“I am so glad you have learned that at last! At least, I suppose, I am glad,” said Niafer, a little wistfully, as she recalled young Manuel of the high head.
“But, as I was saying, I now estimate that these tattered persons who would have prevented my leaving, as well as the red fellow that would have hindered my entering, this peculiarly irrational part of the forest, were spiritual intruders into Misery’s domain whom Misery had driven out of their wits. No, Niafer, I voice no criticism, because with us two this Misery of earth, whom some call Béda, and others Kruchina, has dealt very handsomely. It troubles me to suspect that he was also called Mimir; but of this we need not speak, because a thing done has an end, even a killed grandfather. Nevertheless, I think that Dun Vlechlan is unwholesome, and I am of the opinion that you and I will be more comfortable elsewhere.”
“But must we go back to looking after pigs, dear Manuel, or are you now too old for that?”
Dom Manuel smiled, and you saw that he retained at least his former lordliness. “No, now that every obligation is lifted, and we are reunited, dear snip, I can at last go traveling everywhither, so that I may see the ends of this world and judge them. And we will do whatever else we choose, for, as I must tell you, I am now a nobleman with lackeys and meadowlands and castles of my own, if only I could obtain possession of them.”
“This is excellent hearing,” said Niafer, “and much better than pig-stealing, and I am glad that the world has had sense enough to appreciate you, Manuel, and you it. And we will have rubies in my coronet, because I always fancied them. Now do you tell me how it all happened, and what I am to be called countess of. And we will talk about that traveling later, for I have already traveled a great distance today, but we must certainly have rubies.”
XXIV
Three Women
So Manuel put on his armor, and with Manuel telling as much as he thought wise of the adventures which he had encountered while Niafer was dead, they left this peculiarly irrational part of the forest, and fared out of the ruined November woods; and presently, in those barren fields that descend toward the sand dunes of Quentavic, came face to face with Queen Freydis and the Princess Alianora, where these two royal ladies and many other fine people rode toward the coast.
Alianora went magnificently this morning, on a white horse, and wearing a kirtle of changeable green like the sea’s green in sunlight: her golden hair was bound with a gold frontlet wherein were emeralds. Freydis, dark and stately, was in crimson embroidered with small gold stars and ink-horns: a hooded falcon sat on her gloved wrist.
Now Freydis and Alianora stared at the swarthy, flat-faced, limping peasant girl in brown drugget that was with Count Manuel. Then Alianora stared at Freydis.
“Is it for this dingy cripple,” says Alianora, with her proud fine face all wonder, “that Dom Manuel has forsaken us and has put off his youth? Why, the girl is out and out ugly!”
“Our case is none the better for that,” replied Freydis, the wise Queen, whose gazing rested not upon Niafer but on Manuel.
“Who are those disreputable looking, boldfaced creatures that are making eyes at you?” says Niafer.
And Manuel, marveling to meet these two sorceresses together, replied, as he civilly saluted them from a little distance, “Two royal ladies, who would be well enough were it not for their fondness for having their own way.”
“And I suppose you think them handsome!”
“Yes, Niafer, I find them very beautiful. But after looking at them with aesthetic pleasure, my gaze returns adoringly to the face I have created as I willed, and to the quiet love of my youth, and I have no occasion to be thinking of queens and princesses. Instead, I give thanks in my heart that I am faring contentedly toward the nearest priest with the one woman in the world who to my finding is desirable and lovely.”
“It is very sweet of you to say that, Manuel, and I am sure I hope you are telling the truth, but my faith would be greater if you had not rattled it off so glibly.”
Then Alianora said: “Greetings, and for the while farewell, to you, Count Manuel! For all we ride to Quentavic, and thence I am passing over into England to marry the King of that island.”
“Now, but there is a lucky monarch for you!” says Manuel, politely. He looked at Freydis, who had put off immortality for his kisses, and whom he had deserted to follow after his own thinking: these re-encounters are always awkward, and Dom Manuel fidgeted a little. He asked her, “And do you also go into England?”
She told him very quietly, no, that she was only going to the coast, to consult with three or four of the water-demons about enchanting one of the Red Islands, and about making her home there. She had virtually decided, she told him, to put a spell upon Sargyll, as it seemed the most desirable of these islands from what she could hear, but she must first see the place. Queen Freydis looked at him with rather embarrassing intentness all the while, but she spoke quite calmly.
“Yes, yes,” Dom Manuel said, cordially, “I dare say you will be very comfortable there, and I am sure I hope so. But I did not know that you two ladies were acquainted.”
“Indeed, our affairs are not your affairs,” says Freydis, “any longer. And what does it matter, on this November day which has a thin sunlight and no heat at all in it? No, that girl yonder has today. But Alianora and I had each her yesterday;
