Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint- Wizard of Yurt - 2 (10 page)

“Nimrod?”

“Clearly a false name,” said Dominic without hesitation.

“What about him?”

Dominic looked out the window at the indistinct courtyard, then turned to glare at me again. If he had any confidence in my abilities, you couldn’t have told it from that look. “Before the king left, he told me to consult with you or the chaplain on al important matters. I’m not sure why he wanted me as regent if he didn’t trust my judgment, but I shal obey his commands, of course.”

What a disappointment. And I had imagined the other day that he actualy wanted my advice.

“And what important matter has come up now?”

“Isn’t it obvious, even to you?” said Dominic with a scowl. It crossed my mind that far too many people had been scowling in my chambers lately, including me. “Duchess Diana acts toward that low-born giant like a flirtatious girl, and he’s eating it up.”

It had not been obvious to me, but then I had been too preoccupied with the question of how someone was making great horned rabbits to pay much attention. “Don t you think the duchess is old enough to take care of herself?” I asked.

Dominic made a sound that was half a snort and half a growl. “Al I know is that she met some hunter out of the woods, took him home to her castle with her, and now has brought him here. If she wants to play fast and loose with ner dignity at home that’s one thing but, as regent of Yurt, I can’t have her doing it here in the royal castle. That’s why I want you to have a quiet conversation with her, tel her that her behavior has gone beyond respectable bounds.” Me?

“Of course you. Why do you think I came to talk to you? She’s always seemed to like you, for some odd reason, whereas I m afraid she might deliberately do the opposite of whatever I suggested, just to irritate me.”

He had a point. “I’l try to find a chance sometime today,” I said reluctantly.

“What’s wrong with right now?” demanded Dominic. Being regent certainly seemed to have put steel resolve into his usualy lethargic personality. “It’s lunch time. You can observe her behavior at the table for yourself and talk to her immediately afterwards.

There seemed to be no way out of it. My wish for new chalenges was certainly being granted. I closed the battered volume and got my umbrela off its hook.

The chaplain and a few of the ladies had chambers from which they could reach the great hal without going into the courtyard; everyone else arrived for mncn dodging through the rain, and a line of wet umbrelas stood against the wal.

I stil wasn’t hungry and took only a little soup and none of the meat pie. Gwen gave me a concerned look from the servants’ table, but I had no attention to spare for her. I was trying, as I had promised Dominic, to pay attention to the duchess and Nimrod.

I had to admit that Dominic was right. Nimrod and Diana sat with their heads bent together, talking about topics unrelated to whatever the rest of the table was discussing. During pauses in their conversation when the duchess was addressing a remark to someone else or busy eating, I saw the giant huntsman’s blue eyes fixed on her almost caressingly.

The duchess had flirted with me as wel when we first met, and my first thought was that this was just more of her teasing. But if so, it didn’t seem fair to Nimrod, who was taking it quite seriously. She had never married because, as far as I could tel, she had never met a man who could keep up with her. I had sometimes wondered if Diana realized that her tendency to keep those around her off balance, to do or say things just to see the reaction she got, was in its own way highly predictable.

But now ner behavior seemed oddly out of character, even for someone as determined to be outrageous as Diana. There had always before been limits. She enjoyed being a member of the aristocracy as much as she enjoyed behaving like no other duchess in the western kingdoms; she would no more have given up her castle and her authority than I would have given up magic. Dominic was right that Nimrod could not possibly aspire to be her social equal, despite his surprisingly cultivated speech and good manners. For that reason, I tried to reassure myself, whatever the regent might think, her obvious affection for a hunter without status or family would never lead to any permanent liaison or anything seriously harmful to her reputation.

As everyone stood up from lunch, I went over to her chair. It was one thing dealing with magical chalenges in the king’s absence, but it realy would become complicated if I had to deal with everyone’s personal problems as wel. “Could I have a private word with you, my lady?”

Diana agreed at once. Nimrod smiled at her and walked away—I assumed things hadn’t proceeded so far that they shared their chambers. Dominic caught my eye and nodded, an abrupt motion with his chin. For once, he approved.

