Torqual smiled. "Why not? As scoundrels go, we are a pair."

The remark, in King Casmir's view, verged close upon insolence, and he gave Torqual another cold stare. "I will confer with you again in two days. Meanwhile, you will continue to be my guest."

"I would prefer Haidion to the Peinhador."

"No doubt. Oldebor!"

Oldebor entered from the corridor. "Your Majesty?"

"Take Torqual back to the Peinhador. Let him bathe, provide him decent garments, house him in a clean cell and give him food to his choice—within reason, of course."

The jailers came into the room. "Are we not to see the colour of his guts? He is the worst of the worst!"

"And a Ska, to boot!" declared the other. "I hoped to work the knife myself!"

"Another time," said King Casmir. "Torqual has been assigned to dangerous work in the service of the state."

"Very well, your Majesty. Come along, dog-dirt."

Torqual fixed the jailer with a cool stare. "Jailer, take care! I am soon to be free and in the king's service. On a whim I might seek you out; then we shall see who does good work with the knife!"

King Casmir made an impatient gesture. "Enough of this!" He looked to the jailers, now subdued and uneasy: "You have heard Torqual's remarks; if I were you, I would henceforth use him with courtesy."

"Sire, it shall be as you command. Torqual, come; we spoke in jest. Tonight you shall drink wine and eat roast fowl."

King Casmir smiled his wintry smile. "Oldebor, in two days I will again see Torqual."

Chapter 5

THREE DAYS AFTER THE DEPARTURE of King Casmir and his retinue aboard the carrack Star Regulus, Aillas himself set sail for South Ulfland with a flotilla of seventeen ships.

The company included Lord Maloof and Lord Pirmence, both seething with resentment. Dhrun and Glyneth remained at Domreis, to be educated in a style befitting their rank. Both would learn Latin and Greek, geography, the natural sciences, calligraphy, the mathematics of Pythagoras, Euclid and Aristarchus, as well as the new style of Moorish numeration. Through readings in Herodotus, Tacitus, Xenophon, Clavetz of Avallon, Dioscuros of Alexandria, the Chronicles of Ys, and Khersom's War of the Goths and the Huns, they would gain an overview of history. They would learn to name stars, planets and constellations, and ponder a variety of cosmological theories. Dhrun would attend a school of military science, where he would learn the skill of weapons, and the strategies of warfare. Glyneth and Dhrun both would attend classes in the courtly arts, which included dancing, declamation, music and the proprieties.

Both Glyneth and Dhrun, had their preferences been heeded, would have accompanied Aillas to South Ulfland. Not so with Lords Maloof and Pirmence, each of whom had advanced a dozen reasons why he should not be plucked so rudely from his familiar routines.

To Maloof s protests Aillas made the response: "I appreciate your concern for the work which will be interrupted, but your talents are more urgently needed in South Ulfland; this is where you may best serve king and country."

"My skills are complex and sophisticated," grumbled Maloof. "Any clerk can weigh up broad-beans and count out onions."

"You still do not understand the scope of our project! I will want an inventory of every estate in the land, so that we know its extent and resources, and—no less important—the acreage unoccupied, unclaimed, wild or in dispute. You will direct a staff of surveyors, cartographers and clerks to research the existing records."

Lord Maloof stood limp. "That is a monumental task!"

"Naturally the work will not be accomplished in a day, but it is only the beginning. I will expect you to establish and regulate an exchequer for South Ulfland. Third—"

" ‘Third'?" groaned Maloof. "Already you have laid out a whole lifetime of work! Your confidence in me is flattering but unreal; I can work only by day and by night: no other periods of time exist. Meanwhile my work here at Domreis will be muddled by bunglers and hacks!"

"Here, so I suppose, you refer to your work with the exchequer?"

Lord Maloof flushed and looked askance toward Aillas. "Naturally: just so!"

"I have made inquiries and I am assured that we leave the work, and again I refer to the exchequer, in capable hands. It is time for a change! A clever man such as yourself needs challenge to develop his full potential, and also to keep him out of mischief. South Ulfland with its intransigent barons and threatening Ska offers a hundred such challenges!"

"But I know nothing, and want to know nothing, of troubles and conflicts and war! I am a man of peace!"

"And I no less! But even men of peace must learn to fight. The world is often brutal, and not everyone shares our ideals. Therefore, you must be prepared to defend yourself and your loved ones, or reconcile yourself to slavery."

"I prefer to reason, to proffer kind counsel, to ameliorate and to compromise!"

"As a preliminary and tentative policy, these activities are useful!" said Aillas. "If we behave reasonably, our conscience is clear! Then, should decency fail and the tyrants attack, we can lop off their heads with righteous zest."

"I have few skills along these lines," said Maloof in a bleak voice.

"Now then, Maloof: do not underestimate yourself! You are sturdy and deft, if a trifle overweight. After a few brisk campaigns, you will gallop your horse and brandish your battle-axe with as much fury as any!"

"Bah!" grumbled Maloof. "I am not the hell-for-leather bravo you take me for. I will waste my life in this dour wilderness."

"Never! You may use well this life of yours in South Ulfland, but we will find scope for all your skills: perhaps in the suppression of espionage. You might—or might not—be startled to learn that I have discovered treachery in the most exalted circles!"

Maloof blinked and responded, in a subdued voice: "Your Majesty, it shall be as you command."

Lord Pirmence used different tactics when it came his turn. "Your Majesty, I deem this appointment in the nature of an accolade! I shall always cherish this evidence of your high esteem! But I am a modest man, and I must resolutely decline the honour. No, sir! Do not press it upon me! My withdrawal is definite and irrevocable! I have gained distinction enough for a single lifetime; let the eager young bloods take their turn!" Lord Pirmence performed a courtly bow, and would have considered the matter closed had not Aillas called him back.

"Lord Pirmence, your abnegation does you credit. However, I assure you that honour sufficient for all will be won on the moors of South Ulfland!"

"That is good to hear!" declared Lord Pirmence. "But alas! You forget my advancing years! I have enemies, yes: pangs and aches, failing vision, asthma, toothlessness and senile cachexis; but they are no longer cruel knights, ogres, Goths and Moors. I intimately know the ague, gout, rheumatism and palsy. If truth be known, I am almost ready to creep away to Castle Lutez, to wrap myself in eiderdowns and quiet my roaring digestion with a diet of curds and gruel."

Aillas said soberly: "Lord Pirmence, I am greatly distressed to hear of your decrepitude."

"Alas! It is an end to which we all must come!"

"So I am led to believe. Incidentally, are you aware that a person who bears a striking resemblance to yourself roams the coarser districts of Domreis? No? He does your reputation no credit! Recently, close on midnight, I happened to look into the Green Star Inn and there I saw this person with one foot on a bench, the other on a table, brandishing high a tankard of ale and trolling a mighty stave; meanwhile he clasped one of the tavern wenches with an iron grip. His whiskers were exactly like your own and he seemed to enjoy almost an excess of exuberant good health."