifting a shaggy eyebrow.
In the end, it turned out that all of the senior wizards had classes, appointments, and other responsibilities for the afternoon. So when I set out at last, it was with a recent graduate, a young wizard who was staying on at the school as an assistant.
“You’re Daimbert,” he said, with the first sign of awe anyone had showed toward me in a very long time. “We read in class about how you invented the far-seeing telephone.”
“Just keep your eyes open,” I told him, “but leave the spells to me.” This was, I thought, deeply humiliating. Who had kept his king safe all through the East and managed to escape from an Ifrit? Certainly not someone who needed a callow young wizard to guard him.
V
We were only a block from the school, starting down the steep hill toward the restaurant, when I spotted a tall, dark-robed figure heading toward us.
“Joachim!” I lifted from the cobblestones and flew to meet him. We took each other by both hands, and his smile, one of the best smiles I had ever seen on him, would have made me hug him if it wouldn’t have scandalized the young assistant wizard.
“Thank God you are safe,” he said. “I heard you were tied up to drown in a cave?”
“Not quite, close enough,” I answered, grinning myself. “But as you see, I didn’t drown.”
“I was hoping to see you before I started back to Caelrhon. I believe I have gathered all the information I need for now on cathedral architects and masons, but I did not want to leave town without assurance that you really were all right.”
“Then let’s have that lunch we didn’t have yesterday. I’ll pay!”
It took the young wizard just one glance at the prices posted on the menu outside to decide he wasn’t very hungry. “I can pay for you too,” I offered without enthusiasm, but was happy to accept his offer to stay out in the street and watch the door.
The restaurant was nearly as busy at lunch as it had been for dinner the other day, but we managed a window table where I could look out at the young wizard pacing up and down. He looked both bored and irritated, which would have been my reaction as well.
I looked for but did not see the waitress with the curly red hair who had thought I was Marcus. When another waitress, an older woman who gave no sign of recognition, came to take our order, I asked after her.
“It’s her day off,” she said with complete indifference. “Now, did you want to start with mussels or the chowder? I always like the chowder myself.”
I could try to find out where she lived—the place which Marcus should have remembered, even after a year—but she thought Marcus had not been in the City recently, so it was, I thought, unlikely that I could find him through her. Instead I would enjoy spending some time with Joachim.
While our bowls of chowder were being brought and wine uncorked we kept the conversation light. “Alais and Yan are doing well,” he said, referring to a couple I knew who now lived in Caelrhon. “I baptized their third child this spring.”
But when no one seemed in easy earshot, I told Joachim about the mysterious Marcus, and how my efforts to find him in a disreputable part of town had led to my being paralyzed and left all day concealed in a sea-cave, though fortunately above the tideline.
“This is the danger of magic,” he said gravely. “You wizards have enormous power but none of religion’s morality.”
I thought of several answers I might have made and let them all pass. The problem with having a priest for a friend was that we had had some version of this discussion dozens of times, and I was never going to change his mind.
“But I was also saved by a wizard,” I replied. “And the one who paralyzed me could have killed me, but he didn’t. We school-trained wizard are bound by powerful oaths not to harm.”
“As long as terrifying someone into thinking he’s about to die is not seen as ‘harm,’” he commented. It was probably meant as a joke.
“I just wish I could find this Marcus,” I said, ignoring the joke. “But if he was here, it may have been only very briefly.”
There was a short pause while the waitress brought our sole, then Joachim said, “Do you think there is a renegade wizard here in the City? One who is not school-trained and oath-bound?”
“Elerius was looking for such a renegade.”
Joachim knew who Elerius was. “Yesterday the chancellor told me that a wizard he did not recognize had come to the cathedral office. He was asking for the bishop. Apparently the chancellor sen
t him away with a sharp word. I am sorry, Daimbert, but the cathedral here is barely able to tolerate the school wizards they have come to know, and will not have dealings with strange wizards at all. Could this have been the renegade who captured you?”
“Elerius said he couldn’t find him, that if a renegade had ever been in the City, then he was gone again. But in fact—”
I stopped, almost choking on a bite of vegetable. Outside the window was Elerius himself.
