The Incorporated Knight (31 page)

             
"Practical! There speaks the tradesman! No man of truly azure blood would trouble his head with thoughts of practicality!"

             
Eudoric shrugged. "Suit yourself, Your Royal Highness. I do but try to see beyond the end of my nose—as your sire did not. He hanged so many rebellious peasants that the next year famine swept Franconia, for want of hands to till the soil."

             
"I tire of this dispute," she said.

             
"So, my dear, do I." They rode in silence.

-

             
Where the road from Turonax to Carnutis crosses the river Ust by a rickety bridge, Yolanda said: "Eudoric, we haven't bathed since we left Ysness. Clothar has tried to persuade his courtiers to bathe at least once a fortnight, but so far with little success."

             
"A worthy idea!" said Eudoric. "If we lead the animals round yon river bend, we can unfoul ourselves out of sight of the bridge."

             
A quarter-hour later, they found a spot with space ashore to set down their apparel and a clean, sandy river bottom before them. As
Eudoric
and Forthred began to shed their jackets, Yolanda said:

             
"Ho there! I cannot expose myself before a person of Forthred's low degree!"

             
"Mean you that, were he a count or baron, 'twere all right? Where draw you the line? Would a mere knight—"

             
"Oh, cease your quibbling, Shorty! Forthred, lead the animals back around the bend and tether them
out of sight of your master and me. If you are fain to wash whilst we do, that's your affair."

             
Eudoric resented Yolanda's issuing orders to Forth-red, as if he were her servant; but, not wishing to provoke another tirade, he said nothing. He liked clean-cut lines of authority.

             
Another quarter-hour, and he and Yolanda were standing waist-deep in the water, scrubbing themselves with handfuls of sand. Yolanda said: "You should have thought to get soap in Ysness."

             
"Aye, so I should. Failing that, I should have spent hours hunting for soapwort by the roadside. And I ought to be King of Locania, which indeed I might have been had the parents of a forebear of mine been legally wed."

             
"I'm sorry; I mean not to chide you."

             
Encouraged by her occasional efforts to be companionable, Eudoric remarked: "You're a fine figure of a woman, Yolanda."

             
"It rejoices me that you think so. When we reach lands where—"

             
"A
h
oy there!" shouted a rough voice. Standing on the shore where they had left their clothes stood eight men-at-arms, five of them aiming cocked crossbows. The speaker, a burly, red-bearded fellow, shouted: "Come ashore instanter, ye twain!"

             
"What shall we do?" whispered Yolanda. "From their badges, those are Dorelia's men!"

             
"I fear we must obey," muttered Eudoric. "We're at their mercy. The range is too short to miss. If we run, we get bolts in the back, and the river's too shallow to escape by swimming under water."

             
"Well?" reared Redbeard. "Art coming? Or would ye fain be the butts at target practice?"

             
"Coming," said Eudoric. He and Yolanda dawdled towards the shore while one of the men consulted a piece of parchment, saying:

             
"Aye, these are the genuine twain whereof Bishop
Grippo hath written our master: a vagabond from the Empire, hight Eudoric, and the King's sister, the witch Yolanda. These match the description, and those tethered beasts we passed must bear their baggage."

             
"Hold your aim steady!" said one of the cross-bowmen. "Shoot if the witch begin to utter a spell, lest we be turned to swine."

             
"That were small change," said Yolanda.

             
Redbeard laughed. "Fear nought; she cannot work magic, standing naked in running water without her potions and devices."

             
"Sirrah!" As she reached the shore, Yolanda addressed the redbeard. "It is not proper for persons of your rank to see a royal princess unclad. Pray turn your backs whilst I do clothe myself!"

             
Redbeard guffawed. "Since we've already seen all there is to see, what were the point? Methinks ye could give a lusty man a lively canter."

             
"You dare, you scum!" cried Yolanda, bringing her palm against Redbeard's cheek with force enough to stagger him.

             
"So!" he shouted, and slapped her back.

             
For a heartbeat, Yolanda's expression was of pure amazement; as if she had never before been struck in her life. Then she brought up a fist in a whistling arc against the soldier's jaw. Redbeard went sprawling.

             
"Seize her!" he shouted, scrambling up. "Hugo! Dagobert! Yare! For that, my lady fair, we'll have a tryout in the saddle. Toss the wench on her back and hold her down! Back off there, Master what's-your-name, or you'll get a bolt in the guts!"

             
Throwing Yolanda supine proved easier said than done. She gave Dagobert a punch in the solar plexus that sent him staggering off doubled over, and Hugo got a fist on the nose that started a runnel of blood.

             
But two of the arbalesters laid down their weapons and joined Hugo in seizing the woman.

