That did it. He turned and ran. The tingling alerted him to his re-crossing of the border, but he didn't stop to look—he kept running until a splat and a fortissimo yowl told him the manticore had collided with the Wall of Octroi again. Then Matt turned, chest heaving, and risked a look.
The manticore was just picking itself up off the ground, glaring at him. "Brave knight indeed, to flee rather than fight!"
"I told you, I'm a minstrel," Matt panted.
"Oh, aye! A wizard who chants magical verses!"
"So how many knights do you know who do that?" Matt retorted.
"None." The manticore narrowed its eyes, watching him. "What meat do your thoughts chew, mortal?"
"Tough and stringy," Matt answered. "If you're right, and a minstrel reciting verse is going to make magic happen—and it does, I know that from past experience—how come—"
"Your spell only slowed me, but did not stop me?" The manticore's teeth flashed in the moonlight. "Why, Latruria has been steeped in magic for nearly a century, mortal—but you forget what sort of magic that is!"
"So you're figuring I use Heaven-based magic, and it doesn't work so well in a Hell-focused environment?"
"Why else?" the manticore retorted.
"Good question," Matt admitted—but it was better than the manticore knew. His magic had worked well enough in Ibile, and that desolated country had wallowed in the mire of evil magic far longer than Latruria had—at least, going by what little Matt had heard. No, there had to be some other reason.
"Cease to gnaw at it," the manticore advised. "Your magic will brew no foam here, and that is enough to know."
"For all intents and purposes," Matt admitted—but he knew it wasn't enough. The scholar in him may have been stunted, but it was still there, and wanted to discover the answer just for its own sake—but there was a practical side, too. If he could find out why, he might be able to reverse the effect. Suddenly, he was itching to cross the border and try another spell, just to see what happened.
But not with the manticore there. "You're a very repressive presence, you know?"
"Aye." The steely teeth flashed. "And I shall press you into keeping for supper as well as dinner if you cross again."
"Oh, yeah?" Matt felt a stroke of inspiration. After all, he hadn't really used the wand. He stepped forward again, going carefully, and fired a broadside—meaning he pointed his wand to concentrate the magic, and tried singing the spell.
"Go away from my border,
Go away from my door,
Get away from my bankside,
And bother me no more!"
It seemed to be working! The manticore's eyes narrowed; it yowled in protest; but it backed away step by step as Matt advanced. He set a foot near the border, set the other foot across it...
With a yowl of triumph the manticore sprang.
Matt gave a yowl of his own and leaped back—but steel teeth clanged, and pain seared his finger. In a panic, he looked down—but all five were there, though his index finger was coated with blood. He waggled it, still feeling the sink of horror—but the nail didn't fall off.
"Aagg! Ptooie!"
Matt looked up and saw the manticore spitting and coughing, then sticking a paw between its jaws and wiping. "Faugh! What manner of man are you?" The monster glowered up at him and accused, "You sought to poison me!"
"Oh, no." Matt felt a surge of renewed confidence. "Believe me, I wasn't really planning on having you take a strip of skin off my finger."
"Rejoice that I took no more than skin!"
"I do, I really do." Matt whipped out a handkerchief and wiped off his finger. "But if that's what just a piece of my skin does to your system, imagine what the rest of me would do!"
" 'Twas not your flesh, dunce, but your wand!"
"My wand?" Matt stared down at the stick he had dropped. Sure enough, there was only a stub of it left—and the end was as clean as if it had been polished. "No wonder you got a tummyache!"
"Vile poisoner," the monster snarled.
"Hey, you didn't have to go biting where you weren't asked." But Matt stared at the stub, severely shaken. That could have been his arm—or his neck!
Worse, he had lost one of his most potent magical aids—and virtually his only chance of piercing the magical inertia of Latruria!
Wait a minute—what chance? Obviously, the wand hadn't worked too well, either.
"Do not come," the manticore snarled. "Be advised, be warned! Come not into Latruria!"
Matt summoned shreds of resolve. "If I were a peasant or even an ordinary nobleman, you wouldn't talk that way to me!"
"Aye." All those teeth curved in a grin again. "But you are neither peasant nor ordinary, are you? And the flavor of your wand notwithstanding, I believe I would find you to be a man of excellent taste!"
