up to stamp my heels down into my own boots.
It was with neatly trimmed beards and clean-if badly creased-clothes that we rode up to the manor house. We had telephoned from the inn two days ago and were expected.
Since I knew Joachim’s brother Arnulf was involved in commerce in some way, I had expected, without really thinking about it, that his house would be something like the cramped urban house I myself had grown up in. Instead it was a gracious, two-story edifice, built of stone the color of mellow gold. Long wings encircled a courtyard, and wide lawns led down to the river. A cherry orchard bloomed beyond the house. It was big enough that it probably could shelter nearly as many people as the royal castle of Yurt. Either built after the Black Wars, I thought, looking at the tall windows, or else built by someone who could afford very good protection.
Liveried servants hurried up to meet us as we clattered into the courtyard. A few guards loitered conspicuously near the house doors. I glanced at Joachim, wondering how it felt to be back in his childhood home after more than fifteen years away. But his face, often hard to read, now seemed to have no expression at all.
The main door swung open, and Arnulf, the lord of the manor, appeared, holding out both hands in greeting. “Joachim!” he cried. “This is delightful! I’m so glad you were able to come. And King Haimeric of Yurt, I presume? You honor us!”
Joachim’s brother was a shock. He looked like the chaplain and yet not like the chaplain. He had the same hair, the same height, the same deep-set dark eyes over high cheekbones, even if he did not have the chaplain’s gauntness. But the effect was as if Joachim had been taken out of his own body and someone else put in his place.
The chaplain tossed his reins to me and went to meet him. The brothers started to shake hands and embraced instead.
“Well, Joachim, at least you don’t make me kiss your ring,” said Arnulf with a laugh. “Does that wait until you’re made bishop?”
Joachim neither laughed nor answered the comment. “It’s good to see you,” he said instead and turned to introduce his brother to the rest of us.
“Claudia’s eager to see you too,” said Arnulf, “and of course the children can’t wait to meet their Uncle Joachim.”
Joachim took a deep breath. “And I them.”
We were shown to the guest rooms and told that lunch would be served in half an hour. The rooms seemed sybaritic after our weeks on the road, feather beds covered with clean white sheets, long windows curtained in blue, and plenty of hot water. An efficient serving maid unpacked our bags and took our clothes away to the laundry.
We had been given five rooms in the guest wing, all next to each other, while the chaplain was taken off to the family wing of the house. I took the opportunity to shave my cheeks more thoroughly than I had been able to do with cold water that morning. The soap was delicately scented with lily-of-the-valley.
I stood by the window to dry my face, enjoying the light breeze coming through the open casements and the sight of birds hopping purposefully across the lawn. I was distracted from a pleasant reverie by the sound of voices.
Joachim and his brother were strolling along the outside of the house. Arnulf spoke as they came under my window. “It’s as though they’d disappeared into thin air. And nothing left-except the sign.”
They continued out of my earshot without speaking again. I looked soberly after them. Sir Hugo’s party had also disappeared into thin air.
There came a sharp knock, making me jump. “Come in!” I called, and Ascelin entered, ducking his head as he came through the doorway.
He closed the door behind him and motioned me away from the window. “What’s going on here?” he asked in a low voice. “Is everyone here under a spell?”
Startled, I probed at once for magic and found none. As my mind slid lightly along the surface of magic’s four dimensions, I could sense the presence inside the house of all our party except Joachim, as well as many minds I did not know, but none of them was a wizard. Down by the front door I found Joachim and his brother, in the courtyard the house guards, and in the stables minds I assumed belonged to the stable boys, but that was all. I came back to myself and looked up into the prince’s worried eyes. “No one’s under a spell here. Why did you think so?”
He shook his head. “It must be hunter’s instincts. This whole house feels as though something has just happened or is about to happen, and I don’t know what it is.”
I had felt nothing of the sort, but then I was no hunter. Ascelin, I knew, had many years of experience in guessing or sensing where animals were hiding and when they would break into the open. I shook my shoulders to dispel a sudden chill that could have been prescience and could have been my imagination.
“We should all stay close together,” said Ascelin, “and leave here as soon as we can.”
“But we just got here,” I protested, “and Joachim hasn’t seen his family in years!” All of us had been in high good humor this entire trip, and an onset of unprecedented caution, just when we reached such a comfortable house, seemed entirely uncalled for.
“And why did his brother want him to visit
I was suddenly reminded of the bandits, who had thought that there was something specific hidden in the silk caravan and that we too were looking for it. Arnulf, I knew, was involved in some way in the luxury trade with the East. Could there be, here in this house, something valuable enough to make a castellan turn outlaw?
“I don’t know if you overheard,” said Ascelin, “the other day when we were at that inn, but several of the merchants were talking about very strange rumors coming out of the East, and I thought I heard one of them say that they involved the kingdom of Yurt ….”
Before I could respond to this startling information, there were brisk steps in the hall outside and another knock. “My lords?” It was Arnulf’s constable, come to tell us that lunch was ready. A few minutes ago, I would have gone to the dining room with pleasant anticipation. Now as we walked down the wide, carpeted stairs I felt instead a stir of misgiving.
But nothing about lunch seemed ominous. The dining room was carpeted and curtained in green, and the view from the window was of bright flowerbeds with the river beyond. The table glistened with silver and crystal. Arnulf and Joachim were already there when we came in.
“Claudia said she and the children would be right down,” said Arnulf. “Ah, here they are.” In the hall we heard children shouting excitedly, and the door swung open with a bang. But there was immediately an abashed silence as they spotted us. For a second I saw our group as the children must see us, six strange men standing looking toward the door, three of them rather formidable warriors. Even clean and well-dressed, we felt to me like a wild and woodsy group in this delicate and gracious setting.
“Go on in, it’s all right, don’t you want to meet your Uncle Joachim and his friends?” came a laughing woman’s voice. Claudia, the lady of the manor, came through the doorway herding two boys and a girl before her.
Claudia was another shock. She was the only woman I had ever met who came close to being as beautiful as the queen.
She did not look at all like the queen, having curly russet hair, already escaping from the coiffure into which I was sure she had just combed it, and a skin so fair it was almost translucent. She had a merry sweetness of expression and yet an air of tender concern in her eyes that made someone who saw her-or at least me-feel she must be protected at all costs from anything troublesome or sad.
She came immediately across to Joachim, wearing the tiniest firm line around her mouth as though determined not to be as shy as her children. She took his hands, looked into his eyes, and gave an almost tentative smile. I would have felt her expression, both sweet and vulnerable, was devastating if it had been turned on me. “You haven’t changed at all,” she said softly.
“Nor have you,” said Joachim. “It’s been too long. So, these are my nephews and my niece.”
Claudia brought the children forward to meet their uncle, then all of us were introduced to her, and she invited us to sit down at the table. Servants came in with steaming platters.
She was the perfect hostess, serving the king first, making sure each of us had what he wanted, asking about
