The forks stayed poised. A mix of astonishment and suspicion crossed their faces. Two sets of eyes blinked.
Abernathy recovered first. "Good morning, High Lord," he greeted. He paused. "Slept well, I trust?"
Ben came forward, ebullient to his toes. The china and glassware glittered, and the smell of hot food rose from the silver serving trays. Parsnip, the cook and other kobold who served the throne, had outdone himself again. Or at least it seemed that way to Ben in his euphoria. He snatched up a small apple muffin and popped it into his mouth on his way to his seat. He glanced about for Questor Thews, but the wizard was nowhere in sight. Maybe he should wait, he thought. Questor's absence gave him a reason. Wait for Questor and Willow. Call in Parsnip from the kitchen. That way the announcement could be made to everyone at the same time. That seemed like a good idea. Just wait. That's what he would do.
"Guess what?" he said.
Abernathy and Bunion exchanged a hasty glance. "I have to tell you, High Lord, that I am not particularly fond of guessing games," declared his scribe. "And Bunion hates them."
"Oh, come on. Guess!"
"Very well." Abernathy gave a large, put-upon sigh. "What?" he asked compliantly.
Ben took a deep breath. "I can't tell you. Not yet. But it's good news. It's wonderful news!"
Bunion showed a few teeth and muttered something unintelligible. Abernathy went back to eating. "Be sure to let us know when you feel the moment is right."
"As soon as Questor gets here," Ben advised, seating himself. "And Willow. And Parsnip. Everyone. Don't leave until they get here."
Abernathy nodded. "I'm glued to my seat, High Lord. By the way, I hope this announcement will take place before this morning's scheduled land-use planning meeting with the representatives of the Greensward and the River Country?"
Ben slapped his forehead. "I'd forgotten!"
"And the noon lunch with the new district judges you appointed for the northern lands?"
"I'd forgotten that, too!"
"And this afternoon's meeting with the irrigation planning committee to start work on the deserts east of the Greensward?"
"That one I remember."
"Good. Did you also remember the meeting with the kitchen staff to discuss the ongoing disappearance of food from the larder? It is getting worse, I am afraid."
Ben frowned in annoyance. "Drat it, why did you schedule all this for today?"
"I didn't. You did. It is the beginning of a new week and you always like to start off a new week by cramming in as many projects as you can manage." Abernathy dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. "Overscheduling. I've warned you about this before."
"Thanks for reminding me." Ben reached for a plate and shoveled food onto it from the platters. Bread with jam, eggs, and fruit. "Well, we'll get to it, all of it. There's plenty of time." He put the plate down in front of him, his mind already skipping ahead to the matters Abernathy had listed. Why, in the name of sanity, did anyone feel compelled to steal from the larder? It wasn't as if there was a food shortage. "If Willow isn't down here in a few minutes, I'll go up and get her. And Bunion can find Questor, wherever he's ..."
At that a door was flung open at the far end of the hall leading up from the lower entry inside the castle gates, and Questor Thews appeared.
"This is the last straw, simply the last!" he declared furiously.
He strode to the table without a pause, muttering with such vehemence that those gathered were left staring. The Court Wizard wore his trademark gray robes decorated with brightly colored patches of cloth and wrapped at the waist with a crimson sash, a ragtag scarecrow figure, tall and thin, all sticks and wisps of flying beard and hair. It was immediately apparent that he might have dressed and groomed himself better-at least to the extent of new robes and a trim about the ears, as Ben had tried to suggest on more than one occasion-but he saw no reason to change what he was comfortable with and so did not. He was mild and gentle and not given over easily to fits of pique, and it was strange to see him so agitated now.
He came to a halt before them and threw back his robes as if to shed himself of whatever it was that so burdened him this beautiful summer morning. "He's back!" he announced.
"Who's back?" Ben asked.
"Back and not a bit repentant for anything he's done! There is not the least shame in him, not the least! He comes up to the gate as bold as you please and announces he's here!" Questor's face was reddening as he spoke, turning dangerously crimson. "I thought we'd seen the last of him twenty some years ago, but like the proverbial bad penny, he's turned up anew!"
