The Pixilated Peeress (9 page)

             
"I came to present a patient for Doctor Orlandus to treat
—
" began Thorolf.

             
The felled guard, who had stopped coughing, climbed to his feet and cried: "He
—
he seeks to smuggle a mon
ster into the castle!"

             
"Give up your weapons, and we'll look into this m
at
ter, " the officer growled.

             
"No, sir, I will not! I am a soldier of the Rhaetian Army, and those idiots attacked me without provoca
tion."

             
"What doth my man in yon tub?" asked the officer.

             
"My patient, who is in the tub, came to mine aid," Thorolf
said, leaning the halberd against the cart and pulling the barely conscious guard out by the legs. Tho
rolf turned him over, hoisted him by the middle, and shook the water out of him. The man went into an ag
ony of coughing.

             
The officer stepped to the t
ub.
"That's
your pa
tient?"

             
"Aye; she's a noble lady under enchantment."

             
"Ha!" said the officer. "When I believe that, I shall believe the legend that Arnalt of Thessen rode his horse across Lake Zurshnitt atop the waves."

             
"Ah, Sergeant Thorolf of th
e Fourth Foot, I be
lieve! " said a new voice from the gateway. The cluster of guards opened out as the newcomer approached. As he passed among them, they placed hands over their hearts and bowed low.

             
The object of their reverence was a tall, lean man wi
th a long, mobile face, wherein slanting eyebrows and greenish-blue eyes effected a slightly eerie look. He wore a scarlet robe of shimmering stuff. Upon his midnight mane of long black hair reposed a golden ac
ademic cap, whose dangling tassel glinted wi
t
h little gems.

             
"Who is that beneath the cart?" demanded the new
comer. "Ah, I do perceive my respected colleague, Doctor Bardi. Come out, my dear fellow! None shall harm a hair of your venerable head."

             
Brushing dirt from his robe, Bardi arduously rose.
"I am sorry, Doctor Orlandus," he coughed, stooping to pick up his mortarboard. "Dear me! I fear that I be too old for the robustious games your minions play. Had ye not appeared so timely, they would have harmed far more than the hairs of our heads."

             
He finished brushing his cap and ceremoniously raised it to the Psychomage, who in turn tipped his cap to Bardi before he strode to the tub.

             
"Who was this when she had her normal form?" he asked in a mellifluous voice.

             
"Countess Yvette of Grintz," said
Thorolf. "Bardi tried to alter her appearance, the better to elude her foes; but something went awry."

             
"Ah, yea; the widow of Count Volk. A woman of exceptional qualities; she could easily become a diaphane, thus enhancing her already notable powers.
Ou
r
spells never miscarry thus." He turned to his guards
men. "Captain, tell four men to bear this tub within.

             
Choose another to fetch fodder for the mule, and guard the cart until the carter return for his property. Now follow me, my dear friends."

             
As t
hey walked leisurely under the raised portcullis, Orlandus continued: "Your Countess escaped from Duke Gondomar with nought but a horse, her gar
ments, and her coronet, did she not? And presently lost both horse and clothes to her pursuers. Where is the c
o
ronet now?"

             
"In safekeeping," growled Thorolf suspiciously, glancing about.

-

             
On the inner side of the curtain wall, many stairways led to the parapet. Between the stairways, casements had been built into the massive lower wall, forming living quarter
s. In the middle of the enclosure, sepa
rated from the curtain wall by a space of twenty or thirty feet all the way round, rose the keep, a massive, turreted building of rust-red sandstone. It overtopped the curtain wall by a whole storey. On the second a
n
d third levels, the present owners had replaced the arrow slits by diamond-paned glass windows.

             
As they crossed the courtyard, persons of various ages bustled out one door and in another. All wore robes, calf-length for the men and ankle-length for the w
omen. Some were bright yellow and the rest gray, save for one or two in scarlet like that of the leader. Beyond, Thorolf glimpsed a couple of women in nondescript attire wash
ing clothes in a tub and three small children playing. The guards' families, he
t
hought.

             
In the midst of the yard, three men and two women in gray robes were on their knees, washing the cobble
stones with scrubbing brushes and water buckets. As Thorolf passed these scrubbers, one of the women, young and pretty, looked up. At Orlandus
' frown she hastily looked down again and resumed her labor.

             
They entered one of the massive doors of the keep and passed down a hall. Another young woman in gray stood meekly aside as they entered and then resumed polishing the inside doorknob. Orlandus
said:

             
"Ah, yea; my prudent sergeant would deposit Yvette's bauble safely, would he not? 'Twould fetch a pretty sum
—
belike twelve thousand marks."

