Free Mage Quest - Wizard of Yurt 3 by C. Dale Brittain Page A

the western kingdoms, but wizards argue with each other too much to alow close oversight.” Arnulf nodded but said nothing more.
    The chaplain seemed much more sober during lunch than I would have expected from someone home to see his family after a long absence. “You know, Joachim,” said Claudia when dessert was served, “I stil can’t get used to seeing you in priest’s vestments.”
    Dessert was lemon pie, and one of the dishes served earlier had been rice with almonds. We didn’t have rice in the royal castle of Yurt very often, lemons even less frequently. Although I had always assumed that coming to Yurt had been the move into luxury for Joachim that it had been for me, perhaps I was wrong.
    “Did he use to wear an earring when you first knew him?” Hugo asked Claudia with a wink for Dominic.
    The chaplain did smile at that and brought both earlobes forward with his forefingers to show they had never been pierced.
    “No,” said Claudia, also with a smile. “He always dressed very soberly, even when he was stil expected to take over the family business.”
    “It’s just as wel I didn’t,” said Joachim. “My ideas of fair business practice would have lost our firm everything we had in two years. You and Arnulf would be lucky to have a cottage of your own, much less this house.”
    He spoke lightly—or at least lightly for him—but Arnulf gave him a look that just managed not to be a scowl. There had been an argument here, I thought, perhaps accusations of immorality on one side and accusations of being hopelessly unworldly on the other, that stil festered after more than fifteen years.
    “He’s been such an excelent Royal Chaplain,” put in King Haimeric, “that we in Yurt, at any rate, are very glad he did become a priest.”
    “You wouldn’t want to try your hand at the family trade one more time, Joachim,” asked Arnulf breezily, “perhaps arrange a trade for me while al of you are in Xantium?” He spoke as though it were a joke, but Joachim took it seriously. “No.” He shot his brother an intense look. “I gave up al worldly commerce when I entered the seminary.” The topic was dropped there, and Claudia asked Ascelin about his principality as she poured us al tea. The prince shook off the air of watchfulness that had hung about him for the last hour and answered graciously. She seemed very wel informed about everyone in our party. The chaplain must have written his brother about al the people in Yurt, I thought, and I felt at a disadvantage that he had never told us nearly as much about the people here.
    After lunch, Claudia went off with the children, and Arnulf took us on a tour of his grounds. As we came through the flowering orchard, I thought that we would be many miles away when the cherries were ripe.
    Arnulf s foreman came up to him with a question as we were being shown a pasture where fine horses grazed beyond a white fence. The lord of the manor excused himself and went, taking Joachim with them.
    “Listen carefuly,” said Ascelin as soon as they were out of earshot. “We have to get out of here as soon as we can.” This was the same surprise to the others that it had been to me.
    “Don’t you think everyone here is just a little nervous, having the chaplain home again after so long?” asked the king when Ascelin tried to explain his instinctive feeling that something was about to happen.
    “You heard them at lunch; he must have left after some sort of quarrel that they’re al trying hard to forget.”
    “And if something here is about to explode,” said Dominic, “we’d be cowards to run away.”
    “I think Ascelin’s right,” said Hugo with a frown. “It could be any number of dreadful dungs. Arnulf, after al, trades with the East, where the women grow fur on their bodies down to their knees and have two-foot tails, and where enormous horned snakes guard the pepper groves.”
    “What are you talking about?” demanded Ascelin. But Dominic nodded