An hour later, the hearth fire had died to a clutch of coals. Eudoric found himself sleepless, although the pain and swellings of stings had much abated. His mind kept coming back willy-nilly to Riguntha of Carnutis and her pregnant smile. He sternly told himself that a midnight assignation would be utter madness; the risk appalled his prudent soul. Perhaps Riguntha would gasp and moan so loudly as to awaken the princess. Perhaps Yolanda would awaken anyway and come prowling ...
Eudoric's arguments were conclusive, yet something seemed to have taken possession of his wits. While his conscious mind was determined not to yield to this strange urge, his conscious mind was helpless in the grip of this mysterious compulsion. Even as he mentally shouted Stop! Stop! Go back to bed! Be not a bigger fool than you can help! he slid quietly off the pallet, picked up his cloak from a chair, and softly tried the door to Riguntha's bedchamber.
It gave at once, the hinge not even squeaking. Eudoric wondered if it had been recently oiled.
"Thou art expected," whispered Riguntha, sitting on the edge of" her bed in the light of a candle. "Come in quietly, and slam not the door."
With a smile, she laid herself back. Eudoric closed the door softly, shed his cloak, and sat down on the narrow space between Riguntha's hip and the edge of the bed.
"Now," she whispered, "show me how the gentlemen of the Empire pleasure their ladies!"
Some time later, she said: "I am ready long since. Why dost delay?"
Eudoric slumped. "I'm sorry, Madame Riguntha. I'm fordone. I seem unable to rise to the occasion."
"Forsooth?" She raised herself. "I see what thou meanst. How doth the princess suffer an impotent man?"
"I am not wontedly thus. This has never befallen me before."
"Well, we must essay some more, to raise thy spirit."
Later he said: "Alas, 'tis of no avail. Something has stolen my manhood."
"That lioness whom thou hast wedded, belike. Well, go thy way. I thought to enjoy a gentleman for once; but I see I must make do with unwashed yokels."
Eudoric stole back to his pallet. As he started to straighten out beside Yolanda, he became aware, by the faint light from the hearth, that her eyes were open.
"Well?" she said. "How went it with my Huano of Tarraconia?"
"Let me explain," he said. "I had to ask her— "Forget the tale of cock and bull. I know what befell."
"You do? Then in the name of the Divine Pair, explain it!"
"I blame you not, Eudoric." Yolanda smiled. I saw her slip a potion into your beer and guessed what portended. So I cast a little spell of mine own, lest you consummate the lust she'd imposed upon you."
"I hope your spell be not permanent!"
"Nay, 'twill wear off in a day or two. For a woman in my position at court, it is a handy device for nobbling lubricious noblemen. Now go to sleep; this time you'll have no difficulty."
XVI – The Gilded Guardhouse
"How far," asked Eudoric, "is Letitia now?"
Yolanda replied: "Less than a league. If we turn right at the next crossroad, my palace lies but a bowshot thence. We shall tarry there long enough to make ourselves clean and presentable ere going to the court."
"Oh, no, we shan't!" said Eudoric. "I'll fetch you before the King and his minister, render this Armorian treaty, and secure my franchise ere some unforeseen mishap prevent."
"Eudoric! Be not like a country boor! You must come before my brother as a proper gentleman, not an enseamed, mud-spattered ragamuffin! To appear as you now are might aggravate the anger he may feel upon discovering that he have an unheralded brother-in-law."
"I'm sorry, my dear, but my mind is made up. Business before pleasure! I'll warrant your royal brother have seen many a mud-spattered knight ..."
They began another dispute. Since Eudoric would not be moved, Yolanda finally subsided into sulky silence. She spurred on ahead, and Forthred moved up beside Eudoric, saying in Locanian:
"Master! Sir Eudoric!"
"Aye?"
"Once ye be settled in the lady's palace, I'll ask release from my service."
"By the God and Goddess, why? Haven't I paid you well and treated you kindly?"
" 'Tis not that, sir." Forthred fumbled for words. "But I'm fain to return to mine own home, where my betrothed awaits me."
"Oh? Then you seek not the highest ranks of the magical fellowship, by remaining celibate?"
"Nay, sir. A few good spells are fine, but I'd liefer lead a normal life than spend a century learning how to raise a tempest. Besides, Doctor Baldonius' scholarship doth intrigue me more than his sorceries. And that's not all."
"What else?" asked Eudoric.
"I fear me that, an I see much more of you and your lady, I shall lose all wish to wed, albeit I've plighted my troth. The sight of you twain, one instant civil and gracious and the next bawling like Tyrrhenian fishwives, would strike the stoutest lover with terror. I should find such wedlock too vexatious to bear."
Eudoric sighed. "I understand. But, I promise, I'll not pass my days here as the royal sister's plaything. I have mine own affairs to tend. And remember that my princess have never learned to bridle the whims and endure the vexations of the moment, as all we lesser mortals must. Were she a child, one would term her spoiled rotten.
"So pray remain with me for the nonce; at least until we know what's toward."
Minister Brulard received Eudoric and Yolanda in his cabinet and dispatched a guard to the tennis court to inform the King. While waiting, Yolanda told the minister of her detention by the Armorians and of their impending human sacrifice. She had just reached the point where Eudoric appeared on the rock above her, when King Clothar strode in trailing a scuttle of flunkeys. Eudoric genuflected. When he saw his sister hale, albeit travel-soiled, the King clapped Eudoric on the back.
"Well done, Sir What's-your-name!" he bellowed. "Meseems we've promised you something for fetching home our willful sister. What was't?"
"A franchise, Your Majesty," said Eudoric promptly, "giving me and me alone the right to run a stagecoach line across Franconia."
"Ah, yea. Brulard, have the authorization drawn up forthwith."
"I have anticipated Your Majesty's wish," said the minister, pulling a large sheet of parchment out of his desk drawer. "Here you are, Sir Eudoric."
"I thank you," said Eudoric. He cleared his throat. "There's another matter, which I was compelled to undertake unauthorized, to allay the Armorians' suspicions."
"What is that?" asked Brulard.
"To avoid incarceration like His Majesty's sister's, I pretended to have been sent to contract an agreement betwixt the two kings concerning imports of wine and perry. Here is the draft, in duplicate, both copies signed by King Gwennon's minister Corentin and bearing Gwennon's seal. I trust that, since this treaty was the original purpose of the princess's journey, I did no wrong in pursuing the project. If Your Majesty and Master Brulard approve it, you can execute it and return a copy to Ysness."
King and minister glanced over the sheets. The King, toying with the waxed point of his reddish-blond goatee, said: "It appears in good order, though we shall have to study it. Ha, Sir Dorian, we see that you be a useful wight to have about a court. Would that you were amongst our kinsmen. We must needs find posts for them all, notwithstanding that some be unequal to the tasks—"
"He is your kin, forsooth," interrupted Yolanda.
The King frowned. "How mean you, sister?"
"He is your brother now."
"But we have no br—What?" roared the King. "Meanst that you and this fellow ..."
"Certes, I mean it," said Yolanda. "We were wed both by the True Church and by the heathen rites of Armoria."