Mistress of mistresses

by E R Eddison

  To Kessarey then, about middle August, came these four: Beroald, Jeronimy, and Roder, with the Vicar. There was nought given out, that folk might have known what manner of fowl were hatched in these layings of heads together. The Chancellor, after a day or two, betook him home to Zayana: the Earl to Kutarmish: the Admiral settled him down in Kessarey with the fleet, and had good strength of men both for land and sea. They-parted all with manifestations of affiance and regard, the Vicar proceeding now upon a progress through the March and Outer Meszria to take oaths of allegiance from towns and strongholds in those parts subject to the regent Jeronimy, like as he had taken them from the regent's self in Kessarey, for the acknowledging and receiving him as Vicar and Lord Protector, and owner of their fealty in peace and war. It went not unremarked that, whereas in the great King's day had forms and salutations upon like occasion been as unto the King's highness, and if through viceroys, commissionaries, or other, then but through them as middlers, and so expressed; yet now in this progress was all taken by the Vicar in person as unto himself, without all mention made of the Queen, principal and sovereign and fount of his authority. Which, furnishing with mischief such as will still be tale-bearers in matter capable of reward, came, upon such tongues, to the regent's ear in Kessarey, To such kind of talk Jeronimy listened open-eared but close-mouthed.

  The Vicar, returning now to Laimak, caused Gabriel to write him a letter to Duke Barganax as sweetly and amiably as could be devised. To this, after not many days of waiting, the Duke answered as pleasantly again, excusing himself from bidding the Vicar to guest with him in Zayana (which, had it been offered, the Vicar would, for jealousy of his own safety, have upon no conditions been minded to accept), and proposing instead a meeting in the Salimat. There, being that it was the border betwixt Outer and South Meszria, he would about October ceremonially receive the Vicar and do homage to him, as vicegerent of the Queen, for the regency of South Meszria, by the Concordat of Ilkis upon such terms of suzerainty conferred upon the Duke.

  Now autumn wore, and all quiet.

  In the first days of November the Chancellor came north again. Upon an afternoon he with the Admiral walked the poop of the Admiral's ship royal, at anchor in Kessarey haven. It was a tempestuous and cloudy sky, with gulls hanging in the wind, and circling intercrossing flights of sea-swallows, and sometimes the passing of a line of gannets, strong-winged, keeping their line like ships, high through that windy grey tumult of wintry weather which swept in eastwards from the high seas without. Elbow to elbow those two lords paced, cloaked and hatted against the weather and in great sea-boots, keeping to the lee side for the wind sake and spindrift.

  Tn Owldale,' said the Admiral: 'Owldale. I said, you did not carry your friendship so far as accept that inviting to go to him in Owldale.'

  'No. And yet that showed a certain nobility, to trust us here in Kessarey.'

  'The measure of his trust is but the measure of his contempt.'

  'For my part,' said Beroald, 'I will trust no man these days. Saving present company.'

  They took another turn or two. Then said the Admiral: 'Truth is, I have it by kind to see clear and feel my power in a manner thus, with the tar smelling in my nostrils and with good oak planks and salt water a-wash beneath my feet; never so ashore. Remember,' he said, after a pause, 4 'tis alway stab i' the dark with him. Attempt 'gainst Ercles in September, miscarried but by accident, even as that 'gainst yourself last spring in Zayana.'

  Beroald said, 'O I take my precautions.'

  Jeronimy shot a sidelong look at him. 'And he is a layer of baits.'

  'Well?'

  'Well: Sail Aninma.'

  The Chancellor's lip curled. 'So your lordship knew of that? It was propounded to me upon terms of secrecy, and indeed I urged him keep it so. Yet in a ten days' time I found my lady sister knew it, and had inspired the Duke and his mind incensed to have made it matter of open quarrel with the Vicar. But he was not to be moved: laughed at it: said I would never take it.'

  'And I doubt said rightly so?'

  'Such horses', said the Chancellor, 'are not to be looked too near in the mouth.'

