“A flying creature is coming,” Antonia told me calmly. She had tugged open the door of my chambers, looking in from the sunlit courtyard to where I was finishing a late breakfast back home in Yurt. “Do you think it’s a dragon?”
I was past her and out into the courtyard in a second. Something small and dark, flying much too fast to be a cloud, approached from the south. I snatched her up as I tried to put a far-seeing spell together. “I always wanted to see a real dragon,” she said.
But it was not a dragon. It was a flying carpet.
Dark red with tasseled corners, it flew purposefully toward the castle, hesitated and rotated a moment overhead, then plunged down to land in the middle of the courtyard. On it, feet shackled together, stood a young elephant. As I watched in amazement it raised its trunk and trumpeted, the sound echoing from the cobblestones.
But the elephant was not all the carpet carried. A person was also seated on it, surrounded by boxes and parcels that tumbled off as the carpet came to a stop.
“In the name of all-merciful God,” came a high woman’s voice, “is this at last the kingdom of Yurt, or have I passed quite beyond the fringes of the civilized world?”
I stepped forward cautiously. I had only ever seen elephants once before, years ago on our quest to the East. The woman rose with a swirl of black hair that reached to her waist. “This is indeed the kingdom of Yurt,” I said, keeping an eye on the animal.
Antonia, who had been staring in as much astonishment as I, elbowed me as though to remind me of better manners. “Welcome to Yurt!” she called out. In a confidential undertone she added, “That’s an elephant, Wizard. Mother showed me a picture of one in a book. They aren’t dangerous unless they step on you.”
The woman smiled then, her curved lips crimson, black almond-shaped eyes taking in both me and the girl. Her eyelids were painted an iridescent blue and her red silk blouse was nearly transparent. I found myself tugging at my jacket and standing straighter. “I am Daimbert, the Royal Wizard.”
“At last,” she said, stepping from the carpet. “Thou art exactly the one I sought. By my faith, it seems an age since my feet have touched the earth. My elephant requires hay and water. And aid my servant in bringing the baggage to my chambers.”
Antonia saw the servant first. I had taken him for one more parcel until he unfolded himself to stand up and- My daughter gasped in my ear. He was not a parcel but not a man either. This lady’s servant was a shiny metallic automaton.
He started gathering up packages, one in each of his six arms, and waited, staring silently out of flat silvery eyes toward me for directions. The elephant wrinkled the leathery skin all along its back and looked around the courtyard. “I’m sorry, my lady,” I managed to say. “I don’t know who you are.”
“Justinia, granddaughter of the governor of Xantium,” she said as though surprised that anyone should not know. She reached with a jangle of bracelets into a leather bag. “But here. This message is for thee.”
The parchment was written all over in indecipherable characters. But I had seen something like this before. A few quick words in the Hidden Language, and the letters scurried across the page, changing their shapes and forming themselves into legible words.
It was from Kaz-alrhun, the greatest mage in the eastern city of Xantium. I had known him years ago; when our party from Yurt had been in the East he had saved all our lives. It seemed that he was now asking for the return of that favor.
“May God’s grace be on you, Daimbert,” the message ran. “This letter will introduce to you the Lady Justinia of Xantium. She is the governor’s granddaughter and my own distant niece. Certain political events in Xantium have put her in line for assassination, so it seemed safest to remove her far from the city. I learn that the king of Yurt I knew is dead, but I am certain the court of Yurt will welcome her for old friendship’s sake. Justinia is not a princess, as the governors rule only in the name of an Empire gone fifteen centuries, but she should be treated like a princess.”
I looked up from the parchment. Justinia was gazing around her. “This castle is most fair!” she exclaimed. “It is like unto a child’s toy!”
The arrival of a flying carpet in the courtyard, laden with an elephant, an eastern governor’s granddaughter, an automaton, and all their luggage, had naturally attracted attention. The chaplain, short and fussy, scurried up beside me. “Do you think she can possibly be a Christian, looking like that?” he asked in a loud whisper, both shocked and intrigued.
Justinia overheard him. “Of a certainty I am a Christian,” she said haughtily. “All of Xantium’s governors have always followed the true faith.”
King Paul and Hildegarde came in across the drawbridge, practice swords in their hands. Paul stopped dead as Justinia turned with a swirl of her skirt. I wasn’t sure he even noticed the elephant. “Welcome, Lady,” he stammered as she favored him with a devastating smile. “I am the king of Yurt.”
His sword dangled unheeded and his mouth came partly open as she gave a deep, graceful curtsey, her head lowered but her eyes giving him a look of assessment. “I am honored to meet thee, most high king,” she said then, one eyebrow cocked and an amused twitch to her lips. “I was told the king of Yurt was a boy. Verily my uncle the mage has inadequate information.” I decided I didn’t have to worry after all that Paul might not find women romantically attractive.
“I desire to learn all the quaint customs of the West,” Justinia continued. “Now here is another wonder!” looking Hildegarde up and down. “Is the royal guard made up quite entire of such women? Are they perhaps bred for this purpose? This one is of a certainty a fine specimen! Or is she perhaps thy concubine?”
“No, she’s my cousin,” said Paul with an embarrassed laugh, not looking at Hildegarde. She hooked her thumbs into her belt and frowned, although as if not entirely sure what about the Lady Justinia she found insulting.
