Daughter of Magic

II

“That was terrific,” said Hildegarde enthusiastically. “If you had a dozen of those carpets on the battlefield, no one could ever stand against you.”

“God heard our prayers,” said Celia quietly. “We must all give our thanks to Him for preserving our lives.”

“I didn’t know you wizards could do spells that powerful,” added Gwennie, “stopping a flying carpet dead from a hundred yards away.” I certainly couldn’t have done that myself-otherwise the carpet would never have gotten away-but I did not want to dwell on how much better Elerius’s magic was than mine.

We all ended up having dinner crowded around the table in his study. When his king, twice as formal and august as Paul, learned that one of his unexpected guests was a crown princess and two more the daughters of a prince, he came up personally to meet them. He welcomed them to his castle with a few well-chosen words and complimented Princess Margareta as though she had been ten years older, but he paid no attention whatsoever to Gwennie and me and only looked quizzically at Justinia, clearly curious about the automaton hovering at her shoulder but not wanting to ask.

“This is Daimbert,” said Elerius, “the wizard who invented the far-seeing telephone.”

His king looked momentarily interested but not very much so, and in a minute he wished us all a pleasant dinner and left.

Antonia, exhilarated and exhausted, fell asleep in the middle of the soup course. I cradled her on my lap, too relieved and too weary to feel much like eating myself, and wondering how one little girl could at the same time be so adorable and so exasperating.

“Lady Maria thought she was giving me a ‘change’ the other day by taking me to Caelrhon,” said the Princess Margareta excitedly. “But how many times have I been to that city before, a thousand, a million? Where does she think I live? But this!” She giggled. “This really was a change! And now I know all about flying carpets, Justinia, just like you do.”

“I hadn’t realized you were teaching your niece magic, Wizard,” said Gwennie. “Isn’t it rather unusual for girls to learn magic?”

Elerius caught my eye, lifting one eyebrow but saying nothing.

I had telephoned Yurt as soon as we reached the castle. The queen had answered the phone herself, emerald eyes concerned. “Everyone’s fine,” I had said quickly. “No problems at all. You’ll hear all about it when we’re home. Anything happening there?”

But everything was quiet in Yurt. I called Evrard next, to reassure him as well. Theodora I would tell when I saw her. One more thing, I thought with a sigh, that I was keeping from her.

“When I take over Father’s principality,” said Hildegarde, “I think I’ll get a flying carpet of my own. But will I need an eastern mage rather than a western wizard? Just think, Celia, if you don’t go into the nunnery you can ride on my carpet whenever you come to visit, once you’re a duchess.”

Elerius was the perfect host, serving us himself. When I asked, in a low voice shielded by the general conversation, if he had taught Antonia to fly the carpet, he only smiled and said, “I have never taught anyone the spells for a flying carpet.”

Gwennie looked more cheerful than she had in weeks. “I must say, Wizard,” she said to me, “that I didn’t think Antonia meant it when she said she could take us to see a dragon! We didn’t actually see one,” she added regretfully, “and considering that she didn’t seem to be able to steer maybe it’s just as well the wizard came along when he did, but it certainly made for a more interesting afternoon than putting away the laundry!”

Elerius’s constable was able to find rooms for all of us in the castle, and in the morning we set out to return to Yurt. “Antonia,” I told her firmly in my best wizardly voice, “I think it’s time for you to go home. I’ve really enjoyed having you at the castle this week, but you took off without telling me where you were going. I’m afraid I just can’t allow that.”

“But I told you I was going!” she protested, giving me a sidelong look, as though knowing perfectly well she had been disobedient but confident she could still get out of it. I had sometimes felt that way myself.

Justinia directed her own magic carpet, her automaton riding with her, keeping its pace slow to match the air cart where the rest of us were crowded. Quite understandably, she insisted that the girl was not to ride on the carpet again.

“You said that your friends would like to see a dragon, Antonia,” I said, not about to be won around, “but you didn’t say anything about taking them there on a flying carpet, and you didn’t even give me a chance to come along if I’d wanted.”

The sky was overcast, and I hoped we would make it home before it rained. Antonia whirled from me to Hildegarde. “But I want to stay with her!”

Hildegarde shook her head. “I’m afraid Celia and I are going to be busy for a while. By now our parents will have heard that she wants to be a nun, and they’re either furiously telephoning Yurt or else riding right down from Father’s principality.”

“Then I’ll stay with you!” cried Antonia, turning to Gwennie.

I turned her around toward me again. “We’ll drop everyone else off and go straight to Caelrhon,” I said slowly and clearly.

Antonia frowned darkly for a moment, but then her expression cleared. “I can tell my friend Jen all about the castle. And I can see the Dog-Man again!”

It grew darker as the day moved on, and the air felt much too cold for this time of year. The air cart’s pace slowed as its wings had to beat against a strong east wind. The women shivered, though I kept Antonia warm in my arms-she did a good job of keeping my chest warm too. But whatever storm was building did not yet break. We landed in the castle courtyard under a lowering sky, and everyone turned out to greet us. They were too pleased to see us all safe to start taking me apart at once, though I was discouraged to see the king showing more solicitude for Justinia than for Gwennie.

I paused only long enough to collect Antonia’s things, then took off for the city, leaving the others to give the details of our adventure. The duchess had indeed telephoned, leaving a message that Celia was not to do anything until she arrived.

The sun never had shone through the clouds, and I wanted to get to Caelrhon before it really did begin to storm. Besides, the sooner I faced Theodora the better. Probably I should go around to the cathedral and apologize to Joachim too if he’d even agree to see me. He’d forgiven me for a lot of things in the past, although in this case I hadn’t just insulted the bishop himself but someone under his direction.

Antonia was not reconciled to going home in disgrace-she kept hoping I would change my mind until we were actually in the air-and hugged her Dolly rather than me as we flew along. “It’s for your own good,” I tried to reason with her. “Your mother said you should do what I said, and you didn’t. Suppose Elerius hadn’t been able to stop the carpet, and you’d ended up flying for days and days across the Outer Sea until you either fell off or died of hunger?”

“You never told me not to fly the carpet,” she replied indignantly, her chin trembling only the slightest amount.

But she sprang from the air cart with a glad cry and threw herself into her mother’s arms when I set the air cart down in the quiet cobbled street of the artisans’ quarter of Caelrhon. And she agreed only slightly reluctantly to kiss me good-night once she had been fed and washed.

I told Theodora everything that had happened, sitting again on her couch with my arm around her, the room bathed in the glow of the magic lamp. The only part I didn’t tell her was the bishop deciding that he had had lusty thoughts about her for years without realizing he did. It began at last to rain, a cold, fitful drizzle, and the wind howled in the chimney. At several points Theodora took a deep breath and started to lean forward, but she always settled back again against my arm without speaking.

“Well,” she said at last, her cheerful tone sounding almost normal, “it sounds as though Antonia’s visit to Yurt was a little more exciting than I had expected. But everyone is fine now, and that’s what’s important. Shall I make us some tea?”

As we sipped our tea, its warmth welcome this cold night, she suddenly said, “I’ll have to try to find out what