“And so it shall be,” I said formally to the regent. “We surrender the jurisdiction of this court to you. And now, if you’ll excuse me-”
“I need the royal wizard while I’m giving judgment,” said Dominic shortly. From the intimidating glare he gave me, I knew that I had no choice but to stay.
I had manipulated him into letting Nimrod leave the sanctuary of the Holy Grove, and the regent was (rather generously, I thought) giving me one more chance to work with him. If I didn’t take that chance, we would spend the rest of our lives living in the same castle but not speaking to each other. Of course, if the monster showed up and I couldn’t find a way to control it, neither of our lives might last beyond today.
Once the knights realized Dominic meant to continue with more legal proceedings, they snapped back into their positions.
“Although my quarrel with Prince Ascelin has been so wisely concluded,” the regent began, in a tone which left me wondering if he meant it as sarcastically as it sounded, “one issue remains. The honor and purity of the duchess, the leading woman of the kingdom in the queen’s absence, has been cast into doubt. And we who are charged with protecting the kingdom of Yurt must sometimes make personal sacrifices to preserve the welfare and good name of the kingdom.”
The three priests followed Dominic’s words with serious and approving expressions. They had put him up to it, I thought. Diana, on the other hand, looked shocked beyond ready response.
“With doubts about the duchess go doubts about the entire kingdom of Yurt. Purity and morality must always come from the top.” I wasn’t sure if the silence of Dominic’s audience was agreement, surprise at his sententiousness, or just attentiveness. “There is only one way to restore the honor and good name of the duchess and, with her, all our people. She must marry as soon as possible!”
Dominic, I thought, was desperate. Either he really did want to marry Diana herself, in spite of what she seemed to think, or he saw no way to take back his offer. But he also had to try to restore dignity to a proposal she had treated with public ridicule.
Diana began to laugh. For a second I feared it was hysteria, which would certainly have been my own reaction, but it appeared entirely genuine amusement. “Is this the court’s ruling, then, sire?” she asked when she had recovered her breath.
“It is the court’s ruling and will.”
“Then I have a request to make,” she said. Her head was held at an angle which, for reasons I could not have explained, appeared mischievous.
“Certainly, if it is consistent with the rulings of this court.”
She smiled widely. “Then let me invite everyone here to my castle! It is not far away, and we can all be more comfortable there than trying to camp here in the valley-especially since camping has taken on such a distinctly immoral tone here in Yurt.”
Dominic frowned, as though trying to read some secret meaning into her words.
“Once there, I shall, of course, comply with the wishes of this court. I will be married by my own chaplain, and we can all then proceed with the nuptial feast!”
Everything was happening so fast that the knights had trouble following it all, but they understood about the feast and raised a hurrah.
In my gratitude that the regent’s “urgent case” had taken so little time, I was unable to concentrate on the amazing fact that the duchess seemed willing to accept Dominic. It would certainly be best for Nimrod not to be there for the wedding, and, besides, I needed him. When everyone got underway, I would separate him from the rest.
III
Joachim said that he and the priests would stay at the Holy Grove for now, but everyone else began preparing for departure. This left only one more extraneous matter. I managed to draw Dominic aside.
I took a deep breath. “I’ve finally realized something, sire,” I said. “The entrepreneurs on top of the cliff-
For a second the massive regent looked like a boy caught out. “Why do you say that?”
“You reminded us all that this is royal territory, not part of Diana’s duchy. You would never have ignored something like this money-making enterprise, and yet you seemed very uninterested when I first told you about the booth and the basket. I’d been wondering where you would get your income if you left Yurt. The entrepreneurs told me they needed half their income for ‘overhead,’ and I realize now that that meant paying a backer’s share to you.”
I held his eyes as I spoke and could see embarrassment and anger struggling for precedence. “Don’t worry,” I said quickly. I had enough problems without further worsening my relations with the regent. “I won’t say anything. Even the chaplain says it’s not actually illegal, as long as people can still go around by the road for free.”
“I never imagined,” he said coldly, “that you would try to tell me what was and was not illegal.”
“I hope you have other sources of income lined up as well,” I said. “Even if they get their basket working, they’re never going to get very many paying pilgrims.”
Dominic twisted his mouth into a hard line but turned away without answering. In a moment I saw him talking to the duchess. She had a much friendlier expression than I could possibly have foreseen an hour earlier.
“So it looks as though she will marry Dominic after all,” commented Evrard. “I guess a woman’s desire to preserve her honor must overcome everything else.”
This explanation didn’t seem right, but I didn’t have time to worry about Diana. If we could find the monster quickly and somehow subdue it, we might arrive in time for the last of the nuptial feast, and then we would hear how it all had come out.
As Evrard and I went to get our mares, he asked, “Do you think I have time to slip back and say good-bye to the wood nymph?”
“No,” I said firmly. I felt an almost overwhelming need for haste, and the slightest delay was now intolerable. “The knights are mounted already. It’s time we-”
From the corner of my eye, I spotted someone moving on the top of the cliff. I jerked around so sharply I could feel the muscles in my shoulders popping. It was a human form, but I could not see if it was true human or monster. Before I could find the words of the Hidden Language to shape a far-seeing spell, the figure stepped to the edge and jumped.
Evrard gave a sharp cry. I threw together a spell that I hoped would slow the figure’s descent, then realized it was already falling far slower than it should have been.
In fact, it was not falling at all but flying down the cliff face. With a start, I recognized the old wizard.
Leaving my indignant mare half-saddled, I myself flew to meet him. Evrard was right behind me, flying surprisingly well.
My predecessor stood calmly at the bottom of the line of toeholds. I expected to find an obvious renegade wizard, out of control, perhaps even emanating evil, but he looked no more out of control than when we last saw him.
“So you young whipper-snappers are here, too,” he said, straightening out a sleeve that had folded back during his descent. He looked toward the group of priests and knights for a moment, then dismissed them. “You might even be useful.”
He seemed to have forgotten-or at least be willing to ignore-how rude I had been the last time I saw him. I was not going to remind him. “I know what’s happened,” I said instead. “Your monster’s escaped.”
His eyes flashed at me from under genuinely shaggy eyebrows. “Not escaped. And not a monster, but a living creature. I let it loose deliberately, but I’m having a little more trouble binding it again than I anticipated.”
“But, Master, why did you even make it in the first place?”
“To confound young wizards who think they know more magic than they do,” he said absently, looking down the valley. I attempted, very delicately, to reach his mind, but he had it well shielded. “I think it’s down here in the valley somewhere. It may have gone around to the far end and be working its way back upstream.”
