realy were rumors that the Pearl had been found again or if Arnulf had dragged up some old story to distract us from whatever real rumors might be running through the East. In that case, he might indeed have found whatever the bandits had been looking for in the silk caravan and have had his wife try to renew the flames of old passion with Joachim so that the chaplain would take a package from her without any suspicion of what it realy contained.
But here I came back to the original problem, that we were carrying an unknown magical object, and the wizard, me, who should have been able to deal with it, was held back by friendship and politeness from doing so.
I looked off toward the east. We were in an area of low, roling hils, but in the rain-washed evening air a line of distant mountains marched along the horizon. Ascelin and the king had the maps out and were discussing the route.
“The main road cuts south toward the Central Sea,” said Ascelin, “but it realy is shorter to cross the mountains into the eastern kingdoms and come down to the sea on the far side. That way we also avoid the most dangerous part of the sea voyage. Arnulf recommended we come this way, and I probably would have anyway. I’ve hunted in these mountains and know the passes.”
“But wil the passes be open yet or wil they stil be snow-bound?”
“They should al be open except for the highest, and we won’t need to take the highest. The lowest pass, in fact, is also the shortest route—it’s directly east of here. It’s not used very much, but that’s only because the road is so narrow at points.”
The king contemplated the map a moment. “I know Warin, the king of this kingdom. I wrote him this winter to say that I was going on a quest to the East and he wrote back to be sure to stop and see him.
He, too, had heard the rumors about the blue rose. He agrees with you about the mountain passes, by the way.”
“My father telephoned us from King Warin s castle on his way to the Holy Land,” put in Hugo.
“Since everyone seems to agree we should go that way,” said the king, “it sounds as though we must!”
“I know King Warin, too,” said Ascelin.
I came over to look at the map myself, suddenly realizing that I knew the Royal Wizard of this kingdom. Elerius, three years ahead of me at the wizards’ school and, it was rumored, the best student the school had ever had, had become Royal Wizard here when he graduated. I hadn’t been in contact with him in several years, but I assumed he was stil here. In spite of its somewhat isolated location, the kingdom was reputed to be enormously wealthy, with gold and jewels from mountain mines.
Elerius might wel have heard of the Black Pearl, I thought. And I could use the castle telephone to cal the wizards’ school. Magic telephones were stil scarce over in this part of the western kingdoms, and although Arnulf had one, I had felt highly reluctant to cal the school to check on his story with him right there.
We rode east for three days, the snow-capped mountain peaks coming closer each day. The landscape around us became uneven, cut with unexpected ravines. The hils were flinty with little topsoil and the few vilages we passed seemed to live entirely from grape-growing. The men working among the vines gave us sharp looks but did not wave. Joachim stil showed no indication of opening his present, and I didn’t like to press him.
We stopped at our second pilgrimage church, one listed in the appendix of Joachims book because it was not on the main pilgrimage route, although apparently it had been highly regarded for fifteen hundred years.
As we came over a rise, we saw before us a smal, octagonal church made of white marble, with the fluted columns of a structure built in the later days of the Empire. But as we came closer, we saw that what I had first thought was the entire church was, in fact, only the upper storey; and below it was another structure, this one made of rough, dark
But here I came back to the original problem, that we were carrying an unknown magical object, and the wizard, me, who should have been able to deal with it, was held back by friendship and politeness from doing so.
I looked off toward the east. We were in an area of low, roling hils, but in the rain-washed evening air a line of distant mountains marched along the horizon. Ascelin and the king had the maps out and were discussing the route.
“The main road cuts south toward the Central Sea,” said Ascelin, “but it realy is shorter to cross the mountains into the eastern kingdoms and come down to the sea on the far side. That way we also avoid the most dangerous part of the sea voyage. Arnulf recommended we come this way, and I probably would have anyway. I’ve hunted in these mountains and know the passes.”
“But wil the passes be open yet or wil they stil be snow-bound?”
“They should al be open except for the highest, and we won’t need to take the highest. The lowest pass, in fact, is also the shortest route—it’s directly east of here. It’s not used very much, but that’s only because the road is so narrow at points.”
The king contemplated the map a moment. “I know Warin, the king of this kingdom. I wrote him this winter to say that I was going on a quest to the East and he wrote back to be sure to stop and see him.
He, too, had heard the rumors about the blue rose. He agrees with you about the mountain passes, by the way.”
“My father telephoned us from King Warin s castle on his way to the Holy Land,” put in Hugo.
“Since everyone seems to agree we should go that way,” said the king, “it sounds as though we must!”
“I know King Warin, too,” said Ascelin.
I came over to look at the map myself, suddenly realizing that I knew the Royal Wizard of this kingdom. Elerius, three years ahead of me at the wizards’ school and, it was rumored, the best student the school had ever had, had become Royal Wizard here when he graduated. I hadn’t been in contact with him in several years, but I assumed he was stil here. In spite of its somewhat isolated location, the kingdom was reputed to be enormously wealthy, with gold and jewels from mountain mines.
Elerius might wel have heard of the Black Pearl, I thought. And I could use the castle telephone to cal the wizards’ school. Magic telephones were stil scarce over in this part of the western kingdoms, and although Arnulf had one, I had felt highly reluctant to cal the school to check on his story with him right there.
We rode east for three days, the snow-capped mountain peaks coming closer each day. The landscape around us became uneven, cut with unexpected ravines. The hils were flinty with little topsoil and the few vilages we passed seemed to live entirely from grape-growing. The men working among the vines gave us sharp looks but did not wave. Joachim stil showed no indication of opening his present, and I didn’t like to press him.
We stopped at our second pilgrimage church, one listed in the appendix of Joachims book because it was not on the main pilgrimage route, although apparently it had been highly regarded for fifteen hundred years.
As we came over a rise, we saw before us a smal, octagonal church made of white marble, with the fluted columns of a structure built in the later days of the Empire. But as we came closer, we saw that what I had first thought was the entire church was, in fact, only the upper storey; and below it was another structure, this one made of rough, dark
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