Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint- Wizard of Yurt - 2 (26 page)

Nimrod had his bow drawn, but I was very glad to see him lower it again. From what Joachim had said no arrow could harm the monster, but one of the huntsman’s stag arrows would certainly have a devastating effect on the duchess.

The creature ran toward the cliff face without even

slowing down, altering its course at the last second. And then it headed straight toward the old wizard and me.

I threw both a binding spel and a paralysis spel at it, but my spels had no effect on the creature. Diana, however, stopped shouting and instantly became rigid. Wonderful. Now I’d made it easier for the monster to carry her. It held her motionless body high over its head while the dogs barked hystericaly and snapped ineffectualy at its ankles.

If the old wizard tried any spels, they had no more useful result than mine. Ten feet from us, the creature turned again, giving me a quick look from eyes I could have sworn were alive, and started scrambling down the tumbled rocks a short distance from the waterfal.

Dominic’s horse had falen and him with it, but Nimrod, who had dropped his bow, sprang to intercept the creature. It dodged yet again as it reached solid ground, but he made a desperate leap and seized it by the leg.

The creature lost its balance for a second and Diana dropped with a hard thump from its hands. It righted itself immediately, but Nimrod clawed his way up the creature’s body and seized it around the neck.

The two crashed back to the ground, roling and grabbing at each other, Nimrod shouting and the creature absolutely silent.

The dogs caught up again and began biting both of them. The old wizard and I reachea them only a second later. Leaving my predecessor to deal with his monster, I snatched at words of the Hidden Language in a desperate attempt to break the spels I had inadvertently put on the duchess. If she could run, she might escape.

I didn’t know what the old wizard hoped to try, but he never had a chance. The creature lurched to its feet, thrust Nimrod effortlessly away, and raced up again toward the grove.

Diana came back to life with a start. “Christ!” she

j

burst out. “What happened?” Dominic reached us at that moment, fel to his knees and tried unsuccessfuly to take her into his arms. Rather than tel her that I had paralyzed her myself, I took a quick five seconds to reassure myself that she was not badly hurt, then shot after the monster and the old wizard.

Evrard joined us near the shrine, rubbing his head somewhat woozily. But the creature was gone.

It was completely silent within the grove. Not even the leaves moved. “It came straight through here,” Evrard said, showing no desire at al to pursue it further. “It was folowing the river.” I knew then where it had gone. I flew along the banks of the little river, out of the grove, and to the bottom of the cliff. The water poured sparkling out of the cave mouth as though nothing in particular had happened there, but there were a few deep scrambling marks in the grave}. A steady, whispering wind blew from the cave. I dropped down, looking into blackness, and probed with magic.

There was no question. My predecessor’s monster

had gone this way.

“He’s back in the cave,” I said as the old wizard and Evrard came out of the trees. Let them chase it now. I flew back down the valey to make sure the duchess realy was al right.

She had pushed Dominic away and was sucking a barked knuckle. “I would have been able to rescue myself, without help from anyone,” she said angrily, “if it hadn’t put some sort of spel on me.” As Diana was usualy a rational person, I knew that this boast was a sign of how frightened she had been.

So far we had been enormously fortunate. The creature had let both the apprentice hermit and the duchess go without kiling or even badly wounding them. Next time we might not be so lucky. Had it deliberately chosen these two out of al of us in the valey or would it seize randomly at different people—and

maybe, or maybe not, let them go again—until it found some specific one it sought?

Nimrod—or Prince Ascelin—actualy was in worse condition than the duchess. The priests and the knights had al come up and he sat in the middle of an attentive circle, picking grit out of a bloody knee.

There were several marks of canine teeth in his lower legs. “None of those dogs had better be rabid,” he said in irritation. “Don’t you knights of Yurt train them better than to bite the person they’re supposed to help?”

‘ But that’s exactly what we do train them to do!” put in young Hugo with a wink.

The dogs now sat happily panting, not at al repen-tent. Diana was sitting beyond Nimrod. I was surprised to intercept an amused glance she aimed toward his hunched shoulders.

