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  From this point no argument would move him, nor would he even allow them to tie to the piles of the river-barrier for the night. No help for it; they had to drop downstream and put out mooring stones for the night at the edge of the stinking marshes. Yet it was not too bad, since Rogai came over in a shallop from the ship he was on and entertained them with a merry tale of one of the Vicount Isele's captains and how he came to partake of the favors of the dame with whom the man of Mariola lay in hiding; how that lord's Micton servant was plied with drink and fantastic tales of evil spirits; how they rigged a device of bellows to cause horrid groans to issue from a cabinet; how the servant had burst into the midst of his master's joyance, crying, "Sword and helm! They are upon us!" so that both fled hastily without their doublets—

  "—from which I removed the Vulking badges of leadership as lawful prize and have them here to prove it," finished Rogai, whereat all laughed.

  10 Salmonessa: Now We Have an Allegiance

  THERE WAS wind in the morning, blowing the marsh-reeds flat, with a few flecks of snow and a hard pull up to the bridge. The Duke's word had come; they were permitted to enter on condition that as soon as ever they arrived, the fifty would swear in Duke Roger's own presence to have Airar for their lord feodal and he make similar oaths to the Duke. Airar could see that of the free-fishers, most disliked exceedingly this manner of procedure, and some of them made objection, stamping to keep warm on the skonara's deck. Erb settled the matter, declaring that those who would not swear might have one of the ships for a return to Vagai; it was clear enough then that all would rather swallow their pride than face old Rudr with his instruction unobeyed.

  The river Viverrida runs both through and around Salmonessa, cutting off outside the walls certain suburbs of booths and mean huts, to which in the summer season (Visto said) came merchants, mainly from Mariupol and the Twelve Cities, for trading in the Duke's market. Now all these were empty, looking like dead husks of fruits carelessly flung; from behind them, out of the flowing moat's slack water the great walls ran up and up with a slight inward curve that gave them the more height till the stone wave broke in a tracery of battlements and jutting turrets, far above. The water-gate was a tunnel that seemed to run like a cave into the heart of a mountain; a huge iron portcullis overhung their heads as they entered and there was another at the far end, where they could see nothing but a wall of cold masonry, pierced by shot-holes.

  Once through that lowering portal, it was clear how this inner wall jutted from the main fence of the city to stand across the stream just where it made a turn to plunge through the walls and on to sea, this inner guard ending in a tall tower. Neither at window or battlement was any person visible, though a close watcher might have caught a pair of eyes back in the gloom. The ships pushed on, Airar's leading. As they rounded the bend past the tower Outer Salmonessa lay before them, quays all along the river where it broadened and slowed, timbered and painted houses standing up over them, with much people moving about; and behind these buildings and business, more towers climbing up a hillside, the steep inner city, impregnable. Airar took all this in vaguely, for what quickest drew his glance was the near quayside on the left. A line of maybe twenty men-at-arms was there, drawn up in order, eyes fixed before them, waiting. They had halberds all, short swords belted to their sides, and each a round target slung over the shoulder of his coat of ring mail, on which was cunningly wrought the tower and dolphin, Salmonessa's badge. Their size held the eye; they were enormous. Airar laughed, whistled, and turned to the shipmaster, for the others were straining at their sweeps. "These are surely very pretty men," said he. "I'm no dwarf myself, but the least of them would overtop me by a groat."

  "Oh, aye, the shaveheads. Had you not heard of them? They are the Bastard's bodyguard and have first rights in the sack of any city he captures." His yoice was indifferent. "But I do not think they are so brisk in a battle-front as smaller men might be, for they come of all races, except the Micton and are petted like pigs at a fair."

  Now they had reached the quayside and a fisher or two jumped ashore to draw the skonara to the rings that stood there. A man came down past the giant-guard with little mincing steps, dressed in shoon of plum velvet with the same material showing in the slashes of his yellow doublet; uncovered, but with black hair wonderfully smooth and curled at the ends. From his left hand, where it rested on a jewelled dagger, dangled a ball of scent.

  At sight of Airar he swept a bow low to the pave.

