Well of the Unicorn

by Fletcher Pratt

  "Why, as to that, my kinsman saw no penalty, but this Vulking knew well the chance of death that rode with what you call his duty," began Airar, and then stopped. "Argyra! I am free."

  "I joy to hear it. From what and for what?"

  "Briella! It will never be Briella; I can see it now and why my father has not right. You have put me on the track.

  Count and State—and what's their Count but a figure of the State? Oh, well to serve the general will of all, as the deserion said, but when Count and State sit, there's a third hand in the pot, and State is not a servant but a master; for its laws do say that none will uncompelled show love to his neighbor or be generous."

  She lifted her hands to her face. "If I understand what you say, it may be you have right. The Well of the Unicorn is somewhat so, that was so great a joy and benefit to all when found, but is now become a thing worshipped for itself, without anyone thinking why it is desirable to have such a resource. Speak to my sister, she has more politic than I."

  It was a command; he checked the words that rose to carry the question further and instead began to talk of a Vastmanstad spring and the dance around the hale-fires that lasted till dawn on the night of the sun's turning— "though it has been long since I saw them, since the priest of our ort was a Vulking, who held such festivities to be tinged with the heathenism of Dzik."

  36 Naaros: Duty

  IT WAS as Doctor Meliboe foretold: the Vicount in the citadel was so far from willing to evacuate that he even tried spearcasts at their trumpet of parley. It was also as Gallil had promised: Naaros city hot for the contest as soon as the rising general was proclaimed, from 'prentices with bats who would have to be taught all weapon-handling, to stout commercials that had fought to save their goods in the wild lands to the south, and could balance their blades as deftly as Evimenes. There were not too many of weapons; every forge in town burned late, and in the ropewalks bowstrings were twisted, with cords for Pleiander's new engines, which he would prove by shooting at the citadel.

  With the war-plan all marched. The messengers coming down the north road told no tales of Vulking movement, and every day men of Skogalang came in with bows and quivers slung over their backs, steel caps, and little silver whistles on which they made a martial music, tramping through the gates. Vastmanstad sent up its people, mostly older, in twos and threes—stouthearts who had held out against the pressures to leave their steads, even a few among them grey, and with memories of the day of the Red Hills; full-armed. Mariolans came as word went round Spanhavid, somewhat ragged and hard of aspect for the more part, lacking in good arms, who'd've stormed the citadel and spent life for life gladly, for they had borne much. Airar placed them with Mikalegon to bear the hardest brunt of the fighting, and they liked his rough ways. In the third week a ship sent to Gentebbi came back to say all was confusion there, half Vagai town burned down and ships sunk in the harbor, no sign of Rudr the master-fisher. The ship brought a few men, who embraced those of Airar's early band and told tales of fierce Marshal Bordvin's doings that brought a tear here and there. The first contingent of Hestinga arrived, thirty men from the southern march of the province with their mettlesome steeds. On them Evimenes at first frowned, but later, saying they would make better gentours than the gentours, took them to his heart. Taverns were filled up and houses; and in four days the world turned end for end.

  The first was when Airar stood with the other leaders by a table in the old house of the city. Sand had been strewn on the table, a trick of the Carrhoenes; a Whiteriver dalesman traced with his finger the run of the great north road and the best places along it for an ambush— "See here, by Torgsted—" when one entered to say that here was a deputation of the Naaros syndics that would speak to Airar and him alone. Had he been harder in politic, he had said they must speak to all, but it was a young man still. He made excuse and saw them.

  They were three; most of the speaking done by a tall, thin man with lips that curled back and up at the corners in a forever-failing effort to have a smile of geniality; richly dressed and purse-proud. The childe of Trangsted had not become so great a man that respect for such had left him; he had the three seated and wine of Uravedu brought in. They discussed the spring weather and how the town was noisy with the coming and going of so many armed men. Said Purse-proud finally (Airar had at once forgot his name), when all easy subjects were exhausted:

  "Aye, Duke Airar, a many of armed men; hard for the community to bear; profitless. They make nothing but babble, and though they buy goods, drive them to so high a price with one bidding against another that money's self loses value. The more part of their purchase in any manner profits little; they came here 'without an aina and but take Naaros silver to return it to Naaros again."

