The Lady Angelica laughed as she suspected the reason of their whispering.
“I will come back,” she said laughingly, “for the old man was very wise, and did you not see how the yellow bird divided into two and the crow killed the canary?”
But the Homonculus held in Lord Cecil’s arms started to cry.
“What wouldst thou?” asked the kindly Overlord.
“I would be back in my bottle again," sobbed the little one. And he sobbed till he went to sleep soothed by the rocking canter of the war horse.
Two evenings later a concourse of brave men met in the banquet hall. There were great silent men skilled in the use of mace, byrnies and baldricks, who could slay with sword, spear and double-bitted battle-ax. The Juggler was there, and a singer of songs and a reader of books, very young but very wise. And a man was there with sparkling eyes who could by their glance put men to death-sleep and waken them with the snap of thumb and finger. And to these were added the Overlord and Lord Gustro and the trembling Homonculus and on her throne sat the Lady Angelica very beautiful and very happy because of the great adventure she had a part to play in. And in her hand was a golden goblet and in the hand of the thirty men crystal glasses, and the thirty and one drinking vessels were filled with the wine of synthesis, for half of the flagon was poured out, but the flagon, half filled and the golden drug viand the Lady Angelica hid beneath her shimmering robe. Outside a ladies’ horse, decked with diamond-studded harness, neighed uneasy in the moonlight.
Lord Cecil explained the adventure, and all the thirty men sat very still and solemn; for never had they heard the like before, for they none feared a simple death but this dissolution was a thing that made even the bravest wonder what the end would be. But when the time came and the command given they one and all drained their vessels and even as the Lady drank her wine they drank to the last drop.
Then there was a silence broken only by the shrill cry of a hoot owl, complaining to the moon, concerning the doings of the night folk in the dark forest. The little Homonculus hid his face in the shoulder of the Overlord but Cecil and Lord Gustro looked straight ahead of them over the banquet table to see what was to be seen.
The thirty men seemed to shiver and then grew smaller in a mist that covered them and finally only empty places were left at the banquet table, and empty glasses. And only the two men and the Lady Angelica and the shivering Homonculus were left. And the Lady laughed.
“It worked,” she cried. “I look the same but I feel different, for in me are the potential bodies of the thirty brave men who will overcome the Giant and bring peace to the land. And now I will give you the kiss of hail and farewell and will adventure forth on my waiting horse.” And kissing her Father on the mouth and her lover on the cheek and the little one on the top of his curly-haired head she ran bravely out of the room and through the stillness they could hear her horse’s hoofs, silver-shod, pounding on the stones of the courtyard.
“I am afraid,” shivered the little one. “I have all wisdom but I am afraid as to this adventure and its ending.”
Lord Cecil comforted him. “You are afraid because you are so very wise. Lord Gustro and I would like to fear, but we are too foolish to do so. Can I do anything to comfort you, little friend of mine?”
“I wish I were back in my bottle,” sobbed the Homonculus, “but that cannot be because the bottle was broken when I was taken from it, for the mouth of it was very narrow, and a bottle once broken cannot be made whole again.” So all that night Lord Cecil rocked him to sleep singing to him lullabies while Lord Gustro sat wakeful before the fire biting his finger nails, and wondering what the ending would be.
Late that night the Lady Angelica arrived at the gate of the Giant Castle and blew her wreathed horn. The Giant dropped the iron-studded gate and curiously peered at the lady on the horse.
“I am the Lady Angelica,” said the Lady,” and I have come to be your bride if only you will give free passage to our caravans so we can commerce with the great world outside, and when my father dies you will he Overlord of our land, and perchance I will come to love you, for you are a fine figure of a man and I have heard much of you.”
The giant towered over the head of her horse and he placed his hand around her waist and plucked her from the horse and carried her to his banquet hall and sat her down at one end of the table. And laughing in a somewhat silly manner he walked around the room and lit pine torches and tall candles till at last the whole room was lighted. And he poured a large glass of wine for the Lady and a much larger glass for himself and he sat at the other end of the table and laughed again as he cried.
“It all was as I dreamed. But who would have thought that the noble Lord Cecil and the brave Lord Gustro would have been so craven! Let’s drink to our wedding, and then to the bridal chamber.”
And he drank his drink in one swallow. But the Lady Angelica took from under her gown a golden flask and raising it she cried,
“I drink to you and your future, whatever it is,” And she drained the golden flask and sat very still. A mist filled the room and swirled widdershams in thirty pillars around the long oak table, and when it cleared there were thirty men between the Giant and the Lady.
The Juggler took his golden balls, and the man with the dazzling eyes looked hard on the Giant and the student took from his robe a book and read the wise sayings of dead Gods backwards, while the singer of songs plucked his harp strings and sang of the brave deeds of brave men long dead. But the fighting men rushed forward and on all sides started the battle. The Giant jumped back, picked a mace from the wall and fought as never man fought before. He had two things in mind, to kill and to reach the smiling lady and strangle her with bare hands for the thing she had done to him. But ever between him and the Lady was a wall of men who with steel and song and dazzling eyes formed a living wall that could be bent and crushed but never broken.
For centuries after in the halls of Walling the blind singers of songs told of that fight- while the simple folk sat silent while they listened to the tale. And no doubt as the tale past from one singer-aged to the next singer young it became ornamented and embroidered and fabricated into something somewhat different from what really happened that night. But even the bare truth telling first hand as told in parts by those who battled was a great enough tale. For men fought and bled and died in that hall and finally the Giant dying broke through and almost reached the lady, but then the song man tripped him with his harp and the wise man threw his heavy tome in his face and the juggler shattered his three golden balls against the giant’s forehead, and at the lastward the glittering eyes of the sleep-maker fastened on the dying eyes of the giant and sent him sleepily on his last sleep.
And the Lady Angelica looked around the shattered hall and the thirty men who had all done their part and she said softly, “These be brave men and they have done what was necessary for the good of their country and for the honor of our land and I cannot forsake them or leave them hopeless,” and she took the rest of the wine of synthesis and she drank part, and to every man she gave a drink, even the dead men whose mouths she had to gently open and wipe the blood from gritted teeth ere she could pour the wine into their breathless mouths. And she went back to her seat and sitting there she waited.
The mist again filled the hall and covered the dead and dying and those who were not hurt badly but panted from the fury of the battle. And when the mist cleared only the Lady Angelica was left there, for all the thirty had returned to her body through the magic of the synthetic wine.