The Green Pearl

Chapter 16

THE WOODCUTTER'S HUT STOOD DESOLATE in the forest, with all its magic gone. A shaft of sunlight slanted through the doorway and laid a skewed rectangle along the width of the floor, leaving the old table and bench in gloom. The silence was disturbed only by the sigh of wind among leaves.

Everything which had happened at the hut, or which might have happened, was part of the sad and arid past, and gone forever.

At Watershade Aillas, Dhrun and Shimrod passed a forlorn seven days. Shimrod, for once somber, could report only that Murgen had not abandoned his interest in the matter.

The dear familiar chambers, with the merry presence of Glyneth only a memory, were too melancholy to be borne. Shimrod took himself to Trilda while Aillas and Dhrun returned to Domreis.

Castle Miraldra was dreary and dull. Aillas occupied himself with routine business of the kingdom, while Dhrun made a desultory effort to resume his studies. Despatches from South Ulfland caught Aillas' attention. The Ska had carefully assembled and fitted out a powerful army in the Foreshore, with the clear purpose of striking into South Ulfland, to destroy the Ulf armies and occupy Suarach, Oaldes and perhaps even Ys itself.

Aillas and Dhrun took ship for South Ulfland with new troops from Dascinet and Scola. They landed at Oaldes and rode at once to Doun Darric.

In conference Aillas learned that, of late, no major engagements had occurred, which suited him well. His strategy dictated the infliction of maximum enemy losses, while incurring a minimum of his own: a kind of war for which he had shaped his army and which put the Ska at disadvantage. Effectively the Ska had lost control of North Ulfland's southern half, save where Castle Sank still served as a strongpoint. Aillas drafted a letter to Sarquin, Elector-king of the Ska:

To the attention of the noble Sarquin, Elector-King: I am the legal and ordained King of Ulfland. I find that your armies still tread upon my soii and hold my people in thrall.

I ask that you withdraw your armies to the foreshore, that you liberate all Ulfish thralls still in servitude, and that you renounce your aggressive attempts against my land. If you act at once, I will demand no reparations.

If you fail to heed my request, your people will be killed and Ska blood will flow deep. My armies now exceed yours in number. They are trained to strike and strike again, but to take no blows in return. My ships control the Narrow Sea; we can burn your coastal towns at will. Shortly you will see black smoke rising along the shores of Skaghane, and your folk will know the same woe you have visited upon my people.

I call upon you to end your futile dream of conquest; you can not harm us; we can destroy you, and Bring you great grief.

These are the words of Aillas, King of Troicinet, Dascinet, Scola and Ulfland.

Aillas sealed the letter and sent the parcel to be delivered by a captive Ska knight. A week went by and the only response was a sudden movement of Ska troops. East from the Foreshore came the great black army, moving with ominous deliberation.

Aillas had no slightest intention of attacking so massive a force. Immediately however he sent skirmishers out to lure the Ska light cavalry within range of his archers. Small parties circled to attack the baggage trains and to harass generally the lines of communication.

The Ska army split into two units of about equal strength, the first proceeding to the town Kerquar on the west and the second moving east to Blackthorn Heath, at the center of North Ulfland.

Ulf patrols became ever bolder, riding to within shouting distance of the Ska to call insults, in the hope of enticing a group away from the main body, where they could be ambushed and cut to pieces. At night Ska sentries went in fear of their lives and were as often murdered as not, and finally the Ska themselves began sending out night patrols, and setting up their own ambushes, which to some extent diminished Ulf pressures, though the Ska still lost more than they gained.

Small signs indicated an erosion of Ska morale. Previously they had attacked, with flair and impunity, and had regarded themselves as invincible. Now that they had become quarry and victim, the mantle of invincibility quickly proved to be a thing of no substance and they long and well had mulled over the recollection of their recent defeat, which could not be explained away.

Aillas wondered if they could be provoked into new errors of strategy which the Ulfish forces could exploit. He and his commanders, poring over maps, drew up a variety of battle-plans, each with notes to deal with contingencies.

So began an intricate and carefully timed set of operations: attacks, withdrawals, and ever more daring feints against the towns of the Foreshore, until these feints became actual raids, combined with assaults from the sea. At last, as Aillas hoped, the army based at Kerquar shifted to the northwest, with the effect of isolating the army on Blackthorn Heath from reinforcement in the case of sudden massive attack. Now, any plans for a Ska invasion of South Ulfland seemed to have been postponed.

Aillas instantly sent a force of light cavalry to harass and engage the attention of this army, without actually coming to grips with the highly disciplined core of heavy cavalry. At the same time he sent a special siege army, equipped with two dozen massive arbalests, catapults and other siege engines against Castle Sank, the fortress guarding the southeast. He envisioned a quick and brutally powerful assault, and so it was, despite the rebuilding and reinforcement of the garrison.

In six hours the outer walls had fallen and the citadel was under attack, with archers stationed upon high wooden towers keeping the parapets under fire. The machines sent great stones high to break open the roofs, then sent in fireballs to ignite the wrecked timbers. The defenders fought with desperate courage, and twice sallies of armoured knights were broken.

On the second night during the final stages of the operation, with flames roaring high, Aillas thought to glimpse Tatzel on the parapets. She wore an archer's helmet and carried a bow, with which she discharged arrow after arrow at the attacking forces. Words rose in Aillas' throat, but he held them back, and watched in fascination. She looked down and saw him; nocking an arrow to the string of her bow, she drew far back with all her power, but before she could release, an arrow arched across space and plunged into her chest. She looked down in dismay and let the arrow fly against the merlon beside which she stood, and it glanced away. She seemed to sink to her knees, and fell backward out of sight.

Aillas was still not certain of her identity, in the flickering red light, but later she was not found among the survivors and Aillas lacked all inclination to sort through the charred corpses in search of gallant young Tatzel.

The Ska army on Blackthorn Heath, learning of the assault on Castle Sank, broke camp and made a desperate effort to arrive at Sank in time to lift the siege. In their haste they departed from their usually tight formation of march, and raced north in a column, and here was the mistake for which Aillas had not only prepared but had prompted the Ska to commit. At a place called Tolerby Scrub, the Ska met an ambush of Ulf main forces, with sixty Troice knights leading the charge into the very heart of the Ska army, then wheeling and withdrawing, while from the other side came a similar charge of the Ulf barons.

The battle was far from easy, and only when troops coming down from the victory at Sank collapsed the Ska flank was the battle won.

There were few Ska survivors, and many casualties among both Ulf and Troice. Aillas, observing so much carnage, turned away in revulsion. Still, he was now master of all North Ulfland, save only the areas near the Foreshore, the Foreshore itself and the approaches to the great fort Poelitetz.

Two weeks later, Aillas, riding with fifty knights, approached the remaining Ska army near the town Twock. He sent a herald out under a flag of truce, with a message:

Aillas, King of Trokinet, Dosinet, Scola, and Ulfland, requests a parley with the chief commander of the Ska army.

