by E R Eddison
On a sudden his brow darkened, and thrusting his face towards hers, his thick black square-cut beard jutting beneath the curl of his shaven upper lip, ‘Girl,’ he said, ‘who sent thee o’ this errand?’
He rolled his eye upon her with such a gorgon look that her blood ran back with a great leap towards her heart, and she answered, scarce to be heard, ‘Truly, O King, my father sent me.’
‘Was he drunk when he sent thee?’ asked the King.
‘Truly, Lord, I think he was,’ said she.
‘That cup that he was drunken withal,’ said King Gorice, ‘let him prize and cherish it all his life natural. For if in his sober senses he should make no more estimation of me than think to bribe my favours with a bona roba; by my soul, in his evil health he had sought to do it, for it should cost him nothing but his life.’
Sriva began to weep, saying, ‘O King, your gentle pardon.’
But the King paced the room like a prowling lion. ‘Did he fear I should supply Corund in his place?’ said he. ‘This was a cocksure way to make me do it, if indeed his practice had might to move me at all. Let him learn to come to me with his own mouth if he hope to get good of me. Other else, out of Carcë let him go and avoid my sight, that all the great masters of Hell may conduct him thither.’
The King paused at length beside Sriva, that was perched still upon the table, showing a kind of sweetness in tears, sobbing very pitifully, her face hidden in her two hands. So for a time he beheld her, then lifted her down, and while he sat in his great chair, holding her on his knee with one hand, with the other drew hers gently from before her face. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘I blame it not on thee. Give over all thy weeping. Reach me that writing from the table.’
She turned in his arms and stretched a hand out for the parchment.
‘Thou knowest my signet?’ said the King.
She nodded, ay.
‘Read,’ said he, letting her go. She stood by the lamp, and read.
The King was behind her. He took her beneath the arms, bending to speak hot-breathed in her ear. ‘Thou seest, I had already chose my general. Therefore I let thee know it, because I mean not to let thee go till morning; and I would not have thee think thy loveliness, howe’er it please me, moveth such deep-commanding spells as to sway my policy.’
She lay back against his breast, limp and strengthless, while he kissed her neck and eyes and throat; then her lips met his in a long voluptuous kiss. Surely the King’s hands upon her were like live coals.
Bethinking her of Corinius, fuming at an open door and an empty chamber, the Lady Sriva was yet content.
XVII
THE KING FLIES HIS HAGGARD
How the Lady Prezmyra came to the King on an errand of state, and how she prospered therein: wherein is also seen why the King would send the Duke Corsus into Demonland; and how on the fifteenth day of July these Lords, Corsus, Laxus, Gro and Gallandus, sailed with a fleet from Tenemos.
ON the morn came the Lady Prezmyra to pray audience of the King, and being admitted to his private chamber stood before him in great beauty and splendour, saying, ‘Lord, I came to thank you as occasion served not for me fitly so to do last night i’ the banquet hall. Sure, ’tis no easy task, since when I thank you as I would, I must seem too unmindful of Corund’s deserving who hath won this kingdom: but if I speak too large of that, I shall seem to minish your bounty, O King. And ingratitude is a vice abhorred.’
‘Madam,’ said the King, ‘thou needest not to thank me. And to mine ears great deeds have their own trumpets.’
So now she told him of her letters received from Corund out of Impland. ‘It is well seen, Lord,’ said she, ‘how in these days you do beat down all peoples under you, and do set up new tributary kings to add to your great praise in Carcë. O King, how long must this ill weed of Demonland offend us, going still untrodden under feet?’
The King answered her not a word. Only his lip showed a gleam of teeth, as of a tiger’s troubled at his meal.
But Prezmyra said with great hardiness, ‘Lord, be not angry with me. Methinks it is the part of a faithful servant honoured by his master to seek new service. And where lieth likelier service Corund should do you than west over seas, to lead presently an army naval thither and make an end of them, ere their greatness stand up again from the blow wherewith last May you did strike them?’
‘Madam,’ said the King, ‘this charge is mine. I’ll tell thee when I need thy counsel, which is not now.’ And standing up as if to end the matter, he said, ‘I do intend some sport today. They tell me thou hast a falcon gentle towereth so well she passeth the best Corinius hath. ’Tis clear calm weather. Wilt thou take her out today and show us the mounty at a heron?’
