“I swear,” the queen continued, “that he is King Haimeric’s son, born to be king. You all have grown to know him well, and, I hope, to love him.” The queen, all in red, looked radiant. The golden circle of her crown glinted in her midnight hair. Most of the guests were looking toward Paul, but Vincent, I noticed, had his eyes fixed on her. “Do you all agree that he should be your king, to lead you in war, to lead you in peace, to lead you in wisdom and judgment?”
“We agree.” “We agree.” “We agree.” The murmur went quickly through the crowd. Only the priests said nothing. The Church was not under the authority of kings, and therefore could not agree or disagree to their coronations. I wasn’t sure of the official status of wizards here, but I certainly agreed that Paul should be king.
“Then come forward, Paul, to receive the crown of Yurt!”
He came slowly forward, pulling off his cap, and went down on one knee before his mother. The great royal crown of Yurt sat on a stand beside her. It was plain hammered gold except for the diamond set into the front.
The queen was speaking again, describing the duties of rule, but I had trouble concentrating on what she said. The disruption of the telephones, I thought, might all be a ruse, and whatever was going to attack us might not now be flying down from the north, but might instead already be here.
I knew that the gorgos who appeared at the old bishop’s funeral had not just flown south that morning, for it had already been seen earlier. In the intervening time it must have been in or near Caelrhon, under a powerful binding spell, waiting to be released. What might already be here in Yurt?
I started delicately probing for magic and was so surprised I almost cried out when I found it at once. There was another magic worker here, neither me nor Theodora. But then I realized it was only the old magician. I spotted him for the first time, standing with the Romneys, his squinting eyes almost the only part of his face visible behind his thick beard. He appeared a little less ragged than when I had seen him last; I guessed his jacket came from the Romneys. He looked in my direction as I looked in his, and, although I could not be sure at this distance, his look seemed venomous.
A spy for the renegade wizard, I thought with abrupt certainty. He had been sent here by his master to watch for the best moment to attack.
The queen had finished the formal recital of a king’s responsibilities. Paul gave the formal acceptance of those responsibilities, although in so low a voice it was hard to catch the words. The queen then lifted the heavy gold crown and placed it on her son’s head to the accompaniment of a flourish from the brass. “Rise then, King Paul, ruler of Yurt!”
He rose slowly, with a dignity appropriate for someone three times his age. He held both arms straight out for a moment, a silver sword in one hand and the royal scepter in another. Then he mounted his throne and turned to look toward all of us. “With the aid of God and with your counsel,” he said, in a voice clear but just a little higher than he might have wished, “I swear that I shall guard you, lead you, and rule you justly. Come forward, then, my people, to renew your allegiance to the crown of Yurt.”
For the next hour, the lords and knights of Yurt came forward one by one. Each knelt before the throne and recited the fairly long oath of allegiance to their king, holding up their clasped hands to Paul. When each had finished, he put his hands around theirs, drew them up, and kissed them on both cheeks. He then presented each with a small box tied with blue ribbons. The men received silver belt buckles, and the few women, such as the duchess, who ruled in their own right received silver brooches.
The servants had melted back into the castle at the beginning of this part of the ceremony. The rest of us who did not swear formal allegiance to the king of Yurt, that is the priests, the royal family of Caelrhon, and I, stood together at one side, watching. Although as the first of the lords came forward there was absolute stillness for the oaths, as the hour went by people started talking in low voices. Delicious smells began to waft out from the castle toward us.
When the last knight had given his oath, the constable brought out a portable altar, and all talking ceased. Joachim took his place behind the altar, the constable’s men passed out hymn books, and we all gave thanks to God and prayers for the health and long life of our king while the sun continued to climb in a cloudless sky-a sky still free of monsters.
At the end of the service, Paul again stepped forward. As though realizing only now that everything had gone smoothly and that he was indeed king of Yurt, he broke into his first smile of the day. “My people! I thank you again for all being here for my coming of age and coronation. I thank you for your allegiance and for your prayers. And now I would like to invite you all to the feast!”
There was applause as the guests moved toward the bridge and the castle. So far, I thought, so good. I just wondered how long our reprieve would last.
In the great hall, long trestle tables had been set up and spread with white linen cloths. I ended up at the high table, next to Paul’s Aunt Maria, as I had eaten so many meals in Yurt over the years. The queen’s parents faced me on the other side. Paul now sat at the head of the table, with the bishop in the seat of honor to his right, while the queen sat at the foot. The new king took off his heavy crown and set it beside his plate while the servants hurried up and down with the heaping platters. I spotted Theodora at a side table, surrounded by lords of manors and their ladies. Laughter drifted in from the courtyard, where Paul, in the spirit of hospitality, had insisted that the constable set up tables even for our unexpected guests, the Romneys.
Though there was no sign yet of trouble, I almost wished that whatever would happen would start at once, to break the tension. However, no one else appeared apprehensive. Joachim attentively followed the conversation at his end of the table, and Paul had gone from being solemn to being almost boisterous, making jokes, telling stories from his youth, and eating as if ravenous.