  'Perilous counsel. Consider Kessarey: it is good, but I am not deceived. My lord, these things are writ big, in a manner, for our instruction: that he, yes, as long since as August, I say, hath said in his heart, " 'Tis time now: all lets removed: now, in the happy absence of this Lessingham, divide et impera." Why, the action walketh apparent, smelleth so rank a perfume of supposed seduction the gorge clean sickens at it: holding out of himself to me with such crude blandishments as disinterested noble guardian of her highness' rights: blackening the Duke to me with such palpable lies and wrestings of plain honest—Faugh!' he said, checking in his walk; 'design is, gull and flatter us to the top of our bent: crush the Duke: that done, crush us. The wind setteth where last May it set; and 'tis that voyage over again: same lee shore, same weather, same tide-race 'twixt skerry and skerry. With the Duke of our side, and with right of our side—well; but, fail either condition,—good night! My lord Chancellor, forget not that.'

  'I forget nothing,' said Beroald. ‘I know the Duke. More, know my sister.'

  'And did your lordship foresee,' said the Admiral, 'upon that knowledge (as, by my soul, I think few else did), that patience and loyalty whereby he did last month do homage, meeting of him in the Salimat? 'fore all the folk assembled acknowledging him and swearing fealty? even to taking in that ceremony the Vicar's horse by the rein and humbly, while that other sat in the saddle puffed in his insolence, leading it north to south over the beck in token of submission? Did not that argue, in this loose age, a wonderful exampleless example of noble truth and word-keeping? But I say 'tis the blood determines it. Royal blood: and that will out.'

  'It was the act,' answered the Lord Beroald, 'of a disciplined and law-abiding person.'

  'Ha, and, for law-abiding, what of those late proceedings in my own vicariate, a month or so ere that? and of the Queen's highness no more mention made than had the vile murderer, by will deputed overseer of our estate, been crowned King and all?'

  "That too,' said the Chancellor, 'is not to be forgot.'

  'I wish', the Admiral said, after a silence, 'your lordship would, in a manner, throw back flat this offer of Sail Aninma: might give him pause, where all till now hath swum too easy.'

  'It handsomely becomes you, my lord Admiral, with Kessarey and the half of Meszria into your hand, to lesson me in self-sacrifice.'

  'O take me not so thwart. You do know I mean not thus. More power to your hand, the better for us all. But this, a fief in South Meszria: 'tis stamp on Barganax's sore toe: 'tis wrongful, too, clean 'gainst the Concordat—'

  'Not so fast,' said the Chancellor. 'Hath been matter of legal controversy these three generations and more, of the right status of Sail Aninma, whether of Meszria, whether a demesne apart and of itself. Do me so much right as not imagine I'd trepass one iota beyond the law.'

  'Then let only policy determine, and effect upon the Duke, already tried near patience' ending. You have your own man holdeth Argyanna as governor, and that is key of south Rerek, like as Kutarmish is and Kessarey of the Meszrian Marches. So, and with Roder in Kutarmish, and me in Kessarey—albeit Roder, I am sometimes apt to doubt, useth a little too much security in feeding on these morsels from the table of Laimak—'

  'My good lord Admiral,' said the Chancellor, ‘I do fear your eye so vigilant bent on Laimak importeth your too much negligence toward Zayana.'

  They came to a stand. The High Admiral, leaning with his elbows on the bulwark, clasping and unclasping his hands, gazed landwards. 'Your lordship is known,' he said, 'for the flower of legists in these days. And I applaud your politics. But remember, my lord, neither to you is it given to see all and err never.'

  The tide was running. Like white horses ridden at barriers, now here now there all the sea-length of the mole, breakers plunged and tossed mast-high in the wind manes of spray. The castle, built of mighty blocks of sandstone
mottled with lichen and sea-scurf, stood bare and square upon the seaward point of the low long shattered headland from which the mole, built of the like stone, takes a sweep, first west and then south-about to the line of skerries, giving so a sea-mile and more of sheltered water with good anchorage and safe riding in all weathers. The ships of the fleet, a score of them besides lesser craft and a few great carracks laden with costly treasure of merchandise, lay outward from the Admiral's that was anchored scarce three hundred paces from the land. And now those two lords, looking shorewards so through that flurry of wind, saw where an eight-oarer put out from the quay under the seawall of the castle and began to row towards them. Swiftly she rowed, as upon some urgency. 'Why,' said Jeronimy at length, as she drew near, ' 'tis his grace's friend, young Barrian;' and made ready to welcome him aboard.

