C Dale Brittain - Wizard of Yurt 3 - 1993 - Mage Quest

Brittain, C. Dale - Mage Quest

PART ONE

Quest

1

Christmas was over, and everyone was grumpy — that is, everyone except the

king.

King Haimeric of Yurt came back inside the castle from the courtyard. He had

been seeing off the king and queen of the neighboring kingdom who, with their

family, had spent Christmas with us. King Haimeric had a faint smile on his

lips

and a faraway look in his eyes, as though seeing well beyond the stone walls

of

the great hall. I noted irritably that many of the pine boughs hung on those

walls had started losing their needles.

"Wizard!" he called to me as he settled himself on his throne before the

roaring

fire and arranged his lap robe. "I've just heard something wonderful."

I pulled up a chair to sit next to him. The royal castle of Yurt had once been

a

defensible castle, a center of wars, but for the last several generations the

Christmas festivities were about as exciting as we got. Even the time we were

all attacked by a dragon, just as we finished opening the presents, had been

nine years ago. I really had eaten too much this last week or two, and the

weather had been bad enough that none of us had gotten much exercise beyond

walking to and from meals.

"So what have you heard?" I asked the king, feeling dull but trying my best

to

sound interested.

'The king of Caelrhon was just telling me very exciting news: someone has

developed a blue rose!"

It was going to be even harder to sound interested than I thought. "But I can

create a blue rose for you with magic any time you like. I haven't practiced

wizardry on your rose garden in the past because I assumed you liked doing

the

crosses yourself, but a new color shouldn't be hard."

I hesitated inwardly even while I spoke. An illusory blue rose would

certainly

be easy enough, but the color would shortly fade. I didn't know offhand a

spell

to change something's color permanently, much less to pass that color on to

the

next generation of roses, but I might be able to improvise something.

"Not a magical blue rose," said the king with a wave of his hand, "but a real

one."

I considered saying that, always assuming I could do the spells correctly,

the

color on my blue rose would be as "real" as the color on this rose he had

heard

about. But I hated to argue with my king. "I've never seen a blue rose," I

said

instead. It appeared I would be hearing quite a bit whether I wanted to or

not

and I might as well be agreeable about it. "Some of your deep red varieties

shade into violet, but that's not very close."

"That's right," said King Haimeric, then fell silent, staring into the fire.

I went into a reverie of my own. Maybe I wouldn't have to hear about this

rose

after all. At Christmas one was supposed to feel congeniality and love for

one's

fellow man, but I was instead having to fight against feeling dissatisfied

with

life in such a quiet little kingdom. I was just wondering if there were any

Christmas cookies left and, if so, if they had all become stale, when the

king

startled me so much that I forgot aH about being grumpy.

"I'm an old man and I've never been on a quest," he said. "I think it's about

time."

I was not an old man, in spite of the white beard which I kept hoping,

against

all evidence, gave me an

MAGE QUEST

air of wizardly wisdom. But I had never been on a quest, either. Perversely,

when I had just been thinking Yurt was too dull, going away from it suddenly

seemed too adventurous. The thought of leaving the royal castle, where we

were

comfortable and safe from the sleet, and starting off on some unknown but

doubtless highly dangerous journey filled me with horror.

But the king said nothing more about a quest, and in the following weeks I

decided it was just a momentary whim brought on by the mention of die blue

rose.

But the idea kept nagging at the back of my mind. In the nearly ten years I

had

been Royal Wizard of Yurt, King Haimeric had never been gone from the kingdom

for more than a month or so at a time and, for that matter,

neither had I.

I loved Yurt, but sometimes, unexpectedly, when sitting down to dinner with

the

same people I had sat down to dinner with for ten years or looking out across

a

snowy landscape, a vision came to me unbidden. Sometimes it was a complicated

vision of exciting experiences and adventures never met at home, but usually

it

was just a scene: riotous red flowers spreading their blooms beneath an

intense

sun; a bazaar where bright colors, foreign voices, and complex spicy odors

competed for attention; and palm trees swaying by an azure summer sea.

If the king was thinking of going on a quest, then the most horrifying

thought

was that he might go without me.