A pair of heralds set a table out upon the fell, spread it with a white cloth, set down chairs and on poles hung a gonfalon with the black and silver Ska emblem, and a gonfalon, quartered, displaying the arms of Troicinet, Dascinet, Ulfland and Scola.

With two knights by his side and a pair of heralds, Aillas went out to wait ten yards back of the table. Ten minutes passed, then, from the Ska army came a similar group.

Aillas advanced to the table, as did his counterpart: a tall spare man, keen-featured, with black eyes and black-gray hair. Aillas bowed. "I am Aillas, King of Troicinet, Dascinet, and Ulfland."

The Ska said: "I am Sarquin, King-elect of Skaghane and all the Ska."

"I am happy to meet a person of ultimate authority," said Aillas. "My work is thereby eased. I am here to arrange peace. We have reconquered our territory; the war is effectively won. Our hatred of you remains but it is not worth the spilling of any more blood. You might still fight but now you are outnumbered, by warriors at least equal to your own. If you choose to fight on, there will be only boys, women and old men left on Skaghane. At this moment, I could land a force of three thousand men upon Skaghane and no one could halt me.

"I wish to wound or kill no more brave men, either yours or mine. These are the terms of my peace.

"You shall withdraw all your forces from Ulfland, including Poelitetz. You shall not carry with you wealth or treasures accumulated in Ulfland, nor may you herd horses, cattle, sheep nor swine. Knights may ride their mounts; all other horses must be surrendered.

"You shall maintain sovereignty over the Foreshore, for the use and welfare of your people.

"You shall release all slaves, serfs, thralls and captives now in your custody, on Skaghane, along the Foreshore, and elsewhere, and deliver them with all kind and clement treatment to the town Suarach.

"You will agree not to conspire nor ally yourself with, nor give counsel, comfort nor assistance to the enemies of my rule: specifically, King Casmir of Lyonesse, nor to anyone else.

"Otherwise I make no demands upon you, for reparations or indemnities, or punitive damages for the lives of my people whom you have ravaged in your acquisitive lust.

"These terms are generous. If you accept them, you may return to Skaghane with honour, since your warriors have fought bravely, and surely these are conditions which will allow you comfort, prosperity, and in due course fellowship among the nations of the Elder Isles. If you reject them, you not only gain nothing but you bring disaster to your subjects and to your country.

"We cannot be friends, but at least we need not be enemies. Those are my proposals. Do you accept or reject them?"

Sarquin, Elector-King of the Ska, spoke three words. "I accept them."

Aillas rose to his feet. "In the name of all the men who otherwise would die, I thank you for your wise decision."

Sarquin rose, bowed, turned and rejoined his army. Half an hour later the army broke camp and marched west into the Foreshore.

II

THE WAR WAS WON. Ska troops departed Poelitetz, and were instantly replaced by a garrison of Ulf warriors. Audry, King of Dahaut, in due course protested this act to Aillas, claiming that Poelitetz was situated on the soil of Dahaut.

Aillas replied that while King Audry cited several points of technical interest, and used the resources of abstract logic in an adroit manner, he had actually made no connection with reality. Aillas pointed out that historically Poelitetz guarded Ulfland from Dahaut, but served no useful purpose whatever when controlled by the Dauts. The line of the Great Scarp more realistically defined the boundary than did the Teach tac Teach watershed.

King Audry in a rage threw Aillas' letter to the floor and never bothered to reply.

Aillas and Dhrun returned to Troicinet, leaving Sir Tristano and Sir Maloof to oversee the details of the Ska withdrawal, which in any event went with scrupulous exactitude.

A few days after the return of Dhrun and Aillas to Domreis, Shimrod appeared at Castle Miraldra. After supper Aillas, Dhrun and Shimrod went to sit by a blazing fire in a small side parlour. After an awkward moment Aillas forced himself to ask: "I suppose that you have nothing new to tell us."

"There have been certain strange circumstances, but they change essentially nothing."

"What strange circumstances are these?"

"Order in more wine," said Shimrod. "They make long and dry telling."

Aillas summoned the footman. "Two more—no, three more flasks of wine, since we must keep Shimrod in good voice."

Shimrod said: "Good voice or not, much is still unknown to us."

Aillas, noting an indefinable hesitancy in Shimrod's manner, seized upon the word: " ‘Still'?"

"Still, yet, then and now. But I will tell you what I have come to learn. You will see that it is little enough. First, I will say that Tanjecterly is only one of ten worlds, including our good Gaean Earth, which old Father Chronos swings on a noose. Some are the realms of demons, others are not even so useful as this. Visbhume opened a hole into Tanjecterly with his key, but it seems that sometimes holes open of themselves to let men fall through willy-nilly, to their vast surprise, and so to disappear forever. But this is all to the side. A certain indomitable sorcerer by the name of Ticely Twitten made a study of these worlds and his almanac measures what he calls ‘pulses' and ‘quavers'. Time does not go in Tanjecterly, for instance, in consonance with time here. A minute here may be an hour there, or the opposite may be true."

"Interesting," said Aillas. "So then?"

"My tale begins with Twitten. Hippolito of Maule acquired his almanac, and it was purloined by Visbhume. For reasons unknown, Casmir sent Visbhume to ask questions of Glyneth, and he took her to Tanjecterly, for various reasons: one of; these being Tamurello's hope that I or Murgen would foolishly trap ourselves forever. Instead, as you know, we sent. Kul, that he might rescue Glyneth. In the absence of facts, it! is hard to judge his success ..."

III

THE CARPET-WOLE COURSED OFF in a direction which Glyneth decided to call east, opposite to the point in the sky where she had first noted the black moon. This odd celestial object had already shifted perceptibly, veering toward the north while remaining the same distance above the horizon.

For ten miles the wole ran along the riverbank, with open plains to the south. In the distance a band of long-legged beings took interested note of their passage and even began to make a rather menacing approach, but the wole increased its pace and the creatures lost interest in pursuit. The river swung away to the north and the wole set off across a seemingly limitless steppe, with short blue grass below and spherical trees scattered at far intervals.

Kul rode forward on the first shoulders of the beast, standing flat-footed with legs somewhat apart. Glyneth, perched high on the cushioned bench of the pergola, sat where she could see in all directions. Had she chosen to do so, she might have stepped down to the rug which covered the wole's back and walked aft to where Visbhume sat hunched over the wole's hindquarters, his eyes liquid with resentment for the indignity of the leash around his neck. For a period Glyneth ignored Visbhume, save for an occassional glance to ensure that he might not be about his crafty tricks. Finally she descended to the rug and went aft. She asked Visbhume: "Is there no night here?"

"None."

"Then how do we keep time, and know when to sleep?"

"Sleep when you are tired," snapped Visbhume. "That is the rule. As for keeping time, the black moon must serve as I A clock."

"And how far is Asphrodiske?"

"That is hard to say. Several hundred leagues, perhaps. Twitten has not drawn maps for our ease and delectation."

An idea came into Visbhume's mind; he blinked and licked his lips. "Still, his surveys are exact. Bring the almanac and I will make the calculations."