  When greetings were done and they three alone upon the poop, 'My lord Admiral,' said Barrian, 'I was directed to your excellence upon matter runneth to danger. And 'tis more than common fortune I should also a found your lordship,' (to the Chancellor); 'Medor was sent to you, and some question where to find you. But, for the business, 'tis shortest peruse this letter, that my lord the Duke had but on Saturday evening from him we know on, out of Rerek. No forgery: the signet is knowable; and trusty for bad, if less for good. And for what his grace accounteth of it, let its plight acquaint you: ripped up the middle like a pair of breeches.'

  'Let's read it,' said the Admiral, fumbling for his perspective-glass. He and Beroald, holding it down upon the binnacle, read it together. 'Openeth very sweetly: the hand I know too, (too well by now), that Gabriel Flores': unctuous sweet beginnings wont to steam up in the end into assafoetida. Ha, and there's the true whiff on't,' he said, scoring it with his thumb-nail: 'Mandricard to be of Alzulma enfeoffed in fee simple. But, Alzulma? 'tis in South Meszria, broad as barn doors: in by a dozen miles. Were I his grace, I'd answer: Good; and to pay back the courtesy, I've gi'en to my Lord Barrian here Mornagay, Storby, or Anguring itself. Nay, in sadness, 'twere fair comparison: he that sits in Alzulma can say who shall pass and who pass not by the Ruyar road from Rumala to Zayana; and his saying hath currency not in weak words, but in power and deed.'

  They read to the end: 'And so, wishing God the Father glorious bee your conduct, given by vertue of al powres and liabilities enabling me thereunto both for mine owne Selfe and vicarially as Lord Protectoure for the Quens Highnes, HORIUS PARRY. In Laimac, thys vij daie of Novembre anno Z.C. 777.' And then the superscription: 'Unto hys Grace and Excellent Lordshipp Barganax, cawld Duke of Zayana, regent under Me Meszriae Australis. So obey and perform it. H.P.'-

  The Chancellor, when he had read it, stood yet for a minute looking down on it, his brow a little clouded, the proud lineaments of his face a little colder drawn than of custom, with a tightening now and again about the lips especially and the wings of his nostrils. The Admiral smiled: a mirthless smile: then blew out his cheeks. 'This is bull tread panther, in a manner. Are we too late?'

  'His grace,' answered Barrian, 'hath in this bay borne himself beyond example—not nobly: when was he less than noble?—but beyond example calm. And not for lack of egging on, neither; for I and his most friends think it better that men envy him than that he should stand at reward of their pity. But was in a most happy and merry vein when this news found him; and, the first rage over and past, sent thus to you, and to you, my lord Chancellor, to call upon you both in person now to mediate his peace with the Vicar; who if he give not back from this last proud mock, the whole realm must shortly squelter with bloody wars; for this thing his grace will not swallow but thrust it down the Vicar's throat again.'

  The Admiral said, 'Pray him for all sakes use yet a little this noble patience. Tell him I'll come to him.'

  'He bade me offer you this: a meeting-place halfway, in Peraz.'

  'Five days from to-morrow,' replied the Admiral, 'that's on Wednesday, expect me in Peraz, there to confer with his grace upon best means to use.'

  'Can I assure him', asked Barrian, 'of your friendship? You will easily suppose, my lords, upon what an edge is all now poised in Zayana, and how much lieth on what I must report. "Tell them," he bade me (last words at parting), "tell them I'll play fair: but tell them, by the Gods in heaven, I'll not be played with."'

  Jeronimy's eye waited on the Chancellor. The Chancellor said, 'The thing is flatly against the Concordat of Ilkis. I stand upon the law, upon that Concordat. Tell the Duke so, my lord, from me.'

  The Admiral said, 'And the like from me, Lord Barrian.'

  'Your excellences are to-be thanked, then. But, being thus agreed, were't not fittest act? A little slacking may all our purposes let. Sudden, and we may end it.'

  The Chancellor smiled. 'We offer him first the law,' he said; 'and not till that fail use open violence.'

  'Ay. I have fallen down, ere this,' said the Admiral, 'in these civil broils; and that was always upon unripe heady action.' In the dog-like open honesty of his regard there came a twinkle as it rested on Barrian. 'And say to him, too, if he with his high-horsed frenzies o'erset the pot before we be met in Peraz, then am I free of my bond, to do as shall seem me fit.'

  Barrian, a little damped, looked from one to the other, then gripped them by the hand in turn. 'I will begone back this very hour. Sleep in Ulba, thence by the Salimat: I can be in Zayana by Sunday evening. I pray you, my lord Admiral, fail not tryst.'