King Haimeric spent January as he usually spent January. His eyeglasses

perched

on his nose, he went through the rose catalogs that were shipped from the

great

City, studying the sketches of newly developed varieties and the extravagant

descriptions of their colors and scents. Haimeric loved his rose garden

second

only to the queen and their son — and probably the kingdom of Yurt itself —

and

I suspected his own new varieties were superior to anything the

4 C. Dale Brittain

City growers could produce. But that had never kept him from studying the

catalogs assiduously all winter or from sending off orders for new rootstocks

as

soon as the cold weather began to break

"Now this horse," said Prince Paul.

I had been thinking about the king and his roses while standing in the

stables,

but the boys voice brought me back quickly from my thoughts.

"All right," I said. "But remember not to kick or swing your feet. This

gelding's bigger than the mares, and you don't want to startle it."

It was warm and dusty in the stables, and the snow falling outside seemed

very

far away. I lifted the royal heir slowly straight up with magic, then

sideways

over the wooden gate of the stall. He stretched out his legs, remembering not

to

kick, as I set him down on the geldings broad back. The horse turned its head

in

some surprise to stare at him, but Paul stroked its mane and spoke

soothingly.

At age eight, the boy was already better with horses than I had ever been.

"Ready?" I said, then lifted him slowly up again, over the gate, and back

beside

me.

Paul grinned at me and I grinned back, with the schoolboy feeling of getting

away with something naughty. Paul was perfectly safe, I knew, and would not

fall

off even the biggest horse as long as my magic held him, but I was still

fairly

sure that, if asked, the queen would not have approved.

"Now this horse," said Paul.

"Wait a minute," I said. "We're not going to proceed through the entire

stable,

putting you on the back of every horse in Yurt."

"Well, you did agree, Wizard," he said, looking at me with calculating green

eyes, "that riding my pony wasn't going to prepare me for bigger horses."

"That stul doesn't mean I'm going to lift you onto every horse here. Choose

one

more, then we'd better stop."

MAGE QUEST

Paul walked down the row of stalls, considering. Gwennie, who had observed

him

silently so far, went after him.

They came back together. The chestnut stallion at the far end," said PauL

"Then

I promise not to ask any more."

"But that's your cousin Dominic's stallion. It's the biggest horse we have."

"I know," said Paul. "That's why I chose him. You promised!" he added when I

hesitated.

Prince Dominic, I was quite sure, would not approve of his young cousin

sitting,

even for a minute and even if very quietly, on his favorite stallion. But if

I

was willing to go along with Paul's game in spite of what the queen might

think,

I was certainly not going to worry about Dominic.

"All right," I said. "But this really is the last one."

Paul, Gwennie, and I went down to the far end of the stables. Several cats

came

to rub against our ankles, and Gwennie picked up and stroked a kitten.

Dominic's

stallion gave us what I would have called a surly look, but when I lifted

Paul

up onto his back he made no movement, though the skin twitched all along his

neck and side. The stables were very quiet with the only sound that of

tearing

hay as the norse in the adjoining stall pulled off a mouthful.

"Now me," said Gwennie.

"You want to get on the stallion, too?" I asked in surprise. Gwennie, the

castle

cook's daughter, was almost exactly the same age as Paul and would tag after

him

all day if her mother let her, but she had always seemed nervous around

horses.

'Tut her up behind me," said Paul. "We can pretend we're galloping across the

high plains, trying to get there in time to win the treasure."

I hadn't heard the story of the treasure of the high plains before, but Paul

was

always coming up with something new. 'lust be sure you sit very still while

pretending," I said.

C. Dale Brittoin

For a moment, I left Paul to stay on the stallion's back by himself and

turned

my magic to the girl. She was white-faced and sober, but when I hesitated,

she

said, "Come on!" as imperiously as the royal heir. I lifted her slowly and

gradually, using the words of the Hidden Language to guide her over the stall

gate and onto the stallion's broad back. I set her down with her legs

sticking

straight out and her face whiter than ever.

