C. Dale Brittain_Wizard of Yurt 04

by The Witch;the Cathedral

  In the field below the castle's hill the first event began, a horse race. I noted that Paul had had the good taste not to participate; Bonfire could easily have outrun any horse there.

  "I've just talked to Prince Vincent. I'd believed all summer that he and a renegade wizard were planning a joint attack, but I realize now that this belief wasn't the product of wizardly insights, only of jealousy. Everything I saw as signs of a despicable plot—the way he and the queen behaved toward each other, the fact that Yurt and Caelrhon were once one kingdom, even Vincent's gift of a stallion to Paul—had a simpler and more innocent explanation. All my suspicions were so incomprehensible to Vincent that he decided I must in fact fear he would turn the young king against me. He forgave me. But while I've been wasting my time worrying about an attack on the queen and on Paul, the wizard may be doing something horrible down in the City."

  I told him about the mass exodus of the teachers from the school. Joachim nodded slowly. "But these lizards show he's not ignoring Yurt," he said. "He may be attacking on two fronts."

  The wind cut silver paths through the long grass on the castle's hill and the fields below. The area of the tournament was already becoming trampled and muddy.

  "But where is he?" I burst out. "Is this all? If he's here, what will he do next?"

  The knights in the tournament lists were now preparing for the tests of skill; mounted men would gallop at top speed toward a ring dangling from a thread and try to thrust their lances through it.

  "Theodora's looking for him," I added, then stopped, realizing that I couldn't tell him more without revealing that she was a witch.

  "I was glad to have a chance to talk to her yesterday while we were riding," said Joachim. "At first she seemed shy of me, almost awe-struck. I had hoped that if I became bishop I could make people realize that bishops are not like princes, men of authority and command. Rather, we are shepherds, sinners ourselves but chosen by God to help and guide other sinners. But I've been bishop for over a week, and I'm still being treated as a lord of men."

  This was much too complicated to try to explain to him now. Shouts from the base of the hill showed that one of the riders was doing very well; it appeared to be Vincent.

  "Theodora reminds me somewhat of you," Joachim continued, "especially you twenty years ago, when I first knew you. You both have the same sense of humor, where it's often difficult to tell if you're making a joke or not." Normally I would have been afire with curiosity to know if they had talked about me, and what they had said, but now I was too worried to care.

  "What's my priest doing?" said Joachim in quite a different tone. I looked down toward some of the spectators milling around at the edge of the lists. The young priest who had come with the bishop was in the middle of a crowd of Romneys. I didn't know what it looked like to Joachim, but to me it looked like he was placing a bet.

  "Maybe I should go down there for a little while anyway," said the bishop. "I cannot approve of battles, even mock battles, but I do not want to appear to be avoiding the festivities deliberately." He brushed himself off and walked quickly down the hill.

  I watched him go, feeling increasingly uneasy about Theodora. But then I saw a dark lilac dress approaching rapidly from the direction of the deserted Romney caravans. At the same time a servant in Yurt's blue and white livery shot out of the castle and over the bridge. He was running and reached me before she did.

  "Come right away!" he cried. "It's a telephone call from—from someone named Zahlfast! He said he must talk to you at once, about the safety of the wizards' school!"

  "Theodora!" I shouted to her, jumping up. "Stay here and watch these lizards!"

  "Wait! I have to tell you—"

  "Tell me when I get back." I flew straight up and over the castle wall, the quicker to reach the telephone.

  PART NINE - RENEGADE

  I

  Zahlfast's face looked as haggard as I had ever seen it, and he breathed hard. He stared at me blindly; he must be calling from a telephone without a far-seeing attachment.

  "Thank you," he said. "I wanted to tell you we got the warning in time."

  "What warning?" I appreciated the thanks but I had no idea what he was talking about.

  "When I got back to the school from dinner last evening, the young wizard relayed your message that the phone in the watch-station up in the borderlands was broken. That fool hadn't told us, of course," meaning good old Book-Leech. "Instead he thought he'd try to fix it himself, though he's not competent to do so."

  Zahlfast paused, then continued in something closer to his normal school-teacher tone. "Maybe we should make a series of courses in technical magic a required part of the curriculum, rather than an elective option. Because I've never found that kind of magic congenial myself, I'm afraid I haven't pushed for it, but in modern times all young wizards really should know modern magic."

  "But what's happened?" I demanded. "Where are you?"

  "I'm not sure. We're in the royal castle of—" Someone behind him provided a name. "I think we're about a thousand miles north of the City."

  "You and all the teachers?"

  "Just three of us are here; the rest are spread out over hundreds of miles. It didn't take us long, once we'd heard that something was wrong with the phone at the watch-station, to guess that the weak attempt of a very small dragon to fly south was a feint and that something much worse would soon follow. So we tried to telephone to the watch-station at once—and got through. We could always phone him, which was why we hadn't realized there was a problem."

  Zahlfast wiped the sweat off his brow. I almost danced with impatience. "As I'm sure you already guessed," he went on, "a whole horde of dragons had just flown up over the mountains and started south. Maybe a hundred of them."

  I froze in horror. This was even worse than I expected. "Were they heading for Yurt?"