  "Prince Urdanezza," he said in a high, affected voice, and offered a hand for touching. "One presumes it is the most worshipful Airar. I knew at once by the dagger you were he of gentle blood. Pray let me apologize a million times for the smells of this quay." He lifted and delicately sniffed at the scent. "I do assure you we are better at the palace, and His Grace is all afire to see you and hear with his own ears how you have tamed the stiff-necked codfish of Gentebbi into taking a lord. My Lady Malina, as well." He linked arms with Airar and, before the latter could do more than murmur a few sounds which he trusted had the ring of courtesy, trickled on. "You are in favor before even making your bows; His Grace has sent down no fewer than twentyone of the Pillars of Salmonessa to be your escort, which is more than the Bishop of Morango received on his last visit. Will you have your men follow?"

  He led past the tall men and stood aside for Airar to crawl into an elaborately decorated litter, with its hangings trailing in the mud of the street. Eight men with shiny black faces, big but not so big as the halberdiers, instanty lifted it to their shoulders, and as Airar stuck out his headtto call to Erb, part of the guard fell in on either side, with a simultaneous shout of "Ey—yah!" that set all the passengers looking. Through the curtains Airar caught glimpses of these latter and thought they did not seem so proud as their buildings, but now the vehicle was moving steadily to the rhythmic shout of the shavehead halberdiers and Prince Urdanezza talking:

  "—plot, no doubt. Vulk will demand the hand of the Princess Aurea by reason that the old connection of the House in Mariola makes His Majesty's eldest daughter suzeraine there; and this in spite of the fact that her hand was promised to His Grace by the Capitulation of Lectis, seven years agone. Then this Vulkish man will find some means to set Prince Aurareus aside, or merely send him the Black Wine and be proclaimed Vulk the First and emperor, and we shall all be under that wearisome Council at Briella with its votings and laws about the number of jewels a man may wear." He yawned. "But I instruct you needless; these things are common gossip."

  Airar did not reply and Prince Urdanezza smiled with an exercise of charm that had almost physical impact. "Is there any company now in Vagai to be worth a man's time? I have only seen it once, on my way to the court at Stassia— fish-odored, bat-haunted place, without a single house worth visiting but the chalet where the Knight of Bremmery used to take the waters."

  "I do not know. I was only a short time there and was with Rudr, the master-fisher."

  "My sympathy, worshipful Airar. You will find it different in Salmonessa. His Grace never sits at table with fewer than twelve lords of blood and ladies in proportion, though I will admit he has had to ennoble one or two of the latter himself. Tell me—" he leaned forward, abruptly confidential, and the Utter pitched to the change in balance "—do you privately consider these Carrhoene captains worth places at the high table? The question concerns us much, and I'd fain have the opinion of a Vastmanstad lord. So few from your land have birth that what you say is worth the double."

  Airar was saved replying by a loud blast of trumpets. The litter was set down; Prince Urdanezza leaped out and extended his hand, and they were at the foot of a flight of steps that winged nobly up to a high-arched door, with a trumpeter on each step, the fanion from his trumpet bearing the tower and dolphin. All blew again as Airar descended; looking over his shoulder, he could see the Pillars of Salmonessa split to left and right and the freefishers following up behind, some giggling, most awed, but tall Erb with his face working in agony o
f embarrassment, and Visto bold and bland.

  "His Grace keeps a formal court," said Urdanezza in Airar's ear; "he will expect the full three bows."

  At the head of the stairs was a hall of entry with servitors bowing over the tessellated pave; and beyond a pair of great doors, flung open to a point from the trumpets, and tall halberdiers on guard. Beyond, the salon of presence stretched back illimitable, with torch-holders in a tracery of Permandos glass above, not filled now since light came richly through windows of many-colored glass. Lords and ladies brilliantly dressed moved in that changing light along the passage to the throne, talking behind fans; the Prince swept a low bow, nudging Airar to do likewise, and the latter noted that the floor was dirty.

  The third bow brought them to the foot of the throne itself, with a big man lolling on it and a lady by his side in a robe that almost showed her breasts. She had full lips and a face that seemed to mean she would laugh easily; he wore a strawberry-leaf coronet above a heavy bristle of black beard and an expression at once silken and surly. When he spoke it was in a voice pitched higher than Airar had expected.

