Daughter of Magic - Wizard of Yurt - 5 (34 page)

“Gwennie!” caled Paul, his voice an octave too high.

“We’ve got to get these kids out of here!”

She might not have entered a room with a staring demon in the center for anyone else, but she did for the king. She ran toward him, gasping for breath. Theodora and I, selfishly ignoring any child but our own, carried Antonia back up the passage as fast as we could go, but behind us I heard Paul say, “Just grab as many as you can. We’ve got to get them away from here. Justinia! Cyrus!” I didn’t wait to see if the others obeyed.

Antonia stopped sobbing as soon as we were out of the chapel, but she clung to me like a burr, her face in my beard. Now that we could see the castle again, we were quickly able to reach a window and colapse with real light, the light of a summer’s early dawn, breaking through. The heavy clouds that Vlad had summoned were now dissipating and roling away.

Gently I pried Antonia s hands out of my beard and turned her around. Her face was filthy and streaked with tears, but she managed half a smile for us. “I’m sorry if I scared you,” she said.

Theodora started crying herself, kissing her hard. “We were scared, dearest,” she murmured, “but it wasn’t your fault. We’re just so happy to find you alive and wel. Could you tel us—tel us what happened back there in the chapel?”

“I didn’t think it would be so awful,” said Antonia, squirming around to get comfortable on her mother’s lap. “Your book should have explained it better, Wizard.” Suddenly she looked very pleased with herself. “But when everybody else fainted I didn’t. And I saved the Dog-Man.”

“What, exactly, did you do?” I asked, very quiedy and afraid I already knew the answer.

“The Dog-Man made us al folow him,” she said, enjoying having two adults folow her every word with rapt interest. “I didn’t like that. It was as though we were rats! And we got so tired and he hardly would let us rest. But then he said he had a demon for a friend, and I started thinking. You have that one big book that tels al about demons, though Elerius didn’t want me to read it. And my friend the bishop told me that demons make people do bad things. So I knew that the demon wasn’t realy his friend at al and had made him whistle his magic pipes at us. That’s when I decided to get the demon away from him.”

“Al right,” I said slowly and carefuly. “I agree, the demon was responsible for bringing you here. But Antonia, could you explain to us how you managed to capture the demon? There are masters at the school who can’t do it as easily as you just did.”

“That wasn’t his demon you saw,” said Antonia complacendy. “His demon is back in hel. That was mine.”

Theodora and I exchanged stunned glances. “Just— Just tel us,” I said, when I had my voice working again, “tel us what happened, starting when al of you reached the castle.” Antonia settled back, yawning and smiling at the same time. She was, I saw, totaly exhausted, but she didn’t want to go to sleep while there was anything exciting going on. “We were very, very tired by the time we got here,” she said. “And the Dog-Man took us to the room where you found us. Then another man came and stared at us. Or do you think he might have been another demon?” she asked thoughtfuly.

“He looked like he wanted to hurt us, though he didn’t try anything then. But the Dog-Man kept trying to push him back out of the room, and his eyes didn’t look like real eyes.”

“He was human, al right,” I said. “Go on.” As I spoke, I felt in my pocket for Vlad. Not there. He must have falen or hopped away while Theodora and I were getting Antonia out of the chapel. For that matter, I wasn’t entirely sure how he had become a frog in the first place. Could Antonia possibly have transformed him? But that was unlikely-, it would be very hard to put a spel on a wizard that powerful.

It didn’t matter, I tried to reassure myself, who had transformed him and where he was now. A quick magical probe didn’t find him, but my probes weren’t set up to find amphibians. He shouldn’t be able to break a transformations spel himself, even a somewhat weak one, while he was a frog, and Cyrus was unlikely to break it for him. I’d catch him later.

“After we were left alone almost everybody went to sleep. Maybe I did myself for a while,” Antonia added reluctantly “But when I woke up I started thinking. I wanted to save the Dog-Man because I knew he was in big trouble, and I thought if there wasn’t a demon around pretending to be his friend, maybe he would take us al home. But I didn’t know how to catch a demon—that part of your book is hard. So I imp— imperv—”

“Improvised?”

