Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint- Wizard of Yurt - 2 (14 page)

“You asked for my opinion,” said Joachim reasonably.

We both fel silent again. I forced myself to consider what the chaplain had said.

It made sense. Stripped of the comments about sin, his explanation accorded fairly closely with what the school had taught us, one of the few lessons, in fact, that I had learned so wel that I could no longer consciously remember first hearing it. Those who try the mightiest spels, delving deeply into the forces of magic, always do so at peril: theirs and others. And when such a spel is worked from base motives, from pride and envy, the peril is far greater.

Maybe I should try to explain to the old wizard that he had no reason to be jealous of Evrard and me—but I could think of no way to phrase it that wouldn’t sound patronizing and, besides, he seemed to be in the process of demonstrating beyond any question that his magic was indeed much stronger than ours. I realized that everything Joachim had said could also apply to Evrard and the horned rabbits, but I dismissed this. My own attempts to impress my new employers were too recent for me to be able to think of another young wizard as driven by pride.

“Wil you cal your school?” Joachim asked. “Could you dismantle the creature? Is it likely to escape?”

“I don’t know at the moment how to dismantle it, certainly not if my predecessor wanted to stop me. And I’m very reluctant to cal the school. I don’t get along very wel with the old wizard as it is; if I brought in representatives of the school he despises to take

away his magical creation, he’d never speak to me again. And it wouldn’t do much good, anyway. The spel was out of the old magic of earth and herbs, unlike anything in modern scientific magic.

“At the moment, the creature doesnt seem at al likely to escape. In the next few days, I’m going to talk to the wood nymph now that I know how; I’l try to find out more about Nimrod; and I should probably catch the rest of Evrard’s idiotic rabbits. Once I’ve gotten aH the other distractions out of the way, 111 try to work out how to break the spel that holds my predecessor’s creature together. What do you think?’

“You’ve already told me twice that this is a problem for a wizard, not for a priest.” There was a hint of a smile in the angle of Joachim’s cheekbones. “I think you’re enjoying having another young wizard here.” In spite of everything, he was right. ‘ This seems like something the two of you should be able to handle.”

“What do you think are Dominic’s intentions with the duchess? I asked abruptly, wanting to change the subject. Since half the castle was probably discussing the pair, I thought we might as wel, too.

“I must admit to being surprised,” said the chaplain. “To every indication, he has begun to court her in earnest, but one must wonder why his affections have become suddenly engaged after so many years of aquaintance. I would nave hoped either one or both would have come to talk to me about their wedding plans, before these plans became so open.” For an inteligent and highly educated priest, Joachim could sometimes be startling obtuse. “I don’t think Dominic has any wedding plans,” I said, “and I’m sure Diana doesnt either. My own guess is that his courting just started today, and it has no more serious goal than keeping Nimrod and the duchess from carrying out what Dominic considers inappropriate flirtation.’

“That could be,” said Joachim, as though he found it highly unlikely. “But some of his gestures and

comments were too explicit for him not to have had previous encouragement.”

I laughed, glad to find something worth laughing at. “That’s just Dominic. He’s never had much finesse in his dealings—he has even less tact than you do.” Joachim frowned at this. “I won’t keep you longer,” I said, standing up. “Have you heard anything more from those priests about the Holy Toe?”

“I won’t hear anything more until they arrive,” he said gravely.

Evrard was already back in my study, once again settled in my best chair. At least he wasn’t wearing my dressing gown. “Why did you bring up the old wizard over lunch?” I asked him shortly.

“You didn’t want me to?” he asked, so much remorse in his wide blue eyes it was almost comical.

“Certainly not,” I said, sitting down in my second-best chair and refusing to be molified. “Several people have already realized that if something was bad enough to make you squeak with terror, it was more than ilusion. As soon as Dominic realizes it—or has one of the knights point it out to him—he’s going to organize a military expedition to roust the creature out of the old wizard’s cottage.”

“But he couldn’t do that,” said Evrard, concerned. “The old wizard’s magic would stop him.”

“Of course. The most Dominic could accomplish with his knights would be to distract the old wizard enough that ne would let down the binding spels containing his creature and it would escape.’