“It was so beautiful,” said the Lady Maria at my elbow, “that I’m not ashamed to tell you the tears ran down my cheeks.” I realized with a start that she had been speaking for several minutes.
The meal continued to progress in spite of my fears, with new courses, musical interludes from the brass choir, a display of tumbling by several of the Romneys, and happy conversation by everyone but me. After the trout, after the chicken, after the roast lamb, after the salads and custards and savory sausage and pies, when the servants had stopped bringing out new bottles of wine and the level of the ones on the table stopped receding about three-quarters of the way down, Paul stood up.
He waited a moment to give the conversation a chance to fade, then called for the cook to come forward. Pushed by her kitchen maids she came toward the head table, embarrassed, laughing, and highly pleased. Paul thanked her for the meal and kissed her to general applause. He then called on the constable to come receive congratulations for organizing everything so well, and issued a general thanks to all the staff.
“And now,” he continued as the applause died away, “I would like to announce what you have all been anticipating: this afternoon’s tournament. We will have horse races, jousting, mock battles, and trials of skill on horseback. To give you all time to prepare your horses and armor-and to digest this excellent dinner! — the tournament shall begin in three hours. Listen for the trumpet’s note that will announce its beginning.”
People slowly started rising from their chairs as general conversation started again. I, however, started at once for the drawbridge. If I kept my eyes on the sky, no dragon should appear without warning. I wondered if Zahlfast would come if I pleaded with him, or if it would be too late by the time he arrived. As I reached the doorway I spotted Theodora across the room, frowning in my direction, and nodded at her encouragingly.
But then I realized that all conversation throughout the great hall had abruptly ceased. All the lords and ladies stared toward me, even Paul and the queen. Their expressions were disconcerted, even worried.
They all knew
, then, I thought, feeling my ears go red. No chance now to slip away unobtrusively. Somehow word had gotten around the hall that a magical attack was planned for today, and yet the Royal Wizard did not know how to deal with it. When the floor refused to swallow me I bowed stiffly to the crowd, who now seemed to be looking past my shoulder, and backed toward the door.
The duchess broke the silence. She gave a great laugh and slapped the table before her. “Well, Wizard!” she called. “You’ve done some wonderful illusions for us in the past, but these are the best yet!”
I felt a prickling as all the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I whirled around and saw them, and knew what I had been expecting all day had begun at last. These were no illusion. Peering into the great hall from the courtyard were creatures like lizards, but far bigger than lizards and bright red. They crept on their bellies with the front halves of their bodies arched upwards, because instead of forefeet they had human hands.
IV
They saw me looking at them, and the one in the lead spread its red wings and began to hiss. I started desperately on a paralysis spell. It had been useless against the gorgos, but these were smaller creatures. After only two seconds, before I had the spell more than half assembled, they disappeared with a bright flash.
I darted out into the courtyard, gritting my teeth, and threw Theodora’s spell to reveal the invisible into the spot where they had been creeping.
They reappeared just as abruptly as they had disappeared, closer to me than I had expected. I backed away cautiously. Their clawed hands looked powerful enough to take me apart.
I put together the final words of the Hidden Language, and the creatures all froze. I hesitated, suspecting a trick, but they were as still as stone. I probed carefully and found them trapped within my paralysis spell as though frozen in ice. Wings, scales, claws, and eyes were still and silent. Without the will or ability to move, inside my paralysis spell they could do no more than breathe.
I passed my hand over my forehead. “That was too easy,” I thought. Laughter and clapping came from the great hall behind me, but I paid no attention. If a renegade wizard was planning a massive attack on Yurt, he should be able to do more than this. Might all this be an effort to lull me into a false sense of security while the real attack was prepared?
And then, abruptly, the Romney children were all around me. The oldest boy looked at me with admiration in his black eyes. “Did you make them? How do you make them move? Are they going to start moving again?” To my alarm, some of the younger children were now among the creatures, feeling their rough scales and tugging at their wings.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. “They’re paralyzed now, but I can’t guarantee they won’t wake up. Have a look at the claws.”
But my paralysis spell held. “I hadn’t realized you could do real magic as well as illusions!” the boy continued.
The Romney woman with the gold teeth hurried toward us. She started shooing the children away in what I thought justifiable concern. I reached into my pocket and found I still was carrying the gold earring I had picked up at the beginning of the summer. I held it out on my palm. “Does this belong to any of you?”
The younger Romneys, who had started moving across the drawbridge and toward the caravans, returned to cluster around me. One of the younger girls gave a squeal of delight. She flipped back black curls to show that the two earrings she was wearing were not a pair: one was a gold hoop, like the earring in my hand, but the other a simple silver stud.
I gave her back her earring to the approving shouts of the other children. Before they could all move off again, I took the older boy by the arm. “I didn’t make the lizards,” I told him. “I’ve only paralyzed them. Have you seen someone else do magic like this?” The renegade wizard, I thought, must be very close, but he was shielding his mind from me as effectively as ever.
