Mage Quest - Wizard of Yurt 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

bazaars—”
    “How about the different magic?” the chaplain surprised me by asking.
    “Wel, there certainly is only one true magic,” I said self-righteously. “But you’ve got a point. The mages there work their spels somewhat differently than we wizards and there are different magical creatures.
    The school doesn’t even teach eastern magic now, although they used to have one wizard who taught it forty or fifty years ago. They sent me an old copy of his textbook to take along, Melecherius on Eastern Magic.” The thick book made a bulge in my neatly packed saddlebag.
    “I’ve even heard that one can stil see Ifriti east of the Central Sea,” I added “I hope we can see one. It would be enormously exciting, although it would probably be dangerous, too. It seems there may be a lot of dangers before us.”
    Joachim glanced at me from under his eyebrows. “Otherwise there would be less merit in the voyage.”
    I gave him up. Tomorrow we would be leaving for places I had never seen and experiences I could not imagine, and my best friend on the trip was filed with concerns I had no intention of sharing.
    We left at dawn. Five of us were mounted, although Ascelin was too tal to ride a horse for more than short periods and would walk beside us. The king, the two princes, and Hugo al wore light armor under their cloaks. Joachim didn’t because he said it would be inappropriate for a man of God; I didn’t because I didn’t want to be bothered by the extra weight. Three packhorses, heavily laden, were ready to folow us. I thought that even though King Haimeric said he was going as a simple pilgrim, not a king, no one who saw us would doubt that our group consisted of four aristocrats, a priest, and a wizard.
    The horses’ breath made frosty clouds around their noses, and a paper-thin layer of ice lay on the puddles among the courtyard’s cobblestones. But the sun, rising pale orange in a cloudless sky, promised warming weather. Everyone in the castle turned out to see us off. Paul and Gwennie, hand in hand, watched from a doorway. Behind them stood the duchess’ twin daughters, three years younger than the royal heir.
    The queen smiled up at the king, her cheeks dry although her eyes seemed unnaturaly bright. “I know it wil be hard to send messages regularly,” she said, “but if you’re near a telephone, do cal or if you meet someone coming this way, do write!”
    I was going to miss the queen, too, but I couldn’t tel her. For one thing, I was quite sure she would not miss me in the slightest. Al I could do was watch her say good-bye to the king and imagine it was me.
    But then my eye was distracted from the royal couple by the sight of the Duchess Diana and Prince Ascelin on the far side of the courtyard. She had climbed onto a mounting block so she could reach him, and they stood with their arms around each other, paying no attention to anyone else.
    “Now, are you sure you know everything you’l need to do in the rose garden this summer?” asked the king, seeming more concerned with his garden than his family. “The entire blossoming season wil be over by the time we’re back. Remember what I told you to do if thrips start to infest the blooms again.” But then he suddenly leaned down from the saddle and kissed his wife, something I had never seen him do publicly before.
    “And we’re off!” cried Hugo, taking this as a signal to depart. He blew a long blast on his horn and urged his horse forward. Ascelin looked up abruptly from his wife’s embrace; the other horses al jumped and folowed Hugo’s. We dashed across the drawbridge and down the hil, folowed by waves and cries of farewel.
    We reined in our horses at the bottom and entered the woods more sedately. Ascelin, momentarily left behind, caught up again. “Warn me next time you’re going to burst into a galop like that,” he said to Hugo with a grin.
    “We had to start with a galop,” said Hugo. “It’s the only appropriate way to