Kedrigern in Wanderland

by John Morressy

  Dyrax could think of no appropriate response, and attempted none. They rode a bit farther, until Kedrigern gave a happy shout, reined in his steed, and jumped to the ground, dropping to his knees in a patch of bright golden flowers.

  “Haemony!” he cried. “The real thing, Dyrax, genuine haemony! I almost didn’t recognize it with the flowers in full bloom!”

  “Is haemony good, Master Kedrigern?” asked Dyrax, dismounting.

  “It’s wonderful! Haemony is of sovereign use against all enchantments and ghastly apparitions. It’s also good for mildew and damp.”

  “Is it really? Do you mind if I gather some? In case I return home someday, it might help around the castle. My father was always—” Dyrax checked himself with a sharp intake of breath and began to pluck up the small yellow flowers, keeping his eyes lowered.

  Kedrigern studied him for a moment and at last said,

  “Make sure you get the roots. That’s where their strength is.,’

  “The roots. Yes. Thank you,” said Dyrax, keeping his eyes averted. “Tell me, Master Kedrigern, how did you learn of this wondrous plant? I’ve never seen it myself.”

  “You may have seen the plant, but never in bloom. It needs a special soil for that. Most of the time it has darkish leaves with prickles all over them. Rather unattractive. I heard about it from a shepherd lad. He wasn’t much to look at himself, poor chap, but he knew every virtuous plant and healing herb under the sun, and he loved to talk about them. He showed me a little dried-up root and said that it was called ‘haemony.’ Better than moly for protection, he claimed, and that’s saying a lot. He told me how to recognize it, but from that day to this I never saw so much as a stalk of it,” said the wizard, rolling up his sleeves. “I intend to lay in a good supply. So your father’s a king, is he?”

  “Yes, my father is Lutermine, King of the—” Dyrax said, taken off his guard by the unexpected question. He groaned and looked sheepishly at the wizard.

  “I thought so. Hard to disguise good breeding. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, my boy.”

  “It isn’t my birth I’m ashamed of, Master Kedrigern. On the contrary, I’m proud of my parents and I miss them greatly.”

  “Why did you leave them in the first place?”

  Solemnly, the youth said, “I have loved and lost, Master Kedrigern.”

  “Not an uncommon condition among healthy young males. But that’s just the time when a man needs his family to cheer him up.”

  “Ab, but you see, they would expect me to pine and mope for a time, grow pale and sigh and wander about the castle in a disheveled state, and at last get over my sorrow and find a new love,”

  Knocking a bit of dirt from a haemony root, Kedrigern said, “It’s been known to happen.”

  “To other men, perhaps. But I know in my heart that I can never love again. Being a prince, I have obligations, and being a devoted son, I would accede to my parents’ wishes. For reasons of state, they would have me enter a loveless marriage with some beautiful young princess.”

  “Give it a try, Dyrax. You might be pleasantly surprised.”

  The youth sighed, shook his head sadly, and tugged at a haemony stalk. “No, good wizard. For me there can be no one but the fair Kressimonda.”

  “That’s a pretty name.”

  “A name befitting her matchless beauty,” said Dyrax reverently. “Kressimonda, Kressimonda! Hair the color of blown embers, eyes like the midday skies at harvest time, skin like cream, a breath as sweet and fragrant as a meadow of flowers

  “Sounds lovely,” Kedrigern murmured.

  “Graceful as a cat, gentle as a doe, blithe as a butterfly, laughter sweet as birdsong, a voice like crystal chimes in a spring breeze, a silken hand, a tiny foot . . . ah, Kressimonda, Kressimonda!” the youth rhapsodized.

  “Clearly, you are fond of the lady. Is there any possibility of a reconciliation?”

  “She has married another,” said Dyrax in a doomed voice. “Forced by her calculating parents, she has wed an aging lecher, a wealthy lord who lives in a gleaming palace, where he dines off plates of gold with diamond-encrusted tableware. We, who had been sweethearts since childhood, who had sworn to love forever while we could barely lisp one another’s names, were tom asunder. She was driven by others’ greed into the arms of a doddering miser.”