"That's a very old line," Matt objected. However, he had to admit it was effective.
Queen Alisande stepped out onto the battlements to gaze at the rising sun, feeling the loneliness and the sense of abandonment that came with the aftereffects of a bout of morning sickness in her husband's absence. She was going through all this for him, and he was not here to support her through it!
Her lady-in-waiting hurried after her with a fur robe, tucking it about her and clucking. "Your Majesty, no! Not in naught but your shift! And the air so brisk! You shall catch a chill!"
"Oh, I shall thrive, Lady." But the robe was welcome, Alisande had to admit. She clasped the edges and said impatiently, "Thank you, good Elise, but I would be alone to compose my thoughts in the sunrise."
"Majesty, you are not well! You were but now seized with a spasm of vomiting!"
"It has passed," Alisande said in a tone of steel, "and I must needs clear my head with the freshness of the air. Nay, stay near me if you must, but do not speak, for I would have silence."
"As your Majesty wishes," Elise murmured, and fell back a pace, wringing her hands.
Alisande gathered the robe more tightly about her and stared off toward the sunrise, then automatically turned to her right, gazing southward, as her thoughts turned angrily to Matthew, who should have been here to hold her royal head, to hold and soothe, to...
Then she saw the spread of vast wings, black against the burgeoning rose of the morning sky, and the long sinuous neck that thrust out ahead of them. She stood a moment, frozen, then turned to hurry back inside. "Quickly, dress me! The dragon Stegoman returns!"
"So quickly?" Lady Elise cried. "In only an afternoon and a night? How could he have found the Lord Wizard so soon?"
"He could not," Alisande snapped. "Pray Heaven he has no worse news than that!"
But he did. Stegoman was still blowing and fuming when Alisande hurried down to the courtyard, and the grooms were hovering anxiously about him.
"Fetch him the side of a steer!" Alisande snapped. "He must be a-hungered after so lengthy a flight!"
"I thank thee, Majesty," the dragon rumbled. "Aye, I am a-hungered—but even more, I thirst!"
"A barrel of ale, quickly!" Alisande snapped to another groom, who paused only to duck his head in a hurried bow before he ran off.
"What news?" Alisande snapped.
"None bad." Stegoman seemed disgusted. "None of any sort! I did not find the Lord Wizard—but I most certainly did find the border!"
Alisande stared. "Has King Boncorro marked it plainly, then? Are not rivers and rows of trees enough for him?"
"It would seem not," the dragon said with disgust. "He has cast some confounded sort of invisible wall all along the border. Not knowing, I flew into it full-force, and 'tis only by good fortune that I did not break my neck! Nay, it sent me spiraling earthward, and I was hard put to pull out of the dive and find an updraft to send me aloft! I tried again, but more cautiously, and slammed into that barrier once more. Then I flew some miles farther west and tried again, but with the same result. I flew back and wended my way east, some miles past my first encounter, and soared once more southward—but the wall stru
ck me on the snout again, and nearly crumpled me anew!"
"Oh, poor beast!" Alisande cried, and stepped up close, her hand rising to the great dark patch at the end of Stegoman's snout. Lady Elise cried out with alarm, but Alisande paid her no heed. "Aye, I can see where the scales are broke away!"
"They shall grow anew." Stegoman pulled his head back a little. "I am grateful for your sympathy, Majesty Alisande, but I beg you to withhold your touch—'tis quite sore."
"Aye, it must be indeed!" Alisande drew her hand back. "But how is this, Great One? My husband told me he had seen folk rowing across the border on the rivers and trudging across it with packs on their backs!"
"Even so; I saw them, too, and not in one place, but a dozen, for I flew along that borderland for twenty miles or more." Stegoman's eyes glowed with anger. "Mortal folk have no difficulty, show no sign even of knowing the exact moment when they cross the border—but I could not cross it!"
A sudden realization of strategy seized Alisande, making her stand straighten. "Dragons are forbidden, then."
" 'Tis rank discrimination! Why should we be barred?"
"Why," Alisande said slowly, "because you are the Free Folk, and pride yourself on not serving any but yourselves—most notably, not serving Evil."
