Mage Quest - Wizard of Yurt 3 (42 page)

I pictured the original six of us as we had set out in early spring, al the equipment which was now in the hands of the emir’s soldiers carefuly packed on our horses, when our worst danger was the lord of the red sandstone castle and when I had not yet discovered school magic in the spels of an evil king. I agreed with Hugo; I wished our trip was not ending but would continue forever.

But the thought of Yurt and the king’s garden, where he would soon be planting his new rose, was also abruptly sweet. The forested hils of Yurt would be turning yelow and red; the air would have the tang of fresh apples.

“It’s going to be a long trip, even with a flying carpet,” commented Ascelin.

“Do you think you can get al of us onto your carpet?” Dominic asked Kaz-alrhun. “With it we’l be able to cross the desert even without our horses and supplies. Let’s stop at that oasis, however, and see if my stalion is stil where the boy left him! If we leave the two of you in Xantium, we can then fly on to the western kingdoms. I’m certain our wizard wil be able to work the carpets spels.”

“If the carpet can get us over the mountains,” continued Ascelin, “we can go straight from Xantium to the great City and drop off Sir Hugo’s party there and then the rest of us can continue on to Yurt. We’l send the carpet back to you once we’re home.”

The chaplain nodded slowly. “Yes, it wil make more sense for me to come to Yurt with al of you at first. From there I’l go on to the cathedral city of Caelrhon after a few days.” I turned my head to stare at him. Joachim was wrapped up in his desert robes and his dark eyes were shadowed, but he must have caught my expression. “Didn’t I tel you, Daimbert, before we left Yurt this spring? The bishop agreed that I should indeed make the pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the king. But as soon as we’re back, I shal have to resign as Royal Chaplain and go to join the priests of the cathedral chapter.”

Then the home we were returning to would not be the home we had left. The Yurt I had always known was a kingdom with Joachim as Royal Chaplain. I reminded myself that I, too, was different, both in my knowledge and in my magic. It didn’t help.

“So wil you alow us to borrow your carpet,” Dominic said to Kaz-alrhun, “to get ourselves and King Solomon’s Pearl back to Yurt?” Kaz-alrhun roled his black eyes at him. “Are you certain it is as easy as that?”

“Why, are you worried about how we’l share the Pearl’s powers if you stay in Xantium and we take it to Yurt?” Dominic frowned and looked toward the king. “I’m sure if you wanted to come to Yurt with us, then ...”

Kaz-alrhun shook his head and looked briefly amused. “I mean that it wil not be as easy to take the Pearl home with you as you seem to think. It is the way of God to raise up nothing of this world, except He cast it down again. For a while yet, the Pearl may continue to bring you your heart’s desire. But if you take it to Yurt now, spattered with the blood of a man kiled for it, it wil soon cease to make you prosper, and instead wil put you under a curse that wil blight your entire kingdom.”

VI

We met each other’s eyes in dismay. “Then take it to Xantium,” said Dominic.

Kaz-alrhun shook his head, stil looking amused. “I want Xantium to continue to prosper and I am already the greatest mage the city has ever known, even without the Pearl. It would have been an even greater triumph to be able to learn how to control its magic, but I did find it. I deliberately did not tel you to search the Wadi, did not touch the ruby with its opening spels, and stood back when you took the Pearl out of the cave. I knew its potential perils, and its curse should not touch me. I wil not take it.”

“But what was I supposed to do?” Ascelin burst out. “Should I have stood by while King Warin tried to kil Dominic?”

“And should I have just told Ascelin to let Warin go, so that he would be accursed instead?” demanded Dominic.

“There was, after al, an excelent reason,” Kaz-alrhun replied, “why the caliph renounced the Pearl and al its powers a thousand years ago.” Dominic took a deep breath and placed the Black Pearl on the sand in front of him. The smooth dark surface winked in the firelight. “Then I shal renounce it also,” he said after only the shortest pause. “Let it remain here with the Ifrit or back within the Wadi where we found it.”

We were al silent for a moment, then Joachim said quietly, “In this falen world, no man, even the wisest, could consistently do good if he could wield this much power. To lock it away may have been the wisest decision Solomon ever made.”

