I paused to let him say something, but he only continued to listen, intent tawny eyes holding mine and an indulgent smile on his lips.
“Hints of danger from priests and aristocrats, you realized, would not be enough to give you the chance to remake the school in your own image. But again Sengrim gave you an opportunity. You knew I would work out eventually that he brought the gorgos to Caelrhon-and that even if he had overcome his bitterness toward me enough for rational conversation, he would have been too proud to mention your role in helping him. So you decided-and quite rightly-that if dragons attacked the school Sengrim would be blamed for that too.”
“Then I am supposed to be responsible for those dragons?” He was still giving his indulgent smile.
“Sengrim could never have called that many by himself. He was in Yurt, with the lizards he had learned to master several years ago, when someone else brought dragons over the border. You didn’t go to help the masters fight them even though your kingdom is so close to the City. You have spells of your own around this castle that would have warded off dragons. I’m sure you were able to persuade yourself that none of the faculty would actually be killed, that fighting dragons in the City streets would be messy but not actually fatal if everyone kept their heads and worked together. But a battered school with a badly-wounded faculty would need someone to step in and take charge, someone who would quickly assure that wizards, rather than being just one of the ‘three who rule the world,’ would be the only rulers.”
The late summer evening was growing cool in this tower high above the plain. Elerius snapped his fingers, said two words, and lit the kindling in the fireplace. The flames quickly caught the dry wood. When he looked toward me expectantly, I said a few words of my own in the Hidden Language to light a tiny cascade of flames in the air before us.
“Not bad, Daimbert,” he said appreciatively as they flickered back out of existence. “Did you come here then to match spells with me?”
I shook my head hard. “Your spells are better than mine. I’ve always known that. That’s why I want to know why you seem to want me, whose only strength is in improvisation, in a school that you plan to remodel as rigorous, standardized, and monolithic.”
“Don’t assume your imaginings about my ‘plans’ are real, Daimbert,” he said slowly, looking into the fire and not smiling any longer. “You have speculation but not a shred of evidence. If you tried to take any of this to the Master, you realize, I would only deny it all, and you would come out looking an even bigger fool than you did all those years ago at Zahlfast’s transformations practical.”
He spoke so soberly that for a moment I began to doubt my own reason, and I wished wildly for Theodora’s ring of invisibility so I could escape before I embarrassed myself any further.
“But,” and he turned his eyes sharply toward me, “let’s assume for a moment that you’re right.”
I took a deep breath and let it out again.
“Don’t you think the idea deserves better than your dismissal? For generations before the Black Wars, the aristocrats controlled the western kingdoms and used their strength and even their wizards against other kings and lords. The result was the bloody wars that so sickened the old wizards that they, contentious and individualistic as they were, finally banded together to stop the fighting. So we know that aristocrats can’t be allowed to make the great decisions. And the priests with their prating about sin and morality would not be any better. So who does that leave but the wizards?”
“Why does anyone have to rule the world?” I demanded. “Why can’t the townsmen rule their towns, the kings their individual kingdoms, and the priests their churches?”
“Since in fact we already are the ultimate rulers,” Elerius went on without answering my question, “then it would be best to plan ahead, rather than simply reacting to events. The Master did an excellent job in setting up the school in the first place, coordinating the teaching of wizardry, making sure young wizards learned magic’s responsibilities as well as its spells. But the time has come to think of the next necessary steps. Those of us of the next generation, trained in the school and its methods but with visions of our own, are ready to go beyond the victories already won.” He paused and smiled. “You realize, of course, I am speaking hypothetically.”
“And what would I, hypothetically, have to do with all this?”
“You and I have crossed paths before, Daimbert,” said Elerius thoughtfully, stroking his beard. “You have an uncanny knack of disrupting my plans. If I actually had intended to use dragons to attack the school, then I might be quite angry with you for warning Zahlfast in time. Some wizards in such a situation, I might imagine, would realize that you had most likely not told anyone in the City that you were coming here, and that with the king of Yurt thinking you were still at the school, the school thinking you were back in Yurt, and the witch in Caelrhon thinking you had loved her and left her, it might be a very long time before anyone came to my kingdom to ask awkward questions …”
“So far,” I said evenly, clenching my fists until the nails bit into my palms, “you have tried denial, blackmail, and threats. All this has done is make me more certain than ever that I’m right.”
“And you’re holding out for bribery?” Elerius asked, showing his teeth in a smile. “Since this is all hypothetical and indeed quite imaginary, I can say honestly that you are providing me one of the most entertaining evenings, Daimbert, I have had in a long time. But I was about to add that I am not one of the wizards who reacts simply by eliminating all potential opposition. I already told you that I believe one should not reject anything that could prove useful. Anyone who has the ability to thwart me-even if not always intentionally-has strengths it might be best to have on my side.”
“This is the bribe, then?” I asked, fists still clenched along my sides. “I get hired onto the permanent faculty of the school now, in part so you can keep a closer eye on me, and then you promise that when you take over I can stay?”
“Wouldn’t you find this a tempting bribe, Daimbert-if I were making one?”
“No. I am Royal Wizard of Yurt. And I do not want to be part of any attempt to control the rest of the world. I know you are a better wizard than I could be in a thousand years, but even you can’t control it. If I have thwarted you, it’s not because I have outmaneuvered you. It’s because the world, and that includes me, is much too messy and unpredictable, impossible for even the best wizardly planning to guide successfully.” I rose abruptly to my feet. Get out while I was still alive. “Thank you so much for tea, but I should get home to Yurt tonight.”
Elerius rose too and went to the door, the gracious host, to see me out. I followed him, feeling sweat trickling down my neck. Almost. I was almost out of here to safety. But he paused with his hand on the latch.
“Don’t take accusations to the school, Daimbert, when you have no proof,” he said quietly. “You can take pride in having kept organized wizardry unchanged if that was your goal. But I would still like to be your friend. Think over these ideas how the school might be improved. Anyone who can overcome a fanged gorgos with spells that shouldn’t work, become friends with a bishop, and make such imaginative and highly romantic guesses about what I might have been planning, deserves closer study!” He opened the door. “Have a pleasant trip home-but keep in touch.”