The rain haa let up enough that the duchess and I, our umbrelas spread over us, were able to walk, rather than run, to the door of her chamber and arrive relatively dry. “Have a seat,” Diana said, taking off her cloak. “It’s chily enough that I’m going to start a fire.”

She knelt at the hearth, put some twigs and wood shavings together against the front of a large log, and

soon had a smal blaze going—the duchess would never bother caling a servant for something like this. She added some slightly thicker twigs and, in a moment, the log was glowing red. Sitting down next to me, she said, “There. That should take the chil off the afternoon.”

The fire had provided only a momentary distraction. I pushed aside my reluctance to speak. “I d like to ask you something, my lady, and hope I don’t offend you.”

“You haven’t managed to offend me yet,” she said cheerfuly.

“You seem to have become very friendly with Nimrod, considering that he just appeared out of the woods a few days ago. What have you learned about him?” Her gray eyes narrowed slightly, but she was determined not to be offended. ‘ I haven’t been quizzing him about his ancestry and family wealth, if that’s what you mean,” she saia, smiling to keep the comment mild. Something about the way she phrased it made me wonder if she might already have a good idea of his ancestry and family. “I know he’s very inteligent as wel as very handsome and he’s a far better hunter than anyone I’ve ever seen. You probably haven’t had a chance yet to see him use that enormous bow of his, but he’s an absolute dead shot.” I had heard too little of Nimrod’s conversation to be able to tel if he could keep up with her humor and often biting wit, but as a hunter I was sure she had met an equal.

“In fact, I even—” She stopped without finishing what might have been a very interesting sentence. Instead, she looked at me with a frown. Your question doesn’t realy sound like you. Did Dominic tel you to talk to me?”

I nodded ruefuly, rather glad in fact that she’d guessed the truth.

Fortunately, she seemed to find this highly amusing. “So he’s worried that a member of the high aristocracy,

the queen of Yurt’s own third cousin, is flirting with a nobody? I ought to become realy outrageous about it, just to teach Dominic a lesson.’

‘I’m sorry, my lady, I wouldn’t have said anything if he hadn’t insisted. In fact, wel, Dominic has been acting a little strangely lately.”

“In what way?”

“After the royal family caled the other night, he was talking about the baby prince and asked me if I’d ever thought of getting married!” She unexpectedly became serious. “So it’s bothering Dominic, too,” she said, which made no sense. But then her eyes twinkled. “I presume you told him that even an adorable little blond prince wasn’t going to make you forget that wizards never marry?”

I took a deep breath. “The regent’s going to ask me what you said.

She looked down her aristocratic nose. “Tel him,” she said with a smile twitching the corner of her mouth, “tel him that I was deeply offended at your insult to my honor, that I told you I would always behave in the most honorable way possible and that, since I was sure of that point, I would always do exactly what I wanted.” Back in my own chambers, I found Evrard wearing my best dressing gown and sitting in my favorite chair with his feet up, leafing through the first volume of my copy of Ancient ana Modern Necromancy.

I sat down across from him. “I need to talk to you.”

“Fine,” he said brightly. “I was just reading again about the Black Wars.’ When I cocked an eyebrow at him, he continued, “Surely you remember the end of the Black Wars.” He waved the book in his hand. The first volume of Ancient and Modern Necromancy, which I’d never read very closely, was almost entirely devoted to history.

“I’m afraid I’ve never given very much attention to the history of wizardry,” I answered. I was trying to

remember if the Black Wars had come before or after the period in which Saint Eusebius was eaten by the dragon—after, I decided.

‘You haven’t? But I love history! Didn’t you want to study al about how the wizards ended the fighting in the western kingdoms? Isn’t that what made you decide to study wizardry in the first place?”

“No,” I said sheepishly, thinking that maybe I could skim the book this evening after he was asleep. But I didn’t want to be distracted by history. “You’ve taken courses at the school more recently than I, and some of them were different. I want to show you a spel I found this morning and ask if you’ve ever seen anything similar.” I puled the heavy volume onto my lap and found the place. “I don’t think it is written down entirely correctly, but this gives the general outline.”

“What is this book?” asked Evrard, sneezing from

the dust.