Glyneth ignored the request. She looked to the side, gauging the passing landscape. "At this pace we are surely travelling four or five leagues each hour. Will the wole tire?"

"It wants to rest and eat grass for the same time that it runs."

"Then in fifty hours it will take us a hundred leagues. That is my reckoning."

"The reckoning is fair and equable, but accounts neither for dangers nor delays."

Glyneth looked up at the circling suns. "I am so tired now that I could sleep standing on my feet."

"I too am tired," said Visbhume. "Let us stop so that we may refresh ourselves. Tired as I am, I will keep the first watch, so that you and the beast may sleep."

" ‘Beast'? Kul?"

"Just so."

Glyneth went forward to Kul. "Are you tired?" Kul considered the state of his being. "Yes, I am tired."

"Should we stop to sleep?"

Kul surveyed the landscape. "I see no urgent threat."

"Visbhume has kindly offered to take the first watch, so that you and I might sleep in comfort."

"Ah! Visbhume shows a rare magnanimity!"

"He also knows some dreadful tricks."

"Just so. Our sleep might be sound and deep and long. Still, in the harness box I have discovered a fine length of rope, and Visbhume perhaps will oblige us after all."

Arriving at a spot where two trees grew fifty feet apart, Kul brought the wole to a halt and dropped its anchor. With eager interest Visbhume inquired: "What now? Do we rest? Shall I keep the first watch? If so, remove this leash, so that I may look right and left with all possible facility."

"In good time," said Kul. From the harness box at the back of the pergola he brought a coil of strong rope. He tied one end to one of the trees, then signaled to Visbhume, "Stand exactly here, halfway between the trees."

With a wincing scowl Visbhume obeyed. Kul removed leash, knotted the rope around Visbhume's neck, then, going to the other tree, drew the rope tight so that Visbhume was; fixed between the two trees, unable to move in either direction far enough to free himself, even though his arms and hands were free.

Glyneth watched with approval. "Now you must search him well! There are pockets in his sleeves and his trousers and perhaps even his shoes."

Visbhume cried out in fury: "Am I to be allowed no I privacy of person? This sort of search is contrary to every known rule of gentility."

Kul carefully searched Visbhume's garments, and it became clear that Glyneth, through diffidence, had failed to search Visbhume with sufficient care. Kul discovered a short tube of unknown employment, a brown box containing what seemed to be a miniature cottage, and in the seams of Visbhume's pantaloons, two lengths of stiff if resilient steel wire. The inside of Visbhume's belt yielded a dagger. The boots, the cravat and the gathering of the pantaloons at Visbhume's bony ankles seemed innocent of contraband. Glyneth examined the miniature cottage. "This would seem a magic cottage. How is it made large?"

"That is a most valuable property," said Visbhume. "I do I not allow its general use."

Kul said: "Visbhume, so far your skin is largely whole. You have eaten well and you have ridden on the wole. If these conditions agree with you, answer each question directly and with truth; otherwise you shall come upon a great sadness."

Visbhume blurted angrily: "Put the miniature house on the ground land cry out: ‘House, grow big!' When you wish it to reduce, cry out: ‘House, grow small!'"

Glyneth put the miniature house on the ground and cried out: "House, grow big!" Immediately she was yielded a cottage of comfortable aspect, with smoke already rising from the chimney.

Kul said: "Visbhume, you shall keep first watch, as you so kindly offered. If any tricks are left to you, which I do not doubt, try none of them, since I will be alert."

Entering the house, Glyneth found a comfortable couch and throwing herself down, fell instantly asleep.

She awakened after an unknown period to find Visbhume sleeping on the ground beside the cottage while Kul sat drowzing in the doorway. Glyneth went across the room and stroked the black fur covering his scalp. Kul looked up. "You are awake."

"I will keep watch. Now you sleep." Kul rose from the chair and looked around the room. For a moment Glyneth thought that he might stretch out on the floor, but he lay down on the couch and was at once asleep.

Visbhume presently awoke. Glyneth pretended not to notice. Visbhume studied the situation through eyelids barely slitted open, through which his eyes glinted like the yellow eyes of a fox.

Visbhume studied Glyneth a moment or two. He whispered: "Glyneth!" Glyneth looked toward him. Visbhume asked: "Is the creature asleep?" Glyneth nodded.

Visbhume spoke in the most cajoling of voices: "You know truly that your interests lie with me, the powerful and mighty Visbhume! So then: will you join with me in sacred and absolute cabal? We will defeat the monster beast, with his slavering threats and objectionable attitudes!"

"Indeed? And then?"

"You know the love I bear for you! Can you feel the quiver of a like feeling for me?"

"What then?"

"Then: away to Asphrodiske, and back to Earth at the, coming of the quaver."

"And that will be when?"

"A short time, shorter than you might think!"

"Visbhume! You alarm me! Have we enough time?"

"If all goes well and I am in command."

"But how do we know how long or short is our time?"

"By the black moon! When the radius swings to the diameter exactly opposite the gate by which we entered, that is the time! Now, will you join me in deep and unassailable cabal?"

"Kul is terrible and strong."

"So am I! Does he think all my power is gone?"

"I hope so!"

Then you are with me?"

"Of course not."

"What! You prefer the beast to me, Visbhume who lives and dances to the thrilling musics?"

"Visbhume, sleep while you have the chance. Your foolishness is keeping Kul awake."

Visbhume spoke in a low and almost sibilant tone: "For the last time you have flouted me, and how you shall regret it!"

Glyneth made no response.

Kul awoke; the three made breakfast upon milk, bread, butter, cheese, onions and ham from the pantry, then Glyneth called: "House, grow small!"

The cottage shrank quickly to miniature size, and Glyneth carefully returned it to its box. They climbed aboard the wole and once again set off across the plain.

Today Visbhume wished to share the comforts of the pergola with Glyneth. "From this vantage I command a wide view! In a flash I can apprehend danger at a great distance!"

"You are the rearguard," said Kul. "You must spy out dangers overtaking us from behind; that is your duty, and your best vantage is over the hindquarters, exactly as yesterday. Quick now! The black moon rolls around the sky, and we must arrive at Asphrodiske in good time."

Across the plain of blue grass ran the wole, the splayed legs coursing forward and back so that the tassels of the rug jerked to the motion. Kul knelt at the base of the pergola, leaning forward so that his massive shoulders almost filled the space between the wole's ocular horns. Glyneth reclined at her ease across the pergola's cushioned bench, one slim leg idly dangling, while Visbhume hunched at the far end of the rug, glumly looking back the way they had come.

To the north appeared a deep forest of dark blue and purple trees. Drawing near they saw a tall manse of dark timber, built to a style elegant and stately, with many narrow glass windows, turrets and cupolas, as well as a dozen elaborate follies and crotchets included apparently for the sheer relief of boredom. To Glyneth's taste, the style verged upon the eccentric, though out here, overlooking this changeless plain, anyone's taste would seem as sound as any one else's, and Glyneth straightened in her seat, so as not to present a careless or untidy image to possible observation through the tall narrow windows.

