The Sword of the Spirits

FOUR

THE PLAYER KING

AT THE TIME OF THE autumn fair, with the campaigns over and the fields harvested, we held a great ball in Blodwen’s honor. I sent the pigeons far and wide and got fair answer. The Princes of Guildford and Basingstroke, Alton and Andover and Salisbury came to us as guests. Strohan was in desperation, finding room for them all in the palace. And the Prince of Oxford sent his son.

Oxford was a city of great power and influence, ruling much territory. Towns as remote as Marlborough, more than thirty miles away across hilly country, stood under its sovereignty. The Seers must have thought of this city before they chose Winchester as the pivot of their plan. I guessed that their reason for rejecting it was because it lay remote, on the edge of the civilized lands, while we lay at the heart. Their northern border was the Burning Lands. Under that smoking sky, livid with flame by night, they were remote in a different sense: they were a sullen people, content to keep to themselves. Probably that was another reason why the Seers had looked elsewhere.

Our armies had never met theirs in the field, and there had never before been a royal visit. I knew why this invitation had been accepted. I ruled three cities now from Winchester. Even in the remoteness of Oxford that was something to cause sober thought. The Prince had sent his son to take a close look at me and my city.

I was prepared to be treated warily, and to treat him warily in return. He was a few years older than I, and had been heir to his father’s throne all his life. I expected an aloof unfriendly man, mindful of the power I had won but at the same time despising me as an upstart. When the Seer of Oxford named him Prince in Waiting, my father had been a common Sergeant, not yet ennobled.

But my anticipation went much amiss. His name was Eric and in character he gave the lie to his townsmen’s reputation. He was olive-skinned, handsome apart from a broken nose and the scar of a sword slash on the side of his neck, and he smiled easily. He talked easily too, in the drawling accent of his city.

I could see that he was setting himself out to please me, and at first my wariness was reinforced by this. But I found there was more to him than charm: much more. When we sat alone together in my parlor, he talked good sense and with frankness.

He said: “You will know why I have come, Luke. Your reputation has traveled far, and grown as it traveled. Old stories are recalled. Of a Seance, for instance, where you were named as one who would be Prince of Princes. Men fear you for what you have achieved, and might yet achieve.”

I watched him, making no comment on this. He said:

“I came expecting to find someone crazed with power and vainglory, to hunt out his weaknesses against a future conflict. I find you a reasonable man. I think our minds may not lie far apart. We are both young. We both look for change from old and stupid ways.”

He smiled. “It is far worse, I think, in Oxford than in Winchester. Nothing can be done there that was not done last year. My father is not a bad man, but stern and inflexible. As a child I earned a few thrashings for not obeying the rules. After that I learned to give them lip service, and keep my own counsel.

“But it is time there was change. As I say, the stories of Luke of Winchester run fast, in and out of many cities, and reach us, too. Stories of your journey to the north, where you killed the Bayemot, and stories of your conquests. But there is one I have only heard since I came here: of how you decreed a dwarf should be a warrior. I like that one. It gives a different ring to all the others.”

I did not disappoint him by telling him I had done it to keep a pledge rather than to bring about change for its own sake. And though I believed him honest I could not tell him the secrets of the Seers. But here was someone who might be a strong ally when the time was ripe. He himself put it into words:

“I have fought with our army and will again if there is need. But these battles achieve nothing, serve no useful purpose. The time for petty rulers is over. We need a single government to give laws throughout the land. I think I have fathomed your aim, and if I have I agree with it. I can do nothing while my father lives, but he is an old man and sick. When I can help, I will.”

I said: “I believe you, Eric. And this is good to hear.”

“One other thing. You will not find me jealous of your glory. I seek only to be your lieutenant. When the time comes I will gladly bend a knee to the Prince of Princes.”

• • •

It was not in my nature to trust any but a well-tried friend, and I had learned enough of the princely craft, and of the lies and intrigues that surround it, not to be deceived by fair words and smiles. I would not relax my guard with Eric of Oxford, as my father so fatally had done with Fat Jeremy. But though I would keep my precautions I did believe him honest. And liked him also.