  He being gone, 'When mean you to set forth for Peraz?' asked the Lord Beroald.

  'Why, to-morrow, and leisurely by land, not to hazard delays in this rageous wind. Will not you come too? For 'twill need seamanship, in a manner, to handle him safely, under full sail as he is and with such young hare-brained counsellors as this, to blow him on the rocks.'

  The Chancellor drew up his lips and smiled. 'If, with my own flesh and blood, my word could weigh as much as for my years it should,' said he, 'I'd instead through to Zayana. For there will she bewitch him with her beauty and dainty seductive talk till he is as wrought up as if to storm heaven, let pass Laimak, with the whirlwind inside him and flinging fiend of hell.'

  xvii

  The Ride to Kutarmish

  PERAZ, AND FAIR SUNSHINING A BLOODY ENCOUNTER THE ROSE-LEAF GALLERY IN ZAYANA MEDOR AND VANDERMAST HER LADYSHIP SITS FIRE-SHADOWS FROM AN UNSEEN MOUTH MEMISON MIDNIGHTS 'WHEN SUCH A MUTUAL PAIR' o PAPHIAN STILLNESS OUR LADY OF SAKES BIS DAT QUAE TARDE THE DUKE, ANVIL NO MORE THE VICAR WITHOUT AN ALLY.

  Duly upon the set day was that meeting held in Peraz, of the Duke, the Admiral, and the Chancellor. There all was accorded as among sworn brethren; and so next day, farewell and they parted, the Duke riding home by easy stages, the long way, by Memison; Medor with him and a dozen of his gentlemen. In a gay security he rode, all doubts removed now, seeing they had sided in his behalf, Jeronimy and Beroald both, in face of this last highblown overweening of the Vicar, in giving, thus wrongfully and within the Duke's dominions, of land and licence to Count Mandricard.

  The second day, about three of the afternoon, coming by the highway round the slack of a hill where the road drops to the ford a little beside the out-fields and muir-ground of Alzulma, they saw where men on horseback came up from the river, and a big man in red in the midst of them. Barganax drew rein. They were not near enough to see faces. 'Were this Mandricard', he said, 'come to take delivery, that were a jest.'

  'Let us ride round', said Medor, 'by the upper road. Your grace will not wish at this time to bandy words with them.'

  'They are more than we,' the Duke replied. 'Whoever they be, I desire no speech of them, but by God, I will not turn out of the road for them.'

  'This upper road is better going,' said Medor.

  'You should a thought on that a minute sooner. If we turn now, and if here be Mandricard indeed, they will say we were afeared to meet with them.'

  As they rode down, Medor said, 'I pray you yet remember but my lord Chancellor's words at parting, that your grace should wait well that you take not the law into your own hand:
that, that provided, all should in a few weeks be carried to a conclusion conducible unto your most contentment and honour.'

  The Duke laughed. 'Very well: 'tis commanded, no biting of thumbs. Untie your swords, but 'pon pain of outlawry, no man speak till I speak. We will let them go by and they will.'

  So now they began to ride down to the ford; which when those others beheld, as though having seen it was the Duke and being willing to avoid a meeting, they turned out of the road and bare away northwards at a walking-pace towards Alzulma. But Barganax, knowing now the man in red for Mandricard, must needs, against all protestations, send a gentleman to ride after them and pray the Count turn back that they might have speech together apart from their folk. They waited now, watching the messenger overtake the other party, doff hat to Mandricard; then their talking, pointing, Mandricard as if refusing, the other pressing, Mandricard at length consenting, seeming to give command, turning his horse's head, and now riding with Barganax's man and a man of his own back towards the road. 'This is to tempt the fates,' said Medor. The Duke said, as merry as a magpie, ' 'Tis the most fortunate good hap: a heaven-sent chance to show him I know he is here within my borders, nosing about Alzulma: that I know he hath no right to be here: that I am so good and sober a prince as will, even being dared with such an insolency as this, proceed all by law and in nought by violence. Last, to show him I count him not worth a pease, neither him nor his master.'

  'Stand ready, gentlemen,' said Medor, as the Duke rode away. 'When his heart is set thus upon a merry pin, no staying him. But stand ready, see what they will do.'

  The Duke when they were met bade him good morrow. 'I had not heard your lordship was doing us this honour to be our guest in the south here.'