"Questor." Ben tried to get a word in edgewise. "Who are you talking about?"
Questor's gaze was fierce. "I'm talking about Horris Kew!"
Now Abernathy was on his feet as well. "That trickster! He wouldn't dare come back! He was exiled! Questor Thews, you've been out in the sun too long!"
"Feel free to walk down and have a look for yourself!" Questor gave him a chilly smile. "He presents himself as a supplicant, come to ask forgiveness from the High Lord. He wants the ban of exile lifted. He wants back into Landover!"
"No!" Abernathy's exhortation came out as something very close to a growl. He wheeled on Ben, bristling. "High Lord, no! Do not see him! Refuse him entrance! Send him away immediately!"
"I wouldn't send him away if I were you!" Questor snapped, crowding forward to stand next to the dog. "I'd have him seized and thrown into the deepest, darkest prison I could find! I'd lock him up and throw away the key!"
Willow had come down the stairs and into the room and was now seating herself next to Ben. She gave him a questioning stare as she listened, but he could only shrug to indicate his own lack of understanding.
"Hold up a minute," he interjected finally. Bunion was the only one who wasn't giving any indication of what he thought, sitting across from Ben with that disconcerting grin on his face. "I'm not following any of this. Who is Horris Kew?"
"Your worst nightmare!" Abernathy sniffed, as if that explained everything.
Questor Thews was only slightly more eloquent. "I'll tell you who he is. Horris Kew is the biggest troublemaker who ever lived! A conjurer of a very minor sort, one with just enough magic to get into mischief. I thought we were rid of him, but I should have known better! Abernathy, remember the cow episode?"
"The cow episode?" Ben asked.
Consumed by his tirade, Questor wasn't listening. "Horris claimed he was trying to establish communication with the cows to permit better control over their milking habits, and things got out of hand. His conjuring efforts drove the poor beasts to a frenzy. They broke loose countrywide and trampled down the entire wheat harvest and several towns in the bargain. It was the same with the chickens. The next thing you know he's subverted the evolutionary process, and they're flying like birds and dropping eggs all over the place."
Ben grinned. "What?"
"And don't forget about the cats!" Abernathy snapped. "He found a way to organize them into hunting packs in some harebrained scheme to rid the country of mice and rats, but it backfired and they ended up hunting dogs!" He shivered.
"That was bad," Questor agreed, nodding emphatically at Ben. "But the worst thing he did, the thing that got him banished, was to conjure up that fast-growing plant that took seed overnight and turned everything within fifty miles of Sterling Silver into a jungle!" Questor folded his arms defiantly. "It took weeks to cut a way through it! And while it was being cut down, while the King and his court were trapped in the castle, Abaddon's demons took advantage of the Paladin's absence to raid the countryside in earnest. Dozens of towns, farms, and lives were lost. It was a mess."
"I don't get it," Ben admitted. "What was all this supposed to accomplish? It sounds like he might have had good intentions."
"Good intentions?" Questor Thews was livid. "I hardly think so! These were schemes of extortion! The cows and chickens and cats and plants were levers with which to pry loose the purse strings of those with money! Horris Kew never cared a thing about anyone but himself! Ten minutes after one scheme collapsed, he was already hatching a new one! Excuse the choice of words."
"But, Questor, this was more than twenty years ago, you said." Ben was trying hard not to laugh.
"There, you see?" Questor snapped irritably, the other's facial contortions not escaping his notice. "Horris Kew always seems harmless enough, just a bit of an annoyance. No one takes him seriously. Even my brother ignored him until that last bit with the demons, and then Meeks wanted him gone, too. Seems the unexpected appearance of the demons interfered with one of his own schemes, and my brother could tolerate almost anything but that."
Meeks-Questor Thews's brother, the Court Wizard before him, the man who had tricked Ben into coming into Landover and thereafter become his worst enemy. Gone, but hardly forgotten. He would surely not suffer a man like Horris Kew to cross up his plans.
"Anyway," Questor finished, "my brother persuaded the old King to banish Horris, so Horris was banished, and that was that."
