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

in
profound relief, “and tell them I’ll be home in a few days.”
    Though I still had shopping to do.   I had found the lace I had bought, water
soaked and now dried into a hard ball, in the pocket of my ruined jacket.   I hoped if I soaked it in fresh water it
could be salvaged.
    Elerius put his head around the
corner with a bright smile.   “So, is
everything well back home in Yurt?”   I didn’t trust him not to have listened.   “I’m sure your king would be able to
call on Caelrhon’s Royal Wizard if anything came up
in your absence.”
    Elerius’s digs were always carefully
worded so that no one could actually accuse him of being insulting.   Ignoring the comment, I said, “You still
haven’t told me where Marcus is, or why you don’t want me to meet him.”
    “Daimbert, you do have a vivid
imagination,” he replied with a smile that did not fool me for a second.   “As I already said, I am very sorry to
have misled you, due to a simple misunderstanding.   Now, there is much I need to do before
heading home to my kingdom.”
    And at that he hurried off, closer
to being caught in a bald lie than I had ever seen him.
    The Master, meanwhile, was doubtless
preparing to question all the wizardry students, as to why they had locked up
two of the school’s graduates and a priest in the cellars.   I felt sorry for the students, but since
at this point the Master was not going to believe that Elerius had locked us in
himself, there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.
    Yurt was apparently still unharmed,
but I was beginning to have doubts about Caelrhon.   Elerius had brought the kingdom up
several times in conversation, suggesting it was on his mind.  
    “You may need to get back to
Caelrhon very soon,” I said to Joachim.   “There may be something happening there.”   I paused.   “But I need you.”
    His eyes gave a quick flash.   “I am not leaving while you are in
danger.”
    Probably both his own bishop and the
chancellor here would be irritated with him.   I didn’t care.
    I should fly there immediately.   Except that I was supposed to have
another wizard chaperoning me at all times, and I could not fly while carrying
Joachim.   I could have taken the air
cart, except that Elerius had, ever so conveniently, borrowed it himself for
the whole day.
    I made a sudden decision.   “Come on,” I said to Joachim, loudly in
case anyone was listening.   “I’ll
see you to the door—the school can be confusing if you don’t know the layout,
and I’m sure a priest would prefer to spend as little time here as possible,
especially after being accidentally locked up!”
    Joachim gave me an odd look but
followed as I walked briskly to the side door where Elerius had brought us
in.   We went outside together.
    Then I murmured, “Get back to
Caelrhon as soon as you can.   I’ll
be there before you.”   And quickly,
before he could give me an argument, or the Master and Zahlfast could realize
that I was venturing out without another wizard to protect me, I shot into the
air and headed inland.
    Only two hundred
miles to go.   Good thing I
had had a large lunch.

 
    VII
    Something was happening, something that Elerius did not want me to see.   His original plan, I thought , had been to leave me paralyzed in a cave for two days
while he carried out—whatever he was carrying out.   After Titus rescued me yesterday, he had
thought today to put me somewhere equally difficult to find, but Joachim had
thwarted that by insisting on staying with me.   Elerius’s fallback plan was to lock all
of us in the cellars, giving himself a perfect alibi in the process, but the
Master had found us far faster than he had hoped.
    This would all make more sense if I
knew why he wanted me out of the way.
    Flying is hard physical and mental
work.   A better wizard than I would
be able to fly faster than an air cart.   My only hope was that if Elerius was using the air cart to deliver some
destructive