“Of course not,” the boy said in surprise. “Thanks for the demonstration!”
The other children, led by the girl with the earring, were now running back toward the caravans. “Before you go,” I said to the Romney woman, “I want to tell you something.”
She turned good-natured black eyes on me. “Those were the earrings she got at her naming ceremony when she was four, and she’s been devastated since she lost the one.”
But I was not about to be distracted by earrings. “Do you remember you told me my fortune? You told me I would meet someone beautiful and mysterious and would fall deeply in love. I wanted to tell you that you were right.”
She gave a gratified smile before hurrying after the children. I turned back to the lizards.
At the moment they still seemed paralyzed, but a wizard with the powerful magic to summon them would be able to break my spell. I lifted them magically, one at a time, and carried them across the drawbridge and out onto the grass. Several lords and ladies clustered in the courtyard, watching. Opinion seemed divided on whether the lizards might be a threat or were merely part of the planned entertainment.
I had to call the school. If they could send the air cart, I might be able to ship the lizards to the City, out of the wizard’s range, and where teachers with more powerful magic than mine could put long-lasting binding spells on them. I pushed through the crowd, ignoring all questions, until I found Theodora.
“Watch them,” I said. “If they start to move, even the slightest twitch, call me at once. And try again to find that wizard.” She looked at me with amethyst eyes wide. “Yes, they must be the same creatures you’ve seen when you wear your ring.”
A moment later I was connected to the wizards’ school. A very young wizard, no more, I guessed, than a second-year student, appeared in the glass base of the telephone. “No, Zahlfast isn’t here. And the Master isn’t either. In fact,” in a frightened rush, “there’s no one here at all. All the teachers left.”
“They left?” I said incredulously.
“They left last night. I don’t know where they went, but they seemed very worried. All they told us was to keep reviewing our lessons and working on our spells until they came back.”
“Well, if they get back soon, have Zahlfast call me,” I mumbled.
This was terrible. What could possibly have caused all the teachers to leave the school? All I could think was that the wizard had a much larger and better coordinated plan in place for today than I could possibly have imagined. I would certainly receive no help from the school, nor was I in any position to help them.
My heart pounding, I ran back outside. There was no change yet in the lizards. Theodora gave me what was probably meant to be a smile of encouragement. My own answering smile wasn’t any better.
“How did they get here?” she asked quietly.
“I wish I knew. The wizard must have brought them, but I can’t find him. He may even be lurking in the castle, invisible.” I slapped a fist into the other hand in frustration. “How could a renegade wizard be so good at magic? I’ve been trying to find him since I first heard of the problems the cathedral was having, way back in the spring, but he’s been hiding from me as effectively as if he didn’t even exist!”
“I’ll look for him,” said Theodora. “If I put on my ring of invisibility, I should be able to see what is concealed.”
“And send that old magician out here too,” I said. “He probably trusts you, since you taught him fire magic. Just don’t mention that I’m going to take him apart if I find out he’s been spying on me for the wizard.”
As she hurried away, I decided that as long as I was effectively trapped here with the lizards, I ought to talk to Vincent. “Paul!” I called, seeing him standing with some of the knights, and motioned him toward me with a jerk of my head.
Then I remembered. All summer I had been trying to remind myself that he would shortly be king and that I should treat him accordingly. Now that he was king I was back to treating him like a boy.
He came over, not seeming to mind my inappropriate summons and flushed with high excitement. He
still wore his blue and white velvet.
“Excuse me, sire,” I said, trying to speak formally to make up for my lapse. A very quick smile crossed his face; I had never called him “sire” before. “The wizard who attacked the cathedral sent these giant lizards. I’ve been able to paralyze them, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to maintain the spell if he tries to free them.”
“We could use them as targets in the tournament,” Paul suggested.
It was an appealing idea, but I didn’t like the thought of the lizards coming suddenly back to life directly under a horse’s hooves-maybe the hooves of the king’s horse.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to Prince Vincent,” I went on. “Do you know if Lucas has been able to find out anything from his brother?”
“Not that he’s told me.”
“Could you find Vincent and ask him to come here? If he is working with a renegade magic-worker, he may be planning far worse.”
“Vincent himself told us that wizards have ways to make someone reveal all their secrets!” said the king with a grin. “I’ll get him. And I have faith in you to stop whatever’s coming.”
I didn’t remind him that the gorgos had very nearly killed me, and I had only been able to overcome it with a spell that was not supposed to work.
Vincent came out of the castle a few minutes later, already dressed in the padded linen shirt and trousers he would wear under his armor. Even without his finery, he walked with the grace and assurance of a prince-or, I thought, of a man who planned very soon to be king.
He poked a finger into the side of a motionless lizard. “Monsters don’t stand much of a chance with you, do they, Wizard! I still remember how you knocked my sword out of my hand when I tried to tease you. I could have warned these creatures to stay away. Where did they come from, anyway?”
But I was not to be distracted. “I think you know more, Vincent,” I replied sternly, “than you’ve cared to say about them.”
The Witch, the Cathedral woy-4 Page 28