Read Online Below the Wizards' Tower (The Royal Wizard of Yurt Book 8) by C. Dale Brittain - Free Book Online

power on Caelrhon, as I had now convinced myself he was, that I
would get there not long thereafter.
    At first I kept looking over my
shoulder for pursuit but saw none.   When the Master realized I had gone, he must have assumed I was on my
way back to Yurt and decided it was not worth trying to protect someone who did
not want to be protected.
    Fields, woods, villages, rivers, and
small towns passed below me.   At the
end of the afternoon, I spotted the spires of Caelrhon cathedral, their shadow
stretching across the city.   No sign
of destructive flames or a ravening dragon.
    I dropped into a quiet street without
attracting attention, caught my breath for a moment, and walked quickly toward
the municipal building that housed the city council chambers and the mayor’s
office.   Time to get some allies.
    Even though I felt a desperate
urgency, I realized that here in Caelrhon I felt more confident of my abilities
to face whatever Elerius might do next.   Back in the City, I had been a boy again, a student wizard again, but I
had already been a Royal Wizard the first time I had come to Caelrhon.
    No time to think about that
now.   I had to warn the city leaders
that something terrible was about to happen, even if I didn’t know what it was,
even if I would have to tell them to trust me, a wizard, about something
another wizard was plotting.
    “The mayor’s gone home for the day,”
a clerk told me, with the implication that an old white-haired man ought to
know something as simple as the hours that the office was open.
    “How can I reach him?   I need to warn him, Caelrhon may soon
experience a magical attack.”
    This sounded as unlikely in my own
ears as it clearly did in the clerk’s.   “We are not experiencing any magical attacks,” he said crisply, “and if
we were, we have our own Royal Wizard to protect us.”   He pushed the door firmly shut, and I
could hear him locking it.
    He had mistaken me for some carnival
magician, I thought.   Windblown and
exhausted from a long flight, I certainly did not look like a dignified Royal
Wizard.   I needed to find someone
who at least would recognize me and then listen to me .
    I considered but almost instantly
rejected Caelrhon’s Royal Wizard, the man in whom the
mayor’s clerk put such confidence.   He would not be here in the city, but a few miles away in the royal
castle.   More importantly, I suspected
him of working with Elerius.
    The cathedral might be my best
chance.   I had come over to Caelrhon
from Yurt shortly after Joachim joined the cathedral chapter, and he had
introduced me to several of the other priests.   The dean, I remembered, was the head of
the cathedral chapter, second in authority only to the bishop.   The bishop, always leery of wizardry,
would doubtless start with the assumption that a wizard was bringing demonic
magic into his church, but I might be able to get somewhere with the dean.
    As I followed the narrow, twisting
streets toward the cathedral, passing shoppers making final purchases and
workers heading home for the evening, I noticed how much shorter the towers and
spires were than those of the cathedral of the great City.   Maybe that was why
they were talking here of building a new edifice themselves.
    Sounds of singing came from the
cathedral.   Evening service, I
thought.   I waited respectfully
outside, by the door that led into the cobbled street where the cathedral
officers had their houses, trying to comb my hair and beard with my fingers,
until the service was finally over.
    When the priests emerged, I spotted
the dean at once, a frail old man who walked with a cane.   I hurried up to him, doing my best to
have a respectful expression.
    “Excuse me, Father, I don’t know if
you remember me.   I’m the Royal
Wizard of Yurt, and I—”
    He interrupted.   “Of course I remember you.   I may need a cane, but I don’t yet
forget from one hour to the next!”
    One hour to the next?   I pushed on.