She shot me a smile. Her sapphire eyes were stil bright but her lids were drifting shut. “I remembered the way the book told to draw things in chalk and say magic words to cal a demon from hel. I thought maybe because there was already one so close they’d just send him, the Dog-Man’s demon, into my pentagram.” She managed the word on the first try and looked pleased. “But they didn’t. That was the part where everybody fainted except me.”

When the masters had summoned a very smal demon, just to show how it was done, in demonology class at the school, several wizardry students twenty years older than Antonia had fainted.

“They sent this different demon,” she said around a long yawn. “And he’s realy scary. I didn’t want to cry because I’m a big girl, but I couldn’t help it. He asked me what he could do for me, and I told him to catch the other demon and make him go back to hel. He tried to argue with me but I told him he had to obey because I was ‘Mistress of the Pentagrams.’ Doesn’t that sound good?” And with that she fel asleep in Theodora’s lap, her eyes shut tight and mouth slighdy open. We sat stil for several minutes, hardly breathing. Theodora spoke at last.

“God in Heaven, Daimbert. Our daughter has just sold her soul to the devil.”

PART EIGHT. Demons I

I scrambled to my feet. This al had to be a mistake. A mistake! I stopped myself just in time from driving my fist against the stone wal. Of course she had summoned a demon, and asked it for favors, a process that both wizardry and religion agreed led to eternal damnation. But she was only five years old!

Unlike Cyrus, she’d had the sense to keep it imprisoned in a pentagram rather than letting it run around loose. But that reminded me. There must stil be unconscious children in the room with it, awash in the terror beyond terror of death which flowed from a demon, even an imprisoned one.

I hurried back to find that Paul and Gwennie so far had been able to shift about two dozen of the children. I needed to do something, anything, even worse than the king did. A demon, even an enormous horned demon who kept giving me a knowing smile, was not the most terrifying thing I could imagine. Lifting limp boys and girls with magic—I could manage five or six at once—and carrying them away from the chapel was an excelent alternative to dissecting Cyrus bone by bone and nerve by nerve.

He sat huddled in a corner by the arcading, his hands over his head, and Justinia, sitting a dozen yards from him, seemed to have given up trying, but Gwennie and the king kept grimly running up and down the passageway. She was strong and could easily carry two children at a time. Theodora settled Antonia in a corner and came to help.

The others made wide detours around the demon, but I, running with my head down, didn’t care—until my foot skidded and almost slid across the chalk line, which would by breaking the pentagram have let the demon out.

I wiped cold sweat from my forehead with a damp sleeve. Al the things they had taught us in demonology class came rushing back. Someone who has sold his soul is even more dangerous to those around him than someone who has damned himself through ordinary sins. Cyrus had barely begun. First the demon fils a person with anger and bitterness, then offers spectacular ways to harm those with whom he imagines he is angry. And why worry about a few murders? His soul is already long gone.

And, if the demon is loose and able to work his own tricks, the situation only grows worse.

The children started to revive once they were away from the chapel. One little boy opened his eyes to find himself in Paul’s arms and asked with delighted surprise, “Are you the brave knight?”

“I guess I’d better be,” he said with a grin, ruffling the boy’s hair for a minute before putting him down and starting back for more.

In. ten minutes we had them al spread out in the arcade, wel away from the passage that led to the chapel. The king flopped to the floor and leaned back against the wal. He reached up with one hand to pul Gwennie down beside him. Her face was running with sweat and looked exhausted, terrified, and grimly satisfied. “You’ve always been the best friend I’ve ever had,” Paul said, meaning it. He gave her a hard hug as she settled herself on the floor, with no more romantic passion in it than the dozens of hugs he had just been giving children. “Once we’re home I’m changing your title from acting castle constable to permanent constable. When you told me you thought you could handle the duties, did you ever expect them to include facing a demon?” We caught our breaths for a minute. Al a big mistake, I told myself again. Baptized children went straight to heaven, as long as they had not yet reached the age of reason and therefore could not commit intentional sin. Didn’t they? What was the age of reason? Seven for sure. Yes, that was right. Seven. Antonia was only five. Did demons recognize how old a person was in human years, or did they ask only if they had functioning reasoning abilities—if, for example, they could read and work magic?

“When I was little,” said Paul, “I always thought it would be exciting to meet a demon. Now that I have met one, I can’t say I particularly care to repeat the experience. Did you see that bely? Those eyes?

