The Incorporated Knight (33 page)

             
Eudoric sighed. "I understand. But, I promise, I'll not pass my days here as the royal sister's plaything. I have mine own affairs to tend. And remember that my princess have never learned to bridle the whims and endure the vexations of the moment, as all we lesser mortals must. Were she a child, one would term her spoiled rotten.

             
"So pray remain with me for the nonce; at least until we know what's toward."

-

             
Minister Brulard received Eudoric and Yolanda in his cabinet and dispatched a guard to the tennis court to inform the King. While waiting, Yolanda told the minister of her detention by the Armorians and of their impending human sacrifice. She had just reached the point where Eudoric appeared on the rock above her, when King Clothar strode in trailing a scuttle of flunkeys. Eudoric genuflected. When he saw his sister hale, albeit travel-soiled, the King clapped Eudoric on the back.

             
"Well done, Sir What's-your-name!" he bellowed. "Meseems we've promised you something for fetching home our willful sister. What was't?"

             
"A franchise, Your Majesty," said Eudoric promptly, "giving me and me alone the right to run a stagecoach line across Franconia."

             
"Ah, yea. Brulard, have the authorization drawn up forthwith."

             
"I have anticipated Your Majesty's wish," said the minister, pulling a large sheet of parchment out of his desk drawer. "Here you are, Sir Eudoric."

             
"I thank you," said Eudoric. He cleared his throat. "There's another matter, which
I
was compelled to undertake unauthorized, to allay the Armorians' suspicions."

             
"What is that?" asked Brulard.

             
"To avoid incarceration like His Majesty's sister's,
I
pretended to have been sent to contract an agreement betwixt the two kings concerning imports of wine and perry. Here is the draft, in duplicate, both copies signed by King Gwennon's minister Corentin and bearing Gwennon's seal. I trust that, since this treaty was the original purpose of the princess's journey,
I
did no wrong in pursuing the project. If Your Majesty and Master Brulard approve it, you can execute it and return a copy to Ysness."

             
King and minister glanced over the sheets. The King, toying with the waxed point of his reddish-blond goatee, said: "It appears in good order, though we shall have to study it. Ha, Sir Dorian, we see that you be a useful wight to have about a court. Would that you were amongst
our kinsmen. We must needs find posts for them all, notwithstanding that some be unequal to the tasks—"

             
"He
is
your kin, forsooth," interrupted Yolanda.

             
The King frowned. "How mean you, sister?"

             
"He is your brother now."

             
"But we have no br—
What?"
roared the King. "Meanst that you and this fellow
...
"

             
"Certes, I mean it," said Yolanda. "We were wed both by the True Church and by the heathen rites of Armoria."

             
"But—but members of our family may not marry without our express permission!"

             
Eudoric cleared his throat again. "Your Majesty's pardon, but we had no choice in the matter. The Armorians threatened to hold us in a dungeon all our lives unless we agreed to this union."

             
"And wherefore should they do such a moonstricken thing?"

             
Eudoric shrugged. "I thought it a silly idea myself; that jester-minister is to my mind more than a trifle mad. But they seemed to think that your sister were less of a formidable foe had she a husband to keep her witcheries in check."

             
"Hm, hm," mumbled the King. "If you do keep her in check, you will be the only wight on earth who can. Brulard and I must discuss this matter. You have our leave, Sir Eudox."

             
Eudoric bowed himself out, saying to Yolanda: "Now, my dear, I shall be happy to enjoy the luxe of your abode—and a change of clothes."

-

             
Yolanda's palace was a spacious two-story mansion in ornate Franconian style. A porte-cochere extended from the front door across the driveway.

             
"We stop here, Eudoric," Yolanda said, and whistled sharply.

             
Two shadowy, gargoylish figures, beside the front door, came to life and approached. Eudoric realized that they were not human at all. They were man-sized and more or less man-shaped, but they wore no clothes. Their heads had bestial muzzles and a pair of short homs. Their three-fingered hands grasped spears, which they leaned against the door frame before coming forward on feet that ended in three huge toes, capped by nails that were almost hooves. Each being had a ratlike tail, which waved behind its knees.

             
The horses snorted and rolled their eyes at the unaccustomed sight and smell. Eudoric and Yolanda managed to control their mounts; but Forthred, leading the spare animals, was less successful. His horse reared and threw him. Before the beast could bolt, one of the nonhuman doormen darted forward and seized the bridles. The other took the reins of Eudoric's and Yolanda's horses. Yolanda dismounted, saying:

             
"Hutt humma lil-bayt al-khayl; khud ish-shunatna juwwa!"
She turned to Eudoric as the doormen led off the animals. "Ask me not to give lessons in Saracenic; mine own is barbarous. But it suffices to command the marids."

