Mage Quest - Wizard of Yurt 3 (25 page)

“But I didn’t!” the boy protested. It was his absence of fear or even respect that was perhaps the most irritating. “I led him to the Thieves’ Market, just as he asked, to someone who had the ring he wanted to buy.”

“He led me to Kaz-alrhun, who took the parchment I’d found in Dominic’s father’s ring,” I said. “Don’t tel me the boy then offered to help you find me.”

“At least we didn’t pay him yet,” said Hugo.

“And you didn’t pay me yet, either, Mage!” said Maffi, turning his bright eyes toward me.

Ascelin shook his head, lifted the boy off the ground, and tossed him away. Maffi landed in a heap but sprang up at once. I’l be around if you want to hire me again!” he caled and scampered off.

I sighed Td been about to turn him into a cockroach, but it’s too much effort.”

“Since we’re leaving Xantium tomorrow,” said Ascelin, “Sve shouldn’t have to see him again.”

The king and Dominic have been trying to get in to see the governor,” said Hugo as we started walking through the narrow city streets, “and the chaplain’s gone to talk to the bishop, but none of them thought they’d have much success. We were al going to meet back at the inn in a little while. Ascelin and I had been trying—without any luck—to get some sense out of the people in the Thieves’ Market when MafB

found us.”

I was touched that they had al been concerned for me. But if the king was having trouble getting to see the city’s governor to tel him about the very real disappearance of a wizard, then there was no hope for the vague plan I had made on the way back to Xantium, of enlisting the governor’s help to deal with what might be a political plot so vague I couldn’t even explain it to myself. “We may—though probably not

—now own the ebony horse. I’l tel you about it once I have something to eat.”

VI

The sun-drenched road from Xantium to the Holy Land led southeast across a tawny landscape. I could see I would have to revise upwards my ideas of far, dry, and hot. Away to our left, we could see the trade route along which silk from the Far East came after a journey of thousands of miles to this end of the Central Sea, after being transferred to several or even dozens of different caravans.

Hugo pushed back the hood of his cloak to let the wind ruffle his hair. “It’s good to be on the road again!” he said. “Once we find my fadier, let’s keep on going, right across the desert, down to the jungles of the ultimate soudi, or else off to the Far East where diey eat nodingbut spices!”

Whirlwind was nervous and resdess after two days in the stables of the inn and two weeks before that on board ship. After trying unsuccessfuly to hold his chestnut stalion in, Dominic finaly said, I’l be back!” and took off at a galop.

Ascelin, being on foot, did not need to keep to the road. For the first mile he was almost as ful of resdess energy as the stalion, ranging ahead, climbing up on the rocks on eidier hand for a better look into the distance, stooping to examine an odd print. But then he came back to the pace the king had set with his mare and strode beside me.

Tm wondering about someding,” I said to him, looking off toward the trade route. “Arnulfs agents suggested that an Ifrit had attacked a silk caravan east of Xantium, but Arnulf himself told us that it was specificaly his caravans that were attacked. I would have drought diey weren’t his caravans until his agents in the city had bought the silk from whoever transported it from the east.”

“I haven’t believed anyding Arnulf told us yet,” said Ascelin.

“But the agents did confirm his story about a caravan’s disappearance,” I objected, “even if diey did say it was only one caravan.” Before I could pursue this further, Hugo caled out. “Wizard, come look! I dunk diere’s someding very strange in here!” He had stopped abrupdy, looking back at the packhorse he was leading. I swung down from my mare and approached slowly, probing with magic. There was certainly someding alive in one of the packs.

And I diought it was human. Ascelin and I carefuly unbuckled the straps thatheld the tents, then abruptly let them drop to the ground. A startled cry came from within their folds. Ascelin poked at the canvas with his foot. It unroled further and a shaggy black head emerged.

“Greetings, my masters!” said Maffi, looking at us with shining eyes. “May God be praised, it is good to be out in the air again.”

“I thought we’d seen the last of you,” said Ascelin in disgust.

“I didn’t have a chance to tel you when we met yesterday evening,” said Maffi to me, ignoring the prince, “but I found the ring you wanted!”

“liar,” muttered Ascelin.

But I said, “Wait,” as he reached for the boy. “Maffi, are you trying to say that the ring Kaz-alrhun told me he wanted for his flying horse actualy exists?”

