C. Brittain - Mage Quest

I glanced down as we came out into chilly daylight and saw that we were already forty feet up. This was indeed an admirable castle for war. Even if an enemy made it as far as the guard room, he would still have to climb either the narrow, inner stairs, which could easily be blocked, or the outer, wooden stairs, which could be set on fire.

But how had the bandits known that the doorway led to the stairs?

All of us except the bandits were breathing hard when we reached the top of the cliff and entered the castle itself through another door. We came into a great hall, well lit by tall windows looking out in all directions across the countryside.

“They can afford windows, being up so high,” I heard Dominic say appreciatively to Ascelin. “In Yurt, all our windows open onto the courtyard.”

But I was thinking about the bandits rather than castle architecture. Was it because they been captured and brought here for justice so many times that they had known where the stairs were and had been able to climb them so readily, even with daggers pressed against their necks? If so, why had they not yet been hung?

The constable of the castle came forward, looking at us with wide eyes. “What- What is it that you want?”

King Haimeric greeted him formally and told him what had happened. I was pleased to note that he did not say that he was king of Yurt; maybe he, like me, was starting to wonder if the castellan here had made some nefarious pact with the bandits.

“And so,” finished the king, “we are bringing these bandits to your lord for judgment.” The three bandits, listening, all looked unaccountably amused.

“You caught these men,” said the constable, “but you aren’t trying to ransom them? You brought them here- You brought them so that the lord of this castle might exercise justice?”

“That’s what I said,” said the king patiently.

“But-”

The leader of the bandits answered for the constable. “But I am lord of this castle.”

There was a short silence while we all struggled to keep our faces straight. “In that case,” began King Haimeric sternly, “I must warn you, as an aristocrat and a giver of justice, to stop your wicked attacks on the defenseless.”

It was no use. Dominic took the king firmly by the arm, and we all got out the door and staggered down the stairs somehow. Even Joachim was laughing as we tumbled out into the courtyard.

But as we galloped away from the castle, I couldn’t help glancing back. The castellan’s initial reaction had been the same amusement that convulsed us all, but he must also have been horribly shamed to appear before his men a bound captive. For the first time this trip, we may have come across a difficulty we could not simply leave behind.

I awoke all at once and lay perfectly still, waiting for whatever sound had wakened me to come again.

Inside the tent it was pitch black and completely silent. I couldn’t even hear Joachim’s breathing. But then I heard the faintest creak from his side of the tent; he must have heard the sound as well and be leaning on his elbows, listening.

It came again, the sharp crack of a broken twig followed by muffled hushing sounds. Our tents were pitched in a little grove, and someone, or something, was creeping up on us.

I was out of the tent with a quick scramble and was hit by air so cold I immediately wished I had brought a blanket with me.

But there wasn’t time to go back. Where was Dominic? It should be his watch. Shivering in my pajamas, I crept toward the edge of the grove, straining to see.

The moon, three days past the full, hung red and deformed-looking above me. In its pale light I could at last see Dominic, a dim and bulky form. He moved his head as though he too had heard something.

Before I could speak or move closer, there was a dull thunk as of leather hitting bone, a grunt, and Dominic pitched forward. Behind him stood a smaller figure, arm upraised.

I yelled, a magically-amplified yell that shook the trees, and I filled the grove with a great flash of light. The light was gone in two seconds-even the best magic light needs to be attached to something solid. But before it faded I had seen four startled and frozen figures, and Dominic’s body face down on the ground.

If they remained still for five seconds, I had them. I threw out coils of magic, shaped with the Hidden Language to make thin air into bindings as strong as cord. My binding spell wrapped around the four, imprisoning them. It was not as thorough as a paralysis spell, but I didn’t have enough time for a paralysis spell.

I tried another flash of light and saw that I had all four. It must be, I realized, no more than a minute since I had scrambled out of the tent. In spite of the cold, I had to wipe my forehead with a pajama sleeve. Magic, especially rapid magic, is hard work.

But what had happened to Dominic? I groped toward him, then saw the rest of our party emerging. Hugo and Ascelin had swords in their hands, but the king, more usefully, had brought a lantern.

With the lantern’s light, I found the royal nephew and bent over him. He was breathing loudly, eyes shut. As I watched, his eyes flickered, and his fists clenched. Not dead then, I thought gratefully, as I took the jacket Joachim handed me.

“Look at this!” called Hugo, who had gone back for a lantern of his own. “It’s the same bandits!”

Indeed it was the same bandits, their faces distorted by the shadows cast by a lantern at their feet. Struggling unsuccessfully against the binding spell, they glared at us silently.

“What was your intention?” the king asked them sternly. “We let you go today out of courtesy to other aristocrats, but what sort of honorable and aristocratic behavior is this? Were you going to take vengeance on us for humiliating you by slitting our throats while we slept?”

Dominic abruptly sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He tried to lurch to his feet, but Ascelin kept him seated with a hand on his shoulder.

“We weren’t going to slit anybody’s throat,” protested the leader.

I wasn’t at all sure I believed him. I was coming close to Hugo’s point of view, that the best thing to do might be to kill them.

“It’s the middle of the night,” said Ascelin. “Let’s leave them to learn some sense by standing bound by the wizard’s spells for a few hours. Then we can question them in the morning.”

“It would have been my watch soon anyway,” I said, “so I’ll keep an eye on them while the rest of you get some sleep.”

Hugo clearly would have preferred to do something spectacular and warlike, but he contented himself with rounding up the bandits’ horses and tying them to a branch. In a moment our party returned to the tents, Dominic assisted by Ascelin.

Watching the two princes in the flickering light of the lantern the king held for them, I thought that it was good to see them managing to get along with each other on this trip. When they had first met, nearly eight years ago, they had detested each other. But then Dominic, always a snob, had not known at the time that Ascelin was a prince.

Our camp became quiet again, and I added a few details to the binding spells that held that bandits. It is possible to break out of an improperly-made binding spell, and I had pulled the magic together very rapidly. I didn’t want to paralyze them, however, even if that would have held them more securely, because I wanted them to remember this experience.

They soon stopped struggling and gave up cursing me a short time later, when I did not answer. What was I going to do with them? The school made us swear enormously solemn oaths to help mankind, but it only taught us magic, when at the moment what I felt I needed most to know was how to deal with people unlike any I knew in Yurt.