Suldruns garden, p.46
Suldrun's Garden, page 46
"That has been tried before," said Carfilhiot, smiling. "The assailants are gone and Tintzin Fyral remains. In any event King Casmir of Lyonesse will not allow a Troice presence here."
"He has no choice. We have already sent a force to take Kaul Bocach and so deny Casmir his thoroughfare."
Carfilhiot sat brooding. He gave his fingers a contemptuous flick.
"I must move with deliberation. The circumstances are still uncertain."
"I beg to contradict you. Aillas rules South Ulfland. The barons have acceded to his rule with gratitude, and they have marshaled their troops at Cleadstone Castle, in case they are needed against Tintzin Fyral."
Carfilhiot, startled and stung, jumped to his feet. Here was the message of the magic chart! "Already you have incited them against me! In vain! The plot will fail! I have powerful friends!"
Sir Glide's companion spoke for the first time. "You have a single friend, your lover Tamurello. He will not help you."
Carfilhiot whirled about. "Who are you? Come forward! Somewhere I have seen you."
"You know me well, because you have done me great wrongs. I am Shimrod."
Carfilhiot stared. "Shimrod!"
"You hold the two children Glyneth and Dhrun who are dear to me.
You will return them now into my custody. You robbed my manse.
Trilda and took my possessions. Bring them to me now."
Carfilhiot drew his lips back in a ghastly grin. "And what do you offer in return?"
Shimrod spoke in a soft dull voice. "I swore that the villains who looted Trilda would die after first suffering some of the torment they had visited upon my friend Grofinet. I took Rughalt the assassin through his sore knees. He died in great pain but first he named you as his accomplice. Return me now my goods and the two children. I will reluctantly forswear myself: you will not die by my hand nor by the pain I would give you. I have nothing more to offer, but it is a great deal."
Carfilhiot, with eyebrows raised and lids half-lowered, contrived an expression of austere distaste. He spoke patiently, like one explaining self-evident truths to a lack-wit. "You are nothing to me. I have taken your goods because I wanted them. I will do so again, perchance. Beware of me, Shimrod!"
Sir Glide spoke. "Sir, once more I cite you the orders of your liege lord King Aillas. He bids you come down from your palace and submit yourself to his justice. He is not a harsh man and prefers to spill no blood."
"Ha ha! So there is how the wind blows! And what does he offer me for this merciful service?"
"The benefits are very real. The noble Shimrod has made requests.
If you oblige him, he undertakes not to take your life. Comply with his proposals! By syllogism, we offer you life itself: the most valuable and concrete advantage possible to offer."
Carfilhiot flung himself down in his chair. After a moment he chuckled. "Sir Glide, you have a deft tongue. One less tolerant than myself might even consider you insolent; even I am taken aback. You come here naked of protection but for a safe-conduct which teeters upon discretion and propriety. Next, you seek to extort large concessions through taunts and threats, which rankle harshly on the ear. In my aviary you would quickly learn to warble more pleasing songs."
"Sir, my intent is not to exasperate but to persuade. I had hoped to address your reason rather than your emotions."
Carfilhiot jumped again to his feet. "Sir, I am losing patience with your glibness."
"Very well, sir, I will say no more. What specific response shall I take to King Aillas?"
"You may tell him that Faude Carfilhiot, Duke of Vale Evander, reacts negatively to his proposals. In his forthcoming war with King Casmir I consider myself neutral."
"I will relay to him these exact words."
Shimrod spoke. "And my requests?"
Carfilhiot's eyes seemed to show a yellow light. "Like Sir Glide you offer me nothing and expect all. I cannot oblige you."
Sir Glide performed the minimal bow required by chivalric protocol. "Our thanks, at least, for your attention."
"If you hoped to arouse my deep antipathy, you have succeeded," said Carfilhiot. "Otherwise, the occasion has been time wasted.
This way, if you please." He ushered the two past the aviary, where Mad King Deuel hopped forward with an urgent new complaint, and into the lower hall, where Carfilhiot summoned his chamberlain. "Conduct these gentlemen to their horses." He turned to face the two. "I bid you farewell. My parole guards you while you pass down the valley. Should you return I will consider you hostile interlopers."
