Is This Apocalypse Necessary? - Wizard of Yurt - 6 by C. Dale Brittain
Authors: C. Dale Brittain
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months since you've had any fresh seafood. How about coming down to the wizards'
school for a visit—say, this afternoon?"
"Why this sudden eagerness to improve my culinary variety?" I asked warily.
"I think it would be a good chance for the two of us to talk about Antonia and her education."
"Antonia!" My heart, which had almost resumed its normal rhythm again, gave a great lurch.
"Certainly. Isn't it almost time for pupils to be returning to their classes for the autumn? I'm sure those teachers in Caelrhon have long since taught her everything they have to teach. But I'm her friend—almost an honorary uncle, one might say." Did he linger a little too much over the word uncle? "I'm very interested in discussing with you what would be best for her and her future."
"Of course," I gasped. "What a good idea. I'm so glad you brought this up, Elerius. I'll be there in a few hours." He continued to watch me, to see if I recognized the threat implicit behind his words.
Oh, yes. I recognized it just fine.
Part three * Eelerius
As I guided the air cart from the stables, projecting so much fury and despair that the stable boys stayed well out of my way, it crossed my mind that I needed to let my king know I was gone. With no intention of letting him invite himself along, I scribbled him a quick note and pushed it into the reluctant hand of a stable boy. "Unexpected business has come up related to the wizards' school," I wrote. "I expect to be in the City for at least a few days but should be back soon." This last was a lie. I didn't know if I would ever be home again.
I had decided to take the air cart to the City even though flying myself would have been faster. This, I explained firmly to the nagging voice at the back of my mind, was not due to any reluctance to face Elerius. After all, I had barely taken time to pack, only tossing some clean socks and my old wizard's staff into the cart. Rather I was taking advantage of a chance to test more of Naurag's spells on the cart. His ledger was the only book out of all my library of magic that I took with me to confront the best wizard of this age.
The spires of the royal castle of Yurt disappeared rapidly behind me. No time to say good-bye, even in my mind, to the kingdom I had served for thirty years. And if I thought too much about the fact that I might never see the castle again, I would not leave at all. As the air cart, zipping along at greater speed than usual due to Naurag's spells, next flew over the cathedral city of Caelrhon, I realized that there was also no time to say good-bye to Theodora and Antonia. I wasn't sure what I was planning to do, even whether I would defy Elerius or seek to persuade him that I was a harmless incompetent who could safely be ignored. My mind kept asserting, obsti-nantly and without good evidence, that I would think of something, but whatever it was my family would be safer if they knew nothing of it.
The towers of the City rose before me long before I felt mentally prepared. With a history that went back over two thousand years and a modern bustle that came from being the most important commercial center of the West, the City was a spectacular sight. Once I had lived here, one more young man among thousands, but Yurt had for many years been my real home. The school on the peak of the City's highest hill— where, I now realized, Naurag had established himself as ruler centuries earlier—seemed to shimmer with magic: the official spells that protected the school itself, but also the overflow of hundreds of unofficial spells, being worked by serious faculty and by students both studious and carefree. As I directed the air cart down, a flock of insubstantial and rather misshapen bluebirds flew up toward me. One of the classes must be working on illusions.
As a visiting graduate of the school who had once even taught a series of lectures here, I was able to get a narrow room at the top of a tower. It was reached by a twisting staircase
school for a visit—say, this afternoon?"
"Why this sudden eagerness to improve my culinary variety?" I asked warily.
"I think it would be a good chance for the two of us to talk about Antonia and her education."
"Antonia!" My heart, which had almost resumed its normal rhythm again, gave a great lurch.
"Certainly. Isn't it almost time for pupils to be returning to their classes for the autumn? I'm sure those teachers in Caelrhon have long since taught her everything they have to teach. But I'm her friend—almost an honorary uncle, one might say." Did he linger a little too much over the word uncle? "I'm very interested in discussing with you what would be best for her and her future."
"Of course," I gasped. "What a good idea. I'm so glad you brought this up, Elerius. I'll be there in a few hours." He continued to watch me, to see if I recognized the threat implicit behind his words.
Oh, yes. I recognized it just fine.
Part three * Eelerius
As I guided the air cart from the stables, projecting so much fury and despair that the stable boys stayed well out of my way, it crossed my mind that I needed to let my king know I was gone. With no intention of letting him invite himself along, I scribbled him a quick note and pushed it into the reluctant hand of a stable boy. "Unexpected business has come up related to the wizards' school," I wrote. "I expect to be in the City for at least a few days but should be back soon." This last was a lie. I didn't know if I would ever be home again.
I had decided to take the air cart to the City even though flying myself would have been faster. This, I explained firmly to the nagging voice at the back of my mind, was not due to any reluctance to face Elerius. After all, I had barely taken time to pack, only tossing some clean socks and my old wizard's staff into the cart. Rather I was taking advantage of a chance to test more of Naurag's spells on the cart. His ledger was the only book out of all my library of magic that I took with me to confront the best wizard of this age.
The spires of the royal castle of Yurt disappeared rapidly behind me. No time to say good-bye, even in my mind, to the kingdom I had served for thirty years. And if I thought too much about the fact that I might never see the castle again, I would not leave at all. As the air cart, zipping along at greater speed than usual due to Naurag's spells, next flew over the cathedral city of Caelrhon, I realized that there was also no time to say good-bye to Theodora and Antonia. I wasn't sure what I was planning to do, even whether I would defy Elerius or seek to persuade him that I was a harmless incompetent who could safely be ignored. My mind kept asserting, obsti-nantly and without good evidence, that I would think of something, but whatever it was my family would be safer if they knew nothing of it.
The towers of the City rose before me long before I felt mentally prepared. With a history that went back over two thousand years and a modern bustle that came from being the most important commercial center of the West, the City was a spectacular sight. Once I had lived here, one more young man among thousands, but Yurt had for many years been my real home. The school on the peak of the City's highest hill— where, I now realized, Naurag had established himself as ruler centuries earlier—seemed to shimmer with magic: the official spells that protected the school itself, but also the overflow of hundreds of unofficial spells, being worked by serious faculty and by students both studious and carefree. As I directed the air cart down, a flock of insubstantial and rather misshapen bluebirds flew up toward me. One of the classes must be working on illusions.
As a visiting graduate of the school who had once even taught a series of lectures here, I was able to get a narrow room at the top of a tower. It was reached by a twisting staircase
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