Below the Wizards' Tower (The Royal Wizard of Yurt Book 8) (15 page)

“I know
what
you
did, even if I’m still not entirely sure
why
you did it,” I continued
inexorably.
 
“You observed Marcus
here in the City and recognized how much he looks like me.
 
You paid him quite handsomely to bleach
his beard and claim to be me.
 
You
tested him out by sending him around to the cathedral here, where even priests
used to seeing wizards every day did indeed take him for a wizard.
 
Knowing then that you could use him
while keeping your
own
hands clean, you flew him in
the air cart up to Caelrhon to insult the priests of the cathedral there.”

He shook his head, a faint smile on
his lips.
 
I pushed on.

“This of course was to help Sengrim,
who has disliked me since the day I first
arrived
 
in
Yurt, and whose dislike has
now progressed to hatred.
 
Knowing
I’m
good friends
with one of the cathedral priests of
Caelrhon, he set out to make the priests hate me as much as he did.
 
His plan came close to succeeding, too.”

“So you think that the wizard of the
neighboring kingdom to Yurt is conspiring against you,” commented Elerius,
still with half a smile.
 
“But I
don’t see where I come into this.”

“You had to be sure that
I
not appear in Caelrhon or talk on the phone with any of the priests while all
this was going on, though you slipped up in not realizing immediately that
Father Joachim was here in the City.
 
So when you learned that I was looking for Marcus, you paralyzed me and
left me hidden in a sea-cave for the day.”

“I would have thought you’d have
recognized me—if it were indeed I,” he said lightly.
 
“Your imaginative story still has a few
gaps.”

“It was simple enough to hide your
identity with illusion,” I continued, “using the same disguise you’d already
used when negotiating with Marcus.
 
In fact, you’ve become quite adept at disguises.
 
Just last night, you made yourself
appear to be one of the members of the technical magic faculty.
 
When I was freed from the cave after
only one day, rather than the two of your plan, you had to lock me up
again.
 
It was quick thinking on your
part to get yourself ‘trapped’ with Joachim and me in the school cellars, but
unfortunately for you the Master freed us almost immediately.”

“This is better than a story!” said
Elerius.
 
“Do you entertain your
court on long winter nights with exciting tales of renegade wizards?
 
But you really need to work a bit on the
plot.
 
So far this mostly revolves
around the wicked wizard you’ve named after me, whereas you announced that the
character of Sengrim would play a major role.
 
He’s Royal Wizard of Caelrhon, so you’d
think there would be some connection with griffins in that city.”

“There
is
a
connection.
 
He wanted to prove his
abilities both to his own king and to the churchmen of Caelrhon—as well
of course to the school that had not given him the position he believed should
be rightly his.
 
What better way to
show off than to have Caelrhon attacked by griffins, which he unaided would
capture, with the cathedral convinced that it was hopeless asking for help from
Yurt?
 
So he had Marcus locked up,
once he had played his part, so as not to accidentally reveal that he was not
the wizard of Yurt.
 
Then he set the
first griffin loose….”

Elerius’s tawny eyes had become
calculating.
 
“So,” he said slowly,
without any of his earlier jocularity, “you are ready to accuse Sengrim of
bringing griffins to the Western Kingdoms just because he is so good at dealing
with magical creatures.
 
But I fail
to see why you think
I
would have played any role in
this.
 
You know that I always act
from the best motives.
 
Why don’t
you believe me about the renegade magician, whom, as I told the Master, I
discovered and warned away last night?”

“I know you were working with
Sengrim,” I said, low and intense, “because you
do
always
tell yourself that you act with the best motives.
 
He does not.
 
You
made sure that I was well
above the tide line when I was left paralyzed in that sea-cave.
 
You
persuaded Sengrim to have
Marcus simply locked up for the night to get him out of the way rather than
having him quietly killed.
 
You
moved the young griffin far away from the city, to lessen the chance that the
mother griffin would attack any of
Caelrhon’s
citizens when she came for her cub.
 
Indeed, last night, when I confronted you in your disguise, you
threatened me with death—and then let me go!”

Elerius considered a moment,
then
tried to answer lightly, but it did not sound as lightly
as a minute ago.
 
“Well, you may
almost have persuaded me, Daimbert, that Sengrim might have brought those
griffins down from the land of wild magic.
 
I
had
wondered why no one had spotted them during their
trip south.
 
And I know he’s boasted
about binding boxes and special binding spells that will immobilize even
creatures of wild magic.
 
Perhaps he
really was planning to demonstrate to the Master and Zahlfast—a plan that
you disrupted
!—
that he was by far the best
wizard in the west for dealing with magical creatures.

“But I still don’t see,” and he
spread his hands wide, “what possible motive you imagine
I
could possibly have in assisting a bitter old man like him.”

The driving anger that had propelled
me into the library faltered, and I did not answer at once.
 
This was where it all made less
sense.
 
I glanced toward him, and
his indulgent smile was coming back.

“Power,” I said at last.
 
“You have always known that you are a
much better wizard than most—certainly better than me
!—
and
you want a position that will enable you to use that power.
 