Dominic shrugged, as though trying to reestablish normalcy. “If there isn’t enough room on your carpet for al of us when we leave here, Mage, maybe we could put the overflow on your flying horse. Or is it your horse anymore?” he added with a forced chuckle. “Someone certainly has bought it from you by now, maybe the chaplain s sister-in-law.” We waited for Kaz-alrhun to answer, then I realized he was slowly shaking its head. “It is much too late to renounce the Black Pearl that easily. It was taken from its hiding place by a prince of Yurt. After Warin stole it a duke of Yurt kiled him to recover it. Its curse wil affect Yurt whether it is with you or back in the Wadi.” For a moment we sat in silence, trying to imagine a curse on Yurt: the green hils becoming parched, fires ravaging the fields, blizzards kiling the livestock, the bandits who almost never bothered us appearing on the highways, fatal disease spreading and infecting the children, both the children of vilagers and the children of kings and princes.

“There has to be a way,” said Dominic abruptly. “This is a flawless pearl, beyond al price. It was a gift to King Solomon from the Queen of Sheba, a gift to be treasured. If, as the mage says, blood and evil desires can pervert its magic, then there has to be a way to purify it again.”

I stared at the Pearl until its winking in the firelight set up a pattern within my brain, a pattern that suddenly made sense of that voice I had not quite been able to hear.

“There is a way,” I heard myself saying. “One of us wil have to the.”

Kaz-alrhun’s eyes met mine. “You surprise me, Daimbert. I did not think a western wizard would understand that.”

“The Pearl itself told me.”

This startled him again.

“The Pearl must again be hidden,” I said as though someone eke were speaking. “Inside its golden box, inside the locked cabinet, sunk in a derelict ship in the deepest rift of the Outer Sea. The Ifrit can take it there and with it shal go someone of Yurt. Then the curse wil be lifted. Yurt wil not prosper so thoroughly as it would have, by the Pearl’s grace, if no one had been kiled, but the free giving of a life wil break the curse brought about by violent death. And if the Pearl is found again, in five years or five thousand, the finder may, if he keeps free of evil, find his heart’s desire.” My voice rose and I spoke now for myself, not the Pearl. “The Ifrit says that al humans the senselessly and even you, Kaz-alrhun, sometimes speak as though you feel we have no ultimate control over our fate, that life has no more meaning than a game. But living and dying can have a purpose. King Warin, his soul given to evil, sought the Pearl even before we knew that was what we sought. He and his bandits almost kiled several of us to bring the Pearl’s powers into his own hands. He’s dead now, gone to the supernatural realm where his soul wil be surely judged. But even in the natural world, good can be brought out of evil and our hearts desire need not turn to a curse. A life that Warin couldn’t take by force wil be freely given and thus repair the evil he left behind.” I added, before I could realize what I was saying, “I myself shal accompany the Pearl to the deepest rift of the sea.” There were immediate protests and questions in eleven other voices. I put my hand over my eyes and wondered if I meant it and was afraid that I did.

Ascelin stood up, somewhat stiffly, and faced everyone else down. “I kiled Warin and brought the curse on al of you.” He met the chaplain’s eyes and gave a humorless smile. “The wizard is right that that evil must be repaired and I shal give myself to do so. Let’s get that Ifrit over here and do it now. When you’re home again, tel Diana I always loved her.” This brought immediately renewed protests. The Ifrit heard our raised voices and came over. Dominic was trying to outshout Ascelin, teling him, “You only kiled him because I told you to!” I kept silent, stil thinking it ought to be me and unable to say so a second time.

“So you’re competing for which one of you wil the?” the Ifrit asked me. “This is even more amusing than having those two little warriors fight each other.” The Ifrit’s wife came over, too, graceful and bare-breasted. The Ifrit perched her on his knee while continuing to folow the discussion as though watching a play.

“Ifrit,” I said suddenly, “this is realy a private conversation. I don’t think you should be listening. I know you find it amusing,” I went on quickly before he could object, “so I’l offer you a deal. Very shortly, one of us is going to accompany the Black Pearl to the deepest rift in the Outer Sea.” I took a deep breath, thinking it was stil most likely to be me, and pushed ahead. “If you’l agree to take him there, then you can listen while we decide which one of us it wil be.”

The Ifrit nodded but then frowned. “The last deal you made with me, you never upheld your end. I know my wife didn’t want your spels, but ...” His grumbling trailed off in his interest in the scene before him.