It would serve all my ends to bind him closer to us. As it happened, there was something which could help bring that about. He met my Captains and their Ladies, among them Edmund’s sister, Jenny. And it was plain that he was taken with her.

Thereafter I took care that they were thrown together. He was, I knew, unmarried and unbetrothed, as she was. He was happy to be in Winchester, free of the gloom and protocol of Oxford. In this mood he might be glad to take a girl of this city back with him as a bride. And it would suit me very well to have him do so.

Nor was Jenny a person to whom even the Prince of Oxford could object as a future lady for his son. She came of a family that had been noble for generations—since the Disaster—and her father had been Prince of Winchester. It would be a good match.

I told only Blodwen of my hopes. She did not dispute the advantages, but said:

“I think you will find him eager enough. I am not so sure of her.”

“But she likes him. Anyone can see she does. Did you not see them laughing together only this morning?”

Blodwen smiled. “Liking is not loving.”

“His looks are good enough. He is a tried warrior. He is cheerful and has a nimble wit. And he is a Prince’s son, Prince in Waiting to a great city. What more could she want?”

“Poor Luke! You know how to wage war or make a treaty, but in the trivial small maze of a woman’s mind you are lost utterly. Jenny does not need telling any of that; she sees it before you do. But if she does not have a heart to give, it is no help.”

“But she is not betrothed!”

“No,” Blodwen said, “she is not betrothed.” She sighed. “I will not argue with you. Perhaps it will fall out as you hope. Luke, I must go. There is a last fitting for my gown for tonight. I do not want to disgrace you at the ball.”

• • •

I was with Jenny when Blodwen came into the Hall of Mirrors. There was a sudden hush in the talk. I recalled a similar silence falling on the Wilsh court in Cymru’s throne room, the night I saw her first, and turned to look.

She had brought her other dresses with her, but this one had been made by our Winchester tailors. The cloth was silk, less fine and less brightly dyed than that of the Wilsh: a dull crimson. But to make up for it they had put heavy gold braid at the neck and hem and on the deep cuffs. And they had cut it cunningly so that it clung close to her, and yet swirled from her as she walked.

I said, involuntarily: “By the Great, have you ever seen anything so lovely?”

“No,” Jenny said. Her voice was small. “Nothing.”

“I must go to her,” I said. “And I think Eric is looking for you, Jenny.”

“Then I suppose I must wait here until he finds me.”

She turned away, and I went to Blodwen. I was almost afraid to touch her when we stood up together for the first dance, but she took my hand firmly with her small warm one, and tugged me sharply into line when I made a false step. I had never had much skill in these enterprises.

Apart from that, things went well. I saw Eric dancing with Jenny, and that pleased me. Later I saw him go out with her through the open doors into the garden, which pleased me still more. Then, just before supper, I saw Eric on his own.

I said: “Are you looking for Jenny? I think I saw her . . .”

He cut across my words, an unusual impoliteness.

“No.” He looked unhappy. “I’m sorry, Luke.” He put on a smile but it was more rueful than cheerful. “I have suffered a reverse.”

“A reverse? How?”

He told me. He had proposed marriage to her and been refused. And it was clear, though he did not charge her with it, that the refusal had been brusque rather than gentle.

My anger rose. I knew that hardness of Jenny’s. In the past I had suffered from it. She had the right to take her own decisions, but no right to be rude to a friend of mine, a Prince I looked to as an ally.

I made excuses and left him. I looked for Jenny and soon found her. I said:

“A private word with you.”

She smiled but her lips were tight. “As you wish, sire.”

The garden was the nearest place. There was an arbor beyond the sundial and we had it to ourselves. We could hear the minstrels’ music and see figures moving in the Hall of Mirrors, but at this spot it was quiet and private.

Jenny said: “This is the second time I have been brought here tonight.”

Her voice was provocative and defiant. My anger increased. I told her what I thought of her conduct. Eric was a good man. He did not deserve to be treated with contempt.

“And did he say I did so treat him?”

“No. But he was hurt. If a woman must refuse a man she can do it decently, without wounding him.”

She was silent; then said: “I did not mean to hurt him. I agree, he is a good man. But he took me by surprise, and I am not . . . accustomed to such things.” I saw her look at me in the dark. “If you think it right, Luke, I will tell him I am sorry.”

