Quest for the King (26 page)

Captain Integredad stood by the palace gates with Mary at his side.
The captain frowned as a tumult of shouting arose from below them
in the city. "What is it?" Mary asked. "What's happening?"

The captain turned to two men beside him. "Go down there with
haste. Bring me word at once of the meaning of this noise." Then to
Mary he said, "Shagah dispatched a large number of the king's forces
under the command of someone-some young upstart, I doubt not.
I know not their purpose, but I suspect it was an attempt to capture
her majesty. The noise bodes ill either way."

"Why? Why d'you say that?" Mary asked.

Captain Integredad sighed. "Mischief is afoot. I would that her
majesty had eluded them and returned secretly with her prisoners. For
this I prayed to Gaal and the Emperor. It is the tumult that worries
"
me.

"But why?" Mary persisted.

"Why, child? Because it can mean only one of two things. Either
the queen has been arrested at the order of Shagah, who presumes
to give orders in the name of his majesty, or, what is less likely, the
queen is returning in triumph, having wrested the army from whoever
was leading it."

Mary frowned. "But if the queen won, how does that make matters
worse?"

"Because Shagah's rage will then know no bounds." He sighed
again and looked down at Mary. "Shagah. Everything that happens
leads back to him. Which reminds me about you, little maid. I know
how much I frightened you when I told you-"

Mary said, "Sure. It was pretty scary. I really cried after you took me
back."

He looked down fondly at her, wishing he had another daughter.
"So, little woman. You decided to leave them alone?"

Mary looked at the ground. Absent-mindedly, she made marks with
the toe of her shoe in the dust of the road. Finally, and without
looking at the captain, she said, "I love Gaal. I know that now. But
he's left me, an' he'll never come back again."

It was now the captain's turn to ask why. "That makes no sense, little
maid. The Gaal I know would not forsake one of his own."

"Yes, but I'm not one of his own, an' that's what I really know now.
I tried to stop loving him when I joined the witches' club, but when
I remembered, I just couldn't help loving him. I don't belong anymore, though. So I may as well go to see-who is this Shagah you talk
about? Is he a sorcerer? Is he the boss of the priests? 'Cos if so, that's
who I've gotta see."

"No, no, Lady Mary! If you love Gaal you cannot join his enemies!
Call out to him! All of us disobey him at times-we all turn our backs
on him. But from the ends of the earth he hears our cry. Cry to him,
little maid, cry aloud to him!"

Mary shook her head, and when she replied her voice was almost
inaudible. "I told him to go away, and never to come back. He heard me.
I saw the light fade to nothing. He's gone, an' he's gone for good. I just know."

Then their attention switched to the streets below as the shouts
from the city rose to a crescendo. Horsemen began to turn the distant
corner of the avenue leading to the palace gates.

"I do believe it is the queen!" Captain Integredad said. "And the
colonel beside her. Her majesty must have won the hearts of the
king's army!" His voice dropped. "Yet no lasting good can come of
it!"

Mary returned to their quarters as soon as the queen swept triumphantly through the gates. She had begun to tell Lord Nasa and Lady
Roelane all about it, when there was a knock at the door. Princess
Anne entered, followed by Alleophaz, Gerachti and Belak-and the
Friesen children. Suddenly their sitting room, rather large for only
three people, was pleasantly and comfortably filled. The hosts stood,
and introductions and greetings became an excited, almost noisy affair. Soon they were talking and laughing animatedly together.

The children, however, were very aware of the restraint over the
unexpected reunion. Wesley and Lisa both smiled and said, "Hi,
Mary. How are you?"

A subdued Mary replied, "Fine. And you guys?"

Kurt, however, walked right up to her and seized both her hands.
"Oh, Mary! It's so good to see you. Are you O.K?"

But Mary's hands turned cold and sweaty, and her face was drawn.
She avoided his eye, saying, "I'm O.K," but couldn't fool Kurt.

She pulled her cold hands from his, but he put his hands on her
shoulders and whispered so that she could hear him in spite of the
noise of the general conversation, "No, Mary. You mustn't feel bad.
You're still family, y'know. You're part of us."

Mary glanced up at him with a timid smile. "Thanks!" Then she
looked down at her shoes again.

