King

Steven and Busker arrived at the castle and the busy metropolis that surrounded it just minutes after the twin soldiers the sergeant had sent ahead arrived to announce that they were coming. The soldiers had taken the road through the forest instead of the shortcut, and still managed to get lost on the way home. As a result, no one was ready for Steven’s sudden arrival. He was treated as an obstacle in the way as the castle prepared for “an important guest” and thought perhaps he had been summoned to meet someone else who would be there.

Eventually, Busker started ordering people around and everyone seemed to jump at his voice and start doing whatever he said. Steven was taken to a fine room and a servant was assigned to see that he ate, slept, ate and dressed in time for the King’s banquet the next night.

The bed was so soft that Steven scarcely slept. During the day, he was allowed to wander about the castle, always with the servant in tow so he would not get lost. Of all the places in the castle that he visited, Steven liked the kitchen the best. He tried not to get in the way, but commented on the seasonings and suggested herbs for the stew. Until he ate his noon meal he was welcome to dabble with the kitchen help, but when the chief chef arrived to prepare the banquet for the evening, Steven was summarily shooed out as a virtual army of kitchen help moved in to wash, chop, boil, sauté, roast, fry, and bake.

The servant suggested they spend some time in the “game” room, which Steven assumed was a place where trophies of the hunt were kept, or perhaps it was a zoo in which living species were on display from the King’s Forest. Instead, he found a room in which the children of the castle gathered to play. There were balls for the children to play with. Some—made from the bladder of a pig, he was told—bounced off floors and walls, as laughing children threw them from one to the other. Other balls were smaller and harder and were used to throw at various targets. Steven was enthralled with the happiness of the children in the room and waded right in among them to play as well. He was thrown a ball and threw it to another, hardly having it out of his hand before he had to catch a different ball. The children, happy to have a boy that was as big as an adult playing with them soon evolved a new game where every ball was passed to Steven as quickly as it was thrown back. Several of these, unfortunately, went uncaught and Steven did his best to dodge the balls as they came upon him at an ever increasing speed. The servant had taken refuge behind some stacked bales of straw, behind which were huddled a variety of nurses and servants who peeked out cautiously to watch the children.

Steven discovered that there was a rhythm developing in the children’s throws. Allowing one ball to hit him squarely in the chest and bounce off, Steven reached in the pocket of his vest and quickly put his whistle in his mouth. Although he couldn’t play much of a tune with both hands involved in catching and throwing balls, he started to pipe the same rhythm that the sergeant had used to enforce his march through the forest. The children, easily influenced by the rhythm, matched it with their throws and were soon taking orderly turns as Steven caught and threw balls with both hands. He began to step to the rhythm of the music in a pattern reminiscent of what he had watched Selah dance for the past seven years.

At one point, a nurse popped out from behind the straw to call the name of a child and usher her out of the room for “dressing.” She threw her ball to Steven, and then vanished out the door with her nurse. Steven, not knowing what to do with the ball now that there was no one to throw it to, tossed it into the air while he caught and threw another, and then caught the ball again before it fell to the floor.

Apparently, it was time for the children to be bathed and dressed for dinner, for they were subsequently called by their nurses and servants, threw their balls to Steven, and rushed out of the room. Steven lost track of the number of balls in the air, but the rhythm he had established allowed him to keep many in the air and only a few fell to the floor. At last he was faced with just one child whose nurse had taken another and just returned for this one. Steven looked at the child and the child looked at Steven. Steven threw the balls into the air and caught them automatically as he watched the child. The child threw the last ball to Steven. All the balls fell to the floor as Steven reached to catch the last ball. The child laughed with glee as though this had been the best part of the day.

The servant then called Steven, as if he were one of the children and led him away to be bathed and dressed for the banquet with the King.

***

Now Montague Magnus the Fourth, King and liege of Sylgale, Puissant Paragon of Mariria, and the Simple Pride of Arining was a jovial monarch and some said simple of mind. Others whispered that the King’s simplicity was a front that allowed him to get the best of his enemies and to negotiate shrewdly. Certainly the most recent victory over the King of the southern reaches in Byzantium seemed to be testament to this latter opinion.