She had accepted the rebuke and was trying to make amends. In a calmer mood I would have realized this, and let it go. But my anger was not only on Eric’s behalf. It stemmed also from the frustration of my plans. I said savagely:

“You are a fool, as well. You will get no better offer than this, nor one a tenth as good.”

She stared at me. Fire came back into her voice too. She said:

“A Prince may command his people. But by what right does he tell them how to live their lives?”

“For your own good! Because you are blind, girl, to your own interest.”

“Blind?” She laughed. “As blind as the Prince of Winchester?”

We faced each other in bitterness and rage. I saw the rapid rise and fall of her breast and my own pulse was racing. In the distance there was the soft murmur of voices, above the music of a minuet. I said:

“I have eyes that can tell a fool, and a friend.”

“Have you? And a betrothed bride who dallies with a friend? Can they tell that?”

I laughed now. “You are not just a fool, but mad.”

Her voice dropped but was burning still. “Yours are the only eyes that do not see it.”

I took her arm roughly, my fingers bruising the flesh. She winced and I said:

“You tell this lie of Blodwen. I could have you whipped for that and may do yet, noble though you are. But what man do you traduce? What friend do you call false?”

“You know it. You do not need telling.”

It was true. In such a catalogue of lies there could only be one name. I said:

“Edmund?”

She stared in silence and the silence gave assent. I let go her arm.

“So you charge your own brother with this. You disgust me. Without a single jot of evidence.”

My contempt provoked her again.

“Listen,” she said, “listen, blind Luke. Do you remember a day when we picnicked in the water meadows, and you were called away to Romsey? Edmund took her back in your place. Not to the city only but to her apartments. And stayed there after.”

“At my bidding. I told Blodwen to give him his supper, in return for the rowing.”

Jenny said: “They dined late that night. I went to his room after eleven, and he was not there.”

“You speak out of narrowness and ignorance. The Wilsh love talking late into the night. In Klan Gothlen Edmund and I have sat with Cymru till two of the morning. Eleven is late by our standards but not by theirs.”

She said nothing. In the distance the music stopped and the chatter of voices swelled up. I said:

“Exile would be better than whipping. I would rather not see your face again. But to take any action would injure Edmund. So go your way, Jenny, and keep out of mine.”

She went without speaking by the path that would take her from the palace. I walked, willing myself to calmness, back to the Hall of Mirrors. Another dance had struck up as I got there. Edmund stood opposite Blodwen. They saw me look at them, and smiled.

• • •

A troop of players came to us that winter. They were not the ordinary strolling players, who acted their parts in any room large enough, or in the open air, and sent one of their numbers round with a greasy cap to collect money off their audience. These were more ambitious. In Salisbury they had had what they called a theater, and they took a disused malt-house to make a similar place in our city. It was in the River Road, not far from my Aunt Mary’s house.

This was one more sign of how Winchester’s importance was growing in men’s eyes. Players, like thieves and tricksters, will always flock where there are full pockets to be emptied, and they had heard talk of our wealth and prosperity. But it was not just a question of money. Their chief player and manager, a lean arrogant man in his thirties with a black pointed beard and showy dress, let it be known that they had come because it was fitting that the greatest city should have the greatest company of players.

This swaggering was typical of him. When he paid his respects to me and to my Captains, he brought his hat down in a bow that caused the feather on top of it to sweep the floor, but the gesture was empty. He made it plain that in truth he thought little of warriors or nobles, or anyone who did not belong to his own seedy profession. And that in that profession he believed that no other could come near him. I had never met even a Prince with such overweening pride.

Of my own inclination I would have sent him packing back to Salisbury. But his reputation had traveled ahead of him. The people were anxious to see these players, and it was true that if they were any good they would help relieve the winter’s tedium. Blodwen spoke for them also. She had been used to plays and theaters in her own city, and missed these diversions.

So they set to work to turn the malt-house to their ends, and dwarfs worked busily under the direction of this man who called himself, in further illustration of his modesty, the Player King. At last it was finished, and news of the first play cried in the streets. His messenger came to the palace, humbly inviting me and my court to be present at the opening.

