Lord Valentine's Castle

'Toward the waterfront,' Valentine said. 'Yes. I know.'

The jugglers traveled between cities in a fine wagon that was parked in a lot several blocks from the inn, for it was too broad of beam to bring down these narrow streets. It was an imposing and costly vehicle, noble and majestic, made with the finest workmanship by artisans of one of the inland provinces. The wagon’s main frame was of long pale spars of light springy wingwood, cunningly laminated into wide arching strips with a colorless fragrant glue and bound with resilient withes found in the southern marshes. Over this elegant armature sheets of tanned stickskin had been stretched an stitched into place with thick yellow fibers drawn from the stick-creatures’ own gristly bodies.

Approaching it now, Valentine found Erfon Kavol and another of the Skandars, Gibor Haern, diligently oiling the wagon’s traces, while from within came deep booming shout of rage, so loud and violent that the wagon seemed to sway from side to side.

'Where is your brother?' Valentine asked.

Gibor Haern nodded sourly toward the wagon. 'This would not be a wise moment to intrude.'

'I have business with him.'

'He has business,' said Erfon Kavol, 'with the thieving little sorcerer we pay to guide us through the provinces, and who would resign our service in Pidruid just as we are making ready to leave. Go in, if you will, but you will regret it.'

The angry cries from the wagon grew more vociferous. Suddenly the door of the wagon burst open and a tiny figure sprang forth, a wizened old Vroon no bigger than a toy, a doll, a little feather-light creature, with ropy tentacular limbs and skin of a faded greenish tint and huge golden eyes now bright with fear. A smear of something that might be pale yellow blood covered the Vroon’s angular cheek close beside its beak of a mouth.

Zalzan Kavol appeared an instant later, a terrifying figure in the doorway, his fur puffed with wrath, his vast basketlike hands impotently churning the air. To his brothers he cried, 'Catch him! Don’t let him get away!'

Erfon Kavol and Gibor Haern rose ponderously and formed a shaggy wall blocking the Vroon’s escape. The little being, trapped, panicky, halted and whirled and threw himself against Valentine’s knees.

'Lord,' the Vroon murmured, clinging hard, 'protect me! He is insane and would kill me in his anger!'

Zalzan Kavol said, 'Hold him there, Valentine.'

The Skandar came forward. Valentine pushed the cowering Vroon out of sight behind him and faced Zalzan Kavol squarely. 'Control your temper, if you will. Murder this Vroon and we’ll all be stuck in Pidruid forever.'

'I mean no murder,' Zalzan Kavol rumbled. 'I have no appetite for years of loathsome sendings.'

The Vroon said tremulously, 'He means no murder, only to throw me against a wall with all his strength.'

Valentine said, 'What is the quarrel? Perhaps I can medi—'

Zalzan Kavol scowled. 'This dispute does not concern you. Get out of the way, Valentine.'

'Better that I don’t, until your fury has subsided.' Zalzan Kavol’s eyes blazed. He advanced until he was no more than a few feet from Valentine, until Valentine could smell the anger-sharpened scent of the rough-thatched Skandar. Zalzan Kavol still seethed. It may be, Valentine thought, that he will throw both of us against the wall. Erfon Kavol and Gibor Haern stared from the side: possibly they had never seen their brother defied before. There was silence a long moment. Zalzan Kavol’s hands twitched convulsively, but he remained where he was.

At length he said, 'This Vroon is the wizard Autifon Deliamber, whom I hire to show me the inland roads and to guard me against the deceits of the Shapeshifters. All this week he has enjoyed a holiday at my expense in Pidruid; now it is time to leave and he tells me to find another guide, that he has lost interest in traveling from village to village. Is this your sense of how contracts are kept, wizard?'

The Vroon answered, 'I am old and weary and my sorceries grow stale, and sometimes I think I start to forget the road. But if you still wish it, I’ll accompany you as before, Zalzan Kavol.'

The Skandar looked astounded. 'What?'

'I’ve changed my mind,' said Autifon Deliamber blandly, letting go his fearful clutch of Valentine’s legs and stepping out into view. The Vroon coiled and opened his many rubbery boneless arms as if a dread tension were being discharged from them, and peered boldly up at the enormous Skandar. 'I will keep to my contract,' he declared.

Bewilderedly Zalzan Kavol said, 'For an hour and a half you’ve been swearing you’ll remain here in Pidruid, ignoring all my entreaties and even ignoring my threats, driving me into such rage that I was ready to smash you to pulp, to my own grievous harm as well as yours, for dead sorcerers give poor service and the King of Dreams would rack me fearful; for such a thing, and still you were stubborn, still you denied the contract and told me to make shift elsewhere for a guide And now at a moment’s notice you retract all that?'

'I do.'

'Will you have the grace to tell me why?'