"Uh-huh." Ben rubbed his chin. "Banished to where?"
Questor looked decidedly uncomfortable. "To your world, High Lord," he admitted reluctantly.
"To Earth? For the last twenty years?" Ben tried to remember reading anything about someone named Horris Kew.
"A favorite dumping ground for rejects and annoyances, I'm afraid. Not much you can do with magic where there's so little belief in its existence, you know."
Abernathy nodded solemnly. They stood staring at Ben, apparently out of steam, waiting for a response. Ben looked at Willow, who was eating now and refused to look back, and he remembered that he had wanted to tell his friends about the baby. He guessed that would have to wait.
"Well, why don't we hear what he has to say," Ben suggested, rather curious about someone who could upset even the normally unflappable Abernathy. "Maybe he's changed."
Questor went from crimson to flaming scarlet. "Changed? When cows fly!" He stopped, apparently thinking that where Horris was concerned perhaps that wasn't qualification enough. "Never, High Lord!" he amended, just to make things perfectly clear. "Don't see him. Don't let him set one foot into this castle. I would have sent the guard to greet him on the road if I had known he was coming. I still cannot believe he had the gall to return!" He paused, suddenly perplexed. "In fact, how did did he return?" he return?"
"Doesn't matter. He is a supplicant," Ben pointed out patiently. "I can't be sending supplicants away without even speaking to them. What sort of precedent would that set? I have to at least speak to him. What can it hurt?"
"You don't know, High Lord," Abernathy said ominously.
"You really don't," Questor agreed.
"Get rid of him right now."
"Don't let him within a mile of you."
Ben pursed his lips. He had never heard his advisors so adamant about anything. He did not see how a simple conversation could cause problems for him, but he was not inclined to dismiss their warning out of hand.
"Do you believe that your magic is a match for his?" he asked Questor after a moment.
Questor drew himself up. "More than a match. But he is a very slippery character."
Ben nodded. "Well, I can't just send him away. Why don't we all see him together. That way you can warn me if he tries anything. How about it?"
Abernathy sat down without a word. Questor stiffened even further, but finally nodded his agreement. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he declared curtly, and signaled to a retainer standing at the far end of the hall.
They sat in silence then, waiting. Ben reached for Willow's hand and squeezed it gently. She smiled back at him. At the far end of the room, Parsnip appeared from out of the kitchen, gave a brief greeting to the silent assemblage, and disappeared back in again. Ben was thinking that he would like to dispose quickly of Horris Kew and get on with his day. He was thinking about the meetings he had scheduled and the work that needed doing. He had believed once that no one worked harder than a trial lawyer, but he had since discovered that Kings did. There were constant decisions required, plans to consider, and problems by the score to resolve. So much depended on him. So many people were affected by his actions. He liked the challenge, but was continually daunted by the amount of responsibility. Sometimes he thought about the circumstances that had brought him to this place in his life and wondered that such a thing could happen. It was proof that anything was possible. He would measure where he was from where he had been and be amazed. He would measure, and he would tell himself once again that however severe the pressures and demands he would never exchange his present life for his past.
"You could still change your mind about this, High Lord," Questor advised quietly, not quite ready to let the argument die.
But Ben was still thinking about his life, applied the comment accordingly, and found the wizard's assessment wrong. He was a man who had rediscovered himself by daring to take a chance that others would not have, and changing his mind now was not a reasonable option. He was going to be a father a father, he thought with renewed amazement. What would that be like for a man who had passed his fortieth year with no children? What would it be like for a man who'd had no sense of family for so long? He wanted a child, but he had to admit that he didn't know if he was ready for one.
There was a clomping of boots at the far end of the room, and a man entered. He was tall and gangly and strange-looking. He had arms and legs that were akimbo, and a nose, ears, and Adam's apple that stuck out like they were parts attached to a Mister Potato Head. He was dressed in gray supplicant's robes that looked like they had seen service last as floor mats in a stable. His feet were dusty and bare, his hands were clasped before him beseechingly, and his body was stooped. He came forward at something approaching a weary shuffle, his head bobbing. A bird with black feathers and a white crest sat on his shoulder, bright eyes searching.
