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a forest, over old bridges. They rode beside a marsh of a hundred waterways,
fringed with cat-tails, willows and alder. Birds thronged the marsh: herons,
hawks perched high in the trees, blackbirds among the reeds, coots, bitterns,
ducks.
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The waterways became deeper and wider, the reeds submerged; the marsh opened
upon Janglin Water, and the road, passing through an orchard of ancient pear
trees, arrived at Watershade Castle.
Aillas and Shimrod dismounted at the door. A groom came up to take their
horses. When Aillas had departed Watershade for the court of
King Granice, the groom had been Cern the stable-boy. Cern now greeted Aillas
with a broad, if nervous, smile of pleasure.
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"Welcome home, Sir Aillas though now it seems it must be 'Your
Majesty.' That doesn't come comfortable to the tongue, when what I
remember best is swimming in the lake and wrestling in the barn."
Aillas threw his arms around Cern's neck. "I'll still wrestle you.
But now that I'm king, you've got to let me win."
Cern tilted his head sidewise to consider. "That's how it must be, since it's
only proper to show respect for the office. So then, one way or the other,
Aillas sir Your Majesty however you are to be called it's good to see you
home. I'll take the horses; they'll like a rub and a feed."
The front doors were flung open; in the aperture stood a tall white-haired man
in black with a ring of keys at his waist: Weare, the chamberlain at
Watershade for as long as Aillas could remember and long before. "Welcome
home, Sir Aillas!"
"Thank you, Weare." Aillas embraced him. "In the last two years
I've often wished to be here."
"You'll find nothing changed, except that good Sir Ospero is no longer with
us, so that it's been quiet and lonely. How often I've longed for the good
days, before first you, then Sir Ospero went to the court." Weare took a step
back and gazed into Aillas' face.
"You left here a boy, without a care, handsome and easy, with never a harsh
thought."
"And I have changed? In truth, Weare, I am older."
Weare studied him a moment. "I still see the gallant lad, and also
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- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume something dark. I fear you
have known trouble."
"True enough, but I am here and the bad days are behind us."
"So I hope, Sir Aillas!"
Aillas once again embraced him. "Here is my comrade the noble
Shimrod, who I hope will be our guest long and often."
"I am happy to know you, sir. I've put you in the Blue Chamber with a nice
view across the lake. Sir Aillas, tonight I thought you would prefer to use
the Red Chamber. You'd hardly be for your old rooms, nor for Sir Ospero's
chambers, quite so soon."
"Exactly right, Weare! How well you know my feelings! You've always been kind
to me, Weare!"
"You've always been a good boy, Sir Aillas."
An hour later Aillas and Shimrod went out upon the terrace to watch the sun
settle behind the far hills. Weare served wine from a stoneware jug. "This is
our own San Sue which you liked so well.
This year we've laid down eighty-six tuppets. I won't serve nut-
cakes, because Flora wants you with your best appetite for supper."
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"I hope she's not producing anything too lavish."
"Merely a few of your favorites."
Weare departed. Aillas leaned back in his chair. "I've been King a week. I
have talked and listened from morning till night. I have knighted Cargus and
Yane and invested them with property; I have sent for Ehirme and all her
family; she will live out her life in comfort. I have inspected the shipyards,
the armories, the barracks. From my spy-masters I have heard secrets and
revelations, so that my mind throbs. I learn that King Casmir is building war
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