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.The dance and the music, like the rest of the day, had become to Mark something like a show to which he need only listen, and watch.As if none of it had anything, really, to do with him.The windows of this room were equipped with heavy shutters, as was fitting in a castle constructed to withstand assault.But on this upper level of the castle, high above any possible assault by climbing troops, the windows were large, and today all the shutters had been thrown open.Framed in their casement openings, the sea and the rocky hills and the town below all appeared like fine tapestries of afternoon sunlight, thrown by some Old World magic on the walls.file:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Sab.%20-%20The%20Third%20Book%20Of%20Swords.txt (96 of 171) [2/5/2004 12:22:42 AM]Kristin had risen quickly from the throne when the door opened, and when her uncle had closed it again behind him she had moved a few paces forward, toward Mark.But now the two of them, she and Mark, were still standing a little apart, looking at each other as if they had nothing to say-or perhaps as if neither of them could manage to say anything.But their eyes drew them together.Suddenly they were embracing, still without a word of speech.Then Kristin tore herself away."What is this they've given you to wear?" she asked, as if the sight of the costume they had put on him, some antique ceremonial thing, made her want to laugh and cry at once.But still he said nothing.She tried again, not with laughter, but now with an almost distant courtesy.How fine that he had already been reunited with his family.She'd had no idea, of course, that they'd been living here.In recent years a lot of refugees, good people, had come in.Did Mark's mother and sister know him after so long a time?How long had they been living here in Tasavalta? Did he have any trouble recognizing them? It was too bad his father was away."Kristin." As he called her by her name, he wondered if it was the last time he would ever be able to do so."Stop it.Have you nothing real to say to me?Why didn't you tell me?"There was a pause, in which Kristin drew a deep breath, like a woman who wondered if it might be her last."Yes," she said then."I must say something very real to you, Mark.For the sister of a Princess Regnant to have married a-commoner, and a foreigner as well-that would have been very hard.Very nearly impossible.But I would have done it.I wanted to marry you.I wanted it so much I was afraid to.tell you who I was.And I was going to marry you, wherever that path led.I hope you will believe that.""Kristin, Princess.""Wait! Let me finish, please." She needed another pause to get herself together."But my sister Rimac is dead.She died childless and unmarried, and I am ruler now.For a Princess Regnant to marry a commoner, let alone a foreign soldier, is impossible.Impossible, except-again I hope youwill believe me-I would have done it anyway.It would have meant resigning the throne, probably leaving the country; I would have done that for you.But.""But.""But you must have heard them! There isn't anyone else to rule! You heard Rostov.If I hadn't come back to take the throne, there would have been a civil war over the succession.Even with attackers threatening us from outside.I know my people.We probably seem to you a happy, peaceful country, but you don't know."Again Mark was silent.,"I.Mark, our land and people.we owe you file:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Sab.%20-%20The%20Third%20Book%20Of%20Swords.txt (97 of 171) [2/5/2004 12:22:42 AM]more than we can ever repay.We can give you almost anything.Except the one thing that you want.And that I want.oh, darling."This time the embrace lasted longer.But as before, the Princess broke it off.Mark was conscious that he still had a duty to perform, and drew himself up."I am the bearer of certain messages, that Sir Andrew, whom I serve, has charged me to deliver to the ruler of the Lands of Tasavalta."Kristin, as never before conscious of duty, drew herself up, too, and heard the messages.They were more or less routine, diplomatic preliminaries looking to the establishment of more regular contacts.Sir Andrew had long resisted adopting the diplomatic pretense that he was still actually governing the lands and people that had been stolen from him; but he had recently been persuaded of the value of taking such a pose, even if the facts were otherwise.Mark concluded the memorized messages."And now, I am ordered to place myself at Your Majesty's disposal." Again, in the fog of his exhaustion, the feeling came over him that none of this really had anything to do with him; he had stumbled into the middle of a play, there were certain lines that he was required to read, and soon it would all be over.Kristin said, "I am glad to hear it.You will need a few days in which to rest, and recover from." She had to let that trail away.With a toss of her head she made a new start."You will be assignedmodest quarters here in the palace." Quarters far from my own rooms.So Mark understood the phrase."Then-you heard what I told Karel.I mean to send you on a special mission.This should not pose any conflict with your orders from Sir Andrew, if they are to place yourself at my disposal.I hope that you will accept the assignment willingly."He could feel only numbness now."I am at Your Majesty's disposal, as I said before.""Good." Kristin heaved an unroyal sigh: part of an ordeal had been passed."The mission you are to perform for Tasavalta is a result of some magical business of Karel's.In divination.you will be given more details later.But according to him, the indications are so urgent that he dared not wait even until tomorrow to confront me with the results."You are to go and find the Emperor, and seek an alliance with him for Tasavalta-and an alliance with him for Sir Andrew too, if you feel you are empowered by Sir Andrew to do that.I leave that to your judgement.""The Emperor.An alliance with him?" Even in Mark's present state of embittered numbness, he had to react somehow to the strangeness of that proposal.An alliance, as if the Emperor were a nation, or had an army? Of course the indications were, Mark thought, that the Emperor was, or at least could be when he chose, a wizard of immense power.Curious in spite of everything, he asked, "Me, file:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Sab.%20-%20The%20Third%20Book%20Of%20Swords.txt (98 of 171) [2/5/2004 12:22:42 AM]negotiate for you in such a matter? I'm not even one of your subjects.Or a diplomat.Why me?""Karel says it should be done that way.Though I don't think that he himself knows why.But I've learned over the years that my uncle usually gives his monarch good advice.""Karel wants to make sure I'm out of the way.""There is that.But sending you back to Sir Andrew would do that just as well.No.There's something about the Emperor-and about you.I don't know what."The Emperor, thought Mark.The man that Draffut, after fifty thousand years of knowing human beings, trusted at first meeting.The man who had said that he, Mark, should be given Sightblinder
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