             
"So that's what these creatures are! Have you no human servants?"

             
"Aye; grooms, cooks, and maids. For heavy work— gardening, furniture moving, and such—
I
find the marids superior. They are stronger than men and, when constrained by the proper spell, docile and obedient. Best of all, so long as
I
feed them,
I
need not pay them wages."

             
"Does your spell compel then to swink forever?"

             
"Nay; the magic weakens after a few years. Then they'll vanish back to their own plane, and
I
shall have to recruit another crew. Let us go in. First
I
must show you the house, for
I
know that you pant to see it."

             
Eudoric was not at all eager to be shown the house. His main desires were for a hot bath, a strong drink, a good meal, and a long sleep. But Yolanda had her own ideas.

             
"And this," she said, "is the library. Most of the volumes are mine own acquisition; neither my sire nor his sire were much for reading. Feasting, jousting, and venery—in both senses of the term—were more to their taste. My royal brother, I fear, takes after them. Some of the books were brought hither by my scholarly husband, Count Sugerius.

             
"That suit of armor yonder was worn by my great-uncle, the Duke of Albi, at the battle of Novambio. You can see the dents. And those swords on yonder wall have belonged to generations of martial forebears; for ensample, that two-handed monster with the prongs
...

             
"... and this is the dining room. The table once belonged to King Merovic the First, my great-great— anyway,
I
forget how many 'greats'—grandfather. And those candlesticks were taken as booty in the Third Carinthian War-—"

             
"Your pardon, Yolanda," said Eudoric, "but when do we break our fast?"

             
"Oh, belike two hours hence. The kitchen staff knew not that we were coming and so had let the fires go out. If you had taken my advice to stop here ere going on to the court
...
Now the portrait on yonder wall is that of Lord Clodomir, an illegitimate son of King Merovic. A mighty warrior; there were those who said he'd have made a better king than the legitimate scion
...

             
"... and here is the master bedroom. The mirror over the dressing table is Saracenic; one of my great-uncles brought it back from a pilgrimage to Philistia—"

             
Eudoric blinked and shook his head to fight off sleep. "This will be my first night in a decent bed since leaving Ysness. For a copper sesterce
I
'd pull off my boots and fall asleep with my clothes on."

             
"We cannot so do now," said Yolanda implacably. "Notice the bedspread, made by a peasant family in Drufort. Because their ancestress succored King Charivald when he was wounded in the battle of Segni, he conferred on her and her descendants in the female line the sole right forever to make spreads for the royal family. And now we must tour the kitchens and laundry."

             
She led him forth. On the way down the hall, Eudoric paused at a door, whose wooden surface was blank except for a knob. "What's in there?" he asked.

             
"That, my dear husband, is where
I
keep my magical paraphernalia."

             
Eudoric gave the knob a pull, but the door remained immovable. "Locked, eh?
I
can see why you might; but this door has no keyhole."

             
"Think you
I
'd entrust my direst secrets to an ordinary lock and key, which any burglar could pick in three ticks of the clock? Nay; that door has a magical lock, which only
I
can open. Come along, dear;
I
have not shown you the half
...
"

             
"Tarry a while, Yolanda!
I
am fain to see this room of wizardly apparatus. Work your little spell and show me in."

             
"Nay;
I
let none, not even the marids, enter here."

             
"But after all,
I
am your husband—"

             
"Harken, Shorty! When
I,
Princess Yolanda, say that none shall go thither,
I
mean none! Now come along and blow no further bluster."

             
Eudoric's lips tightened. He was about to make an angry retort when she continued: "Nay, dear one, take no offense. 'Tis for your own safety. Some presences in there might harm you ere
I
could bring them under governance."

             
Eudoric's anger subsided, but he shot a skeptical glance at the door. Then, with a small sigh, he followed her, wondering from what sorcerous source she obtained her boundless energy.

-

             
Yawning, Eudoric came awake after nine hours of his heaviest sleep in years. As he turned over, he realized that Yolanda was no longer beside him. He raised his head, to see her seated at the dresser in her nightrobe and doing things to her long, caledonian-brown hair.

             
"Dearest!" he called. "Come back to bed!"

             
She turned with a frown. "Whatever for?"

             
"You shall soon see!"