A Bad Spell in Yurt - Wizard of Yurt - 1 (19 page)

I found the stranger's mind and almost fel over backwards with the impact. This was no il usion. The man's mind was looking for my own, ready to meet it, and his was total y evil. The distant, oblique touch of evil I had been feeling for months was no longer distant; it was here.

The rest ran after him, but I broke my mind away from that contact and sank back on the bench. Where had he come from? Why had he appeared in the castle now? What did he want with us?

I heard a step immediately next to me and whirled around. But it was not the stranger, only Gwen and Jon, coming toward me hand-in-hand.

"We wanted to tel you first, sir," said Gwen. "We've gotten engaged!"

It took me several moments to recover my composure enough to be able to say, "Congratulations!" without fearing it would sound like the gaspings of a fish. I decided it would be tasteless to ask if Jon had resorted to the long-threatened love potion or if he had won her with his own unaided charms; I assumed the latter.

"I know you may be a little surprised, after a few things I'd said," said Gwen with a smile up at Jon. "But when al of you left for the duchess's castle, Jon asked if I wanted to spend my vacation with him, visiting his mother, and I said I would. We worked everything out pretty quickly, then! Now, we'l have to tel the constable and get his permission to stay on once we're married. We'l want the chaplain to marry us in the castle chapel, of course."

"Of course," I said inanely.

"I just wanted to say something," Jon interjected. "A couple of times, sir, I was jealous of your attentions toward Gwen. I know it sounds sil y, and I'm real y embarrassed about it now, so I just wanted to apologize."

"That's quite al right," I said, feeling even more inane and watching the courtyard beyond them for a tal thin, form.

"Wel , I'm glad you don't hold it against me," said Jon with a grin. "I told my mother al about our glass telephones. I told her I'd let her know as soon as we had them working!"

"Yes, indeed," I said, standing up. I thought I saw a flicker of motion and wanted to investigate.

"We won't keep you, sir," said Gwen. "And I'l stil be bringing you your breakfast in the morning."

"In that case," I said in my gravest voice, "I want you to know that the girl who brought me breakfast this morning brought me a stale donut. And the tea was cold."

This sent both Gwen and Jon into gales of laughter, and they went off, stil holding hands, while I started walking as quietly as possible down the courtyard.

Here there were outside staircases leading up to some of the ladies' chambers. The angle of the sun was such that I was dazzled, looking up toward the chamber windows, shading my eyes and blinking. But between two blinks, I thought I saw the door of the Lady Maria's chamber opening and closing.

I ran up the stairs two at a time, rapped on the door, and opened it without waiting for an answer.

She was sitting by the window, sewing something lacy and pink. It appeared to be something a man shouldn't see, so I careful y kept my eyes from it.

She was, quite natural y, very startled. "What is it? What's happening?"

"Did someone just come in here?"

"No! Of course not," she said, staring at me with wide blue eyes.

I did not believe her. But I saw no one there now, and I couldn't cal her a liar to her face. "Excuse me, then," I said and backed out the door.

I scanned the courtyard from the landing but saw nothing. I refused to believe that the Lady Maria was acting from evil intent. I had touched her mind when we were experimenting with the telephones, even if very briefly, and I thought I should be able to tel if she had embraced the powers of darkness. But how did she know the stranger, and why was she lying?

I went slowly down the outside stairs, shivering again; I never had gotten my coat. Maria might perhaps be trying to shield somebody. She had told me she had "requested" certain magic favors, and I presumed she had requested them from someone in the castle. It would be that person, then, who had enlisted the stranger's help in practicing black magic. I stil had no idea who the stranger was, but I was suddenly convinced I knew who had wanted to cast the evil spel on the castle.

It had to be the queen. Ever since I had met her and had fal en in love with her, I had refused to harbor any suspicions against her, but there was no rational reason why I shouldn't. The Lady Maria, even if she guessed that her beloved niece was mixing dark supernatural powers with her magic spel s, would never al ow anyone else to suspect her. There stil seemed to be no easy explanation why the queen had married the king, unless she hoped in a few years to be a widowed queen, able to rule Yurt as she wished, never again having to fear being married off to someone she detested.

