THE WIZARD'S PRICE

CHAPTER 3

As their parents had hoped Carl's impetuousness was calmed down by his friend and Artus learned to enjoy life to the full. When his twenty-first birthday came nearer and his mother talked about his coronation and how to celebrate it, he asked her if she could stay on for a bit longer.

"Before my chances of an anonymous life are gone forever, I would like to see the world. Carl and I would like to make a tour of the continent."

Silence…no answer came.

"…and I could have a secret look at available Princesses?" he added.

At this the Queen laughed. Then Carl came rushing in.

"Is it alright? Can we go?"

Queen Kalanta looked at the two young men and was filled with pride. There was her son, Artus, good-looking, with dark hair that curled when it grew a bit too long – he hated that – and dark brown eyes that glinted with golden lights when he was passionate about a cause or mischievous like now; and Carl, who had lived with them so long that he had become a second child, handsome with light hair, bleached by the sun, and grey-blue eyes that took on the colour of a stormy sky when angry. If those two were to look at 'available Princesses', hearts would be broken. "Thank the Powers," thought the Queen, "that their looks are the least of their attractions." They weren't perfect – who is? – but Artus and Carl were intelligent, generally good-natured boys with sound characters. They would not take advantage of all too eager girls. Permission for the journey was granted and the Princes left. They kept in touch with the Queen, especially about marriageable Princesses (or the lack thereof).

Three full years they stayed away. In the fourth year Artus started to feel the urge to return home. It got worse and worse until finally Carl suggested that they might as well go home as the fun had gone out of the experience if Artus didn't enjoy it.

Back home the Queen wanted to know about their adventures at the different courts and Carl told her everything she wanted to know and more, but Artus was very quiet. His mother asked him what was wrong, but he didn't know; he just didn't feel right. When Queen Kalanta brought up the kingship again, he asked her to wait until he felt better.

Then came the day of his twenty-fifth birthday.

Because Prince Artus had not come down to breakfast, his mother went to his room and asked what was wrong. He just snarled at her, "Leave me alone! Get out and leave me alone!"

The physician was sent to have a look at the Prince but he fared no better.

Midday, and yet again the Prince did not appear. Kalanta took a bowl of soup to her son and Carl, who wanted to know what was wrong with his friend, followed her. When they arrived at the top of the stairs, they heard a bloodcurdling scream. The Queen dropped the tray with the soup bowl; then she started to run for her son's room where the cry had come from. Before she reached it, the door was flung open and something came out: a monster, a slavering beast without a trace of humanity. It was covered in a thick longhaired pelt like a yak, with horns like a ram, and the sharp incisors of a sabre-toothed tiger. It lumbered towards Queen Kalanta, walking upright like a bear, its arms spread as if to embrace her, growling ferociously. Carl saw the paws with the vicious claws and pulled the Queen, who was paralysed by fear, away down the staircase. The beast increased its speed, following them. As they were making for the doorway, they suddenly heard another cry as of a creature in pain. Kalanta looked over her shoulder and saw her son sitting on the bottom step. She wanted to run towards Artus, but Carl stopped her. She didn't understand.

"Let me go to my son. Can't you see he's ill? He needs me."

"This is no sickness I've ever heard of, mother."

Before Carl had finished his sentence, a change came over Artus and with a howl he became the beast again, chasing his friend and his mother. Again and again Artus changed from creature to human and back again. Meanwhile Carl had convinced the Queen to lure her son towards the dungeons and lock him in one of the cells.

"It will give us time to find out what has happened to Artus and what we can do to cure him," he told her.

Kalanta saw this made sense and cooperated with Carl's plan. As they neared the dungeons Artus, during his lucid periods, realised what they were trying to do. When they reached the dungeons Carl opened a cell door. Just then Artus had his human form and calmly walked in. No sooner had Carl closed the cell or Artus started to change again. In agony he called out, "Mother!"

Nothing could stop her now. Through the bars of the cell she grabbed her son's arms.

"Fight it," she said. "Fight it, Artus."

"Please, help me, mother."

Artus took hold of his mother's arms as well.

"I will. I'm here, I'm not going away."

The changes followed each other faster and faster. There was now no Artus and no beast, just a blurred thing, but the Queen felt the beast's claws dig into her arms, and in the blur she still saw her son's eyes, pleading her not to let go.

Carl did the only thing he was allowed to do. He talked to his friend, encouraged him, like Queen Kalanta, to fight whatever it was that was trying to possess him. He shouted it out; the Queen shouted it out; "FIGHT IT! FIGHT IT! FIGHT IT!"

They shouted to be heard above the howling, screaming, crying that came from Artus.