As they passed by, a portal opened and out rode a knight in full armour of glossy black and brown metal. From his helm rose a high crest, beautifully wrought, of rods, disks and barbed prongs. The knight rode a creature somewhat like a black splay-legged tiger with a row of sharp horns down its forehead, and carried a tall lance from which fluttered a purple banner, engaged with an emblem of dark red, silver and blue.

The knight halted at a distance of a hundred feet, and Kul politely brought the wole to a halt. The knight called out:

"Who are you, that crosses the breadth of my domain, with neither let nor leave?"

Glyneth called out: "We are strangers to this place, Sir Knight, and no one informed us of your rule. This being the case, will you kindly grant us leave to pass on our way?"

"That is well and softly spoken," declared the knight. "I would be tempted to clemency, did I not fear that others, less courteous than yourself, might be emboldened to take liberties."

Glyneth declared: "Sir, our lips are sealed as if with bars of iron! Never will your forbearance be bruited abroad, and our reports will extol only the splendor of your carriage and the gallantry of your conduct. With our best regards to you and your dear ones, we will now hastily withdraw from your presence."

"Not so fast! Have I not spoken? You are in detention. Dismount and proceed to Lorn House!"

Kul rose to his feet and shouted: "Fool! Return to your manse while life remains to you!"

The knight lowered his lance. Kul jumped down from the wole, to Glyneth's distress. She cried out: "Kul, get back up here! We will run away, and he may chase us if he wishes!"

"His steed is too fast," said Visbhume. "Give me the tube you took from me and I will blow a fire-mite at him. No! Better! In my wallet is a trifle of mirror; give that to me."

Glyneth found the mirror and gave it to Visbhume. The knight aimed his lance at Kul; the triple-horned black tiger sprang forward. Visbhume made a sweeping motion with his hand; the mirror expanded to reflect the knight and his steed. Visbhume snapped away the mirror; the knight and his reflected image clashed together; both lances shivered and both knights were pitched to the ground where they drew swords and hacked at each other, while the tiger-mounts rolled and tumbled in a snarling screaming ball.

Kul jumped aboard the wole; it lumbered away to the east, with the combat still raging behind.

Glyneth went to Visbhume. "That was good work and it will earn you consideration when the final accounting is made. Give me back the mirror."

"Better, far better that it remains with me," said Visbhume smoothly. "In emergencies I will therefore be swift to act."

Glyneth asked pointedly: "Do you recall Kul's admonition? He was anxious to fight the knight; you denied him his exercise and now he may be short-tempered."

"Aaagh, the monstrous brute!" growled Visbhume under his breath, and with unwilling fingers relinquished the mirror.

Time passed; leagues were thrust astern. Glyneth tried to puzzle through the computations in Twitten's almanac, but met no success. Visbhume refused to teach her, declaring that first she must learn two arcane languages and an exotic system of mathematics, each with its particular mode of graphic representation. Glyneth also found a chart, which Visbhume gracelessly interpreted for her. "Here is the Lakkady Hills, the River Mys and the hut; this is the great Tang-Tang Steppe, inhabited only by a few rogue knights and bands of nomad beasts. This is where we now travel."

"And this town here, by the river: is it Asphrodiske?"

Visbhume squinted at the chart. "That seems to be the town Pude, by the River Haroo. Asphrodiske is here, beyond these woods and the Steppe of Sore Beggars."

Glyneth looked dubiously at the black moon, which had moved a considerable distance around the horizon. "It is yet a long way. Have we time?"

"Much depends upon the flow of circumstances," said Visbhume. "If an experienced captain of far travels, such as myself, were in charge of the voyage, events might well go with facility."

"We will give your advice every consideration," said Glyneth. "You may also keep a sharp look-out for robber knights and nomad beasts."

The travellers proceeded across Tang-Tang Steppe, but encountered no molestation either by robber knights or by nomad beasts, though occasionally in the distance they saw heavy long-necked beasts grazing upon the fruit of the trees, and a few sparse packs of two-legged wolves hopping and loping across the middle distance. From time to time the creatures paused to stand high, the better to appraise the wole, with Glyneth lolling on the bench of the pergola, Kul below and Visbhume crouched at the rear.

Visbhume became drowsy and lay back on the rug to doze in the warmth of the suns' light. Glyneth, at a sudden sound, looked around to find that one of the wolves had trotted furtively up behind the wole, then jumped to the rug, where now, sitting on Visbhume's face, it sucked blood from his chest through the rasping orifices in the palms of its forepaws.

Kul jumped aft, seized the wolf, wrung its neck and threw it astern. Visbhume, with a lambent glare first at Kul, then back toward the corpse of the wolf, now being torn apart by four of its fellows, at last regained his composure. "Had I not been deprived of my things, this outrage could not have occurred!"

Glyneth gave him a scornful glance. "You should not have brought me here in the first place."

"You must not blame me; I was so commissioned, by a highly placed person!"

"Who? Casmir? That is no excuse. Why does he want to know about Dhrun?"

"A portent, or something of the sort, has caused him alarm," said Visbhume sourly, candid only through the discomfiture of the wolf's attack, for which it was convenient to blame Casmir. Glyneth pressed for further details, but Visbhume would say no more until she first responded to his questions with equal frankness, a suggestion which prompted from Glyneth only a laugh of contemptuous amusement, and Visbhume said darkly: "I will never forget such insults!"

The journey proceeded as before. The wolves ran behind for a period, hopping and bounding on long legs, but at last uttered howls of rebuke after the wole and turned away to the south.

Leagues were vanquished by the wole's running feet, while the black moon drifted around the sky. The group halted to rest a second and then a third time. On each occasion Glyneth raised the magic cottage and caused a fine banquet to appear on the table, at which all dined to repletion. Visbhume, however, was not allowed to drink overmuch wine lest he become large and annoy the others with his boasting. He then went into a fit of tearful complaints for the plight in which he found himself.

Glyneth refused to listen to him. "Again I will point out that these troubles are of your own making!"

Visbhume started to refute her statement, but Glyneth stopped him short. "Neither Kul nor I care to waste our time with foolishness. Instead—" she brought the wallet to the table "—tell me, and I remind you of Kul's views in regard to evasiveness, how I may blow fire-mites from this tube."

"You cannot do so," said Visbhume, smiling and tapping his hands on the table in time to some internal tune.

"And how would you do so?"

"First I would need the fire-mites. Are there any in the wallet?"

Glyneth looked blank. "I do not know." She brought out a flask. "What is in this little flagon?"

"That is Hippolito's mental sensitizer. One drop stimulates the mind and helps one achieve an enviable reputation for hilarity and wit. Two drops enhances the aesthetic propensities to an exquisite degree, so that the person so stimulated can translate the patterns of spiderwebs into song-cycles and epic sagas."

"Three drops?"

"It has never been attempted by human man. Kul might wish to experience a sublime and aesthetic experience; for such as Kul, I recommend four or even five drops."

"Kul is not an aesthete," said Glyneth. "These are your healing salves and balms, and this is your hair tonic... . What is in this green bottle?"

