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

gave Joachim a quick grin, but I
wasn’t sure he caught it.   Elerius,
appearing unconcerned, immediately started down the dark stairs.   After only the briefest hesitation, I
followed, Joachim at my shoulder.
    The cellars under the school were
always disconcerting, long, white-painted corridors, giving the impression of
stretching out much further than the size of the school itself above them.   Cross-corridors came at regular
intervals, lit by magic lamps, all looking exactly the same.
    Elerius unhesitating turned left,
then right, then right again.   “Wait,” I said suddenly.   “Marcus can’t be working with Titus.   Titus hates these cellars.”
    “Exactly,” said Elerius, so smoothly
that he must have had his answer all ready.   “Because Titus has an irrational fear of
enclosed spaces, he has arranged for other people to help him.   Marcus is just one of them.
    “Now, I believe he was going to be
looking at this creature first,” he continued, stopping before a
door that was indistinguishable from all the others.   “The old master of magical creatures was
never sure what it was.   Now if they
had followed my suggestion and hired someone with more experience to replace
him….”
    There was a magic lock glowing on
the door, but when Elerius slapped it with his palm it opened, slowly and with
a faint creak of the hinges.
    The room inside was unlit and
silent.   Joachim, who had not said
anything since we came down the stairs, stepped back with a nod to
Elerius.   The latter shrugged, unconcerned,
and went right in.
    “Marcus?” he said in the
darkness.   “Why did you put out the
light?”
    Joachim and I followed
cautiously.   A quick magical probe
revealed no other mind here.
    “Elerius,” I started to say in
warning, but it was too late.   The
door slammed shut behind us, and everything was black.
    It only took a second to light up
the moon and stars on my belt buckle.   They cast a faint glow, showing a room completely empty.
    “I know this is the room where we
had the creature,” said Elerius, in a tone of irritation that did not ring
completely true.   “Could he have
moved it elsewhere?   Well, let’s see
if we can find him.”   In two strides
he was at the door, feeling for the handle.   “This is odd.   The door appears to be locked.”
    “You just locked it yourself,” said
Joachim.
    “No, no!” Elerius protested.   The door was indeed faintly glowing with
the presence of a magic lock.   But
when he put his hand on it and muttered a spell, nothing happened.   “Someone else must be down here in the
cellars, and he’s locked us in!”

 
    None of us said anything for a
moment.   Then Elerius fumbled in his
pocket and drew out a glass orb—a float from a fishing net.   “I picked this up on the beach yesterday
when we were all looking for you,” he said and attached a spell of light to
it.   It wasn’t very bright, but it
was better than my belt buckle.   “I’d hoped it might be a clue to the renegade magician.   It wasn’t, but it’s lucky I still had
it.”
    I did not believe a word of it.   I went to the door myself and tried a
few spells of my own.   The door did
indeed seem thoroughly locked, and the impression of my own palm had no effect.
    “The Master might be able to break a
magic lock,” said Elerius, sounding worried.   “I don’t know of another wizard who
could.   We’ll have to wait until Titus
comes down to check on his assistant’s progress.”
    Except that Titus would not be
coming down into the cellars.   He
would not save me this time.

 
    VI
    Above us, I knew, were the towers of
the wizards’ school, thousands of tons of masonry.   They seemed to weigh down the very air
as I wondered how many hours—or days—we might have to wait for
rescue.
    “We could sing hymns to make the
time pass,” suggested Joachim, but both Elerius and I ignored him.
    “Why don’t you tell me,” I said
icily, “why you want me