She answered, ‘Joyfully, O King. Yet I beseech you add this favour to all your former goodness, to hear me yet one word. Something persuades me you have already determined of this enterprise, and by your putting of me off I do fear your majesty meaneth not Corund shall undertake it but some other.’
Dark and immovable as his own dark fortress facing the bright morning, Gorice the King stood and beheld her. Sunshine streaming through the eastern casement lighted red-gold smouldering splendours in the heavy coils of that lady’s hair, and flew back in dazzling showers from the diamonds fastened among those coils. After a space he said, ‘Suppose I am a gardener. I go not to the butterfly for counsel. Let her be glad that there be rose-trees there and red stonecrops for her delight; which if any be lacking I’ll give her more for the asking, as I’ll give thee more masques and revels and all brave pleasures in Carcë. But war and policy is not for women.’
‘You have forgot, O King,’ said the Lady Prezmyra, ‘Corund made me his ambassador.’ But seeing a blackness fall upon the King’s countenance she said in haste, ‘But not in all, O King. I will be open as day to you. The expedition he strongly urged, but not for himself the leading on’t.’
The King looked evilly upon her. ‘I am glad to hear it,’ he said. Then, his brow clearing, ‘Know thou it for thy good, madam, order is ta’en for this already. Ere winter-nights return again, Demonland shall be my footstool. Therefore write to thy lord I gave him his wish beforehand.’
Prezmyra’s eyes danced triumph. ‘O the glad day!’ she cried. ‘Mine also, O King?’
‘If thine be his,’ said the King.
‘Ah,’ said she, ‘you know mine outgallops it.’
‘Then school thine, madam,’ said the King, ‘to run in harness. Why think’st thou I sent Corund into Impland, but that I knew he had excellent wit and noble courage to govern a great kingdom? Wouldst have me a wilful child snatch Impland from him like a sampler half stitched?’
Then, taking leave of her with more gracious courtesy, ‘We shall look to see thee then, madam, o’ the third hour before noon,’ he said, and smote on a gong, summoning the captain of his guard. ‘Soldier,’ he said, ‘conduct the Queen of Impland. And bid the Duke Corsus straight attend me.’
The third hour before noon the Lord Gro met with Prezmyra in the gate of the inner court. She had a riding-habit of dark green tiffany and a narrow ruff edged with margery-pearls. She said, ‘Thou comest with us, my lord? Surely I am beholden to thee. I know thou lovest not the sport, yet to save me from Corinius I must have thee. He plagueth me much this morning with strange courtesies; though why thus on a sudden I cannot tell.’
‘In this,’ said Lord Gro, ‘as in greater matters, I am thy servant, O Queen. ’Tis yet time enough, though. This half hour the King will not be ready. I left him closeted with Corsus, that setteth presently about his arming against the Demons. Thou hast heard?’
‘Am I deaf,’ said Prezmyra, ‘to a bell clangeth through all Carcë?’
‘Alas,’ said Gro, ‘that we waked too long last night, and lay too long abed i’ the morning!’
Prezmyra answered, ‘That did not I. And yet I’m angry with myself now that I did not so.’
‘How? Thou sawest the King before the council?’
She bent her hea
d for yes.
‘And he nay-said thee?’
‘With infinite patience,’ said she, ‘but most irrevocably. My lord must hold by Impland till it be well broke to the saddle. And truly, when I think on’t, there’s reason in that.’
Gro said, ‘Thou takest it, madam, with that clear brow of nobleness and reason I had looked for in thee.’
She laughed. ‘I have the main of my desire, if Demonland shall be put down. Natheless, it maketh a great wonder the King picketh for this work so rude a bludgeon when so many goodly blades lie ready to his hand. Behold but his armoury.’
For, standing in the gateway at the head of the steep descent to the river, they beheld where the lords of Witchland were met beyond the bridge-gate to ride forth to the hawking. And Prezmyra said, ‘Is it not brave, my Lord Gro, to dwell in Carcë? Is it not passing brave to be in Carcë, that lordeth it over all the earth?’
Now came they down and by the bridge to the Way of Kings to meet with them on the open mead on the left bank of Druima. Prezmyra said to Laxus that rode on a black gelding full of silver hairs, ‘I see thou hast thy goshawks forth today, my lord.’