We arrived as a gray evening was turning into a hard black night. Snow which had threatened all day had not yet come, but the frost was sharp. A knifing wind blew from the east.

Inside braziers had been set up and it was less cold, but we still had need of our cloaks. The dwarfs had done their work well, and I acknowledged that the direction had been good. The walls had been brightly painted, and the ceiling also. And the floor had been constructed to be on three levels. The highest part was at the back where there were benches; for the common people, but empty now. Then came the section where chairs were set out for us. Below that again was the part they called the stage. A heavy curtain, draped from ceiling to floor, covered the front of it.

When we were seated the Player King came. He said to me:

“Are you comfortable, sire?”

There was that in his voice which suggested that our discomfort would insult him. I said:

“Well enough. And it is a fine theater. Though some might think it strange that you set the commons above their betters.”

He smiled. “Would you rather they came between you and the stage? As it is, if they were not raised up they would see little of the play. And you must remember, sire, that in the realm of dream and imagination all men are equal.” He bowed. “It is our privilege to offer a place in which even a Prince can put aside both cares and crown for an hour in exchange for the airy stuff of fantasy.”

He said it glibly. What was not said because no saying was needed was that not all in fact were equal here: others must yield to the authority of the Player King. I said shortly:

“What play will you give us?”

“It is called ‘Tristram and Iseult,’ ” he said. “I have written it myself, though the story is ancient.” He bowed again. “And if you are ready, sire, we will waste no further time.”

He pulled his cloak about him and went through the curtains onto the stage. Soon after that the curtains drew away to either side. Some of the ladies exclaimed with pleasure. In front of us was the representation of a throne room. There were two thrones, painted to look like gold, and other gaudy trappings. Although the space was small, the eye was deceived into seeing grandeur there. Side walls had pillars cunningly painted on them, and at the back a painted window looked out and down to crags in a bright blue sea. It was the palace of a great king, set high on a seagirt cliff. And into the throne room from a door at one side, his cloak thrown off to show a dress of garish magnificence and a golden crown on his head, strode the Player King.

He played the part of Mark, king of this imaginary country. The story told how Mark had a lieutenant and friend called Tristram, whom he sent on his behalf to request the hand of the daughter of the king in a land called Ire. The contract was made and Tristram brought Iseult, the daughter, back with him to Mark’s court.

Iseult’s mother, seeking to ensure her daughter’s happiness, gave a love potion to the serving maid who was to go with her. This was to be given to Mark before the wedding, and would ensure that he loved her all his days. But Tristram and Iseult, not knowing what it was, found the flask with the potion and drank it together. So they must love each other, as long as they should live.

A strange uneasiness grew in me as this tale unfolded. I had expected to be bored, never having had much taste for minstrels or mummers, but this was not boredom. I felt a sickness in my stomach, a tightness in my chest as though a giant’s hand gripped my heart.

A scene came in which, with long poetic speeches, Tristram and Iseult declared their love but swore to fight against it. Tristram was Mark’s friend, Iseult his affianced bride. They knew they loved each other but they would not betray him. And as they talked on the stage they drew closer together and then, still swearing they would never yield to love, embraced and kissed.

It was a moment of high drama. All eyes, it seemed, were fixed upon the players. But my eyes went to Blodwen. I saw her look not at the stage but at Edmund; and as though word had gone silently from heart to heart his eyes met hers. For a long moment they locked, then turned away.

The sickness and tightness grew worse, and coldness was added to them. My legs shivered. I had to clamp my jaw tight to keep my teeth from chattering.

I had tried to put aside all thought of what Jenny had said in the garden. If by chance the memory came to me I dismissed it. Now all flooded back. I heard the soft music again in the distance and heard her voice, hard with contempt: “Listen . . . Listen, blind Luke . . .”

The play ran its course. I saw nothing in it but resemblances. Tristram was a skilled player of the harp and sang a love song to Iseult. I thought of Edmund playing his lute in the water meadows and singing: “Greensleeves was all my joy, Greensleeves was my delight . . .” The Player King made Mark a man stupidly blind to what was happening, concerned only with the affairs of state, a dull and heavy creature. I saw myself riding away to Romsey, leaving the pleasant scene behind.