There was a cry of, "There he is!" from the far side of the castle, and the group of pursuers shot into view. The queen was in the lead, her skirts and shawl bil owing. Her long black hair had come unpinned and was flying out behind her. Dominic, the constable, and a group of knights ran close beside her. In another context, I would have found it hilarious.

I didn't see the stranger, although they had. He must have gotten by me, if indeed I had seen him here by the Lady Maria's door, and had not imagined it while dazzled by the sun. He clearly was able to make himself invisible if he wished, and he did not have my problem of invisibility stopping at the knees. He was certainly finding the chase hilarious.

It was wel past time for it to stop. I saw him then, walking quickly but unconcernedly along the parapets. I set my teeth and began preparing a paralysis spel .

A paralysis spel is complicated, and I had only ever cast one successful y once, over a year ago, when I had frozen another young wizard in the middle of the classroom. Then it had worked spectacularly wel , even though the instructor had spoken to me
very
firmly after class. I put the words of the Hidden Language together as rapidly as I could and cast it toward the stranger's retreating back.

This time the spel did not work at al . The stranger kept on walking, just as unconcernedly, and then either slipped into a doorway or made himself invisible again. I ran down into the courtyard to intercept the others.

They were al panting, even the queen, and quite wil ing to stop. "This person is a wizard," I said, even though I did not think of him as a wizard in the sense that I was one, or Zahlfast was, or the old Master in the city or my predecessor down in the forest. But it was too complicated at the moment to explain that this was someone able to walk through my best spel s--

and probably responsible for breaking my magic locks. "He's deliberately making us chase him, to tease us, because he knows he can always disappear when we get close."

"But can't you stop him with magic?" said the constable.

"His magic is nearly as strong as mine," I said. This was a wild understatement, but Dominic was glowering at me as though it were al my fault. "I'm trying to stop him, but it may take me a while. At the moment, I don't think he's doing any damage to the castle. But we don't want him to escape before I've had a chance to capture him and find out who he is and why he's come here."

I turned to Dominic. "Let me have the cel ar key. If I catch him, I'l lock him down there. Meanwhile, rather than amusing him by running around the courtyard any longer, let's stop until I've found a way to break down his magic defenses. But put a guard on the gate, to be sure he doesn't sneak back out."

Privately, I was rather hoping he would sneak back out. If he made himself invisible, he would have no trouble slipping past guards at the gate, unless they put the drawbridge up, which I didn't think they would do. I had never seen the bridge raised since coming to Yurt, and the rest of the castle servants weren't al back yet. And even then, this stranger who was impervious to a paralysis spel , which had taken the instructor five minutes to break the last time I used it, would have no trouble flying over the wal s.

The pursuers al agreed readily. Dominic handed me the rusty cel ar key without comment. Even the queen had had enough of this fruitless chase. But as she stood next to me, her bosom rising and fal ing with her rapid breaths, I again found it impossible to suspect her. If she had married the king in the hopes of being a widow soon, why had she nursed him so tenderly when he was il and been so grateful when he was healed?

The others went in search of lunch, but I got a coat from my chambers and sat down on a bench in the courtyard, where I could watch the gate. Dominic put two knights there to guard it as wel . I wished the chaplain would come back soon.

Several times during the afternoon I caught a glimpse of the stranger. New attempts at casting a paralysis spel on him had no more effect than had the first attempt. I did however miss with one of my efforts and catch one of the stable boys. He froze, as unmoving as wood, in the middle of the courtyard, and it took me ten minutes and a quick trip to my books to break the spel and free him. Fortunately, we were around the corner from the guards at the gate, and when motion suddenly returned to him he just shook his head, looked at me as though embarrassed to have gone into a sudden revery in my presence, and hurried back to the stables.

