Matt had caught the word “claimed.”
“But you don’t believe his power really came from God?” He loved watching Rebozo wince every time he said the word. “No, no more man I believe that sorcery truly draws on the power of Satan,” Boncorro said with a cynical smile. “I do not believe in either one, nor in Heaven or Hell.”
“Is that why you’re so interested in trying to find a spell that will make your soul cease to exist when you die?” Matt asked slowly.
“Be still!” Boncorro’s eyes flashed with anger. With an effort, he controlled himself and forced another smile. “Let us say, at least, that I deny that the sources of magic may be either Good or Evil.”
“Then where does the power come from?”
“It is all around us. To ask where it comes from is useless.”
Matt remembered going through that stage. “So you just go through rituals you’ve seen and memorized, and don’t worry about why they work?”
“That is the case. What matters ‘why’? All that matters is that they do most surely function!”
“Well, it helps to be able to figure out new ones,” Matt said slowly, “or to understand why they sometimes don’t work out quite the way you expect.”
Boncorro gave him another narrow glance. “You speak as one who knows-and only the mightiest of wizards would think so precisely about the origins of his power.”
“I have told you!” Rebozo snapped. “He is the Lord Wizard of Merovence!”
Matt stood very still, giving Rebozo a promissory glare.
“Is this true?” Boncorro demanded. “Are you her Majesty’s wizard?”
Again that confounded Christian insistence on honesty! If it just hadn’t been a direct question…
“Yes, your Majesty. I am Matthew Mantrell, wizard to Queen Alisande.”
“And her husband!” Rebozo’s eyes glittered with satisfaction. “We have caught ourselves a most valuable hostage, your Majesty!”
“Yes, if we can hold him.” But Boncorro’s sudden enthusiasm seemed to be of another sort entirely. “What would you say is the source of my power, Lord Wizard?”
“The power of kingship itself, your Majesty,” Matt answered. “A rightful king gains great power from his land and his people, for he is their head and representative. But his power is even greater if he is properly anointed.”
“Be still!” Rebozo’s hand cracked across his mouth. Matt’s head rocked; then he glared at the old man. ‘Try that again, and I promise you can keep the wrist.“
“Treat our guest with courtesy, Lord Chancellor!” King Boncorro rebuked. He turned back to Matt. “Though you have been somewhat lacking in courtesy yourself, coming into our kingdom as a spy.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that,” Matt said, chagrined. “One thing just led to another, you know. I was planning on an official visit later on…”
“If you thought I was not an evil man.” Boncorro smiled, without rancor. “Well, what is your judgment?”
“That you are fundamentally decent,” Matt said slowly. “In fact, that you are basically a good man, and a good king. That means you are also drawing on the powers of God and His Goodness.”
Rebozo let out a keening of pain, but Boncorro shook his head with dogged insistence. “No! I am a man of vice, and have had to work evil to hold my throne, to keep my kingdom orderly and my people prosperous! I have executed murderers and rapists; I have banished priests who preached against me; I have enslaved thieves and pimps for tens of years’ hard labor! I am no saint. Lord Wizard.”
“I didn’t say you were,” Matt answered. “But you have had the good of the country at heart.”
“Only so that it may increase my wealth and security!”
“If you say so,” Matt sighed. “But I gather you have a very deliberate program of reform, to improve life for everybody. Mind telling me the overall plan?”
Boncorro frowned. “Surely you have seen it for yourself!”
“Yes, I think I’ve figured out what you’re doing and why,” Matt said, “but I’d like to find out whether or not I’ve guessed right. Mind telling it to me clearly and simply?”
Boncorro shrugged. “It is clear and simple indeed, though it took me long enough to reason it out.” His smile became quite charming. “I had time enough to devote to it, however, while I waited for my grandfather to die.”
The chancellor looked up, startled. Apparently, he hadn’t heard this part before. “I saw the poverty and squalor of the peasants for myself,” Boncorro went on, “and heard Baron Garchi, the country lord who fostered me, grumbling often about the grinding burden of the king’s taxes and how we should have to manage with less in order to pay them. I could not believe anything but that my grandfather himself must be badly in debt, though his debtors dared not seek payment-and I discovered I was right, when I came to the throne; the treasury was empty, and a host of moneylenders respectfully paid me visits.”
“Fortunately, you had figured out what to do about it.”
“I had, between lessons and… sports. I reasoned that the king’s poverty must have come from the peasants’ poverty, for if they had no more to give, he would have no more to take.”
Matt nodded. “That makes sense. So you figured Item One was to find ways for the peasants to raise more grain.”
“No, to keep more of what they already raised-and Item Two was to make certain their lords would not steal it from them. So I lowered taxes and appointed reeves to see that the lords collected no more than was their due.”
The chancellor scowled fiercely. Boncorro noticed and gave him a smile. “You did not approve of my reforms, did you, Rebozo?”
“Nay, Majesty, and still do not! Disaster shall yet come from these newfangled notions!”
“Not so quickly as it would have come from maintaining the old ones,” the king returned. Well. So Boncorro could enforce his will, even on his inherited Lord Chancellor. Matt decided he must be stronger than he looked-although he had to admit the young man was looking stronger every minute. “What was Item Three?”
Boncorro turned back to him. “Encouragement of trade-for no matter how much wealth my people produce for me, I shall be richer yet if they bring in gold from other lands. I could go on at length, Lord Wizard, but the long and the short of it is this: the king must plan the flow of money as a farmer must plan the ditches he digs to bring water to his crops-and manure them well, as assurance against starvation. The chance of profit encourages the peasants, tradesmen, and merchants to produce more.” He gave Matt the winning smile again. “Thus far, it has seemed to work.”
Matt nodded. “A planned economy combined with private enterprise-good recipe. You’re way ahead of your time, King Boncorro.”
“Aye.” Rebozo flashed Matt a venomed glance. “But what shall he do when his time catches up with him, eh?”
Boncorro laughed, richly amused. “I shall never fear rashness, Rebozo, for I shall always have you beside me to croak of doom!”
The last thing Rebozo needed was to have somebody encourage the king-so Matt did. “When your time catches up with you, O King, it shall give you the wealth of Midas.”
“Yes, it will.” Boncorro gave him a keen glance. “Money makes more money, as seeds make more grain-but I see that you know of this, Lord Wizard”
“I know about capital and investment, yes.”