             
He conducted them up a long stair, down the right-hand one of a pair of long halls, and into a spacious room, containing chairs, a divan, and a large desk. Seating himself behind the desk, Orlandus motioned Thorolf and Bardi to chairs. At another gesture,
the soldiers set down the tub and departed.

             
Thorolf glanced around. In contrast to Bardi's dusty clutter, the chamber was as clean, neat, bare, and or
derly as if it had never been occupied at all. The door through which they had come was one of a pair o
n one of the long sides of the room, which was cheerfully lit by diamond-paned casement windows at the ends. On the long side facing the doors was a low fireplace, but no fire had been laid and there were neither ashes nor cinders on the hearth.

             
Above th
e fireplace hung a huge framed painting, ex
tending to the ceiling and dark with the dirt of decades. Through the grime it faintly showed the God and God
dess, Voth and Frea, of the Dualistic Church of Carinthia and the Empire. A small tear above Voth's h
e
ad had not been repaired.

             
The Divine Pair had originally been painted seated on the natural thrones formed by a pair of thick-stemmed, twisted trees. The divinities extended bene
dictory hands above a multitude of tiny figures, representing mortal mankin
d, which swarmed about their feet. The Pair had originally been nude, Voth with a great black beard rippling down his chest and a wreath of laurel leaves on his hair; Frea as a beautiful blond woman of matronly figure. Someone had later painted bronze-gre
e
n oak leaves over the Divine Couple's sex
ual characters.

             
Following Thorolf's glance, Orlandus said: "This was the audience chamber of the Carinthian governors when they ruled in Rhaetia. When the Carinthians de
parted, they evidently found the moving of
yon painting more trouble than they deemed it worth. According to a Tyrrhenian expert I had in, it is second-rate art. Still, it might be worth cleaning some day when we have the time."

             
Thorolf said: "Here are the garments she wore ere her transformatio
n." He laid the bundle on Orlandus' desk before sitting down. "I see you are not using the fireplace, Doctor, albeit winter will be upon us ere
long."

             
Orlandus smiled. "The fireplace is more ornamental than useful. The castle hath an amenity invented in
the days of the old Neapolitan Empire but neglected since. It is clept central heating. A furnace in the basement sends warm air through ducts to the far reaches of the building."

             
Another good-looking woman of about Yvette's age, also swathed in gray, en
tered and began mopping the floor, although Thorolf could not discern a speck of dust. He said:

             
"You keep a neat hold, Doctor."

             
"Surely. I am a modern, scientific magus. All oper
ations are conducted in accordance with the latest prin
ciples of natural
philosophy. One cannot be efficient without order."

             
Thorolf exchanged glances with Bardi, whose sanc
tum was at a polar extreme from their present surround
ings. The soldier jerked his head towards the woman mopping. "Do your folk clean even when there
is no dirt?"

             
Orlandus chuckled. "She serves a light sentence of expiation for a breach of discipline by a member of our order, of the lowest or probationary grade. Only when the aspirant hath risen to the rank of diaphane is he or she immune to such disc
ipline. Since the recent warm spell hath made it needless to stoke the central furnace,
I have instead passed sentences of cleaning and polish
ing. A diaphane, however, knows the right thing to do on all occasions and does it.

             
"Let us return to the conco
mitants of my treatment of your Countess, since you expressed the desire that I do so. The price of the coronet would not nearly cover the cost of the Spell of Mimingus needed to restore Yvette to her winsome former self. You, Sergeant, have seven hundred-
odd marks on deposit with Banker Vi
rus, saved up for your tuition. And you, Doctor Bardi, have at least fifteen thousand in the hoard you secrete in your house."

             
"How knew you?" blurted Thorolf.

             
"Ah, what good were my arcane powers if I kept not abreast of my clients' affairs? Adding the sums from the coronet and your respective assets, that gives a total of about thirty thousand marks. Not nearly enough, I fear."

             
Thorolf bristled. "Meanst that
you'd leave her in her polypose form if we cannot raise money beyond all we own?"

             
"My dear fellow! Take not so rigid a view. With a little adjustment, I am sure we can come to an amicable arrangement. I know somewhat of Yvette of Grintz, whose presence w
ould much enhance my following. There is no rush about paying me all at once. I shall expect payment in
in
stallments of, let us say, one-tenth at a time, to allow you gentlemen time to arrange for loans.

             
"Meanwhile I shall keep Yvette here. Come back in
a fortnight, with the first installment, and you shall find her restored. But she will not return to you until you have met the full cost of this difficult operation."

             
Thorolf thought privately that anyone who tried to hold Yvette against her will would
find his work cut out for him. He said: "How would you stop her from leav
ing the castle?"

             
"Not by bars and shackles, I do assure you. She will understand that she owes it to me to remain here until the costs of the operation be met. The total reckoning
will be
—
ah
—
thirty-five thousand marks."