The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight

  "Mordecai hadn't poisoned anything!" Sarah said.

  "Do you think I cared? All I wanted was a disturbance. If I hadn't killed the Jew and his wench, I would have just burned the village. This seemed easier." Then he nodded slowly to himself. "She was lying. She's not from the Lady. I'll kill her now and then all will be well."

  "No, Meliagant, all will not be well." This was a new voice, familiar but out of place. Sarah stepped back and glanced quickly around. There, standing at the end of the enclosure, was Gawain. He was leaning on Terence and was obviously trying to appear fit and strong, but both of them looked very ill indeed. The sword in Gawain's hand looked well enough, though.

  "Gawain," Sir Meliagant said slowly. "Dear me, I see you've been wounded."

  "I see you have, too," Gawain replied.

  Sir Meliagant looked struck, and he said, "Good God, I hadn't thought of that. I wonder if my own wound won't heal, either."

  "Of course it won't heal," Sarah said, interrupting Sir Meliagant's thoughts. "I told you: the Lady has finished with you."

  "If you mean my mother," Gawain said, "then you need to know that she never keeps her men after they've stopped being useful. It's what happened to my father. No, I wouldn't be in your shoes now for anything."

  "You see," Sarah said, "you're doomed. Why don't you just lay your sword down and surrender. You don't have a chance against both of us, but if you yield to us now, we won't kill you."

  Sir Meliagant hesitated, then to Sarah's surprise, nodded. "Very well," he said. "I will yield. Here is my sword." He removed his helm, knelt, laid his sword on the floor between him and Sarah, then bowed his head.

  Startled but pleased, Sarah took a step forward as Sir Meliagant added, "Two more steps, and then I'll snatch up the sword and cut her legs out from under her."

  Sarah hesitated, then almost smiled. The magic potion had finally given her a real edge, letting her know the treachery Sir Meliagant intended. He would grab the sword with his right hand and she would be ready with her own blade. By the time he had seized his sword, she would have his head off. Then she stopped in her tracks. To her surprise, she found that she didn't want to kill Sir Meliagant. No one deserved death more than he, but she didn't want to do it. She set her jaw, took a step forward, and made a decision: she would cut at his sword hand, as Jean had done to Sir Corbon.

  Then all plans fell apart. Throughout the exchange between Sir Meliagant and Gawain and Sarah, there had been a great bustle from the far end of the enclosure, where King Bagdemagus had fallen toward the ram, and now there came a sharp cry of alarm, and the ram appeared in the enclosure, a broken rope trailing behind him, his head lowered and aimed directly at Sir Meliagant's hindquarters. Hearing hooves behind him, Sir Meliagant grabbed his sword and began to rise, and the ram struck him square on the buttocks and drove him forward into Sarah. Both went tumbling backward, and Sarah, to her horror, lost her sword. Sir Meliagant stood up quickly, towering over her, gave a shout of triumph, and raised his own sword for the killing blow. Then his head disappeared from his shoulders, and his body crumpled and fell heavily onto Sarah.

  Dazed, covered with blood, and uncomprehending, Sarah frantically pushed the body away, then felt strong hands lift her to her feet. She began to flail against whoever held her, but then she heard a gentle voice.

  "Sarah, my child, it is I. It is I."

  It was Jean, and beside him stood Charis, covered with dirt. "Jean?" Sarah said. "Charis?"

  "I found him, Sarah," Charis said. Tears were making lines in the dirt on her cheeks. "I found him."

  Sarah looked down at the ground at her feet, where the headless remains of Sir Meliagant lay, looking curiously insignificant. Beside him lay her own sword, the bright blade covered with blood. "Did you ... kill him with my sword?" she asked Jean.

  "You threw it at my feet," he said. "Just as we arrived."

  Now a new voice interrupted them. "Capital! Capital! A splendid tried!" It was King Bagdemagus, looking ruffled and dazed but clapping enthusiastically. "Bless me if I've ever had such a time. A bit tiring, though." His eyes were glazed and unfocused, and he nearly fell over the rope of the enclosure.

