Mage Quest

back to you once we’re home.”

The chaplain nodded slowly. “Yes, it will make more sense for me come to Yurt with all of you at first. From there I’ll go on to the cathedral city of Caelrhon after a few days.”

I turned my head to stare at him. Joachim was wrapped up in his desert robes, and his dark eyes were shadowed, but he must have caught my expression. “Didn’t I tell you, Daimbert, before we left Yurt this spring? The bishop agreed that I should indeed make the pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the king. But as soon as we’re back I shall have to resign as royal chaplain and go to join the priests of the cathedral chapter.”

Then the home we were returning to would not be the home we had left. The Yurt I had always known was a kingdom with Joachim as royal chaplain. I reminded myself that I too was different, both in my knowledge and in my magic, and it didn’t help.

“So will you allow us to borrow your carpet,” Dominic said to Kaz-alrhun, “to get ourselves and King Solomon’s Pearl back to Yurt?”

Kaz-alrhun rolled his black eyes at him. “Are you certain it is as easy as that?”

“Why, are you worried about how we’ll share the Pearl’s powers if you stay in Xantium and we take it to Yurt?” Dominic frowned and looked toward the king. “I’m sure if you wanted to come to Yurt with us, then …”

Kaz-alrhun shook his head and looked briefly amused. “I mean that it will not be as easy to take the Pearl home with you as you seem to think. It is the way of God to raise up nothing of this world, except He cast it down again. For a while yet, the Pearl may continue to bring you your heart’s desire. But if you take it to Yurt now, spattered with the blood of a man killed for it, it will soon cease to make you prosper, and instead will put you under a curse that will blight your entire kingdom.”

VI

We met each other’s eyes in dismay. “Then take it to Xantium,” said Dominic.

Kaz-alrhun shook his head, still looking amused. “I want Xantium to continue to prosper, and I am already the greatest mage the city has ever known, even without the Pearl. It would have been an even greater triumph to be able to learn how to control its magic, but I did find it. I deliberately did not tell you to search the Wadi, did not touch the ruby with its opening spells, and stood back when you took the Pearl out of the cave. I knew its potential perils, and its curse should not touch me. I will not take it.”

“But what was I supposed to do?” Ascelin burst out. “Should I have stood by while King Warin tried to kill Dominic?”

“And should I have just told Ascelin to let Warin go, so that he would be accursed instead?” demanded Dominic.

“There was, after all, an excellent reason,” Kaz-alrhun replied, “why the caliph renounced the Pearl and all its powers a thousand years ago.”

Dominic took a deep breath and placed the Black Pearl on the sand in front of him. The smooth dark surface winked in the firelight. “Then I shall renounce it also,” he said after only the shortest pause. “Let it remain here with the Ifrit, or back within the Wadi where we found it.”

We were all silent for a moment, then Joachim said quietly, “In this fallen world, no man, even the wisest, could consistently do good if he could wield this much power. To lock it away may have been the wisest decision Solomon ever made.”

Dominic shrugged, as though trying to reestablish normalcy. “If there isn’t enough room on your carpet for all of us when we leave here, Mage, maybe we could put the overflow on your flying horse. Or is it your horse anymore?” he added with a forced chuckle. “Someone certainly has bought it from you by now, maybe the chaplain’s sister-in-law.”

We waited for Kaz-alrhun to answer, then I realized he was slowly shaking its head. “It is much too late to renounce the Black Pearl that easily. It was taken from its hiding place by a prince of Yurt, and after Warin stole it a duke of Yurt killed him to recover it. Its curse will affect Yurt whether it is with you or back in the Wadi.”

For a moment we sat in silence, trying to imagine a curse on Yurt: the green hills becoming parched, fires ravaging the fields, blizzards killing the livestock, the bandits who almost never bothered us appearing on the highways, fatal disease spreading and infecting the children, both the children of villagers and the children of kings and princes.

“There has to be a way,” said Dominic abruptly. “This is a flawless pearl, beyond all price. It was a gift to King Solomon from the Queen of Sheba, a gift to be treasured. If, as the mage says, blood and evil desires can pervert its magic, then there has to be a way to purify it again.”

I stared at the Pearl until its winking in the firelight set up a pattern within my brain, a pattern that suddenly made sense of that voice I had not quite been able to hear.

“There is a way,” I heard myself saying. “One of us will have to die.”

Kaz-alrhun’s eyes met mine. “You surprise me, Daimbert. I did not think a western wizard would understand that.”

“The Pearl itself told me.”

This startled him again.

“The Pearl must again be hidden,” I said as though someone else were speaking. “Inside its golden box, inside the locked cabinet, sunk in a derelict ship in the deepest rift of the Outer Sea. The Ifrit can take it there, and with it shall go someone of Yurt. Then the curse will be lifted. Yurt will not prosper so thoroughly as it would have, by the Pearl’s grace, if no one had been killed, but the free giving of a life will break the curse brought about by violent death. And if the Pearl is found again, in five years or five thousand, the finder may, if he keeps free of evil, find his heart’s desire.”

My voice rose, and I spoke now for myself, not the Pearl. “The Ifrit says that all humans die senselessly, and even you, Kaz-alrhun, sometimes speak as though you feel we have no ultimate control over our fate, that life has no more meaning than a game. But living and dying can have a purpose. King Warin, his soul given to evil, sought the Pearl even before we knew that was what we sought. He and his bandits almost killed several of us to bring the Pearl’s powers into his own hands. He’s dead himself now, gone to the supernatural realm where his soul will be surely judged. But even in the natural world good can be brought out of evil, and our heart’s desire need not turn to a curse. A life that Warin couldn’t take by force will be freely given, and thus repair the evil he left behind.”

I added, before I could realize what I was saying, “I myself shall accompany the Pearl to the deepest rift of the sea.”

There were immediate protests and questions in eleven other voices. I put my hand over my eyes and wondered if I meant it and was afraid that I did.

Ascelin stood up, somewhat stiffly, and faced everyone else down. “I killed Warin and brought the curse on all of you.” He met the chaplain’s eyes and gave a humorless smile. “The wizard is right that that evil must be repaired, and I shall give myself to do so. Let’s get that Ifrit over here and do it now. When you’re home again, tell Diana I always loved her.”

This brought immediately renewed protests. The Ifrit heard our raised voices and came over. Dominic was trying to outshout Ascelin, telling him, “You only killed him because I told you to!” I kept silent, still thinking it ought to be me and unable to say so a second time.

“So you’re competing for which one of you will die?” the Ifrit asked me. “This is even more amusing than having those two little warriors fight each other.”

The Ifrit’s wife came over too, graceful and barebreasted. The Ifrit perched her on his knee while continuing to follow the discussion as though watching a play.

“Ifrit,” I said suddenly, “this is really a private conversation. I don’t think you should be listening. I know you find it amusing,” I went on quickly before he could object, “so I’ll offer you a deal. Very shortly, one of us is going to accompany the Black Pearl to the deepest rift in the Outer Sea.” I took a deep breath, thinking it was still most likely to be me, and pushed ahead. “If you’ll agree to take him there, then you can listen while we decide which one of us it will be.”