“I’m afraid,” said Elerius dryly, running a hand over his black beard, “that that was the old magician here in my kingdom. The masters of the school won’t know any spells against creatures more complex than what young Evrard made. The magician had been in hiding ever since, until I found him up in the mountains only a month before he died. He knew he didn’t have long, and he taught me the spells before he went.”
I closed and opened my eyes. “All right. Thank you. I’ll see what I can improvise. Just promise me one thing.”
“Certainly.”
“If I fail, I’ll telephone you again-or I’ll leave word to have someone else call if the monster kills me. Should that happen, swear to me you’ll get the best help possible, from the school or from any other wizards there may be who know the old magic. You’ve got to come to Yurt and stop this thing.”
He nodded slowly. “I promise to try. But I’m confident the creator of the far-seeing telephone will find a way himself.”
I leaned my forehead against the stone wall once he hung up, wishing I felt as confident. My predecessor was gone far beyond where I could ask his advice. If the best wizardry student the school had ever had, one invited back to teach a magic none of the older masters knew, didn’t know any spells more complicated than those to make great horned rabbits, I had no idea how I was going to stop the monster. But somehow I had to.
It sounded as though the wedding party was coming down from the chapel. I went to find Evrard, wondering if it would be more unsuitable to leave before the wedding feast or irresponsible to stay for it. But then a huge crash resounded in the great hall, followed by a scream.
The scream was repeated. It was a woman’s voice.
In the chapel stairway I could hear the shouts of the knights of Yurt. But they couldn’t help with what I knew I would find.
I raced into the great hall as Evrard and the knights burst in from the other side. In the middle of the hall, between the rose-decorated trestle tables, stood Gwen, clutching her baby, a trayful of silverware at her feet and an overturned bench blocking her retreat. Before her was the monster.
“Good,” said Evrard.
“What do you mean, good?” I almost screamed at him.
The great hall was instantly a scene of panic, as women and men both yelled, some fighting to retreat up the chapel stairs as others fought to get out, and those already in the great hall ran in all directions. Only Gwen stood frozen, and a creature as tall as a man but twice as broad slowly advanced toward her, its undead eyes staring fixedly at the baby.
One of the royal knights leaped forward, but the monster lifted an arm, almost lazily, and dashed him to the flagstones.
Evrard sprang between Gwen and the monster, and it paused, then shifted its eyes to him. “My spell’s working!” he shouted to me. “Come on! It should follow.” He darted by the monster and out through the tall doors into the courtyard. Turning its back on Gwen and the dazed knight, the monster lumbered after him.
Evrard waited in the courtyard, but as soon as the monster came out he was off again, flying through the gates, across the drawbridge, and onto the grass beyond. Again the monster followed, and I flew behind. Out of the valley, it moved relatively slowly, which was a relief. But seeing it again brought back vividly the last time I had seen it, as it had raced away from killing the old wizard.
“What did you do?” I demanded, dropping to the ground next to Evrard.
“I improvised,” he said, panting but looking inordinately proud of himself. “I know they purposely never taught us the summoning spell, but a few of us young wizards found it in the Master’s books, one night about a week before I left the school.”
It was exactly what I had done myself. Maybe the Master had known all along what we were doing. The monster had stopped and was eyeing us, its head thrust forward between massive shoulders.
“I decided you were right,” Evrard went on, “that I couldn’t very well summon something without a proper mind, so I altered the spell. You’re not the only person who can improvise!”
I had to admire his ingenuity, if not his good sense. I kept an eye warily on the monster. It moved slowly toward us, and we backed away. It moved again, slightly faster, and we backed up faster.
“But how did you manage to put a spell on it?” I yelled to Evrard.
“While you were all busy worrying about the saint, I went back into the cave after it, remember?”
The monster was backing us down the hill toward the woods. Its eyes still seemed alive even without the old wizard looking through them. “You found it but didn’t tell me?” I demanded furiously.
“Well, no, I didn’t actually find it. But I went far enough back to be fairly sure I was going the right way. So I set up my summoning spell and added a few touches to your magic marks, which I hoped would help draw the monster in the right direction. Once it was out of the cave, I didn’t doubt it would be able to follow us back here if I’d made my spell strong enough. And it looks as though I did!”
His spell was certainly working. The monster seemed fascinated by Evrard. Slowly and inexorably, it kept coming toward us.
We flew at this point, down the hill to where the brick road from the castle entered the trees, and paused again. “Evrard,” I said, speaking slowly and carefully, “would you like to tell me why you called the monster out of the valley and brought it here?”
“You’re not pleased with me?” asked Evrard in distress.
So he’d figured it out at last.
“And I’d thought you’d be impressed! If I hadn’t summoned it, your Cranky Saint would probably have shipped it out of his valley and sent it after you anyway, since he seems to like you so much.”
I ignored this jab. Overcoming the monster would need both of us. Besides, he might be right. “But why did you bring it here?”
The monster swung its arms as it advanced, more quickly now. It would have been frightening enough if it was some sort of enormous creature, like a bear, but the mindless stare made it horrible, a force of nature given separate volition and evil intent.
“Well, I had to get it out the valley, of course,” said Evrard, moving back into the woods. “It was able to move much faster there, so it was clear we didn’t have the slightest chance against it. Since we were coming back to the royal castle ourselves, didn’t it make sense to have it come here too?”
“I wonder if it killed anyone on the way,” I said grimly.
“It shouldn’t have,” said Evrard. “I deliberately made my spell so strong that it wouldn’t want to stop.”
He might be content to gloat over how well his spell had worked, but I could no longer stand the tension. “Come on,” I said abruptly. “Let’s take it down to the old wizard’s cottage. He had it imprisoned there once; we may be able to bind it again.”
I had become aware of the knights, led by Prince Ascelin, assembling on the castle hill. I couldn’t risk letting him be killed on his wedding day
Evrard and I flew along the road into the woods, and the castle was lost to sight behind us. Almost immediately we had to pick up speed, as the monster pursued with a rapidity it had not yet shown today. It chased us with its arms extended, emitting a low roar.
Evrard, I was sure, was now flying farther and faster than he ever had before. We darted back and forth along the forest path, avoiding overhanging branches, but behind us we heard snapping and crashing as the monster plowed straight through.
We shot out into the clearing before the old wizard’s cottage maybe a quarter mile ahead of it. Grabbing Evrard by the arm when he seemed to sag, I flew straight up and hovered twenty feet above the ground.
“Try to distract the monster when it gets here,” I said. “I’ve got to look at my predecessor’s notes.” I dropped to the ground and went through the green door into the wizard’s cottage.