C. Dale Brittain_Wizard of Yurt 05 by Daughter of Magic

Author:Daughter of Magic [Magic, Daughter of]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780671877200
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Baen
Published: 1996-04-28T05:00:00+00:00

It grew darker as the day moved on, and the air felt much too cold for this time of year. The air cart’s pace slowed as its wings had to beat against a strong east wind. The women shivered, though I kept Antonia warm in my arms—she did a good job of keeping my chest warm too. But whatever storm was building did not yet break. We landed in the castle courtyard under a lowering sky, and everyone turned out to greet us. They were too pleased to see us all safe to start taking me apart at once, though I was discouraged to see the king showing more solicitude for Justinia than for Gwennie.

I paused only long enough to collect Antonia’s things, then took off for the city, leaving the others to give the details of our adventure. The duchess had indeed telephoned, leaving a message that Celia was not to do anything until she arrived.

The sun never had shone through the clouds, and I wanted to get to Caelrhon before it really did begin to storm. Besides, the sooner I faced Theodora the better. Probably I should go around to the cathedral and apologize to Joachim too if he’d even agree to see me. He’d forgiven me for a lot of things in the past, although in this case I hadn’t just insulted the bishop himself but someone under his direction.

Antonia was not reconciled to going home in disgrace—she kept hoping I would change my mind until we were actually in the air—and hugged her Dolly rather than me as we flew along. “It’s for your own good,” I tried to reason with her. “Your mother said you should do what I said, and you didn’t. Suppose Elerius hadn’t been able to stop the carpet, and you’d ended up flying for days and days across the Outer Sea until you either fell off or died of hunger?”

“You never told me not to fly the carpet,” she replied indignantly, her chin trembling only the slightest amount.

But she sprang from the air cart with a glad cry and threw herself into her mother’s arms when I set the air cart down in the quiet cobbled street of the artisans’ quarter of Caelrhon. And she agreed only slightly reluctantly to kiss me good-night once she had been fed and washed.

I told Theodora everything that had happened, sitting again on her couch with my arm around her, the room bathed in the glow of the magic lamp. The only part I didn’t tell her was the bishop deciding that he had had lusty thoughts about her for years without realizing he did. It began at last to rain, a cold, fitful drizzle, and the wind howled in the chimney. At several points Theodora took a deep breath and started to lean forward, but she always settled back again against my arm without speaking.

“Well,” she said at last, her cheerful tone sounding almost normal, “it sounds as though Antonia’s visit to Yurt was a little more exciting than I had expected.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.