Even though I had been expecting this, my veins turned to ice. I would have to get into a hot bath before I died, but I knew I would never have another chance to talk like this to the old wizard. “How long has it been here?”
“I first found it three years ago.”
I decided it would be undiplomatic to remind the old wizard that he had categorically denied any supernatural presence in the castle while he was Royal Wizard.
“I don’t know who summoned it to Yurt in the first place,” he continued, “but finding it wasn’t very difficult, once it arrived. The old chaplain, this one’s predecessor, found it too. He blamed me for it, even though I’d never imagined to myself that the powers of darkness were romantic-not like you!”
I nodded, not daring to protest.
“Interfering old busy-body! He tried to catch it himself, with his bell and candle. Pretty ineffective, I thought. No wonder it killed him.”
He must have seen the horror on my face, even though his eyes were directed toward the cat, for he snorted. “I’m sure the old priest died with his soul ‘intact,’ if that’s what you and your friend the young chaplain are worried about. He was chasing it around the parapets, and he fell off. Nobody knew how he’d fallen, except for me, and I didn’t see any reason to say. Terrible accident, they all agreed. You can imagine I didn’t tell that young priest anything about it!”
“But you caught it?” I said in a low voice, as he stopped and did not start again.
“It took me close to three years. It took all the magic I knew, and then some. But I finally cornered it in my study and put the binding spells on it. It had been out far too long for me to send it back, but at least I could bind it so it couldn’t move.”
Except that it
“I locked the tower so the person who had summoned it couldn’t get in to free it, and, just in case it did break loose, I put separate spells around the outside of the castle, so it couldn’t cross the moat.”
“Did Dominic know about this?”
The old wizard glanced at me sideways. “How did you guess that? He did. I needed his help, near the end. He’s not the person I would have chosen, but he’d somehow already found out about it. He was the one who did the drawing while I held it down with my spells.”
The cat was almost asleep on the wizard’s lap now. “We caught it just in time, too. I was afraid black magic was starting to kill the king, so I was pleased to see him so much better when I arrived yesterday. Maybe he’s hoping for that baby boy again!”
The wizard stood up abruptly, scooped up the startled cat, and settled it on his shoulder. “Well, young wizard, it’s your castle and your problem now. Capturing it once wore me out so thoroughly I decided to retire at once. Catching it again is the job for a youngster with fancy magic from the City.”
He started stumping toward the door.
“Where are you going?” said the king. “You can’t be leaving already! We haven’t even had Christmas dinner!”
“I’d rather eat my vegetables at peace in the woods than eat a fancy dinner to the smell of dragon’s blood!”
I turned toward my own chambers, in search of a bath, without waiting to see the end of the argument, for I already knew how it would end. At least I was pleased that the old wizard’s hand, with which he was gesturing, wore the king’s Christmas ring.
Lying in the bathtub, completely submerged except for my face, I could feel my bruised muscles starting to relax, but I did not dare relax too much. The old wizard had clearly guessed more than he had told me. But even he might not know why the dragon had appeared today.
As long as I stayed in the tub, I imagined, I would not have to deal with this. After all, evil had been loose in the castle for three years, without permanent damage to Yurt, so maybe another three years wouldn’t matter much either.
But I could not persuade myself of this, because I knew it was not true. The old wizard had known that too, and that was why he had returned abruptly to the forest, before I could enlist his aid.
The bath water was cold. I surged up and out of the tub, reaching for a towel. This was my kingdom and my problem.
III
The hall, with its fireplace destroyed, was unusable for dinner, but the kitchen was just about big enough to squeeze in the tables, and it was certainly warm enough. Pushed companionably close together, so that the smell of singed hair was all around us, we ate oyster stew, roast beef, and plum pudding.
Several of the kitchen maids had broken down completely and were unable to help, and the cook’s own stability had lapses, so dinner was served in a leisurely manner, with pauses between courses while the next course was prepared. The queen, the Lady Maria, and several of the other ladies helped, all of them considering it quite a joke.
“Well, this will certainly be a Christmas we’ll always remember!” said the old count.
Since everyone had survived, and even the worst of the wounded looked as though they would mend without grave danger, the mood had become lighthearted. Several of the knights seem positively to have welcomed the rare chance to do something warlike, even though their swords and spears had been useless against the dragon. The terrors of the morning and the repair work of the weeks to come were primarily subjects for triumphant mirth.
While waiting for the courses, we sang Christmas carols. I did a few illusions, since the old wizard was no longer there with his much better ones. I made sure that all of mine were simple and pleasant, such as a shining golden egg that broke open to reveal an adult peacock. Even the young count managed to smile fairly amiably. I had never seen the Lady Maria so gay and lighthearted, even before the grey hairs had started to appear.
Only Dominic, heavily strapped around the body and needing help eating because his right wrist was broken, sat silent and glowering. He, at any rate, seemed unlikely to have summoned a dragon that had nearly killed him.
When the blazing plum pudding had been brought from the stove to the table, served and eaten with more cries of appreciation than normal, the duchess said, “Why don’t all of you come to my castle for the rest of the twelve days of Christmas?”
“But we couldn’t possibly leave the royal castle during the holidays!” protested the queen.
“You can’t possibly enjoy a happy holiday in your castle the way it is now,” said the duchess with a laugh. “Bring everybody along! I sent my whole staff home to their families for vacation, so there should be plenty of room in my castle if we double up in the chambers. It’s going to take a while to repair this castle, and you’re going to have trouble hiring any carpenters or masons for the next two weeks anyway. You don’t want to have to start work just when everyone wants to relax and enjoy the festivities.”
“But everything’s here!” continued the queen. “The food, the decorations, even the tree!”
“Bring them all along!”
“And if you like,” said the old count, “we can spend New Year’s with the duchess and go on to spend Epiphany at our castle!”
I was delighted with this suggestion. Even though I knew now what had been in the old wizard’s tower room, I still did not know who had summoned it. If we could get everybody, really everybody, out of the royal castle of Yurt while I tried to figure this out, we might all be much safer.
“What a wonderful offer, my lady!” I said, even though the decision was certainly not mine to make. “A week of relaxing is exactly what we all need!”
While the queen was turning to me in surprise, startled at the loss of someone she had expected to be her ally against the duchess, the king said, “The wizard’s right. Thank you for a most generous offer! We’ll go tomorrow!”
As it turned out, we did not leave until the second day. We all awoke late and irritable. Christmas was over,
