Carfilhiot was seized and bent over a bench. The seat of his trousers was cut away, and into his buttocks were thrust a hundred quills of all sizes, lengths and colors, including a pair of expensive ostrich plumes. The ends of the quills were cut into barbs to prevent their detachment, and they were arranged to support each other so that the plumage, upon completion, thrust up from Carh'lhiot's fundament at a jaunty angle.
"Excellent!" declared King Deuel, clapping his hands in satisfaction. "That is a splendid display, in which you can take pride. Go, now. Enjoy the festival to your heart's content! Now you are properly bedizened!"
The carriage rolled away; the youths appraised Carfilhiot with critical eyes, but agreed that his plumage captured the mood of the festival, and they too went their way.
Carfilhiot walked stiff-legged to a crossroads at the edge of town. A sign-post pointed north to Avallon.
Carfilhiot waited, meanwhile plucking the feathers one by one from his buttocks.
A cart came from town, driven by an old peasant woman. Carfilhiot held up his hand to halt the cart. "Where do you drive yourself, grandmother?"
"To the village Filster, in the Deepdene, if that means aught to you."
Carfilhiot showed the ring on his finger. "Look well at this ruby!"
The old woman peered. "I see it well. It glows like red fire! I often marvel that such stones grow in the deep dark of the earth!"
"Another marveclass="underline" this ruby, so small, will buy twenty horses and carts like that one which you ride."
The old woman blinked. "Well, I must believe your word. Would you halt me in my home-going to tell me lies?"
"Now listen carefully, as I am about to state a proposition of several parts."
"Speak on; say what you will! I can think three thoughts at once."
"I am bound for Avallon. My legs are sore; I can neither walk nor sit astride a horse. I wish to ride in your cart, that I may come to Avallon in comfort. Therefore, if you will drive me to Avallon, ring and ruby are yours."
The woman held up her forefinger. "Better! We drive to Filster, thence my son Raffin puts straw in the cart and then drives you to Avallon. So all behind-hand whispers and rumors at my expense are halted before they start."
"This will be satisfactory."
Carfilhiot alighted from the cart at the sign of the Fishing Cat and gave over the ruby ring to Raffin who immediately departed. Carfilhiot entered the inn. Behind a counter stood a monstrous man half a foot taller than Carfilhiot, with a great red face and a belly which rested on the counter. He looked down at Carfilhiot with eyes like stone pebbles. "What do you wish?"
"I want to find Rughalt of the sore knees. He said that you would know where to find him."
The fat man, taking exception to Carfilhiot's manner, looked away. He worked his fingers up and down the counter. At last he uttered a few terse words. "He will arrive presently."
"How soon is ‘presently'?"
"Half an hour."
"I will wait. Bring me one of those roasting chickens, a loaf of new bread and a flask of good wine."
"Show me your coin."
"When Rughalt comes."
"When Rughalt comes, I will serve the fowl."
Carfilhiot swung away with a muttered curse; the fat man looked after him without change of expression.
Carfilhiot seated himself on a bench before the inn. Rughalt at last showed himself, moving his legs slowly and carefully, one at a time, hissing under his breath the while with a frowning eye, Carfilhiot watched Rughalt's approach. Rughalt wore the fusty gray garments of a pedagogue.
Carfilhiot rose to his feet; Rughalt stopped short in surprise. "Sir Faude!" he exclaimed. "What do you do here, in such a condition?"
"Through treachery and witchcraft; how else? Take me to a decent inn; this place is fit only for Celts and lepers."
Rughalt rubbed his chin. "The Black Bull is yonder on the Square. The charges are said to be excessive; you will pay in silver for a night's lodging."
"I carry no funds whatever, neither silver nor gold. You must provide funds until I make arrangements."
Rughalt winced. "The Fishing Cat, after all, is not so bad. Gurdy the landlord is daunting only at first acquaintance."
"Bah. He and his hovel both stink of rancid cabbage and worse. Take me to the Black Bull."
"Just so. Ah, my aching legs! Duty calls you onward."
At the Black Bull Carfilhiot found lodging to meet his requirements, though Rughalt screwed his eyes together when the charges were quoted. A haberdasher displayed garments which Carfilhiot found consonant with his dignity; however, to Rughalt's dismay Carfilhiot refused to haggle the price and Rughalt paid the wily tailor with slow and crooked fingers.
Carfilhiot and Rughalt seated themselves at a table in front of the Black Bull and watched the folk of Avallon. Rughalt ordered two modest half-measures from the steward. "Wait!" Carfilhiot commanded. "I am hungry. Bring me a dish of good cold beef, with some leeks and a crust of fresh bread, and I will drink a pint of your best ale."
While Carfilhiot satisfied his hunger, Rughalt watched sidelong with disapproval so evident that Carfilhiot finally asked: "Why do you not eat? You have become gaunt as an old leathern strap."
Rughalt replied between tight lips, "Truth to tell, I must be careful with my funds. I live at the edge of poverty."
"What? I thought you to be an expert cut-purse, who depredated all the fairs and festivals of Dahaut."
"That is no longer possible. My knees prevent that swift and easy departure which is so much a part of the business. I no longer ply the fairs."
"Still, you are evidently not destitute."
"My life is not easy. Luckily, I see all in the dark and I now work nights at the Fishing Cat, robbing guests while they sleep. Even so, my clicking knees are a handicap, and since Gurdy, the landlord, insists on a share of my earnings, I avoid unnecessary expense. In this connection, will you be long in Avallon?"
"Not long. I want to find a certain Triptomologius. Is his name known to you?"
"He is a necromancer. He deals in elixirs and potions. What is your business with him?"
"First, he will supply me with gold, as much as I need."
"In that case, ask enough for the both of us!"
"We shall see." Carfilhiot stood erect. "Let us seek out Triptomologius."
With a cracking and clicking of the knees, Rughalt arose. The two walked through the back streets of Avallon to a dark little shop perched on a hill overlooking the Murmeil estuary. A slatternly crone with chin and nose almost making contact gave information that Triptomologius had gone out that very morning to set up a booth on the common, that he might sell his wares at the fair.
The two descended the hill by twisting flights of narrow stone steps, with the crooked old gables of Avallon overhanging: the swaggering young gallant in fine new clothes and the gaunt man walking with the stiff careful bent-kneed tread of a spider. They went out upon the common, since dawn a place of seething activity and many-colored confusion. Early arrivals already hawked their goods. Newcomers established themselves to best advantage amid complaints, chaffing, quarrels, invective and an occasional scuffle. Hawkers set up their tents, driving stakes into the ground with great wooden mauls, and hung bunting of a hundred sun-faded hues. Food stalls set their braziers aglow; sausages sizzled in hot grease; grilled fish, dipped in garlic and oil, was served on slabs of bread. Oranges from the valleys of Dascinet competed in color and fragrance with purple Lyonesse grapes, Wysrod apples, Daut pomegranates, plums and quince. At the back of the common, trestles demarcated a long narrow paddock, where the mendicant lepers, cripples, the deranged, deformed and blind were required to station themselves. Each took up a post from which he delivered his laments; some sang, some coughed, others uttered ululations of pain. The deranged foamed at the mouth and hurled abuse at the passersby, in whatever style he found most effective. The noise from this quarter could be heard over the whole of the common, creating counterpoint to the music of pipers, fiddlers and bell-ringers.