The horse shifted uneasily, feeling the sudden increase in weight. Paul kept

his

balance without even thinking about it. Gwennie took a firm grip around his

waist.

"Don't be so frightened," said Paul, not unkindly. "Now, we have to make it

to

the fortress by sunset or it will be too late. The sun is setting fast! Come

on,

Whirlwind!"

This was not in fact the stallion's name. I wasn't even sure Prince Dominic

had

given it a name. Paul, riding across the high plains on Whirlwind, at least

had

the sense not to dig in his heels.

But Gwennie, wanting to show Paul she was not frightened, suddenly kicked the

stallion in both flanks and let out a high whoop.

Dominic's stallion jerked hard against his headrope, trying to rear. When the

rope held him down, he lashed out with his heels against the wall. The wall

gave

a hollow boom, and the stallion kicked again.

Even Paul looked frightened. I held the children tight with magic and lifted

them together as rapidly as I dared without further startling the stallion. In

a

few seconds, they were out of the stall and back beside me.

I started to say something, to warn Gwennie that it was not a good idea to

kick

a high-strung stallion bred to carry someone who weighed well over two

hundred

pounds. But I looked at her face and realized any warning of my own would be

superfluous.

"We can continue the story of the treasure of the high plains up in the

nursery," Paul told her. His own

Mage Quest 7

color had come back almost immediately, but I was pleased that he showed no

signs of wanting to continue the story on a horse's back — at least, not yet.

The children were starting toward the stable door hand in hand, and I was

trying

to decide if the stallion, who had stopped kicking and merely gave me another

surly look, was indeed all right, when the outer door opened, letting in

daylight, a whirl of snowy air, and the constable.

Paul and Gwennie darted out, Paul giving me a conspiratorial grin over his

shoulder.

"There you are, Wizard," said the constable. 'The queen said you were with

Prince Paul. I should have known you'd all be in here with his pony."

We had, in fact, barely looked at Paul's shaggy little pony while in the

stables. "What is it?"

"You have a telephone call."

11

A wizard looked at me from the base of the magic glass telephone. The call

was

from Zahlfast, the head of die transformations faculty at the wizards' school

in

the great City. Even the tiny image of his face looked both irritated and

worried.

"Have you heard from Evrard?" he asked without preamble.

"Evrard?" I said in surprise. "I haven't talked to him in, what would it be,

a

year now. He was leaving on a trip."

"Well," said Zahlfast, "he hasn't been in touch with the wizards' school

since

he left, so I'd hoped you might know where he was."

Now that I thought about it, it was somewhat strange that I hadn't heard from

Evrard in so long. Nearly eight years ago, he had briefly served as wizard to

the duchess of Yurt and, although he had soon

8 C. Dale Brittain

returned to the City, we had always stayed in at least intermittent contact.

"I

would have thought he'd be back months ago," I said

"So would I," said Zahlfast. "A wizard can normally take care of himself, but

on

a long trip to distant lands anything can happen."

I had always been closer to Zahlfast than to any of my other former teachers

at

the wizards' school, in spite of all that embarrassment with the frogs in his

transformations practical exam. If he was worried, it was with good reason.

"Evrard told us before he left that he'd try to keep in touch with Yurt. He's

been serving as wizard for, who is it, your king's cousin?"

"My queen's uncle," I corrected. "Sir Hugo." I paused then, trying to

remember

if the City nobleman in whose elegant household Evrard had been employed for

the

last few years was indeed her uncle or, perhaps, a cousin once removed.

But Zahlfast did not give me time to try to work out the connection. "Well,

your

queens uncle's wife — " He gave up and started over. 'The lady whom Evrard

served has just contacted us. She said that her husband, with a small retinue

that included his wizard, have now been gone long enough that she's become

very

worried. He sent her messages fairly frequently when they first left, but for

some months now she's heard nothing. And when she finally got a message from

the

East today, it wasn't from him but from the governor's office in Xantium.

They

said he'd signed in with them when he came through on his way east, but he's

never gotten back."

