I found I had nothing to say. We turned a corner and reached the little castle that belonged to the royal family of Yurt. Paul stepped boldly up to the knight in Caelrhon’s livery who stood at the door. “Inform your master,” he said, resting his hand casually on the pommel of his sword, “that the heir to Yurt demands that he vacate this castle at once and make it available for our use.”
Inwardly I smiled, distracted for the moment from the devastating news about the queen. Paul was so confident, so bold, and still so young. A stray beam of sunlight made his hair shine like a crown of pale gold. I waited, ready in case the knight tried to oppose him by force.
But after one hard glance at us the knight grunted, “Wait here,” and disappeared into the castle. While we waited, I took the queen’s letter back out and looked at it again. Apparently she was willing to go on living in the same castle with me on the same terms as during the previous nineteen years; the only question was whether I was equally willing.
This thought shocked me. How could I even be considering going on as wizard of Yurt when I loved Theodora?
Prince Lucas’s knight returned. “He will receive you within, sir.”
Paul handed him the stallion’s reins. “Watch him for me until I return. But be careful. He’s wild, and he’ll kill anyone but me who tries to mount.” He grinned as we went up the steps, leaving the knight looking dubiously at the stallion. “In fact, Bonfire is as gentle as a kitten,” he said in a whisper.
Prince Lucas met us in the castle’s great hall, doing his best to appear gracious; I did not judge the effort a great success. “I am delighted to see you, Prince,” he said to Paul, but looking at me with thorough disapproval. “I just wish you had warned me of your coming to Caelrhon, so that we might have been prepared to greet you more suitably.”
The two princes kissed each other on the cheeks, their hands stiffly placed on each other’s shoulders. Paul was as tall as Lucas, although I doubted he weighed more than half as much.
“My mother and I are deeply surprised to find you still here in our castle,” said Paul with comparable courtesy. “If you had warned us you wished to extend your stay, it would not now be necessary to ask you to leave.”
“Let me make a suggestion,” said Lucas. “We were unavoidably detained in the city by certain business, and now, with the bishop dead and the funeral scheduled for tomorrow, it seems inappropriate to leave immediately. There is plenty of room for both of us. I will vacate the royal chamber, of course, but it would be unsuitable for a prince such as yourself to stay here alone.”
“I have three knights coming to town behind me,” said Paul, “and of course our Royal Wizard will stay with me. But for one night we are willing that you stay here as well. The royal heirs of the twin kingdoms will be suitable representatives at the bishop’s funeral.”
Prince Lucas looked at me even more sourly but nodded. “May I have a few hours to make the appropriate arrangements?”
“Certainly,” said Paul. “I’ll be back later this afternoon.” He gave me another grin as we went back out of the castle, proud at how he had handled a potentially delicate situation.
“I think I know,” he said, once we were outside and he had reclaimed his stallion, “why Lucas stayed on in the city all this time. He was hoping to outwait you.”
“Outwait me?”
“Of course,” said Paul. “He must assume that you’re here on some secret business of the royal house of Yurt. Since he knows he can’t discover your real business, he has to wait until you actually do what you’re planning to do.”
“But what sort of secret business could there be?”
“That’s right; you don’t know anything about the history of Yurt. Remind me to tell you later. Where are we going, by the way?”
“To the cathedral,” I said. “I’ve been staying at the dean’s house and need to get my things.”
Paul waited at the end of the street. Joachim’s door was locked, and no one answered. I unlocked the door and went in. The house was completely silent except for the distant sound of the cathedral organ. I got my box and went out again. For a second I hesitated on the porch, Joachim’s spare key in my hand, then locked the door and slipped the key under the mat. I doubted I would ever be back.
“Yurt and Caelrhon used to be all one kingdom,” said Paul. We sat at a table in the inn, having dinner. The royal heir to Yurt seemed to be enjoying eating with the ordinary townspeople of Caelrhon. The last time I had been here was with Theodora.
For a terrifying moment I feared that the events of the last six weeks had all been imagined. In many ways Theodora was the woman of my youthful dreams, coming to meet me a generation later. But then rationality reasserted itself. My memories were much too vivid to be illusory. Besides, if I had been creating an imaginary woman for myself, I would not have created an amethyst-eyed witch who climbed steep cliffs unaided by magic.
I dragged my attention back to Paul, who was giving me a quizzical look. “I’m sorry,” I said. “So Yurt and Caelrhon used to be all one kingdom? How long ago was that?”
“Until-” he paused to calculate “-until two hundred and fourteen years ago. That’s when the twin heirs to Yurt decided not to fight any longer but divide the kingdom between them.” He put down his knife and fork to explain more fully. Although I had no appetite, Paul had been eating with gusto. The three knights from Yurt, who had finally reached the city at the end of the afternoon and were seated across the room, seemed likewise absorbed in dinner.
“The one twin, the younger, took the part of the kingdom with the cathedral city in it, and indeed his share was larger in terms of total area. The older brother took the smaller share, but his had much richer land, and he kept the royal castle of Yurt. The younger brother had to settle for making what had been a small, dependent castle into the royal castle of Caelrhon. And of course it was understood that Yurt was the senior kingdom.”
I paid proper attention now. “And is your mother’s marriage to Prince Vincent going to reunite the two kingdoms?”
“Of course not,” said Paul, with disdain for my inferior understanding. “Vincent is the younger son, not the heir, and besides, I’m going to be king of Yurt, so it won’t matter whom Mother marries. But one thing I did find out from Prince Vincent-although I don’t think he realizes I know this-is that certain members of the royal family of Caelrhon, especially Prince Lucas, are terrified that Yurt is planning to reconquer their kingdom.”
“You aren’t, are you?” I asked dubiously.
Paul laughed. “Yurt and Caelrhon will still be separate kingdoms. Prince Lucas has waited too long to be king to want to risk losing the crown.”
“Would he like to unify the two countries himself?”
“He’d have to get rid of me first,” said Paul, young enough to feel immortal.
“But he fears I’m the spearhead of a reconquest?” This was rapidly becoming too complicated for me in my present state of mind. “But why then is Vincent marrying the queen?”
“Vincent thinks that his older brother doesn’t entirely approve,” said Paul, as though this explained everything. “You know,” with an expression of disgust, “they really do act as though they’re in love.”
And I was in love with Theodora. I dropped my forehead onto my fist and tried again to reach her mind. But I hesitated to use the most powerful spells, the ones I had already tried unsuccessfully against the wizard, which should reveal almost anyone trying to shield his mind from magic. If she was deliberately hiding from me it would be unfair to use my better knowledge of magic to force her out of hiding.