But I do remember learning about pentagrams. Looks like your daughter, Wizard, must have drawn a pentagram to imprison it—she’s an amazing little girl, and you have no reason at al to hide her. One of her chalk lines, I couldn’t help noticing, looked scuffed, but it was redrawn carefuly. And the demon appears pretty wel trapped now.”

“Yes,” I said reluctandy. “It can’t move away or hide, and it can’t make itself invisible. As long as no one lets it out, it shouldn’t be able to do anything to terrify us, such as bringing more vipers and apparitions.”

“Oh, I’m terrified quite enough already, if it asks,” said Paul cheerfuly. “But it looks like we’ve won, then!

Cyrus seems to have broken down completely without his demon to help him,” with a glance in his direction, “and Vlad’s a frog, so once it’s a little lighter outside one of us can fly the carpet back to Caelrhon and tel the parents al their children are safe.”

That reminded me. I had better try to find Vlad again.

“And I guess sending the demon back to hel is something you wizards know how to do,” Paul continued lightly. He looked around at children starting to sit up groggily, many of them apparently deciding the whole episode had been a nightmare and lying down to sleep again. The Princess Margareta was awake but lay silently, as though trying to make it al make sense in her own mind.

“Maybe Mother has a point,” the king went on. “If I got married I could have children. Maybe not a hundred. Say, a dozen or so. Wouldn’t that be great, to have a dozen little princes and princesses running around the castle?”

“You’d better consult your queen on that.” Gwennie managed to say it as a joke. Margareta, looking startled, rose on her elbows.

Paul laughed without seeming to notice either’s reaction. For him, al our troubles were over rather than just beginning. “Al right. Maybe I’l settle for three or four. Too bad I don’t have any brothers or sisters of my own, or I could have nieces and nephews. And if the duchess’s daughters aren’t going to marry—” He stopped. “That reminds me, Wizard. Is Celia a novice nun now?” I had completely forgotten about the twins since leaving them at the nunnery. “I suppose so. They would have had to finish the ceremony without a spiritual sponsor.”

“I’l ride down there in a few days,” said Paul lazily. ‘They probably won’t let me see her, but at least I can find out if everything is going smoothly. I was looking through some old ledgers—thanks again, Gwennie, by the way, for helping me find them—and it looks as though previous kings of Yurt sometimes made gifts to the nunnery, so maybe I should too.” Suddenly, unexpectedly, a voice floated through the window. “Helo!” It sounded magicaly amplified. “Is anyone there?” I knew that voice. I jumped up so fast I almost slipped and leaped to the window. Outside, hovering somewhat tentatively in midair, were two wizards, one black-bearded and one with a red bandit’s beard: Elerius and Evrard.

Paul joined me at the window and waved enthusiasticaly. “What’s that older wizard’s name, Elerius, is that right?” he asked me with a low chuckle. “It seems like he’s always showing up just a few minutes too late, just after you’ve finished disposing of the enemy. You’re going to make him jealous at this rate, Wizard!” I didn’t have the heart to tel him how wrong he was.

‘We’d been combing Caelrhon almost inch by inch for any sign of you and the children,” said Evrard. “At first Elerius”—with a nod toward the other wizard:— “was able to pick up the remnants of the tracer spel you’d put on the flying carpet earlier this summer, but the spel disappeared as we came upriver. And we could have sworn this castle wasn’t even here!” Elerius meanwhile was introducing himself to Theodora. They had spoken on the telephone but never actualy met. “So this is the witch of Caelrhon,” said Elerius pleasantly, regarding her from under peaked eyebrows, “for whom Daimbert has been wiling to flout al the traditions of wizardry.”

“But about half an hour ago,” said Evrard, continuing his story, “Elerius said he could sense a major spel breaking up somewhere in this direction. And as we approached a ruined castle suddenly materialized before us, towers, battlements, and al!” His cheerful blue eyes looked concerned for a moment “And there wasn’t much question about the presence of the supernatural. . . .” I flew down to the base of the cliffs to retrieve the carpet, and Paul and Gwennie began loading children. Justinia, with no desire whatsoever to stay in this castle, agreed to pilot it back to Caelrhon. “We should be able to take them al in three or four trips,” said Paul. “Princess Margareta had better be in the first group, or it could provoke an international incident!” He laughed at his own humor. “Yes, that’s right,” to one of the children. “You’l be back with your mother very soon.”