  "That is believable," said Airar, wondering where in the name of seventeen green devils the fellow was driving.

  "It is ever so with war," said Purse-proud, lugubriously, and drank. "No gain but to those like the mercenaries from the Dodekapolis, as causes at law are profitable only to advocates."

  "Ha, ha," said the other two mechanically. Said Airar, forcing the matter: "Even for mercenaries it is not always easy; these Carrhoenes have lost a brother, no light loss."

  "Ah, it's that very matter we'd discuss with you." Purseproud leaned over to tap with a finger Airar's knee, face writhing in the rictus that made him look forth like a riverdragon. "I am master-syndic of the wool guild; these gentles are of stockfish and leather respective. Now even though their trades are so much less important than wool, ha-ha, they are concurred with us that we men who are' leaders in Naaros' prosperous trade have a duty to the city and to all Dalarna—to keep trade flowing, a fowl in the pot, and men earning their daily needful for their children. We'll admit that the Count's rule has been sometimes exactious, with his wall-tax and slave factories—" he held out a hand to stay Airar from speech —"very exactious. We are glad you have come to overthrow it. Yet it must be said that the County offered us peace and good order instead of tumult; and every bargainer knows when his point's won. It is as bargainers, men of commerce and not sword-swingers, that we come to advise you, Duke Airar. You have driven a good bargain the now, Duke Airar; our word on it is that you should close it and win advantage."

  "In what way?" said Airar, his bowels boiling.

  "Why, put an end to all these man-slayings and levyings of goods that are of profit only to the uproarious. Peace is what the general need; sweet peace, that a man may sit happy by his fireside and make a competence to leave to his sons. The means to which are so simply at hand that I wonder you have not thought on them for yourself—or it could be, indeed, you have so thought and only wait to know the public temper before beginning. For look, now you are duke of one party, but your kinsman, Tholo Airarson, is very well thought on, very well thought on, by the other. ... A pity to. have lost Master Fabrizius in these tumults he was a sound man. . . . Ah, well, Count Vulk is named Unreasonable, but only in jest. We know his dealings. He'll hear sound advice and give us all we really need by treaty if spoken fair."

  Bells rang in Airar's head. For a space he lingered the alternate thoughts of strike the men there or drive them all from the room in hot fury; but before choice made, the memory flashed of how Rogai and Mikalegon would have him leader because least trapped in contentions. "It is a plan I had not thought on," said he, "and one so grave I'd find it hard to enter without concurrence from the other captains. Yet, where's our gain? What would Vulk give us?"

  Purse-proud had caught his eye-flash and moving lip. "Nay, let us advise," he said. "Do not consult, consult, with those who make disturbances for uproar's sake; they'll never have the peace and order the Count stands for. You are the duke; be dukely. Use your power for the good of all, of whom most will fail to see where the good path lies. As to the detail, we can almost surely have from the Count a remission of the wall-tax, but very surely a degree against the holding of many serfs in ranch or factory. He's of the old Vulking tradition that holds the proper
excellent concern of his people lies in war and conquest, therefore he has had many griefs against the Lord Chancellor Lannoy and the magnates. Mark how this simplifies our problem, that he's already of your party, willing to concede. A word whispered here, a hand clasped there, he faces his council and you your captains with a thing done, which they cannot deny, since all honest men of both sides will bless you for saving their lives from a futile war. As for the armaments, they can be used to save some of the Twelve Cities from People's Party government."

  Airar looked on the man, of whom no question but that he meant it true. "Yet I am a leader for battle," said he, "therefore unsure. Nay, I must speak this out with Doctor Meliboe, who is a philosopher and will surely find a sound road."

  One of the others—the fat one—spoke for the first time in a voice that squeaked like a boy's: "But he's the Empire's outlaw!"

  "So am I," said Airar, and pleased with himself for having made this little score, rose to signify there'd be no more.

