People slowly started rising from their chairs as general conversation started again. I, however, started at once for the drawbridge. If I kept my eyes on the sky, no dragon should appear without warning. I wondered if Zahlfast would come if I pleaded with him, or if it would be too late by the time he arrived. As I reached the doorway I spotted Theodora across the room, frowning in my direction, and nodded at her encouragingly.
But then I realized that all conversation throughout the great hall had abruptly ceased. All the lords and ladies stared toward me, even Paul and the queen. Their expressions were disconcerted, even worried.
They all knew, then, I thought, feeling my ears go red. No chance now to slip away unobtrusively. Somehow word had gotten around the hall that a magical attack was planned for today, and yet the Royal Wizard did not know how to deal with it. When the floor refused to swallow me I bowed stiffly to the crowd, who now seemed to be looking past my shoulder, and backed toward the door.
The duchess broke the silence. She gave a great laugh and slapped the table before her. “Well, Wizard!” she called. “You’ve done some wonderful illusions for us in the past, but these are the best yet!”
I felt a prickling as all the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I whirled around and saw them, and knew what I had been expecting all day had begun at last. These were no illusion. Peering into the great hall from the courtyard were creatures like lizards, but far bigger than lizards and bright red. They crept on their bellies with the front halves of their bodies arched upwards, because instead of forefeet they had human hands.
IV
They saw me looking at them, and the one in the lead spread its red wings and began to hiss. I started desperately on a paralysis spell. It had been useless against the gorgos, but these were smaller creatures. After only two seconds, before I had the spell more than half assembled, they disappeared with a bright flash.
I darted out into the courtyard, gritting my teeth, and threw Theodora’s spell to reveal the invisible into the spot where they had been creeping.
They reappeared just as abruptly as they had disappeared, closer to me than I had expected. I backed away cautiously. Their clawed hands looked powerful enough to take me apart.
I put together the final words of the Hidden Language, and the creatures all froze. I hesitated, suspecting a trick, but they were as still as stone. I probed carefully and found them trapped within my paralysis spell as though frozen in ice. Wings, scales, claws, and eyes were still and silent. Without the will or ability to move, inside my paralysis spell they could do no more than breathe.
I passed my hand over my forehead. “That was too easy,” I thought. Laughter and clapping came from the great hall behind me, but I paid no attention. If a renegade wizard was planning a massive attack on Yurt, he should be able to do more than this. Might all this be an effort to lull me into a false sense of security while the real attack was prepared?
And then, abruptly, the Romney children were all around me. The oldest boy looked at me with admiration in his black eyes. “Did you make them? How do you make them move? Are they going to start moving again?” To my alarm, some of the younger children were now among the creatures, feeling their rough scales and tugging at their wings.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. “They’re paralyzed now, but I can’t guarantee they won’t wake up. Have a look at the claws.”
But my paralysis spell held. “I hadn’t realized you could do real magic as well as illusions!” the boy continued.
The Romney woman with the gold teeth hurried toward us. She started shooing the children away in what I 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!”