II
We reached Caelrhon at sunset and saw both the new and the old towers of the cathedral rising before us “The Romneys are back,” noted Vor.
And not just the Romneys. As well as their caravans, I saw a large number of silk tents pitched outside the city walls, far more than one usually saw for market day. I set the air cart down in front of the gates. We climbed out, leaner and much more ragged and dirty than we had been when we left, and smiled to think what we must look like to people in silk tents.
“The first thing I’m going to do,” said Lucas cheerfully, “is to take a very long bath.” I was giving the air cart the commands to return it to the City.
“Don’t use up all the hot water,” said Paul.
“I’ll need to see how my lads are doing,” said Vor and slipped away. The air cart soared upwards into the darkening sky.
“Save some hot water for me, too,” I said to Paul. “I’m going around by the cathedral, to tell the dean not to worry about the gorgos any more. I don’t trust that young priest to have given him the message.”
The construction site in front of the cathedral was dark and still, except for the construction crew’s huts on the far side. Then I heard sudden loud and cheerful voices as Vor arrived. I saw the watchman’s lantern but detoured around him to reach at last the quiet cobbled street behind the church, where thin lines of yellow light came into the street from shuttered windows.
My footsteps echoed as I hurried down to the house at the end. I stepped up into the dark porch and knocked. For a long moment there was no response. Then there was a click as the door was unlocked, and a candle shone in my eyes as it opened.
I had expected to see Joachim’s silent servant. Instead I saw a man I had never met in my life. “I need to see the dean at once,” I said. There was probably a good reason why Joachim had someone else opening his door. “It’s very urgent.”
He hesitated, apparently trying to decide if I was dangerous, then nodded. “Wait here, please.”
There was another long pause, and I could hear faint voices. Then the candle appeared again with someone else carrying it. He was dressed in the black vestments of a senior officer of the cathedral, but he was not Joachim.
After a panic-stricken moment in which I imagined that we had somehow come to the wrong city, I remembered seeing this man last month at dinner at this very house. He was older than Joachim, with an intelligent face if not the dean’s intense expression.
“Excuse me, I expected to see Father Joachim,” I managed to say.
“He is at the episcopal palace, but I am sure I could help you.”
Joachim was alive, but I was too late. I tried to smile and shook my head. “Thank you, but it wasn’t important. Sorry to disturb you.” The priest stood in the doorway, still holding up his candle, watching me as I slowly walked back down the street.
At the castle, Paul met me in great excitement. He seemed younger somehow than he had in the past weeks. “We got back just in time! They’re going to elect the new bishop and have his enthronement tomorrow! Everybody’s here-Mother, Prince Vincent, the old king and queen of Caelrhon. And they say that not only are all the lords of the two kingdoms here-that’s why we saw so many tents-and all the bishops of the nearby dioceses, but the bishop of the great City himself! I’m afraid the castle is very cramped with the royal courts of both kingdoms, and there’s hardly any hot water.”
I felt swept with relief to hear that the queen was all right. Now all I had to do was find Theodora. “And have there been any more manifestations from the renegade wizard?”
“No. Lucas told me he was going to talk to his brother immediately, of course. But I’ve seen Bonfire, and he seems well-my knights did remember to exercise and feed him.”
There was one more important point in what Paul had said. “And they haven’t elected the new bishop yet?”
“Well, not really. I’ve just been hearing about this. They hold the official election right before the enthronement, but in fact they have to decide much earlier. It would never do to have everyone there for the ceremony and then have a split election! The priests keep the results secret, of course, but there are plenty of rumors.”
“And who is rumored to have been elected?” I asked, but I already knew.
“You’ll never guess. It’s Father Joachim, our old chaplain! We’ll find out for sure in the morning.”
The morning found us all in the cathedral very early. I kept probing for another wizard in the city, but I could not find him. I also found no monsters, not even the red lizards with hands, although I had flown surreptitiously over the new tower, repeating the spell to reveal what was hidden. This absence of other wizards and of magical creatures was not the relief it should have been, because I also had not been able to detect the wizard even when Theodora had. I wondered if he planned some outrage for the middle of the ceremony or if, as at the old bishop’s funeral, he would save his surprise for the end.
The church was even more crowded than it had been for the funeral, because as well as all the townspeople there were all the aristocrats of two kingdoms, with their trains. Quite a few wore their swords, a surprising sight in church. I spotted Yurt’s two counts and the duchess several rows behind us. The duchess was flanked by her tall husband and their twin daughters. The girls waved at us and Paul waved back. I even saw the Romneys, in their bright red and gold best, squeezed into a back pew.
Prince Vincent sat with his own family, including his parents, his brother Lucas, the crown princess and their children, in the front pew on the far side of the church, so Paul and I had the queen to ourselves. As we waited for the service to begin, Paul continued telling his mother the story of our adventures which he had started last night. The nixie, I noticed, became changed in the telling into a rather ill-defined although still malignant magical creature.
I was almost overwhelmed to be sitting so close to the queen again, smelling her scent, seeing her smile, hearing her voice. She addressed me perfectly naturally, as she always had, and I did my best to be equally natural.
But I still glanced surreptitiously around the church, looking for Theodora. She could have been there but I would not have seen her in the throng.
Then the organ began playing, and conversation quickly died away as aristocrats and townspeople settled back as well as they could in the crowded pews. Through the great doors of the cathedral came half a dozen bishops in brilliant scarlet robes. All of them seemed quite old and highly venerable. They walked solemnly the length of the cathedral, across the mosaic Tree of Life, to stand around the altar.
When the last bishop had taken his place, the doors opened again, and all the cathedral priests came in. I looked for and did not see Joachim. But the other members of the cathedral chapter filed slowly up the aisle to stand in a group beside the bishops.
One bishop stepped forward: the bishop of the great City. I had seen him once when I was in school. The great mane of hair protruding below his mitre had been grey then and now was white, but his booming voice was unchanged.
“Dearly beloved,” he began, speaking into a profound hush, “we are gathered here to observe one of the most important ceremonies of the Church, the election of a new bishop.”
I rather doubted that I was his dearly beloved. Although Joachim had forestalled an incipient riot against me, after I was left there would still have been strong feeling against both the magical monster who had attacked the cathedral and the wizard who “must” have had something to do with its appearance. Perhaps Norbert had tried to cover up for his humiliation by lashing out against me, even if not against Joachim, once I was gone. The City’s bishop would certainly not be impressed at hearing from one wizard that another wizard was planning some sort of attack on the Church.