Quest for the King (11 page)

"What are we supposed to do?" Gerachti asked. "How can we sleep
six in a place where there is hardly standing room for three?"

"Real wet blanket, isn't he?" Wesley said to Kurt and Lisa. "Nothing
like having a drip with you on a trip through the wilds." Wesley, who
hours before had feared to offend Gerachti, now despised him and
did not bother to lower his voice. He turned his back on him, as
Gerachti glared in his direction, and said, "Philosopher indeed! Well,
I suppose even philosophers can be cowards!"

Kurt said, "I'm going to try the door."

He mounted the step on to the platform overlooking the cliff and
turned the knob on the door. It opened easily and. swung back silently.
Kurt gave a yell. "I knew it! I knew it would be like this!" He turned
to his brother and sister, a wide grin beneath his dancing eyes. "It's
like Chocma's cottage-come and look!"

Alleophaz was already behind him, and the others followed. They
encountered the same phenomenon that Uncle John had described
in Gaal trees and that the children themselves had found in Chocma's
cottage. The inside was infinitely larger than the outside. Beyond the
door they found themselves inside a large and commodious stable,
softly illuminated by lanterns hung round the walls. Eight roomy
straw-filled stalls awaited the horses and mules. A feeding trough ran
the length of the stalls, and a nearby stove bore one great cauldron
of hot mash. At the far end stone steps led to an archway, beyond
which a lighted hall could be seen.

Gerachti and Belak were still outside. Alleophaz strode to the door.
"Bring the horses in here!" he called. "This is the most amazing thing
I have ever seen! There is an enormous stable here-stalls and everything. Bring the horses!" He dived back inside.

"He is gone mad," Gerachti said.

"We might as well see what all the excitement is about!" Belak
retorted, a look of intense interest on his face. He led his horse toward
the door, then stopped and stared. "Gerachti!" he called. "It is true!
Bring your horse!" Bewildered, Gerachti did so.

The children also tumbled out. "We'll take them all in," Wesley said.
"We can unpack the mules once we get them inside. There's loads of
room, and we can also rub them down before we feed them. This
stable's like an attached garage-only much larger!" In no time at all
they had the saddles and bridles off, and the pack mules unloaded
and each animal in its own stall.

They began to rub the horses down. Lisa sighed. "I didn't realize
how tired I was till we started on this." For a few more minutes they
continued to work without speaking.

Then Wesley said, "D'you remember the scene in The Sword in the
Stone where Wart has to wash all the dishes in the basement?"

"What about it?" Kurt asked.

"And the one in Fantasia where the magician's apprentice tries to
work a spell to clean the place, but it goes wrong?"

"Uh-huh!"

"I know what you're going to say," Lisa giggled. "You're going to
say, `Wouldn't it be nice if Gaal did for us what Merlin did for Wart,
and pronounced a spell by which the horses were rubbed down by
magic.' But Gaal isn't like that."

"But it would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, sure, but-"

"I don't see why Gaal wouldn't have the horses rubbed down by
magic. After all, he could. It would save a lot of energy for us. So why
not?" Kurt asked.

"Uncle John is always talking about the difference between magic and the Changer's power," Lisa said. "I think this is probably an
example. His power isn't just to make life easy for us."

Wesley was frowning. He said, "This place certainly does make life
easy for us. I bet there will be bedrooms-like in the Gaal trees-and
a good meal. But I know what you mean, Lisa. It wouldn't seem right
for us to have no work In any case, we're being paid a gold crown
each, every day, for what we're doing. But I don't see any logical
reason why Gaal wouldn't do things like that by magic."

"I'm not sure I can explain it either," Lisa sighed, "but I feel it
would be all wrong. One of the ways he uses power is to show his love
to us."

"It'd be very loving to do the horses for us!" Kurt grinned mischievously.

"No, it wouldn't. This way we become partners with him in his plan,
whatever that plan is. And in any case I think he wants us to treat the
horses the same way he treats us, to show them love and kindness.
To animals we are the Changer."

"Still, it would be nice," Kurt said.

It took them another forty minutes to finish the animals, and another five minutes to ladle the hot mash into the long manger that
ran the length of all their stalls. As they were finishing, Alleophaz
poked his head through the door that led to the rest of the house.

"It's a bewilderingly large and well-appointed place," he said. "We
are being entertained royally. A dining table in the next room is laid
for six persons, but so far there's no food on the table. There are also
bedrooms-all with soap, water, towels and other provisions for our
comfort."

"I think the meal will be there when we're ready," Kurt said. "If
you'll let us have a couple of minutes to freshen up, my lord, we'll be
as quick as we can."

"Choose whichever room you wish," Alleophaz said. "They are all
the same."

All three children hastened to get ready for supper.

While helping Lord and Lady Nasa pack their baggage for the journey
to Bamah, Mary saw a box with holes in it. "What've you got in that
box?" she asked.

"Ah, yes." Lady Roelane looked at it with little interest. "That is the
pigeon."

"The pigeon?" Mary asked frowning. "Is it a pet?"

"No, it is a messenger pigeon-to release it, Risano told us, when
we are within a day's journey from Bamah. Apparently we could encounter difficulties if we arrive at the palace unannounced."

"Oh? Why?"

