The Sapphire Ring by C. Dale Brittain

Author:C. Dale Brittain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Daimbert
Published: 2021-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

III

His beard had grown out since he graduated, and he was handsomely dressed, but the ring in his ear still made him look more like a pirate than a wizard. He appeared genuinely surprised. “This,” he said slowly, “is not what I expected. Walther and Antonia, the wonder-children wizardry students, an old magician, and some girl? Don’t tell me the Master is letting in even more girls after what happened last time.”

“What were you expecting?” Walther demanded.

“Julia and I are at the top of our classes,” I said loftily, not giving Rigord a chance to answer. “And Clotilde here is learning fast. The Master has concluded that women can learn magic at least as well as any man.” I gave Walther a quick look, hoping he didn’t feel insulted—after all, he and I were tied for class standing.

“But how about the haunting at the school two years ago?” Rigord retorted, leaning forward to thrust his pocked face toward mine. “As I recall, Julia was responsible for that!”

I pulled back. Standing in the air cart, which was hovering just off the ground, I was the same height he was. “Your information is clearly faulty,” I said firmly. “Yes, she was involved in its appearance, but that was only because of how good she is. She channeled the haunting because of her unusually strong natural affinity for magic, not because she’s a woman. But the haunting itself was caused by some male wizardry students dabbling in the Dark Arts, and, as I recall, you were one of them. Didn’t you spend the rest of that year on Strict Detention?”

Rigord suddenly seemed much less interested in the topic of whether women should become wizardry students.

He even managed something that could remind one of a smile toward Clotilde. “So you’re studying at the school?” he asked. “And you’re not intimidated by all the white-bearded masters?”

“Rigord graduated last year,” I put in quickly. My mother would have said that I should introduce people when they met for the first time. “Clotilde is not intimidated easily. And,” realizing I had failed to introduce the old magician, “Sylvester, um, studied at the school some years ago.”

Walther tried again. “What were you expecting when you saw the air cart?”

Rigord looked back and forth between us, apparently trying to place Sylvester, and when he spoke he sounded much more mild. “I’d heard that the school sends out someone to check up on its graduates in their first posts. I was assuming it would be the Master or one of the senior teachers, so when I saw the cart flying over without landing, I thought he must have the coordinates of my town wrong. I hadn’t gotten a telephone call….”

“No,” put in Walther, “it’s just us. And as you can see, we haven’t brought the Master along.”

Rigord frowned, and his jaw tightened. “Is this supposed to be an insult, sending some junior students and an old half-trained magic worker instead?”

“I’ll have you know,” Sylvester said hotly, “that I am a fully-trained graduate of the school!”

The rest of us ignored this obvious falsehood.

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