Gwennie came hurrying up at this point, before Justinia could ask us further about our western customs. “This lady is a very important visitor to Yurt from the East,” I said hurriedly. “Her great-uncle once did all of us a great service. Could you find her some appropriate accommodations?”
“The stables should suffice for my elephant,” said Justinia. “He is still quite young.”
“Welcome to Yurt!” said Gwennie, as polite as Antonia in spite of her surprise. She gave the king a quick glance and looked away again. “What a lovely dress, my lady! And what a, well, unusual way to arrive! Come right this way; the best guest chambers are in the south tower.”
The automaton stepped off the carpet with a jangling of joints to follow them. Gwennie gave a sharp gesture behind her back and several servants sprang forward, somewhat belatedly, to pick up the rest of the baggage. Paul remained stock still until Hildegarde took him rather firmly by the elbow.
I looked thoughtfully after the Lady Justinia and Gwennie. As I recalled, in the East slaves were common, and even trusted servants might throw themselves on their faces to kiss the ground at a master’s foot. But the lady did not seem to mind the relative informality of Yurt’s staff.
The automaton returned in a moment to unshackle the elephant. Highly dubious stable boys led it away, leaving the dark red carpet by itself in the courtyard. The elephant stopped at the watering trough, drank deeply, then shot a trunkful of water across its back and all over the stable boys.
“Maybe I can see a dragon some other time,” said Antonia, to reassure me in case I thought her disappointed. “But I’ve never seen an elephant before. Or a flying carpet either.”
“I rode on one once,” I said, “all the way, hundreds and thousands of miles, from the East back to Yurt.” Antonia looked at me with new respect.
Five minutes later, while I was examining the carpet and wondering if I might be able to keep it long enough to learn how the underlying spells worked that made it fly, Gwennie came racing back from the south tower. Paul and Hildegarde had gone outside again, although the king had appeared distracted enough that I thought the duchess’s daughter might have a chance to defeat him today.
“Do you know what she said?” Gwennie demanded. Her eyes were wide and voice high. “She said she thought it very ‘quaint’ that Yurt has a woman as vizier! And then she asked if I would ‘bid the slaves’ to come draw her bath!”
“And what did you tell her?”
“I don’t think we have slaves,” provided Antonia.
Gwennie smiled for a second and ruffled the girl’s hair. “We don’t. That’s what I told her. I did tell her I could assign her a lady’s maid for her stay. She started to pull herself up, as though about to tell me I was a worthless vizier who should throw herself into the moat at once, but then she relaxed and said she was sure she could cope with some ‘inconveniences’ while fleeing for her life, especially since she also had her servant. Have you ever seen anything like that creature, Wizard?”
“The mage Kaz-alrhun makes automatons; I assume it’s one of his.”
Gwennie shook her head. “If I was fleeing for my life I wouldn’t be worried about a slave shortage! I’d better send her a maid before this fine lady has to resort to something as degrading as pumping the hot water herself. Now, let’s see, which of the girls would be both skilled and obsequious, and unlikely to be spooked by that thing …”
The maids Gwennie referred to as “girls” were all older than she was. I smiled to myself as she turned on her heel, her mind apparently made up.
But she stopped for a second. “I’ll tell you one thing, Wizard,” she said in a low, intense voice. “That lady would make a terrible queen of Yurt.”
“How about a ride?” suggested Antonia, tugging at the tassels on the carpet. “I wasn’t scared in your air cart,” she added when I did not answer at once.
“All right,” I said, giving her a conspiratorial grin. “It’s not our flying carpet, but the Lady Justinia won’t be needing it for a while. And I think I still remember the magical commands to direct one of these things …”
I seated myself, Antonia in my lap, and gave the command to lift off. The carpet shot upward, far faster than the air cart, and headed rapidly south. The girl’s braids blew back into my face. “All right there?” I asked cheerfully, holding her closer.
“This is exciting, Wizard!” she shouted over the wind’s roar. Birds dodged out of our way. “Can we take Mother for a ride too?”
“We’d better not-it’s too far to get to Caelrhon and be back before anyone misses the carpet.” And besides, I was supposed to be spending time alone with Antonia this week. Was it my fault that I too would rather have been with Theodora?
“And I’m looking for something,” I added. I slowed the carpet’s flight with a few words in the Hidden Language, and we hovered while I put together a far-seeing spell to examine all the distant clouds in the sky before us.
If Justinia was the object of an assassination plot, I wanted to make sure she had not been followed to Yurt. Since Kaz-alrhun had entrusted her safety to me, I had to make sure she wasn’t killed in our best guest-room. The mage, I thought, had probably done his best to get her off unnoticed, and he might not have told even the governor himself where he was sending her, but I didn’t like to take chances.
“Nothing there,” I said to Antonia after a minute. “Just clouds.”
“No dragons?” she said, making it into a joke.
“No. Dragons would probably come from the north anyway. Let’s get back to the castle.”
As we shot back home a chilling thought struck me. Suppose the arrival of the miracle-worker in Caelrhon-and his abrupt disappearance yesterday-were somehow related to the Lady Justinia’s arrival in Yurt?
But I could not think of a plausible connection. He had already been in Caelrhon when Justinia left Xantium, and I could not imagine that anyone in the East would have learned where she was going and gotten an assassin here so far ahead of her arrival. And the lady herself was unlikely to have spent the last few weeks in hiding, disguised as someone who healed broken dolls and dead dogs.