Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint- Wizard of Yurt - 2 (24 page)

“I don’t understand,” said Evrard abruptly into the ensuing silence. “Why does Dominic want to kil you?”

“I thought that was fairly clear,” said Nimrod or, rather, Prince Ascelin. “We’d camped on the plateau last night and were finishing breakfast outside our tent this morning, when Dominic and the knights came into view. Apparently, the regent didn’t think my behavior toward my lady, the Duchess Diana, was the sort of behavior appropriate toward someone he’d planned to marry.” He smiled briefly and bitterly. “If I didn’t intend to kil a lot of men, running seemed my best option.”

I could see Joachim make a conscious decision not to lecture the prince on sin and virtue. “What do you know about Saint Eusebius?” he asked instead. “You said that seeing the duchess was only part of your reason for coming here.”

At this question, Nimrod—as I couldn’t help but think of him—became oddly flustered. I couldn t tel at first if it was just the change of subject or if the mention of the saint was disturbing. He would not meet Joachim’s eyes but looked of£ instead, toward the shrine and reliquary there. “The major church of my city is dedicated to Saint Eusebius,” he answered slowly after a minute. “I’ve been devoted to the saint since boyhood.”

Several things suddenly became clear to me. “Saint Eusebius appeared to you in a vision,” I said. Joachim and Evrard stared at me, but I knew I was right. “He knew you for a remarkable huntsman and he wanted to get the great horned rabbits out of Yurt.”

Nimrod looked at me almost with relief. “Yes, he did.” He paused, then went on in a much lower voice. “But he’d never appeared to me before. It was ... it was not what I’d expected.” His face became distant and almost expressionless. A very short time ago, I had thought the forces of good were always gentle and pleasant, Dut it appeared I was wrong. Since seeing a saint seemed to be such a soul-searing experience, I was rather glad that saints did not appear to wizards.

“Eusebius has appeared to several people,” said Joachim quietly.

“The Cranky Saint has said something different to every single person he’s appeared to,” I said. “When is he going to make his wil clear?” But Joachim did not answer.

I tried to calculate when the saint might have appeared in a vision to Nimrod, counting from when

Evrard’s horned rabbits had escaped. “But how did you get here so fast?”

“I set out, I think,” said Nimrod, “within twenty-four hours of when the first horned rabbit reached this valey. I was here four days later.” He managed a smile. ‘Fifty miles a day on foot was a push, even for me. I must say,” he added after a brief pause, “that when I was asked to come defend the Holy Grove from magical creatures, I had expected something a little more, wel, intimidating than great horned rabbits.” Whether the saint had told him or not, there was indeed something more intimidating in the kingdom

now.

“What,” put in Evrard, “do you have to do, Prince, with the entrepreneurs up on top of the cliff?”

“I don’t know anything about them,’ said Nimrod.

I sat thinking rapidly. If the huntsman had come to Yurt in direct response to the horned rabbits, then many of the series of strange and coincidental events that had begun immediately upon the king’s departure were linkeaL And Diana—even if in part unintentionaly—was behind them al.

But I stil didn’t know what any of this had to do with lowering pilgrims in a basket to see the Holy Toe and I recaled I had already worked out that the homed rabbits had appeared too late to be behind the priests’ vision, even if they had brought about Nim-rod’s. I wondered briefly if the “pilgrims” I had seen before had been the real priests of the church of Saint Eusebius and if these three were some other people in disguise.

I dismissed this thought as too elaborate. Besides, I doubted false priests could fool Joachim. But Evrard’s horned rabbits;—and the inhuman stick-man with which he had next tried to impress Diana—had also led to the monster. And I didn’t have the slightest idea how I was going to catch it.

Too many other people, from the duchess to the

hermit to the priests to Dominic to Evrard, had had too many conflicting plans. And now everyone must be formulating new plans to get Prince Ascelin out of the grove. For al I knew, I might even be caught in some complicated scheme put together by the Cranky Saint. If I wanted to leave this perfectly charming valey within my lifetime, it was time to stop being a playing piece in other people’s games and to have a plan of my own.

