Daughter of Magic - Wizard of Yurt - 5 by C. Dale Brittain, Brittain Page B

can’t be serious in wanting to send me away, not before we finish finding out al we can about those undead warriors, not while your kingdom may stil be in danger. By the way, while I was probing again those warriors’ bones you saved from the bonfire, I thought I sensed some kind of latent spel in them, something we hadn’t picked up before, so we should try to discover that as wel. Since it bothers you, I’l promise not to disturb any more graves while I’m here.”
    “And stay away from Antonia,” I growled, no longer ordering him out of Yurt, not sure how I had lost the initiative but quite surely having lost it. He was right: I did need his help.
    He smiled again. “Do not be concerned, Daimbert. I would never take a delightful little girl apart for an experiment, or whatever you’re imagining. My goal, like that of organized wizardry, is always the good of mankind. And knowledge of magic in al its forms is one of the principal foundations of wizardry.”
    He turned without waiting for a reply and stepped off the parapet, floating majesticaly back down to the courtyard. I folowed slowly, not sure how to enunciate what was wrong with his approach to magic, yet feeling that, at least for now, I would have to continue to work with him. But I also felt an implacable conviction that his ways were not mine.

    PART THREE. The Bishop I
    That morning Justinia announced she intended to take her elephant for a ride. “She’s ordered me to accompany her,” Gwennie told me, standing in the doorway of my chambers and trying to decide whether to laugh or be irritated. “And you too, Wizard.”
    Back in my chambers, I had been drinking tea and eating cinnamon crulers. As I ate I picked up one of the warrior’s bones I had saved and fingered it, wondering absently what spel Elerius might have spotted in it and whether he might already have a very good idea and be using this as a test for me. But I had no time to worry about him. Resignedly I pushed myself to my feet. Gwennie and an elephant would not be much protection for Justinia if whoever had sent the unliving warriors returned.
    “Do I have to go ride on the elephant too?” Antonia asked dubiously.
    “Not if you don’t want to,” I said, relieved that she didn’t. An elephant’s back struck me as a treacherous place. But if she was not with me, who would look after her? When I had first talked to Theodora about having our daughter visit Yurt, I had not imagined how much attention would go simply into taking care of one energetic five-year-old.
    Elerius looked up from his reading. From his manner our quarrel this morning might not have even taken place. He seemed to be planning an extended stay in Yurt, during which he would read through, al of the big, handwritten volumes in which my predecessor as Royal Wizard had kept his notes. “I’l watch her for you, Daimbert,” he said with a slight lift to his brows, as though understanding and amused by my predicament.
    Although I didn’t trust him, at the moment he appeared to be interested in my friendship, and it realy did seem unlikely that he would harm Antonia while I was gone. When I went out a few minutes later, he was again absorbed in my predecessor’s spidery hand, and Antonia, with a quick glance at me and a self-righteous lift of her chin, had puled down Elements of Transmogrification.
    The Lady Justinia’s luggage had included a sort of double saddle with a roof, almost a little house, that could be strapped onto her elephant’s shoulders. The stable boys, grim and determined, managed to get it on, shaking their heads behind Justinia’s back. The elephant appeared almost as nervous as they were.
    The automaton watched without moving, then sprang up onto the elephant’s neck when it was ready at last to go. I lifted the lady and Gwennie with magic into the little house and perched myself behind them on the elephant’s back. The leathery skin was scattered with long, coarse hairs that pricked