Mage Quest - Wizard of Yurt 3 (6 page)

Al of us except the bandits were breathing hard when we reached the top of the cliff and entered the castle itself through another door. We came into a great hal, wel lit by tal windows looking out in al directions across the countryside.

“They can afford windows, being up so high,” I heard Dominic say appreciatively to Ascelin. “In Yurt, al our windows open onto the courtyard.” But I was thinking about the bandits rather than castle architecture. Was it because they been captured and brought here for justice so many times that they had known where the stairs were and had been able to climb them so readily, even with daggers pressed against then-necks? If so, why had they not yet been hung?

The constable of the castle came forward, looking at us with wide eyes. “What—what is it that you want?”

King Haimeric greeted him formaly and told him what had happened. I was pleased to note that he did not say that he was king of Yurt; maybe he, like me, was starting to wonder if the castelan had made some nefarious pact with the bandits.

“And so,” finished the king, *\ve are bringing these bandits to your lord for judgment.” The three bandits, listening, al looked unaccountably amused.

“You caught these men,” said the constable, “but you aren’t trying to ransom them? You brought them here—you brought them so that the lord of this castle might exercise justice?”

“That’s what I said,” said the king patiently.

“But—”

The leader of the bandits answered for the constable. “But I am lord of this castle.”

There was a short silence while we al struggled to keep our faces straight. “In that case,” began King Haimeric sternly, “I must warn you, as an aristocrat and a giver of justice, to stop your wicked attacks on the defenseless.”

It was no use. Dominic took the king firmly by the arm and we al got out the door and staggered down the stairs somehow. Even Joachim was laughing as we tumbled out into the courtyard.

But as we galoped away from the castle, I couldn’t help glancing back. The castelan s initial reaction had been the same amusement that convulsed us al, but he must also have been horribly shamed to appear before his men a bound captive. For the first time this trip, we may have come across a difficulty we could not simply leave behind.

Part Two. King Solomon’s

I

I awoke al at once and lay perfectly stil, waiting for whatever sound had wakened me to come again.

Inside the tent, it was pitch black and completely silent. I couldn’t even hear Joachim’s breathing. But then I heard the faintest creak from his side of the tent; he must have heard the sound as wel and was leaning on his elbows, listening.

It came again, the sharp crack of a broken twig folowed by muffled hushing sounds. Our tents were pitched in a little grove, and someone, or something, was creeping up on us.

I was out of the tent with a quick scramble and was hit by air so cold I immediately wished I had brought a blanket with me.

But there wasn’t time to go back. Where was Dominic? It should be his watch. Shivering in my pajamas, I crept toward the edge of the grove, straining to see.

Hie moon, three days past the ful, hung red and deformed-looking above me. In its pale light I could at last see Dominic, a dim and bulky form. He moved his head as though he too had heard something.

Before I could speak or move closer, there was a dul thunk as of leather hitting bone, a grunt, then Dominic pitched forward. Behind him stood a smaler figure, arm upraised.

I yeled, a magicaly amplified yel that shook the trees, and I filed the grove with a great flash of light. The light was gone in two seconds—even the best magic light needs to be attached to something solid.

But before it faded I had seen four startled and frozen figures, and Dominic’s body facedown on the ground.

If they remained stil for five seconds, I had them. I threw out coils of magic, shaped with the Hidden Language to make thin air into bindings as strong as cord. My binding spel wrapped around the four, imprisoning them. It was not as thorough as a paralysis spel, but I didn’t have quite enough time for a paralysis spel.

I tried another flash of light and saw that I had al four. It must be, I realized, no more than a minute since I had scrambled out of the tent. In spite of the cold, I had to wipe my forehead with a pajama sleeve.

Magic, especialy rapid magic, is hard work

But what had happened to Dominic? I groped toward him, then saw the rest of our party emerging. Hugo and Ascelin had swords in their hands, but the king, more usefuly, had brought a lantern.

With the lantern’s light, I found the royal nephew and bent over him. He was breathing loudly, eyes shut. As I watched, his eyes flickered, and his fists clenched. Not dead then, I thought gratefuly, as I took the jacket Joachim handed me.

