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.
Aillas turned away. On the walls previous occupants had scratched names and sad mottos. The most recent occupant, on the wall above his skeleton, had scratched a schedule of names, to the number of twelve, ranked in a column. Aillas, too dispirited to feel interest in anything but his own woes, turned away.
The cell was unfurnished. The rope lay in a loose heap under the shaft. Near the bone pile he noticed the rotted remains of other ropes, garments, ancient leather buckles and straps.
The skeleton seemed to watch him from the empty eye-sockets of its skull. Aillas dragged it to the bone pile, and turned the skull so that it could see only the wall. Then he sat down. An inscription on the wall opposite caught his attention: "Newcomer! Welcome to our brotherhood!"
Aillas grunted and turned his attention elsewhere. So began the period of his incarceration.
Chapter 12
KING CASMIR DESPATCHED AN ENVOY to Tintzin Fyral who, in due course returned with an ivory tube, from which the Chief Herald extracted a scroll. He read to King Casmir: Noble Sir: As ever my respectful compliments! I am pleased to learn of your impending visit. Be assured that our welcome will be appropriate to your regal person and distinguished retinue which, so I suggest, should number no more than eight, since at Tintzin Fyral we lack the expansive grace of Haidion.
Again, my most cordial salute!
Faude Carfilhiot, Vale Evander, the Duke.
King Casmir immediately rode north with a retinue of twenty knights, ten servants and three camp-wagons.
The first night the company halted at Duke Baldred's castle, Twannic. On the second day they rode north through the Troagh, a chaos of pinnacles and defiles. On the third day they crossed the border into South Ulfland. Halfway through the afternoon, at the Gates of Cerberus, the cliffs closed in to constrict the way, which was blocked by the fortress Kaul Bocach. The garrison consisted of a dozen raggle-taggle soldiers and a commander who found banditry less profitable than exacting tolls from travelers.
At a challenge from the sentry the cavalcade from Lyonesse halted, while the soldiers of the garrison, blinking and scowling under steel caps, slouched out upon the battlements.
The knight Sir Welty rode forward.
"Halt!" called the commander. "Name your names, your origin, destination and purpose, so that we may reckon the lawful toll."
"We are noblemen in the service of King Casmir of Lyonesse. We ride to visit the Duke of Vale Evander, at his invitation, and we are exempt from toll!"
"No one is exempt from toll, save only King Oriante and the great god Mithra. You must pay ten silver florins."
Sir Welty rode back to confer with Casmir, who thoughtfully appraised the fort. "Pay," said King Casmir. "We will deal with these scoundrels on our return."
Sir Welty returned to the fort and contemptuously tossed a pack of coins to the captain.
"Pass, gentlemen."
Two by two the company rode by Kaul Bocach, and that night rested on a meadow beside the south fork of the Evander.
At noon of the following day the troop halted before Tintzin Fyral, where it surmounted a tall crag, as if growing from the substance of the crag itself.
King Casmir and eight of his knights rode forward; the others turned aside and set up a camp beside the Evander.
A herald came out from the castle, and addressed King Casmir.
"Sir, I bring Duke Carfilhiot's compliments and his request that you follow me. We ride a crooked road up the side of the crag, but have no concern; the danger is only to enemies. I will lead the way."
As the troop proceeded, the stench of carrion came on the breeze.
In the middle distance the Evander flowed across a green meadow where rose an array of twenty poles, half supporting impaled corpses.
"That is hardly a welcoming sight," King Casmir told the herald.
"Sir, it reminds the duke's enemies that his patience is not inexhaustible."
King Casmir shrugged, offended not so much by Carfilhiot's acts as by the odor.
At the base of the crag waited an honor guard of four knights in ceremonial plate armor, and Casmir wondered how Carfilhiot knew so closely the hour of his coming. A signal from Kaul Bocach? Spies at Haidion? Casmir, who had never been able to introduce spies into Tintzin Fyral, frowned at the thought.
The cavalcade mounted the crag by a road cut into the rock, which finally, high in the air, turned under a portcullis into the castle's forecourt.
Duke Carfilhiot came forward; King Casmir dismounted; the two pressed each other in a formal embrace.
"Sir, I am delighted by your visit," said Carfilhiot. "I have arranged no suitable festivities, but not from any lack of good will. In truth, you gave me too short notice."
"I am perfectly suited," said King Casmir. "I am not here for frivolity. Rather, I hope to explore once more matters of mutual advantage."
"Excellent! That is always a topic of interest. This is your first visit to Tintzin Fyral, is it not?"
"I saw it as a young man, but from a distance. It is beyond question a mighty fortress."
"Indeed. We command four important roads: to Lyonesse, to Ys, over the Ulfish moors and the border road north to Dahaut. We are selfsufficient.
I have driven a well deep, through solid stone into a flowing aquifer. We maintain supplies for years of siege. Four men could hold the access road against a thousand, or a million. I consider the castle impregnable."
"I am inclined to agree," said Casmir. "Still, what of the saddle?
If a force occupied the mountain yonder, conceivably it might bring siege engines to bear."
Carfilhiot turned to inspect the heights to the north, which were connected to the crag by a saddle, as if he had never before noticed this particular vista. "So it would seem."
"But you are not alarmed?"
Carfilhiot laughed, showing perfect white teeth. "My enemies have reflected long and well on Breakback Ridge. As for the saddle, I have my little wiles."
King Casmir nodded. "The view is exceptionally fine."
"True. On a clear day, from my high workroom, I scan the entire vale, from here to Ys. But now you must refresh yourself, and then we can take up our conversation."
Casmir was conducted to a set of high chambers overlooking Vale Evander: a view across twenty miles of soft green landscape to a far glint of sea. Air, fresh save for an occasional cloying taint, blew through the open windows. Casmir thought of Carfilhiot's dead enemies on the meadow below, each silent on his own pole.
An image flickered through his mind: Suldrun pallid and drawn here at Tintzin Fyral, breathing the putrid air. He thrust away the picture. The affair was over and done.
Two bare-chested black Moorish boys, wearing turbans of purple silk, red pantaloons and sandals with spiral toes, helped him with his bath, then dressed him in silk small-clothes and a tawny-buff robe decorated with black rosettes.
Casmir descended to the great hall, past an enormous aviary, where birds of many-colored plumage flew from branch to branch.
Carfilhiot awaited him in the great hall; the two men seated themselves on divans and were served frozen fruit sherbet in silver cups.
"Excellent," said Casmir. "Your hospitality is pleasant."
"It is informal and I hope that you will not be supremely bored," murmured Carfilhiot.
Casmir put aside the ice. "I have come here to discuss a matter of importance." He glanced at the servants. Carfilhiot waved them from the room. "Proceed."
Casmir leaned back in his chair. "King Granice recently sent out a diplomatic mission, on one of his new warships. They put into Blaloc, Pomperol, Dahaut, Cluggach in Godelia and Ys. The emissaries decried my ambitions and proposed an alliance to defeat me. They won only lukewarm support, if any, even though"—Casmir smiled a cold smile—"I have made no attempt to disguise my intentions. Each hopes the others will fight the battle; each wishes to be the single kingdom unmolested. Granice, I am sure, expected no more; he wanted to assert both his leadership and his command of the sea. In this he succeeded very well. His ship destroyed a Ska vessel which at once changes our perceptions of the Ska; they can no longer be considered invincible, and Troice sea-power is magnified, They paid a price, losing the commander and one of the two royal princes aboard.