The Christening Quest Read online

  Whatever the source of his power over his fellow creatures, so far it was standing them in good stead, though in some circumstances it could be dangerous.

  The mermaids’ atoll was much as she remembered it, a bit higher in the water perhaps, with the fresh-water pool in the center a little deeper into the coral-rimmed circle. Carole sat on a water-smoothed ledge just above sea level hugging her knees as Rupert and Lorelei bandied further words. “Is that trove still down there?” she asked the mermaid suddenly. “The one with all the instruments you showed me when I was a girl? I’d like to dive down and see it again.”

  The mermaid started to nod and Rupert looked up, easily diverted from his flirtations. “A treasure trove?” he asked.

  “You should see it, Your Highness,” she began, but almost before the words were out of her mouth the mermaids were diving like ducks, fetching up one salt-soaked bauble after another for the prince’s perusal.

  He praised the gold-and-pearl harp, the ropes and garlands of gems from pirate chests, the emerald whistle, and the string-less tarnished silver lute, but it was a tiny, thin-spined comb made of a single opalescent fan-shaped shell that pleased him the most and he turned the thing, no larger than his own substantial thumbnail, over and over, stroking it. “What an exquisite piece. I can’t help thinking, cousin, that if the poor child had had the usual, happy sort of birthing rites, this would have been the sort of thing she should be receiving—”

  The mermaids immediately set up a sympathetic clamor, wanting to know which poor child had so aroused his interest. He told them of Bronwyn’s baby, brushing a tear from the corner of his eye as he talked. Carole would have sworn, from her knowledge of the sirens, that had she pleaded for the baby on bended knee and wracked with sobs the mermaids would have responded with indifference. Rupert’s account of the baby’s plight instead seemed to touch their hearts, which previously had given evidence of pumping nothing but pure, cold, green seawater.

  “If you think she would like the comb, you must take it to her, Prince,” Cordelia said in an uncharacteristically impulsive gesture. “Let it be our birthing gift to the dear little minnow.”

  For once it was Lorelei who appeared mean. “That comb?” she asked. “Oh, Cordelia, do you think, knowing what that comb does, that a split-tailed child of no mer ancestry should…”

  “And who would need it more?” Cordelia replied with kindness throbbing through her until it quivered her very tail. She turned her wide, gray stare back to Rupert, who perched on an outcropping above her, looking humble and grateful and awestricken at the marvelous gift. “My sister refers to the magic properties of the comb, Prince Rupert. And indeed, it has been a while since we gifted a mortal child with anything quite so fine, but any cousin of dear Carole’s is a cousin of ours, in a way.” She batted her dripping lashes at him.

  Carole looked into the heavens and tapped her toe, schooling herself with priestessly patience to refrain from mentioning that the mermaids had hardly behaved as generously to their “mutual” cousin, Bronwyn.

  “Magic powers?” he asked, as if unable to believe his luck. “Real magic powers?”

  “We’d hardly give you fake ones, now would we?” Cordelia said, the edge creeping back into her voice.

  “Oh, pardon me if I sounded dull, my dear lovely lady. I am just so overwhelmed already at your generous gesture of giving that unfortunate little one such a beautiful object. And to think it also carries with it wondrous power!”

  “Not all that wondrous,” Cordelia said modestly. “It will only help her grow a tail as she should have had had she not been born into deprived circumstances, and to breathe properly. It’s an old device, a recruiting tool used once when our numbers were small and our power great. Now, of course, we no longer actively recruit, since Lorelei and I admirably manage this section of the sea. But if the girl should care to be schooled, we would be happy to foster her. In fact, I believe there’s another of these below, dear boy, if you should care to—”

  Rupert held up the flat of his hand and said in a choked voice, “Oh, no. No, gentle lady of the waves, you do me too much honor. This beautiful and powerful gift for my helpless niece I may accept for her sake, but already you have done so much, your hospitality, your transportation, your charming company, and all of the lessons you have taught me about your fabulous water world. I’m overwhelmed.”

  “Naturally,” Cordelia said. “But that is no reason to dismiss our offer.”

  “I wasn’t dismissing it. I simply—”

  “You mortals are all alike. A person condescends to talk with you, gives you everything, and first thing you know, you’re spurning the idea of even changing one little bitty thing to—”

  “But wait!” Rupert cried. “I didn’t.”

  “You didn’t?” Lorelei asked. “You mean you will accept our offer and join us here in the sea? Oh, how wonderful! And don’t worry about the child. Carole can easily take care of that, can’t you, dear?”

  “What I meant to say was that it was so kind of you to transport us and we’re both awfully grateful and while I’d really like to come back and see you often, right now it is necessary that both my lady cousin and I find my niece and make sure she has the proper start in life.”

  “How well do you swim?” Cordelia asked, a definite nastiness polluting her nectared tones.

  Rupert smiled innocently back at her. “Oh, I swim quite well, but not nearly so well as you or your serpent.”

  “Yes, Ollie is a remarkable creature. You can see why we wouldn’t wish to risk him in monster-ridden waters such as those around Frostingdung. If you’ll only stay a day or so more, we’ll call you a ship. That would be much nicer for all of us than to risk getting eaten by monsters, wouldn’t it?” Her smile left some doubt about who the monsters might be.