I knew what he was about to say and, thus, why Zahlfast was irritated as well

as

worried. Everyone in the City knew that the school trained its wizards to

serve

mankind, and many people therefore felt that any favor they asked was a fair

request

"She asked us if we could find her husband. The

MAGE QUEST 9

governor's office in Xantium had made it clear that they considered their

duty

done once they notified her he was missing, so she immediately thought of the

school. Of course I told her we couldn't search for a person hundreds or even

thousands of miles away, past all the western kingdoms and even the eastern

kingdoms. The school doesn't even maintain contact with the wizards and mages

east of the mountains. But we are worried about Evrard."

I was touched. Evrard had never been a particularly good wizard — not even as

good as me, a comparison from which most wizards would have flinched — but it

was nice to see that the school was concerned about all its graduates.

"So I'd hoped you might have heard something, that they were fine but had

decided to stay in a warmer climate until winter was over or something of the

sort," said Zahlfast. "But if you haven't heard — and I think you're the only

person outside the household to whom any of them might have written — we may

have to start trying to trace their movements from the Holy City, the last

place

from which they sent a message home." He snorted. "School-trained wizards

usually stay in the western kingdoms, and I certainly would have hoped any

wizard had enough sense not to go on a pilgrimage."

I had forgotten that until he mentioned it. It wasn't just an ordinary trip

on

which the queen's uncle had gone. It had been a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

"A wizard has to go along wherever his employer needs him," I said.

"I know, I know," said Zahlfast. "Of course he had to go, but I still don't

like

it. Well, if by some chance you do get a message from Evrard, let us know

immediately." And he rang off.

I stood by the silent phone for several minutes, tapping my fingers slowly.

If

Zahlfast had thought it worth calling me, he must be more concerned than he

10

C. Dale Brittain

had wanted to suggest. I wondered if there was something specific he hoped I

would do, and then began thinking that, regardless of the school's plans, I

should initiate my own search. Neither Evrard nor I had ever had much respect

for each other's magic, but I was still better friends with him than with any

other wizard of my generation.

I could see him before me in my minds eye. He had fox-colored hair, belied by

guileless blue eyes and a large number of freckles, an excellent sense of

humor,

and a truly charming smile, especially when he had just gotten a spell wrong.

I

had the impression that the queen's uncle was very pleased to have him. I did

hope he wasn't dead.

The phone abruptly rang and I jumped. The constable put his head around the

corner, but I had already snatched up the receiver.

But it was not Zahlfast. Instead, it was a servant in livery I did not

recognize, asking for the queen.

I found her in the great hall with the king, told her she had a call, and sat

down to wonder what could have happened to Evrard and his employer. They

could

have been knifed for their purses or been left alive but had everything

stolen

so that they had no way to pay for then-passage home. They could have been

overtaken by an avalanche while crossing the high mountain passes or slipped

from an icy track into a cleft hundreds of feet below. They could have been

shipwrecked and drowned. They could have been killed by a lion in the desert.

They could have died of thirst and heat while wandering lost. Or they could

have

been captured by anyone ranging from a bandit, greedy for ransom, to a

bizarre

magical creature.

By the time one reached the Holy Land, one was far beyond the western

kingdoms,

where generations of wizards had channeled magic into reasonably orderly and

predictable pathways. Since magic is a natural force, part of the same forces

that had shaped the

MACE QUEST

11

earth, it should work wherever one was, but away from the western kingdoms it

might be hard to control or might be channeled in unexpected ways. Pilgrims

at

the holy sites should probably be safe from dragons and nixies, but those

sites

were surrounded by cities, deserts, and seas unlike anything in the west. I

wasn't sure I trusted Evrard to react well to unexpected new spells or

magical

creatures.

The queen came back into the hall. The smile that normally hovered on the

edge

of her lips was, surprisingly, not there.

She was still worth looking at. With the emerald eyes she had passed on to

Prince Paul and her midnight hair, she was the most beautiful woman I had

ever

met. Even though she was only half the age of King Haimeric, she was so

obviously in love with her husband that my intermittent dreams, that she

would

decide to love me too, had never progressed beyond dreams.

She sat down by the king. "That was my aunt in the City," she said. "She's

worried about my uncle."