"King Boncorro cannot trust us, then, can he?" Stegoman said slowly.
"He cannot. Folk who are evil may, at least, be trusted to do whatever will most advance their own cause—but good folk can be trusted only to do what their consciences dictate, which is not always in the interests of a king! Mere mortal folk can do little damage, but an angry dragon is a fearsome sight indeed!"
"It is." Stegoman preened a bit; whatever influences he might have been immune to, flattery wasn't among them. "Nay, on reflection, I cannot blame the king for wishing to exclude us. I wonder, though, if Matthew shall gain entry through that wretched wall, or if it will keep out any whose will is not in accord with King Boncorro's."
Alisande felt a stab of anxiety. "I hope not, or those of my subjects who have journeyed south to visit would already harbor treason in their hearts. Mayhap if you were to walk across the border, rather than fly...?" She frowned. "I own that it worries me greatly, Stegoman, to learn there is so much commerce across that border, that you did see more than a dozen folk crossing in only a score of miles!"
The dragon nodded. "And half of those miles must be impassable, being mountain peaks."
"Indeed! 'Tis bad enough that folk do cross that border in both directions and so readily—but 'tis even more alarming to learn that you cannot join Matthew!"
Stegoman frowned. "Surely, given such a state of affairs, he would follow the course of prudence and..." His voice trailed off; then he said, "No. He would not, would he?"
"Nay," Alisande agreed. "We speak of Matthew, after all." She turned away to hide a sudden stab of anxiety—a stab that she felt in her abdomen, and her hand automatically moved toward it. Again she forced it away.
"Your Majesty!" Lady Constance came running up, short of breath. "Your Majesty, a messenger has come from Sir Guy de Toutarien!"
Hope sprang again in Alisande's heart. "Bring him, bring him at once!"
"He comes," the lady said.
The messenger strode quickly up and knelt, bowing his head.
"Enough, man!" Alisande cried impatiently. "There is no time for ceremony now! Tell me your message!"
"Why, your Majesty," said the messenger, standing up again, " 'tis simply that Sir Guy does send to say that he hearkens to your message and hastens to find Lord Matthew and join him."
"Thank Heaven!" Alisande breathed, but amazement followed hard on relief. "How did you find him so quickly?"
The messenger shrugged. "I rode toward the western mountains, and when I came in sight of them, a rider came up beside me. 'Good day, herald,' said he. 'Good day,' said I, turning to look full upon him, and added 'sir,' for though he wore no armor, he was girt around with a knight's belt. 'The mountains are a lonely place to ride,' he said. 'Who could you seek there?' 'Sir Guy de Toutarien, sir,' I replied. 'I have a message from the queen.' 'Why, I am he,' said the knight. 'What is her message?' "
Lady Constance gasped. "He knew you did seek him! But how?"
"How?" Alisande shrugged impatiently. "Who can say? The earth told the grass, and the grass told the trees; then they told Sir Guy. He is so much a part of this land that the very air breathes its secrets to him. 'How' matters naught; it only signifies that he has heard, and goes!"
"He advises that you send me next to seek out the wizard Saul," the herald added, "for surely, says he, two wizards shall be of greater effect than one alone."
"You have named it! Rest, then go!"
"The Black Knight does ask a boon, though, Your Majesty," the herald said.
"He has but to name it!"
"He asks that you shelter his wife and child until he comes again."
"Aye, certes!" Alisande looked up to the nearest knight. "A company of knights, to serve as escort to the Lady Yverne!"
"He said she would come of her own," the herald said quickly.
Alisande stared, horrified. "A gentle lady, traveling with none to guard her? And with a babe! I hope someday to boast that any woman may journey thus in safety in my land—but I would not think it yet!"
A sentry cried out from the western tower.
Alisande turned and followed his pointing arm. There, with the morning sun gilding his wings, came a very strange monster—one with the head of a dragon, the hindquarters of a lion, and the wings of an eagle—if eagles had ever had wingspans of fifty feet.
" 'Tis the dracogriff Narlh!" Alisande cried. "But what does he carry?"
The answer became clear as the monster came closer. A woman rode between his wings, carrying something in her arms.
