Authors: Andre Norton
The Prince Commands: Being Sundry Adventures of Michael Karl, Sometime Crown Prince & Pretender to the Thrown of Morvania (18 page)
The King got up slowly and walked to the window. He stood with his back to Michael Karl.
“Do you think that you were altogether wise?” he asked coldly.
“Perhaps not,” Michael Karl was stung into speech by his cousin’s tone. “But I’m not used to this—this”—he motioned vaguely about him. “I want to be free sometimes.”
The King turned. “You want to be free. That is why I summoned you.” He crossed to the table and picked up a sheet of heavy looking paper. “Your signature is needed on this.”
Michael Karl went over and took it from his hand to read. Suddenly he looked up. “This is an abdication of my rights to the throne?”
The King nodded. “I have arranged for your return to America. I had hoped—but no matter now. You can leave by the end of the week.”
Ignoring etiquette, Michael Karl sat down. What he feared was only too true, his cousin didn’t want him. For him there would be no journey to the Summer Palace, no more days like those on the Pala Horn, and somehow he had always hoped—Michael Karl picked up the pen.
The “Michael” was firm and clear but the “Karl” sheered off shakily. He was glad he was able to blot it firmly. He pushed the paper across the table.
“I thank Your Majesty for all your kindnesses. Perhaps—perhaps I have enjoyed the past few months more than you know. I shall await your further commands.”
He went to the door but with his hand on the knob he turned. Urlich Karl was standing there holding the paper and—his hand was trembling. Michael Karl spoke before he thought.
“I wish it might have ended differently.”
“It is just as well. Kings are always lonely,” Urlich Karl was staring down at the paper.
Michael Karl started. “Did you wish it different too?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter now what I wished. You may go.”
But Michael Karl
knew—
knew that under the King was Ericson. He didn’t know how he got back to the table, floated probably, he seemed light and happy enough to. Was it he, Michael Karl, who twitched that silly paper out of his cousin’s hands and tore it with such eager satisfaction?
“Whether you like it or not, Urlich Karl,” he said with a little gasp of delight as he flung the pieces on the table. “I’m here to stay.”
“Do you mean that?” there was a sharp note in the King’s voice. The mask he had worn was breaking.
“Of course, you can’t ship me out of here without my consent. If you try it I’ll—I’ll start a revolution! And then where would you be?”
Urlich Karl laughed joyously. “Right in the front line trench helping you run it, because you’re never going to get away from me again, Michael Karl.”
Michael Karl gathered the scraps of paper up from the table and stepped solemnly to the window.
“What are you doing?” demanded his cousin.
“Watching one perfectly good abdication go where it belongs.”
“And good riddance to it,” added Urlich Karl leaning out beside him to watch the pieces go fluttering down.
“You had me scared,” he admitted a moment later. “When you signed that, my heart slid right down to my boot soles and stayed there.”
“One would never have known it to see your face. I was clearing out because I thought you didn’t want me.”
“Didn’t want you!” and the way Urlich Karl said it settled all his cousin’s doubts forever.
They looked at each other for a moment and then Urlich Karl laughed.
“Now that that’s over, and we’re through playing at cross purposes how about planning our vacation?”
“Wait until you sec what I bought this morning,” Michael Karl went to the door and called Alexis.
“Good grief,” was Urlich Karl’s comment. “Where did you get him?”
“In the animal market. What do you think of him?”
“He’s a beauty. And I suppose he’s going to share our seat when we go driving?”
“Of course!” replied Michael Karl indignantly and fell to pulling Alexis’s long soft ears.
“Of course.” agreed Urlich Karl gravely, but he was smiling at the two of them—smiling like Ericson, and Michael Karl was very content.
“His Grace, the Duke Johann,” Jan was standing inside of the door.
“You may admit him at once, and, Jan, see that His Highness’s things are packed for removal to the Summer Palace. Well, Johann, we’ve spoiled a bit of your work.”
“And what was that, sire?” asked Johann lazily as he entered.
“Michael Karl has thrown a certain paper through the window after tearing it into small bits. He used to lecture me on being wasteful and untidy, and now here’s hours of your work gone to naught.”
Johann smiled sleepily. “Not my work, sire. I have secretaries, and they must earn their salt. But I am glad that they had their work for nothing this time. So I will have the pleasure of teaching Your Highness tennis after all?”
“Yes,” answered Michael Karl and his eyes were shining.
Chapter XVIII
— And So Puts An End To This Tale
Marthe Ultmann was culling dead blossoms from the hollyhocks by her door when the gate latch clicked. She looked up in some surprise. Visitors were few at the Duke’s stock farm.
There was a boy coming up the path. A boy in a white shirt which lacked a button, whose black riding breeches were the worse for long hard wear. But the dog who followed at his heels was an aristocrat of his kind, and the horse whose reins were looped over a picket of the gate was a thoroughbred. The boy was whistling but he stopped as he caught sight of Marthe.
“Madame Marthe!”
She made a stiff little curtsey. “Your Highness is welcome, very welcome,” she said with a little gasp.
“So you’ve found me out, Madame Marthe?” the boy asked.
“But yes.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter,” cried the boy happily. “To you I’m always just Laddie. So forget it, Madame Marthe. I’ve come to tell you that I’m going to stay, and I love it!”
“I thought you would, Laddie,” said Marthe.
Table of Contents
Chapter I Michael Karl Learns What He Has Wanted To Know
Chapter II The Border and — Morvania
Chapter III A Prince Meets A Werewolf
Chapter IV In And Out Of The Crown Inn
Chapter V Michael Karl Enters His Capital
Chapter VI Of A Chance Discovery And A Passage Underground
Chapter VII The Council At Work
Chapter VIII Michael Karl Hears What Was Not Meant For His Ears
Chapter IX In Which Two Plot And One Acts
Chapter X Into The Mountains At Once
Chapter XI Michael Karl Meets His King For The First Time
Chapter XII The Battle Of The Cathedral Steps
Chapter XIII Who Holds Rein Holds Morvania
Chapter XIV The Last Of Cobentz And Co.
Chapter XV The Last Of Cobentz And Co. (Continued)
Chapter XVI Michael Karl Attends A Coronation