Visbhume said delicately: "That, my dear Glyneth, is a tincture of erotic sublimations. It melts chaste maidens previously proof to both season and reason, and induces a wonderful emotion. When ingested by a gentleman, even of stately years, it lends a surge to the flagging zest and invigorates that person who, for whatever reason, finds himself growing, let us say, absentminded."

"I doubt if we will need this disgusting tonic," said Glyneth coldly. She drew further objects from the wallet. "Here are your insect-bulbs; here is the tube and here the mirror. Cloth, bread, cheese, wine. Fiddle and bow; also pipes. Wires. What is their purpose?"

"They are useful when one wishes to cross a chasm, or to batter open stone walls. The peremptory spells are difficult to use."

"And the fire-mites?"

Visbhume made a negligent gesture. "The question is nuncupatory."

Glyneth screeched: "Kul! Do not kill him!"

Kul slowly subsided to his chair. Visbhume huddled mournfully in the corner. In sudden inspiration, Glyneth pointed to a line of what seemed decorative buttons running along the length of Visbhume's sleeves. "The buttons! Visbhume, are these the fire-mites?... Kul, be patient. Pull off the buttons."

"Better yet, Visbhume shall eat several of them."

Visbhume looked up in startlement. "Never!"

"Then give them here!"

"I dare not!" cried Visbhume. "As soon as they are detached they must be blown through the tube."

Kul cut from Visbhume's loose sleeves long strips of black cloth to which the fire-mites were affixed, and thenceforth, as Visbhume walked or moved his arms, his bony white elbows protruded from the rents.

Glyneth rolled the strips of cloth around the tube and so made a bundle. "Now then! Explain, if you will, how these are to be used."

"Pull the button from the fabric and put it in the tube so that the head looks away, then blow at the person you wish to discommode."

"What other trickeries are you concealing from us?"

"None! No more! You have scoured me bare! I am helpless!"

Glyneth repacked the wallet. "I hope that you are telling the truth, for your own sake, since, truly, your misery only makes me ill."

As before, the three slept in sequence. Visbhume protested loudly about sleeping outside for fear of the running wolves. He was at last allowed to sleep in the pantry with the door secured against his escape.

In due course the wole once more set off across the steppe: a rolling savannah dotted with spherical trees, of somewhat different colour than before, with occasional trees of mustard-ocher or black and maroon, rather than the carmine-red of the trees along the Mys River.

Ahead stood a gigantic tree six hundred feet tall. The first boughs left the trunk in a cluster of six, spaced symmetrically around the trunk, each terminating in a great ball of dark yellow-brown foliage, with other layers of branches similarly spaced, all the way to the top. In the distance could be seen several other such giant trees, some even taller.

As the wole passed by the first, the passengers noted to their fascination that in the bark of the trunk, two hundred feet above the ground, arboreal two-legged creatures had cut out apartments interconnected by rickety balconies. The tree-dwellers showed great excitement as the wole passed by, and came out to crowd the balconies, pointing, signalling and performing gesticulations of defiance. Visbhume's obscene gestures only stirred them to a new pitch of indignation.

Inexorably the black moon veered around the sky. Glyneth tried to estimate how long and how far they had travelled but only succeeded in confusing herself. Visbhume pretended a like uncertainty and was ordered to the ground to run behind the wole until his comprehensions sharpened, and almost at once he was able to render a precise report. "Observe the pink star yonder! When the black moon passes under the star the way is open to Twitten's Corners. That is my estimate. The reckoning is not certain to the minute," he added virtuously. "I was reluctant to make a loose statement."

"And how far is Asphrodiske?"

"Allow me to examine the map in the almanac."

Glyneth, perhaps overly cautious, removed the key from its socket, then extended it to Visbhume.

Visbhume pointed a crooked knob-knuckled forefinger. "We would seem to be at this point, near this depicted river, which is the Haroo; and I believe I observe the flow ahead, on the left hand. The town Pude marks the beginning of settled territory. Here is the Road of Round Stones; it runs past the Dark Woods and across the Plain of Lilies and so to Asphrodiske, here at this symbol. After Pude the distance still is thirty or forty leagues, and the time draws short. I fear that our sleep has been too sound and our travel too meager."

"And what if we missed the time?"

"A wait at the axis would seem to be in order."

"But if we returned to the hut where we started, we could go through there the sooner; is that not correct?"

"So it is! You are a particularly clever girl: almost as clever as you are appealing to the eye."

Glyneth compressed her lips. "Please keep your compliments to yourself; the implications make me sick to my stomach. When would the pulse again be favorable at the hut, if so it became necessary?"

"When the moon reached the same place in the sky. Notice these notations: they refer to the azimuth of the black moon."

Glyneth went forward and reported to Kul what she had learned.

"Very well," said Kul. "We will sleep less soundly and travel more briskly."

Two or three leagues further along the way, a road slanted down from the north, where a small village of gray houses could be seen. It came around a forested knoll and led off into the east. Kul urged the wole upon the road, but the creature preferred to run on the blue turf, which provided a kinder footing. This road, according to Visbhume, might well lead all the way to Asphrodiske. He pointed at the map. "First we cross the River Haroo, here by the town Pude, then Asphrodiske lies onward, across the Plain of Lilies."

Down from the slopes of neatly tiered mountains flowed the River Haroo, to pass across the way to Asphrodiske. The road led to a stone bridge of five arches and away to the east, beside the village which Visbhume had named ‘Pude'.

Glyneth asked Visbhume: "Who are the people of the village? Did they come into being here?"

"They are folk from Earth, who across the ages have inadvertently dropped through sink-holes into Tanjecterly. A certain number have been placed here for one reason or another by magicians like Twitten, and they too must bide on Tanjecterly."

"That would seem a bitter fate," said Glyneth. "How cruel to be torn away from those who love you! Do you not agree, Visbhume?"

Visbhume put on a lofty smile. "Sometimes stem little reprimands become necessary, especially when one deals with wilful maidens, who refuse to share the bounty of their treasure."

Kul turned his head and stared at Visbhume, whose smile instantly faded.

Along the road came a wagon, carrying a dozen peasants. They turned to stare in wonder and awe as the wole went by. Their attention seemed primarily fixed upon Kul, and several jumped down from the wagon to take up staves as if to defend themselves from attack.

"That is an odd attitude," said Glyneth. "We offered them no threat. Are they timid or merely hostile to,strangers?"

Visbhume gave a fluting chuckle. "They are fearful for good reason. Feroces live in the mountains and no doubt have earned themselves a dubious reputation. I foresee problems. It might be wise to dismiss Kul from our company."

Glyneth called to Kul. "Come into the pergola, on the low bench and draw the curtain, so that the village folk will not be alarmed."

Kul somewhat reluctantly slid into the lower bench of the pergola, and drew the curtains. Visbhume, watching carefully, came forward and stood in Kul's previous place. He looked back at Glyneth: "In case questions are asked, I will say that we are pilgrims visiting the monuments of Asphrodiske."