I sat up straighter, abruptly paying attention.

"It's been nearly a year since he left on pilgrimage, and months since she's

heard anything from him. She's frightened and she wanted someone to reassure

her

that he must really be all right. She even said that their wizard told her

before they left to get in contact with us if she hadn't heard anything for a

while. I'm afraid I couldn't give her much reassurance. She said she'd

already

talked to the wizards at the school about searching for her husband, but they

said they couldn't help."

I was watching the queen, not the king. Therefore I was startled when, after

a

brief pause, he suddenly spoke with decision.

"If he's disappeared and no one has heard from him, then the only solution is

for someone to go after him. I myself shall go."

12

C. Dale Brittain

The queen took a short, sharp breath, but she did not raise the objections

which

I myself had to bite back.

"I told you earlier this winter about the blue rose," the king continued.

"According to the rumors — and it was even mentioned in one of my rose

catalogs

— the rose has been successfully grown by an emir south of the Holy Land. I

can

try to find your uncle, try to find the rose, and make a pilgrimage myself.

I've

always wanted to go on a quest."

They had forgotten all about me. The shadows of a winter afternoon darkened

the

great hall, but they did not bother to turn on the lights. The fire on the

great

hearth flickered yellow, but its light reached only a short way into the room.

I

sat in semidarkness, feeling I should not listen to their conversation but

shy

to remind them of my presence by standing up and leaving.

"I'm afraid it's no use trying to talk you into letting me come with you,"

said

the queen. It was not quite a question.

"No use at all, my dear. If I don't come back, you'll need to be here to act

as

regent, to make sure Paul grows up to be the excellent king we know he will

be."

Til miss you. I don't like to hear you talk about not coming back."

"And I shall miss you." He chuckled quietly. "You visit your parents every

summer, so I know what it's like to be left behind. But unless I'm dead, you

know I'll be back."

"I know, but..."

"And I wouldn't go if it were only a quest for the blue rose. If your uncle

is

captured or lost, I may be the only one who can save him. Who else, after

all,

is there for your aunt to ask?"

The queen caught her breath in what just escaped being a sob. But her voice

was

steady. "You're right, as

Mage quest 13

always. If even the wizards can't help her, we're her best chance to find

him."

"Good," said the king. "I wouldn't have gone if you could not have borne it.

But

I shall tell the court this evening that I'm going."

"I shall miss you, Haimeric," the queen said again. She slipped out of her

own

chair and slid in next to the king on the throne. "I know, I really know,

that

you'll be safe and will come back. But people are changed by travel — they

gain

new perspectives, new ideas. I don't want to be left behind when you think

new

thoughts. I love you just as you are."

There was no chance now that either one would notice me. I rose and tiptoed

quietly away.

Ill

Before the king could tell the court that evening that he was going on a

quest,

we heard a loud clatter of horses' hooves in the courtyard. The constable

jumped

up from the supper table and hurried out to see who could be arriving at this

hour. When he returned a few minutes later, it was with the duchess and her

tall

husband.

I should have known. Duchess Diana had a way of turning up unexpectedly. We

hadn't seen her in months; she had in fact not even been in the kingdom over

Christmas, being instead with her husband in his principality two hundred

miles

away. I had the odd feeling that she had somehow known the king was about to

announce his quest.

The duchess and Prince Ascelin pulled off their travel cloaks by the fire and

stamped the snow from their boots. After they had bowed formally to the king

and

queen, the constable seated them at the main table; the rest of us moved our

chairs to make them room, and the cook hurried in with extra plates.

14

C. Dale Brittain

King Haimeric seemed to have reached the same conclusion that I had, that

their

arrival was connected with his quest, but to him it seemed perfectly natural.

"I'm glad you two are here," he said. "After you've had your supper, I'm

going

to make an announcement."

But Duchess Diana and Prince Ascelin did not seem immediately interested in

the

king's announcement. They ate heartily, asked what had happened recently in

the

kingdom of Yurt, and told us stories of their stay in Ascelin's principality.