  Yet it was to Meliboe he went straightaway, somewhat troubled in spirit. "How is it they can relish the rule of Briella? Or is it possible they but ask this to trap me?"

  The enchanter had been toiling with pieces of philosophic apparatus, as alembics. He seated himself and tilted his head into one hand. "No trap, if you have told me clearly all that passed. Young sir, you'd merely say that you are young—half-hatched. Do not lose that quality; it ensures you adherence from all who think themselves clever. Your syndics? They do not wish Briella's rule, nor yours neither, but their own, in all things of moment to them. They think to have it by playing one against the other, with always more talk and treating, since in their world by talk and barter all is done, with a long-robed judge to yield the prize to the best speaker, and a law that none shall bear blades."

  "So they will truly have Briella—the scoundrels, traitors. Is this Dalarna? I had hoped . . ."

  "Spare me your musings. You had hoped, I doubt not, that once Count Vulk were down, the world were paradise. Not so; you that think to war and die for some high purpose will fall for less than nothing, since other Vulks with other names will always rise. For that, how dare you name these men rascals? The Dalarna you desire may be as desperate to them as theirs to you."

  "We'd have every man free."

  "From what and for what? That syndic is not behind you there. He spoke, if you have said correctly, of no wall-tax, an end to serfdoms. Your kinsmen, who are Vulking Allies, would have you free of strifes between blood and blood. Would you have men free like the tall

  Earl, to lift others' goods that have done them no harm? Nay, nay, young sir, raise your banners, blow trumpets, beat down cities—but not for others' good till they say what good they'd have. You do it for your joy, as I pursue the philosophies." To this point, his voice would have cut iron; now suddenly he smiled. "Hark! I make myself no Vulking advocate; intolerable. Down with him, say I, and am wholehearted with you in this. . . . Touching which, there's a graver matter here than all your childish scruple. Have you told the main commanders of this plan for a Vulking peace—to wit: the Carrhoenes, Gallil, above all Rogai, who'd suspect his mother of stealing milk from her own breast?"

  "Not I. They'd think on death and torture; I would not see the syndics' nor my kinsmen's fingernails plucked out."

  "I feared so much." Where the enchanter's nose and forehead met, the overturned pyramid of lines stood closedrawn. "Be sure that your fair friend the syndic will have let them know all the negotiation by this hour —that you heard him complacently, did not denounce or call for penalties, since your family are involved."

  "So are the syndics."

  "Ah, nay, fair young sir and duke. Accusers are never involved. These gentry have but one thought, which is to reduce all to talk, where they are so skillful. Come, you have been deadly in battle, Vulk the Fourteenth likewise. Suppose the man of the best sword wins, where are these guildsmen? They'd pull you both down, set council against council with gold aurar shining like stars in the distance, and that is the kind of world they wish."

  Airar thought he had not thought that men could be so low, but what he said was: "Then how avoid their snares?"

  "Ah!" Meliboe the enchanter placed a finger beside his nose. "You may think, young sir, that I but make a tale to mine own benefit. It is not so; you have in time past seen what a poor doctor of the philosophies can do. I'll meet the matter for you in sound magic. But since the Count issued his decree against mine art, burned down my cot, and let slay my dwarf Cobbo, there is to me a lack of certain equipment. Will you not order that such apparatus as there be in Naaros be brought before me?"

  "I would not have this met by magic," said Airar. "Here's something to be solved by what we have, or no solution permanent. Yet if it pleasures you, I will give the order for such instruments as you need."

  He said farewell then and stepped forth to find men looking for him, a ship having been sighted coming into Naarmouth with Imperial standards at her head. Airar went dockward; it was true, and she the ship required, bearing Sir Ludomir Ludomirson, who had been to The Heyr and there learned of the taking of Naaros. He was radiant; success. A full council of the Empire had been called in the High House of Stassia, he said, where he taxed the Sons of the Well with taking Vulking gold.