"Be sure that is all you say," came Kul's voice from behind the curtains.

Glyneth, now uneasy, looked in the wallet and brought out a Tormentor Bulb, which she placed in her own pouch.

The wole ran smartly across the bridge and down the principal street of the village. Visbhume seemed extraordinarily alert, and looked back and forth, from side to side. He touched a pad on the wole's crest and the creature sensibly slowed its pace. Kul rasped: "What are you doing? Keep moving at speed!"

"I do not wish to arouse adverse comment," said Visbhume. "It is best to pass through settled areas at a seemly and sober pace, so that they will not think us irresponsible hoodlums." From a tall structure of dressed stone stepped three men wearing tight black trousers, voluminous tunics of green leather and elaborate widebrimmed hats. The foremost held up his hand. "Halt!"

Visbhume brought the wole to a stand-still. "Whom is it our privilege to address?"

"I am the Honourable Fulgis, Constable and Magistrate for the village Pude. And you?"

"Innocent pilgrims bound for Asphrodiske, that we may see the sights."

"All very well, but have you paid toll for the use of the bridge?"

"Not yet, sir. What is the fee?"

"For such a medley as I see before me, ten good dibbets, of sound tolk."

"Very good! I was afraid that you might ask for a tassel from the rug, each of which is worth twenty dibbets."

"I meant to include in the toll such a tassel."

"What?" Visbhume jumped to the ground. "Is not this slightly excessive?"

"Would you prefer to return over the bridge and swim your way across the river?"

"No. Glyneth, pass me down my wallet, that I may pay Sir Fulgis his due."

Glyneth wordlessly passed down the wallet. Visbhume now took Fulgis aside and spoke earnestly into his ear. Kul spoke to Glyneth in a husky whisper: "He is betraying us! Start the wole to running!"

"I do not know how!"

Visbhume returned and taking the wole led it into a walled courtyard. Glyneth called sharply: "What are you doing?"

"There are certain formalities which I fear we must endure. Kul may be discovered. If he becomes violent, he will be dealt with harshly. You, my dear, may step down from the pergola."

Kul jumped from the pergola, seized the wole's horns and caused it to canter from the courtyard. Warriors ran forward and hurled nooses; Kul was pulled from the wole and lay dazed for an instant; during this time he was bound hand and foot with many turns of rope, then dragged off to a barred cell in the side of the courtyard.

The constable spoke to Visbhume: "Well done! Such a feroce might well have done damage!"

"It is a clever beast," said Visbhume. "I suggest that you kill it instantly, and make an end to its threat."

"We must wait for the Lord Mayor, who may well call in Zaxa and provide us some sport."

"And who is Zaxa?" asked Visbhume indulgently. "He is defender of the law and executioner. He hunts feroce in the Clone Mountains and it is his delight to derogate their prideful savagery."

"Zaxa will do famously with Kul. Now we must be on our way, since time is short for us. From my esteem, I give you personally two rich tassels, worth many dibbets. Glyneth, we will proceed. It is a pleasure to be rid of that cantankerous beast."

IV

THE WOLE PACED SMARTLY EASTWARD beside the Road of Round Stones, with Visbhume riding in state high on the top bench of the pergola and Glyneth huddled miserably below. Visbhume, with the wallet once more under his command, made a suspicious inspection to ensure that Glyneth had sequestered none of his properties to her own use. Satisfied that all was as it should be, he brought out the almanac and, discovering a mistake in his computations, made a flurry of new measurements, but discovered nothing to alarm him.

At last reassured, he brought out his fiddle, extended the bow to its almost excessive length, tuned to a call of'Twiddle-dee-doodle-di-diddle-dee-dee!" then played a rousing selection of ear-tickling tunes: tantivets and merrydowns, fine bucking jigs and cracking quicksteps, rollicks, lilts and fare-thee-wells. His elbows swung first high then low, while his feet pounded the floor of the pergola in full justice to the meter. Peasants standing by the side of the road looked in wonder to see the great eight-legged wole running at speed, with Visbhume playing fine music and Glyneth sitting glumly below, and when the peasants returned to their farmsteads, they had much to tell of the strange sights they had seen and the excellent music they had heard.

Visbhume suddenly remembered a new aspect to the calculations, which he had not heretofore considered. He put aside fiddle and bow and made his corrections, to such good effect that, halfway along the road to Asphrodiske, he decided that the black moon afforded him somewhat more than adequate time for all his purposes, which brought him a great exhilaration of spirit.

The road now had entered the fringes of the Dark Woods. Visbhume steered the wole to the side and off across a little meadow of blue grass to the shade of three dark blue trees, where he halted and threw down the anchor. With stately demeanor he descended to the sward, set out the miniature cottage and caused it to expand. Finally he turned to Glyneth, still on the low bench of the pergola. "My dear, you may alight."

"I prefer to stay here."

Visbhume spoke crisply, with an overtone of menace in his tone: "Glyneth, step down from the wole, if you please. We have important matters to discuss."

Glyneth jumped down from the wole, ignoring Visbhume's hand. With a cool smile, Visbhume signaled Glyneth to the doorway of the cottage. She entered and seated herself, while Visbhume closed the door and shot the bolt.

"Are you hungry?" asked Visbhume.

"No."

As soon as she had spoken Glyneth realized that she had made a mistake. Any procedure which used time was to her advantage.

"Do you thirst?"

Glyneth gave a noncommittal shrug and Visbhume brought wine from the cupboard and poured full two goblets. "My, dear, we are at last genuinely and intimately alone! Is that not a thrilling thought? I have yearned long for this moment, meanwhile ignoring insults and indignities as befits a knight of chivalry. Such matters—pah! They are the twitchings and squealings of small minds; noblesse allows me to put them aside, as a gallant ship rides over the spatter and spray of the envious waves! Drink now! Let this good vintage bring warmth to your veins! Drink, Glyneth, drink! .... What? You shun the wine; you push aside the goblet? Truly, I am not pleased! Rather than sparkling eyes and excited mouth I find a squint, a hunching, a dyspeptic pinch of nostril, a grim behavior. This is a time for gayety! I am somewhat puzzled by your posture. You crouch and watch me sidelong as if I were a rat eating the breakfast cheese. On your feet, then! Let us act in the manner of dainty lovers! Be so kind as to loose your garments and let them slide, and so to display your lovely supple limbs!"

Glyneth shook her head. "I will do nothing like this."

Visbhume smiled. "Really? What a pity that I lack a full measure of time so that I might match you at every turn! But time is of the essence; the affair must be effected in a makeshift manner, and first, for reasons which will become clear to you, I must know what I brought you here to learn. Quickly now, that we devote the greater time to our pleasure!"

Temporizing, Glyneth asked: "What did you wish to know?"'

"Ha hah! Can you not guess?"

"Not really. I am puzzled."

"Then I will tell you exactly! After all, why should you not be told? Surely you will never use the knowledge to my disadvantage! Am I correct in this?"

"Yes."