‘Ay, madam,’ said he. ‘There is not a stronger hawk than these. Withal they are very fierce and crabbed, and I must keep them private lest they slay all other sort.’
Sriva, that was by, put forth a hand to stroke them. ‘Truly,’ she said, ‘I love them well, thy goshawks. They be stout and kingly.’ And she laughed and said, ‘Truly today I look not lower than on a King.’
‘Thou mayst look on me, then,’ said Laxus, ‘albeit I bear not my crown i’ the field.’
‘’Tis therefore I’ll mark thee not,’ said she.
Laxus said to Prezmyra, ‘Wilt thou not praise my hawks, O Queen?’
‘I praise them,’ answered she, ‘circumspectly. For methinks they fit thy temper better than mine. These be good hawks, my lord, for flying at the bush. I am for the high mountee.’
Her step-son Heming, black-browed and sullen-eyed, laughed in his throat, knowing she mocked and thought on Demonland.
Meanwhile Corinius, mounted on a great white liard like silver with black ear-tips, mane, and tail, and all four feet black as coal, drew up to the Lady Sriva and spoke with her apart, saying secretly so that none but she might hear, ‘Next time thou shalt not carry it so, but I will have thee when and where I would. Thou mayst gull the Devil with thy perfidiousness, but not me a second time, thou lying cozening vixen.’
She answered softly, ‘Beastly man, I did perform the very article of mine oath, and left thee an open door last night. If thou didst look to find me within, that were beyond aught I promised. And know for that I’ll seek a greater than thou, and a nicer to my liking: one less ready to swap each kitchen slut on the lips. I know thy practice, my lord, and thy conditions.’
His face flamed red. ‘Were that my custom, I’d now amend it. Thou art so true a runt of their same litter, they shall all be loathly to me as thou art loathly.’
‘Mew!’ said she, ‘wittily spoke, i’ faith; and right in the manner of a common horse-boy. Which indeed thou art.’
Corinius struck spurs into his horse so that it bounded aloft; then cried out and said to Prezmyra, ‘Incomparable lady, I shall show thee my new horse, what rounds, what bounds, what stop he makes i’ the full course of the gallop galliard.’ And therewith, trotting up to her, made his horse fetch a close turn in a flying manner upon one foot, and so away, rising to a racking pace, an amble, and thence after some double turns returning at the gallop and coming to a full stop by Prezmyra.
‘’Tis very pretty, my lord,’ said she. ‘Yet I would not be thy horse.’
‘So, madam?’ he cried. ‘Thy reason?’
‘Why,’ said she, ‘were I the most temperate, strongest, and of the gentlest nature i’ the world, of the heat of the ginger, most swift to all high curvets and caprioles, I’d fear my crest should fall i’ the end, tired with thy spur-galling.’
Whereat the Lady Sriva fell a-laughing.
Now came Gorice the King among them with his austringers and falconers and his huntsmen with setters and spaniels and great fierce boar-hounds drawn in a string. He rode upon a black mare with eyes fire-red, so tall a tall man’s head scarce topped her withers. He wore a leather gauntlet on his right hand, on the wrist whereof an eagle sat, hooded and motionless, gripping with her claws. He said, ‘It is met. Corsus goeth not with us: I fly him at higher game. His sons attend him, losing not an hour in preparation for this journey. The rest, take pleasure in the chase.’
So they praised the King, and rode forth with him eastaway. The Lady Sriva whispered Corinius in the ear, ‘Enchantery, my lord, ruleth in Carcë, and this it must be bringeth it about that none may see nor touch me ’twixt midnight hour and cock-crow save he that must be King in Demonland.’
But Corinius made as not to hear her, turning toward the Lady Prezmyra, that turned thence toward Gro. Sriva laughed. Merry of heart she seemed that day, eager as the small merlin sitting on her fist, and willing at every turn to have speech with King Gorice. But the King heeded her not at all, and gave her not a look nor a word.
So rode they awhile, jesting and discoursing, toward the Pixyland border, rousing herons by the way whereat none made better sport than Prezmyra’s falcons, flown from her fist at many hundred paces as the quarry rose, and mounting with it to the clouds in corkscrew flights, ring upon ring, up and up till the fowl was but a speck in the upper sky, and her falcons two lesser specks beside it.