Wisely and properly, of course!” I
added
as he seemed about to object.
 
“Or at least wisely and properly
according to
you.
 
What
position are you hoping for, Elerius?
 
You’re already Royal Wizard of one of the West’s largest and wealthiest
kingdoms.
 
It’s unlikely that the
school will need a new Master for a very long time.”

His expression betrayed nothing, but
he gave a sudden blink.

And with that blink I thought I
understood at last.

“Your own plans are more subtle than
Sengrim’s
, more long-term,” I pushed on, more
confidently.
 
“Caelrhon is just a
small, out of the way cathedral city, but it made a good test case for you, to
see whether it would be possible to move the perennial distrust between priests
and wizards to outright enmity.
 
Whenever you assume a position of authority here at the school, you plan
to make institutionalized wizardry more organized, more focused.
 
And what better way to make all the
wizards pull together than to make them feel that they were under attack from
the Church?

“You said just the other day, very
disapprovingly, that there were too many priests here in the City.
 
All wizard are dismissive toward
organized religion, but you are even more so than most.
 
You had Marcus change the old saying
about ‘the three that rule the world’ to give precedence to wizardry, because
you believe that yourself.”

I paused to catch my breath.
 
Elerius was tapping one finger, very
slowly, on the table.
 
“An
interesting theory.
 
But you still
have no explanation for why someone with a position at such an important
kingdom as mine would be involved with the wizard of a kingdom that you
yourself have just characterized as small and out of the way.”

I glared are him from under my
eyebrows, knowing that I was right.
 
“For your ambitions, you need allies.
 
Sengrim would have made a terrible
teacher here, as you and I both know perfectly well, but he
does
know an enormous amount about magical creatures, more even than you do.
 
So you are assisting him now in the hopes
of recruiting his assistance for your long-range plans.
 
You’d better hope that he doesn’t learn
that you are ready to betray him to me—and to the Master
?—
about those griffins, much less that you call him a
bitter old man.”

Elerius listened quietly, but when
he spoke he had his full assurance back.
 
“This is complicated even for you, Daimbert.
 
So now I’m ready to make an alliance
with a wizard who you say I don’t even like, who could turn on me at any moment
as I gather he has already turned on you?
 
No, no, make it easy for yourself.
 
A renegade magician, one who dropped out of the program early, decided
to capture a wizard and imprison him, just to show the school that he could.
 
At about the same time but unconnected,
a griffin mother and child headed south.
 
That’s
all
that happened.
 
Don’t you know that the simplest
explanations are the most likely to be true?
 
It’s just unfortunate for you that
you
were the wizard the renegade chose.”

“This version leaves out two
important issues,” I replied coldly.
 
“First, Marcus.
 
You know
very well who he is, because you knew you could lure me into the cellars by
saying I would meet him there.
 
Airy
comments about renegades do not explain the masquerade he was made to play in
Caelrhon.
 
Second,
the griffins.
 
Just a moment
ago you admitted that you knew Sengrim was responsible for them.”
 
Elerius hadn’t actually said this, but
close enough.
 
“When a person keeps
changing their story and leaving out important aspects, the
simplest
explanation is that he’s lying.”

He rose abruptly to his feet.
 
“I do
not
have to sit here and listen
to the unfounded accusations of a young wizard who doesn’t know half the magic
I do.”

I wasn’t sure I had ever seen him
angry before.
 
And that anger, more
than anything else, convinced me that my guesses were right.

“Then good-day to you,” I said with
exaggerated calm.
 
“The Master asked
me to come down to the school in the first place because he wanted to hear
about our adventures in the East.
 
I’ve almost gotten to the part where a school-trained wizard set an
Ifrit on us.”

Elerius paused in the act of
gathering up his notes.
 
“And you
plan to accuse Sengrim of this?” he asked slowly.

“Not Sengrim, as you know all too
well.
 
Rather, a wizard with an
avowed interest in eastern magic, who has indeed tried to persuade the school
to add it to the
curriculum
….”

I was probably enjoying too much
having an advantage over Elerius.
 
“You can tell the Master whatever you like,” he snapped.
 
“He is unlikely to believe the fantasies
of an over-active imagination when you have not a shred of proof for your whole
convoluted scenario.
 
I had always
hoped,
Daimbert, that
you had skills and abilities
that might be worth cultivating.
 
I
see now that I was wrong.”

And he stalked from the room without
a backwards glance, without any of the books which I understood he had been
trying to persuade the librarian to let him take.

I took several deep breaths to try
to calm my heart.
 
It appeared that
I had understood and foiled Elerius’s plan at the same time.

But I also now had him for an enemy.

THE
END

If you enjoyed this story, be
sure to read all the other novels by C. Dale Brittain, available in print, as
ebooks
, and as audiobooks.

The Royal Wizard of Yurt
series

A Bad Spell in Yurt

The Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint

The Lost Girls and the Kobold
[novella]

Mage Quest

Below the Wizards’ Tower
[novella]

The Witch and the Cathedral

Daughter of Magic

Is This Apocalypse Necessary?

My First Kingdom
[
ebook
omnibus of the first three full-length
Yurt
novels]