  “How old is this miser? Maybe it’s only a matter of waiting a year or two

  “He is quite twenty-eight, at least. Perhaps as much as thirty,” said Dyrax with scorn.

  “I see. That could mean a long wait.”

  “I am not a man for waiting, Master Kedrigern. Immediately I learned of Kressimonda’s wedding, I armed my-

  self and rode to the villain’s castle. I fought my way through a hundred guards to reach her side, and shouted in a great voice, “I have come for you, my Kressimonda! The ordeal is over! I shall carry you off to my mountain stronghold, and there we shall live and love through all our days!”

  “And . . . ?“ Kedrigern asked in a hushed, expectant voice.

  Dyrax heaved a deep despairing sigh that seemed to empty his body of breath and hope. He tore up a cluster of baemony with a violent gesture and shook the dirt free with a vehemence that scattered petals around him in a golden shower and got little bits of dirt all over Kedrigern, who went on with his own gathering and said nothing more. After a long pause, Dyrax said in a choked voice. “She told me that her husband was kind and generous and very affectionate. She praised his wonderful sense of humor. She said that they were happy together, and expressed her fond wish that I become as a brother to them both. I spumed the words she had been tricked into uttering, Master Kedrigern. I left the castle, broken-hearted, but first I proclaimed to all present that I would love no one but Kressimonda, and never marry another. I have spoken strong words, Master Kedrigern, and cannot retract them.”

  “There are extenuating circumstances. You spoke in a moment of extreme stress.”

  “No, Master Kedrigern, I will keep my word and win back my Kressimonda. If I perform some great feat, she will hear of it. Her eyes will be opened.”

  “But if she really is happily married . .

  “I have said what I have said, Master Kedrigern. Honor’s at the stake. I must be firm.”

  “Whatever you say, Dyrax. It’s your life. How are you doing with the haemony?”

  “I have a great sufficiency. More than I can carry.”

  “I’ll take whatever you don’t want. I know a few

  people who’ll be glad to get a sprig or two of this. Are you ready to move on?”

  “Quite ready, Master Kedrigern. You say that this plant will protect us againsf enchantment?”

  “It will indeed. Just carry it next to your skin, or hang it around your neck,” said the wizard as he stuffed plants into his saddlebag, retaining one which he rubbed clean with his fingers and knotted around the chain of his medallion. “Like this. Or tuck it securely into your waistband. Just be sure it touches your skin.”

  He mounted the black steed, who had been contentedly browsing in the haemony patch beside them, and led the way, feeling much more confident and secure. Dyrax, too, rode with a bit more assurance, and his glances to the side were belligerent rather than apprehensive. Thus they rode until late afternoon, when they came to a promising campsite: the ground was flat and dry, firewood was abundant, and a clear stream ran nearby.

  “This seems a goodly place to pass the night,” Dyrax observed.

  “Looks fine to me. Do you feel any tingling in the air?”

  “None whatsoever.”

  “Neither do I. It must be safe.”

  And so it was. They built a fire, dined simply from their own meager store, and slept without alarm or disturbance until first light. They washed in the stream, but to be on the safe side, did not drink from it, relying instead on their own water-bottles. After a hasty breakfast, they were back on the road.

  In a short time they emerged from the forest into an open meadow covered with
an odd grayish-white stubble. It looked much like an new-mown field, except that the stubble, instead of being brittle and dry, was quite lively. The tiny stumps writhed in rippling waves of motion.

  Their path led directly across the field, bisecting the carpet of wriggling stubble. Kedrigern’s steed went on

  unperturbed, but Dyrax’s horse whinnied in fear, reared up with rolling eyes, and set its feet firmly.

  “He won’t go on, Master Kedrigern. He’s frightened,” Dyrax called to the wizard.

  “What’s there to fear? It’s only an empty . . .“ Kedrigern’s voice faltered as he looked more closely at the grayish-white stumps beside the path. Motioning to Dyrax to hold his ground, he dismounted and hunkered down for a serious inspection.

  The stumps were not vegetation. They were fingers.

  Swallowing and licking suddenly dry lips, Kedrigern said in a subdued voice, “Dyrax, I think it would be best if you blindfolded the horse and led him across. And keep to the path. Make sure you keep to the path and don’t walk on the . . . the stubble.”