And the first priority was to end this deadly standoff, before either Dominic or Nimrod kiled each other, so that I could marshal my forces to go after the old wizard’s creature. “Evrard,” I said, rising resolutely to my feet, “we’re going to find the monster as soon as I settle this impasse. I want you to start working on spels with which to bind it.’

To my surprise, his face went white, making his freckles stancf out sharply. “It’s al my fault,” he said as though he had just made a desperate decision.

“What do you mean?” I demanded.

“I made the stick-creature at the heart of the monster!”

I shook my head. “Whatever creature you made is long gone. It’s al the old wizard’s now. You’re not a competent enough wizard to create a monster like that single-handed.” His face went, if possible, even whiter. “The duchess doesn’t think I’m competent?” He turned desperately from me to Nimrod. ‘She doesn’t think I’l make a good wizard?”

‘I’m afraid she hasn’t been very impressed so far,” said Nimrod reluctantly.

“Then I’l have to catch the monster,” said Evrard in tragic tones, “or die in the attempt.”

“I think,” I said witheringly, “the duchess has other things to worry about now than whether her ducal wizard meets her expectations.” I certainly did. “Joachim,” I continued, I’l leave the Cranky Saint to you with pleasure, but first I need you to back me up.”

“Of course,” he said. The chaplain clearly trusted me to know what I was doing. I wondered if I actualy did.

“We’ve got to make it safe for you to leave the sanctuary of the grove,” I said to Nimrod. “I’l need your help to catch the monster. Joachim, come with me.” We walked to the top of the waterfal. The track had become churned and muddy from the many feet that had hurried up and down, but the water stiu gurgled icy and clear.

There was a spel I had learned in school, to make one’s voice carry. After a moment’s concentration, I thought I remembered it. “Listen to me,” I said loudly, too worried to be as pleased as I normaly would have been that the spel had indeed worked. “The Royal Chaplain and I speak to you as King Haimeric’s representatives.” I certainly had everyone’s attention. Even the duchess turned around. The dogs sat up expectantly, their tongues loling.

Dominic heaved himself to his feet. The mud on his face and tunic had dried and he had made some ineffectual attempts to scrape it off, but the effect was stil quite horrifying. “You can’t act as the king’s representative, Wizard,’ he said, frowning and crossing his massive arms. “I am the regent.”

‘But the king said he wanted us to help you while he was gone. And since this is a case that involves you personaly, you cannot possibly act as judge.

“It is clear to everyone here,” I continued, turning from Dominic to the knights and priests, “that a serious quarrel has taken place, disturbing the king’s peace, a quarrel that requires a judicial decision.” If I was not a particularly competent substitute for a king, I would be an even less competent justice giver, but I had no choice. “In the name of King Haimeric of Yurt, I declare this court in session!” Joachim looked at me sideways and lifted his eyebrows fractionaly. I hoped that meant he approved.

My audience stirred and whispered and the priests moved closer. Behind me, I almost thought I heard a soft laugh that could have come from the wood nymph. But no one else was laughing.

Under a sun far higher in the sky than I had hoped it would be by the time I finaly got out of the valey, the knights of Yurt rose to their feet. They arranged themselves almost automaticaly into the relaxed but watchful stance they took when the king was dispensing justice. The regent gave me a black scowl but said nothing.

“Prince Dominic,” I said formaly, “step forward and state your case as complainant.”

II

To my relief, the regent seemed wiling to accept my highly irregular caling of a royal judicial court. This might even work. Dominic climbed up to stand before Joachim and me, then turned around to speak.

Without a magic spel, his voice did not carry as wel as mine, but no one had any trouble hearing him.

“I accuse Prince Ascelin, the man who has gone by the false name of Nimrod, of gross insult to the royal court of Yurt. He came to the court under false pretenses, disguised as a huntsman but secretly intending to woo my lady, the duchess. For an aristocrat to hide his real identity, to take advantage of a court’s hospitality while lying at every turn, is to show himself no worthy prince!

“Then, even though I had asked the Duchess Diana to be my wife, and he knew that she would most likely agree, he lured her out of the castle. Here his behavior proved to be al that his earlier duplicity suggested, for last night he passed the entire night with ner, in defiance of al laws of decency.”

Diana became bright red, but I credited it more to fury than to maidenly modesty.