It was impossible not to like the duchess. She was some ten years older than

her

cousin the queen, which made her five years older than me. She had probably

the

quickest mind in the kingdom and she enjoyed a good laugh at pretension and

folly even better than I did.

'The twins are fine," she said in response to a question. The weather was so

bad

today we left them in my castle when we decided to ride up to see you.

They're

growing so fast they may even catch up with you, Paul!" to the royal heir.

The king took no part in the conversation — nor did I. I watched him

surreptitiously as I finished dessert without tasting it. He looked both

excited

and oddly contented. The queen, on the other hand, sparkled with wit, keeping

the conversation going constantly, pressing the duchess for details on

everything from the harvest carnival in Ascelin's principality to what Father

Noel had brought the twins for Christmas. But I thought I saw a deep pain at

the

back of her emerald eyes and wondered if the king saw it, too.

At last the servants began clearing the tables, and the king gathered the

knights and ladies around him before the great hearth. The members of the

court,

who had no idea what the king would announce, looked puzzled as he had them

bring up chairs. I considered creating some magical illusions to help set the

mood, perhaps palm trees by an azure sea, but

r

Mage quest

15

decided to let King Haimeric make the announcement in his own way.

The fire snapped and flared orange. A king could not go off to face unknown

dangers without his Royal Wizard, and if he did not realize it then I

certainly

did. He would have to take some knights with him, too, of course. I glanced

at

their faces, wondering which ones. Joachim, the Royal Chaplain, cocked a

questioning eyebrow at me, but I just shook my head.

"As I said," said the king when he had everyone's attention, "I want to tell

you

all something. I've mentioned to several of you at different times that I

would

like to go on a quest before I die. And now something has happened that

indeed

makes such a quest imperative. The queen's uncle, Sir Hugo, who left on

pilgrimage a year ago, has disappeared, and with him his wizard and two

knights."

The court had not heard this. There was a murmur of concern and surprise.

"My quest, then," the king continued, "will be to find him if he is alive, to

avenge him if he has been killed, to rescue him if he is in danger, and if

possible to bring him home."

Again there was a surprised murmur. "How are you going to find him?" asked

the

queens aunt, the Lady Maria.

'The only thing to do," said the king, "is to follow the route he took,

through

the western kingdoms, through the eastern kingdoms, to the Holy Land He last

sent a message to his wife from the pilgrimage sites."

Most of the court were still trying to assimilate the news that their king,

who

rarely left Yurt, was actually planning a long journey. But two people

reacted

at once.

One was Prince Paul, who had been sitting quietly beside his mother. He now

leaped up with an eager shout. "Oh, please, Father, please, may I come along?"

The other person was the chaplain. At the mention of the Holy Land, Joachim s

dark eyes caught fire and

16

C. Dale Brittain

he started to rise from his chair. He stopped himself then, but I could tell

that the king was no more going on pilgrimage without his Royal Chaplain than

without his Royal Wizard.

Prince Pauls shout, even though he was immediately overcome with shyness when

he

found everyone looking at him, shook loose reactions from the rest.

"Ascelin and I will come with you, of course," said the duchess. "After all,

Sir

Hugo's wizard was once my own ducal wizard."

"And I'll come!" "And I'll come!" cried all the knights present.

King Haimeric waited until the hubbub died down a bit, then turned first to

his

son. "I would love to have you with me, Paul," he said solemnly. "But this

quest

is too dangerous to risk both the king of Yurt and the royal heir to Yurt. If

I

don't come back, you'll need to be here to take care of your mother and to

succeed to the throne."

Paul nodded, as solemn as the king. "All right, Father," he said, swallowing

disappointment with visible effort. "I'll try to be a king you can be proud

of."

He paused. "But when I grow up, I'm going on a quest and no one will stop me

then!"

King Haimeric smiled at his son and turned to the rest of us. Behind him, I

could see the queen quietly and thoroughly ripping a lace-trimmed

handkerchief

to pieces.

"I appreciate everyone's willingness to accompany me," said the king. "But I

can't possibly take you all. We'll have a better chance of finding the

C Dale Brittain - Wizard of Yurt 3 - 1993 - Mage Quest

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