“Yes, you already told me, sire,” said the constable respectfully, but with a hint of an indulgent smile.

“All right, all right,” said the king, and did smile before hurrying to catch up to the rest.

They reached the edge of the woods below the castle’s hill and disappeared from sight with a final ringing of harness bells. The morning suddenly seemed extremely quiet and extremely empty.

“Well, it looks like you’re in charge of the castle now, Prince Dominic,” I said to break the silence. “At least until the royal family comes back.”

The regent was juggling something heavy in his hand which I recognized as the royal seal of Yurt. “But it’s not my castle, and they’re not my wife and child,” he growled, turned on his heel, and stamped in across the drawbridge.

The staff and the knights and ladies who were staying behind drifted back inside, but I didn’t feel like going in yet. The day had gone flat, and it would be at least three more days before we could expect a telephone call, telling us that the royal party had arrived safely at the castle of the queen’s parents.

My biggest wizardly accomplishment since coming to Yurt had been the installation of magic telephones. They were not like the magic telephones common down in the great City, but then very little of my magic seemed to be like anyone else’s. This was largely due to the fact that I often had to improvise to compensate for all the courses at the wizards’ school where I had not paid proper attention — and in this case I had managed to avoid courses in the technical division completely-but I preferred to think it demonstrated my unique flair and creativity.

In the meantime I didn’t want to mope for three days, waiting for the telephone to ring, imagining the royal family attacked by bandits or dragons without their wizard there to protect them.