The Witch & the Cathedral - Wizard of Yurt - 4 by C. Dale Brittain

frying. Outside the window the sun was sparkling. The clothing I had left in sodden heaps on the floor was gone, but my box had resisted the rain and my spare clothes were dry. The contents of my pockets, including my spells, were arranged neatly on the desk. I got dressed and went to find breakfast.
    In the kitchen, wet clothes hung in front of the fire, and Joachim's servant was setting plates on the table. He smiled and motioned me to sit down. When I asked where the dean was, he simply nodded and started serving.
    I remembered on my second serving of bacon and fourth piece of toast that I never had gotten any dinner last night. I wondered why, since food and a few hours sleep could not change what I had said to the queen, they seemed to have made it an experience I might still survive.
    The front door opened and Joachim came in, dressed in his formal black vestments. He sat down across from me and poured himself some tea. He looked, as always, composed and well brushed, not like someone who had been scrambling around on a rain-soaked tower at midnight looking for a monster, or who had had his sleep interrupted after only a few hours by a wizard arriving on his doorstep. "I certainly hadn't expected to need to call you again so soon," he said, "but it's always good to see you."
    "I had to come right away," I said lamely. "You have a magical problem and no wizard here to take care of it"
    The servant put breakfast in front of the dean and disappeared. "I've just come from morning service in the cathedral," Joachim said. "There's no sign of any damage to the tower according to the workmen, and with the sun shining like this one could almost imagine all of us were seeing things—but not quite."
    "Even if it was only an illusion, someone with enormously powerful magic is operating in the city. Tell me, did it roar or bellow?"
    "It just looked at us—it had eyes like coals, very visible even at a distance."
    I shivered in the warm sunlight and took a hasty gulp of hot tea. "With bat wings, it could be some kind of dragon—or a demon."
    Joachim met my eyes levelly "If a demon appears in a church, it means that one of the church's priests has sold his soul to the devil."
    I too hoped it was not a demon. It had been entirely on purpose that I had left my copy of the Diplomatica DiaboUca behind in Yurt.
    "Could you tell if there was a supernatural presence here?" Joachim asked.
    'The whole church is full of the supernatural," I said, "but one would expect that anyway, from the presence of the saints. Magic can only indicate if there's something present from outside the natural world, not if it's good or evil."
    "And a dragon?"
    "Dragons are natural—wild, deadly, and unlike anything else, but natural nonetheless. They're not even, strictly speaking, magical, because they aren't formed by spells. If you do have a dragon, we might do better overcoming it by force than by magic."
    Unaccountably, I suddenly felt almost cheerful. A dragon I thought I could deal with. It might very well kill me, but it was the sort of problem any competent wizard should be able to face with some hope of success, unlike a ruined love affair. And if I failed, I told myself, at least I would not spend the next two hundred years being melancholic.
    "I told the workmen to proceed with the construction," said Joachim. "I hope I have done right."
    "Of course you have. To let something like this stop the work would be to give it control over you. Oh, I was trying to tell you, rather than staying here I should go across town to the castle. It does after all belong to the royal family of Yurt."
    "Stay here with me. I think even the bishop now realizes we need a wizard. Anyway, the royal heir is in the castle."
    'The royal heir? You mean Paul? But he's home in Yurt!"
    "I don't mean the heir to Yurt. I mean Prince Lucas, the heir to Caelrhon, this kingdom. He arrived in town early this morning, just in time for service. The chancellor is worried that he may be