And there rage supplanted sickness. Jenny had said: “Yours are the only eyes that do not see it.” Could that be true? Could the fact of my betrayal be as clear as Mark’s was? Was it the talk of Winchester? The Player King had said he had written the play himself. Were these things jibes at me?

I had an urge to leap down onto the stage, to knock aside the wooden sword the Player King wore with my steel one, and spit him with it. But as always my mind worked coldly behind my rage. There might be killing needed yet, but this was not the time.

The play ended somehow. Mark killed Tristram, I think, and Iseult stabbed herself. I was only concerned that it should be over. The players paraded for our applause and then the Player King came to me again, and asked if their poor efforts had met with my approval.

“It was entertaining,” I said, “as these things go.”

He bowed stiffly, disconcerted. Blodwen said:

“Oh, it was good! We have no better players in Klan Gothlen. And the play was finely written. Luke, you must reward him well.”

I saw her face, candid and eager, and could not believe her false. Behind her Edmund smiled at me, as he had done many times, over her enthusiasm. If they were not honest the whole world was a stinking ruin, broken and slimed like the village which the Bayemot overran. And I had killed the Bayemot. I said to the Player King:

“You played well. Gold will be sent you in the morning.”

• • •

But in the night I woke, and having wakened did not sleep again. Scenes from the play came back to me; the words of the two lovers rang in my ears with Jenny’s mocking voice behind them. “Listen . . . Listen, blind Luke . . .” I tossed and turned and, rising early, took a horse and rode out of the North Gate, past the astonished watch.

I rode hard and far, like a coward fleeing from a battlefield. But there was no escaping this battle; its blind and hateful warriors harried me without mercy, and a hundred swords pierced me. And I knew there was no medicine to heal these wounds.

So I came back, tired and sick at heart, to the city which I ruled. I had become a slave to my own eyes and ears. I must watch them both, listen to every word that passed between them, interpret every gesture. While I did so, I must hide my misery.

And in my slavery I was tossed to and fro. I would see her look at him and fill with anger. Then she would look at me, wide-eyed and smiling, and the anger would turn to love, and self-disgust. I had no interest in anything else. My Captains came to me, with news or questions, and I listened and spoke and a moment later did not know what they had said or I had replied.

Days passed. I had no appetite but forced myself to eat, dully chewing and swallowing the food which like everything else but one thing had become meaningless. My life was consumed with watching, guessing. Then one night, when we had both been guests in his mother’s house, he handed her her cloak on parting and I saw his hand rest, for another long moment, on her shoulder.

We walked through the streets toward the palace; for so short a distance we had not brought horses. They were less dark than they had been: last winter I had had oil lamps put up such as they had in Salisbury. Blodwen hummed a tune. I said:

“Are you happy?”

“Yes!”

“Are you thinking yet of returning to Klan Gothlen?”

She glanced at me in surprise. “Why, no.”

“You have been a long time here.”

She laughed. “Have I outstayed my welcome, then?”

“If you do not go soon, you will be caught by the winter.”

“Would that be so terrible a thing?”

I said slowly: “I was wondering . . . what it is that keeps you.”

“I have told you. I love your city. More than my own, I think.”

I said: “What person?”

“What person? Who else but Luke, Prince of Three Cities?”

She said the words lightly, jesting, but there was a falseness. I asked:

“What of Edmund?”

“I am fond of Edmund, and all your friends.”

“Only fond?”

She stopped. We stood under an oil lamp. Some distance away a polymuf scuttled into an alley, made still more crooked in shape by the shadows which surrounded him. We were alone. Blodwen said:

“Speak openly, Luke, and honestly.”

My throat swelled and I had to force words from it.

“This,” I said. “Have you betrayed me with Edmund?”

Her eyes looked into mine unflinchingly. “I have not betrayed you with Edmund, or anyone.”

My misery lifted. I could live again as a free man, not a fugitive from nightmares. I said:

“You swear this?”

“If swearing is needed, I swear it.”

I wanted only one thing more. I took her hands.

“And you do not love him? You will swear that, too?”

She smiled, and for the instant all was well. Then she shook her head.

“No,” she said softly. “That I will not swear.”