Shimrod said: "A final word with you."
"As you wish."
"Let us step outside; what I have to say to you sounds sickly and muffled inside your hall."
Carfilhiot ushered Shimrod out upon the terrace. "Speak then."
They stood in the full light of afternoon.
"I am a magician of the eleventh level," said Shimrod. "When you robbed me at Trilda you diverted me from my studies. Now they will resume. How will you protect yourself against me?"
"Would you dare pit yourself against Tamurello?"
"He will not protect you against me. He stands in fear of Murgen."
"I am secure."
"Not so. At Trilda you committed the provocation; I am allowed my revenge. That is the law."
Carfilhiot's mouth drooped. "It does not apply."
"No? Who protected Rughalt when his body burned from inside out?
Who will protect you? Tamurello? Ask him. He will give you assurances, but their falsity will be easy to detect. One last time: give me my possessions and my two children."
"I submit to no man's orders."
Shimrod turned away. He crossed the terrace and mounted his horse.
The two emissaries rode down the zig-zag way, past the gantry and the four taut men from Femus Castle, and so down the road toward Ys.
A band of fifteen ragged mendicants straggled south along the Ulf Passway. Some walked hunched; others hopped on crippled legs; others wore bandages stained by festering sores. Approaching the fortress at Kaul Bocach, they noted the soldiers on guard and shambled forward at best speed, groaning p-teously and demanding alms. The soldiers drew back in distaste and passed the group through quickly.
Once beyond the fort the mendicants recovered their health. They straightened, discarded bandages and hobbled no more. In a forest a mile from the fortress they brought axes from under their garments, cut poles and built four long ladders.
The afternoon passed. At dusk another group approached Kaul Bocach: this time a troupe of vagabond entertainers. They made camp in front of the fort, broached a keg of wine, set meat to cooking on spits and presently began to play music while six comely maidens danced jigs in the firelight.
The soldiers of the fort went to watch the merriment and to call out compliments to the maidens. Meanwhile the first group returned in stealth. They raised their ladders, climbed unseen and unheard to the parapets.
Quickly and quietly they knifed a pair of luckless guards whose attention had been fixed on the dancing, then descended to the wardroom, where they killed several more soldiers at rest on their pallets, then leapt upon the backs of those who watched the entertainment. The performance came to an instant halt. The entertainers joined the fight and in three minutes the forces of South Ulfland once more controlled the fortress at Kaul Bocach.
The commander and four survivors were sent south with a message: CASMIR, KING OF LYONESSE: TAKE NOTE!
The fortress Kaul Bocach is once more ours, and the interlopers from Lyonesse have been killed and expelled. Neither trickery nor all the valor of Lyonesse will again take Kaul Bocach from us.
Enter South Ulfland at your peril! Do you wish to test your armies against our Ulfish might? Come by way of Poelitetz; you will find it safer and easier.
I sign myself Goles of Cleadstone Castle, Captain of the Ulf armies At Kaul Bocach.
The night was dark and moonless; around Tintzin Fyral the mountains bulked black against the stars. In his high tower Carfilhiot sat brooding. His attitude suggested impatience, as if he were waiting for some signal or occurrence which had failed to show itself. At last he jumped to his feet and went to his workroom. On the wall hung a circular frame something less than a foot in diameter, surrounding a gray membrane. Carfilhiot plucked at the center of the membrane, to draw out a button of substance which grew rapidly under his hand to become a nose of first vulgar, then extremely large size: a great red hooked member with flaring hairy nostrils.
Carfilhiot gave a hiss of exasperation; tonight the sandestin was restless and frolicsome. He seized the great red nose, twisted and kneaded it to the form of a crude and lumpy ear, which squirmed under his fingers to become a lank green foot. Carfilhiot used both hands to cope with the object and again produced an ear, into which he uttered a sharp command: "Hear! Listen and hear! Speak my words to Tamurello at Faroli. Tamurello, do you hear? Tamurello, make response!"