"High Lord," Horris Kew greeted, and dropped to his knees. "Thank you for agreeing to see me."
Ben rose, thinking to himself that this fellow was the most harmless-looking threat he had ever seen. "Stand up," he ordered. "Let's hear what you have to say for yourself. Your press has been pretty bad up to now."
Horris rose, a pained look on his field-plow face. He had a rather bad tic in one eye that gave him the look of a man flinching from an imagined blow. "I confess everything, High Lord. I have done all that I am accused of doing. Whatever Questor Thews and Abernathy have told you, I admit. I don't propose to argue any of it. I just want to ask forgiveness."
Questor snorted. "What are you up to, Horris Kew? You're up to something."
"Awk! Biggar is better!" the bird squawked.
"That bird looks familiar," Abernathy declared, squinting darkly at Biggar.
"Just a common myna, my companion on the road." The tic in Horris Kew's eye twitched double-time.
Abernathy frowned. "I suppose you've trained him to attack dogs?"
"Awwwkk! Fleas! Fleas!" the bird cried.
Ben came around the table to put himself between Abernathy and the bird. "Aren't you supposed to be in exile, Horris? What brings you back?"
"High Lord, I simply want another chance." A truly penitent look settled across Horris Kew's angular face. "I have had twenty years to repent, to consider my mistakes, to think about my misconduct. I was lucky I escaped Landover alive, as Questor Thews can tell you. But now I wish to come back to my home and start over again. Is this possible?"
Ben studied him. "I don't know."
"Don't do it, High Lord," Questor cautioned at once.
"Don't even think about it, High Lord," Abernathy added.
"Awk! Hooray for Horris, Hooray for Horris!" the bird declared.
"Thank you, Biggar." Horris patted the bird affectionately and returned his gaze to Ben. "I have a plan, should you decide to let me return, High Lord. I ask nothing of you or anyone but to be left alone. I shall live out my life as a hermit, a bother to no one. But should the need arise, I stand ready to serve in any capacity required. I have some little knowledge of magic that may someday be of use. I offer it for when you think it appropriate. You can depend on me to come if called."
"I believe that it was your use of magic that got you in trouble the last time," Ben admonished softly.
"Yes, yes, too true. But I will not involve myself in the affairs of the country or her people unless I am asked," Horris said. Tic, tic went the bad eye. "Should I violate this covenant, you may restore the ban immediately."
"No," Questor Thews said.
"No," Abernathy echoed.
Ben tried to keep from smiling. He should probably be taking this more seriously than he was, he thought, but it was hard to get too excited over someone who looked like this fellow and whose worst offense was making chickens fly and cows rebel against farmers.
"Awk! Pretty lady," the bird whistled suddenly.
Willow smiled and glanced at Ben. He remembered the child.
"I will think about it and give you an answer in several days," Ben announced, ignoring the groans from Questor and Abernathy. "You can come back then."
"Happily, High Lord," Horris Kew responded, bowing deeply. "Thank you, thank you. I am indebted."
He backed quickly from the room and was escorted away. Ben wondered what kind of bird Biggar was. He wondered how many words the bird could say.
"Well, that was a monumentally foolish decision!" Questor Thews snapped in disgust. "If I am permitted to say so, High Lord!"
"You are," Ben replied, since it was already said.
"There's something familiar about that bird," Abernathy muttered.
"Just because a man looks harmless doesn't mean he really is," Questor went on. "In Horris Kew's case, appearances are not just deceiving, they are an outright lie!"
Ben was already tired of the subject, and he held up his hands imploringly. "Gentlemen!" he admonished. He was hoping for looks of chagrin but had to settle for hostile silence. He sighed. You couldn't have it your way all the time, he supposed. That was why most matters required compromise. "We'll discuss this later, all right?"
Willow rose to stand beside him, and he smiled as she looped her arm through his. "Parsnip!" he yelled, and when his cook appeared to stand with his wizard, scribe, and messenger, he asked, "How would you feel about our adding another member to our family?"