Below the Wizards' Tower (The Royal Wizard of Yurt Book 8) Read Online Free PDF Page B

just on the edge of mental communication.   “Daimbert!   Where are you?”
    Relief poured through me, as strong
as the tide.   “In the caves!   I’ve been put under a paralysis spell!”
    I had time to suspect it might be
Elerius come to gloat and then to reject the idea while the person came
closer.   At last I was able to sense
someone right outside the cave.   It
was Titus, the master for instruction in magical creatures.
    He called to me in his normal
voice.   Touching another person’s
mind is always very hard and profoundly strange, not something even the best
wizard would want to do unless he had to.   “I’m going to try to free you from the spell from out here.”
    Didn’t want to get his feet muddy? I
thought in irritation, then realized, of course, it’s
Titus, he hates caves, even shallow caves like this one.
    His shadow fell across the cave
mouth.   It looked like he was
suspended in the air over the water, using a flying spell at the same time as
he worked to break the spell on me.   He really was a good wizard, I thought, between jealousy and
irritation.   If I had tried two
difficult spells at the same time like that, I would have ended up wet, with
the paralysis spell pulled tighter than ever.

 
    IV
    The paralysis spell trembled for a
moment, then collapsed.   So did
I.   All my muscles stiff from hours of rigidity, I slid off the rock, right into cold salt
water.
    So I ended up wet even without
trying to work magic at all.   “Daimbert?” came a worried call at the splash.
    “I’m all right!”   I rose, dripping, and waded through
knee-deep water out of the cave.   At
last I found enough magic then to lift myself into the air, where I tried to wring
some of the water out of my clothes and beard.
    Titus hovered a foot above the waves,
looking concerned.   “You’re sure
you’re all right?   You don’t look
it.   What happened to you?”
    “Thank you for finding me,” I said,
trying to sound properly grateful in spite of feeling dull and extremely
weary.   “Some magic-worker captured
me, and I have no idea why.”
    “Let’s get you back to dry land,”
said Titus and flew off, away from the cliffs and back toward where the beach
had emerged from the tide.   I
followed slowly after.   “That was a
school spell I just broke,” he called back over his shoulder.   “There must be a renegade magician here
in the City.   I just hope it wasn’t
one of the students—and I think I know which one I especially hope it wasn’t.”
    I was almost too tired to care.   But when Titus dropped to the ground and
I landed, a bit unsteadily, next to him, I asked, “How did you know where to
find me?”
    “The Master asked me late this
morning if I’d seen you since last night—he said you’d missed your
appointment with him.   And then a
priest came around to the school, which was certainly something we don’t see
every day, a priest seeking out a wizard.   This one knows you, and I believe I’ve met him once myself, Father
Joachim.   He wanted to know if you
were free for lunch.   So it quickly
became clear that you’d gone down to the harbor this morning and not come
back.”
    “But how did you know where I’d
gone?”
    The twist to Titus’s lips was half a
smirk.   “Well, I wasn’t going to say
this either to the Master or to that priest, but it occurred to me you might
have decided to meet that pretty waitress after all.   But when I went to the restaurant, she
was there busy waiting table, and when I asked after ‘Marcus’ she said she
didn’t know where he was, but she gave me some places where he sometimes
stays—one of which was out by the ship-breakers.   It occurred to me that you might have
been curious enough about him to try to meet him.   I didn’t find you at the ship-breakers,
but I did sense the trace of some powerful magic spell being
worked nearby.   So I immediately
thought of the sea-caves.”
    “Why?” I said with only