  "You are welcome to our dominions, Lord Airar. The more since I have heard of you what will hardly be believed, that you have brought the fishers of Gentebbi to offer their liege service under our overlordship, confirming the ancient friendliness of Dalarna and the house of Salm. Our learned men tell us that we have title valid in law and justice to the suzerainty of those islands, they never having been of right under the rule of that King Argentarius in whose charter these Gentebbi men confide. Yet behold our clemency: we here declare and let all men bear witness that if duty feodal be sworn to us by you as their baron, they stand released by us of all other claims whatsoever. Is that less than fair, my lords and gentlemen?"

  From the edge of his eye Airar beheld how two or three near the dais bowed in silent admiration, heard cries of "Oh, splendid!" and "Nobly done!" and down the walls of that apartment the patter of hands as ladies let their fans dangle. As for him he was somewhat at a loss for words, not knowing how his fifty would take this offer, nor wishing neither to speak against so high a lord.

  "No baron I," said he finally, "only the named leader of these men, who have come to bear a blade or two under your standard against the oppressive Vulkings."

  The Duke shifted his legs. "We have no manner of bladebearing against Vulk of Briella at the moment," he said; "nor shall we have ever if he keeps to his devoir under the law and the treaty." He turned, lips drawing back to smile at a man who stood to the right of the dais, Imperial by the look of him, with dull eyes and a spatter of hair round the mouth. "This is a matter of service only. As for the barony, you may count it that our loyal subjects are rewarded. Now we will have the swearings."

  Airar glanced round at fishers huddled a few paces behind him. Erb was in the front rank, but his eyes blank and he swallowing his Adam's apple; but Visto beside him nodded aye and took one step forward, saying, "I will swear."

  From somewhere or nowhere an usher stepped forth, all in tower-and-dolphin livery. "Then you must kneel before this lord of yours," he said, "and, placing both your hands within his hands, say the formula I shall pronounce." There was a burr of conversation from the walls as Visto followed this saying; but he spoke sharp and clear enough till the very end, where come the words with which the subject declares he will follow his lord to battle. Here Visto checked, gulped, and added of his own: "—for so long as this struggle against the Vulkings shall last-." Airar saw Duke Roger frown and lean forward, but one of the lords behind him said something in a low voice; he relaxed as Visto stepped back and another in his place.

  "I Vardomil of Vagai do swear—" "I Ove of Vagai—" "I Nene of Busk—" it went, and some were gruff enough, while the whispers around shattered into a laugh somewhere and then into full-voiced talk with the Duke watching silent save for a remark now and again to his lady, and Airar a little unbelieving, hardly noting the faces that came till maybe the fortieth of the fishers, when some vague familiarity of movement in the head-lowered figure with bright hair caught at his attention, and the voice was contralto that said: "I Eythor of Vagai—" All up his back and round his neck swept a wave of hot and cold, he started so violently that he almost jerked the kneeling figure forward and was indeed looking into the eyes of Gython, Rudr's daughter.

  No time now to ask or why or how as the formula droned to its close and she, clad in a rough fisherman's garment, drew her small cool hands from his and returned to her place, but he saw Roger, the Bastard of Salmonessa, look sharp from the girl to Ove Ox-mouth beside her and felt a surge of angry fury for no reason. But now another was taking the oaths and at the same time a second Blackstaff bowing before the Duke with some message, to which the latter cried above the talk and swearing that it must wait, he was at business. The last man was sworn; the usher led Airar to the foot of the dais where he knelt as the fishers had done before him, and was halfway through the words, when he received the second startling shock of that ceremony. One of the ring-covered hands that gripped his was short by two fingers of the normal number.

  His voice faltered as his mind leaped back to the night in the enchanter's cot and the luck of the three-fingered man. There was a tightening of peril in his breast, but he carried it through. Duke Roger left him one hand to kiss, and leaned back smiling.

  "Lord Airar, you dine with us tonight. An occasion." He waved dismissal for the fishers. "It is not unlike—nay, stay, hark what's here. I will listen to that herald."