“Look at this!” caled Hugo, who had gone back for a lantern of his own. “It’s the same bandits!”

Indeed it was the same bandits, their faces distorted by the shadows cast by a lantern at their feet Struggling unsuccessfuly against the binding spel, they glared at us silently.

“What was your intention?” the king asked them sternly. “We let you go today out of courtesy to other aristocrats, but what sort of honorable and aristocratic behavior is this? Were you going to take vengeance on us for humiliating you by slitting our throats while we slept?”

Dominic abruptly sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He tried to lurch to his feet, but Ascelin kept him seated with a hand on his shoulder.

“We weren’t going to slit anybody’s throat,” protested the leader.

I wasn’t at al sure I believed him. I was coming close to Hugos point of view, that the best thing to do might be to kil them.

“It’s the middle of the night,” said Ascelin. “Let’s leave them to learn some sense by standing bound by the wizard’s spels for a few hours. Then we can question them in the morning.”

“It would have been my watch soon anyway,” I said, “so I’l keep an eye on them while the rest of you get some sleep.” Hugo clearly would have preferred to do something spectacular and warlike, but he contented himself with rounding up the bandits’ horses and tying them to a branch. In a moment our party returned to the tents, Dominic assisted by Ascelin.

Watching the two princes in the flickering light of the lantern the king held for them, I thought that it was good to see them managing to get along with each other on this trip. When they had first met, nearly eight years ago, they had detested each other. But then Dominic, always a snob, had not known at the time that Ascelin was a prince.

Our camp became quiet again, and I added a few details to the binding spels that held the bandits. It is possible to break out of an improperly made binding spel, and I had puled the magic together very rapidly. I didn’t want to paralyze them, however, even if that would have held them more securely, because I wanted them to remember this experience.

They soon stopped struggling and gave up cursing me a snort time later when I did not answer. What was I going to do with them? The school made us swear enormously solemn oaths to help mankind, but it only taught us magic, when at the moment, what I felt I needed most to know was how to deal with people unlike any I knew in Yurt The moonlight made the stars pale in the center of the sky, but from where I was sitting, I could see the Hunter striding low over the horizon. Soon he would be gone from the sky for the summer.

We certainly couldn’t kil the bandits in cold blood, even if they had crept up on our tents planning to ldl us. We were stil in the orderly western kingdoms, not much more than three weeks away from Yurt, and there were legal methods for dealing with such things. But I didn’t like the idea of loading them onto the packhorses again, then trying to find a nearby castle that exercised high justice—other than the castle of the bandit leader himself.

The night dragged on. In a marginaly successful attempt to stay warm, I rekindled the fire over which we had cooked supper. I kept yawning, but I was shivering too much to doze. It would have been Joachim’s watch next, but I let him sleep, not wanting to leave him with the responsibility for guarding bandits restrained by magic. After a while, the eastern stars gradualy faded as the horizon grew gray.

I heard a rustle from the tents and looked up to see the king and his lantern approaching. He sat down next to me, puling his cloak around him.

“Go back to your tent, sire,” I said. “I won’t be making the morning tea for another hour.”

^ couldn’t sleep anyway,” said King Haimeric with a shrug. “We have to deeide what to do with the bandits.”

I could see them faintly now, ten yards away, standing as stiffly as if they were tied to trees. The long cold night, I hoped, would have sobered them. “We can’t very wel have them folowing us al the way to the Holy Land,” I said quietly. “But I don’t understand it. Why would a castelan turn to banditry?”

“I don’t know,” said the king in a worried voice. “I realize we’re not in Yurt anymore, but it’s stil very strange.”

“Short of kiling them, I don’t see what we can do that won’t make them feel even more humiliated and even more bent on vengeance.”

“We can give them some tea,” said the king. “They’ve had a cold night of it. Since you’ve got the fire going anyway, put on the kettle.” This made no sense at al. I stared at him a moment in the lantern light, then went to fil the kettle. He was, after al, my king.

In a few minutes, when the tea was brewed, we walked over to the bandits. “We weren’t going to slit any of your ttiroats,” the leader growled. “I hope you realize we wouldn’t rob a caravan for a few baubles or a few bolts of frippery, and we aren’t murderers, eidier. We just wanted to teach you a lesson.”

