Part 28 (2/2)
”I bet he does. s.h.i.+t. Oh, s.h.i.+t. He's going to be sorry for this,” Otto said, looking around, walking slowly, breathing hard from his sprint. Prince Gaston, wearing a chain-mail s.h.i.+rt (maybe he really did sleep in his armor, Otto thought) and leather pants, bareheaded and highbooted and holding 250.
-Efiza&etfi Chanteuse du Mort naked in his hand, was coming, giving orders to men who hovered at his side long enough to listen and say, ”Yes, sir,” and rushed away into the camp.
Otto and Captain Jolly went to him.
Prince Gaston looked at Otto, lifted his eyebrows.
”Prospero's escaped,” Otto said.
The Marshal's face smoothed and then tightened. He slipped the sword into its scabbard. His lips thinned; he turned and stared in the direction in which Prospero's horse was last seen travelling. ”Ah,” he said.
”Why did you let Dewar near him?” Otto yelled. ”What in freezing heil were you thinking of?”
Jolly inhaled sharply beside Otto.
Prince Gaston flicked his eyes at his captain, who bowed and began to move away. ”Get a horse,” Gaston said. ”Follow Prince Herne. Thou understand'st my will.”
”Do my best, sir.” Captain Jolly, like the others, ran off to carry out his Prince's orders.
”No better can we,” Gaston said, a little bitterly.
”What were you thinking of?” Otto demanded. ”You knew, I knew, what - ”
”Quiet.” The Fireduke's hand gripped his shoulder, warm through the thin s.h.i.+rt, and the Fireduke's eyes finally drilled through Otto's outrage and held his attention.
”Sir,” Otto said, through clenched teeth, ”if I may - ”
”Nephew,” said Prince Gaston, ”come with me.”
Otto blinked. The Marshal had never referred to him that way.
”Come.” Prince Gaston took his elbow and led him away. ”Jolly will run them down,” he said to a man who approached him - Captain Addis.
”The Duke of Winds has escaped!” said the Captain.
”Prince Herne rides after him,” said Prince Gaston. ”We shall bide here, rather than panic.” He said panic contemptuously; Captain Addis reddened, saluted, muttered an acknowledgement, and backed away.
Otto and Gaston walked through the buzzing camp. As they went, the Prince Marshal spoke to a few men, here and there, just a word or two, and the place settled in the wake Sorcerer and a QentUman 251.
of his pa.s.sing. Ottaviano admired his command of the men; they had absolute faith in the Fireduke, and he apparently had equal faith in them.
Prince Gaston's squires were awake, waiting in the outer part of his tent with an oil lamp and the Fireduke's plate armor, talking as they cleaned it. It was clean, but Gaston frowned on idle squires. Their labor and chatter halted as he entered with Otto behind him, jumping to their feet and looking expectantly at their master.
”Go back to bed,” Prince Gaston said to them gently. ”There's naught ye may do.”
”Yes, sir,” they said in muted, chiming adolescent voices, and one left the tent as the other returned to his bedroll on the ground.
The Prince took the lit lamp and ushered Otto into the inner tent.
”Sit,” he said.
Otto took a camp chair. His host poured wine for them both and sat down on the other side of the table. ”Thou think'st I was lax,” Prince Gaston said.
”I'm not too clear on what happened,” Otto admitted, looking down. ”I, uh, shot my mouth off perhaps prematurely-”
”Dewar came to me,” Prince Gaston looked at a small traveller's hourgla.s.s in a polished bra.s.s case, ”three-quarters of an hour past. He desired to speak briefly with Prince Prospero. I consented and escorted him there. Prince Pros-pero received him; I gave them a quarter of an hour and returned here.” He paused, studying Otto, and continued in a lower voice. ”I take it thy Bounds were not impervious to attack.”
”If I'd thought they were going to be tested from the outside, as well as from within, I'd have made them differently,” Otto said, biting his lip. He realized that he did not look very good now, himself. ”I didn't expect Dewar to turn coat. After all his claims of loyalty-”
”Meseems a man who hath daily stated that he is here on whim, cannot be considered to have turned coat,” the Marshal said.
252.
'Wittey ”But you trusted him alone with Prince Prospero-”
”I'd no cause to deny him privy speech with the Prince. But a few hours past Prince Herne visited; they quarrelled, as ever.”
”You're blind, Your Highness,” Ottaviano said, thumping his hand lightly on the table. ”You saw the way Dewar hung back today! Prospero might have bought him off against just such an event.” He said this, but he didn't believe it. Dewar's notions of honor and ethics were too nice, too otherworldly-idealistic, to allow him to play the double agent. Otto's own notional ethics held him back from speaking of Dewar's geas: it was the sort of confidence a gentleman would not betray, and telling Gaston of it now-too late to use the knowledge-would be useless.
” Tis possible,” Prince Gaston said slowly. ”In that case I would expect Dewar to have confined him, however, thereby to leave a flaw in the binding.”
Otto nodded and tasted his wine, then put it aside. His good work, undone; his sorcery, exposed-the stuff might have been water. He said wearily, ”Prince Gaston, why did you let him in there?”
Gaston scrutinized his nephew's sharp, stubbled face for a full minute and then said, ”To spare Prospero's life, nephew.”
”To what?” whispered Otto.
Prince Gaston continued studying him.
”Save his life? After what he's done-”
”What hath he done?”
”Made war on the Emperor-”
”His war hath been judged just by many,” Gaston said.
”Your Emperor!”
”My Landuc,” Prince Gaston corrected him. ”Baron, th'art an intelligent man, and I think thee not without perception. Suppose Prospero, in a few days' time, be delivered up to th' Emperor, and th' Emperor then execute him; hath said 'a would. What followeth?”
Ottaviano frowned a little. ”Peace.”
”Think beyond this war.”
Ottaviano thought further. ”Anyone the Emperor Sorcerer and a Qentieman 253.
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