I hadn’t thought of this possibility until I said it, but it immediately seemed disturbingly likely.

Evrard smiled at me. “You’re even more frightened of that creature than I am! But you don’t need to worry about the old wizard. He has a powerful binding spel to hold it down.”

“And what do you know about binding spels?”

“I can do many spels,” he replied in a perfectly

sober voice, in spite of the twitching corners of his mouth. “Watch this.”

I jumped up and interrupted the binding spel he started to put on my foot. “I don’t think I need a demonstration. Besides, you have a word wrong in the Hidden Language—right there.”

“Oh,” he said in chagrin. “You’re right. You would have gotten your foot free in no time.’ He smiled up at me and I sat down again. “At least now I know my mistake. You see, I almost never make the same mistake twice.”

“That’s good,” I said, sounding surly even in my own ears. Since I was irritated witn Joachim for being a priest and with Evrard for being a young wizard, maybe I should be irritated with myself for being me.

‘ Even aside from his binding spels,” Evrard continued, “I’m certain the old wizard could stop Dominic. ‘A competent wizard should always be victorious against an armed knight.’ They taught us that in thau-maturgy class.”

“Ana would you always be victorious?”

Evrard leaned forward and dropped his voice, though there was no one to overhear us. “Don’t tel the duchess, but I was never very good at those spels. But I’m working on them!” I tried to decide if I was good at the spels to stop armed knights. I had never nad occasion to try. But Evrard was certainly right in one respect: a wizard who could grow thirty feet tal in the middle of a whirlwind would not find Dominic a problem.

Since I had told Evrard I realy would turn him into a frog if he brought up the old wizard and his monster again, I expected dinner to be more quiet than lunch. Once again, Dominic seated Diana next to him and I ended up next to Nimrod.

The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that she must have Known the huntsman earlier. For that matter, from his polished language and behavior, he must be other than what he at first seemed. It might explain a lot, even her surprising lack of ease when they first met, if she had last met him, say, in a very different context. I tried again to question him when dinner was almost over.

“So I understand the duchess is enjoying catching horned rabbits,” I said casualy. “Tel me, have you tried to track them down in the valey of Saint Euseb-ius? The valey seems to have strong powers of attraction for creatures of magic. I’m planning to go there tomorrow, to explore its magical properties more thoroughly, and I was wondering ...

But I never got a chance to say more. At that point,

Dominic rose to his feet. He looked pale, unusual in someone ruddy, and highly determined. He started to speak, got as far as “My lords and ladies—” and his voice cracked. Evrard smiled, but no one else dared.

Dominic tried again. “My lords and ladies of Yurt! I would like your attention. I have a special announcement to make. As you know, I have served King Haim-eric of Yurt, my uncle, for most of my life, at present as his regent. But recently I have been thinking of doing something rather different.’

There was a murmur of surprise. Dominic was as much a fixture of the castle as the king’s rose garden.

“In fact, once the king and queen return and release me from my regency, I think I shal leave Yurt. I have not yet decided where I shal go.” My first startled thought—the thought of a city merchant’s son—was to wonder what he would live on. He had al a prince could want as long as he was in Yurt, but his wealth was based on the revenues from the castle’s own lands—realy nothing more than a glorified alowance from the king.

The silence was broken by Hugo, the youth who had been training in knighthood under Dominic’s direction. “You can come back to the City with me at the end of the summer if you like,” he said. “Mother and Father won’t mind.”

Dominic smiled, almost affectionately. “I’l consider it,” he said, then became determined again. “Before I go, there is something very important I want to settle.” He turned toward the duchess, on whom a horrible realization seemed to be dawning, and went down on one knee before her on the flagstones.

If I had determined to propose marriage to a woman I had already decided six years ago I didn’t want to marry, then I would have done it in private. But that apparently wouldn’t do for the royal regent.

He took a ring out of his pocket. From where I was sitting, I could see the firelight glint on the diamond. It was an enormous stone. We had in the castle treasury the jewelry that had once belonged to Dominic’s mother and this must be from the colection.

