Jack Vance - MADOUC

From the castle came King Casmir and Aillas, both showing faces of conventional impassivity.

Aillas spoke to Dhrun: "The wind seems to be shifting toward the south, and we had best gain sea room before conditions worsen."

"It is a pity we must go so soon," said Dhrun.

"True! Still, that is the way of it. I have invited King Casmir, along with Queen Sollace and the princess, to spend a week with us at Watershade later this summer."

"That would be a pleasant occasion!" said Dhrun. "Watershade would be at its best! I hope that Your Majesty will decide to visit us. It is not too irksome a trip!"

"It would be my great pleasure, if the press of affairs permits," said King Casmir. "I see that the carriage awaits; I will make my farewells here and now."

"That is quite in order," said Aillas. "Goodbye, Madouc." He kissed her cheek.

"Goodbye! I am sorry that you are going so soon!"

Dhrun bent to kiss Madouc's cheek, and said, "Goodbye. We will see you again before long, perhaps at Watershade!"

"I hope so."

Dhrun turned away and followed Aillas down the stone steps to the road, where the carriage awaited them.

V

King Casmir stood by the window of his private parlour, legs apart, hands clasped behind his back. The Troice flotilla had departed and was gone beyond the eastern headlands; the Lir stretched blank and wide before him. Casmir muttered soft words under his breath and turned away from the window. Hands still clasped behind his back, he paced back and forth across the room, slow step after slow step, head bent forward so that his beard brushed his chest.

Queen Sollace entered the parlour. She halted and stood watching King Casmir's ponderous travels. Casmir darted her an ice-blue glance sidewise from under his eyebrows, and continued to pace in silence. With nostrils haughtily pinched, Queen Sollace marched across the room to the couch and seated herself. King Casmir at last halted. He spoke, as much to himself as to Sollace. "It cannot be brushed aside. Once again my progress is checked and my great effort thwarted-by the same agency and for the same reasons. The facts are blunt. I must accept them."

"Indeed?" asked Sollace. "What are these ugly facts which cause you such distress?"

"They concern my plans for Blaloc," grumbled Casmir. "I cannot intervene without bringing Aillas and his Troice warships down around my ears. Thereupon that fat jackal Audry would be sure to turn on me, and I cannot withstand so many blows from so many directions."

"Perhaps you should adopt a different plan," said Queen Sollace brightly. "Or you might make do with no plan at all."

"Ha!" barked Casmir. "So it might seem! King Aillas talks softly and with great politeness; he has the uncomfortable skill of calling one a false-hearted blackguard, a liar, a cheat and a villain, but making it seem a compliment."

Queen Sollace shook her head in bewilderment. "I am surprised! I thought King Aillas and Prince Dhrun had come to pay a courtesy call."

"That was not his only reason-I assure you of that!"

Queen Sollace sighed. "King Aillas has achieved his own great successes; why cannot he be more tolerant of your hopes and dreams? There must be an element of jealousy at work."

Casmir nodded curtly. "There is no love lost between us, that is fact. Still, he only acts as he must. He knows my ultimate goal as well as I know it myself!"

"But it is a glorious goal!" bleated Queen Sollace. "To unite the Elder Isles once again, as of old: that is a noble dream! It would surely give impetus to our holy faith! Think! One day Father Umphred might be Archbishop over all the Elder Isles!"

King Casmir spoke in disgust: "Once again you have been listening to that clabber-faced priest. He has cozened you into your cathedral; let that suffice."

Queen Sollace raised her moist gaze to the ceiling. She spoke in long-suffering tones: "No matter what else, please realize that my prayers are dedicated to your success. You must surely win in the end!"

"I wish it were so easy." King Casmir flung himself heavily into a chair. "All is not lost. I am checked in Blaloc, but there are always two ways around the barn!"

"Your meaning escapes me."

"I will give new instructions to my agents. There will be no more disorder. When King Milo dies, Brezante will be king. We will give him Madouc in marriage, and by this means join our houses."

Queen Sollace made an objection. "Brezante is already wed! He married Glodwyn of Bor!"

"She was frail, young and sickly, and she died in childbirth. Brezante is notably uxorious, and he will be quite ready for new nuptials."

Queen Sollace said mournfully: "Poor little Glodwyn! She was barely more than a child; it is said she never gave over her homesickness."

Casmir shrugged. "Still and all, it might well work to our advantage. King Milo is as good as dead. Brezante is a bit dull, a factor favorable to our cause. We must make occasion for his visit."

Sollace said doubtfully: "Brezante is not altogether gallant, nor is he handsome, or even dashing. His penchant for young maidens is notorious."

"Bah! Old or young, what of that? The business is all cut from the same cloth! Kings are above small-minded scandal."

Queen Sollace sniffed. "And queens as well, no doubt!" Casmir, staring thoughtfully across the room, ignored the remark.

"One matter further," said Sollace. "I refer to Madouc. She is difficult in matters of this sort."

"She will obey because she must," said Casmir. "It is I who am king, not Madouc."

"Aha! But it is Madouc who is Madouc!"

"We cannot make bread without flour. Scrawny red-headed little whelp she may be: still she must yield to my command."

"She is not ugly," said Queen Sollace. "Her time has come, and she is developing-slowly, of course, and with little to show for the effort. She will never boast a fashionable figure, such as mine."

"It will be enough to affect Brezante." He slapped his hands decisively on the arms of the chair. "I am prepared to act with expedition."

"Your policy is no doubt wise," said Queen Sollace. "Still-"

"Still what?"

"Nothing of consequence."

King Casmir acted without delay. Three couriers rode off from Haidion into the evening: the first to Fort Mael, ordering a return to routine conditions; the second to a high-placed agent in Twissamy; the third to King Milo, wishing him health, deploring the ruffians who flouted royal authority, and inviting King Milo and Prince Brezante to Haidion for a gala visit. Or Prince Brezante alone, if King Milo's health made such a visit impractical.

A few days later the couriers returned. From Fort Mael and the agent in Twissamy came simple acknowledgments that Casmir's orders had been received and would be acted upon. From King Milo came a dispatch of greater interest. King Milo thanked King Casmir for his kindly wishes and fraternal support. Next he announced his return to jovial good health and described how the change had come about. In a passage of some length he described the circumstances. It seemed that one day, just prior to his dinner, a sudden desperate spasm came upon him. Instead of his usual regimen: one quail egg and half a gill of buttermilk, he commanded a joint of roast beef with horse radish and suet pudding, a suckling pig fresh from the spit surrounded by roast cinnamon apples, a pot of pigeon stew and three gallons of good red wine. For his supper he took a more moderate repast of four roast fowl, a pork and onion pie, a salmon and a number of sausages, along with sufficient wine to assist in digestion. After a night's sound sleep, he breakfasted on fried flounder, three dozen oysters, a raisin cake, a cassoulet of broad beans and ham for a savory, and a tankard or two of a particularly fine white wine. It was this return to a sound and wholesome diet, declared King Milo, which had renewed his strength; he now felt as good as new, if not better. Therefore, wrote King Milo, he and the recently bereaved Prince Brezante would be delighted to accept King Casmir's invitation. Neither he nor Brezante would be reluctant to discuss the topic at which King Casmir had hinted. He endorsed King Casmir's suggestion that an era of friendlier relations between their two realms was about to be initiated.