Princess Anne announced, "Her majesty has returned safely, and
hopes to greet you personally in a little while. In the meantime she
needs me, so I must pray to be excused." She left the room, and hosts and guests alike seated themselves. Mary sat on the floor against the
window seat where Lord and Lady Nasa sat. The rest sat down wherever there were seats. Lisa sat on the arm of the chair Alleophaz
occupied. Soon they were busy exchanging the stories of their many
adventures. Mary alone remained silent, and the children cast occasional surreptitious glances in her direction. Suddenly, and rather
abruptly, she asked to be excused, and left the room. Kurt made as
if to follow her, but Lisa caught his eye, shook her head and mouthed,
"Don't!"

They had hardly resumed the flow of conversation when there was
a second knock at the door. Lord Nasa answered it and took from the
hand of the page at the door a roll of parchment. He broke the seal
and read it as he resumed his seat.

"It's from the king," he said. "We are all summoned to the throne
room tomorrow morning at the hour of counsel. You children too."

The next morning Mary was missing.

Lady Roelane's face was pale and drawn as she told the others. "She
never returned after she left so suddenly late yesterday afternoon. You
remember, you were all there," she added, distraught and anxious. "I
never slept. I searched the palace in vain last night. I also talked to
the captain of the guard, who thought she might have been bound
for the temple, and I would have gone there, but-"

"But I forbade it!" Lord Nasa interrupted with unaccustomed asperity. "I went myself, not that it did the slightest good. I found the place
in darkness, and I only had a torch for illumination." He shook his
head in anger. "No one responded to my shouts-the place was deserted. I did find an old priest sleeping on the floor, but he would tell
me nothing, professing absolute ignorance of anyone of Mary's description. I lost myself several times in the corridors, and finally my
torch went out. By the time I returned, day had broken."

They looked at each other helplessly, but realized they could do
nothing. In silence, they left together for their audience with the king.

A palace official showed them into the throne room, a large and lofty rectangular room with a marble floor and fluted pillars. High on
the rear wall facing them, an ornate red doorway opened onto a
broad carpeted stairway. It descended to a raised dais, filling a third
of the room. Two empty thrones of ebony occupied the dais, which
was covered with beaten gold and strewn with silk cushions. On the
sides of the thrones stood two smaller chairs-cushioned, but less
ornate. On the floor below the dais, silken pillows had been scattered
to provide seating.

"For whom are these other chairs?" Lord Nasa asked the official.

The. man snorted. "The one on your right is for Duke Dukraz,
Grand Marshal of the palace. The other one is for Shagah the Sorcerer, High Priest of Playsion and Supreme Marshal of the temple
priests. Times have changed. Dukraz is no match for Shagah, who has
his finger in every pie in Anthropos. He calls down the spirits of
darkness, and they say he plays chess with Lord Lunacy, the Chief
Lord of Shadows himself. Who knows what changes for the worse are
coming in the kingdom!"

They seated themselves on the pillows and waited. Nobody said
anything. Lord Nasa and Lady Roelane were obviously tense and very
anxious, and a brooding sense of dread settled over everyone. Mary
filled all of their minds, but the thought of what could happen was
so appalling that comment died on their lips. Wesley, Lisa and Kurt
struggled against a sense of doom.

Lisa's mind went back to the time she herself had spent in the
temple. She remembered the mocking demonic voices, the terrible
cold, the sense that she had crossed a line into evil that permitted no
return. Where had Mary gone? Where was she now? "She's a foolbut oh, Mary, why, why?" Lisa thought. "What will happen to you?"

Kurt's mind was filled with the dread of seeing Shagah again.
Would Shagah know him? To Kurt, Shagah was a vivid memory, but
what was a memory for Kurt had not happened to Shagah yet. It
belonged in the future of Anthropos, which the children had already
visited. Could Shagah know the future? Would he know that it was
through Kurt that he would eventually be destroyed, or that it was Kurt who would stand with Gaal on the wall of Nephesh? Would he know
that Gaal would walk toward him on that wonderful day when Shagah
and all the powers of darkness would be swallowed by the open
mouth of the earth? He felt his heart pump in dread, dread of again
seeing the sorcerer he remembered so vividly, and who had once
manipulated him so shamelessly.