Mariria, the city surrounding the castle, loved their king and enjoyed the stories of his misadventures. When Steven was led into the great hall where the banquet would take place, his presence was announced by a herald whose voice was considerably more authoritative than the Sergeant Busker’s had been when delivering the message to Steven.

“My liege, Princes and Princesses of the realm of Sylgale, Noble ladies and gentlemen of the Arining, and people of Mariria: Tonight, for one night only, we are proud to present a man whose stories precede him; a man who has faced dangers unlike any we have known; a man who has mastered a dragon and faced down the legendary great brown bear of the King’s Forest; who outwitted the famed thief of Baghalonia, and who has entertained in every town from here to Byzantium; who it is said knew the fabled road-builder Xandros, and the legendary tinker Armand Hamar; and who has traveled in the company of the dragon-lady herself. In his first appearance at Castle Mariria, please welcome our most esteemed guest, Steven George the Dragonslayer, master of the Long Road, and teller of the world’s story.”

All the people in the crowded banquet hall stood and applauded. Not having actually recognized the description the herald had given as being his own introduction, Steven clapped his hands together as well, looking around to see the great celebrity who had been introduced. An escort of royal guards, led by none other than Sergeant Busker himself, fell in on either side of Steven and escorted him to a spot next to the King where Busker turned to Steven sharply and commanded, “Kneel.” Steven immediately fell to his knees before the king.

King Montague rose to his feet and offered a hand to Steven raising him back to his feet. Then the King surprised the crowded room by embracing Steven and showing him to his chair. When the Monarch, too, had resumed his seat, the other patrons of the banquet sat as well. As soon as the King raised his fork, all the others raised their forks. The King paused long enough for Steven to get the message and lift his fork as well. Then the King stabbed a potato on his plate and it disappeared beneath an enormous, bushy gray mustache that bobbed up and down as the King chewed. Everyone in the hall fell to the food on their plates and began eating. Steven copied the King, and when the King put his fork down, so did Steven.

“Keep eating,” said the King. “They only wait for me to take the first bite. It’s part of the whole king-thing.”

“Thank you, your er… Kingness,” Steven said. He tried to look into the King’s eyes when he spoke, but they were all but hidden beneath bushy eyebrows nearly the size of the mustache. Steven hesitated then continued to eat. He didn’t taste the food or know precisely what he ate because he was so intent on paying attention to the King.

“The correct term is Your Majesty,” the King instructed. “You could also say Your Highness if paying homage, or if addressing me as the religious leader of the people, Your Grace. But come now, I didn’t invite you all the way here to have your obeisance. When we are in private conversation, you may address me as Magnus. Montague is used only when referring to me or talking about me as in ‘King Montague is an old fool,’ which I am sure you will hear sometime if you haven’t already. Magnus is the name I use in private. Of course, if addressing me in a way in which all these courtiers could hear you, you should continue to use ‘Your Majesty.’”

“Yes, Your Majesty, er… Magnus,” Steven stuttered. He was still overwhelmed by all the experiences of being in a castle, in the presence of a king, and in a crowd so large. He watched in amazement as another whole potato on the King’s plate was speared and disappeared beneath the bushy mustache.

“I have heard about your storytelling and want to experience it firsthand,” said Magnus. Steven nearly choked on the potato and began to push his chair back.

“I would be happy to tell you a story,” Steven said. “Is there a particular one you would like to hear?”

“Sit, sit,” said the King. “I have studied the matter carefully. I am not here to tax you a story. I understand that stories are a means of commerce for you, and I intend to pay for that which I consume. And perhaps we shall both be a story richer for the trade. I shall tell my story first, and then you will tell yours. Now, I will speak quietly to tell the story just to you, for it would not be fitting for the King to tell a story in the presence of the entire court.” The King dropped his voice and Steven leaned in to hear. “If too many people heard the story I am about to tell you, they might begin to worry. And a kingdom that is worried is an unpleasant thing to rule. It would be vulnerable to enemies, if you take my drift. So I have set this table just for the two of us so that I may tell my tale openly to you. Then you may tell your story to the entire room, as you are a storyteller and the people gathered here have come to hear you tell a story. It was the only way I could get the room full.”

Steve nodded and sat to listen to the King’s story.

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