"Risano did not say. It probably has something to do with a difference
of opinion between the king and queen. The queen knows we are
coming-evidently she understands all the ancient prophecies, and
our visit this time seems to be included in one of them. Anyway, she
wants to be sure that we are her guests, and have her royal protection."

"Does the queen believe all those ancient prophecies?"

"Yes, Mary, I believe she does."

But Mary was also thinking of another queen whose acquaintance
she had made, Queen Suneidesis. Queen Suneidesis also believed in
the histories and prophecies contained in the ancient book. Mary
remembered how in the presence of Queen Suneidesis she had decided to forsake her attachment to a terrible witch and to place her
trust in Gaal. "I guess this queen must be on Gaal's side also," she
mused silently. "I wonder what made me switch from her side to his.
I must have been crazy. I must not, must not, must not switch again."
But there was an uncomfortable feeling inside her that the switch had
not been crazy, though her present course was.

The journey to Bamah from Rapunzel's Tower took several days.
And for every one of those days they were guided by the strange
column of smoke and blue fire. A sense of awe possessed them as it
led them through untrodden paths in the forest. "What is this wondrous thing that guides us?" Lord Nasa asked on the first day. "It
seems more like a being than a thing!"

"I feel almost afraid of it!" said the Lady Roelane. "Yet my fear
differs from other fear. What if it is a form of a being we ought to
worship? Is it a spirit of light, or is it Gaal himself?"

Mary disliked it. "At night when you can see the blue fires inside
it, it reminds me of-of someone I once knew."

Sometimes they camped at night, and at other times they slept in
Gaal trees-trees whose trunks one can enter, only to find how enormous they are inside. It was Mary's first experience of Gaal trees, and
she decided that she did not like them. She slept poorly, wondering
whether Gaal would repeat his unpleasant visit. The first three or four
days were also painful, for riding side-saddle was not easy. She was
still on edge, and her horribly stiff back ached until she became used
to the horse's motion.

For long days they followed a winding path southeast through the
forest. As they rode, Mary's feelings about her two companions gradually began to change. She had set out from Rapunzel's Tower very determined not to let the two grown-ups affect her. "They're not going
to lecture me about witchcraft. I won't take it!" she muttered to herself.
"My life is my own, an' I'm gonna do what I like. I'm not in Winnipeg
now. Someday they'll realize what I am."

But keeping them at arm's length was not easy, and as day followed
day Mary became progressively more friendly. For one thing, the two
adults aroused her curiosity by their behavior.

At one point the Lady Roelane had ridden a little ahead of her
husband and Mary. Lord Nasa said, "There is something I wish to
discuss with the Lady Roelane. Will you excuse me while I join her?"

"You gonna talk about me?" Mary asked.

Lord Nasa grinned happily, though Mary thought his face flushed
a little. "We could do so, I imagine! I did not think of that. No, Lady
Mary, we have other matters to discuss." He still seemed slightly embarrassed-but somehow Mary knew that he was not embarrassed at
the idea of talking about her behind her back. Still, she was annoyed.

"Well, I can't stop you if that's what you want to do. An' I don't
intend to spy on you," she replied ungraciously.

His lordship looked keenly at her but said nothing, riding ahead
a little to join the Lady Roelane.

After that, Mary watched them closely-not only when they rode
ahead, but when the three of them were together again. They seemed
to laugh a lot, and were forever grinning at each other, as though they
were enjoying secret jokes. "It can't be just about me," Mary pondered,
confused. "They seem-well, happy. Like two kids." She thought
about the way her stepmother used to behave with her boy-friends.
"They must be in love. That's it. Mebbe they haven't been married
long enough yet."

On the third day of their journey the Lord Nasa confirmed her
suspicions when he said, "You must pardon us if we behave foolishly.
We, just like this Uncle John and his bride that you have been telling
us about, have not been wed many weeks." Suddenly Mary's patronizing attitude drained away. She no longer felt grown up, but empty,
lonely and very left out. "Everybody has someone to belong to," she thought. "Well, I'll make Uncle John be a real uncle! Or I'll do something to these two. There must be spells I could use."

Yet she could not really object to the behavior of the young married
couple. Most of the time they did not leave her out of their conversations. They would include her, point things out to her, ask her about
her life. And sometimes she would catch a glimpse of one or the other
of them looking at her with what, she was almost sure, was a look of
compassion or affection.

"It's nice that they're in love," she thought. "I hope they stay like
that. Why do grown-ups have to fall out of love so quickly?" She was
still thinking of her stepmother's many affairs.

She almost began to wish she and the newlyweds were on the same
side. In fact the more she got to know the Lady Roelane, the more
she liked her. Soon they were spending a good deal of time together,
so much so that the Lady once said laughingly, "I think I must spend
more time talking to my husband, or he might grow jealous of you."

She even found herself softening toward the young man she had
once seen as a popinjay. She began to catch his little jokes as he teased
the Lady Roelane. Once when she watched him chase Lady Roelane,
she found herself saying, "You're funny!" and grinning delightedly as
she spoke. She remembered a saying of her stepmother's and repeated it in her mind: "I suppose everyone loves a lover." But since
thinking about her stepmother always made her sad, she switched
back quickly to thinking of Lord Nasa. "I feel kind of fond of him,"
she thought. "I wish-oh, phooey-a fat lot of good wishing will do
me. I must get hold of a good book of spells. "