"The land is mine by right of lineage and now by force of conquest. Both are valid entitlements."
Tamurello made a sign. "In peaceful Vale Evander, Sir Faude Carfilhiot maintains a popular rule. Conquer elsewhere, but stay your hand here. Carfilhiot is my friend and ally. Call away your armies, or I must exert my magic against you."
Shimrod spoke. "Desist, before you cause yourself embarrassment. I am Shimrod. I need speak a single word to summon Murgen. I was forbidden to do so unless you made prior interference. Since you have done so I now call on Murgen to intercede. "
A flash of blue flame illuminated the mountain-top; Murgen stepped forward. "Tamurello, you violate my edict."
"I protect one dear to me."
"You may not do so in this case; you have played a wicked game, and I tremble with the urge to destroy you at this moment."
Tamurello's eyes seemed to glare with black radiance - He took a step forward. "Do you dare such threats to me, Murgen? You are senile and flaccid; you cringe at imaginary fears. Meanwhile I wax in strength!"
Murgen seemed to smile. "I will cite first, the Wastes of Falax; second, the Flesh Cape of Miscus; third, the Totness Squalings. Reflect; then go your way, and be grateful for my restraint."
"What of Shimrod? He is your creature!"
"No longer. In any event, the offense was engendered by you. It is his right to restore the equipoise. Your deeds were not overt, and I punish you thus: return to Faroli; do not in any guise venture from its precincts for five years, on pain of expunction."
Tamurello made a wild gesture, and disappeared in a whirl of smoke, which became a crepuscule drifting eastward with speed.
Aillas turned to Murgen. "Can you help us further? I would hope not to risk the lives of honest men, nor yet my son."
"Your wishes do you credit. But I am bound by my own edict. No more than Tamurello may I interfere for those whom I love. I walk a narrow way, with a dozen eyes judging my conduct." He laid his hand on Shimrod's head. "Already you have altered from my concepts."
"I am as much Dr. Fidelius the mountebank as I am Shimrod the magician."
Murgen, smiling, drew back. The blue flame in which he had arrived came into being and enveloped him; he was gone. On the ground where he had stood remained a small object. Shimrod picked it up.
Aillas asked: "What is it?"
"A spool. It is wound with a fine thread."
"To what purpose?"
Shimrod tested the cord. "It is very strong."
Carfilhiot stood in his workroom, shuddering to the shock and thud of boulders striking down from the sky. The circular frame altered to become the face of Tamurello, mottled and distorted with emotion. "Faude, I have been thwarted; I may not intercede for you."
"But they destroy the fabric of my castle! And next they will tear me to pieces!"
Tamurello's silence hung more heavy in the air than words.
After a moment Carfilhiot spoke on in a voice breathless, soft and exalted with emotion: "So great a loss and then my death—is it tolerable to you, who so often have declared your love? I cannot believe it!"
"It is not tolerable, but love can not melt mountains. All reasonable things, and more, will I do. So now, make yourself ready! I will bring you here at Faroli."
Carfilhiot cried out in a piteous voice: "My wonderful castle? I will never leave! You must drive them away!"
Tamurello made a sad sound. "Take flight, or give surrender: which will you do?"
"Neither! I trust you! In the name of our love, help me!"
Tamurello's voice became practical. "For best terms, surrender now. The worse you hurt them, the harder will be your fate."
His face receded into the gray membrane, which now snapped away from the frame and disappeared, leaving only the beech-wood backing-panel. Carfilhiot cursed and dashed the frame to the floor.
He descended to the floor below and walked back and forth with hands clasped behind his back. He turned and called to his servant. "The two children: bring them here at once!"
On top of Tac Tor the captain of the engineers suddenly leapt in front of the catapults. "Hold your fire!"
Aillas came forward. "What goes on?"
"Look!" The captain pointed. "They have put someone up on what is left of the roof."
Shimrod said: "There are two: Glyneth and Dhrun!"
Aillas, looking across the gulf, for the first time saw his son. Shimrod, beside him, said: "He is a handsome boy, and strong and brave as well. You will be proud of him."