He stood talking for a moment to the young assistant wizard, who then turned and started back up the hill, quickly vanishing into the crowd. Elerius swung open the restaurant door and came in with the assurance of coming into his own chamber. He spotted me at once, snagged an empty chair from a nearby table, and sat down with us.
The waitress came hurrying over, with a friendly smile such as she had not given me. “No, I don’t need a menu,” said Elerius easily. “I’ll just have a bowl of your delicious chowder.”
He lifted his eyebrows at Joachim, who gave him a long look, then said, “I believe we met once. I am Father Joachim, a cathedral canon in Caelrhon, but I used to be the Royal Chaplain of Yurt.” He held out a hand, and Elerius shook it almost automatically. For a second even he seemed overawed by the intensity of Joachim’s deep-set eyes.
I found my voice. “So, have you come to tell me of your progress finding the renegade wizard?” Although I was fairly sure there was no such “renegade,” I was not going to give him the satisfaction of insisting there was.
“Here’s your chowder, sir,” said the waitress, again with a very friendly smile. Elerius seemed able to charm people effortlessly, I thought to myself as the waitress bustled away again, a skill I only managed if they imagined I was somebody else.
“I think the renegade must have realized I was after him and fled,” said Elerius, regaining his composure. He tucked into his soup with evident enjoyment. “Oh, by the way,” looking at me with calculating tawny eyes, “I think I found the man you referred to as ‘Marcus,’ the one who looks like you.”
I was getting too many shocks to enjoy my lunch properly. I forced myself to put more sole on my fork. “Oh?” I said, determinedly looking at my plate.
“As soon as you’re done, I’ll take you to him,” said Elerius. “I sent that young wizard back to the school—no use two of us following you around, especially as I know you could protect yourself now that you’re on guard, using your special talents.”
“Where is this Marcus?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady and unconcerned, still not looking up. Only Elerius could make a sentence whose words were a compliment sound like such an insult.
“You’ll see when we get there.” He dropped his voice and glanced from side to side as though in apprehension. I was not fooled. “No telling who might be listening in a place like this.”
“I hope it is not far,” said Joachim mildly. He appeared to be enjoying his sole. “I cannot fly the way you wizards can, and I will be accompanying Daimbert.”
Elerius was momentarily thrown off-stride, but he covered it well. “Oh, that won’t be necessary. I doubt that prayers would do much to protect Daimbert from renegade magic. You can trust me to make sure no harm comes to him.”
“I am afraid I cannot give you that trust,” said Joachim, sounding regretful. “You see, I am a priest, and we are taught in seminary to distrust all magic-workers. Daimbert and I have become friends over the years, but it would be too much to expect me to trust two wizards. And I have been hearing from Daimbert about Marcus. I wish to meet him as well.”
“Oh, well, in that case….” Elerius muttered, momentarily without a good answer. Probably planning to drop Joachim off somewhere, I thought. Like in the sea-caves.
“Thank you,” I murmured to Joachim, then, “We can’t leave here without dessert,” I added brightly. “I was too full the other night, but I hear the blueberry tart is excellent.”
My mind raced while the waitress brought three servings of blueberry tart. Unfortunately my mind did not come up with any good ideas for all its racing. About its best insight was that, given how much dessert cost, it was too bad that I found I could not taste it at all.
When we had finished—Joachim appeared to find the tart delicious, though it was harder to tell with Elerius—the friendly waitress handed Elerius the bill for all three of us.
“Why, thank you!” I said with my best smile. “You didn’t have to treat us, Elerius! But we do appreciate it.”
He shot me a dark look but said nothing as he took out his money. I felt inordinately pleased with this small triumph—which was not going to help at all if he planned to immobilize me somewhere again.
But he was fully in control when we went out into the street. “We’re just going back to the school,” he said. “I trust even a priest can walk that far.”
Change of plans? I wondered. Working his nefarious plots right under the noses of the masters would be too bold, even for him.
Unless I was completely mistaken about him. After all, I had been mistaken before about a remarkable number of things.
We went in a side door of the school and down a corridor that seemed unfamiliar. Whatever Joachim’s earlier qualms about entering the West’s center for institutionalized magic, he gave no sign of concern. Elerius paused at a narrow, unmarked door and took out a key.
