Casmir straightened in his chair. "Bring him here."
The under-chamberlain retired, to return with a tall young man of spare physique, wearing a smock and trousers of good cloth, low boots and a dark green cap which he doffed to reveal thick dust-colored hair, cut at ear-level after the fashion of the day. His features were regular, if somewhat gaunt: a thin nose, a bony jaw and chin, with a wide crooked mouth and bright gray eyes which gave him a look of droll and easy self-possession, in which there was perhaps not quite enough reverence and abnegation to please King Casmir..
"Sir," said Shimrod, "I am here in response to your urgent request."
Casmir surveyed Shimrod with compressed mouth and head skeptically aslant. "For a fact, you are not as I expected you to be."
Shimrod made a polite gesture, disclaiming responsibility for King Casmir's perplexity.
King Casmir pointed to a chair. "Be seated, if you will." He himself rose and went to stand with his back to the fire. "I am told that you are trained in magic."
Shimrod nodded. "Tongues will wag, at every departure from the ordinary."
Casmir smiled somewhat thinly. "Well then: are these reports accurate?"
"Your majesty, magic is a taxing discipline. Some persons have easy and natural abilities; I am not one of them. I am a careful student of the techniques, but that is not necessarily a measure of my competence."
"What then is your competence?"
"Compared to that of the adepts, the ratio is, let us say, one to thirty."
"You are acquainted with Murgen?"
"I know him well."
"And he has trained you?"
"To a certain extent."
King Casmir kept his impatience under control. Shimrod's airy mannerisms skirted safely around the far edge of insolence; still, Casmir found them irritating, and his response to questions with precise but minimal information made conversation tiresome. Casmir spoke on in an even voice.
"As you must know, our coast is blockaded by the Troice. Can you suggest how I might break this blockade?"
Shimrod reflected a moment. "Everything considered, the simplest way is to make peace."
"No doubt." King Casmir pulled at his beard; magicians were odd folk. "I prefer a method, possibly more complicated, which will advance the interests of Lyonesse."
"You would have to counter the blockade with a superior force."
"Exactly so. That is the crux of my difficulty. I have thought to enlist the Ska as allies, and I wish you to foretell the consequences of such an act."
Shimrod smilingly shook his head. "Your Majesty, few magicians can read the future. I am not one of them. Speaking as a man of ordinary common sense, I would advise you against such an act. The Ska have known ten thousand years of travail; they are a harsh folk. Like you, they intend to dominate the Elder Isles. Invite them into the Lir, give them bases, and they will never depart. So much is obvious."
King Casmir's gaze narrowed; he was seldom dealt with so briskly. Still, so he reasoned, Shimrod's manner might well be a measure of his candor; no one attempting to dissemble would use quite so easy a tone. He asked in a carefully neutral voice: "What do you know of Tintzin Fyral the castle?"
"This is a place I have never seen. It is said to be impregnable, as I am sure you already know."
King Casmir gave a crisp nod. "I have also heard that magic is part of its defense."
"As to that I can't say. It was built by a lesser magician, Ugo Golias, so that he might rule Vale Evander, secure from the syndics of Ys."
"Then how did Carfilhiot gain the property?"
"In this regard I can only repeat rumor."
King Casmir, with an impassive gesture, indicated that Shimrod was to proceed.
"Carfilhiot's own lineage is a matter of doubt," said Shimrod. "It's quite possible that he was sired by the sorcerer Tamurello upon the witch Desmei. Still, nothing is known certainly except that first Desmei disappeared, then Ugo Golias, with all of his staff, as if devils had snatched them away, and the castle was empty until Carfilhiot arrived with a troop of soldiers and took possession."
"It would seem that he also is a magician."
"I think not. A magician would conduct himself differently."
"Then you are acquainted with him?"
"Not at all. I have never seen him."
"Still, you appear to be familiar with his background and personality."
"Magicians are as prone to gossip as anyone else, especially when the subject is as notorious as Carfilhiot."
King Casmir pulled a bell-cord; two footmen entered the parlor with wine, nuts and sweetmeats which they arranged upon the table. King Casmir seated himself across the table from Shimrod. He poured two goblets of wine, one of which he tendered to Shimrod.
"My best respects to your Majesty," said Shimrod.
King Casmir sat looking into the fire. He spoke thoughtfully. "Shimrod, my ambitions are perhaps no secret. A magician such as yourself could provide me invaluable aid. You would find my gratitude commensurate."
Shimrod twirled the goblet of wine and watched the spin of the dark liquid. "King Audry of Dahaut has made the same approach to Tamurello. King Yvar Excelsus sought the aid of Noumique. All refused, by reason of Murgen's great edict, which applies no less to me."
"Pah!" snapped King Casmir. "Does Murgen's authority transcend all other?"
"In this regard—yes."
King Casmir grunted. "Still you have spoken without any apparent restraint."
"I have only advised you as might any reasonable man."
King Casmir rose abruptly to his feet. He tossed a purse upon the table. "That will reimburse your service."
Shimrod turned out the purse. Five golden crowns rolled forth. They became five golden butterflies which fluttered into the air and circled the parlor. The five became ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred. All at once they dropped to cluster upon the table, where they became a hundred gold crowns.
Shimrod took five of the coins, returned them to the purse, which he placed in his pouch. "I thank your Majesty." He bowed and departed the chamber.
Odo, Duke of Folize, rode with a small company north through the Troagh, a dreary land of crags and chasms, into South Ulf-land, past Kaul Bocach where opposing cliffs pressed so close together that three men could not ride abreast.
A fan of small waterfalls fell into the defile to become the south fork of the Evander River; road and river proceeded north side by side. Ahead rose a massive crag: the Tooth of Cronus, or the Tac Tor. Down through a gorge came the north fork of the Evander. The two forks joined and passed between the Tac Tor and the crag which supported the castle Tintzin Fyral.
Duke Odo announced himself at a gate and was conducted up a zig-zag road into the presence of Faude Carfilhiot.
Two days later he departed and returned the way he had come to Lyonesse Town. He alighted in the Armory yard, shook the dust from his cloak and went directly to an audience with King Casmir.
Haidion, at all times an echo chamber of rumor, immediately reverberated to the impending visit of an important grandee, the remarkable lord of a hundred mysteries: Faude Carfilhiot of Tintzin Fyral.
Chapter 7
SULDRUN SAT IN THE ORANGERY with her two favorite maids-in-waiting: Lia, daughter to Tandre, Duke of Sondbehar; and Tuissany, daughter to the Earl of Merce. Lia already had heard much talk of Carfilhiot. "He is tall and strong, and is proud as a demigod! His gaze is said to fascinate all who look upon him!"
"He would seem an imposing man," said Tuissany, and both girls looked sidewise at Suldrun, who twitched her fingers.