  Charis left Jean and hurried to the king's side. "Father, you've had too much excitement for one day. You should go rest now."

  King Bagdemagus looked at her vaguely, showing no sign of recognition. "Yes, my dear, I'm sure you're right. Really, I don't know how real shepherds manage to do it all. Most fatiguing, let me tell you." Charis beckoned to a servant, who hurried forward to take the king's other arm. Together they led him toward the door, and as they walked, the king said to Charis, "I say, dear girl, would you have my son, Meliagant, trot up to my room later? I have to consult him on something."

  Charis took a deep breath and said, "Father, Meliagant can't. He lost the battle. He's dead."

  "Yes, yes. When he feels better, of course," the king said, as they left the room.

  ***

  "It was something you said last night," Charis explained to Sarah. Sarah was sitting up in Charis's bed, her head swathed in bandages. It turned out that the blow that had knocked away her helm had also cut a deep gash in her temple. It had been her own blood that had been blocking her right eye.

  "Something I said? What do you mean?" Sarah asked. It hurt to move her jaw.

  "You said that Lancelot had been hidden by an enchantress and was probably in the one place where we couldn't see him."

  "Oh, yes, I remember that. But all I meant was that we had no hope of finding Jean."

  "I know. But in the middle of the night, as I was lying awake, it suddenly struck me that that was exactly what she would have done. So I got up and went out in the dark."

  "Where?"

  "To the empty field west of the castle. You see, I realized that all our searching had been in hidden places, places where Lancelot would have been out of sight, but we never looked at the field, because we could see that there was nothing there."

  "But there was?" Sarah asked, impressed with Charis's reasoning.

  "A round building of stone, with no doors or windows. It was there all along, but you couldn't see it. I just started walking until I ran into it, then I called out, and Lancelot replied."

  "How did you get him out if there weren't any doors or windows?"

  "I dug. Lancelot had been digging for three days already, you see, with his hands—or rather with just one hand, because I don't think his wounded hand was much use. He directed me to the spot where he had been working, and I came back to the castle for a shovel and starting working from my side. The stone walls went about five or six feet deep, but they weren't mortared together, and once we got deep enough, Lancelot was able to work a few stones free and crawl through. It was already daylight by then, and we came at once to the trial."

  Sarah reached out and took Charis's hand. "Thank you." Charis smiled and held the hand for a minute, and Sarah added, "And where's Jean now?"

  "Resting and eating. He had no food or water while he was in the stone chamber, and digging out last night took nearly all his strength. I've sent the court physician to see to his hand, too, as soon as he's finished with Sir Kai and Sir Gawain."

  "Will a doctor do any good? What about the spell that keeps wounds from healing?"

  "You never know," Charis replied. "Terence says that he began to feel better as soon as Meliagant was killed, and he doesn't need to hold on to Gawain anymore."

  "Good thing, too," came a mild voice from the door to the bedchamber. Terence himself stood there, leaning against the door jamb. "I love Gawain as a brother and more, but four days of touching someone constantly is more than enough." He frowned reflectively and added, "Especially in summertime."

  "You look amazingly better, Terence!" Sarah exclaimed, smiling at the squire.

  "And so do you," Terence replied.

  "With this bandage over half my face?"

  Terence grinned. "It's a handicap, surely, but the part of your face that I can see is smil
ing. I had not seen that before from you, but you should do it often; truly, it suits you."

  Sarah felt herself blushing, and, to change the subject, said, "But how did you come to be at the trial? You looked like a death's head on a stick."

  "Gawain and I had been walking, hobbling, or crawling most of the night, I think," Terence said. "We still arrived too late. If you hadn't taken Lancelot's place in the trial and held Meliagant off, I suppose we'd be dead now. Meliagant would have had no trouble dispatching us, as weak as we were."

  "You seem to be back to normal now," Sarah said.

  "As you will be soon. I thought at first that your wound was mortal, but I gather that you will survive, after all."

  "Yes," Charis said. "Sarah cannot be defeated so easily."

