"Suppose these Armorians demand to know what sort of mission we be on? What'll ye answer?"
"I'm thinking up a story."
The next day the travelers, scratching flea bites, were brought back to the customs post. With the inspector was a gray-bearded man wearing a scarlet gown and the tall black hat of a justice of the peace. The graybeard asked Eudoric:
"Now then, sir, what is this secret mission ye claim to serve?"
"King Clothar wishes to end this footling dispute over wine and perry. He has sent me to negotiate a treaty of mutual approval of your two kingdoms' respective beverages. I brought that bottle as a nominal gift to His Majesty King Gwennon, to—all—soften his ire."
"What terms are ye authorized to offer?"
Eudoric smiled. "My lord, as a man of the bench, learned in the law, you would not truly expect me to reveal my terms in advance of negotiation. Let us say that I hope to get an agreement that shall leave both monarchs equally pleased—or equally displeased, as the case may be."
The justice frowned. "Meseems King Clothar sent his sister on a similar mission within the past twelvemonth. If she could not achieve that aim, wherefore thinks he that an unknown foreigner could succeed?"
Thinking fast, Eudoric said: "On the contrary, my lord, it was altogether a logical decision."
"How so? From far-flying rumor, that royal noodle-head hath never a thought in his sconce beyond trouncing a courtier at some silly game or flittering a willing wench."
"Well then, let us say that it was logical of King Clothar's minister, Master Brulard. The King's sister would surely incite suspicion on the part of the Armorians, being both intimate kin to Clothar and active, I am told, in the occult arts. She must have attempted some magical sleight, if it be true that she be immured."
"Hmm." The justice paused to study his collocutor. "I heard that she had been accused of witchery and named as the monster's bride. Proceed, Sir Eudoric."
"So it seemed to Minister Brulard that a stranger like me, having no ties in either land, would command more confidence as a fair-minded intermediary to arbitrate this dispute."
The justice chewed a wandering whisker, then said: "Sir Eudoric, meseems ye be either an excellent choice for arbitrator, or the most plausible liar that hath come this way during my term of office. My judgment is that ye be sent on to Ysness, but with an escort, to make sure that ye be he who ye say ye be. If it transpire that ye be not ..." The justice drew an ominous finger across his throat.
"My lord," said Eudoric, "what is this about the Princess Yolanda's being given to a monster?"
"Ah, that is on account of the curse of Svor the Stroller."
"Who? What curse?"
"Know ye not? The tale is old and well-worn in Armoria. Svor the Stroller was a mountebank from a land even farther away than yours—a country hight Pathenia."
"I have been there," said Eudoric.
"Have ye indeed? Is it true that Pathenians devour their own firstborn?"
"Not that I ever heard; meseems they rear their families in much the same way as other folk. But tell me more about this curse."
"This Svor had a traveling show, with a few performers and some foreign wonders for yokels to gape at. One of these was his monster, a kind of sea dragon, the which he kept in a tank of water and dragged with him about the land. This monster was but a child of its race, not much longer than a man, and the tank confined it straitly. Svor averred he had raised it from an egg and fed it only meagerly, lest it grow too large to be contained.
"He had trained the beast to perform certain tricks, giving commands in Pathenian and rewarding it with little fishes. With him it was as tame as a dog. When he called: 'Here, Dru—Druzhok!' (at least, that is what I think he named the creature) it would rear up out of its tank to be stroked and to nuzzle its master. Never have I beheld a cleverer beast; it seemed to understand every word that Svor spake.
"Somehow, Svor fell afoul of the King's jester, Master Corentin, who, far from being a fool, hath magical powers of s own. One day they met on the beach at Ysness, and the quarrel brake out openly. Both cast spells; but Corentin's proved the stronger, causing Svor to burn alive where he stood.
"Ere he died, Svor shrieked a curse upon the land: that his monster should escape to the sea, wax immense, and yearly return to ravage the shores of Armoria, unless it were given a maiden each year to devour.
"When the King's men rushed to Svor's caravan to see how the monster betid, they found that Druzhok indeed had crawled out of its tank, departed its wagon, waddled down to the shore, and swum away. The rest of the mountebank's company, who seemed to be harmless folk, were let go with a warning.
"For six years, no ills from the curse materialized. Then the monster, grown to the size of one of the smaller whales, appeared along the coast, destroying fishing craft and snatching unwary bathers. King Gwennon commanded that the justices name the female criminal then in custody as the one most richly deserving of death, and they brought forth a woman who'd poisoned her children and man. So she was duly chained to a rock on the shore near Ysness.
"The monster tore her loose from her chains, engulfed her, and vanished. Next year it appeared again, but this time the victim, another murdering woman, already cowered in place. So the creature enjoyed its repast and departed without effecting further harm.
"And so things have gone ever since. Princess Yolanda will be the seventh victim—or belike the eighth. As ye see, the monster seemingly cares but little for the personal conduct of its victims, so long as they be tasty."
Eudoric frowned in thought. "When is the next such sacrifice?"
The justice paused to think. "In ten or twelve days, meseems. If your escort hasten, ye should arrive in the capital in time this fete to witness. It were well to reach the place early, because enterprising fellows set up benches along the shore and let sitting space to spectators."
"An arresting spectacle, no doubt," said Eudoric dryly. "Has none essayed to slay the monster?"
"Aye; the King hath offered a recompense for such a hero. When the third maiden was to be devoured, one bold knight, Sir Tugen, climbed out upon the rock with sword in hand. But the monster knocked him into the deep with a flip of's flipper.
"It would doubtless have devoured Sir Tugen as well as the woman, but that he was wearing armor. Having attempted a bite or two, it left the man and took the victim, chained as before. That served the knight but ill, for he was drowned by the weight of his plate. After the monster departed, the armored corse was fished from the sea, bearing dents from Druzhok's teeth. Why, Sir Eudoric, didst think of attempting that feat yourself?"
"Having only now heard of this singular rite," said Eudoric cautiously, "I am not prepared to answer. How soon can we start for Ysness?"
The green and rolling countryside of Armoria jounced past as Eudoric, Forthred, and their escort jogged steadily westward. Now and then the open landscape was broken by a patch of forest or by a hill that rose in a hump above the plain. Atop of many such hills, Eudoric noted graying prominences that seemed from afar to be a regular shape. Blurred by the hazy Armorian air, these protuberances appeared to be made of huge slabs of stone leaning against one another. Eudoric asked Sreng, the officer of the squad, about these eminences.
"Tombs of our ancient kings," replied Sreng shortly. He rode a little in advance of Eudoric, with Eudoric's reins in his fist.
When they skirted another megalithic tomb more closely, Eudoric said: "Those look like mighty stones for men to have hauled up such a slope."
Sreng retorted: "Know, O foreigner, that our wizards could magic yon stones into their present place, were they an hundred times as massy."