  Carole thought that the conversation had gone quite far enough. She picked up Rupert’s shield and handed it to him.

  “Cordelia, Lorelei, you promised the Prince you’d help us,” she reminded them reasonably.

  “So we promised and so we did,” Cordelia said. “We brought you here to where you’ll meet the very first ship passing by. But surely you recall how it was with those horrors created when the split-tails in Frostingdung took out their war on the sea, emptying their vile magics into our waters. I thought you liked Ollie. Surely you wouldn’t expect us to expose him to that? So, I think since we’re all getting on so well you should just do as you did before and take a ship. Or, if you prefer, if you really think it’s so safe, you could swim ahead, dear, and we would send the nice young man later.”

  Carole gave the last suggestion the attention it deserved and ignored it. “When did the last ship come by?” she asked.

  “It can’t have been more than two or three years after the one you took last time, can it, Cordelia?” Lorelei said with an optimistic and encouraging smile.

  “Not a bit more. We’ll keep you fed on delicious seafood salad, and, meanwhile, Prince Rupert can learn to use a comb. Oh, I think you’ll be ever so dashing in a tail, sweeting.”

  “That’s a fascinating idea, ma’am,” he said, “But I am bound to fulfill this quest for now. What if I couldn’t change back?”

  “Just think! You’d be rid of your deformity forever,” Lorelei replied.

  Rupert looked a little frightened, Carole thought, which showed good sense on his part. He was in over his head in more ways than one. The time seemed ripe for a threat.

  “Remember the dance I taught you two?” the witch asked the mermaids, as if reminiscing again. “Perhaps you’d like to perform it for Rupert—keep your shield up, cousin—and afterwards, we could discuss this again.”

  The mermaids hit the water with a drenching splash and swam as if their lives depended on it. Ollie trailed in their wake, ululating inquisitively.

  Rupert turned a puzzled face to Carole. “What was that all about?”

  “I danced them around on the coral till the scales fell off their tails the las
t time they wanted to harm friends of mine, she said with deep and malicious satisfaction of a sort most common to but by no means exclusive to witches.

  “Do you think they would have harmed me?” he asked.

  “I think they may still, unless we’re vigilant.”

  “I don’t feel very vigilant,” he said honestly. “I feel tired.”

  Little wonder in that, since dawn had already dawned and the sun was again high in the sky. “I don’t think it’s wise to sleep,” Carole told him. “They’ll try to sing you off the island.”

  “But surely you can do something about that? They’re afraid of you. I have to thank you for intervening. I had no ides they’d take offense so easily. But sometimes people just want me to stay somewhere with them a longer time than I want to.’

  She smiled ruefully and patted his dangling foot. “You were born into the wrong side of the family. People are generally more than glad to get rid of Brown witches. Even town councilmen, however useful they might find us.”

  “Then they’re foolish,” he said warmly. “I think you are a magnificent person, riding dragons and sea monsters and commanding mermaids with no more than a song. I’m very glad Bronwyn suggested that you come along.”

  “That’s good of you, but I’m afraid I’m all out of bright ideas now, if not tunes. I’m sleepy, too, and the sirens are canny enough to know that we will be. I could try to fetch help, but the nearest coastline is Frostingdung, and Cordelia may be right about the monsters there. I had supposed they might have died off by now, but apparently not. I don’t suppose you would care to change your mind and accept the mermaids’ offer? I could call Lorelei back?”

  He winced.

  She favored him with a considering look and sighed. “Sorry, but right now that seems the most practical thing. Perhaps I could manage to hijack Ollie, though the others have a much closer connection with him than I do. Without diverting them somehow I don’t see how I would cope. I can always swim back to Argonia but if you have no aspirations as a merman or a drowning victim…”

  Her voice trailed off as Rupert’s gaze lifted skyward. A bright spot like a pinkish falling star sped toward them, growing more distinct as its bulk blocked the sun.

  “I must remember to write Sir Cyril about this,” Rupert said with a certain misplaced pride. “I don’t believe there have been any other instances of princes being rescued by dragons, do you?”

  “Not princes, no,” she agreed. Rescue by dragon had become, for her mother and father in their early years, practically a tradition. With Bronwyn and Jack on her own youthful quest, she had helped rescue both senior dragons and Grippeldice. She understandably resented the expression on the younger dragons face when she landed. It could only be described as a dragonish smirk, as if Grippeldice knew all about mermaids and had known from the first that Carole’s plan wouldn’t work.

  Chapter III

  The most recognizable feature of the coastline of Suleskeria oddly enough was the sea monsters Carole had not expected to see. They wallowed brazenly offshore, in greater and more unhealthy abundance than ever, snarling, mewling, drooling, attacking each other, chewing, diving, lurking, and floating like dead things on the surface of the water. The mermaids, for once, had not been merely making excuses. Even a large beast such as Ollie would have little chance of reaching shore unscathed, and then only if sea serpents were not on the menu of any of the other monsters present.