  —Ah, no, no, cried they all, whereupon he exposed the griefs of Dalarna under the Count's rule, and the tale of the Mariupol murders, as well as what would come of it, if the marriage of Aurea were allowed to go forward. Thereupon the contract for this wedding was broke, since none durst defend it on the suspicion of bribery. The Scroby lords were out of their enchantments, somewhat bitter at having been dizzied; they spoke of revenges on Vanette-Millepigue. The ban of the Empire was remoevd from Dalarna's rising, though not that of the Well, whose sons and priests still hate all wars. Sir Ludomir heard the news counter, of Airar's choice to lead the armies, and was for the moment grave. Come evening, he sought private audience and asked that there should be no admissions.

  They were afoot as the attendant left, who had placed seats and brought forth cups of bright sweet mead. The old knight set his vessel down, and whether Airar would or no, dropped to one knee and kissed his hand. "Take my allegiance."

  "Oh, rise," said Trangsted's heir, in much embarrass, and would not seat himself till Sir Ludomir had done so. "My grace. That was gently done, sir duke—" his face changed—"if duke you be, for I do not know how a digity elective will stand before the lawmen of Stassia."

  "No duke I," said Airar, "nor claim to title make; only a battle-leader because they could find no other who had not a quarrel to resolve. I'll lay down this phantom duke-ship tomorrow."

  The knight sipped, looking across his cup. "My lord," said he, "this is most precisely the thing I feared to hear you say. You may not, cannot, never, never, never, lay down this leadership, no more than our sovereign prince, the Emperor Auraris, though he must rule through regents and take all their advice."

  "I'll rule none—nor have desire to do it," said Airar.

  "My lord, you shall hear me out, though you send me to exile after, for having gone beyond authority. I say you must not think to lay down the office to which God has called you by ways inscrutable. All now hangs on that you possess it, not another—for Rogai's too impudent, Gallil and I too old, Oddel is wed, the Skogalangs not known. All hangs on it: Dalarna's salvation, and it may be that of the Empire itself, from these overweening conquerors of Briella Mountain."

  In spite of the old knight's solemn air, Airar could not restrain himself from smile. "This is a great weight to put on one pair of shoulders. Is age such a drawback, then, for leadership?"

  "Your lordship is pleased to jest a little, the sign of a sound mind. Believe it when I say this is a high matter, that the leadership must be young now, and unattached by bonds of marriage. I gave to all a tale this morning, but it was a tale partial, of which the whole could not be told where there were so many ears with mouths between them, that might whisper a word heard
as far as Lacia, and so distemper all our projects. The case is that there's a flaw in this council Imperial, removal of the ban and cancellation of the Vulking marriage."

  "How would that be?" asked Airar, somewhat taken aback to see the knight's good news gone glimmering. Sir Ludomir shrugged. "How would such things ever be? Not a full council, no more than that iniquitous one last—no delegates from the Lacias, Bregonde, or Acquileme, though these are of the Empire; none from Permandos, Berbixana, or Carrhoene; not all from Scroby. To foot it so was perhaps a dastard and unknightly thing for me to do, and I must make my religious duty to pay for it. But here's the chief concern—that all is as easily tumbled as it was set up, and like to be so wrecked unless it's fixed beyond cavil that you have an Imperial connection."

  "How is this point to be won, then?" asked Airar (but his heart began to beat with speed).

  "Thus—when I showed forth the woes attendant on this Vulking match with our gracious lady the Princess Aurea, his Majesty did pray me, the council consenting, to accept the guardianship of the Imperial children as their regent." He fumbled in his pouch for a parchment of proof, but Airar waved a hand. "Well then, my lord duke, I do propose to fix our future by uniting you in marriage with a princess of the House of Argimenes. Hence, it is a young man needed, who'll be duke forever."

  "Not Aurea!" a cry from Airar's lips, but Sir Ludomir only smiled. "I have heard somewhat that made me think your choice might fall on the other, lord. Is it a thing done, then?"

  "Oh, aye—if she will have me." Then his brows linked. "There's all the war-might of the Vulkings."

  "And you will bear against them the sword of the House—touching which, lord, you will pardon an old man that has seen much, but there's one thorn behind the rose of your candidacy, elsewhere so perfect in its bud."