thought justifiable concern. I reached into my pocket and found I still was carrying the gold earring I had picked up at the beginning of the summer. I held it out on my palm. “Does this belong to any of you?”
The younger Romneys, who had started moving across the drawbridge and toward the caravans, returned to cluster around me. One of the younger girls gave a squeal of delight. She flipped back black curls to show that the two earrings she was wearing were not a pair: one was a gold hoop, like the earring in my hand, but the other a simple silver stud.
I gave her back her earring to the approving shouts of the other children. Before they could all move off again, I took the older boy by the arm. “I didn’t make the lizards,” I told him. “I’ve only paralyzed them. Have you seen someone else do magic like this?” The renegade wizard, I thought, must be very close, but he was shielding his mind from me as effectively as ever.
“Of course not,” the boy said in surprise. “Thanks for the demonstration!”
The other children, led by the girl with the earring, were now running back toward the caravans. “Before you go,” I said to the Romney woman, “I want to tell you something.”
She turned good-natured black eyes on me. “Those were the earrings she got at her naming ceremony when she was four, and she’s been devastated since she lost the one.”
But I was not about to be distracted by earrings. “Do you remember you told me my fortune? You told me I would meet someone beautiful and mysterious and would fall deeply in love. I wanted to tell you that you were right.”
She gave a gratified smile before hurrying after the children. I turned back to the lizards.
At the moment they still seemed paralyzed, but a wizard with the powerful magic to summon them would be able to break my spell. I lifted them magically, one at a time, and carried them across the drawbridge and out onto the grass. Several lords and ladies clustered in the courtyard, watching. Opinion seemed divided on whether the lizards might be a threat or were merely part of the planned entertainment.
I had to call the school. If they could send the air cart, I might be able to ship the lizards to the City, out of the wizard’s range, and where teachers with more powerful magic than mine could put long-lasting binding spells on them. I pushed through the crowd, ignoring all questions, until I found Theodora.
“Watch them,” I said. “If they start to move, even the slightest twitch, call me at once. And try again to find that wizard.” She looked at me with amethyst eyes wide. “Yes, they must be the same creatures you’ve seen when you wear your ring.”
A moment later I was connected to the wizards’ school. A very young wizard, no more, I guessed, than a second-year student, appeared in the glass base of the telephone. “No, Zahlfast isn’t here. And the Master isn’t either. In fact,” in a frightened rush, “there’s no one here at all. All the teachers left.”
“They left?” I said incredulously.
“They left last night. I don’t know where they went, but they seemed very worried. All they told us was to keep reviewing our lessons and working on our spells until they came back.”
“Well, if they get back soon, have Zahlfast call me,” I mumbled.
This was terrible. What could possibly have caused all the teachers to leave the school? All I could think was that the wizard had a much larger and better coordinated plan in place for today than I could possibly have imagined. I would certainly receive no help from the school, nor was I in any position to help them.
My heart pounding, I ran back outside. There was no change yet in the lizards. Theodora gave me what was probably meant to be a smile of encouragement. My own answering smile wasn’t any better.
“How did they get here?” she asked quietly.
“I wish I knew. The wizard must have brought them, but I can’t find him. He may even be lurking in the castle, invisible.” I slapped a fist into the other hand in frustration. “How could a renegade wizard be so good at magic? I’ve been trying to find him since I first heard of the problems the cathedral was having, way back in the spring, but he’s been hiding from me as effectively as if he didn’t even exist!”
“I’ll look for him,” said Theodora. “If I put on my ring of invisibility, I should be able to see what is concealed.”
“And send that old magician out here too,” I said. “He probably trusts you, since you taught him fire magic. Just don’t mention that I’m going to take him apart if I find out he’s been spying on me for the wizard.”
As she hurried away, I decided that as long as I was effectively trapped here with the lizards, I ought to talk to Vincent. “Paul!” I called, seeing him standing with some of the knights, and motioned him toward me with a jerk of my head.
Then I remembered. All summer I had been trying to remind myself that he would shortly be king and that I should treat him accordingly. Now that he was king I was back to treating him like a boy.
He came over, not seeming to mind my inappropriate summons and flushed with high excitement. He still wore his blue and white velvet.
“Excuse me, sire,” I said, trying to speak formally to make up for my lapse. A very quick smile crossed his face; I had never called him “sire” before. “The wizard who attacked the cathedral sent these giant lizards. I’ve been able to paralyze them, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to maintain the spell if he tries to free them.”
“We could use them as targets in the tournament,” Paul suggested.
It was an appealing idea, but I didn’t like the thought of the lizards coming suddenly back to life directly under a horse’s hooves-maybe the hooves of the king’s horse.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to Prince Vincent,” I went on. “Do you know if Lucas has been able to find out anything from his brother?”
“Not that he’s told me.”
“Could you find Vincent and ask him to come here? If he
“Vincent himself told us that wizards have ways to make someone reveal all their secrets!” said the king with a grin. “I’ll get him. And I have faith in you to stop whatever’s coming.”
I didn’t remind him that the gorgos had very nearly killed me, and I had only been able to overcome it with a spell that was not supposed to work.
Vincent came out of the castle a few minutes later, already dressed in the padded linen shirt and trousers he would wear under his armor. Even without his finery, he walked with the grace and assurance of a prince-or, I thought, of a man who planned very soon to be king.
He poked a finger into the side of a motionless lizard. “Monsters don’t stand much of a chance with you, do they, Wizard! I still remember how you knocked my sword out of my hand when I tried to tease you. I could have warned these creatures to stay away. Where did they come from, anyway?”
But I was not to be distracted. “I think you know more, Vincent,” I replied sternly, “than you’ve cared to say about them.”
He took a step backwards. “I? I know nothing about them!” He was so obviously staggered that it was hard not to believe him. However, I was successful in doing so.
“They were summoned by a wizard,” I said shortly, “with whom you have been plotting to overthrow both the Church and organized wizardry and, incidentally, to seize the kingdom of Yurt for yourself.”
Vincent stared at me with a complete lack of comprehension. Then he shook his head, as though not sure whether he should smile, and sat down, his arms resting on his knees and his hands hanging loose. I remained standing. It seemed I had spent much of the summer accusing people of sinister plots.
But I got a very different reaction from Vincent than I had from his brother. “Paul’s been trying to tell you that you stand in the way of his real development as a king, is that it, Wizard?” he asked sympathetically. “Believe me, I never intended to turn him against you personally.”
“Then what did you intend?” I demanded.
“Sit down,” he said, gesturing. “We can talk more easily. Lucas came back from your trip to the land of magic all full of accusations about how I was plotting against everybody-him especially-but I hadn’t expected you to believe it too.”
I hesitated, then sat down beside him. The midday sun was bright on our heads and made his copper hair gleam. The lizards, frozen in positions of attack with their clawed hands upraised, stood before us.
“Sometime this winter,” Vincent said, “our late wizard started playing on Lucas, telling him that there was no
