Free Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint- Wizard of Yurt - 2 by C. Dale Brittain, Brittain Page A

always done their best to discredit wizardry, so we certainly don’t owe them any favors. Why should a wood nymph have to leave the grove where she’s always been happy, just because some bishop becomes fastidious about her proximity to an old hermit? Afraid she’s going to corrupt him, is that it?” I did not try to deny it. Clearly I would get no help from the old wizard here. I almost agreed with him
    anyway and would have agreed completely if Joachim had not seemed so troubled.
    “I’m sure you’re right, Master,” I said hastily, trying to recover something from this conversation before he threw me out. “But I have another question for you. Some strange magic creatures have started appearing in the kingdom, and it looks as if they were made with wizardry.’
    “Strange magic creatures,” he interrupted with another snort, “and you, a supposedly competent wizard, can’t even deal with them yourself?” I pushed ahead. “I had merely hoped, since you’d been in Yurt so long, you might nave seen something similar before and would have some suggestions. They look like rabbits, but big rabbits, and they have horns.’
    “Horned rabbits,” he said, looking at me thoughtfuly. “So there are horned rabbits in the kingdom and you don’t know what to do about them. I hope you weren’t going to accuse me of making something so sily. Unless you created them yourself, eh? I suggest you talk to your fancy school. An apprentice wizard in the old days wouldn’t have had these problems!” I expected in fact that an apprentice wizard of a century or two earlier would have had just as much trouble, but I didn’t say so. Rather, I decided I ought to leave before I did any more damage to our dubious relationship.
    “And how many horned rabbits have you seen?” he asked as I stood up to go.
    “There are at least three of them.” I wondered if there had been great horned rabbits in Yurt before or if the old wizard was just pleased to see me facing—certainly not for the first time!—a problem I didn’t know how to handle.
    The old wizard smiled grimly. “If you’ve got a renegade wizard here in the kingdom making horned rabbits—rabbits!—there may be a lot more before you’re through.” I left with this discouraging comment. As I flew
    back home, I thought that at least the old wizard himself didn’t seem to be creating great horned rabbits, or anything else at the moment, and certainly not with diabolical assistance. But that left me back at the beginning. Where had they come from, and why had they now appeared in Yurt?
    IV
    That evening, as I’d hoped, the telephone cal came from the castle, halfway to the great City, where the queen’s parents lived, teling us that the royal party had arrived safely. Dominic spoke to the king, but standing at his side, I could see the king with the queen and the baby prince behind him, tiny figures in the base of the glass telephone.
    “Yes, we’re al wel,” said the king. “Any problems yet you can’t handle, Dominic?”
    Tne royal nephew and regent took this comment entirely seriously. “Nothing I can’t handle, sire.”
    I thought that, on the contrary, there was a great deal happening in Yurt over which Dominic had no control. I wondered if it could be pure coincidence that Nimrod and the great homed rabbits had both appeared in the kingdom at the very time the king left. I even wondered for a moment if Dominic himself might be responsible, if he had arranged for the kingdom to be invaded by magic creatures in the king’s absence to demonstrate his ability to deal with them.
    But this seemed a little far-fetched. There was no question, however, that Dominic was throwing himself into the role of royal regent. When we had reached home the day before, we nad found him sitting on the throne in the great hal, gripping the arms and staring grimly at nothing in particular.
    Hearing from the king made everyone more cheerful, except for Joachim, who was stil