“Of course it does,” he said with a bright smile, putting his hand into his pocket. “And here it is!”

I took the ring from him slowly. It was an onyx in a plain gold setting. Most startling of al, carved into the stone in tiny but clear letters was the word “Yurt.” I probed it with magic. There was certainly some land of spel attached to the onyx. It seemed virtualy new, even its tiny crevices free of dust. I held the ring carefuly on my palm and looked across it to Maffi.

“So did I do wel, my masters? Wil you reward me handsomely?”

“Tel me where you got this,” I said evenly. Al my previous assumptions were crumbling. It had seemed unlikely al along that the bandits who had stolen Claudia’s package from us would sel it to someone who would bring it to the Thieves’ Market in Xantium. It now seemed more unlikely than ever.

“I stole it from Kaz-alrhun last night,” said Maffi with a grin.

“Kaz-alrhun told me he wanted a ring which, in fact, he already had,” I replied, “and which, completely by coincidence, he had acquired through the thieves’ network. And you stole it after leading me to him so he could ship me out of the city. Is that what you’re trying to tel me?”

Dominic came galoping back at this point, his stalion damp with sweat but not breathing particularly hard. He started to speak but stopped when he saw the boy. “Good,” said Maffi, glancing up at him. “I was afraid you’d decided to leave one of your party behind in Xantium. That would not have been a good idea. Nice horse, by the way.”

“You haven’t answered my question,” I persisted.

“You’re from Yurt, aren’t you? That’s why I thought you’d want this ring. Give me something to drink and I’l tel you the whole story.” While Ascelin gave him a waterskin, I probed the ring again. Because magic is a natural force, a spel is often hard to recognize unless it is actualy in action. But the onyx seemed imbued, unexpectedly, with school magic. It was powerful magic, too, the work of a master wizard.

“If you stole this ring from Kaz-alrhun,” I tried again, “do you know when he acquired it?”

Maffi gave me a mischievous look. He was enjoying this. But for a change he gave me a straight answer. “He acquired it yesterday morning, about an hour before I met you at the church of the Holy Wisdom.”

I wondered if this could possibly be true. “Yet when you took me to buy the ring, you didn’t tel me that I’d be buying it from Kaz-alrhun ....” I didn’t have time to pursue the issue of how thoroughly Maffi had deceived me. Apparently, I was not alone. “Who did he acquire the ring from?”

“I don’t know his name,” said the boy, taking another pul of water and looking troubled for the first time. “I’d never seen him before. He was richly dressed in the western style, even though he wore a dark cloak that he probably thought would mislead thieves. He had iron gray hair and a look about him that somehow, wel, suggested a mage. Not like you, my master!” he added brightly.

I didn’t have time to wonder if this last comment was meant as an insult “King Warm,” I said.

“You can’t mean that!” said King Haimeric unhappily. That would mean he realy did set those bandits on us.”

But this was not news to any of the rest of us, even if Warin did feel more comfortable preserving some of his prestige among his felow kings by hiring out his dirty work. “So Arnulf did send a ring with us to buy the magic horse,” said Ascelin, “and King Warin, wanting the horse himself and knowing the price was the ring, stole it from us. This seems to be a ring destined to be stolen, if this boy stole it from Kaz-alrhun after Warin gave it to the mage.”

“Then if the mage was stil in Xantium when he lost the ring last night,” I said, “it could not have been him, leaving Xantium on a flying horse, that I thought I saw yesterday afternoon in the sandstorm. It must have been Warin.”

“But how would Warin have heard about the flying horse?” asked Dominic.

That wouldn’t be difficult,” said Hugo. “If Arnulfs agents here heard about it, then King Warm’s agents must have as wel.”

“Why would Warin have agents in Xantium?” protested the king, but no one was listening.

“Did Arnulfs agents tel Warm’s agents to steal the ring from us?” suggested Dominic darkly.

“So Warin folowed us East,” said Ascelin, “and arrived just after we did. Does he have the flying horse now, boy?”

“Kaz-alrhun does not have it any more,” said Maffi crypticaly and gave another grin. “How about some food? When I realized Kaz-alrhun wasn’t going to take the loss of his ring with his usual good humor, I had to come to your inn so quickly I didn’t have time for dinner—or for breakfast!”

Dominic gave him bread and dried fruit. “Does

King Warin have the ebony horse?” Ascelin demanded again.