Then the noise stopped. The blur became a definite shape; it was not as terrifying as the slavering monster but very much still a beast. It was no longer Artus. The Queen let go of the creature and it crawled into a corner.

"Artus?"

It looked at Queen Kalanta and she saw it didn't recognise her; it roared at the queen and she knew it was no longer her son. The running was over; the fear had gone. Now the horror hit the Queen and she started crying. Carl tried to take her away from the cell and into bed with a calming medicine but Queen Kalanta wanted to stay with the beast that used to be her son.

"Leave me, my son needs me here," she said.

Carl wanted to do something. He called the Queen's advisers together and asked if any of them either knew or had an idea what had happened or perhaps could tell him of a way to bring Prince Artus back.

After a long silence one of them finally said, "Well, I think that the King … I mean, they say that … er … during the war … well, it was strange … we never could have … and he was gone for a while … but it must be nonsense. I mean … it couldn't have been, could it?"

"For heaven's sake, man, WHAT!" shouted Carl. "Tell us, whatever it is."

"Well, apparently…" The man hesitated then in one breath said, "apparently-the-King-asked-a-Wizard-to-help-him-in -the-war-to-defeat-the-King-of-Eburon … apparently."

"A Wizard?"

"Yes." The man had gained some confidence. "They say he helps people."

"Right, you think he might help us get Artus back."

A short hesitation, then, "He might have caused it."

"I thought he helped people."

The man nodded, "For a price. Perhaps the price wasn't paid."

Carl doubted the Queen knew anything about a deal King Ludovick might have made with the wizard.

"Where is this Wizard?" he asked.

"The old folk say that he lives somewhere in the mountains. There." And the man pointed to the mountain that could be seen from the conference room.

It took only one look at the fear on the faces of the counsellors for Carl to realise that he would have to go and look for the Wizard himself. He thanked the man who'd given the information and returned to the dungeons where Queen Kalanta sat opposite the cell where the beast that was her son was pacing up and down, occasionally growling and clawing at her through the bars of the cell door.

"I've been told there is a wizard who might help us. He lives in the mountains and I'm going to see him."

"The wizard … yes … Ludovick told me there was a wizard."

Carl noticed she wasn't really paying attention, too focused on what was happening in the cell.

He kissed her on the cheek. "I'll be back soon," he said, doubting she had realised that he was going. He packed some food and water and went on his way.

It was a nice day and Carl made good time, but still, when he looked back he was amazed at how far he had gone already. Stranger still, although he was not following any visible road, he never hesitated about which direction to take. Then he came to a pine forest and there was a path. The wood was so dark that he could not see where it went. Carl didn't want to go into the darkness but the only direction he could move was towards the forest. He could not help himself and soon he was deep amid the trees, seeing only the trail ahead. Carl hated it that somebody seemed to be guiding his steps, hated that he was no longer master of his own body. Later he could never say how long he had been in the pine forest, whether hours or just a few minutes. Then the path came to an end, blocked by a dense thorny hedge. It stretched left and right as far as Carl could see. Still under some sort of spell, he kept going forward even though he was afraid that he would be torn to shreds by the long vicious looking thorns. Then the barrier parted and Carl went through, out of the wood, out of the darkness and into the sunlight. The path crossed a meadow full of flowers. On the other side of the meadow stood the Wizard's ivory tower. Now Carl no longer felt any fear. He ran towards the tower. He knocked at the door and pulled the bell rope at the same time.

The Wizard opened the door.

"You are eager to start your apprenticeship," he said in a friendly voice.

"What apprenticeship? I've come to ask for your help. Something terrible has happened to Artus."

"Artus? Who's Artus?"

"Prince Artus, son of King Ludovick and Queen Kalanta."

"You are not the son of King Ludovick?"

"No, I'm his friend. You must come; he's changed into some sort of animal."

"By all the forces of nature!" The Wizard went inside and soon came out again with a travel bag and a carpet. He put the carpet on the ground and sat down on it.

"Sit down behind me and hold on. This thing travels fast. It was a present from a colleague in the Orient – a total madman if you ask me – but it is handy for emergency travelling."

Carl did as he was told, wondering what would happen.

The Wizard said, "To the palace," the carpet rose from the ground, hovered a moment and then shot forward toward the pine forest. It whizzed through the trees with such a speed that Carl couldn't, daren't look. First he concentrated on the pattern of the Wizard's cloak, but the carpet went so close to the trees it startled him, so he closed his eyes and held on to the Wizard with all his might. He felt sure the man was as mad as his oriental colleague. Suddenly the wild ride came to an end. Carl wondered what had happened and carefully opened his eyes. To his amazement they had already arrived at the royal palace.

ooOOoo