“It used to belong to your predecessor, the old ducal wizard, thirty years ago,” I said with a sideways glance. “There are four volumes. If you want them, you can have them once we’re done.’

“I guess so.” He wrinkled his forehead at the handwriting. “I’d rather have a nicely printed book, but—” He stopped, and his forehead cleared. “But this is the same spel ...”

“Yes?” I prompted.

“Nothing,’ he said quickly. “Nothing. I thought I recognized it, but of course I don’t.”

He sat back with a cheerful smile. I looked at him in silence, putting several things together. “In fact,” I said at last, “I think you do.” At that moment we were interrupted by a hard knock on the door. Dominic, I thought resignedly, rising to my feet. “Yes, I talked to her,” I started to say even before I had the door fuly open.

But it was not Dominic. It was the chaplain, standing under an umbrela. In his hand was a smal white square. He must have heard again from the bishop.

He turned to me without seeming to notice Evrard. “The priests are coming to Yurt.”

“Which priests?”

“Priests from the church of Saint Eusebius, the church that asked for his relics,” These were the ones, I recaled, whom Joachim almost suspected of trying to make the Cranky Saint cranky enough that he would leave the hermit’s grove. “They want to examine the situation at first hand, according to the bishop.” He glanced at the paper in his hand. “They’re already on their way. The bishop has stil given me no Secific instructions, but the priests wil be here in ree days.”

“It realy does sound as though the bishop is giving you a free hand in al this,” I said, just managing to meet the intense look on his face. “Clearly, he trusts you.” Evrard, behind me, cleared his throat.

“Let me know if I can help, but I don’t know if I can,” I said to Joachim.

“Of course. Sorry to interrupt you.”

“So the chaplain’s your very good friend?” asked Evrard as I closed the door again. ‘It sounds as though he’s got plenty of problems of his own, what with bishops and priests and who knows what else. I guess it must be hard out here for you to find someone inteligent and interesting to talK to.”

Although I had more than once thought the same thing, I didn’t like the implications of what he had said and decided not to answer.

“He looks very dour,” Evrard continued. “Somehow it’s hard to imagine wild old Daimbert making friends with a priest!” He would realize Joachim’s merits when he got to know him better, I reassured myself. “Right now,” I said, “I want to ask you why you made the great horned rabbits.” II

I had anticipated several reactions, from denial to angry pride. Instead, Evrard laughed. “I should have known I couldn’t hide it from you indefinitely,” he said with a broad smile. “When did you figure it out?”

“So you did make the horned rabbits?” I said, wanting to be sure of this point.

“Of course I did. Pretty good, weren’t they?”

“It was something you learned in that class you took with Elerius,” I said casualy, not mentioning that it had taken me the better part of a week to work it out. “That class on the old magic. Did al the students make horned rabbits? I don’t like to think of the western kingdoms overrun with those things.”

“No, we al made something different. I thought of the rabbits myself,” he added proudly. “It’s hard magic, too! Elerius had to work with us individualy to make sure we got the spels right and, as it is, the horns kept faling off mine. So when the duchess said she wanted me to make her magical creatures, I thought of the rabbits at once.”

“Wait,” I said sharply. “The duchess asked you to make them? You mean she’s been chasing them across the kingdom these last few days, but they re something she wanted specificaly?” I knew Diana loved hunting, but making something magical just for the purpose of hunting it seemed excessive, even for her.

“And she and I had to chase them earlier, too,” Evrard said with a rueful expression. “I’d made three and gotten the horns to stay on fairly wel. I wanted to test them to see if they’d move and hoot properly out in the wild. This was several days before I met you. We went up to a plateau a few miles from her castle and they moved so wel, they escaped!”

“Escaped? And what did you dor” If strange magical creatures had been loose in the kingdom even

longer than I thought, then I had clearly been derelict in my responsibilities as Royal Wizard.

“The duchess was terribly upset,” said Evrard. “She said she didn’t dare let anyone see them for a few more days—I don’t know why. We managed to catch two of the three horned rabbits, though it took al afternoon. They’d gotten down into that deep valey that’s cut into the plateau.”