"Hers, too," said Jorian. He handed Margalit his purse, not wishing to have to juggle his weapon and the money at the same time. While Margalit counted out the money, the Shvenites appeared in the doorway.
"Your Honor!" cried one, starting to draw his sword. "What betides?"
"Back inside!" said the judge. "Quickly, ere this desperado puts a bolt through my brisket!"
Jorian smiled. "Now, your Honor, you shall come for a ride. Kynoc, saddle the judge's horse and boost him up on its back. Then saddle the lady's and mine."
Minutes later, Jorian and Margalit rode off on the road to Othomae. Jorian led the mule. The judge, gripping the mane with his bound hands, unhappily bounced on the back of his own horse, like him old and fat.
"I am in your eternal debt, Lady Margalit," said Jorian. "Why did you go to such effort and risk to save my unworthy neck?"
"I told you. I felt responsible to Estrildis for you. As it was, I did not truly save you, since the Shvenites were close upon my trail. Your own valor did that."
Jorian chuckled. "If you but knew the horror with which I felt myself borne along willy-nilly on that cursed mule, blinded by the blanket— but there, Karadur is ever at me not to let my modesty show. At least you gave me a few moments' warning. You are a splendid person. When you get a husband, you deserve the best. If I were not a devoted family man…" Feeling that his unruly tongue was about to run away with him, Jorian ceased talking and concentrated on the road ahead.
Chapter Six THE WATER WIFE
AFTER RIDING THROUGH THE DARK FOR HOURS, JUDGE Grallon called: "Your Majesty, how much farther wilt drag me? 'Twill take all the morrow to get back."
"You shan't get back," said Jorian. "I am taking you to Othomae."
"By Imbal's iron pizzle, what for? Mean you to slay me there?"
"Not at all, your Honor. I have a task, wherefor you are uniquely qualified."
"Task? Art mad? What task could I possibly perform for you?"
"Service as arbitrator in a dispute. You will receive the standard fee and be sent back to Xylar no worse for wear."
"That is the strangest proposal I have ever heard!" exclaimed Grallon. "Why should you trust me to deliver a just verdict, after you have treated me so wrongfully?"
"Because I knew you of old, when I was King. Will you do it?" Grallon hesitated. "Only if I can discharge my office honorably, without prior conditions or constraint."
"That's my wish, too. I ask not that you incline to my cause because of my connection with Xylar, and even less that you incline against it because of the strong measures I have taken to protect myself."
"Very well, then," said Grallon. "Meanwhile I am half dead from bouncing on the back of this cursed beast. At least unbind me. Do you mean to camp out?"
"Nay. We shall soon reach another inn."
"And who is this young person?"
"You shall know in good time."
"At least tell me whether it be male or female."
"Not just yet. Ah, methinks I see a light through the trees! When we go in, I shall be Nikko of Kortoli, and you Master Grallon. Think not to raise an outcry of kidnapping, for we are now well within Othomaean territory. You know the love between Othomaeans and Xylarians! They'd say, give him an extra kick for me!"
At the inn, Jorian took a room for two. He offered no explanation of Margalit in her young man's garb. If anyone noticed the unmasculine bulges beneath her jacket, they forebore to comment in the presence of one so formidable-looking as Jorian.
Leaving the taverner to warm up leftovers for their supper, Jorian shepherded his two companions into the room. As he set down their baggage, Margalit took off her forester's hat, so that her curly hair sprang out.
"I know you now!" said Judge Grallon. "You are the Queen's lady-in-waiting, Margalit of Totens. I heard of your disappearance from the palace. What do you here? What of these wild tales of a scarlet demon's snatching you from the Queen's apartments?"
"Just a little sorcery gone awry," said Jorian.
"But—but that does not explain her being with you on Mount Aravial And in men's garb, forsooth! She evanished from the palace in the month of the Eagle, and here it is almost springtime! What have you twain been up to in the meantime?"
"That's enough questions," said Jorian. "You forget you are my prisoner and not the other way round."
The judge turned to Margalit. "But you, Lady Margalit? What do you here? Are you in some plot with this runaway king?"
Margalit began: "Why, as to that—" Then she saw that Jorian, standing behind the judge, was making motions of clapping his hand over his mouth. "You must needs ask Master Jorian," she said.
"Hah! Were this Xylar, you'd soon be behind bars as a fautor of King Jorian's felonies!"
"Felonies?" said Jorian.
"Certes! For the king to escape the doom assigned him by our divinely inspired laws were a heinous offense. Should we ever win you back to complete your part in the blasphemously interrupted ceremony, you will be scourged, ere you are beheaded, for your irreligious contu-maciousness."
"Thanks for the warning," said Jorian. "I'll take good care not to be caught."
The judge clenched his fists, stamped his feet, aid sputtered with righteous indignation; but so wrought up was he that no words came forth. At last he dropped his arms and dropped his shoulders, muttering: "Shameless! Shameless! You are lost to all consicerations of morality!"
"Lost or not," said Jorian, "the innkeeper should lave something for us to eat. Belike a full belly will help you bear my üiquities."
After supper, Jorian chivvied his companions back to the room. "Margalit," he said, "the judge shall have the bed, whist you and I take turns sleeping beside him and watching him."
Grallon groaned. "If the word gets out that I have jassed the night in bed with this young woman, my repute on the bench will be ruined, not to mention what my wife will say."
"When I said 'sleeping,' I meant just 'sleeping,'" said Jorian. "Anyway, if you keep silent about it, we will do likewise. Eh, Margalit?"
She laughed. "I have already been compromised to the point where one more scandal matters not. I promise, your Honor, to make no lascivious advances."
"Now," said Jorian, "I'll trouble your Honor for your shoes, knife, and purse."
"Aha, so Your Majesty has turned robber as well as abductor?"
"Not at all. They shall be returned to you in dm course. I merely wish to make sure that, if the one of us on watch fall asleep, you do not stab us in our sleep and flee. Margalit, whilst you are on watch, sit on the judge's things."
The return to Othomae took Jorian half a day loiger than had his journey to the Golden Ibex. Two companions, he found, inevitably slowed him down, the more so since one was elderly and Jorian's own horse was showing fatigue. They arrived on the aftenoon of the fourth day out of the Golden Ibex, too weary to take up Joran's business with Abacarus. Jorian did, however, hire one of Rhuys's ions to carry messages to Abacarus and to Goania and Karadur.
At dinner time, Goania and Karadur came to tie Silver Dragon. Boso hulked in and gave Jorian a surly greeting. Joran asked: "Where is Vanora?"
Goania said: "I suppose Margalit has told you oi her confession. I served her notice that one more such buffoonery and she was through. She hung around for another few days. But when, by my second sight, I told her that you had escaped the lariat squad and were on your way back to Othomae, she packed up her scanty gear and vanished. Belike she thought you would slay her on your return."
"I do not kill women," said Jorian. "But I might have been tempted to stripe her backside."