  "No. They were heading for the City."

  "And that's why all the teachers went."

  "The dragons scattered when they met us," Zahlfast continued. "One did come close to Yurt—it was finally killed a quarter mile from the cathedral city of Caelrhon."

  Then those waiting to protect Joachim's cathedral from danger had seen something worth waiting for. I paused. "All of you overcame them all, I assume?"

  "Well, yes," said Zahlfast, with a flicker of a smile. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be talking to you. Thank you again."

  "Wait, before you hang up! I have to ask you something. This spring when I left the school, you gave me a warning. You said that priests hated and feared the wizards and sought to destroy them. I know we've never gotten along well with the Church, but this was different. You were trying to keep me out of the affairs of the cathedral of Caelrhon. You have to tell me: had Sengrim, the royal wizard of Caelrhon, given you that warning before he died?"

  "Yes, he did," said Zahlfast in surprise.

  "He must have had an apprentice," I said grimly, "someone none of us even knew existed. Find him. He might be here in Yurt, or he could be anywhere. He's the one who disabled the telephone, and he's the one who summoned the dragons."

  For one of the few times since I'd known him, Zahlfast looked shocked. I hung up and ran back outside. Even if the hundred dragons had not been successful in destroying Yurt or the school—or both—they had effectively kept me from having any help here from another wizard for at least another day.

  Theodora waited by the motionless lizards. I had grown to despise the sight of them. "Come on," I said. "I'm going down to the tournament grounds to make an announcement. Thank God, the worst that I'd feared is not going to happen."

  "Daimbert, listen to me," she said desperately.

  "Tell me in a minute. The bishop and Paul and probably a lot of the others know I've been expecting an attack of dragons or worse, and I have to reassure them it won't happen."

  The knights had now finished riding at the ring and had begun the jousts, the heart of the tournament. One joust had just ended; neither rider had been unhors
ed, and they were waiting for the judges' decision. The queen came up to me with a rather quizzical smile as we reached the lists. "Vincent's been telling me about a very odd conversation the two of you had," she began.

  But I couldn't take time to listen to her right now any more than I could listen to Theodora. "I have an announcement!" I called, then realized no one could hear me. There was a spell to amplify one's voice; it took me a moment to find and apply it. "I have an announcement!" I tried again.

  This time my voice boomed out gratifyingly loudly. The queen and Theodora, who had been standing on either side of me, both took a quick step back. The riders readying themselves for the next jousts had trouble reining in their startled horses.

  "I've just been talking to the wizards' school," I said to a rapt audience, "and I wanted to tell you all that an attack on Yurt has just been averted!" It was in fact an attack on the school instead, but I didn't have time to go into detail. "A hundred dragons were summoned from the land of magic by an evil wizard. But the masters of the school were able to overcome them all."

  There was a rapid buzz of conversation at this unexpected announcement. The bishop looked as though he had known all along that I was an excellent wizard. The riders, including Paul on his red stallion, had their mounts under control again. The young king settled his plumed helmet over his head.

  "Daimbert, you must listen!" Theodora tried again. I turned toward her. "I've found the wizard. He's right here. He's been hiding from both of us."

  The pit of my stomach felt as though it had turned to ice. I grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her toward me. "Where? Where is he?"

  "We should have known!" she cried in despair. "The old magician, the man we never worried about. He's the wizard in disguise!"

  He had been hiding right under my nose. And I had just told him, as well as everybody else, that his most elaborate plot had failed.

  "But where—" I needn't have asked. There was a crack and a flash like lightning, a burst of blue smoke, and he appeared directly before me.

  The wizard's disguise of ragged robes and heavy eyebrows were gone. His white beard whipped in the wind from his spell. And I recognized him now, the renegade who had eluded me for months. It was Sengrim, the wizard everyone had thought was dead.

  Theodora and the queen retreated rapidly in opposite directions. Behind the wizard I could see several horses rearing straight up at the smoke and lightning. For a second even Sengrim was unimportant. Paul's stallion had reared higher than any other horse and was going over backwards. But before I could seize him with a lifting spell, Prince Vincent had leaped forward to grab the dangling reins. With a sharp tug at the head, he steadied the stallion enough that Bonfire was able to find his balance and come back down safely. The king kicked his feet free of the stirrups and sprang off, and he and Vincent gave each other triumphant slaps on the back.

  I swung my attention back to the wizard before me. "So you think you and your school are safe now, Daimbert," said Sengrim in cold fury. "But my magic is much stronger than yours!"

  Behind me, I heard a strange hissing and honking sound. My head jerked around, and I saw that the red lizards, which I had been busily watching for hours, were now free of the paralysis spell and had started toward us.

  Everyone in the lists seemed as paralyzed as the lizards had been a second ago, and for one horrible moment I thought the spell had been transferred to them. But they were not held prisoner by a spell, only by shock. They stared in horror from the lizards to the commanding figure before them.

  And one person was moving, Paul. He had his sword out, the only real sword in the tournament. He very slowly advanced toward the wizard from behind.

  I didn't dare motion toward him. All I could do was to give him a quick stare that I hoped was a warning—if he could even see it through his visor.

