The Feline Wizard Read Online Free PDF Page A

gone too. They ran to tell the guards, who raised the alarm. Prester John heard it in his study and sent to learn what had happened. When he knew, he rose up in wrath and led the search himself. They looked into every corner of the palace, every nook and cranny, and found nothing. Then the king retired to his workroom to brew fearsome magicks, and Sikander and Corundel began to feel the first brush of apprehension. They attended Prince Tashih in his own apartments and found him pacing in agitation, hurling questions at his courtiers: “Where can she be? How can she have hidden? How could she evade our search?”
    “Perhaps she is not in the palace, Highness ” one courtier suggested.
    The prince stopped dead. “What do you say?”
    The man shrugged. “Ail know that she has her spells of sadness…”
    “She longs for her home,” one of the female courtiers explained, “for the land where she grew up.”
    “You do not mean that she has slipped from the palace to try to make her way back to the land of the Franks!”
    The courtier shrugged. “It is possible.”
    “She might only have fled for a day or so,” another courtier offered. “She may have tired of the court and be seeking respite from her duties”
    Prince Tashih shook his head. “She would have left word.” But hope gleamed in his eye.
    “If she has,” Sikander said as casually as he could, “it would be one less concern for Your Highness, would it not?”
    The prince swung to stare at Sikander. “How do you mean?”
    His glare seemed to pierce Sikander to the soul. His voice faltered. “Why… I only meant…”
    “Surely,” said Corundel, “if the princess has fled, she cannot inherit.”
    The prince gave her an incisive glance. “You know something more of this.” He turned back to transfix Sikander with his glare. “Tell!”
    “Gladly.” Sikander spoke with false heartiness to mask his growing dread. “I bore her forth myself, drugged and sleeping, to the arms of a horseman who bore her far from Your Highness'purview.”
    “A horseman? What horseman? Where to?”
    “Why …” Belatedly, Sikander realized that he should not have spoken at all and should speak as little as possible now. “One sent by a barbarian shaman… I did not ask where…”
    “You turned her over to our enemies? Fool!” In two strides Prince Tashih towered over Sikander, grasping his tunic and hauling him to his feet. “Do you seek to bring ruin on us all? Where did you find this shaman? You will know that, at least.”
    “Why… why… I did not!” Sikander was horrified at this turn of events. The prince was supposed to thank him, to praise him!
    “You did not find him? Then he found you!” Prince Tashih threw Sikander back into his chair. “Idiot! Did you not know that he sought you out to corrupt you? Think what he has gained—a member of the royal house in the hand of a barbarian sorcerer! Do you understand the link between the sovereign, his people, and his land? Do you not see the power you have given the barbarians?”
    Sikander fell back, appalled, suddenly filled with self-contempt—but out of that morass rose determination like a shining shield, the resolution to do at least one good thing. He would not betray Corundel! “Highness… I did not know…”
    “And did not ask, nor think!” Sikander turned to his courtiers and jerked his head toward Sikander. “Seize him. Bear him to my father.”
    Two men pounced on Sikander as the other courtiers broke into an excited buzz of conversation. With a sinking heart, Corundel watched Sikander hustled from the chamber. Should she speak in his defense? But what could be gained other than that she should be punished, too? Surely Prester John would not lessen Sikander's sentence because he'd had an accomplice!
    Then fear rose in her, making her tremble. What if Sikander told of her role in the kidnapping? Surely, he had no reason to remain silent. They had never pledged love, only laughed and