Wizard of Yurt

The tiny kingdom of Yurt is the perfect place - or so it seems - for someone who barely managed to graduate from the wizards' school, especially after all that embarrassment with the frogs. But Daimbert, newly hired Royal Wizard of Yurt, senses an evil spell at work. But who could be responsible? The beautiful young queen? Her flighty aunt? The dour chaplain? The old, retired Royal Wizard, who seems to know more than he's saying? Or someone from out of the castle's past?

Caught between renegade magic and cranky religion, what's a poor wizard supposed to do? When the King of Yurt goes on vacation, leaving his Royal Wizard Daimbert in charge, he is faced with the escalating crises of the cranky saint of the shrine of the Holy Toe, an all-too-beguiling wood nymph, bizarre horned rabbits, a scandalous duchess, the royal nephew's mid-life crisis, and a monstrous creature made with spells they never taught at the wizards' school.

Western wizardry meets the mages of the exotic East. Neither will ever be the same. Daimbert the wizard is on the road to adventure with five guys from Yurt. Their search for a missing lord soon becomes a quest for a fabled blue rose and for an unthinkably powerful magical artifact from the time of Solomon.

Love and wizardry don't mix - and neither do magic and the church. When the wizard Daimbert discovers the woman he loves is going to marry someone else, he flees to the nearby city of Caelrhon. Even though strange creatures of wild magic have been spotted in the city, no one wants him there, not the bishop of the cathedral, not the crown prince, not the city council, not even the masters of institutionalized wizardry. But Daimbert senses sinister forces at work, and besides, he's just met a very intriguing witch....

Daimbert the wizard just wants to spend some quality time with his daughter Antonia. He loves his peaceful kingdom of Yurt, but he and those around him are increasingly finding themselves hampered by their society's strictures and silent rules. The king doesn't want to marry any of the princesses offered to him, the duchess' twin daughters want to be respectively a knight and a priest, and Daimbert himself is forbidden by the norms of wizardry from a liaison with a witch - much less having a daughter.

Daimbert hasn't messed up this badly since all that embarrassment with the frogs back in wizards' school. At first it seems simple: he's supposed to use his magic to find a girl lost in the mountains. But no one else believes him that there's a mountain range in the middle of the kingdom of Yurt. A mountain range couldn't become invisible even to him--could it? To make it worse, the royal heir has gone missing, and it's all his fault. Meanwhile, old ghost stories and legends seem to be coming to life.And then there's the kobold. This novella is intended both to introduce new readers to the Royal Wizard of Yurt series and (I hope!) to give reading enjoyment to old friends.