  "You're so sure of yourself that you even tried to patronize me when we met in Caelrhon," the wizard said grimly.

  "But I thought you were just an old magician!" I protested. If I could keep him talking for a few more minutes, I thought, desperately trying to put a spell together, I might have a chance.

  "Can you cast a spell like this?" cried Sengrim. Where he had been standing there was suddenly not a wizard but a pillar of fire, twenty feet high. Enormous eyes glared down from the top, and an enormous laugh rang out from the flames. Paul had the sense to back up rapidly.

  Sweet Jesus, he was good. I had never seen anything like this.

  A tongue of flame licked toward the wooden stands where the spectators were sitting, and in two seconds they were ablaze. The paralysis broke as people screamed and struggled, trying to get out.

  I abandoned the spell I had been working on and grabbed at what I could remember of Theodora's fire magic. The only calm person in the crowd seemed to be Gwennie, directing people down the steps away from the fire. In a moment I was able to reduce the level of the flames enough that everyone was able to get out of the stands, beating at their burning clothes.

  They tried to run, but they could not run far. Sengrim had set up an invisible barrier around the lists, as strong as the nixie's, against which they shoved helplessly. The lizards were within that barrier and drawing dangerously close to the crowd. And then another tongue of flame came toward me and surrounded me. Protected from the blaze after two scorching seconds by Theodora's magic, I advanced toward the pillar of fire, one arm held out.

  "Stop!" I cried out, in a voice amplified by magic. "We both learned wizardry at the school, and we're both sworn to help humanity!"

  The pillar of fire seemed momentarily to contract, and I hoped for an instant that he was listening to me. But then I realized he was not reacting to what I had said. He was under attack by Theodora.

  With another blinding flash of light, the pillar of fire was gone and the wizard was back. I realized that Theodora must have helped me put out the fire in the stands. In the five desperate seconds of breathing room which her magic gave me, I managed to cast a new paralysis spell toward the lizards. This time it held.

  "So you think you've got a witch to help you," the wizard said with bitter scorn, not even bothering to break my new spell. He waved out the last of the flames with one hand. Clearly fire magic had possibilities I had not yet explored. "No woman can know real magic. Just one more sign of your true debility, Daimbert!"

  "But what are you talking about?" I demanded. "What can you have against me?" Again, I had to keep him talking while I tried to put a complicated spell together. Figuring out what had happened, why he was even alive, would have to wait.

  Almost everyone had pressed themselves against the invisible barrier, as far from the wizard as they could go, except for the queen and Theodora, who stayed rooted where they had been when the wizard first appeared, and Paul, who again began a stealthy approach from the rear.

  "Brute force is no more useful against me than magic!" cried the wizard. "I know you're back there, knight!" He whirled and started firing knives toward Paul, real knives, no illusion, powered by magic. They clattered off his armor, sending him staggering back.

  I gave up any hope of trapping Sengrim with a binding spell, or even of being able to oppose his spells individually. I briefly considered summoning him, regardless of whether summoning was the greatest wizardly sin, but then I would only have his deranged mind even closer to mine.

  My only hope was to build around him a magic structure that would make it impossible for him to practice any magic within it. I had told Joachim, what seemed years ago, that I might have to put such a spell on their cathedral. At the time, I had had no idea how to do so; now, after spending the last week with my books, I might.

  That is, if I even had a chance to finish assembling the spell. With Paul out of the way, the wizard turned his magic knives on me. The barrage went on for ten seconds, and I jettisoned my growing spell to repel them.

  "Answer me!" I cried when the knives stopped coming. "I had nothing against you! Why are you so set against m
e?" I snatched up the remnants of the spell I had started building before it faded away completely.

  "They always preferred you down at the school," the wizard said bitterly. This was better. I could listen to him and work on my spell at the same time. But Paul was starting again what I feared was a suicidal advance.

  "They made you, you, wizard of Yurt nineteen years ago," he cried, "even though you'd barely been able to graduate, even though as wizard of Caelrhon I deserved to be transferred to the more senior kingdom and had already applied! And this spring they invited you, you, with your inferior magic, to the school to teach, something they've never offered me!"

  I'd never known a wizard who lost his mind before. Normally I would have been interested in observing the symptoms.

  "Even when you abandoned the principles of wizardry by making friends in the Church, the school refused to believe the worst about you!"

  I almost had my spell together. If I could keep him talking just a few more seconds, if Paul would only stay back, if the spell even worked—

  He didn't give me a chance to find out. "And you can't even begin to match spells with me!" he cried. "Can you do this?"

  He held both arms straight out, and lightning flashed from each hand. Thirty feet on either side of him, crevices in the earth opened up, opened directly beneath the queen and Theodora.

  I had no time to think, only time to react. I couldn't possibly save them both. I grabbed the queen with magic and tossed her to safety.

  As I flew toward the crack where Theodora had vanished, the pillar of fire reappeared, swirling with diabolical laughter. But as I dropped down the crevice I finished my spell and hurled it at him.

  The crevice was some twenty feet deep. Theodora lay limp at the bottom. I snatched her up and flew out as the ground shifted with a roar and the crack slammed back shut.