  "No, indeed. I'll tell the others so," Terence said. "That's why I'm here. All of your wounded friends are inquiring after you, and since I'm the only one who's well, they sent me." He smiled. "With all sorts of messages of gratitude and praise for your courage and so on. I won't bore you with them all, but allow me to say that it has been an honor too great for words to ride beside you." The squire bowed deeply and reverently to her, and then he was gone.

  Charis squeezed Sarah's hand, which she was still holding, and said, "Can I bring you anything, Sarah?"

  Sarah smiled back and shook her head. "I think I'd just like to rest again." Then, warmed with the unfamiliar feeling of having completed something, Sarah went back to sleep, and when she awoke the next morning, Ariel was there.

  XII

  Her Own Princess

  For the next week, Sarah remained in bed. The cut in her head was healing nicely, a sure sign that Morgause's enchantment had been broken, but every time she tried to stand she grew dizzy and her head throbbed painfully. At last, though, even the pain and dizziness began to fade, and she was free to enjoy resting and being treated like a hero.

  Ariel was at Sarah's bedside constantly, and Charis spent as much time as she could with them, but Charis had other concerns to deal with, such as her father. King Bagdemagus had taken to his bed immediately after the trial, and while none of the physicians could find anything wrong with him, he still acted as though he were near death. "Sometimes I just have to leave the room," Charis admitted to Sarah. "For him to be calling for a priest every hour and patting my hand and telling me I've always been a good daughter and burping out huge mournful sighs every few minutes—it puts me all out of patience with him! And with so many people in the castle who really are injured, too!" She made a sharp, dismissive motion with her hand, then after a moment added contritely, "But then I remember that he has lost his son. I suppose I should be grateful that at least he's stopped asking for Meliagant quite so often."

  "He still doesn't believe Sir Meliagant's dead?" Sarah asked.

  "I think I told you once: Father's only good at believing what's comfortable for him."

  "I'm not sure that can be called believing," commented Ariel.

  The three were silent for a moment. Then Sarah asked, "What about all the other invalids, then? How are Sir Kai and Gawain and Jean and Terence?"

  Charis said, "The knights are all improving. As for Terence, he's been gone two days now."

  "I wondered why he hadn't been in to visit," Sarah said. "Where did he go?"

  "To Camelot, of course. He stayed long enough to be sure that everyone was mending, then hurried off to tell King Arthur that the queen and Sir Kai were safe. He invited Guinevere to go with him, but she wouldn't leave the wounded knights. She's been tireless, caring for Sir Kai and Sir Gawain. Lancelot's nearly well. In fact, he's been helping me with the guards."

  "Helping you with the guards?" Sarah asked.

  "Yes," Charis replied. "Remember you told me about those guards who refused to beat you? Well, I found those two, Clem and Coll—that's the other one's name—and they've been helping me separate the men that are faithful to my father from the ones that were my brother's men."

  "What do you do with them? Your brother's men, I mean."

  "Meliagant's right-hand, Captain Raven, is in the dungeon. The others I'm expelling from Logres."

  Sarah blinked at Charis and was silent. It hadn't occurred to her until that moment that with Sir Meliagant dead and King Bagdemagus in bed, someone else would have to rule the land of Logres. "Don't some of the guards object to being sent away?" she asked at last. "Especially by a girl?"

  "A few did at first, but not anymore." Charis smiled. "That's how Lancelot's been helping me."

  Sarah remembered again the girl with the empty face that she had seen on the little throne beside King Bagdemagus that first day and the timid, indecisive child who had opened Sarah's door later that night. It was hard to imagine that Charis had ever been those people. She was like a tightly coiled flower bud encased in ice that had burst into bloom as soon as the ice had melted.

  "As for the guards who've stayed," Charis added, "I haven't had any trouble with them. I give my orders directly to Captain Clem, and he gives them to the men. They think that it's all coming from him, and as for Clem, he says he's used to taking orders from girls. He has three at home."

  Sarah grinned, a little ruefully. "You sound very fine and royal. I just hope you don't get too grand for me. I'm from simple folk, after all."

  Charis's smile disappeared. "Don't ever say such a thing again, Sarah! If you hadn't come along and showed me how to be brave ... when all's said, I'm just trying to be like you. I only hope that one day I can be nearly as grand as you are!"