  Carole worried when she saw this that there would no longer be a village at which to rest, for the monsters had menaced the town with great ferocity even when their numbers were smaller. And indeed, there was no village. There was instead a mighty city, with six buildings over two stories tall, arched gates, and domed and spired houses with gardens and fountains. There was also a covered marketplace, and everywhere people bustled, dickered, hauled bundles, rode and led horses, donkeys, cattle, sheep, pigs. Nowhere could she see any of the iron-banded buildings that had been the trademark of the Suleskeria where she had landed previously. The river was filled with barges and small boats, and the fishing industry seemed to center there. No boats lined the seashore. The docks were empty, the nets that had once guarded the coast now dried beside the river. Everything looked cleaner and more organized, the folk dressed in graceful flowing robes and some sort of headgear, the streets clean, the vegetation restored.

  The castle on the hill had undergone structural changes, too. It boasted two new wings adorned with domes and spires, arched entrances, the whole exterior accented with mosaic-tiled decoration.

  Carole whistled with un-magical amazement. “Gilles and Rusty appear to be doing very well for themselves.”

  The men-at-arms of Castle Killgilles were understandably startled when a dragon circled their outer bailey. They couldn’t seem to decide whether to send up a volley of arrows or stare with their mouths wide open. Rupert’s diplomatic training was not wasted however. Waving in a broad, friendly manner and nudging Carole to do the same he bellowed, “Yo, the castle! Greetings, friends! How is the good—”

  “Baron,” Carole supplied.

  “Baron?” Rupert finished.

  The good Baron looked considerably better than he had nearly twenty years ago, as a matter of fact. His silver-gilt hair disguised any gray strands and the new lines of authority in his face became him. Notably missing was the haunted and wine-soaked demeanor that had characterized him in times past.

  His wife, the former Mistress Ruby Rose Raspberry, known to her friends as Rusty, was adept at penetrating disguises, even those caused by time and experience; she recognized Carole at once.

  “My dear, you’re bearing up marvelously. And where did you get that stunning creature?”

  “The dragon?” Carole asked.

  “Don’t be coy. That utterly charming young man, of course.”

  “Excuse me. This is His Royal Highness, Prince Rupert Rowan, my cousin. Your Highness, meet Baron Gilles Killgilles, governor of Outer Frostingdung and his wife, Baroness Ruby Rose. The Baroness is the daughter of Wizard Raspberry of Argonia. I’m sure Bronwyn will have mentioned them to you.”

  “Call me Rusty, please. Everyone does,” the Baroness said, permitting her hand to be kissed. It was a rather grubby hand, covered with stains and the scars of burns from experimenting with her alchemist’s oven. Rupert noted that her nails, though wearing their share of stains, came to wicked points.

  Everybody agreed on how charmed they all were to meet everybody else.

  “You’re both looking extremely well,” Carole said. “Life in Frostingdung must have improved somewhat.”

  “In a great many ways, it definitely has,” the Baron agreed. “Most importantly, it has become so newfangled—as my father put it—that he got disgusted with the whole country, decided that it would never return to the way it was when he was lord, and gave up ghosting me to venture on to whatever one does next. He haunts and nags me no longer.”

  “That is my job these days. Mine and the Miragenian bill collectors,” his wife said with a wry twist of her thin lips. Carole noted that Rusty still avoided smiling open-mouthed in a manner that would display her rather alarmingly pointed teeth, the legacy of her ogress-descended mother. Her foxy red hair was dressed to loop over her ears, concealing their pointed tips, inherited from her half-elvin father, though the sharpness of her chin and nose, the tilt of her green eyes, and the general impression she gave of being distantly related to a vixen was unmistakable.

  “Between them they are more than making up for my dear departed Dad,” the Baron said, passing a wrist over his eyes in mock weariness. “You must tell Carole and His Highness the amusing tale of how you nearly burned down the west wing trying to produce simulacrums of outrageous plants to feed the populace. The Miragenians charged us extra interest on the loan for the repairs and raised our insurance on the castle another forty chests of iron pieces.”

  “Only because they were not pleased when they learned my experiments do work with chickweed and in time
will be successful in other areas,” Rusty said proudly. Behind her hand she added to Carole, “They get cranky with anyone who makes any progress with magic not in their employ. I swear they run the country with a more tyrannical hand than Loefwin at his worst.”

  “Oh?” Carole asked. “I thought they were only going to provide temporary aid until your own magic could be restored.”

  “My wife exaggerates,” the Baron said quickly. “They simply have given such fine aid and at such reasonable rates and credit terms that even when our own practitioners developed, we found they were far more limited in scope than we remembered and the Miragenians were able to offer better and more varied services. I don’t know what we’d do without the technical advisors we have staying with us at Castle Killgilles. Emperor Loefwin just appointed a Grand Wazir from among the ones he has. The Company sent him a whole case of free samples of simulated dancing girls to acknowledge the honor. Didn’t go over at all well with Empress Lily Pearl, as you may well imagine.”

  “The Company?” Carole asked.

  “Well, certainly. We deal exclusively with Mukbar, Mashkent and Mirza since they have the contract here. They have advisors in all of the former kingdoms and have done wonders. Everything has changed completely.”

  “I noticed that the sea monsters are still a problem.”