Part 47 (2/2)
”And didst think thou wouldst live after.”
394.
'Wittey Otto said nothing.
”Fool.”
”I tried to get her away,” he whispered. ”Golias took her from Perendlac. He and Neyphile did. To Chasoulis. Tried to get her from there.”
”Am I to believe thee?”
”Ask her.”
”So shall I, when I find her, be a.s.sured. And what moved thee to do thus? Greed again? Folly on folly? Love of treason? Meseems thou hast a taste for't.”
”Wanted to get her back to you. Away from Golias.”
”What didst think to gain from me for the restoration of mine own flesh and blood's freedom, first stolen by thyself?”
Otto licked his lips.
”Tell me,” Prospero suggested.
The sword moved a fraction more. A red bead welled up under its tip.
”Favor,” Otto whispered drily.
”Favor? From me? Such flattery! What sort?”
”Indeterminate. Later.”
Prospero moved the sword again. ”Having kidnapped my daughter, thou didst hope to win some favor from me in return by returning her. Belike I be not the most diligent of fathers, Ottaviano of Ascolet, but I am a pa.s.sionate one. My daughter's welfare is of perfervid import to me. I a.s.sure thee I'd have no favor for thee but a curse, and that hast thou a.s.siduously earned.”
Otto remained still. He had little choice. He was tightly tied to a tree.
”Now,” Prospero said, ”hast given me great heartache and balmed it little with the tidings that my daughter languishes still in Landuc somewhere. I shall find her anon. I shall reward thee for thy help when I do.”
The sword was wiped on Otto's shoulders, a parody of knighthood, then flashed back and away. Otto did not allow himself to relax.
”Farewell, fool,” said Prospero.
His black, silent horse stepped up to him. He sheathed the Sorcerer and a Qentteman 395.
stained sword and mounted in a swirl of deep blue silk-and-wool. A gust of wind followed his pa.s.sing.
The girl would not talk.
Prince Gaston had questions for her, but he deemed it wiser to respect her silence than to break it forcibly, and while she was conveyed to the Palace of Landuc in soft-bedded litters and carriages he took no offense at her dumbness. Distrustful, he kept Golias far from her after the former's gracelessly-tendered swordpoint surrender. The Emperor, counselled by Prince Herne and Count Pallgrave, directed him to accept the surrender and Golias's lame excuses and repentance, and the Marshal did so without confidence in Golias's good faith-so little that he removed him from command and paid off and discharged his mercenaries. Herne hired most of them, replacing men dead in Pros-pero's war.
The Fireduke took charge of the girl, nursemaiding her, bringing her meals, talking to her quietly. He bathed her after she was first carried, insensible, from Chasoulis, and held her immobile while his chief army surgeon Gernan treated her. Gernan took the tiniest possible st.i.tches to close the deep wound in her breast, saying that men's scars were maids' mars. The catalogue of her injuries was long. Gaston the man shuddered over it; Gaston the Prince Marshal observed it as evidence of what Baron Ottaviano and Prince Golias were capable of; and Gaston the Fireduke knew that such insults would not go unanswered.
When she had been installed in heavily guarded and Bounded rooms in Landuc, the Emperor had many questions for the prisoner. She ignored him, at first lying in bed, then sitting up, then in a chair, staring at her hands, or at nothing, or turning her head away with eyes closed.
Gaston slept in a room adjoining hers, broke fast with her, looked in on her during the day, bade her good-night each evening. When she moaned and cried out wordlessly with night terrors, waking him, he carried light to her, soothed her with soft-spoken rea.s.surances, and sat beside 396.
”EtizaBetfi the bed until she slept again. With his own hands he collected and poached eggs to strengthen her starved weakness, and he prepared and fed her bread in warm creamy milk, caudles, possets, and broths. As she improved, he brought her stronger fare - pigeons from the Empress's dovecote braised in wine, hothouse grapes, baked apples with cream, and capons cooked in bouillon. Her food disagreed with her as often as not, and she would be sick not long after eating; Gaston would empty the basin and fetch her another meal.