When confronted with his shameful deeds, he fled to this grove like a coward. I demand that this court sentence him to death!”

“You can’t ‘demand’ any particular sentence from a court,” put in Joachim quietly. “You know that. And we have not yet heard evidence of any capital offense that would require the death penalty.’

This stopped Dominic for a few seconds and, in the pause, the duchess marched determinedly up to stand beside him. She was stil bright red.

But her voice was firm. “May I address the court?”

“Please do.”

“Prince Dominic has made some accusations against me which I must deny at once,” she said clearly. Those watching were completely silent, listening. “Prince Ascelin and I did indeed pass last night in the same tent together.”

At this there was a faint murmur from the knights, which she ignored. “But our conduct was completely chaste! I am a duchess and the queen’s own cousin; my standards of conduct are exactly the same whether camped rough during a hunt or entertaining elegantly in my own castle. For Prince Dominic to accuse me of acting in another way, in any way that would impugn my honor, is for me the grossest insult.

Let me reassure him and al the court mat, if he had spent the night lying between us, our relationship could not have been any purer.” Dominic winced at this. “He stil came into Yurt in disguise,” he said to her, “hoping to overcome your virtue, even if he hasn’t yet succeeded.” Diana’s eyes were almost wild in spite of the formality of her denial. It must be difficult being caught between fury toward Dominic and fury toward Nim-rod. But her forthright nature did not fail her.

“Concealing his true identity may have been a slight prevarication, but he did not come under completely

false pretenses. I always knew perfectly wel who he

was.

This caused a sudden stir, silenced at once when she continued. “He came as a hunter because he wanted to help me as a hunter. If he’d come as himself, he would have had to come as a recognized suitor for my hand.”

This certainly got everyone’s attention.

“And what’s wrong with that?” cried Dominic. “Do you discredit the possibility that anyone honorable could ask for your hand?”

“Not at al!’ she replied haughtily. “But it was not a role he could play wel. After al, I had rejected him five years ago.” This actualy silenced Dominic. It took me a few seconds to recover my own voice. “I would like to summon the accused to testify for himself,” I said.

Nimrod had been folowing my improvised legal hearings from just inside the Holy Grove. He looked toward Dominic, then back at me, but he made no move to emerge.

“Come, Prince Ascelin,” I said, stil in my magicaly amplified voice. “The royal court is its own sanctuary.’ I tried to remember the exact words I had once heard the king use. “I guarantee your safe conduct.

The knights of Yurt are under orders to kil on the spot anyone who tries to harm you while under the court’s summons.” The knights al slapped their sword hilts ritualy. Dominic had about five seconds in which to overrule my offer of safe conduct. The knights would never have kiled him, but once he let my statement stand, he would be bound by it.

He let the five seconds stand and the folowing thirty. Nimrod came out of the grove.

He walked forward slowly, as though consciously controling his strength, his head held high. “Let me confirm,” he said when standing before Joachim and me, “the purity of my relations with my lady, the duchess.”

I was delighted to see with how much dignity the contestants stated their cases. Dominic, the duchess, and Prince Ascelin were wel used to court hearings. If I had had a group before me like the vilagers King Haimeric had heard before his trip, there was no way I could have persuaded them that this muddy patch of ground under a sunny sky was a place for formality.

I came to Yurt to try to catch the horned rabbits,” Nimrod continued. “I did indeed come under a false name, but only because I did not want to put the Duchess Diana under any sense of obligation to me.” He paused as though bracing himself but, when he went on, his voice was clear. “She had, as she has already told this court, rejected my proposals when I met her and spent a season courting her in the great City. It was an unexpected advantage of hunting the horned rabbits that I was able to renew our acquaintance on a friendly basis.” He shot her a quick glance as he finished speaking, but she was studiously not looking at him.

“But she’l never have you now!” cried Dominic triumphantly. “She won’t love a coward!”

‘ You cal me a coward for choosing not to kil you?”

“When the duchess’ honor was in question, your only interest was your own skin!”

Nimrod tossed back his hair. The change in him was quite startling. He was furious and his strength no longer seemed controled. “No one impugns a prince’s courage like that and lives!”