"But ..." said Thorolf, nonplused. "I understood ..."
"That I should keep her locked up here until the last penny were paid? Not so. She'll gladly go forth with her trusty friend and come back hither in due course. Won't you, my dear?" he added, turning toward Yvette.
"Yea, Master," she replied in a level, expressionless voice, like someone speaking an unfamiliar language. "Hail, Sergeant Thorolf! Wouldst care to show me the sights of Zurshnitt?"
"I shall be delighted," said Thorolf, bowing but with a tinge of uncertainty in his voice. Her blank, expressionless stare and fiat monotone were utterly unlike the vivacious, expressive, self-assertive Yvette whom he had brought to Zurshnitt. This, he thought, deserved investigation; but it would not do to betray his suspicions now.
"Sergeant!" said Orlandus crisply, "methought you'd have a carriage for her. Those silken shoon will not long endure the cobbles."
"I expected not—" began Thorolf.
"You thought she'd remain mewed up? A trivial misunderstanding. Since 'tis partly my fault, I'll lend mine own carriage, freshly imported from Sogambrium. When she return hither, you will I am sure provide suitable transport."
He turned to command a gate guard. Presently a brougham, black with a golden coat of arms on either side, drawn by a pair of matched blacks and driven by a yellow-robed coachman, trotted out from behind the keep. With a charming smile, Orlandus said to Thorolf:
"You must return to visit. We shall have much to say to each other."
As the vehicle, with the coachman straining at the brake, inched its way down the winding road on the far side of Castle Hill, Thorolf examined the conveyance with interest. It was his first ride in such a carriage, of which there were only a few in Zurshnitt. These vehicles had come into vogue a few decades before among the nobility and the richer merchants. Owners of these newfangled conveyances at once began pestering their governments for improvements in streets and roads, to let them travel more comfortably than on the back of horse or mule, in horse litters, or in farm carts. One could now go by carriage all the way from Zurshnitt to Sogambrium or Letitia.
Thorolf spent the rest of the day in giving Yvette a tour of the Rhaetian capital, explaining its sights and monuments: "Now that, Countess, is a statue of our great patriot, Arnalt of Thessen, who routed the Carinthians at Gorbee and so laid the foundations of our Commonwealth ..."
"What is that?" asked Yvette, pointing to what looked like a large animal covered with tawny-yellow fur, lying in a gutter.
Delighted to see his love show a spark of interest in anything, Thorolf replied: "That's a troll. Methought you knew about them."
"I had never seen one. Is it alive?"
"Aye; you can see its ribs move. Probably sleeping off a debauch. A few dwell in the city, doing menial work requiring great strength; but when paid off they drink themselves tap."
"I see," she said, relapsing into her former state. To Thorolf's further expositions she answered only: "Yea, Sergeant," in a leaden monotone. Thorolf felt he was showing the town to an utter stranger inhabiting Yvette's fetching body. Moreover, this stranger had no interest in the sights of Zurshnitt. At last he said:
"My dear, yonder lies the famous Zoological Park of Zurshnitt. Wouldst care for a stroll therein?"
"Aye, Sergeant, if you wish." She looked at her feet. "But these light shoon are unsuited to walking. Couldst purchase me a pair of stout overshoes?"
"Hm. No shoemaker could make us a pair whilst we wait. But— I have it! There's a shop run by high-born ladies for charitable purposes. People give it their used goods, which the ladies sell cheaply and devote the money to good works. They may have a pair that would fit."
An hour later they descended from the carriage at the entrance to the zoo, with Yvette more substantially shod. Thorolf told the driver to wait, paid the admission fee, and escorted Yvette in.
"Now these," he explained, pointing to a group of huge, black, long-horned bovines, "are aurochs from the Vilitzian Forest, in the northern marches of the Empire. Albeit they resemble our domestic cattle, they are fierce and untamable. Over here is a unicorn from the Forest of Bricken, now a rare species." The mouse-brown beast indicated, munching hay and browse, was the size of a buffalo but of more porcine appearance. Its huge head was decorated with bony bumps and a spirally twisted single horn.
They moved on to the next enclosure, in which lay a large, pallid reptile, like a long-legged crocodile, covered with short hairlike bristles. The animal sprawled immobile with closed eyes, only an occasional movement of its rib cage indicating life.
"That," said Thorolf, "is the Helvetian mountain dragon. There are still a few up in the troll country."
For once Yvette said something other than "Yea, Sergeant." She replied: "Aye, Master Thorolf. The Emperor hath a similar beast from Pathenia in his menagerie in Sogambrium."
"How looked it, Countess?"
"Much like yon reptile, save without the bristles and of a darker hue. As with other reptiles, the sight thereof provides but a minimum of enchantment, as it lies all day without moving a whisker. Since the day wanes, should you not proceed to your inn? A repast were welcome."
"A splendiferous idea! The park will soon close anyway. Let's back to the carriage."
As they turned away from the dragon's enclosure, Thorolf found himself confronting a group of men. There were seven, in the sober dress of traveling merchants, but strapping fellows who bore themselves like soldiers. One stepped forward. "Sergeant Thorolf, me-thinks?"
Thorolf bristled; these were probably the men who had sought him at the Green Dragon and therefore henchmen of the Duke of Landai. "And what if I be?" he said, sliding a hand toward his hilt. As a soldier of his rank on active service, Thorolf was not required to immobilize his blade with peace wires.
"My good sir," said the man, "we have a proposal that, of a surety, will capture your interest." The man made a gesture. Two of the group skirted around Thorolf and Yvette and leaped the low fence about the dragon's enclosure. Thorolf, fearing attack from behind, whirled in time to see one of the twain wrench open the cage door, while the other whirled a sling he took from beneath his clothes.
"Ho there!" shouted Thorolf. "Are you mad?"
The leaden sling bullet struck the mountain dragon in the ribs with a solid thump. The big emerald eyes snapped open; up came the fanged head. The dragon lurched to its feet and started for the open door. From its gaping jaws came a long, groaning bellow. The two who had aroused it ran.
Other visitors shrieked and stampeded away from the dragon's cage. Behind him, Thorolf heard a scream in Yvette's familiar soprano. Turning again, he saw two other pseudo-merchants dragging her off. She struggled, but the men easily bore the slight woman away. Behind Thorolf, the dragon roared as it emerged.
As the spectators fled, keepers converged on the site, shouting questions and demands. Two dragged up a large net, which they threw over the dragon's head and forequarters. Another struck one of the men dragging Yvette with a quarterstaff. Staggered, the abductor released Yvette's arm, whereupon the Countess kicked the other kidnapper in the crotch.
"She-devil!" yelled the man, clutching his affected parts.
Trying to hasten to Yvette with drawn sword, Thorolf found his way blocked by a cluster of zookeepers, one of whom cried: "Seize him! 'Tis he who enlarged the dragon!"
"Fools!" shouted Thorolf. "Yon runagates loosed the beast, to kidnap the lady—"
He tried to push past the keepers; but they closed ranks before him. When one grabbed him, he knocked the man down with his free hand; but another threw a net over him. It was smaller than the net in which the dragon now struggled, writhed, and snapped but quite as effective in immobilizing its victim.