  Dyrax did as the wizard suggested, and asked no questions then or thereafter. He crossed the field without a glance to either side, his eyes fixed on the figure of Kedrigern riding before him.

  Kedrigern, though he kept up a stalwart front, was dismayed. Those blackened nails and that peeling mottled fungoid flesh had given him a turn. A field of dead man’s fingers—and dead women’s and children’s, too, judging by the size of some of them—was a thoroughly nasty piece of work. Bad enough to see them sticking up out of the ground at all, but that obscene wriggling, as if they were beckoning to him, exceeded all limits. Whatever power lay behind this enchantment was certain to be something very unpleasant, and not the sort of thing to encounter when one’s magic is not at peak operating efficiency.

  And yet he had to get out soon, for Princess’s sake, and there was no sure way out but to track down the source of the enchantment and neutralize it. How he would do this he had no idea, and the more he thought of that field of rotting writhing fingers the less he desired a confrontation with its maker. He hoped that no more demoralizing sight awaited them.

  Unfortunately, one did. They came upon it very soon after reentering the woods.

  The path had widened, and they were riding side by side. Despite their proximity, they were silent. Kedrigern was dredging his memory for haemony lore, and Dyrax was wondering if he had really seen what he feared he had seen in that field and hoping that he had not, even though he grew ever more certain that he had. It was only a glimpse out of the corner of his eye, but it was unforgettable. He wanted a good rest, and soon. On a slight rise off to the side of the path a massive tree stood in the middle of a clearing, and Dyrax pointed to it.

  “Master Kedrigern, this looks like a good place to stop for a while,” he said.

  “What? Oh, yes, a stop. All right. Under that big tree?”

  “Yes. It looks clean, and we can see clearly in all directions.”

  “Very prudent thinking, Dyrax.” Kedrigern studied the site, then asked, “What kind of tree is that, anyway?”

  “Hard to say. It has the outline of . . . an oak, I’d say.”

  “But look at the fruit. What are they, apples?”

  “That can’t be an apple tree. The shape is all wrong. And the fruit is too big. Maybe it’s . . .“ Dyrax rode closer, then gave a horrified cry, sprang from his horse, and was spectacularly sick by the side of the path. “Oh, Master Kedrigern,” he said feebly when he had recovered. “I never thought I’d see . . . It’s . . . They’re .

  Kedrigern reached down to give him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, then guided his steed closer. It was even worse than he had feared. Not fruit, but swollen heads hung from the branches, and their wide agonized eyes turned to follow his approach. Their mouths gaped and worked fitfully, but nothing came forth beyond a soft choked moaning. Kedrigern dropped his gaze. When he saw what lay on the ground beneath the branches he shut his eyes tightly, swallowed bard, and fought against the

  swift rising of his gorge. The curled russet slips that lay all about were not fallen leaves, they were tongues. His great black steed sniffed at them, snorted, and tossed his head with a flash of silver, drawing back out of the shadow of the tree.

  “Can you tell me anything? I’ll end this enchantment if I can, and set you free,” Kedrigern called to the heads that swayed above him. They gave no answer, only a low and mournful wailing. He turned and rejoined Dyrax.

  “I don’t want any more of this, Master Kedrigern,” the shaken youth confessed.

  “Neither do I,” Kedrigern replied.

  “What shall we do?”

  “Well, we can’t stay here.”

  “No!” Dyrax said emphatically.

  “So we go on.”

  “Where? It gets worse and worse. Think what might lie ahead!”

  “I’m thinking about it, Dyrax. Believe me, I’m thinking about it. But we have no choice.”

  Dyrax glumly conceded that point. He remounted, and they went on. No further grisly sights lay on their way. They proceeded without incident until midday, when they stopped to eat and rest, and resumed their travels with spirits restored. They had gone only a short way when Kedrigern reined in his mount and turned to Dyrax.

  “I feel a tingle in the air,” he said excitedly.

  “I feel nothing.”

  “Well, I do. ft’s unmistakable. My power is building up. The haemony is working.”