The ear altered to become an ear of ordinary configuration. To the side a nubbin twisted and curled to form a mouth, shaped precisely like Tamurello's own mouth. The organ spoke, in Tamurello's voice:
"Faude, I am here. Sandestin, show a face."
The membrane coiled and twisted, to become Tamurello's face, save for the nose, where the sandestin, from carelessness, or perhaps caprice, placed the ear it had already created.
Carfilhiot spoke earnestly: "Events are fast in progress! Troice armies have landed at Ys and the Troice king now calls himself King of South Ulfland. The barons have not stayed him, and I am isolated."
Tamurello made a reflective sound. "Interesting."
"More than interesting!" cried Carfilhiot. "Today two emissaries came to me. The first ordered that I surrender myself to the new king. He uttered no compliments and no guarantees, which I regard as a sinister sign. Naturally I refused to do this."
"Unwise! You should have declared yourself a loyal vassal, but far too ill either to receive visitors or come down from your castle, thereby offering neither challenge nor pretext."
"I obey no man's bidding," said Carfilhiot fretfully.
Tamurello made no comment. Carfilhiot went on. "The second emissary was Shimrod."
"Shimrod!"
"Indeed. He came in company with the first, skulking in the shadows like a ghost, then springing forth to demand his two children and his magic stuff. Again I gave refusal."
"Unwise, unwise! You must learn the art of graceful acquiescence, when it becomes a useful option. The children are useless to you, as are Shimrod's stuffs. You might have ensured his neutrality!"
"Bah," said Carfilhiot. "He is a trifle compared to you—whom, incidentally, he maligned and scorned."
"In what wise?"
"He said that you were undependable, that your word was not true and that you would not secure me from harm. I laughed at him."
"Yes, just so," said Tamurello in an abstracted voice. "Still, what can Shimrod do against you?"
"He can visit an awful magic upon me."
"So to violate the edict? Never. Are you not the thing of Desmei?
Are you not possessed of magical apparatus? Thereby you become a magician."
"The magic is locked in a puzzle! It is useless!" Murgen may not be convinced. After all, the apparatus was stolen from Shimrod, which must be regarded as provocation of one magician by another."
Tamurello chuckled. "But remember this! At that time you lacked magical implements and so were a layman."
"The argument seems strained."
"It is logic; no more, no less."
Carfilhiot was still dubious. "I kidnapped his children, which again could be construed as 'incitement.'"
Tamurello's response, even transmitted through the lips of the sandestin, seemed rather dry. "In that case, return Shimrod his children and his goods."
Carfilhiot said coldly: "I now regard the children as hostages to guarantee my own safety. As for the magical stuffs, would you prefer that I use them in tandem with you, or that Shimrod use them to support Murgen? Remember, that was our original concept."
Tamurello sighed. "It is the dilemma reduced to its starkest terms
" he admitted. "On this basis, if no other, I must support you.
Still, under no circumstances may the children be harmed, since the chain of events would at the end certainly confront me with Murgen's fury."
Carfilhiot spoke in his usual airy tones. "I suspect that you exaggerate their significance."
"Nevertheless you must obey!"
Carfilhiot shrugged. "Oh I shall humor your whims, right enough."
The sandestin precisely reproduced Tamurello's small tremulous laugh. "Call them what you like."
Chapter 31
WITH THE COMING OF DAYLIGHT the Ulf army, still a mutually suspicious set of small companies, struck camp and mustered in the meadow before Cleadstone Castle: two thousand knights and men-atarms.
There they were shaped into a coherent force by Sir Fentaral of Graycastle who, of all the barons, was most generally respected. The army then set off across the moors.
Late the following day they established themselves on that ridge overlooking Tintzin Fyral from which the Ska had previously attempted an assault.
Meanwhile, the Troice army moved up the vale, encountering only incurious stares from the inhabitants. The valley seemed almost uncanny in its stillness.
Late in the day the army arrived at the village Sarquin, within view of Tintzin Fyral. At the behest of Aillas, elders of the town came to a colloquy. Aillas introduced himself and defined his goals. "Now I wish to establish a fact. Speak in candor; the truth will not hurt you. Are you antagonistic to Carfilhiot, or neutral, or do you support him?"