At one point in the afternoon I became so desperate that I decided to try to telephone Zahlfast. I got down one of my glass telephones, added a few spel s that I hoped might make it work this time, and spoke the number of the school telephone. But it worked no better than it had for Maria and me. I could see a young wizard answering it, but he could neither hear nor see me, and a moment he hung up with a gesture of irritation.

Al right, I thought. Zahlfast had told me that they didn't want the young wizards asking for help with every little problem anyway. I would have to solve this one myself.

I realized that, by refusing to chase the stranger, I was giving him the opportunity to talk at leisure to the Lady Maria or anyone else he wished, but I was fairly sure he would able to do whatever he wanted anyway, even with me close at his heels.

Several times, when he had not shown himself for twenty minutes or more, I hoped that he had gone, slipped back to wherever he had come from. But when, with trepidation, I tried probing for him, he was always there, a mind so evil that I was always shaken even when expecting it. He seemed deliberately to be mocking me. My spel s did not have any effect on him, but his very presence nearly paralyzed
me.

And then, very suddenly, he was gone. I did not see him, and I did not feel him. I probed delicately, then boldly, and found only the same oblique evil touch that I had long felt in the castle.

Not knowing whether to be jubilant or wary at this abrupt departure, I looked up and saw Joachim crossing the bridge into the castle.

I ran to meet him, looking with some apprehension up into his face.

He was actual y smiling. "The little boy is fine," he said as I helped him dismount. "I do not think he was ever dangerously il . The doctor's draught had, I believe, already put him wel toward recovery, and the vil age priest's prayers had assisted him long before I even arrived."

"That's wonderful," I said. It sounded inadequate, even in my own ears, but at least it was better than, "How nice," or, "Congratulations!"

"It looks like I'm even in time for supper," said Joachim, stil smiling. "I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood for one of our cook's excel ent dinners after the overspiced food we were served at the duchess's castle."

I carried his saddlebag up to his room for him, then left him to change and wash for supper while I returned to my chambers to do the same. At first I only felt an intense relief that he was back and the stranger gone. But while I was drying my face, I began to wonder how the two events were related. Perhaps his saintly presence was enough to drive away someone embroiled with evil, in which case I never wanted him to leave the castle again, no matter who might be sick in the vil age.

But perhaps in some way he
was
the stranger. This was such a terrifying thought that I froze with my face in the towel. I had never known of such a thing directly, but one heard stories and rumors. When he left, as the good, pious chaplain, perhaps he left behind his twin, evil, self, who then was able to run wild through the castle until the good self returned and the two were again united.

I shook the towel out with much more than necessary energy. This was the kind of story the young wizards liked to tel the new students when they first arrived. In any event, I was going to do my best to see that the good, pious chaplain did not leave again.

IV

The morning of the day of Christmas Eve dawned snowy, but by the time I had eaten my crul er and drunk my tea--both brought to my door satisfyingly hot by Gwen, who had a sprig of hol y in her hair--the sun had come out, and the snow in the courtyard sparkled like diamonds. It seemed almost a shame when the stableboys came out with big brooms to sweep it aside.

The duchess, the two counts, and the old wizard were coming that evening. Preparations for Christmas had kept everyone busy enough that they seemed to have forgotten about the elusive stranger and to be satisfied with my statement that he had vanished magical y in the late afternoon, and that while I stil did not know where he had come from, I was fairly confident he was not coming back.

An enormous fir had been cut in the forest the day before and set up in the corner of the great hal overnight, while the snow dried from its branches. Now, under the queen's supervision, the servants hoisted it upright at the head of the hal . Boxes of ornaments were brought out, and the queen and the Lady Maria spent much of the morning running up and down stepladders hanging the decorations. There were glistening silver stars, angels made of of lace and velvet, colored bal s that reflected the light, tiny wreaths made of straw, red velvet bows, and scores of tiny magic lights, made years ago by my predecessor. The king himself climbed on a ladder to help hang these deep in the branches of the tree, where they shone with a pure white gleam.