  “What will it be this time, a swamp of entrails?” Dyrax asked squeamishly.

  “It feels more like a fairy spell. Nothing messy.”

  Dyrax nodded and said no more. They rode on, and in no time at all came to a hillside overlooking a spectacular castle, all spires and turrets and towers of gleaming white stone, rising from an island in a lake surrounded by tall trees. It was not an excessively large castle, nor was it

  formidable nor menacing, nor was it at all impregnable, for a broad bridge led from the opposite shore to the gate, and the drawbridge was down.

  “Do you think we might find an ogre in there?” Dyrax asked. He sounded considerably perkier than he had since their entry into the enchanted wood.

  “Hard to say,” Kedrigern replied thoughtfully.

  “How about a giant?”

  “If there’s a giant in there, he’s awfully cramped,” said the wizard, reaching into his tunic.

  “I hope it’s something I can confront blade to blade, and do a great feat,” said the young man eagerly.

  Kedrigern took out his medallion and sighted in on the castle through the Aperture of True Vision. He checked turrets, gate, and bridge, and gazed long at the statues, perhaps a hundred of them, that stood in niches in the wall and in grottoes here and there in the parkland. They were statues of men and women in postures of piety and reverence: clearly, of saints. Blinking and rubbing his eye, he turned to Dyrax with a broad smile. “I think you may have a chance to do your feat, my boy, and you won’t even have to break a sweat.”

  “What do you mean, Master Kedrigern?”

  “You’ll see. Come on.”

  Kedrigern raced down the hillside, with Dyrax close behind. Their horses clattered over the stone bridge, thundered across the drawbridge, sent a host of hollow echoes flying about the gatehouse, and finally clopped to a halt in a courtyard. All was still. No one had attempted to stop them. They waited a few minutes, but no one appeared to greet them or challenge them. The silence was unbroken.

  “A strange place, Master Kedrigern,” said Dyrax, laying a hand on his swordhilt.

  “Just an enchantment.”

  “What sort of enchantment? What kind of ogres or evildoers dwell herein, that dare not show their faces? It is I, Dyrax, son of Lutermine, who challenge you one and all!” the youth cried boldly. Echoes rang from wall to

  tower, dwindled and died, and still there was no sign of life.

  Kedrigern dismounted and led his horse to the stables. Within lay horses and groo
ms and a pair of cats, sprawled in abandoned postures, unmoving.

  “Foully slain!” Dyrax cried, drawing his sword.

  “Dead men don’t snore,” Kedrigern pointed out. “Look at them. They’re all breathing.” As if to endorse his words, a groom shifted position and a cat twitched its paws and the tip of its tail in a dream pursuit. “It’s a sleeping spell, that’s all.”

  “Then you must disenchant them.”

  “No,” said the wizard, shaking his head and smiling. “You must disenchant them.”

  “I? I am no wizard.”

  “These spells generally call for a handsome prince. Now, you’re a prince, and you’re a decent-looking lad, so you should be just what these people need.”

  “What feat must I do?”

  “Somewhere in this castle there’s certain to be a sleeping princess. When we find her, you kiss her, and that will end the enchantment.”

  “Is that all?” asked Dyrax, crestfallen.

  “That’s all. Nothing to it.”

  “Nothing, indeed, Master Kedrigern. To kiss a sleeping maid is no great feat.”

  “Believe me, she’ll thank you for it. Let’s get started. You take the upstairs and I’ll look on this floor,” said the wizard, entering the nearest open doorway, which led to the kitchen.

  Dyrax went ahead in search of the staircase, but Kedrigern lingered to inspect the kitchen, for he was fascinated by what he saw. A fire was burning in the huge fireplace and a cauldron of water hung over it, simmering. How long the fire had burned and the cauldron had simmered, he could not guess, but the cauldron was still nearly brimful and the fire had scarcely darkened the topmost logs. It was a subtle touch.

  Across the room was another sight to gladden his professional heart. A scullion had been pouring water from one bucket into another when the spell struck her. The water poured on in an unbroken ribbon, but the receiving bucket remained half-full, and the surrounding floor was dry. This spell was the work of an artist, and Kedrigern greatly admired it.