Diana looked, for once in her life, completely nonplussed. I had the sickening feeling one sometimes has when seeing a bad accident about to happen, that everything is taking place very slowly but one is too paralyzed to do anything about it.

“My lady, I offer you this ring as a token,” said the regent gravely. “A token of my love for you, which I dare to hope you may return. A token of my wish that you and I should become man and wife.” This had gone far beyond paying court to a woman to keep her from making a spectacle of herself with somebody else. Dominic, I thought, had simply lost his mind.

Diana took a deep breath. “Prince Dominic,” she said in a high, clear voice, “you have set my maidenly heart aflutter.” She did not take the ring held out to her.

I glanced toward Nimrod beside me and found his face stiff with tension.

“While I fuly appreciate your sentiments,” the duchess continued, ‘ your proposal is so sudden that I wil need at least a week to give you my answer.” She gave a sudden, saucy smile. After al, I’ve been single nearly as long as you have—that is, al my life—and it’s hard to contemplate such a complete change so suddenly.”

“Of course,” said Dominic, watching her face as though searching for a hidden meaning.

I caught the chaplain’s eye across the table. If he said, “I told you so,’ I would deserve it.

Diana rose to her feet with a swirl of the skirt she had put on for dinner. “Right now, I stil need to concentrate on catching the last of those great homed rabbits. If you don’t mind, Prince, I shal go to my room and plan tomorrow’s hunt.” Dominic nodded shortly.

As the duchess moved toward the door, she stopped

as though she had just thought of something and turned back. “Since I’m planning a hunt, I need my chief huntsman. Nimrod, could you join me?” Nimrod smiled like the sun coming up and jumped to his feet so suddenly that his chair crashed over. He strode across the hal and he and the duchess left together. The rest of us retreated rapidly, almost in panic, not daring to look at the regent.

“We’d better stay out of Dominic s way for a while,” I told Evrard that evening. “And it sounds as though the duchess won’t want your help hunting the horned rabbits. Tomorrow I’l take you to the Holy Grove of Saint Eusebius so you can meet the wood nymph.”

The next morning, I sent Evrard to the stables to supervise the saddling of our mares while I went to find the regent. If I could sort out the magical problems associated with the Holy Grove in the next day or two and if the duchess would just start behaving herself, then I could turn my ful attention to the old wizard and his creature. Maybe by then I’d even have some ideas.

I would have liked to leave the casde without teling Dominic we were going, but he was, after al, regent. I squared my shoulders and hoped that by now he would be calm enough that I could talk to him coherently.

I expected to find the royal nephew in his chambers having breakfast, or already seated on the throne in the great hal. But I could not find him. When I returned to the stables, wondering uneasily where he could be, I noticed a number of horses were missing.

“That’s right,” said the stable boy I asked. “It seems like everyone has already gone somewhere this morning. The chaplain, Prince Dominic, a lot of die knights, the duchess and her new huntsman, they’ve al left.”

“So what do you think?” asked Evrard, who seemed

to find the situation hilarious. “Have the duchess and Nimrod eloped and Dominic gone after them?”

As we rode out across the drawbridge, the clear sky promised another day of perfect weather. I asked myself how normaly rational adults could act like this. And where could Joachim have possibly gone? I had enough to do solving magical problems in the kingdom without being responsible for everyone’s emotional crises. For Dominic abruptly to decide to get married after al these years, for Diana to hire a wizard, commission homed rabbits, and flirt outrageously with a huntsman ...

“Do you think Dominic wil stil want to marry her if she’s run off widi Nimrod?” asked Evrard. “I must say I was surprised he proposed. I wouldn’t have thought their temperaments would be similar enough.”

“If Dominic has decided it’s finaly time to get married, he may not have a lot of women to choose from. The only alternative I can think of is the queen’s aunt Maria, and they would be even less compatible.”

“But if Dominic and the duchess do get married, and he wants to leave Yurt, do you think she’l go with him? Wil she stil want a ducal wizard?” I didn’t answer. More relevant was the question of whether Dominic would murder Nimrod—and maybe Diana as wel. She would have a lot to answer for if King Haimeric came home to find that his kingdom, as he knew it, no longer existed. For that matter, so would I.