“Surely,” Lady Constance agreed, “and it is said that it was lust overcame him, and that one sin cracked his holiness enough to make him subject to the evil will of King Maledicto!”
“And that the king would then have slain his grandson,” Lady Beatrice finished, “had not some virtuous soul spirited him away into hiding-a hiding so complete that even King Maledicto’s sorcery could not spy him out.”
Lady Elise burst through the door with a dark-robed graybeard right behind her, puffing as he lugged a heavy satchel. Elise cried, “Here is the… Oh! Your Majesty is well!”
“No doctor, I said!” Alisande waved the graybeard away angrily, then instantly relented. “Your pardon, Doctor. It was only a faint, a moment’s giddiness, nothing more.”
The doctor didn’t exactly look reassured. “Still, your Majesty should permit-”
“Nothing! I need nothing! There is too much to do, too suddenly, to permit of time for medicine!”
The doctor started to interrupt, but Alisande overrode him. “Away, kindly doctor! I must turn to planning strategy!” And she very deliberately turned away from him. The doctor glared in outrage-he was one of the few members of the court privileged to do so-but when he saw she was not looking, gave it over and went out the door, shaking his head and grumbling. “I regret your bootless errand, Lady Elise,” Alisande said, “but it was truly for naught.”
All four ladies exchanged a very significant glance as Lady Elise said slowly, “A hundred bootless errands I will run gladly, your Majesty, so long as the one that is truly needed be among them. But what gave you cause for such distress?”
Alisande opened her mouth to deny, but before she could lie, Lady Julia said, “Her husband goes into Latruria.”
“Oh!” Lady Elise gasped, covering her mouth. “Into that cesspool of evil, where the king is a triple-dyed villain?”
“The new king may not be,” Alisande said with asperity. “I have had reports of the conduct of this young King Boncorro, and many of his works are good. In truth, I hear no evil spoken of himself, barring what any monarch must sustain…”
“Even yourself?” Lady Elise’s eyes went round. “Even I have had to order the occasional beheading, and the more frequent hanging,” Alisande said grimly. “In truth, I have ordered soldiers to their deaths in two wars now, and I do not pretend there was no evil in it.”
“But it was for a good cause! Indeed, it was to fight Evil itself!”
“Even so, men slew other men at my orders,” Alisande said inexorably, “and I cannot pretend I was innocent of all guilt. No, any monarch must strain her conscience in defense of her people-for the welfare of the commonwealth must be guarded, and where a common man can plead self-defense, a monarch cannot.”
“No-she can plead the defense of others!”
“I can and do,” Alisande agreed, “and so, I doubt not, does King Boncorro.”
“Does he?” Lady Constance said darkly. “Or does he only secure his own power and fortune as well as he may, with least risk to his soul?”
“There is that,” Alisande admitted. “Still, if reports are true, I need not fear for my husband’s safety.”
“Then why do you fear?” Lady Constance retorted. “Because reports may not be true.” Alisande shivered again. “Send for the Lord Marshal, Lady Elise, and summon Master Ortho the Frank, my husband’s assistant. I must call up my armies.”
Still pale-faced, Lady Elise bobbed a curtsy and fled out the door. Queen Alisande turned to Lady Beatrice. “Do you send a fearless groom to Stegoman the dragon, milady-and send a courier to seek for Sir Guy de Toutarien.”
Lady Beatrice departed, wide-eyed. It must be truly an emergency for the queen to seek the aid of the elusive Black Knight! But Alisande and the party she assembled had to go out into the courtyard to meet Stegoman. The dragon could fit through the hallways of her castle in a pinch, but a pinch it was, and quite unpleasant for him, especially since his wings had been mended. Stegoman lowered his head and raised it in salute-he was one of the Free Folk, not a subject of her Majesty; never mind that he lived in her castle compound now and scarcely ever saw another dragon, except on vacations. “Majesty! Thou dost wish me to fly and bring back my errant companion, the Lord Wizard, dost thou not?”
“You are as perceptive as ever, Stegoman,” Alisande answered. “Yes, I do ask that of you-for he has sent to tell me that he will cross the border into Latruria!”
“I knew he would fall into trouble if he did not travel in company with me,” the dragon huffed. “But would he listen? Nay, never!”
“He was supposed to move in secret,” Alisande hinted. “And is a dragon so rare a sight as all that? Oh, aye, I know-we are, most especially in company with a mortal! Yet I could have laired nearby where’er he sought danger! Then, at least, I would have known where to find him!”
“That much, I can tell,” Alisande answered, “or where he was three nights ago, when he wrote his most recent letter: at the castle of the Count d’Arrete.”
“That is something, at least,” the dragon rumbled, “though as thy Majesty hath said, it was three nights agone!”
“Two days ago he was at the border station near the Savoyard Pass,” Alisande offered helpfully. “That is something more,” Stegoman mused. “There should be a road running south from the pass. At least I know where I shall begin to search.”
Anxiety stabbed Alisande, and she put out a hand to the warm, dry scales. “Go as cautiously as you may, Great One. I would be loath to lose a friend.”
The dragon’s mouth lolled open in a sort of laugh. “It is even as you have said, Majesty-the Free Folk cannot travel in secret. Still, I shall fly warily. Fare you well!”
Alisande barely had time to leap back before the dragon sprang into the air, pounding his way aloft with wing beats that boomed and blasted them all with grit and sand. She shielded her eyes, then looked up to watch him circle the keep and fly off toward the south. “God be with you, great friend,” she murmured, “and bring you back safely, with my Matthew on your back.” Then she turned to the Lord Marshal. “Have you sent to seek out Sir Guy de Toutarien?”
“Aye, Majesty.” The grizzled old knight smiled. “His path is like the wind, I know-but he cannot be so footloose as once he was, now that he is wed.”
Alisande wasn’t altogether sure she liked the tone in which the old knight said that. “If he wed the Lady Yverne,” she reminded him. “The Princess Yverne, rather, though none knew that of her till she was about to leave. We know only that she rode off into the mountains in his company, and that they meant to find a priest along the way.”
“I never knew the Black Knight not to do as he had said he would,” the marshal told her. “Still, as you have said, he shall be difficult to find. I have sent not one man, but ten, to quarter the mountains and seek him out. Nonetheless, it is a trail two years old, and discovering it will take time.”
“Unless he wishes to be found,” Alisande amended. “Send also to Matthew’s friend Saul.”
“The Witch Doctor?” The marshal stared in surprise. “I doubt he will come, Majesty. He seems to have little liking for people generally, now that he has found one to dote on.”
“His wife Angelique does seem to be world enough for him,” Alisande admitted, “at least to judge by report, for we have not seen the man since the two of them went off into the wilderness together. Still, danger to his friend Matthew may bring him out, just as it brought him to our world-and at least we know where to seek him.”
“Aye, in the Forest Champagne,” the marshal grunted, “and surely there was never a place so well-suited to a man! A forest named for open land! A wizard who declares he cannot work magic and will not believe in Good and Evil as sources of magical power! Oh, the contradictions are apt, Majesty, most apt indeed!”