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must have been equitable, since it pleased no one.
I was at last brought forward and presented to the king, who was quite drunk.
He asked me my business; I said that I wished a private audience, that I might
deliver the confidential messages entrusted to me by Your Highness. He waved
high the bone upon which he was gnawing and declared that he saw no reason for
fiddle-faddle ; that I must speak out brave and bold like a good Celt.
Stealth and furtive timidity were useless, he claimed; and secrecy was
pointless, since everyone knew my business as well as I knew it myself;
indeed, he could give me his answer without my so much as hinting of my
mission; would that be suitable? He thought so, since it would expedite
affairs and enlarge the time for tilting of the horn.
I maintained as much dignity as was possible under the circumstances, and
stated that protocol compelled me to request a private audience. He handed me
a homful of mead and told me to swallow all at a single draught, and this I
managed to do, thereby gaining King Dartweg s favor, and allowing me to mutter
my message into his ear.
In the end I spoke with King Dartweg on three occasions. Each time he sought
to fill me full of strong mead, apparently hoping that I should become foolish
and dance a jig, or babble my secrets.
Needless to say, the attempt was fruitless, and in the end he began to find me
a dull fellow, drunk or sober, and became surly. At our last meeting he
blurted out his fixed and settled policies. In essence, he wants the fruits of
victory with none of the risks. He will join our cause gladly, once we
demonstrate that we have gained the upper hand over our enemies.
That is certainly a policy of caution, said Casmir. He has everything to
gain and nothing to lose.
He acknowledged as much, and said that it was in the best interests of his
health, since only a program of this sort allowed him to sleep well of nights.
I spoke of the need for a specific undertaking; he only waved his hand and
said that you were not to worry on his account. He claimed that he would know
the precise instant when the time was ripe and then he would be on hand in
full force.
King Casmir grunted. We are listening to the voice of an opportunistic
braggart! What next?
From Dun Cruighre I journeyed by ship to Skaghane, where I met a dozen
frustrations but gained no profit. The Ska are not only inscrutable and opaque
in their conversation, but large in their manner. They neither want nor need
alliances, and have a positive aversion for all folk but themselves. I
broached the matter at hand, but they brushed it aside, giving neither yes
nor
no , as if the matter were arrant nonsense. From Skaghane I bring back no
news whatever.
Casmir rose to his feet and began to pace back and forth. He spoke, more to
himself than to Sir
Baltasar: We are assured only of ourselves. Dartweg and his Celts in the end
will serve us, out of greed. Pomperol and Blaloc will stand rigid, paralyzed
by fear. I had hoped for distraction, or even rebellion, among the Ulfs, but
they merely crouch like sullen animals in their high glens.
Torqual, despite my great expense, has done nothing. He and his witchwoman are
fugitives; they maraud along the moors by night, and take cover by day. The
peasants consider them ghouls. Sooner or later they will be brought to bay and
slaughtered like wild beasts. No one will mourn them.
II
Shimrod sat in his garden, somnolent in the shade of a bay tree. His garden
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was at its best. Pink hollyhocks stood like shy maidens in a row along the
front of his manse; elsewhere blue delphinium, daisies, marigolds, alyssum,
verbena, wallflowers, and much else grew in casual clumps and clusters.
Shimrod sat with eyes half closed, letting his mind wander without restraint:
through follies and fancies, along unfamiliar landscapes. He came to an
engaging notion: if odors could be represented by color, then the scent of
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