The others confined themselves to their names and a simple no. Tobas was seventh of the nine and did nothing to draw attention to himself.
“Ah,” the king said when the last introduction had been made. “No experienced dragon slayers, I see, but I suppose I could expect nothing else from Ethshar. You will have questions, I’m sure; but first, let me introduce you to my daughters, my court, and to some of your fellow adventurers from other lands.” He stood and motioned to someone; a handsome, dark-haired young woman stepped out of the little crowd to the right of the throne, wearing an ornate white gown trimmed with pearls. “My second daughter, Falissa,” he said. “One of you, if successful, may marry her.” He gestured again, and another young woman appeared to be introduced, also dark-haired and elegant.
It had not occurred to Tobas until this moment that there might be more than one princess available as part of the reward.
In all, five princesses were brought forth, all attractive; in addition to Falissa were, apparently in descending order of age, Sellatha, Tinira, Alorria, and Zerrea. Zerrea appeared to be perhaps fourteen, barely of marriageable age, but her father still commented, as he had with each of her sisters, that she might wed one of the dragon hunters. Tobas had never heard of anyone named Zerrea before; he rather liked the name and wondered if the king had made it up after running out of ordinary ones. Not that Sellatha was common around Telven, either, he realized when he thought about it; it was likely, he decided, that both names were in common usage in Dwomor, whether they were found in the more westerly lands or not.
Tobas resolved to stop wondering about trivia and pay attention to more important concerns. The king was making a speech about how these five of his six daughters had willingly promised themselves as wives to anyone who could save the kingdom from the monster that now ravaged the countryside, whether that hero should be noble or commoner, no matter that this might mean giving up their royal birthright, and so on and so forth.
Elner, at Tobas’ left, leaned over and whispered, “Some great sacrifice! They were probably desperate for husbands, or at least their royal father was. Surplus princesses are a major export in the Small Kingdoms.”
This sounded far more informative and interesting than the king’s rather tedious speech, so Tobas leaned back and whispered, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about surplus princesses! Look, the first duty of any royal family is to ensure the succession, right? They need heirs. Or one heir, anyway. That means sons, in most kingdoms; only a few let girls inherit. Daughters are just surplus, to be married off to make alliances with the neighbors. To keep up the dignity of the throne, you can’t let them marry commoners, it goes against all the traditions! Royalty marries royalty. And each kingdom only has one throne to pass on, to one prince and the one princess he marries; that means that younger sons and unmarried daughters are all just extras. The sons go off adventuring or soldiering, and a lot of them get killed, and some make love matches with commoners or run off to Ethshar and marry for money, but the daughters just hang around cluttering up the castle. Poor old Derneth here has six of them; I guess he married one off to a neighbor, but that leaves five more he needs to get rid of. He can’t just let them marry whom they please, since that’s against the rules, and he hasn’t got anyone in the kingdom suitable for any ordinary arranged marriages; but by promising them to dragon slayers, he can kill two birds with one stone and get rid of dragons and daughters all at once! Marrying princesses to heroes is traditional and about the only respectable way to use up the extras. Gets new blood into the royal family, as well.”
Tobas looked at Elner with new respect; his explanation made a great deal of sense. Perhaps the fellow was not completely a fool, after all.
“I think I’ll take that one, Alorria,” Elner said, pointing behind his hand. “When I’ve killed the dragon, I mean.”
That immediately dragged Tobas’ opinion of him back to its previous level. He bit back a snide retort.
He had to agree, though, that Elner had picked the beauty of the bunch; Alorria was of medium height, with thick black hair, pale skin, and dark eyes, as were all five, but she stood out, her features a trifle finer, her figure a little lusher than the others. Tobas guessed her to be very close to his own age. If, by some miracle, Tobas did somehow manage to kill the dragon, and he knew that it would take a miracle, despite what Elner might choose to believe, he supposed Alorria would be his choice, too, if he were to marry any of the princesses.
Looking the five of them over, he found the thought of marriage was not particularly unpleasant; he knew that many things were more important than beauty in the long run, but beauty certainly didn’t hurt. He wondered if there were any way he could marry a princess without killing the dragon. Might a Dwomorite princess bring enough of a dowry for two people to live on? He had never really seriously considered marrying for money as a way to survive, but it was a possibility he might want to think about. Plenty of handsome young people of both sexes did it. It was not really a career to be proud of, but it could keep him from starvation or slavery.
All the while that Elner had been explaining and Tobas had been admiring the princesses, the king had gone on talking, describing the beauties and accomplishments of each of his daughters, all were said to be skilled at needlework, which left Tobas wondering why the castle tapestries all appeared old, and each played some sort of musical instrument and sang, danced, and otherwise had achieved all the traditional accomplishments of princesses.
“...And now,” the king said when he had completed the five-woman roster, “allow me to introduce your companions in adventure. Perinan of Gellia, step forth and greet your comrades!”
A young man clad in blue finery emerged from the crowd and nodded politely.
“Perinan is a prince of Gellia, second son of good King Kelder.”
Elner whispered, “What did I tell you about younger sons?”
Tobas made no reply.
The introductions continued through a dozen princes, a few lesser nobles, three witches, a sorcerer, a theurgist priest, and several dozen miscellaneous commoners, all of them male; some did not respond until their names were repeated in their assorted native tongues, and Tobas had the distinct impression very few understood enough Ethsharitic to know what was going on. Except for the king, his daughters, four guards, and a handful of councillors, every member of the crowd that almost filled the huge room had come to slay the dragon. Tobas recalled with a smile what that sailor had said about an army being sent; he had been completely correct.
He was somewhat surprised by the assortment of magicians, though, and that there were so many without a single wizard included. In all of his experience, wizards were by far the most common variety of magician, and witches relatively scarce, not so scarce as sorcerers, but less often encountered than warlocks, priests, demonologists, and the like. He wondered if this was a peculiarity of Dwomor or perhaps of the Small Kingdoms in general, that witches should be more common.
Or perhaps witches didn’t like dragons. He dismissed the question as not worth worrying about. Given the presence of magicians, the lack of wizards seemed rather more important; he had hoped, when the first magicians were introduced, that he might somehow pick up a few spells here, but it seemed he would be frustrated.
If he had a few good spells, the right spells, he would not mind tackling the dragon himself, he thought.
But then, if he had a few good spells, he could find easier ways to earn his bread; would a princess and a hundredweight of gold tempt a competent magician? Perhaps not.
The king had completed introducing the would-be heroes by the time Tobas came to the conclusion that the typical magician would not care to take up dragon slaying; he had gone on to point out his advisors, giving their names and ranks and years of service. Tobas had thought about the situation and had reached a decision. This might be his chance to learn more wizardry.
“...And now that you all know one another,” Derneth was saying when Tobas stepped forward. He stopped. “Yes? Ah... Tolnor, was it?”
“Tobas, your Majesty: I hope I am not disturbing anything, but I felt the time had come to mention something about myself.”
“Yes?” the king said.
“Since you did not ask before, I did not care to bring it up, but I think you should know that I am a magician, a wizard.” He made a meaningless gesture in the air, hoping it looked suitably arcane.
The king looked at him for a moment. “Are you indeed?” he said at last.
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“Well, that’s very good, isn’t it? That should be very useful against the dragon.”
“I hope so, your Majesty. Ah... I have a request, however.”