The elders muttered among themselves and looked over their shoulders toward Tintzin Fyral. One said: "Carfilhiot is a manwitch.
It is best that we take no stance in the matter. You are able to strike off our heads if we displease you; Carfilhiot can do worse when you are gone."
Aillas laughed. "You overlook the reason for our presence. When we leave Carfilhiot will be dead."
"Yes, yes; others have said the same. They are gone; Carfilhiot remains. Even the Ska failed so much as to trouble him."
"I remember the occasion well," said Aillas. "The Ska retired because of an approaching army."
"That is true; Carfilhiot mobilized the valley against them.
"We prefer Carfilhiot, who is a known if erratic evil, to the Ska, who are more thorough."
"This time there will be no army to succor Carfilhiot: not from north or south or east or west will help come."
The elders again muttered among themselves. Then: "Let us suppose that Carfilhiot falls, what then?"
"Yoy will know a just and even rule; I assure you of this."
The elder pulled at his beard. "It makes good hearing," he admitted; then, after a glance at his fellows, he said: "The situation is of this nature. We are staunchly faithful to Carfilhiot, but you have terrified us to the point of panic, and therefore we must do your bidding, despite our inclinations, if Carfilhiot ever should ask."
"So be it. What, then, can you tell us of Carfilhiot's strength?"
"Recently he has augmented his castle guard, with wolf-heads and cutthroats. They will fight to the death because they can expect nothing better elsewhere. Carfilhiot forbids them to molest the folk of the valley. Still, girls often disappear and are never again heard from; and they are permitted to take women from the moors, and they also practice indescribable vices among themselves, or so it is said."
"What is their present number?" "I guess between three and four hundred."
"That is not a large force."
"So much the better for Carfilhiot. He needs only ten men to hold off your entire army; the others are extra mouths to feed. And beware Carfilhiot's tricks! It is said that he uses magic to his advantage, and he is an expert at his ambushes."
"How so? In what fashion?"
"Notice yonder: bluffs extend into the valley, with little more than an arrow-flight between. They are riddled with tunnels; were you to march past a hail of arrows would strike down and in one minute you would lose a thousand men."
"Just so, if we were rash enough to march under the bluffs. What else can you tell us?"
"There is little else to tell. If you are captured you will sit a high pole until your flesh rots away in rags. That is how Carfilhiot pays off his enemies."
"Gentlemen, you may go. I thank you for your advice."
"Remember, I spoke only in a hysteria of fear!"
That will be the way of it."
Aillas marched his army another half-mile. The Ulf army occupied the heights behind Tintzin Fyral. No word had yet arrived from the force which had set out to take Kaul Bocach; presumably it had succeeded.
The exits and entrances to Tintzin Fyral were sealed. Carfilhiot must now trust his life to the impregnability of his castle.
In the morning a herald carrying a white flag rode up the valley.
He halted before the gate and cried out: "Who will hear me? I bring a message for Sir Faude Carfilhiot!"
On top the wall stepped the captain of the guard, wearing Carfilhiot's black and lavender: a massive man with gray hair flowing back on the wind. He cried out in booming tones: "Who brings messages to Sir Faude?"
The herald stepped forward. "The armies of Troicinet and South Ulfland surround the castle. They are led by Aillas, King of Troicinet and South Ulfland. Will you convey the message I bring, or will the miscreant descend to hear with his own ears and answer with his own tongue?"
"I will convey your message."
"Tell Faude Carfilhiot that, by order of the king, his rule at Tintzin Fyral is ended, and that he remains in occupation as an outlaw, without franchise from his king. Tell him that his crimes are notorious and bring great shame to him and his henchmen, and that a requital is forthcoming. Tell him that he may ameliorate his fate by surrendering at this instant. Tell him further that Ulf troops control Kaul Bocach, to bar the armies of Lyonesse from Ulfland, so that he may expect no succor from King Casmir, nor anyone else."
