CHAPTER 17
They had almost come to the end of the pass when Stegoman stopped suddenly, lifting his head and craning it around, looking toward the backtrail. "I hear horses. Two... nay, three, approaching the lip of the pass."
Matt turned a questioning eye to Sir Guy. "Should we hide now and decide whether or not they're. enemies later?"
The knight considered it briefly, then shook his head. "Nay, Lord Wizard. If there be only three horses, we are a match for them. Let us see their faces."
The heads of horses showed above the lip of the pass, then the bald spot of a tonsure.
"I think..." Matt said.
A steel helmet with a wealth of blonde hair cascading out of it poked up on the left, and long black hair came into view on the right.
"That is who I think it is - isn't it?"
Sir Guy nodded. "They have made good time."
Matt frowned. "We did have a twenty-four-hour layover. Even so..."
"They must have ended the broil at the convent quickly," Sir Guy said.
Father Brunel looked up and saw them. Relief and joy flooded his face. He waved frantically.
Then Alisande saw them and stiffened in the saddle. Sayeesa lifted her head, but her posture didn't change.
Father Brunel kicked his horse into a canter and slewed up beside them in a few minutes, breathing heavily. "Praise Heaven we have found you!"
"Oh?" Matt raised an eyebrow. "Someone on your trail?"
"Nay, nay! But 'tis sorely tried I've been, accompanying these two ladies!"
"This is good fortune, Sir Knight, Lord Wizard." Alisande pulled up beside the priest. "I had not thought to meet you till Grellig." Then she looked directly at Matt and stared. "How now, sir! What is this armor! Have you no respect for--"
"Highness, your Lord Wizard is now Sir Matthew, a full knight created," Sir Guy informed her quietly.
Alisande turned back to Matt with a frowning stare. "How can this be? Who has knighted him? Yourself, Sir Guy? You had ought--"
"Not I, and I may not tell who 'twas. Yet be assured, 'twas a lord of high station."
Alisande gazed at the Black Knight while it sank in; then, somehow, she began to look a little, frightened. Matt wondered why she should be so upset at the news.
The princess nodded, turning away. "He is a knight, then." She glanced at Matt's shield. "No arms ... but of course. You have not been granted them; and you are the first of your family to gain this estate, are you not?"
It rankled; Matt couldn't help feeling that his father, as a business executive, should rank with a knight; but, by the book, his family were definitely commoners. "True."
Without the slightest hesitation, she said, "Your arms are those of the Lords Wizard, which are quartered with those of your family, if you wish it. We shall award them to you with due ceremony, once I am crowned queen."
Nice kid! She went by the rulebook, even when it galled her, as Matt's knighthood seemed to. She'd probably be all for his painting the heraldic symbols on right there - if he could find a painter.
"Yet I think," Alisande went on, "we must add to the Lord Wizard's arms some new device, which will cleanse them; for they have been sullied of late."
"Sullied? Who has been?"
They all turned to Sayeesa, who had just come up. She saw Matt, and her eyes widened. "Ah, then, the silvery gleam was more than a mailshirt! Is he a knight, then?"
Alisande nodded.
"My congratulations, sir." Her voice was low, softly modulated; but her lips quirked with humor. "So the title I first accorded you, knowing it to be false, is now yours by right!"
Matt smiled. "Are you a seer, Sayeesa?"
Her face darkened. Her gaze strayed away, brooding. "If I am, I know it not. Still..."
Sir Guy cleared his throat. "We had not looked to see you so quickly, ladies. How has this come, that the siege of the convent was broken? And how is it you journey in Father Brunel's holy company?"
"'Twas your doing." Alisande gave him a wry smile. "When you had fought through the host of the enemy, the Reverend Mother cried, `See, then, what true men can do! Come, will you do less?' Then out we came to the ramparts, to hurl at the enemy arrows and bolts and great balls of fire from the catapult, while this good postulant--" She nodded toward Sayeesa, and Matt realized, with a shock, that the ex-witch still wore a postulant's habit. "-did link hands with the abbess, who turned her power to ward off the enemy's spells. At dawn's light, Sister Victrix, who led the erstwhile bandits, sallied out with her sisters to sweep the field clear."
"Come on!" Matt scowled. "A mere hundred nuns, against that whole army?" Of course, by then the enemy must have been well aged...
Alisande nodded. "'Twas dawn; the power of the sorcerous army was waning, while ours waxed. And in that fortunate hour came knights of Moncaire, with this good priest leading. They rode into the rear of the baron's force and dealt blows about them recklessly - and our good Father Brunel strove as mightily as any of them."
"'Tis true, to my shame." The priest nodded heavily, and Matt realized, with a start, that he had a broadsword slung across his back. "Yet what must needs be done, must be done. Still, I'll carry the screams of the dying to my grave."
"So." Matt pursed his lips. "The enemy fled or got chopped up, according to their taste; and you rode out after us. No chance the army would come back that night?"
Alisande shook her head, but Sayeesa said, "Some chance, surely; but the Reverend Mother would not hear of our staying to aid them. She commanded us forth, saying her Highness's quest was more vital than the safety of the Cynestrians' house. If, as we all expected, the army did not return that night, the Reverend Mother with all her nuns would soon follow us. They may be even now behind us, on the trail. She bade me accompany her Highness; for I've learned some small enchantments of her and might be of use, if sorcerers attacked our rightful queen."
"I hate to agree with her, but it makes very good sense." Matt pursed his lips. "Any chance to test the theory?"
"None." Alisande looked puzzled. "We passed the night in the open, lighted by a campfire; and not a soul did challenge us. Father Brunei slept soundly; Sayeesa and I stood watch-and-watch; we did not wish to waken him. He had ridden long, and warred as heavily as we, and had seen less sleep. Too, the night was still."
"Never a whisper of danger." Sayeesa's brows knitted, perplexed.
Somehow, it ail sounded ominous. "that I don't like."
"Nor I, Lord Wizard," Alisande said darkly. "What does the sorcerer while all is calm?"
"Brews one hell of a storm for us." Matt managed a faint smile. "What else would he be using the time for?"
"Then there is small room for talk." Sir Guy turned his horse's head to the west. "Come, let us ride! We must be nigh Grellig ere nightfall!"
They rode out of the pass in close order. Matt made it a little closer. "Stegoman - bump up against Sir Guy's horse, will you?"
The dragon grumbled, but moved ahead and to the left, almost colliding with the war horse. Matt leaned down to get his head near the knight's ear. "Sir Guy - did you notice the look on Brunel's face?"
The knight nodded, "Aye. He looks like a man on the rack."
"I don't blame him, having to ride twenty-four hours with his main source of temptation right beside him. And she doesn't seem to have gained any charity toward him ... Look, don't you think this calls for a thorough rundown on the military situation? As well as the spiritual?"
The knight flashed a grin up at him. "Will I take the princess and priest aside, do you mean? To question them, purportedly to every last small detail of their day and night? How long do you wish this questioning to take?"