Below the Wizards' Tower (The Royal Wizard of Yurt Book 8) by C. Dale Brittain Page A

was now with you,” he rumbled, “I knew you should be
safely back at the school soon.   But
when I sensed the two of you coming in, and there was a third man with you,
curiosity got the better of me.   And
I could not imagine why you would have gone down to the cellars.”
    “It must be someone here in the
school who has gone renegade,” said Elerius, his voice
coming out just a little high.   “Because someone put a powerful locking spell on the
door.”   I noticed that he was
carefully deflecting the question of what we were doing in the first place in a
cellar room that someone could magically lock.
    “I don’t know if even I could have
broken the spell alone,” commented the Master.   “But when you added your magic to mine,
it broke up so fast that I couldn’t tell who might have cast it originally.   I hate to suspect any of the students,
but they do sometimes carry their pranks too far….”
    Elerius broke his own spell before
the Master could determine that it was his, I thought.   But if I accused him he would simply
deny it.   “Let’s talk to Titus right
away.”
    He was in his study between classes,
quite surprised to find the four of us at his door.   “Marcus?” he said when asked.   “No, of course he wasn’t helping me.   I’ve never even met him.   I’ve just heard the name as someone of
whom Daimbert reminded somebody.   I
don’t even think he’s a wizard.”   He
rattled off the names of the half dozen young wizards he had helping him
identify and inventory the magical creatures spell-bound in the cellars.
    “Ah, that’s it, that’s the name that
I mistakenly heard as Marcus,” said Elerius in tones of comprehension.   “Well, Daimbert, I must make my excuses
for misleading you.”
    The Master nodded in
satisfaction.   “If I don’t hurry
I’ll be late for class,” said Titus apologetically and was gone.
    And where had Elerius gotten his
story about finding Marcus and discovering that he came from the borderlands of
wild magic and introducing him to Titus as an assistant?   But the Master was already heading back
toward his own study, and I had no one to whom to make accusations except
Elerius himself—and Joachim, who had stayed quiet and in the background.
    “Elerius,” the Master’s voice
suddenly came down the hall, and for a second I hoped that he too had seen
through this flimsy story.   “Did you
bring the air cart back yet?”
    “No, not yet,” Elerius
answered.   The air cart was the skin
of a purple flying beast; it kept on flying even in death, and the school used
it for transporting heavy loads.   “Remember, I asked if I could have it until late this evening.   It’s an errand for my king.”
    For his king.   I had a sudden sick feeling that all
this capturing was intended to keep me out of Yurt, where I could have
protected my own royal family from magical attacks.   “I’ve got to use the telephone,” I said.

 
    Elerius waited in the hall outside
the telephone room.   The base of the
school’s telephone lit up to show a servant, dressed in the blue and white
livery of Yurt, hurrying to answer.   Normally I felt a surge of pride when using a telephone with the
far-seeing attachment I had invented, but not today.   I was too worried.
    “Oh, hello, Wizard!” the servant
said as soon as his own telephone lit up to show me.   “Will you be home soon?   The queen was just asking this morning
if anyone knew how much longer you’d be away.”
    “But what’s happening?   Is everyone all right?”
    “Everything here is fine,” he said,
puzzled.   “Oh, except the stable boy
who was kicked by Prince Dominic’s stallion.   Did that happen before you left?   He’s not badly hurt, but the doctor
thinks he has a cracked rib.   The
king is talking now of selling the stallion after all.”
    This did not sound like a magical
attack on Yurt which I could have prevented.   “Give everyone my greetings,” I said