The apprentice hermit whom the creature had originaly seized did not look physicaly damaged as a result of his adventure, but he sat a little apart from the others, his knees up to his chin andJis eyes enormous. The youngest of the three priests unbent far enough to go sit Deside him and say things which I hoped were reassuring.

For a brief moment, like the pause between two claps of thunder, peace had returned to the valey. “I always forget a wizard can fly,” said one of the knights to me in what I hoped was admiration. In times of peace, which was now most of the time, Royal Wizards might do little more than ilusions for months at a time. I didn’t point out that flying had so far been useless against an undead monster running across the ground.

“I’m impressed you were able to get the better of the monster,” I said to Nimrod, “even if only for a moment.”

“I never did have the better of it. Wrestling it was like trying to wrestle a boulder! Al I could do was

throw it off balance for a second. Did you have any better luck with magic? Where is it now?”

“It’s crawled back into the cave where the river comes out.” He looked up briefly and nodded. “My^ predecessor and die ducal wizard are pursuing it.’ But the pursuers appeared a few minutes later, dripping wet and without a monster.

“Hie old wizard took me aside, wringing out the hem of his cloak as he spoke. “It’s far back in there now. We’d better get al these people out of the valey; then you and I can go in and get it.” His voice was quiet and he kept his eyes lowered. I was surprised and gratified he wanted my help, considering his usual opinion of my abilities. But I wondered now he could speak so calmly of catching a monster we had just pursued entirely unsuccessfuly around the head of the valey. Then he looked up sharply and, for one second, I thought I saw a glimmer in his eye as twisted as the glimpse I had had before of his mind.

IV

I was afraid that Dominic or Nimrod or both would insist on leading the hunt for the monster, but they both seemed eager to escort Diana back to her castle. Her normal enthusiasm for hunting was greatly diminished, too.

Joachim and the priests, however, were stil determined to stay in the valey. Although I tried suggesting to die hermit that he might want to leave, it was clear that even the dragon that had eaten Saint Eusebius would not budge him or the apprentice hermits.

“We came to assess the wui of the saint and to remove his sanctified relics to a safer place, if necessary,” said the thin priest. “What we nave witnessed today may make our task even more needful. Those who fear the righteous wrath of God do not fear the

terror by night or the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”

My predecessor gave a snort and stamped off to watch the entrance to the cave; the hermit and his apprentices retreated to the shrine. Evrard and I unsaddled our mares again as the others rode up die steep road out of the valey. Dominic seemed badly shaken. I wasn’t sure if he would insist, now, on the duchess marrying him immediately.

But I didn’t have time to worry about that. The spels of three wizards had so far proved useless in catching the monster. Only brute force, Prince Ascel-in’s size and strength, had had any effect at al, and even that had been pitifuly slight. I had known al along that catching the creature would be difficult. Now I was faced with the very real possibility that, even with the old wizard’s help, it might be impossible.

For the sake of the priests’ safety, I wished they had gone, too, but I was almost ashamedly glad tibat Joachim was staying. I needed al the support I could get; I felt that I would even welcome a discussion of sinful mortals or of complex moral dilemmas.

“You must be very grateful to have another young wizard here to help you,” said Joachim. I didn’t have the heart to tel him how wrong he was.

The knights, their horses, and the monster had torn up the ground above and below the waterfal and had broken branches from trees at the edge of the grove. I had just turned away from watching the duchess’ party disappear when a branch creaked and dipped just above me. The wood nymph sprang lightly down, with a swirl of long soft hair, and began to attend to the broken branches.

The priests stared. They had clearly not expected to see a dusky-skinned girl dressed in nothing but leaves in their saint’s grove. Evrard started to speak, but I motioned him to silence.

Not even seeming to notice us, the nymph worked quickly and efficiently on the broken branches.

Although I could not see quite how she did it, for she certainly had no pruning shears, she trimmed off dangling twigs quickly and evenly, passed her hand over the wounds so that they stopped dripping sap, and whistled to the birds until they came down from the tree tops and perched again near her. She was in constant motion, moving from branch to branch, springing lightly to higher ones with a flash of graceful legs, dropping to lower ones with no more than a dip and a swish of leaves.