"Of course I am correct! Listen then! King Casmir heard a prediction regarding the first-born son of Princess Suldrun. There is mystery in connection with Suldrun's child. Princess Madouc is a changeling, but what of the boy the fairies took? There was a boy who left Thripsey Shee and who became your companion. His name is Dhfun, but he would seem too old to be Suldrun's child. Who then is Dhrun's mother? Where is that boy whom the fairies took and gave Casmir Madouc in return? This boy would now be five or six years old. By the prediction he will sit on Evandig before Casmir or some such affair, and Casmir is anxious to locate him."

So that he may put the child to death?"

Visbhume smiled and shrugged.

"Such is the way of kings. Now you can understand the import of my curiosity. Do you so understand?"

"Yes!"

"Excellent! Then, in all kindness, I ask that you tell me what you know of the matter, and I therefore put this easy and harmless question to you: who is Dhrun's mother?"

"Dhrun never knew his mother," said Glyneth.

"He was raised by fairies and spent a most curious childhood. He once told me the name of Madouc's mother; she had consorted with men and her name was Twisk."

"Words, words, words!" cried Visbhume fretfully. "They are not responsive to my question! Once more: who is or was Dhrun's mother?"

Glyneth shook her head. "Even if I knew, I would tell you nothing, since it might aid King Casmir, our enemy."

Visbhume spoke sharply: "You try my patience! But I have a remedy!" He brought a little green glass bottle from his wallet. "This, as you will recall, is the true and veritable Potion of Amour. One drop brings yearnings to every nook and cranny the female soul and encourages prodigies of sexual valor in every male. Suppose that I forced you to ingest not just a single sip, but two or even three? In your urgent zeal you would tell me what I wanted to know in a trice, nor would you be at all loath to step from your garments."

Tears rolled down Glyneth's cheeks. What a sorry end for my life! Visbhume clearly intended either to kill her outright, or at best, to abandon her on Tanjecterly. Visbhume came up to her with his bottle. "Come then, open that pretty little mouth. One drop shall I give you; one drop will suffice, and if not, then we shall try another."

V

IN HIS CELL AT THE TOWN PUDE, Kul rubbed the ropes binding his arms against a sharp edge of the door-frame, and rasp them through. He untied the ropes from his legs, broke open the door to the cell with a single lurch and burst out into the courtyard. A pair of guards jumped up to intercept him but were sent sprawling; Kul took his sword from the gatehouse; then ran out into the street and eastward along the road.

Fulgis the constable organized a party of pursuit, including! the redoubtable Zaxa, a hybrid creature half-man and half-hespid batrache, with arms like baulks of timber, a heavy? gray hide proof against spear, arrow, claw or fang. Zaxa rode a small pacing wole, and carried his fabulous sword Zil, while the others of the party rode steeds of other descriptions."

The posse set off in hot pursuit and presently overtook Kul who ran into the Deep Woods. The pursuers coursed behind, shouting and hallooing, and exchanging repartee. Kul dropped from a tree into their midst, destroyed eight warriors and ran off. The pursuers came after, more cautiously, consulting among themselves and exchanging terse instructions, with Zaxa in the lead. Kul slid around to their rear and attacking once more, wrought further carnage. By the time Zaxa arrived on the scene, Kul was gone once more, only to leap from the shadows, seize the constable Fulgis and break his head against a tree trunk, but Zaxa at last confronted him.

Zaxa bellowed: "Feroce, you are clever, you are fierce but now you must pay for your murders, and the cost shall be high!"

Kul responded: "Zaxa, allow me to make a suggestion. you go your way and I will go mine. In this case, neither shall take harm from the other. It is a plan which redounds to the profit of both. Can you not perceive the wisdom of this proposal?"

Zaxa stood back blinking as he pondered the concept. At last he spoke: "No doubt there is something in what you say. But I rode this far distance with the express and stated purpose of lopping away your head with my fine sword Zil, and it seems somehow bootless to turn about now and ridt emptyhanded back to Pude. The townsfolk would ask: ‘Zaxa did you not ride from town pell-mell that you might destroy a murderous feroce?' And I could but answer: ‘True! That was my purpose!' Then they would say: ‘Ah, the clever brute evaded your search!' To this I would be forced to answer: "Quite to the contrary! We met and spoke a few civil words to other, then I came home.' The townsfolk might say nothing aloud, but I feel that I would lose esteem around the neighborhood. Therefore, even at the risk of discomforture I feel myself obliged to kill you."

"What if you die first?"

Zaxa bellowed and beat his great chest. "Once I lay hands on you, the issue is closed. Prepare to learn the full extent of the infinite hereafter." The two joined battle. In the end, panting, bloody, and eith one arm mangled, Kul stood above the corpse of Zaxa. He gazed around the forest glade, but the surviving villagers, seeing how the battle went, had departed. Kull looked down at Zaxa's great gray carcass and almost could feel a pang of pity. Kul took up Zaxa's magnificent sword Zil, staggered to axa's mount, climbed to the seat, and set off in search of Visbhume and Glyneth.

Only a mile down the road Kul spied the anchored wole and the house. Keeping to cover he approached, dismounted and went to the door. From within he heard a sudden crash of broken glass.

Kul burst the door wide and stood in the doorway. Visbhume, engaged in tearing Glyneth's clothes from her body, looked up in a panic. A bottle of green glass lay broken in the place where Glyneth had seized and thrown it. Kul hurled Visbhume against the wall with such force that Visbhume fell senseless to the floor.

"Glyneth ran sobbing to Kul. "What have they done to you? Oh, your poor arm! My dear poor wonderful Kul, you are hurt!"

"But not too badly," said Kul. "I am alive, and Zaxa is learning the length and breadth of the infinities."

"Sit in the chair, and let us see what can be done for you."

VI

AGAIN THE WOLE RAN EASTWARD toward Asphrodiske, beside the Road of Round Stones. In a clothes-press at the back of the cottage Glyneth had found garments to replace those which Visbhume had torn: peasant trousers of striped gray, black and white bast and a blouse of coarse blue linen. She had done her best to ease Kul's wounds, mending his cuts and slashes and contriving a sling to support his arm until the fractured bone might mend. Zaxa had sunk his fangs into Kul's shoulder, injecting a poisonous saliva, and the wound had mortified.

"Take the knife," said Kul. "Cut. Let the blood flow. Then dust on the powder."

Glyneth, gray-faced, took a deep breath, and holding her hand steady, slashed deep into the wound, releasing a gush of noxious matter and then a flow of healthy red blood. Kul groaned in relief and stroked Glyneth's hair, then sighed once again and looked away. "At times. I see strange visions," said Kul. "But it was not intended that I should dream, especially impossible dreams."

"Impossible dreams come into my head too, sometimes," said Glyneth. "They confuse me and even frighten me. Still, how can I help but love you, who are so brave and kind and gentle?"

Kul gave a mirthless laugh. "So I was intended to be." He turned away and gave his attention to Visbhume. "I would kill you at this moment, except that we still need your guidance. How goes the direction of the moon?"

Visbhume painfully rose to his feet. "What if I guide you correctly?"