"But how to make rescue? They are at Carfilhiot's mercy. He has canceled our catapults; Tintzin Fyral is once more invulnerable."
Glyneth and Dhrun, dirty, bewildered, unhappy and frightened, were seized from the room where they had been confined and ordered up the spiral staircase. As they climbed they became aware of a recurrent impact which sent vibrations down the stone walls of the tower. Glyneth stopped to rest, and the servant made urgent gestures. "Quick! Sir Faude is in haste!"
"What is happening?" Glyneth asked.
"The castle is under attack; that is all I know. Come now; there is no time to waste!"
The two were thrust into a parlor; Carfilhiot paused in his pacing to survey them. His easy elegance was absent; he seemed disheveled and distraught. "Come this way! At last you will be of use to me."
Glyneth and Dhrun recoiled before him; he urged them up the staircase, into the upper levels of the tower. Above a boulder plunged down through the broken roof to batter at the far wall. "Quick now! Up with you!" Carfilhiot shoved them up the sagging and broken staircase, out into afternoon sunlight, where they stood cowering in expectation of another projectile.
Dhrun cried out: "Look to the mountain yonder!"
"That's Shimrod up there!" cried Glyneth. "He's come to rescue us!" She waved her arms. "Here we are! Come get us!" The roof groaned as a beam gave way and the staircase sagged. "Hurry!" cried Glyneth. "The roof is falling under us!"
"This way," said Dhrun. He led Glyneth close to the broken battlements, and the two gazed in fascinated hope across the chasm.
Shimrod came to the edge of the cliff. He held a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. He gave them to an archer.
Glyneth and Dhrun watched him in wonder. "He's trying to signal us," said Glyneth. "I wonder what he wants us to do?"
"The archer is going to shoot the arrow; he's telling us to be careful."
"But why shoot an arrow?"
The line from Murgen's spool, so fine as almost to float in the air, could not be broken by the strength of human arms. Shimrod carefully laid the thread along the ground, back and forth in ten-foot bights, so that it might extend freely. He held up bow and arrow so that the two wistful figures, so near and yet so far, might divine his purpose, then tied an end of the thread to the arrow.
Shimrod turned to Cargus. "Can you flight this arrow over the tower?"
Cargus fitted arrow to bow. "If I fail, pull back the cord and let a better man make the attempt!"
He drew back the arrow to arch the bow, raised it so that the arrow might fly its farthest course, and released. High through the sky, down and over the roof of Tintzin Fyral, flew the arrow, the thread floating behind. Glyneth and Dhrun ran to catch the thread. At Shimrod's signal they tied it to a sound merlon at the far side of the roof. At once the thread thickened, to become a cable of braided fibers two inches in diameter. On Tac Tor a squad of men, putting their shoulders to the rope, pulled up the slack and drew it taut.
In the parlor three floors below, Carfilhiot sat glumly, but relieved that he had so ingeniously halted the barrage. What next? All was in flux; conditions must change. He would exercise his keenest ingenuity, his best talents for agile improvisation, that from this dreary situation he might salvage the most and best for himself. But, despite all, a dismal conviction began to ease across his mind, like a dark shadow. He had very little scope for maneuver. His best hope, Tamurello, had failed him. Even if he could keep Dhrun and Glyneth on the roof indefinitely, he still could not endure a siege forever. He made a petulant sound of distress. It had become a time for compromise, for amiability and a clever bargain. What terms would his enemies offer him? If he surrendered his captives and Shimrod's goods, might he be left in control of the Vale? Probably not. Of the castle itself? Again, probably not.. .Silence from above. What might be happening on Tac Tor? In his mind's eye Carfilhiot imagined his enemies standing at the edge of the cliff, calling ineffectual curses across the wind. He went to the window and looked up. He stared at the line across the sky and uttered a startled cry. Already from the edge of Tac Tor he detected men preparing to slide down the rope. He ran to the stairs and bellowed down to his captain. "Robnet! A squad to the roof, in haste!"