Lyonesse

"So that you may hurry to tell all to King Casmir?" Aillas shook his head. "No."

"Fear nothing!" cried Brother Umphred. "I am silent as the grave! I know a thousand secrets!"

"Swear!" said Suldrun. "Down on your knees. Kiss the sacred book you carry in your pouch, and swear that, by your hope of salvation and by your fear of perpetual Hell, that you will reveal nothing of what you have seen and heard and done tonight."

Brother Umphred, now swearing and ashen-faced, looked from one to the other. Slowly he went to his knees, kissed the book of gospels and swore his oath.

He struggled to his feet. "I have witnessed, I have sworn; it is my right to now depart!"

"No," said Aillas somberly. "I do not trust you. I fear that spite may overwhelm your honor, and so destroy us. It is a chance I cannot accept."

Brother Umphred was momentarily speechless with indignation. "But I have sworn by everything holy!"

"And so, as easily, you might forswear them and so be purged of the sin. Should I kill you in cold blood?"

"No!"

"Then I must do something else with you."

The three stood staring at each other, frozen a moment in time. Aillas stirred. "Priest, wait here, and do not try to leave, on pain of good strokes of the cudgel, as we shall be just outside the door."

Aillas and Suldrun went out into the night, to halt a few yards from the chapel door. Aillas spoke in a husky half-whisper, for fear Brother Umphred might have his ear pressed to the door. "The priest cannot be trusted."

"I agree," said Suldrun. "He is quick as an eel."

"Still, I cannot kill him. We can't tie him or immure him, for Ehirme to tend, since then her help would become known. I can think of a single plan. We must part. At this moment I will take him from the garden. We will proceed east. No one will trouble to notice us; we are not fugitives. I will make sure that he neither escapes nor cries out for succor: a vexing and tedious task, but it must be done. In a week or two I will leave him while he sleeps; I will make my way to Glymwode and seek you out, and all will be as we planned."

Suldrun put her arms around Aillas and laid her head on his chest. "Must we be parted?"

"There is no other way to be secure, save killing the man dead, which I cannot do in cold blood. I will take a few pieces of gold; you take the rest, and Persilian as well. Tomorrow, an hour after sunset, go to Ehirme and she will send you to her father's hut, and there shall I seek you out. Go you now to the lime tree, and bring me back a few small trinkets of gold, to trade for food and drink. I'll stay to guard the priest."

Suldrun ran down the path and a moment later returned with the gold. They went to the chapel. Brother Umphred stood by the table, looking morosely into the fire.

"Priest," said Aillas, "you and I are to make a journey. Turn your back, if you will; I must bind your arms so that you perform no unseasonable antics. Obey me and you will come to no harm."

"What of my convenience?" blurted Brother Umphred.

"You should have considered that before you came here tonight. Turn around, doff your cassock and put your arms behind you."

Instead, Brother Umphred sprang at Aillas and struck him with the cudgel he likewise had taken from the wood-pile.

Aillas stumbled back; Brother Umphred sent Suldrun reeling. He ran from the chapel, up the path, with Aillas after him, through the postern and out onto the Urquial, bellowing at the top of his voice: "Guards to me! Help! Treason! Murder! Help! To me! Seize the traitor!"

Up from the arcade trooped a company of four, the same which Aillas and Suldrun had avoided by stepping into the orangery. They ran forward to seize both Umphred and Aillas. "What goes on here? Why this horrid outcry?"

"Call King Casmir!" bawled Brother Umphred. "Waste not an instant! This vagabond has troubled the Princess Suldrun: a terrible deed! Bring King Casmir, I say! On the run!"

King Casmir was brought to the scene, and Brother Umphred excitedly made an explanation. "I saw them in the palace! I recognized the princess, and I have also seen this man; he is a vagabond of the streets! I followed them here and, imagine the audacity, they wanted me to marry them by the Christian rite! I refused with all spirit and warned them of their crime!"

Suldrun, standing by the postern, came forward. "Sire, be not angry with us. This is Aillas; we are husband and wife. We love each other dearly; please give us leave to live our lives in tranquility. If you so choose, we will go from Haidion and never return."

Brother Umphred, still excited by his role in the affair, would not be still. "They threatened me; I am almost bereft of reason through their malice! They forced me to witness their wedlock! If I had not signed to the ceremony they would have broken my head!"

Casmir spoke icily: "Silence, enough! I will deal with you later." He gave an order: "Bring me Zerling!" He turned to Suldrun. In times of rage or excitement Casmir kept his voice always even and neutral, and he did so now. "You seem to have disobeyed my command. Whatever your reason it is far from sufficient."

Suldrun said softly: "You are my father; have you no concern for my happiness?"

"I am King of Lyonesse. Whatever my one-time feelings, they were dispelled by the disregard for my wishes, of which you know. Now I find you consorting with a nameless bumpkin. So be it! My anger is not diminished. You shall return to the garden, and there abide. Go!"

Shoulders sagging, Suldrun went to the postern, through, and down into the garden. King Casmir turned to appraise Aillas. "Your presumption is amazing. You shall have ample time to reflect upon it. Zerling! Where is Zerling?"

"Sire, I am here." A squat slope-shouldered man, bald, with a brown beard and round staring eyes, came forward: Zerling, King Casmir's Chief Executioner, the most dreaded man of Lyonesse Town next to Casmir himself. King Casmir spoke a word into his ear. Zerling put a halter around Aillas' neck and led him across the Urquial, then around and behind the Peinhador. By the light of the half-moon the halter was removed and a rope was tied around Aillas' chest. He was lifted over a stone verge and lowered into a hole: down, down, down. Finally his feet struck the bottom. In a succinct gesture of finality, the rope was dropped in after him.

There was no sound in the darkness. The air smelied of dank stone with a taint of human decay. For five minutes Aillas stood staring up the shaft. Then he groped to one of the walls: a distance of perhaps seven feet. His foot encountered a hard round object. Reaching down he discovered a skull. Moving to the side, Aillas sat down with his back to the wall. After a period, fatigue weighted his eyelids; he became drowsy. He fought off sleep as best he could for fear of awakening... At last he slept. He awoke, and his fears were justified. Upon recollection he cried out in disbelief and anguish. How could such tragedy be possible? Tears flooded his eyes; he bent his head into his arms and wept.

An hour passed, while he sat hunched in pure misery.

Light seeped down the shaft; he was able to discern the dimensions of his cell. The floor was a circular area about fourteen feet in diameter, flagged with heavy slabs of stone. The stone walls rose vertically six feet, then funneled up to the central shaft, which entered the cell about twelve feet over the floor. Against the far wall bones and skulls had been piled; Aillas counted ten skulls, and others perhaps were hidden under the pile of bones. Near to where he sat lay another skeleton: evidently the last occupant of the cell.

Aillas rose to his feet. He went to the center of the chamber and looked up the shaft. High above he saw a disk of blue sky, so airy, windswept and free that again tears came to his eyes.

He considered the shaft. The diameter was about five feet; it was cased in rough stone and rose sixty or even seventy feet— exact judgment was difficult—above the point where it entered the chamber.