"You will be allowed to live." Visbhume showed the caricature of an airy and confident smile. "I will accept that condition. The black moon is close on the quaver. You have loitered overlong."

"Then let us be away."

Visbhume made as if to take up his wallet, but Glyneth ordered him to stand back. She reduced the cottage, packed it away. The three climbed aboard the wole and once again rode toward the pink star, now almost in contact with the black moon.

As before, Glyneth rode the high seat in the pergola, Kul crouched by the wole's horns and Visbhume sat at the hindquarters, looking to the side with eyes as liquid and large as those of a lemur. Glyneth rode in a welter of a dozen emotions, and any one of them, so she felt, might bring her heartbreak. Despite the salves and powders, Kul was not the Kul of old; perhaps, thought Glyneth, he had lost too much blood, for now his skin had taken on a pallor and the crispness had gone from his movements. She sighed, thinking of her return to Earth. Already Tanjecteriy had become the reality and Earth the fanciful land behind the clouds.

League after league fell astern to the thrust of the wole's running legs, and now the road led across the Plain of Lilies. In the distance appeared a line of low hills, a town of gray houses and, somewhat to the north, a low flat dome of gleaming gray-silver metal.

Visbhume came to stand by the pergola. He spoke to Glyneth: "My dear, I will need the almanac, that I may find the great axis."

Glyneth removed the key from its socket and handed the almanac to Visbhume, who read the text with attention, then studied a small detail map.

"Aha!" said Visbhume. "Fare to the side of the dome; we should see a platform, and thereon an iron post."

Glyneth pointed. "I see the platform! I see the post!"

"Then forward in haste! The black moon has sounded the pulse, and here the time is short, without pause or rest."

At best speed the wole coursed across the countryside and arrived at the side of the dome. "That is an old temple, which may well be deserted now," said Visbhume. "On to the platform. Glyneth, the key!"

"Not yet," said Glyneth. "And in any event I will use the key."

Visbhume made an annoyed chattering sound. "That is not as I planned; it is impractical!"

"Nevertheless, you shall not pass until both Kul and I are safely through the portal."

"Bah!" whispered Visbhume. "Then up to the platform, and halt!... Glyneth, alight! Kul, down from your perch! To the post!"

Glyneth went to the steps leading up to the platform. Kul wearily stepped down to the ground and followed. Visbhume pulled the pipes from his pocket and played a shrill discordant arpeggio. The wole bellowed in rage and lowering its head charged down upon Kul. Visbhume came dancing with knees high, blowing tones at angry discord. Kul tried to jerk aside, but the spring was gone from his legs. The wole hooked him with its horns, and tossed him high.

Glyneth ran crying back down to the limp form. She looked up at Visbhume in horror and hatred. "You have betrayed us once again!"

"No more than you! Look at me! I am Visbhume! You call endearments to this creature who is half a beast, and only partly a man; it is unnatural! Yet you scorn me, the proud and noble Visbhume!"

Glyneth ignored him. "Kul lives! Help me with him!"

"Never! Are you mad?"

"Now quickly! He lives."

"shall I call the wole to trample him?"

Glyneth looked up in horror. "No!"

"Tell me: who is Dhrun's mother? Tell me!"

Kul whispered: "Tell him nothing."

"No," said Glyneth. "I will tell him; it can make no great difference. Suldrun was Dhrun's mother and Aillas his father."

"How is that possible, with Dhrun now twelve years old?"

"A year in the fairy shee is like ten years of life elsewhere."

Visbhume gave a crow of exultation. "That is the knowledge I have been seeking!" He snatched the key from Glyneth's hands, and jumped back as if dancing to some surging music heard by himself alone. He made a flamboyant flourish. "Truly, Glyneth, what a little fool you are! If you had spoken long ago, we would have been saved both toil and pain, from which I profit not at all! Little does Casmir care! He will only commend me for the results and call me efficient.

"Now then: will you come to Earth in a submissive manner, and there do my bidding?"

Glyneth fought to keep her voice under control. "I cannot leave Kul!" She turned her head so as not to look at Visbhume. "Take us both safely to Earth, and I will do your bidding."

Visbhume judiciously held high his finger. "No! Kul must stay! He has treated me with contumacy; he must be punished. Come, Glyneth!"

"I will not leave without him."

"So be it! Remain here and cherish this beast you love with so peculiar a passion! Give me now my wallet!"

"I will not give over the wallet."

"Then I will blow a blast on my pipes."

"And I will throw a Tormentor bulb at you. I should have done so before!"

Visbhume uttered a curse, but dared delay no longer. "I am away for Earth, where I will enjoy honours and wealth; goodbye!"

Visbhume leapt up to the platform, struck with his key, and disappeared from view.

Glyneth knelt beside Kul, who lay with eyes closed. Glyneth stroked his forehead. "Kul, can you hear me?"

"I can hear you."

"I am here with you. Can you manage to climb upon the wole? We will take you to a quiet place in the forest and you shall rest until you are well."

Kul opened his eyes. "The wole is an uncertain creature. It has done me a great harm."

"Only at the bidding of Visbhume's pipes. Otherwise it seems an orderly creature, and it runs well."

"That is true. Well then, let me see if I can climb on its back."

"I will help you."

Attracted by the activity, folk from the town had started to gather and some of them began to jeer Glyneth's attempts to help Kul. Glyneth paid the crowd no heed, and finally Kul half-climbed, half-fell aboard the wole. Now the crowd moved in close and surrounded the wole and started to pluck tassels from the rug. Glyneth brought a Tormentor bulb from the wallet and tossed it into the crowd, which immediately dispersed amid cries of pain, and the wole was free to go its way.

An hour later Glyneth took the wole veering across a meadow and behind a copse, where she dropped anchor and set up the house. Kul for a period lay in a daze, and Glyneth watched him anxiously. Was her imagination playing her tricks, or were odd changes occurring within Kul, causing his expression to move and change and at times even blur?

Kul opened his eyes to find Glyneth watching him. He spoke in a soft drained voice. "I have had strange dreams. When I try to remember, my head swims." He made a fretful movement and started to raise himself, but Glyneth pushed him back. "Lie quietly, Kul Rest, and never mind the dreams!"

Kul closed his eyes and spoke in his vague soft voice: "Murgen spoke to me. He said that I must guard you and bring you back safe to the hut. It is proper that I love you, because that is my reason for being alive. But you must not waste your emotion on me. I am half-beast, and one of the voices I hear is the voice of the feroce. Another voice is reckless and cruel, and it urges me to unspeakable deeds. The third voice is the strongest and when it speaks the others are still."

Glyneth said: "I too have thought long and deeply. All you say is true. I am awed by your strength and grateful for your protection, but I love another part of you: your kindness and bravery, and these were not taught you by Murgen. They come from somewhere else."

"Murgen's orders ring in my mind: I am to guard you and bring you safe to the hut, and since we have no better place to go, that shall be our destination."

"Back the way we came?"

"Back the way we came."

"Whenever you are strong enough to travel: then we will go."