and flee when confronted with such a choice. He who takes the risk to save another honors his name in deed far more than can be done by any combination of letters.'
Embarrassment was a posture Ergo rarely suffered from, but it made him turn away now. 'Well, there's no need to make a fuss over it. It was easy. No spear was coming at me. Besides, it's what friends are supposed to do for one another.'
'Exactly so,' said the cyclops. 'Don't try to shrug it off. Your heroism is much more real than your affected magnificence.'
'What do you mean 'affected'?' Ergo demanded to know, back on emotionally comfortable ground again.
The cyclops sighed. 'Never have I met a man so intent on avoiding a well-deserved compliment. Do not think to avoid it so easily, my friend. What I can see, I see clearly and without distortion.'
Colwyn arrived in time to cut off Ergo's ready rejoinder.
'Ah,' said the cyclops, 'so this is the man who claims to be king of more than a kingdom.' He studied the new arrival carefully. 'What's wrong, man? Are you not content with one kingdom that you must lay claim to more?'
'I did not choose this course of action, one-eye. It was i
'Ah, circumstance,' the cyclops mused aloud. 'I could tell you much about circumstance, young king.'
'I hope that I may have the opportunity to listen,' Colwyn nodded toward Ergo. 'You've been paralleling our course for some time now. Shadowing our companion here.'
Ergo puffed up like a toad-frog. 'It's only natural he would toe attracted to an obviously superior type.'
'Not to mention one with a propensity for wandering off on his own and drawing the attention of marauding Slayers,' Colwyn reminded him.
'It's true I have been following you,' the cyclops admitted. 'I would still be keeping my own company if not for the need to aid His Magnificence on several occasions.' Both waited for a response from Ergo but that worthy wisely elected to hold his peace this time.
The cyclops nodded across to where Ynyr was conversing softly with the seer. 'When I learned that the old one had come down off his mountain I knew that the time had come.'
'Time for what?' Colwyn asked curiously.
'The time for decision-making. It's something the seer and I talked of on many occasions. Being wise, he was not intimidated by my size and since he is blind, I was not intimidated by his knowledge. We got along well.'
'I can see why, for though your appearance may be fearsome to many, I find your openness and perceptivity appealing. There is no need to keep to the bush and rocks. Travel with us, instead of alongside us. All men need company.'
The cyclops smiled broadly. 'Yes. All men. I think that you will make a good king, Colwyn. If you live.' He turned and walked off to inspect the lakeshore.
Colwyn beckoned to Torquil. 'What do you think of our new ally?' i 'He's agreed to join us, then?'
own he chose not to announce it until now. I've invited him to share our company as well as our purpose.'
Torquil looked to where the cyclops was probing the water with his huge trident. 'I'm glad you did so. He'll be a fit replacement for poor Darro, and in any fight he'll be worth half a dozen men. His kind hates the Slayers, and if there are any spoils to be taken he'll not demand a share. A better • fighting companion would be hard to imagine.'
'I'm glad you approve.' Colwyn watched the cyclops at his work. 'Though I'm not sure your opinion of him matters any more than does mine.' 'How do you mean?'
'He'd already decided he was going to join us. Come. Let's get out of this place and hope there are no more ambushes waiting for us. I'm as anxious as any man to breathe clean air again.'
Though she ran down endless corridors, she had no way of marking the passage of time. She did not grow hungry, and nervousness alone kept her from collapsing from fatigue. That, and a determination to run until she was stopped.
She wished for the rats that would normally infest such a place, but this was no ordinary fortress. Even common vermin shunned its peculiar tunnels and passages.
Then the gown and robe appeared before her again, its glowing crown a floating promise of an awful, unimaginable destiny.
'Why have I been brought here?' she asked.
And she heard the voice of the Beast, not as an echoing roar that filled the corridors, but as words, carried to her in a tone of sly confidence.
'For a ceremony.'
'What kind of ceremony?'
'Do you not recognize before you a gown such as no woman has ever seen of dreamed of? Do you not recognize the crown that can only be worn by a queen wedded to He Who Commands? You have been brought here for a wedding.' She was too frightened to scream. She turned to retreat back the way she'd come, but a white Slayer stood there, impassively threatening. With a weak cry she turned and stumbled off still deeper into the maze….
It was strange to find such an extensive strip of dry land in the middle of the Great Swamp, but the narrow bridge of earth and gravel was a welcome sight to the marchers. They'd been straining their eyes on the faint path ever since they'd entered the Great Swamp lest they step out on a surface that might suddenly disappear. It was a relief to stride, however briefly, on land that did not swallow a man's ankles.
Titch had fallen back, leaving the uncomplaining seer to walk with Ergo to guide him. The boy was drawn to the cyclops. Now he rode atop the giant's shoulders. In addition to being fun, it provided him with the best vantage point of all.
'That way,' he would announce from time to time, and the group would obediently alter direction to comply with his directions.
'What's it like being able to see out of only one eye?' he asked innocently.
'Never having had the pleasure of looking at the world out of two, I cannot say for sure,' the cyclops replied thoughtfully, 'but from my occasional conversations with two-eyed men, I gather it's something like squinting all the time. I cannot see as widely, but what I do see I see with great clarity. Close one eye of your own and you will see what 1 mean.'
The boy complied. 'That's not so bad.'
'There are worse infirmities a man can suffer. Better one eye lost than an arm or leg.'
'If it was in my power to do so I'd give you the other one back,' Titch told him solemnly.
'I know you would, boy. My people made a bad bargain with the Slayers' master. Perhaps someday we will have a chance to start anew. I will not see that day, but I can hope that it comes to children born of one-eyed mothers.'
Ergo waited until the conversation lagged before commenting. 'If I had my wish I'd be out of this miserable place right now. And if I really had a wish I'd be sitting on top of a gooseberry trifle the size of a mountain.'
'Greed has been the cause of death in many a man,' observed Ynyr. He spoke to Ergo but his gaze was on Torquil. Or was it? These damned wise men, the bandit grumbled to himself. You never can tell what they're thinking about you. Always they talk in riddles in order to keep us poor common folk bemused as to their real intentions. It would be better if they were easily understood.
Of course, that would make whoever understood them a wise man himself. Torquil pondered this as they marched deeper into the Wyn-nah-Mabrug.
'Perhaps you're right, old man,' Ergo replied. 'Maybe I am too greedy. I am willing to scale down my desires, yea, even my wishes. So I'd settle for a trifle as big as a house.' Ynyr made a disgusted face and said no more. Clearly this Ergo was beyond learning wisdom.
Titch's face had been wrapped in deep thought while the adults talked. Now he brightened. 'I'd wish for a puppy.'
'A typical child's thought. I'd have thought better of you, boy,' Ergo said. 'Why not wish for gold, or power? That way you could buy or command all the puppies you desired.'
Titch shook his head, his voice soft. 'One puppy would be enough for me.'
'Just one? As long as you're wishing why not make full use of your wish? Why not wish for a hundred?'
Titch shook his head stubbornly. 'What would I do with a hundred puppies?'