A door on their right opened, and they all jumped. But only priests
came through it-a score or more, some waving censers. Their incense began to fill the room with subtle fumes, dark with heaviness
and weight, and the smoke gave Kurt a headache. "I would like to
know where they were last night," Lord Nasa muttered angrily. But
they failed to notice Mary slipping into the room and taking a place
at the back.

Then the door above the stairway opened and King Tobah Khukah
arrived, resplendent in royal robes of gold and purple. He paused for
a moment to survey the two groups gathered to receive him. Two
pages appeared at his side, calling, "Kneel before his imperial majesty,
King Tobah Khukah, Emperor of Playsion-Anthropos!" Lord Nasa
and his party knelt down, unaware at first that the priests had failed
to do so.

"Blithering idiot! Imperial popinjay! He's no emperor!" Wesley
muttered to himself as he looked at the king.

The king began to descend the stairway and the pages fell into
place behind him, picking up the long train of his robe. Immediately
Queen Suneid followed, her head erect and her face strangely peaceful. A maid carried a smaller train of the velvet cape that hung from
her shoulders. Wesley looked at the queen and wondered at her
strong face, a face to which he could turn whenever he felt tension
rising intolerably in him.

Duke Dukraz brought up the rear of the procession. Shagah, much
to Kurt's relief, did not appear. The duke seated himself on the righthand chair, leaving Shagah's seat vacant.

Then the children noticed Mary, but their curiosity had (for the
time being) no outlet. Mary neither spoke nor raised her eyes. For all they knew she might have been in a trance, but she was simply weary,
full of despair and shame.

The king and queen settled themselves on their thrones, and the
pages and the maid stood behind them. Then the king spoke, and
Wesley found his perceptions shattered. The man on the throne was
no idiot. He (or whatever it was that spoke through him) seized immediate and total control of the room, even though he was merely
issuing his welcome. "Please be seated, all of you." The king's deep
voice filled the room. "A thousand welcomes to you!" He turned for
a moment to look at the queen, his gesture one of apparent tenderness, then back again at those who were seated below him.

Even in those few words terrifying authority flowed from himauthority before which they all trembled, authority that hit them with
almost a physical force. "Help-oh, help!" Lisa gasped. Lord Nasa
remembered the duke's words "I am now utterly helpless before an
intellect for which I am no match. It is not his majesty's intellect, but
that of one of the great Lords of Shadows whom the sorcerers serve.
They have created a monster, a man possessed by the gods ..."

The more the king spoke, the more that sense of power and authority flowed over them and pressed them down. "My gracious and beloved consort and I give an especial welcome to Lord Alleophaz of
Enophen, Glason, illustrious descendant of kings, and emissary from
his majesty King Kalastriel Bels of Glason."

The smile he gave Alleophaz was warm on his lips but cold from
his eyes. "Your two companions are likewise welcome, and the remarkable children who accompany you, emissaries themselves, as I
understand, from worlds afar."

Kurt's mind, still on Shagah, went back to the night in the Tower
of Geburah. "What a fool I was then!" he mused.

The king spoke again. "Let me come at once to the most important
issue. Later, I would like to discuss with Lord Alleophaz the matter of
trade with Glason. This we can do privately." The king nodded again
at Alleophaz, still smiling. "However, I have invited some of the more
senior priests to join us, since they are learned in all the ancient lore."

He rubbed his hands together, and his face exuded benign happiness and a sort of cool pleasure. "I am more than delighted to learn
of the possible birth of a child who could change the history of
Anthropos-Playsion."

Nobody moved or said anything, but waited to see how the king
would continue. The censer-bearing priests began to circulate round
the room below the dais.

The king said, "It is indeed wonderful news. Rumor has it that the
child has already been born. Her majesty tells me that you, my
lord"-at this point he directed his cool smile again at Alleophaz"received a message from a High Lord of Shadows, saying that the
child was born. Is this so?"

Alleophaz rose to his feet and bowed. "Whether from a Lord of
Shadows I do not know, your majesty. I was seeking the source of all
wisdom, and received a message in a vision. In that vision I learned
of the birth of the child, and that we would be guided to him by three
children, who would follow a column of smoke with blue fire at its
heart."