Tighter and tighter he held her. Closer and closer his teeth clamped on that lovely white column; at last he knew that he lay fastened to a corpse. He opened his jaws, worked his mouth down the silken cord, now covered with blood, and finally came to the Golden Key. He closed on that with his mouth and, satisfied with the knowledge that his land was safe, he fell asleep.
The next morning, Freda the nurse, tortured by unnamable fears, persuaded Russell the forester to take men-at-arms and break open the door of the bride chamber. There on the floor lay a giant toad, one foreleg torn and broken and the neck horribly mutilated, the body already swollen with putrifaction. Beside the dead toad lay Prince Balder, his face and body red with dried blood. For a moment all stood in amazement at what they saw. Then Russell bent over Balder, touched him gently, waking him.
“Cornwall is safe!” Balder said with a smile and went to sleep.
Freda fastened the Key around his neck with her apronstring, and Russell picked him up and carried him to his room, where they washed and nursed him. In due time he was able to tell the full story of that night battle. Later, Freda retold it to Eric, Overlord of Cornwall, who had returned in haste, suspecting treachery, when he found Wales at peace.
Eric listened patiently till the ending of the tale.
“My son did very well,” he said proudly. “Considering that he has neither arms nor legs to fight with, he did very well.”
“He has a strong jaw,” said Freda the nurse.
APPENDIX
The Thirty and One
[Marvel 1938-11]
Cecil, Overlord of Walling in the Dark Forest, mused by the fire. The Blind Singer of Songs had sung the sagas of ancient times, had waited long for praise and then, disquiet, had left the banquet hall guided by his dog. The Juggler had merrily tossed his golden balls into the air till they seemed a glistening cascade, but still the Overlord had mused, unseeing. The wise Homonculus had crouched at his feet uttering words of wisdom and telling tales of Gobi and the buried city of Ankor. But nothing could rouse the Overlord from his meditations.
At last he stood up and struck the silver bell with a hammer of gold. Serving men answered the call.
“Send me the Lady Angelica and Lord Gustro,” he commanded and then once again sat down with chin in hand, waiting.
At last the two came in answer to his summons. The Lady was his only daughter, as fair and as wise a Lady as there was in all Walling. Lord Gustro some day would be her husband and help her rule in the Dark Forest. Meantime he perfected himself in the use of the broadsword, lute, the hunting with the falcon and the study of books. He was six foot tall, twenty years old and had in him the makings of a man.
The three sat around the fire, two waiting to hear the one talk, the one waiting till he knew just how to say what had to be said. At last Cecil began to talk.
“You no doubt know what is on my mind. For years I have tried to have happiness and peace and prosperity to the simple folk in our land of Walling. We were well situated in a valley surrounded by lofty, impassable forests. Only one mountain pass connected us with the great, cruel and almost unknown world around us. Into that world we sent in springtime, summer and fall our caravans of mules laden with grain, olives, wine and uncut stones. From that world we brought salt, weapons, bales of woolen and silken goods for our needs. No one tried to molest us, for we had nothing much that they coveted. Perhaps safety made us grow soft, sleepy and unprepared for danger.
“But it has come. We might have known there were things in that outer world we knew not of and therefore could not even dream of. But this spring our first caravan, winding over the mountains found, at the boundaries of the Dark Forest a Castle blocking their way. Their mules were not birds and could not fly over; they were not moles and could not burrow under. And the lads with the mules were not warriors and could not break their way through. So they came back, unmolested, his true, but with their goods unsold and unbartered.
“Now I do not think that Castle was built by magic. I have personally looked at it and it seems nothing but stone and mortar. And it is not held by an army of fighting men, for all we can hear of is that one man holds it. But what a man! Half again as tall as our finest lad, and skilled in the use of weapons. I tried him out. One at a time I sent to him John of the flying ax and Herman who had no equal with the double-edged sword and Rubin who could split a willow wand at two hundred paces with his steel-tipped arrow. These three men lie, worm food, in the ravine below the castle. And meantime our country is strangulated as far as trade is concerned. We have cattle in the meadow and wood in the forest and grain in the bin but we have no salt, no clothes to cover us from the cold, no finery for our women or weapons for our men. And we never will have as long as this castle and this man blocks our caravan's.”
“We can capture the Castle and kill the giant!” cried Lord Gustro, with the impetuosity of youth.
“How?” asked the Overlord. “Did I not tell yon that the path is narrow? You know that. On one side the mountains tower lofty as the flight of the bird and smooth as a woman’s skin. On the other side is the Valley of the Daemons and no one has ever fallen into it and come back alive. And the only path just wide enough for one man or one man-led mule, and that path, now leads through the castle. If we could send an army twould be different. But only one man at a time, and there is no one man equal to successful combat with this giant.”
The Lady Angelica smiled as she whispered, “We may conquer him through chicanery. For example, I have seen this hall filled with fighting men and fair ladies almost put into an endless sleep by gazing at the golden balls flying through the air and back into the clever hands of the Juggler. And the Blind Singer of Songs can make anyone forget all except the music of his tales. And our Homonculus is very wise.”
The Overlord shook his head. “Not thus will the question be answered. This madman wants one thing, and that one thing means everything in the lastward, as far as our land and people are concerned. Perhaps you have guessed. I will give you the demand ere you ask the question. Our Lady’s hand in marriage, and thus when I die he becomes the Overlord of Walling.”
Lady Angelica looked at Lord Gustro. He looked at the Overlord’s daughter. At last he said:
“Better to eat our grain and eat our olives and drink our wine. Better that our men wear bearskins and our women cover themselves with the skins of deers. It would be best for them to wear shoes of wood than pantufles of unicorn skin brought from Araby. It were a sweeter fate for them to perfume their bodies with crushed violets and may-flowers from our forest than to smell sweet with perfumes from the trees of the unknown Island of the East. This price is too heavy. Let us live as our fathers and fathers’ fathers lived, even climb trees like the monkey folk, than trust to such an Overlord. Besides I love the Lady Angelica.”