'No reason,' said the Vroon, 'except perhaps that this young man pleases me, that I admire his courage and his kindness and the warmth of his soul, and because he goes with you I will go with you again, for his sake and no other reason. Does that gratify your curiosity, Zalzan Kavol?'

The Skandar growled and sputtered in exasperation and gestured fiercely with his outer pair of hands, as though trying to pull them free of a tangle of birdnet vines. For an instant it seemed he might burst out in some new uprising of uncontrollable anger, that he was controlling himself only by supreme effort.

He said at last, 'Out of my sight, wizard, before I hurl you against a wall anyway. And may the Divine guard your life if you aren’t here to depart with us this afternoon.'

'At the second hour after midday,' Autifon Deliamber said courteously. 'I will be punctual, Zalzan Kavol.' To Valentine he added, 'I thank you for protecting me. I am indebted to you, and will make repayment sooner than you think.'

The Vroon slipped quickly away.

Zalzan Kavol said after a moment, 'It was a foolishness of you to come between us, Valentine. There could have been violence.'

'I know.'

'And if I had injured you both?'

'I felt you would have held your anger. I was right, yes?'

Zalzan Kavol offered his sunless Skandar equivalent of a smile. 'I held my anger, true, but only because I was so amazed at your insolence that my own surprise halted me. Another moment — or had Deliamber continued to thwart me—'

'But he agreed to honor the contract,' Valentine pointed out.

'He did, indeed. And I suppose I too am indebted to you, then. Hiring a new guide might have delayed us for days. I thank you, Valentine,' said Zalzan Kavol with clumsy grace.

'Is there truly a debt between us?'

The Skandar suddenly was taut with suspicion. 'How do you mean?'

'I need a small favor of you. If I have done you service, may I now ask my return?'

'Go on.' Zalzan Kavol’s voice was frosty.

Valentine took a deep breath. 'The boy Shanamir is from Falkynkip. Before he takes to the road with us, he has an urgent errand to perform there. A matter of family honor.'

'Let him go to Falkynkip, then, and rejoin us wherever we may be.'

'He fears he won’t be able to find us if he parts from us.'

'What are you asking, Valentine?'

'That you arrange our route so that we pass within a few hours’ journey of the boy’s home.'

Zalzan Kavol stared balefully at Valentine. Bleakly he said, 'I am told by my guide that my contract is worthless, and then I am halted from action by an apprentice juggler, and then I am asked to plan my journey for the sake of a groom’s family honor. This is becoming a taxing day, Valentine.'

'If you have no urgent engagements elsewhere,' said Valentine hopefully, 'Falkynkip is only two or three days’ journey to the northeast. And the boy—'

'Enough!' cried Zalzan Kavol. 'The Falkynkip road it is. And then no more favors. Leave me now. Erfon! Haern! Is the wagon ready for the road?'

—11—

THE WAGON OF ZALZAN KAVOL’S troupe was as splendid within as without. The floor was of dark shining planks of night-flower wood, buffed to a bright finish and pegged together with consummate artifice. To the rear, in the passenger compartment, graceful strings of dried seeds and tassels dangled from the vaulted ceiling, and the walls were covered with swirl-patterned fur hangings, intricate carved inlays, banners of gossamer-sheer fabrics. There was room for five or six people of Skandar bulk to ride back there, though not in any spacious way. Mid-cabin was a place for the storage of belongings, trunks and parcels and juggling gear, all the paraphernalia of the troupe, and up front, on a raised platform open to the sky, was a driver’s seat wide enough for two Skandars or three humans.

Huge and princely though the wagon was, a vehicle fit for a duke or even a Coronal, it was altogether airy and light, light enough to float on a vertical column of warm air generated by magnetic rotors whirling in its belly. So long as Majipoor spun on its axis, so would the rotors, and when the rotors were spinning the wagon would drift a foot or so above the ground, and could readily be drawn along by a harnessed team of mounts.

In late morning they finished loading their goods aboard, and went to the inn for lunch. Valentine was startled to see the Hjort with the orange-daubed whiskers, Vinorkis, appear at this point and take a seat beside Zalzan Kavol. The Skandar hammered on the table for attention and bellowed, 'Meet our new road manager! This is Vinorkis, who will assist me in making bookings, look after our properties, and handle all manner of chores that now fall to me!'

'Oh, no,' Carabella muttered under her breath. 'He’s hired a Hjort? That weird one who’s been staring at us all week?'

Vinorkis smiled a ghastly Hjort smile, showing triple bands of rubbery chewing-cartilage, and peered about in a goggle-eyed way.

Valentine said, 'So you were serious about joining us! I thought that was a joke, about your juggling figures.'

'It is well known that Hjorts never makes jokes,' said Vinorkis gravely, and broke into vociferous laughter.