Her violet eyes passed across us as though we were no more substantial than a bit of mist. But as she leaped up to a high branch, seemingly finished repairing the damage to her trees, she suddenly stopped.

Her face changed as I had seen it change the first time she had heard my spel, but neither Evrard nor I had said any spels.

And she was not looking at us. She was looking at

Joachim.

She swung down again and hung by one hand from a branch so that her face was at the same level as his. “Are you a hermit?” she asked with a delighted smile.

The three priests of Saint Eusebius seemed shocked beyond the ability to speak, but Joachim answered her calmly. “No, I am a priest. But like a hermit, I serve the wil of God.” She dropped to the ground and looked at him as though puzzled. The rest of us might as wel have not been there. “Are you a wizard?”

“No,” said the chaplain. For one second, he caught my eye over her head. “Wizards work with the earth’s natural powers, but I deal with the supernatural.” The wood nymph thought this over. Evrard frowned at me and I wondered if he was jealous.

“Would you like to come back to my tree with me?” she asked. “I would like to learn more about priests.”

Now Evrard was definitely jealous.

“I don’t think I had better, my daughter,” said

Joachim. No one who didn’t know him as wel as I did would have realized he was smiling.

“But I have strawberries and the sweetest honey,” she said, looking at him with dancing violet eyes. Soon, I thought, the round priest would explode, which would leave only two priests trying to appropriate Saint Eusebius’s relics. ‘ We could eat my berries and drink spring water while you explained the supernatural to me. Only humans, out of al of nature, have access to eternity, but only a few of you know very much about it.”

“A visit with you sounds delightful, but I stil must refuse. Thank you very much for an offer I am sure you have extended to few men.”

“Isn’t it only hermits who wil refuse an invitation to a nymph’s tree?”

“Priests, too, my daughter,” said Joachim gently.

“And you aren’t even in love with anyone,’ she said thoughtfuly.

“I have taken an oath to foresake al sins of the flesh.”

Her eyes danced again. “But Saint Eusebius explained that to me! Because I am not human, I have not falen and, therefore, cannot sin any more than I can be saved.” It sounded to me as though she had a point. But the chaplain did not hesitate.

“You cannot sin, but I can.” She nodded slowly but looked puzzled again. Joachim paused and then asked what I would have asked the nymph myself if there had been the slightest indication she would listen to anyone but him. “Is there a way you can help us catch the inhuman monster that is now in the valey?”

She shook her head so hard her hair swung in an arc behind her. “The magical creature that broke these branches? No! Trees I know, and hermits, and wizards, and now priests. But I do not know inhuman monsters.” She leaped up and caught a branch. But just before she swung up and out of sight, she leaned

forward, kissed Joachim lightly on the forehead, then was gone.

I watched the three priests fighting back a number of things they might have said. Disconcerting as they clearly found the Dishop’s representative, they just as clearly did not dare irritate him.

“Shal we join the hermit up at the shrine?” he said to them, perfectly soberly.

If they nad business at the shrine, I thought, squaring my shoulders, I had business with an inhuman monster which the wood nymph might not know, but my predecessor knew al too wel.

The old wizard was stil standing by the cave entrance. “Was your creature drawn here by the magic forces of the valey, Master?” I asked. I didn’t tel him he had just missed the wood nymph, not wanting him as wel as Evrard jealous of a priest with no interest in what she offered.

“There certainly are magical forces here, as I thought you knew,” he said grumpily. “In most of the western kingdoms, the forces that created the world in the first place are not very evident, unless wielded by a wizard. But in a few places they’re stil very strong: the northern land of wild magic especialy, but also in a few pockets like this valey. That’s why the wood nymph is here. And that’s why I thought I’d better come here when my creature got loose.

“I know al about the magical forces here. They’ve kept me here for two days.”

‘Don’t blame it on ‘magical forces,’” said the old wizard with a snort. “A wizard may find the raw power of magic appealing or seductive, but this valey couldn’t hold you against your wil. You were just having too much fun with the wood nymph.