I laughed, glad to find something worth laughing at. “That’s just Dominic. He’s never had much finesse in his dealings-he has even less tact than you do.” Joachim frowned at this. “I won’t keep you longer,” I said, standing up. “Have you heard anything more from those priests about the Holy Toe?”
“I won’t hear anything more until they arrive,” he said gravely.
Evrard was already back in my study, once again settled in my best chair. At least he wasn’t wearing my dressing gown. “Why did you bring up the old wizard over lunch?” I asked him shortly.
“You didn’t want me too?” he asked, so much remorse in his wide blue eyes it was almost comical.
“Certainly not,” I said, sitting down in my second-best chair and refusing to be mollified. “Several people have already realized that if something was bad enough to make you squeak with terror, it was more than illusion. As soon as Dominic realizes it-or has one of the knights point it out to him-he’s going to organize a military expedition to roust the creature out of the old wizard’s cottage.”
“But he couldn’t do that,” said Evrard, concerned. “The old wizard’s magic would stop him.”
“Of course. The most Dominic could accomplish with his knights would be to distract the old wizard enough that he would let down the binding spells containing his creature, and it would escape.”
I hadn’t thought of this possibility until I said it, but it immediately seemed disturbingly likely.
Evrard smiled at me. “You’re even more frightened of that creature than I am! But you don’t need to worry about the old wizard. He has a powerful binding spell to hold it down.”
“And what do you know about binding spells?”
“I can do many spells,” he replied in a perfectly sober voice, in spite of the twitching corners of his mouth. “Watch this.”
I jumped up and interrupted the binding spell he started to put on my foot. “I don’t think I need a demonstration. Besides, you have a word wrong in the Hidden Language-right there.”
“Oh,” he said in chagrin. “You’re right. You would have gotten your foot free in no time.” He smiled up at me, and I sat down again. “At least now I know my mistake. You see, I almost never make the same mistake twice.”
“That’s good,” I said, sounding surly even in my own ears. Since I was irritated with Joachim for being a priest, and irritated with Evrard for being a young wizard, maybe I should be irritated with myself for being me.
“Even aside from his binding spells,” Evrard continued, “I’m certain the old wizard could stop Dominic. ‘A competent wizard should always be victorious against an armed knight.’ They taught us that in thaumaturgy class.”
“And would you always be victorious?”
Evrard leaned forward and dropped his voice, though there was no one to overhear us. “Don’t tell the duchess, but I was never very good at those spells. But I’m working on them!”
I tried to decide if I was good at the spells to stop armed knights. I had never had occasion to try. But Evrard was certainly right in one respect: a wizard who could grow thirty feet tall in the middle of a whirlwind would not find Dominic a problem.
PART FOUR — THE WOOD NYMPH
I
Since I had told Evrard I really would turn him into a frog if he brought up the old wizard and his monster again, I expected dinner to be more quiet than lunch. Once again, Dominic seated Diana next to him, and I ended up next to Nimrod.
The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that she must have known the huntsman earlier. For that matter, from his polished language and behavior he himself must be other than what he at first seemed. It might explain a lot, even her surprising lack of ease when they first met, if she had last met him, say, in a very different context. I tried again to question him when dinner was almost over.
“So I understand the duchess is enjoying catching horned rabbits,” I said casually. “Tell me, have you tried to track them down in the valley of Saint Eusebius? The valley seems to have strong powers of attraction for creatures of magic. I’m planning to go there tomorrow, to explore its magical properties more thoroughly, and I was wondering …”
But I never got a chance to say more. At that point, Dominic rose to his feet. He looked pale, unusual in someone usually rather ruddy, and highly determined. He started to speak, got as far as “My lords and ladies-” and his voice cracked. Evrard smiled, but no one else dared.
Dominic tried again. “My lords and ladies of Yurt! I would like your attention. I have a special announcement to make. As you know, I have served King Haimeric of Yurt, my uncle, for most of my life, at present as his regent. But recently I have been thinking of doing something rather different.”
There was a murmur of surprise. Dominic was as much a fixture of the castle as the king’s rose garden.
“In fact, once the king and queen return and release me from my regency, I think I shall leave Yurt. I have not yet decided where I shall go.”
My first startled thought-the thought of a city merchant’s son-was to wonder what he would live on. He had all a prince could want as long as he was in Yurt, but his wealth was based on the revenues from the castle’s own lands-really nothing more than a glorified allowance from the king.
The silence was broken by Hugo, the youth who had been training in knighthood under Dominic’s direction. “You can come back to the City with me at the end of the summer if you like,” he said. “Mother and Father won’t mind.”
Dominic smiled, almost affectionately. “I’ll consider it,” he said, then became determined again. “Before I go, there is something very important I want to settle.”
He turned toward the duchess, on whom a horrible realization seemed to be dawning, and went down on one knee before her on the flagstones.
If I had determined to propose marriage to a woman I had already decided six years ago I didn’t want to marry, then I would have done it in private. But that apparently wouldn’t do for the royal regent.
He took a ring out of his pocket. From where I was sitting I could see the firelight glint on the diamond. It was an enormous stone. We had in the castle treasury the jewelry that had once belonged to Dominic’s mother, and this must be from the collection.
Diana looked, for once in her life, completely nonplussed. I had the sickening feeling one sometimes has when seeing a bad accident about to happen, that everything is taking place very slowly but one is too paralyzed to do anything about it.
“My lady, I offer you this ring as a token,” said the regent gravely. “A token of my love for you, which I dare to hope you may return. A token of my wish that you and I should become man and wife.”
This had gone far beyond paying court to a woman to keep her from making a spectacle of herself with somebody else. Dominic, I thought, had simply lost his mind.
Diana took a deep breath. “Prince Dominic,” she said in a high, clear voice, “you have set my maidenly heart aflutter.” She did not take the ring held out to her.
I glanced toward Nimrod beside me and found his face stiff with tension.
“While I fully appreciate your sentiments,” the duchess continued, “your proposal is so sudden that I will need at least a week to give you my answer.” She gave a sudden, saucy smile. “After all, I’ve been single nearly as long as you have-that is, all my life-and it’s hard to contemplate such a complete change so suddenly.”
“Of course,” said Dominic, watching her face as though searching for a hidden meaning.
I caught the chaplain’s eye across the table. If he said, “I told you so,” I would deserve it.
Diana rose to her feet with a swirl of the skirt she had put on for dinner. “Right now, I still need to concentrate on catching the last of those great horned rabbits. If you don’t mind, Prince, I shall go to my room and plan tomorrow’s hunt.” Dominic nodded shortly.