On successive consultative visits, Doctor Hem, whom the Empress had sent as a courtesy, recommended mud-plasters, then frog's-leg soup, then bleeding and purges, and finally a decoction of snails, until Gaston forbade him to darken the doorway again. The Bounds laid by Oriana, a favor she had offered gratis to the Emperor as, she had indicated, payment to Prospero for some trespa.s.s, permitted entry to Prince Gaston and the Emperor and no other, and they prevented the girl from leaving the room, yet Gas-ton still had misgivings about her safety - hence his dedication to her comfort and his attendance on her person. Daily the Fireduke thought of Prospero, ripping apart Chasoulis to find her - where was he now? Why had he made his Way and left? Did he think her dead, or did he abandon her?
It was unclear who had stabbed her, an injury clearly intended to be fatal. Prince Gaston questioned Golias, who denied it, and Ottaviano, who denied it red-faced, and since no witness came forward and the sorceress Neyphile had fled the place, the deed was laid to Neyphile's hand by the Emperor, who did not deeply concern himself over the matter. The Baron of Ascolet had a confused story of seeking the girl in the dungeons and seeing Neyphile leaving through a Way, and they had found the place as he described it; Golias had been here, there, everywhere in the place; and the girl herself made no accusation. Yet Prince Gaston could not help but form an opinion: he had seen Ottaviano close by her; the boy had behaved guiltily when queried; he would gain from her a.s.sured silence.
She had as much to say to Gaston as to the Emperor. It struck him as remarkable that no one knew her name. She Sorcerer and a Qentteman 397.
would not tell it. Not a word had pa.s.sed her lips since she had asked him to kill her, and Ottaviano had admitted she would say nothing to him when he'd questioned her in Perendlac. Gaston admired her stoicism: she would not weep, no more than she would speak; no tears slid down her pale cheeks when he cleaned and bandaged her wounds, when he sat with her at night, when the Emperor berated her. The Fireduke understood her need for self-command and defended it against the Emperor's displeasure.
”Sullen brat. She ought to be whipped or starved,” the Emperor growled, glaring at the girl after an interview with silence.
”So hath she been,” Gaston said, ”by Golias,” and he looked at the Emperor coldly.
”Prince Gaston, we find you are tending to thwart our wishes,” the Emperor said softly.
”Avril,” said Gaston, ”our niece is weakened and ill. Would you be a greater Golias, a jackal that savages the helpless, or be a king? For myself, I am a Prince, and thus I comport myself; and my niece is a Prince's daughter, and thus shall she be hosted.”
The Emperor whitened, furious at the disrespect in the presence of an intransigent chit. But he left at once, and Gaston heard no more of the idea.
That evening, before bidding her good-night in the tapestried chamber with its crimson-curtained bed and black-barred windows, Gaston knelt by her chair. He had just mended the fire and pale young flames s.h.i.+mmered in the mouth of the sooted red-tiled fireplace.
”Child,” he said, ”an thou have need of aught, mayst ask me for't.”
She did not look at him.
”An there be questions thou wouldst have answered, put them to me . . .”
Her eyes were on the fire.
”. . . in confidence,” Gaston finished softly. ”I'll answer what I can.”
She said nothing, arms folded tightly.
”If not now, then later. When thou wilt.” He looked at 398.
'Elizabeth <wittey sorcerer=”” and=”” a=”” ^entieman=””></wittey>< p=””>
her-purple-y el low-green shadows still lay on her skin, bruises fading-and said, ”Hast suffered sore, and I swear to thee, la.s.s, an it lie in my power to turn harm from thee, thou shatt take no more hurt from any man. Th'art under my protection, and that shall I cause to be known.1'
Her lower lip moved; she bit it, but her expression did not change and she did not speak.
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