“Marcus, it turns out, is from the northern borderlands, near the land of wild magic,” he said, just a tiny bit too loudly. Covering a lie, I thought. “He said he would be happy to help the school identify some of the magical creatures that have been collected over the years and kept in the cellars, without anyone knowing exactly what they were. He’s down there now.” He unlocked the door, revealing a flight of stairs lit dimly by a lamp part way down.
“Since when, ” I asked slowly, “have you become the master of magical creatures?”
“Oh, he’ll be working with Titus,” said Elerius briskly. “I was just happy, when you mentioned seeing this man, that finding him for you turned out to be more than satisfying my curiosity. He’ll be a real help to the school. Why don’t you head on down?”
Joachim turned his enormous dark eyes on Elerius. “I regret as much as anyone the distrust between wizardry and the church which has grown up over the centuries. But I must insist that you go down first.”
Good! I gave Joachim a quick grin, but I wasn’t sure he caught it. Elerius, appearing unconcerned, immediately started down the dark stairs. After only the briefest hesitation, I followed, Joachim at my shoulder.
The cellars under the school were always disconcerting, long, white-painted corridors, giving the impression of stretching out much further than the size of the school itself above them. Cross-corridors came at regular intervals, lit by magic lamps, all looking exactly the same.
Elerius unhesitating turned left, then right, then right again. “Wait,” I said suddenly. “Marcus can’t be working with Titus. Titus hates these cellars.”
“Exactly,” said Elerius, so smoothly that he must have had his answer all ready. “Because Titus has an irrational fear of enclosed spaces, he has arranged for other people to help him. Marcus is just one of them.
“Now, I believe he was going to be looking at this creature first,” he continued, stopping before a door that was indistinguishable from all the others. “The old master of magical creatures was never sure what it was. Now if they had followed my suggestion and hired someone with more experience to replace him….”
There was a magic lock glowing on the door, but when Elerius slapped it with his palm it opened, slowly and with a faint creak of the hinges.
The room inside was unlit and silent. Joachim, who had not said anything since we came down the stairs, stepped back with a nod to Elerius. The latter shrugged, unconcerned, and went right in.
“Marcus?” he said in the darkness. “Why did you put out the light?”
Joachim and I followed cautiously. A quick magical probe revealed no other mind here.
/> “Elerius,” I started to say in warning, but it was too late. The door slammed shut behind us, and everything was black.
It only took a second to light up the moon and stars on my belt buckle. They cast a faint glow, showing a room completely empty.
“I know this is the room where we had the creature,” said Elerius, in a tone of irritation that did not ring completely true. “Could he have moved it elsewhere? Well, let’s see if we can find him.” In two strides he was at the door, feeling for the handle. “This is odd. The door appears to be locked.”
“You just locked it yourself,” said Joachim.
“No, no!” Elerius protested. The door was indeed faintly glowing with the presence of a magic lock. But when he put his hand on it and muttered a spell, nothing happened. “Someone else must be down here in the cellars, and he’s locked us in!”
None of us said anything for a moment. Then Elerius fumbled in his pocket and drew out a glass orb—a float from a fishing net. “I picked this up on the beach yesterday when we were all looking for you,” he said and attached a spell of light to it. It wasn’t very bright, but it was better than my belt buckle. “I’d hoped it might be a clue to the renegade magician. It wasn’t, but it’s lucky I still had it.”
I did not believe a word of it. I went to the door myself and tried a few spells of my own. The door did indeed seem thoroughly locked, and the impression of my own palm had no effect.
“The Master might be able to break a magic lock,” said Elerius, sounding worried. “I don’t know of another wizard who could. We’ll have to wait until Titus comes down to check on his assistant’s progress.”
Except that Titus would not be coming down into the cellars. He would not save me this time.
VI
Above us, I knew, were the towers of the wizards’ school, thousands of tons of masonry. They seemed to weigh down the very air as I wondered how many hours—or days—we might have to wait for rescue.
Below the Wizards' Tower (The Royal Wizard of Yurt Book 8) Page 4