VI
The sun-drenched road from Xantium to the Holy Land led southeast across a tawny landscape. I could see I would have to revise upwards my ideas of far, dry, and hot. Away to our left, we could see the trade route along which silk from the Far East came after a journey of thousands of miles to this end of the Central Sea, after being transferred to several or even dozens of different caravans.
Hugo pushed back the hood of his cloak to let the wind ruffle his hair. “It’s good to be on the road again!” he said. “Once we find my father, let’s keep on going, right across the desert, down to the jungles of the ultimate south, or else off to the far east where they eat nothing but spices!”
Whirlwind was nervous and restless after two days in the stables of the inn and two weeks before that on board ship. After trying unsuccessfully to hold his chestnut stallion in, Dominic finally said, “I’ll be back!” and took off at a gallop.
Ascelin, being on foot, did not need to keep to the road. For the first mile he was almost as full of restless energy as the stallion, ranging ahead, climbing up on the rocks on either hand for a better look into the distance, stooping to examine an odd print. But then he came back to the pace the king had set with his mare and strode beside me.
“I’m wondering about something,” I said to him, looking off toward the trade route. “Arnulf’s agents suggested that an Ifrit had attacked a silk caravan east of Xantium, but Arnulf himself told us that it was specifically his caravans that were attacked. I would have thought they weren’t his caravans until his agents in the city had bought the silk from whoever transported it from the east.”
“I haven’t believed anything Arnulf told us yet,” said Ascelin.
“But the agents did confirm his story about a caravan’s disappearance,” I objected, “even if they did say it was only one caravan.”
Before I could pursue this further, Hugo called out. “Wizard, come look! I think there’s something very strange in here!”
He had stopped abruptly, looking back at the pack horse he was leading. I swung down from my mare and approached slowly, probing with magic. There was certainly something alive in one of the packs.
And I thought it was human. Ascelin and I carefully unbuckled the straps that held the tents, then abruptly let them drop to the ground. A startled cry came from within their folds. Ascelin poked at the canvas with his foot. It unrolled further, and a shaggy black head emerged.
“Greetings, my masters!” said Maffi, looking at us with shining eyes. “May God be praised, it is good to be out in the air again.”
“I thought we’d seen the last of you,” said Ascelin in disgust.
“I didn’t have a chance to tell you when we met yesterday evening,” said Maffi to me, ignoring the prince, “but I found the ring you wanted!”
“Liar,” muttered Ascelin.
But I said, “Wait,” as he reached for the boy. “Maffi, are you trying to say that the ring Kaz-alrhun told me he wanted for his flying horse actually exists?”
“Of course it does,” he said with a bright smile, putting his hand into his pocket. “And here it is!”
I took the ring from him slowly. It was an onyx in a plain gold setting. Most startling at all, carved into the stone in tiny but clear letters was the word “Yurt.”
I probed it with magic. There was certainly some kind of spell attached to the onyx. It seemed virtually new, even its tiny crevices free of dust. I held the ring carefully on my palm and looked across it to Maffi.
“So did I do well, my masters? Will you reward me handsomely?”
“Tell me where you got this,” I said evenly. All my previous assumptions were crumbling. It had seemed unlikely all along that the bandits who had stolen Claudia’s package from us would sell it to someone who would bring it to the Thieves’ Market in Xantium. It now seemed more unlikely than ever.
“I stole it from Kaz-alrhun last night,” said Maffi with a grin.
“Kaz-alrhun told me he wanted a ring which in fact he already had,” I replied, “and which, completely by coincidence, he had acquired through the thieves’ network. And you stole it, after leading me to him so he could ship me out of the city. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
Dominic came galloping back at this point, his stallion damp with sweat but not breathing particularly hard. He started to speak but stopped when he saw the boy. “Good,” said Maffi, glancing up at him. “I was afraid you’d decided to leave one of your party behind in Xantium. That would not have been a good idea. Nice horse, by the way.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” I persisted.
“You’re from Yurt, aren’t you? That’s why I thought you’d want this ring. Give me something to drink, and I’ll tell you the whole story.”
While Ascelin gave him a waterskin, I probed the ring again. Because magic is a natural force, a spell is often hard to recognize unless it is actually in action. But the onyx seemed imbued, unexpectedly, with school magic. It was powerful magic, too, the work of a master wizard.
“If you stole this ring from Kaz-alrhun,” I tried again, “do you know when he acquired it?”
Maffi gave me a mischievous look. He was enjoying this. But for a change he gave me a straight answer. “He acquired it yesterday morning, about an hour before I met you at the church of the Holy Wisdom.”
I wondered if this could possibly be true. “Yet when you took me to buy the ring, you didn’t tell me that I’d be buying it from Kaz-alrhun …” But I didn’t have time to pursue the issue of how thoroughly Maffi had deceived me. Apparently I was not alone. “Who did he acquire the ring from?”
“I don’t know his name,” said the boy, taking another pull of water and looking troubled for the first time. “I’d never seen him before. He was richly dressed in the western style, even though he wore a dark cloak that he probably thought would mislead thieves. He had iron gray hair and a look about him that somehow, well, suggested a mage. Not like you, my master!” he added brightly.
I didn’t have time to wonder if this last comment was meant as an insult. “King Warin,” I said.
“You can’t mean that!” said King Haimeric unhappily. “That would mean he really did set those bandits on us.”
But this was not news to any of the rest of us, even if Warin did feel more comfortable preserving some of his prestige among his fellow kings by hiring out his dirty work. “So Arnulf did send a ring with us to buy the magic horse,” said Ascelin, “and King Warin, wanting the horse himself and knowing the price was the ring, stole it from us. This seems to be a ring destined to be stolen, if this boy stole it from Kaz-alrhun after Warin gave it to the mage.”
“Then if the mage was still in Xantium when he lost the ring last night,” I said, “it could not have been him, leaving Xantium on a flying horse, that I thought I saw yesterday afternoon in the sandstorm. It must have been Warin.”
“But how would Warin have heard about the flying horse?” asked Dominic.
“That wouldn’t be difficult,” said Hugo. “If Arnulf’s agents here heard about it, then King Warin’s agents must have as well.”
“Why would Warin have agents in Xantium?” protested the king, but no one was listening.
“Did Arnulf’s agents tell Warin’s agents to steal the ring from us?” suggested Dominic darkly.
“So Warin followed us east,” said Ascelin, “and arrived just after we did. Does he have the flying horse now, boy?”