Mage Quest

“But my caravans, at any rate, haven’t merely been attacked. I’ve had repeated messages from my agents in the East, and there seems no obvious answer. Several of my caravans, four of them as of last month, have simply disappeared.”

He paused again, and when he continued it was so quietly we had to lean forward to hear him. “Men and animals were left standing, but the wagons and goods were gone. They said there was an abrupt rush of air, and then my caravans were gone without a scrap remaining. Only,” and his voice dropped even lower, “only there was always a sign dug into the hard sand and stone of the road. The sign of the cross.”

“Ifriti,” said Ascelin into the ensuing silence.

Arnulf shook his head. “I don’t think so. Ifriti could certainly carry off a caravan without a trace, but they would not mark where they had been with a Christian cross. I’m not sure the Ifriti recognize the power of God at all, and if so they probably follow the Prophet. That’s why,” flicking his eyes toward Joachim, “I’d hoped my brother the priest would have some ideas.”

None of us had any ideas-or at any rate any ideas we wanted to tell Arnulf. But Ascelin, back in our chambers later that evening, seemed convinced he knew what had happened.

“He’s got Solomon’s Pearl here in this house,” he said, low and intense. We were all gathered together in his room-all of us except, again, Joachim.

“Can you sense it, Wizard?” asked King Haimeric.

I tried for a moment, then shook my head. “I don’t find any indication of a magical object here in the house, but that might not mean anything. Any natural object with a spell attached to it is still a natural object, and the spell itself is hard to recognize unless it’s actually active.”

“If he’s got it,” said Dominic, who had been very quiet all evening, “then he’s hoping to get the might of the Church to help him keep it.”

Ascelin nodded, a quick motion with his chin. “That’s why they suddenly asked back the brother they virtually threw out all those years before.”

“Wait a minute,” I protested. “I don’t think they threw him out. They may have quarreled over business ethics, but Joachim decided himself he wanted to be a priest. He and his brother write each other fairly regularly, even if he hasn’t been here since he went off to seminary.”

“They disagreed on more than the ethics of the luxury trade,” said the king slowly, “but our chaplain still left of his own will.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. Joachim had still not said anything to me to explain his long absence from home.

“It’s the Lady Claudia, of course,” said the king with a smile. “Didn’t any of the rest of you notice it?”

I looked at him in amazement. I had certainly not mentioned finding her singing to the chaplain.

“Notice what?” asked Dominic.

The king looked at him affectionately. “You’ve lived almost all your life in the royal castle of Yurt, since you were four years old, and I don’t think you ever noticed anything there either.”

“What are you talking about, sire?” said the royal nephew, just avoiding sounding rude.

“Well, I’ve never told the queen either,” said the king with a distant look, “and I must say it hasn’t been much on my mind in the years since I married her, but you might as well know. Dominic, I spent most of my life in love with your mother.”

This was the same shock to Dominic it was to everyone else. “But- She never suggested-”

“I don’t think she ever knew,” said Haimeric with a reminiscent smile. “It won’t hurt to tell you now. But didn’t you ever wonder why the king of Yurt grew to be an old man without marrying?”

“I was your heir,” said Dominic warily, as though awaiting much worse revelations.

“Of course, and a good heir you were. You were my own dear brother’s boy, as well as hers, and I loved you as though you were my own. But I couldn’t bear to marry anyone else while your mother was still alive. After your father was killed fighting in the eastern kingdoms-saying he had to make his own fortune, which I never have understood, when he knew he always had a home in Yurt-and you and she came to live in the royal castle, I couldn’t think of loving someone else. Your father sent all those jewels back to Yurt when he died, of course, but all she wanted was him.”

He paused briefly and smiled. “I’m not surprised at that. I’m sure you’ve heard since you were little, Dominic, about your father: that he was the handsomest man in three kingdoms, the bravest warrior, the staunchest friend. All of it’s true.”

He then hesitated again, while Dominic uneasily twisted the ruby ring on his finger. “You probably didn’t realize this,” King Haimeric went on, “but your mother was a lovely woman. Not as beautiful as the queen, of course, but lovely and vibrant all the same. Even after she died, I don’t think I would have considered marrying if I hadn’t met the queen.”

And I thought I had known my king. I felt as though a piece of ordinary flooring had been pulled up to reveal a whole busy world beneath. But I felt reticent to ask him more, and, if we were all in danger from King Solomon’s Pearl, we didn’t have time. “What does this have to do with Arnulf and his caravans?”

“It explains,” said the king, with the same reminiscent look, “that Ascelin and his hunting instincts may be picking up something quite different from imminent peril. He may only be picking up unrequited love.”

I felt a sudden conviction that King Haimeric had known all along that I was in love with the queen. But if so he had never said anything, and I was certainly not going to be the first to mention it. She at any rate, I was quite sure, had never had any idea.

“You’re good friends with the chaplain, Wizard,” the king said. “Hasn’t he ever mentioned the Lady Claudia to you?”

“Not even once,” I said slowly. “But- But I think you may have it backwards. He didn’t go into the seminary loving her, and he didn’t come back here still in love with her. If anything, she was in love with him.”

“Come on,” said Ascelin impatiently. “It doesn’t matter who’s in love with whom.” Quite a comment, I thought, for someone who missed his own wife so badly. “We have to plan how to get away from here before we’re seized by the fatal spell of the Pearl.”

“Wait a minute,” interrupted Hugo. “I doubt he has it here. But don’t you think this Pearl must have something to do with the disappearance of my father?”

“It must,” I said, thinking rapidly. “Sir Hugo and all his party vanished abruptly, as abruptly as those caravans. Unless they were all killed by bandits-and I shouldn’t think they would be, so close to the Holy Land, and accompanied by a competent wizard-this sounds like the same sort of disappearance. Somebody in the East has mastered an Ifrit, and is using it to capture anyone, or anything, he thinks may have the Black Pearl.”

“So if Arnulf does have the Pearl here already,” said Hugo, “no one else realizes it. And whoever’s got the Ifrit is continuing to look for it.”

“How do you master an Ifrit, Wizard?” asked Dominic.

I was certainly not the person to ask, but I didn’t want to say so. “It’s very hard,” I said, “and requires spells very unlike anything we normally use in the western kingdoms.” Fortunately Dominic did not press me for details.

“Whether Arnulf already has the Pearl here and wants us to help him keep it,” put in the king, “or whether he, like probably every other merchant in the East, is wondering who does have it and how he can stop his caravans from being attacked in the meantime, he certainly wants us as his friends. I don’t think we need fear him, Ascelin.”

The tall prince looked dubious but nodded. “I still think we should stay watchful.”

We all jumped when a sharp rap came on the door, and it opened to reveal Arnulf and Joachim.

“I just wanted to make sure you were all set for the evening,” said the lord of the manor with a smile. “All having a last bedtime conversation, eh?” He must have suspected we were discussing his affairs, but he was too polite to say so. He did have more tact, I thought, than the chaplain-probably good for business. “There’s a bell in the hall you can ring if you need anything. Sleep well!”

As the brothers left again, I wondered, as I had this afternoon, if Arnulf had sent his wife to attempt to seduce Joachim. So far I didn’t think it was working, but I very much wanted to know why he had.