But when they were come to the higher ground and the scrub and underwood, then the King whistled his eagle off his fist. She flew from him as if she would never have turned head again, yet presently upon his shout came in; then soaring aloft waited on above his head, till the hounds started a wolf out of the brake. Thereon she swooped sudden as a thunderbolt; and the King lighted down and helped her with his hunting-knife; and so again, thrice and four times till four wolves were slain. And that was the greatest sport.
The King made much of his eagle, giving her the last wolf’s lights and liver to gorge herself withal. And he gave her over to his falconer, and said, ‘Ride we now into the flats of Armany, for I will fly my haggard: my haggard eagle caught this March in the hills of Largos. Many a good night’s rest hath she cost me, to wake her and man her and teach her to know my call and be obedient. I will fly her now at the big black boar of Largos that afflicteth the farmers hereabout these two years past and bringeth them death and loss. So shall we see good sport, if she be not too coy and wild.’
So the King’s falconer brought the haggard and the King took her on his fist. A black eagle she was, red-beaked and glorious to look on. Her jesses were of red leather with little silver varvels whereon the crab of Witchland was engraved in small. Her hood was of red leather tasselled with silver. First she bated from the fist of the King, screaming and flapping her wings, but soon was quiet. And the King rode forth, sending his great brindled hounds before him to put up the boar; and all his company followed after.
In no long time they roused the boar, that turned red-eyed and moody-mad on the King’s hounds, and charged among them ripping up the foremost so that her bowels gushed out. The King unhooded his eagle and flew her off his fist. But she, wild and ungentle, fastened not upon the boar but on a hound that held him by the ear. She fixed her cruel claws in the hound’s neck and picked his eyes out ere a man might speak two curses on her.
Gro, that was by the King, muttered, ‘O, I like not that. ’Tis ominous.’
By then was the King ridden up, and thrust the boar through with his spear, piercing him above and a little behind the shoulder so that the blade went through the heart of him and he sank down dying in his blood. Then the King smote his eagle in his wrath with the butt of his spear-shaft, but smote her lightly and with a glancing blow, and away she flew and was lost to sight. And the King was angry, for all that the boar was slain, for the loss of his hound and his haggard, and for her ill behaviour. So he bade hi
s huntsmen skin the boar and bring home his skin to be a trophy, and so turned homeward.
After a while the King called to him the Lord Gro to ride forward a little with him and out of earshot of the rest. The King said to him, ‘Thou hast a discontented look. Is it that I send not Corund into Demonland to crown the work he began at Eshgrar Ogo? Thou babblest besides of omens.’
Gro answered, ‘My Lord the King, pardon my fears. For omens, indeed ’tis oft as the saw sayeth, ‘As the fool thinketh, so the bell blinketh.’ I spake in haste. Who shall weep Fate from her determined purpose? But since you did name Corund’s name—’
‘I named him,’ said the King, ‘because I am still ringing in the ears with women’s talk. Whereto also I doubt not thou art privy.’
‘Only so much,’ answered he, ‘that this is my thought: he were our best, O King.’
‘Haply so,’ said the King. ‘But wouldst have me therefore hold my stroke in the air while occasion knocketh at the gate? I’ll tell thee, I am potent in art magical, but scarce may I stay time’s wing the while I fetch Corund out of Impland and pack him westaway.’
Gro held his peace. ‘Well,’ said the King, ‘I will hear more from thee.’
‘Lord,’ he answered, ‘I like not Corsus.’
The King gave him a frump to his face. Gro held his peace again awhile, but seeing the King would have more, he said, ‘Since it likes your majesty to demand my counsel, I will speak. You know, Lord, of all your men in Carcë Corinius is least my friend, and if I back him you will be little apt to think me moved by interest. In my clear judgement, if Corund be barred from this journey (as reason is, I freely embrace it, he must bide in Impland, both to harvest there his victories and to deny the road to Juss and Brandoch Daha if haply they return from the Moruna, and besides, time, as you most justly say, O King, calleth for speedy action): if he be barred, you have no better than Corinius. A complete soldier, a tried captain, young, fierce, and resolute, and one that sitteth not down again when once he standeth up till that his will be accomplished. Send him to Demonland.’