  Startled, Sarah murmured a hasty apology, and Charis rose from her chair. "Just don't do it again," she said sternly, but her eyes were gentle. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go see Sir Kai. He told me that today he thought he would be well enough to teach me how to keep castle accounts."

  When she was gone, Ariel said thoughtfully, "You know, Sarah, I rather think our friend will make a fine ruler."

  ***

  Charis's ruling abilities were put to the test the very next day. That morning Sarah left her room for the first time, and although she still felt some dizziness, with Ariel's arm to lean on she was able to visit all of her friends for a few minutes and was talking with Charis and Jean when a messenger came from the front gate, announcing that Sir Hugh the Vavasour had arrived to speak with Sir Meliagant.

  Ariel, Jean, and Sarah looked quickly at one another. Charis said, "This will be the one who was going to poison you."

  "I assume so, my lady. He never told us his name," Jean replied. "Should you turn him away?"

  "No," Charis said, with decision. She turned to the guard. "I will receive him in the green hall in fifteen minutes."

  "Yes, your highness," the guard said. Sarah noted the depth of the guard's bow and smiled. Charis had said that the men took their orders from her captain, but this guard seemed to have no doubt who was in command.

  "May we come with you, Lady Charis?" Jean asked.

  Charis nodded. "Yes, but stay in back, out of the Vavasour's sight, until I say otherwise. Go ahead of me now; I must see Sir Kai."

  "Yes, my lady," Jean said, bowing with almost as much deference as the guard. Sarah and Ariel grinned at each other.

  Fifteen minutes later, the doors to the receiving hall opened, and Sarah, standing in a corner with Jean and Ariel, watched the Vavasour stride impatiently into the hall. "My lord!" he said gruffly, "why have I been kept kicking my heels in the hall when—" The Vavasour broke off abruptly. "Where is Sir Meliagant?"

  Charis did not answer at once. Her face was pale, but when she spoke, her voice was steady. "Are you sure you wished to speak to my brother?" Charis asked. "After all, you are not Sir Meliagant's vassal. You are the vassal of my father, King Bagdemagus, are you not?"

  The Vavasour scowled at Charis. "Yes, of course, but I see no need to disturb the king today. I am quite content to present my business to his representative."

  Charis nodded. "Very well, then. How may I serve you, Sir Hugh? I am Princess Charis, and I am act
ing for King Bagdemagus now."

  "You?" the Vavasour demanded scornfully. "Don't be ridiculous, child! I meant Sir Meliagant."

  "I'm afraid that will be impossible," Charis replied. "It grieves me to tell you this, but my brother is dead."

  "Dead?" the Vavasour repeated incredulously.

  "Yes, it has been a great shock to my father—and to all of us, of course—and I'm afraid the king is still not recovered enough to conduct his own affairs. You shall have to speak to me instead."

  "I think not," the Vavasour replied with a growl.

  "You must do as you feel best," Charis replied. "As it happens, though, I have a few matters to discuss with you while you are—"

  "Look here, child, can I speak to the captain of the guard?"

  "If you wish," Charis replied coolly. She spoke to a guard at the door. "Go and fetch Captain Clem, if you please."

  "Captain Clem? No, no, I meant Raven!"

  "I'm afraid Raven is not available, either. Do you still wish to speak to Clem?"

  The Vavasour stamped his foot angrily. "Then who can I talk to?" he snapped, more to himself than to Charis.

  "You sound as if you have a complaint," Charis said. "Would it have to do with the spell of protection that my brother promised for your castle?"

  The Vavasour looked sharply at Charis. "You know about the spell?"

  "The one that was to keep out faeries and wizards?"

  "That's the one! Well, you're right. I've come to ask what's wrong with it!"

  "Have you had difficulties with faeries or wizards?"

  "That I have! Just three days ago! It was an old crone who came in looking for shelter! I sent the guards to throw her out, of course, but how did she get in to begin with is what I want to know! Meliagant said that his Lady's protection spell would be the death of any faery or witch who tried to enter!"