“That was my nephew you knocked on the head,” said the king gravely. “He may look at al this differendy. But at the moment he’s asleep. Would you like some tea before he wakes up? It can’t have been comfortable standing here al night. Wizard, could you release the bindings enough so that diey can drink?”

I adjusted my spel to alow them a little arm motion. The king put tin cups of scalding tea into tieir hands. They drank slowly, looking at us dioughtfuly over the rims. In the lantern light and the beginning of dawn, diey would have seen two white-bearded men, one very slighdy built.

“Al right,” said the king sternly, taking back the empty cups. “I believe you. I won’t ask you what kind of lesson you planned to teach us, because I’m quite sure I won’t like the answer. An aristocrat like you should know better. Your own fields and your rents should provide you plenty of income widin the law—to say noding of the proceeds of justice.” The leader of the bandits looked at King Haimeric shrewdly. “So you didn’t find it eidier, eh?’

I had no idea what he was talking about and I doubted the king did either, but that didn’t stop him. “Of course not. You seem to imagine that we ransacked the silk caravan after my wizard paralyzed you, but instead we sent it safely on its way. If you’re looking for caravan loot, you won’t find it in our camp. Do you employ a wizard?” I was having trouble keeping up with the king’s line of reasoning and, from the looks on their faces, so were the bandits.

“No,” said the leader, eyeing me warily.

“If we let you leave with your lives,” I said, hoping this fit in with whatever King Haimeric was doing, “and I say if, hire a wizard at once.” The king gave me a quick look, and I realized it was probably not his intention after al to urge them to take on a new employee. But it was too late to stop now. “A real wizard,” I continued, “one from the school in the great City.” A school-trained wizard would certainly be able to stop them from preying on any more merchant caravans—unless, of course, he ended up with his own throat slit. But he’d do much better than a magician, someone who had picked up a little of the Hidden Language here and there and might see nothing wrong with banditry.

“I asked if you had a wizard,” said King Haimeric, puling his eyebrows into a frown, “because I wanted to be sure you understand the lesson that we wil teach you if you folow us again. My own wizard wil turn you al into frogs.”

It had been ten years since the disastrous transformations practical, and I had long since worked out where I had gone wrong with those frogs. I watched King Haimeric’s face, knowing he was going to expect some spectacular display of magic in a moment.

“Don’t pay any attention to him,” said one of the bandits to the leader. “He’s just bluffing.”

That made it al very simple. I turned that one into a frog.

The king laughed, a quite genuine laugh. “Anyone else think the wizard is bluffing?” He picked up the bulfrog that had been a bandit a moment ago and held it out toward the rest with both hands.

The bulfrog looked up at them with wide, confused eyes, then gave a sudden booming croak. After a moment of stunned silence, the other three bandits began to look at each other with poorly suppressed smiles.

“Turn him back to himself, Wizard,” said the king.

In a moment, I had him a person again, and I quickly restored the binding spels around him. His throat continued to pump like a frog’s for a few seconds, which now set the other bandits laughing.

“Any tea left, Wizard?” asked the king. We gave them al another cup.

“Now,” said the king when they had finished—two even thanked us—“it’s almost day. My knights, the ones who overpowered you yesterday, wil be up shortly. They may not look at this incident as tolerantly as we do—especialy my nephew. But we’re on a pilgrimage and it’s important to return good for evil when one is on a pilgrimage. Therefore, I’m going to let you go.” I stopped myself just in time from objecting.

“But I want you to remember,” said the king very seriously, “not to attack any more merchant caravans and,” glancing toward me, “to hire yourself a competent wizard at the first opportunity. And certainly don’t try to folow us again. If you do, not only wil my wizard turn you into frogs, he wil have a dragon attack you first.” This, I feared, realy was a bluff. I certainly couldn’t summon a dragon from the land of wild magic.

The bandits seemed to be taking no chances. They agreed readily, and when I broke the spels that held them, they went at once to their horses. As they mounted, I heard one cal another “Froggie,” with an accompanying slap on the shoulder. The sound of galoping hooves brought the rest of our party out into the dawn.