Read The Witch & the Cathedral - Wizard of Yurt - 4 for Free Online Page B

gave you."
    I had never quite gotten over the feeling that I would have been much more awe-inspiring in a dungeon or a tower, but I very much liked my chambers in the royal castle, looking out into the courtyard through a tangle of climbing roses. It was by now far too late anyway to become frightening and mysterious.
    "Speaking of the queen," added Joachim, "I meant to tell you. I received a letter from her yesterday."
    I was jealous at once. I hadn't had a letter from her since the first week I had been in the City.
    "I had not heard from her in months, maybe a year, but she wants to find out what she needs to do to reserve the cathedral."
    "The cathedral?"
    "Yes. She is thinking of marrying again."
    I stared at him, unable to answer. I was devastated. The old Romney woman, in prophesying that I would fall deeply in love, had been almost twenty years too late. I remembered my wineglass just in time not to drop it. "But she can't get married!" I finally managed to gasp.
    "Why shouldn't she? She has been a widow for some six years, so remarriage would show no disrespect to the king's memory. Doesn't Paul come of age this summer? Once he is eighteen her regency will be over, and she will be free to leave Yurt if she wishes." This was even worse. "She can't leave Yurt!" Joachim looked at me quizzically. "You seem very disturbed by this."
    "I am disturbed," I said desperately. "I've never told you this before, but I love the queen."
    "Of course. Everyone who knows her must love her That is why we should welcome anything that makes her happy."
    I thought, not for the first time, that it was a good thing he was a priest.
    "You can see her letter if you like. She did not tell me the name of the man she is thinking of marrying."
    He got it from his desk. It was a real letter, not one of the tiny rectangles that were all the carrier pigeons could handle. She must have found someone heading to the cathedral city to carry her letter by hand. I read it avidly, looking for hidden clues as to why she should suddenly have made such a bizarre decision, but there was nothing in it besides what the dean had already told me. I found myself remembering various men over the years who had looked admiringly at the queen, all of whom I now detested. Joachim was right that everyone loved the queen, and not everyone was a priest.
    "I'll have to go back to Yurt at once." When Joachim gave me another*puzzled look, I added lamely, "They'll need the Royal Wizard to help prepare for the wedding festivities."
    "I had hoped you could stay at least a few days. If she is only just now inquiring about the availability of the cathedral, she cannot be planning to marry in less than six months."
    He was right, of course. And if I had left the wizards' school earlier than planned to help out an old friend, I couldn't very well abandon him after only twelve hours in town.
    Joachim tipped up the bottle. "This is almost empty; we might as well finish it. There is a guest house down the street we use for visitors to the cathedral. Or you can stay here with me; I have an extra room."
    "Thank you. I'd be very happy to stay here." I sipped the last of my wine, listening to the wind. The moon outside the window kept appearing and disappearing behind shreds of clouds. I hadn't mentioned that mental touch up on the tower, and I was still not sure how real it had been, but if someone was practicing magic with evil intent—or if there really was priestly intrigue against organized wizardry here in Caelrhon—I felt much safer with Joachim than I would somewhere down the street.
    But how could I go on as Royal Wizard of Yurt if the queen moved away, married to somebody else?

PART TWO
The Queen
    I stayed with Joachim for four days. The cantor Norbert avoided me pointedly, the rest of the cathedral priests ignored me, and none of them showed any sign of trying to destroy me.
    Every night I went out to check for magical influences on the new construction, and every night I found