" 'Tis the Lady Yverne!" Lady Constance cried.
Then they all had to turn away, shielding their faces from blowing dust and grit as the dracogriff settled to the ground—all except Stegoman, who only slitted his eyes and called out, "Well met, cat tail! How came you here?"
"As if you didn't know," Narlh snorted. "I hate flying!"
"The more gallant you were, then, to bring me," Lady Yverne said.
"Well, for you, sure," Narlh grumbled, turning his head back to look at his passenger—and she leaned forward to kiss his nose. He yanked his head back, but his scales seemed to redden.
Two knights were already there to help her down. "Descend, Lady! Yet will you not give us your burden first?"
"Only to a woman," Yverne said firmly, and Queen Alisande herself beat Lady Elise and Lady Constance to the draco's side. She reached up, and the lady handed down her precious bundle. Alisande cradled it in her elbow, turning the blanket back to reveal a smooth little face, blinking itself awake. "Oh, how sweet! But come quickly, milady, for he wakes!"
"She." Yveme slid down, the knights catching her at waist and shoulder to ease her fall. She took the baby from Alisande with a smile. "I am blessed that my firstborn is a girl—but I hope also to give Sir Guy a boy."
"I hope so, too," Alisande said fervently. Sir Guy was the secret heir to Emperor Hardishane, and very eager not to resume the throne—but it was vital to the safety of Europe, and to the triumph of God and Good, that the male line of Hardishane's descent be unbroken. "Come, you must be wearied!" Alisande led her guest away toward the castle, then turned back to call, "Many thanks, Narlh! Grooms! Fetch this noble dracogriff an ox to eat!"
"Thanks, your Majesty," Narlh called back, then turned to Stegoman. "Your family sent their greetings, just in case I should bump into you, fish face."
"I hope they have honored you as you deserve, feather tip." And the two monsters went away toward the stables, companionably trading insults.
But Alisande didn't notice—she was too busy ogling the new arrival. "Oh, you are so fortunate to have a child so soon!"
"I have not the cares of state to distract my body from its purpose," Yverne said, smiling. "You must loa
d more of your burden onto your husband, Majesty." Then she looked at Alisande more sharply, and stared. "Yes, you must, and right quickly, too!"
Alisande turned away, blushing. "Is it so obvious as that?"
"To any who has borne a child, aye—but do not ask me how. Oh, I rejoice for you, your Majesty! For you, and for all the land!" Then Yverne stared in horror. "But what a time for Lord Matthew to be gone playing the knight errant!"
"Aye," Alisande said grimly, "and the more fool I, for having sent him from me. But he was restless, and I could not see any harm in the mission—nor that it might take any great time, either." She closed the solar door firmly behind them, in the face of an amazed guard. "Come, sit in the chair by the window and nurse, for the babe begins to fret!"
"Aye, the poor thing. I thank your Majesty." Yverne sat down, loosened her bodice, and cuddled the baby against her breast. She sighed with pleasure and satisfaction, gazing down at the little face.
Alisande felt a pang at her own heart, seeing the other woman radiant with happiness. "I regret that I cannot stay to be a proper hostess and give you full company."
"Not stay!" Yverne looked up, appalled. "Your Majesty! You do not mean to go after your husband! Not at such a time!"
"But I must," Alisande said simply, "for what would I do if he did not come back to me?"
CHAPTER SIX
Matt didn't know which had shaken him more, the close shave or the manticore itself. Either way, it took until nightfall for him to work up the courage to try again—especially since the logical question was, why bother? After all, it wasn't as if Latruria was about to attack Merovence!
Or was it?
What was going on in Latruria that King Boncorro didn't want one of Alisande's wizards to see?
So the manticore itself was answer enough. If the king or one of his officials—say, his Lord Chancellor—had sicced the monster on Matt to keep him out, there must be a really good reason why he should go in! So he pumped up his courage, hunted around in the moonlight, and finally found a fold in the earth that he might have overlooked even in daylight. You couldn't really call it a gully—it was only seven feet or so deep, and scarcely wide enough for Matt to walk through without turning sideways. It looked like the kind of thing a glacier might have gouged as an afterthought on its way back up the peak for the long summer.
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