The Wood Nymph, the Cranky Saint

good work, Hunter!” She seemed assiduously to be ignoring Evrard.

Nimrod smiled at her mischievously. “If you do decide to marry Dominic, the two of you will have a household even the royal court will envy. Not only will you have your own castle and your own wizard, but you’ll have your own giant huntsman, something even the king doesn’t have!”

II

Nimrod and Diana started winding up their nets. There were many more of them than I had at first realized, all carefully knotted from thin cords, almost invisible once in place although the spaces between the cords were so small that only a very powerful creature would have been able to escape. They were certainly much better constructed than my own attempt.

Nimrod moved off, getting the nets he had laid down further away. Evrard went with him, carefully not looking at the duchess. They were soon well out of earshot.

The day had become hot, and the sun made me squint. I eased nets free of shrubs and twigs, leaving the winding and packing to Diana and watching her out of the corner of my eye as we worked.

“My lady,” I said suddenly, and she gave a start as though her thoughts had been far away, “I know something you don’t realize I know. The great horned rabbits were made by your ducal wizard, at your request.”

“He told you?” she said, stopping and putting her fists on her hips. I didn’t know if her steely glare was for me or Evrard.

“I’d worked it out for myself. But he doesn’t know why you’d wanted them. Nimrod clearly thinks he knows. You heard him just now. He’s treating the rabbits as a test-a test which he’s now passed- with you as the prize at the end.”

Diana had given up any pretense of winding the nets.

“And you don’t know this either, but Evrard’s horned rabbits-and something else he tried to make-were what decided the old wizard to shake off his lethargy and create a man-like creature. You’ve got to tell me: why did you want horned rabbits? I would even have thought you had known Nimrod before, and were going to use the rabbits as an excuse to call on him for help, except that you were so surprised when he first appeared.”

Her fury dissolved in one breath. Hands still on her hips, she slowly began to smile. “You know, Wizard, you’re smarter than you like to appear.”

I would try to appreciate later what was probably a compliment. I kept staring at her, trying to look severe and compelling.

She still did not answer my question, but began again winding up the net she had dropped a minute before.

I tried another approach. “How about the old count? He was terrified by your horned rabbits.”

“We stopped by his castle yesterday,” she said with an amused look. She could be as stubborn as I. “We’d already caught the second rabbit and told him we’d soon have the third. He seemed relieved.”

We were interrupted at this point as Evrard and Nimrod came back with the rest of the nets. The huntsman moved easily through the brush, like a giant cat.

I made a sudden decision. I had no more time to waste on the duchess and her games. “Evrard, you and I have to get back to the royal castle at once, to see what’s Dominic been doing and find a way to make the old wizard dismantle his creature. Nimrod, I’d like you to come with us. If by any chance it gets loose, I’ll need your help in tracking it.”

“Of course,” he said, with a smile for the duchess. “My lady enjoys watching me track things. But I should tell you, Wizard, that if the creature gets away from your predecessor, it may head this way. When I tracked those soldiers of hair and bone I told you about, up in the eastern mountains, we caught many of them on a peak that was locally reputed to be magical.”

He paused, and when he spoke again there was a hint of tension in what seemed an offhand request. “But before we go, as long as we’re here, I’d like to see the Holy Grove.”

“The Grove?” I wanted to act now, not be a tour guide.

He gestured up the valley. “The ducal wizard was telling me about it while we rolled up the nets. I gather there’s a hermitage, and a wood nymph, and a river that shoots directly out of the hillside.”

I sensed something behind Nimrod’s casual words-or thought I did. I wished I knew him better. His words did not at any rate seem to have any hidden meaning to the duchess. She smiled. “It’s certainly worth seeing, and we won’t be closer anytime soon. Just wait until I get this last net wound up.”

“I must get back to the royal castle,” I said.

“We’ll have to go within a quarter mile of the Holy Grove anyway to get out of the valley,” said the duchess. “I at any rate have no intention of scrambling up these valley walls! It shouldn’t take long to show the grove to Nimrod. He is my huntsman, Wizard. If you want his services, you’ll have to wait until I’m done with him.”

We rode back up toward the head of the valley, Nimrod striding at the duchess’s stirrup. The sun had by now moved past noon, and we seemed to be progressing very slowly. When we reached the open area below the waterfall, Diana pointed out the toeholds carved in the cliff face.

“It wouldn’t be as dangerous as it looks,” said Nimrod, looking upward with an interested frown. “The cliff is not perfectly vertical but angled, and the toeholds are well placed.”

“As I know well,” said the duchess. “When I was about fifteen, I climbed down here myself, just to see if I could do it. Be flattered,” she said to all of us. “I’ve never told anyone about it before.”

“You told me,” said Nimrod with a smile. “That’s part of the reason I’d been eager to see the valley.”

“I told you?” Diana turned toward him with clear surprise. “But-” She recollected herself and laughed. “Of course I did. I’d just forgotten. All right, then, you already know that the young heiress to the duchy wanted to see the valley, but not to see it the way any ordinary girl would!”

Evrard appeared to have thought of a new way to impress his employer. “Wait until you meet the wood nymph!” he said to the duchess and Nimrod.

“I’ve only seen her once before,” said the duchess. “That is, I’ve always hoped it was the wood nymph, although I could never be certain. It was the time I just mentioned, when I climbed down. There was a girl in the grove, who seemed both to be my age and to be a thou sand years old. She had remarkable violet eyes. She looked at me a moment without speaking, then disappeared.”

“You have to be a wizard to be able to call a nymph,” said Evrard confidently, “-or,” he added after a second, “be someone to whom the nymph wants to talk anyway.”

We left our horses and walked up to the pool and the shrine of the Holy Toe. Diana and Nimrod went first, she swinging her riding crop and whistling, and he walking with very stiff shoulders and silent footfalls. Much as I wanted to be on our way, his behavior intrigued me. I glanced toward Evrard as we came along behind, but he did not seem interested in the pair before us. The hermit came out and blessed them, as Evrard and I waited a few yards away. Nimrod’s face was very still, and I could read no expression in it.

“You know,” said Evrard, low enough I hoped that the hermit would not overhear, “I’m not very impressed with this Cranky Saint. Wouldn’t a really powerful saint make it clear to everybody exactly what he wanted, and then blast those entrepreneurs with lightning?”

This seemed more like a question for Joachim than for me, but I was spared from having to answer by the hermit. “I trust your day is going well, my sons, with God’s help,” he called to us with a smile.

In spite of the smile and friendly tone, I immediately felt guilty. I took his comment as a gentle reminder of the responsibilities with which he had earlier charged me. But at least he did not summon us to join Nimrod and Diana before the shrine.

They still knelt at the hermit’s feet, his hands resting lightly on their hair. While the hermit looked toward me, I saw the duchess turn toward Nimrod. Their eyes met, and slowly he began to smile. In return she gave a sudden, secret grin.

I would have liked to conclude she was only mocking the old hermit and his piety. It was better than the