Is This Apocalypse Necessary? - Wizard of Yurt - 6 by C. Dale Brittain Page A

with broken stone steps—but then the school assumed that anyone who stayed here would prefer to fly up rather than climb. I realized as I closed the door behind me that the simplicity of living arrangements at the school, which had seemed perfectly normal when I was a student here, must have been the result of a deliberate decision by the Master. The organized wizardry he had established was not an organization of either luxury or display.
    My outstretched arms could easily reach across the room from one wall to the window on the opposite side, but the ceiling, shadowy and hung with cobwebs, was at least twenty feet over my head. The window looked out into reaches of air, and by craning my neck I could see the great harbor a dizzying distance below. But I didn't take time to admire the view. I tucked Naurag's ledger behind a few dog-eared books of modern spells which lay forgotten on a shelf, slapped magic locks on both door and window, and went in search of Elerius.
    I didn't have to look long.
    As I hurried out of the residential part of the school toward the classrooms and the library, wondering distractedly if it might be possible to establish some sort of secret base in the maze of tunnels and rooms down below the school, he came around a corner so fast that he almost ran into me.
    "Daimbert! How good to see you so soon!" His lips smiled but not his eyes. He must have had his agents watching for my arrival. "I knew you would be eager to come to the City once I mentioned that we could plan Antonia's future together."

    When I had thought that the Master's student assistants were Elerius's henchmen, come to kill me, I had found a way to overcome them, I reminded myself. So why this paralyzing lack of good ideas when facing Elerius himself?
    "Let's go down to the harbor and find a restaurant where we can have an early dinner," he said as though he were just making light conversation, not threatening my daughter's safety if by any chance I did not cooperate with him. "I'm so busy with the complicated affairs of the school that I'd like a break, and it's too easy to be distracted if one stays here, with wizards and students always running in and out of the office with questions and ideas."
    He did an unconvincing job of suggesting that the responsibilities of supervising so many other wizards was a task he would just as soon give up. I followed him down the corridor and out one of the many doors that gave on open air—much faster to descend to the waterfront by flying than on foot. Roofs, narrow streets, and hidden courtyards showing an unexpected green, all flashed beneath us, all of them sheltering citizens who must know that they were always under the eyes of the wizards, but who had much too much else to do to worry about us.
    As we descended I glanced back toward the tower in the school where I had been given my room. As long as I was with Elerius I knew he himself couldn't be trying to circumvent my magic locks, but there must be people here who would be only too eager to perform little chores for him. My only hope was that he wouldn't know to look for Naurag's book because he didn't know I had it—sitting hidden on a shelf with other books of spells, it would do nothing to draw even a wizard's attention to itself.
    "You're awfully quiet, Daimbert," Elerius commented as we descended, the cool sea air fluttering our clothing and giving me a shiver. "Don't tell me that after all these years and all that we've done together you're still suspicious of me."
    You got that one right, I thought, but I still didn't speak. Even a wizard shouldn't be able to hear another's thoughts unless that other person was trying to communicate mind-to-mind, but just in case I tried to stop thinking too. It didn't work—my brain kept churning.
    "By the way," he added as though casually, "I heard that you visited the Master last week. And you didn't even stop by my office to visit! At this rate I'll start thinking you really don't like my