  Prince Urdanezza touched Airar's elbow to guide him to the side of the salon, not far from where a dark-eyed girl made room for him in the front rank with a smile that promised all promises, and a herald came down between the ranks of lords and ladies. He was clad in simple white and even without the red pile of Briella blazing on his tabard, one would have known him for a Vulking by the hawk nose at variance with the broad face from which it stood. At the foot of the dais he bowed and, looking never round, said in a voice loud and clear:

  "Sir of Salmonessa, I am commanded by my master, Count Vulk of Briella, Lord of Os Erigu and under the Council deputy of the Empire for all the Dalecarle provinces, to bear you this message: that my lord the Count cannot, consonant with his postion in the Empire, recognize the right of any outside it to suzerainty or jurisdiction within its bounds, whether conferred by the so-called Privilege of Mariola or other document long since lapsed: that he will act in his own city of Mariupol as he wills: that he does instantly require you to withdraw all soldieries and other robbers from Marskhaun and such places within Dalarnan territory and to pay for injuries you have committed, an indemnity to be fixed by the High Court of Stassia, and to deliver to him the false traitor Rogai of Mariola, with others of like kidney, now sojourning in your city."

  One corner of the Duke's mouth curled under his beard. "He did not ask also that I come to Briella with a ring in my nose to make obeisance?"

  A great hoot of mocking laughter went up from all down the hall, but the herald's face did not change, and he cried in a voice to be heard: "Sir of Salmonesa, what is your answer?"

  "This." Duke Roger leaned forward from his seat, half-rising, hawked and spat. It struck a spot on the herald's tabard and all that hall shouted and laughed again, but the messenger broke his white staff of office and flung the fragments at Roger's feet, crying "Then war!"

  Only Airar and perhaps a few by him at the head of the room remarked amid the tumult how the herald lifted the soiled skirt of his tabard in both hands, saying: "It is grey, but it will be red when washed in the blood of Salm."

  11 Salmonessa: The Duke Plans

  AIRAR WOKE motionless as trained by forest, wondering what roused him in dark, then felt again the finger pressed just below his left ear. "Well?" he whispered, and sitting up, swung his feet from bed, then pulled the covers round him, for it was mortal chill. In the thin starshine and icy moon slanting past but not in the window he could make out the sharp features of Mariola-Rogai.

&
nbsp; "What's toward?" he asked.

  The hunter chuckled low. "D'you like it?" He swept a hand. "This affair of His Grace . . . with lord here and lord there and looking down his nose at those captains of Carrhoene, who must be our leaders if any. I doubt His Grace knows how to stake a field."

  "I thought there were but five of them," said Airar, mind leaping back to the day when the Carrhoene ships came in, and they rode through the streets in bright plate mail, with helms swinging clank at their sides and spears behind, all the streets shouting for joy to see them so martial, with that strange white streak in each black head that made them be named the Captains of the Star.

  Rogai chuckled again in the dark. "You did not know? The last child of those two triple births was a girl— Evadne. She passes as man, Evander, and follows them everywhere but in the battle front. Your under-captain Erb could tell you as much—her chained servitor, worshipping from far. But you will be too much a-taken of hiding women for your own to mark that others may do so."

  "Who told you that?"

  "Sssh, not so loud. We cannot make this conference public game. As to your question, Alcides of Carrhoene, the Baron Basale of another—I do not know. The whole court's ware of your lovesick looks at this pretended fisher over the archery drill. Apropos—you'll make bowmen never from these fisher-folk of yours. They have the eye and hand but no desire to it; will forget all the moment they are pitched into combat where life rests on skill of weapon."

  "I—I did not know—"

  "Fie, so nice. Forget your upland manners here at Salmoness', friend Airar, or they'll cease belief in your nobility. Love's a sport that all play here—no shame; we think none the less of you for loving well, even among concealments, except they're childish. Look on Urdanezza and the Lady Irene, Alsander and Dalmonea, and even myself having some hope on the Lady Malina of Deidei, of whom it is said the Duke grows weary, having his eye fixed elsewhither. You are too bishoply by half. It's only a week of sighing to make them feel desired till the trumpets blow battle and we all march, perhaps not to come again. Then they'll relent. But that's not my mission—"