             
As Yolanda struggled in the hands of the soldiers, and Redbeard fumbled with the fastenings of his breeks, Eudoric's mind raced. If he sprang upon Redbeard, his match in height and weight, could he swing the fellow around as a shield? Or could he dive for his scabbarded sword before the crossbows shot him?

             
A call in a foreign language wafted around the river bend. A swarm of formidable black-and-yellow hornets filled the air with their buzz and fell indiscriminately upon the eight soldiers and the two bathers. As the pair holding Yolanda released her to bat at the insects, Eudoric seized her wrist and dragged her back into the Ust.

             
"Take a deep breath and hold it!" he shouted, and threw himself backwards. As he submerged, the hornets that had alighted upon him flew away. When he brought his face out long enough for a quick breath, he saw that Yolanda had likewise gone under.

             
A glance to shoreward showed the eight soldiers, staggering back upstream towards the bridge, still slapping and yelling. As Eudoric watched, one of them fell, crawled a few paces, and then lay, rolling and thrashing. Presently his movements ceased.

             
Eudoric nudged Yolanda. When she raised her head, he whispered; "Methinks they're gone."

             
Again they waded ashore. Yolanda was hardly recognizable, with a face so red and swollen that her eyes were nearly shut, and her body marked with angry scarlet swellings. The knuckles of her right hand bled from the blow she had landed on Dagobert's metal-studded leather coat. Eudoric supposed that he looked much the same.

             
The fallen soldier lay still with eyes staring blankly, as Forthred approached from around the bend, saying:

             
"Are ye all right, Sir Eudoric and my lady? Oh, pox! They stung you also!"

             
Through swollen lips, Yolanda mumbled: "Forthred, didst unpack my magical gear and work the spell with the green vase?"

             
"Aye, Your Highness. I was out in the river, washing, when the soldiers came by. They'd seen our beasts; they tied their own near the end of the bridge and, leaving one man to watch the horses, came down the river path afoot. I crouched low in the water, so they saw me not. I'd watched Your Highness work your spell aforetime, with the ogre; so I got out the gear and did as nearly as I could remember."

             
"You did not remember quite all the spell," said Yolanda, "or you would have commanded the hornets to assail the troopers only. Still, my lad, you did surprising well."

             
Eudoric thought of pointing out that, had not Yolanda insisted the beasts be taken upstream and tied up in sight of the bridge, they might have avoided discovery by the soldiers in the first place. But he thought it better not to bring up the matter. Instead, he said:

             
"Baldonius warned me against my squire's attempts to play the wizard; but this time it was lucky that he did. Forthred, help us on with our garments. We are too sore from our stings to dress unaided."

             
This time, Yolanda said nothing about exposing herself to a baseborn churl, but gratefully accepted Forthred's help. Eudoric said: "We must find some safe place where we can lie up to recover. Can either of you propose such a refuge?"

             
Yolanda said: "I have a minor spell, to detect the presence of magic. Could I locate some country wise-woman, she were more like to give shelter to a fellow practitioner than would the local folk."

             
"Good!" said Eudoric. "Have at it!"

             
Half an hour later, Yolanda had set up her tripod, whence rose a plume of smoke. Then, kneeling, she held a crystal ball in cupped hands and stared into its depths. Slowly she turned to face all the compass points. At last she straightened up and pointed northwest.

             
"The vibrations come strongest thence," she said. "Belike our goal lies beyond those low hills."

             
It took the rest of the day, with three more halts to work Yolanda's directional spell, before they located a cottage in the woods near the village of Carnutis. The house looked like any other modest Franconian country dwelling, the sort a farmer, neither rich nor poor, might keep; but it lacked such a freeholder's barns, byres, and other outbuildings. Yolanda said:

             
"If I mistake not, that is whence come the vibrations."

             
Leaving Forthred to hold the animals, Eudoric and Yolanda approached the door. Eudoric knocked, then stood aside to let Yolanda talk.

             
A woman opened the door, saying: "Good-afternoon. What would ye?"

             
Eudoric had the impression that all female magicians were either young and beautiful like Yolanda, or withered and old like Svanhalla of Hasselbourne. This one was neither. She was a robust rustic good-wife in well-preserved middle age, plump and rosy-cheeked, with blond hair lightly streaked with gray. She must, Eudoric thought, have been a pretty girl, and she was still attractive.

             
The woman and Yolanda exchanged a long series of greetings and responses in an unfamiliar language. At last Yolanda said:

             
"Eudoric, this is Riguntha of Carnutis, the local healer and seeress. Mistress Riguntha, I present my husband Sir Eudoric of Arduen and his squire Forthred. I have explained our plight."

             
"Come in," said Riguntha cheerfully. "I have a few simples for your stings and can harbor you for a few days. I can also feed you, provided your man go to the village to buy extra provender. Come in!"