The Wizardry Quested
Book 5 of the Wizardry series
Rick Cook
The Wizardry Quested
Book 5 of the Wizardry series
Rick Cook
CONTENTS
PART 1: QUEEN OF THE FAIR
ONE – WINTER FAIR
TWO – FOULNESS AT THE FAIR
THREE – THE FAIR AGAIN
FOUR – THE LADY AND THE DRAGON
FIVE – A QUESTION OF COMPANY
SIX – DUNGEON REDUX
SEVEN – TROUBLE IN THE TUNNELS
EIGHT – UNDER SIEGE
NINE – KILLER VEES
TEN – ENTER THE LOBSTER
ELEVEN – LATERAL TO THE REAL WORLD
PART II QUEEN OF THE STRIP
TWELVE – ANOTHER QUEST
THIRTEEN – MAKING A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
FOURTEEN – FUDWARE, FANTASY AND AREA 51
FIFTEEN – BIPLANE BYE-BYE
SIXTEEN – LORD OF THE FLIES AND THE LORD OF THE FLIERS
SEVENTEEN – HOMECOMING
PART III: QUEEN OF THE NIGHT
EIGHTEEN – LIFE AS WE WISH WE DIDN’T KNOW IT
NINETEEN – OPERATIONAL PLAN
TWENTY – SKY ZOMBIES
TWENTY-ONE – STAND TO YOUR GLASSES
TWENTY-TWO – FINDING A PLACE
TWENTY-THREE – ENTER THE DWARVES
TWENTY-FOUR – OPERATION WINTER STORM
TWENTY-FIVE – THE FLIGHT OF THE OLD CROW
TWENTY-SIX – THE EXECUTIONER
TWENTY-SEVEN – SNEAK ATTACK
TWENTY-EIGHT – THE END OF THE BEGINNING
PART 1: QUEEN OF THE FAIR
ONE – WINTER FAIR
It was high winter and beyond the town the world lay under a blanket of white. Wiz and Moira stood outside the outer gate of the castle and looked down the long sloping High Street to the scene beyond.
“Oh Wiz! Look at the fresh snow! Isn’t it beautiful?” “If you say so,” Wiz Zumwalt told his wife. “I’m a California boy and this isn’t my style.” “Oh you just don’t like snow.” “It’s not that I don’t like snow. But I hate slush.” “Still,” Moira said firmly, “it’s beautiful.” Wiz reached out and circled her waist with his arm. “You’re beautiful.”
Even an objective observer—which Wiz most definitely was not—would have agreed. Moira was wearing a heavy cloak of dark green wool lined and trimmed with dark fur. Her red hair, sparkled by diamond drops of melted snowflakes, hung down over the collar. The cold brought roses to her pale cheeks and her green eyes were bright under lashes the color of brushed copper. He had loved her from the first moment he had seen her, but that had been a magic spell. What had grown between them since then needed no spells.
She clung to him for an instant and then broke away. “Oh, come on,” she said breathlessly, “I want to see my domain.”
Wiz sketched a mock bow. “Lead on, Your Majesty.”
Moira struck a regal pose. “Not until tomorrow. After Our coronation you may address Us as Your Majesty. Meanwhile you may give Us your arm.”
Ever since the fair committee had announced its choice it had been a joke between them. When the fair officially opened tomorrow Moira would be crowned with holly and mistletoe and proclaimed Winter Queen to reign over the fair. Normally the queen was one of the women of the town, but this year the townsfolk had chosen Moira. If the truth be known this was due to a deadlock between the two logical candidates, but Wiz and Moira had chosen to ignore the politics and concentrate on the honor.
“What? You don’t want the rest of me?”
Moira opened her green eyes wide and gave him one of her patented 10,000-volt looks. “There are other parts of you that are useful,” she said, “but let us leave that for later.” Side by side they started down the icy street toward the fair.
The Wizards’ Keep stood on a great bluff that jutted up at the joining of two rivers. The town known simply as the Capital tailed down the sloping back of the rock to the flatlands below. From where they stood they could see over the roofs and walls of the Capital down to the fairgrounds.
Two days ago the water meadows beside the rivers had been as plain and white as the fields beyond. Now, as if by magic, a city had sprung up. Brightly colored canopies spilled carelessly against the fields of white. Along the dark river, boats lay ashore. Here and there campfires burned against the midwinter’s chill and everywhere people bustled like ants, erecting tents and stalls, unloading and setting up to display their wares.