“I already told you he did,” said Maffi ingenuously

I hoped briefly but improbably that Kaz-alrhun had not told Warin the secret of the different pins and that the king had been unable to work it out for himself. Instead I tried to concentrate on the question of how King Warin had learned there was a flying horse for sale, and that the price was a magic ring from Yurt—or, at least, a ring carved with the kingdom s name. The onyx ring was heavy in my hand.

“I think I understand,” said Dominic suddenly. “Arnulf had somehow heard about my ruby snake ring. Because he knew he had no way of getting it, he had this ring made by a goldsmith and hoped to pass it off to the mage instead of mine.”

“But the onyx ring can’t have the same magic properties yours does,” objected Hugo.

“Perhaps you al are right,” the chaplain said slowly, “and my brother did send that ring with me, by way of his wife, because he was ashamed to tel me openly what he wanted. I shal forgive him the deception, but I now find myself less eager to stop and visit him again on the journey home.”

“Wait,” said Ascelin, flicking his eyes sideways toward Maffi, who was peacefuly finishing off his dried fruit. “Are you sure we should be discussing this, when ...” But Dominic shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what the boy hears or what he guesses, because he’s going with us. He won’t dare go back to Xantium after his latest theft, and we need to keep him under our eyes ourselves.”

Ascelin immediately objected, but I did not listen. I was rather thinking about the chaplain’s brother, Arnulf.

Someone—the mage, King Warin, Elerius, perhaps Amulf himself—had started the search for a magic ring from Yurt by looking among the disordered bones in Dominic’s father’s tomb. But when it became clear that the real magic-imbued ring was not readily available, Arnulf had had the nearest wizard cast the spels for a substitute magic ring.

He and his family had never kept a wizard. Therefore, when Arnulf heard that an ebony flying horse was for sale, one that would alow him to fly to wherever the Black Pearl was concealed and get away again, and that the price was a magic ring, he had had to go in search of a wizard—perhaps the same wizard he had already hired a decade earlier to instal his magical telephone system.

The wizard he found was the royal wizard of a kingdom not very far away, a kingdom located in the foothils of the eastern mountains. Arnulf had had the onyx ring made for him by Elerius.

I stared at the ring in my hand, not liking this at al. There was nothing unusual in a royal wizard performing such a task for someone without a wizard in his service, as long as it did not interfere with his own responsibilities. It had been a piece of luck for Arnulf that the nearest wizard just happened to be the one who was probably the finest graduate the school had ever produced. Arnulf must have offered him something quite extraordinary in return. I wondered uneasily what.

And Elerius would certainly have told his master, King Warm, what he had done. At the time, the king might not have found it significant. By the time he realized he wanted a magic ring himself, Elerius had moved on. So Warin had waited, knowing that sooner or later the onyx ring would make its way toward the east. He had, I remembered, written to King Haimeric about the blue rose and urged the king to stop and visit him on his trip. He had known there was something special about Yurt, that it had something to do with the ring Amulf had requested from his wizard. It must have seemed an answer to a prayer when we stopped by directly from Arnulf s house.

Or perhaps not a prayer, I said to myself, remember—

ing Evrard’s veiled warning that he had seen the king engaged in the black arts, but something much more ominous.

I mentaly shook off this thought. Elerius had taken the same oaths to help mankind as did al wizards; the best pupil the school had ever had was not going to dabble with demons or assist his master in crime.

After al, I reminded myself, he had been off to a new post many kingdoms away by the time Warin set his bandits on us. I did not feel as reassured by this as I would have liked.

Ascelin stood up, breaking my train of thought. “Then if the boy’s coming with us, we’d better start on our way again.”

“First,” said Dominic, “I want to show you something I found, just a little way down the road.”

We folowed him for a half mile, then he puled up his stalion and pointed. Cut deeply into the stone by the side of the road was a sign, that could have been an X and could have been a cross.

This then must be where my brother’s caravan disappeared!” said Joachim.

“And look at this,” said Dominic, pointing. Cut below the cross, rather shakily, was something much smaler that might have been the letter Y. “Is this for Yurt?” Ascelin stood with his hands on his hips, looking back toward Xantium. “Whatever it is, we’d better move on quickly. Kaz-alrhun wil soon guess what happened to his ring if he doesn’t already know. Hugo, take the boy up behind you on your horse.”