King Haimeric had risen to his feet, the only person who could have made everyone else fal silent. “I know you’re not my liege man, Ascelin,” he said, “so I cannot order you against your wil. But do not offer yourself to save Yurt. I thank you deeply, I know what you’re offering and I cannot let you do it. The penance for kiling Warin to save another’s life cannot be the loss of your own life.” Ascelin, who towered over him, tried fairly convincingly to shake his head, but the king was not finished. “Of al of us, you’re the only one who has not found his heart’s desire on this trip because, for you, the goal was the quest itself, to travel, find adventure and come safely home again. And besides,” with a smile, “I wouldn’t want to have to explain to the duchess that I’d let you the. No, Ascelin, if Yurt is to be freed from a curse, it must be freed by the king of Yurt.” Dominic jumped up again. “Or the royal prince!”

King Haimeric reached up to put his hand on his nephew’s shoulder. “I’m an old man anyway. Even if we manage to find a way to escape from this valey and make our way thousands of miles home again, I wil not live very much longer.” Yurt seemed to be changing every moment before my eyes, even if we did somehow reach it again. “Why do I need to live any more? I’ve gotten everything I ever wanted. I didn’t tel the queen when we left, but I never expected to see Yurt again.”

Dominic tried to interrupt, but the king waved him to silence. “Would not sacrificing myself for my kingdom make a fitting end for a delightful life?” finished King Haimeric, smiling at his stunned audience.

“Sire,” said Dominic again, “listen to me.” We al listened. Ascelin took a step back, looking both miserable and relieved. “I agree, sire,” said Dominic, very seriously, “that Yurt must be saved by a member of the royal family. And I know you’re growing old. But you have a wife who loves you and a little son who should be guided by you. I have nothing.

“No, let me speak!” as the king started to interrupt “I’ve spent my entire life preparing and waiting for a future that never came. You may now have everything you’ve ever wanted, but I’ve never had anything of my own. I have no wife, no child, and no crown. I had to find what my father wanted us to find, but I’ve done that now. And I’ve done it wrong: in rinding the Pearl, I put a curse on the kindom I love. This is my last chance to do something truly significant. If you won’t let me the to take the curse from Yurt, to give it whatever prosperity the Pearl may stil grant, then my life wil finaly end with no meaning at al.”

There was a few seconds’ silence, broken by the sound of the chaplain clearing his throat.

“And don’t try to tel me how sinful suicide is, Father!” Dominic cried. “This isn’t suicide because I’m not throwing away God’s gift of life from despair. Doesn’t it say in the Bible, ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ ? I would have cheerfuly died for Yurt in battle and this is no different. Now is my only chance to get the rest of you home alive, to a kingdom that wil always prosper.”

He looked from side to side in the twilight, appearing absolutely determined, and I knew we could not resist him in this.

But it didn’t keep us from trying. Al of us, from the king to Maffi, immediately began talking and shouting at once. Dominic ignored everyone except for Joachim, but he didn’t seem to agree with him, either.

The Ifrit spoke beside me. “This is getting boring again,” he said, absently stroking his wife’s hair. “But I have an idea how to liven it up.” He stretched out a hand. “I can get those soldiers back again.” The air shimmered al the way to the sky. A quarter mile away, uneasy but grim-faced, were the emir’s soldiers, their curved swords in their hands. In the dim and dusky landscape, the steel of their weapons and their white turbans seemed almost to glow.

“Evrard!” I said to him urgently and directly, mind to mind. “We need a magic shield!” But Evrard didn’t seem to know the spels I needed, and the shield I desperately tried to create just wasn’t working.

Dominic did not give me any further chance to put one together. “Ifrit!” he shouted, slamming the Pearl into its gold box and throwing it inside the cabinet, “lift me up! The Black Pearl can make do without an amphora this time. It and I are headed for the Outer Sea!” The cabinet’s lock clicked shut.

But when he hoisted it to his shoulder and sprinted toward the Ifrit, Ascelin tackled him around the legs. They roled together for a moment, grunting and trying to pin the other, while the Ifrit watched in interest.

Normaly Ascelin, a foot taler than Dominic and muscled from a long journey on foot, would have been able to outwrestle him easily. But he had in close succession fought Hugo, carried King Haimeric down the vertical side of the valey, and kiled King Warin.

Dominic jerked away just before Ascelin pinned him to the ground and got an arm around the tal prince’s neck long enough to squeeze the breath out of him. Then he jumped up and scrambled onto the hand the Ifrit held out for him.