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- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume that a requital is
forthcoming. Tell him that he may ameliorate his fate by surrendering at this
instant. Tell him further that
Ulf troops control Kaul Bocach, to bar the armies of Lyonesse from
Ulfland, so that he may expect no succor from King Casmir, nor anyone else."
"Enough!" cried the captain in a vast roaring voice. "I can remember no more!"
He turned and jumped down from the wall.
Presently he could be seen riding up the road to the castle.
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Twenty minutes passed. The captain returned down the road and once more
ascended the wall. He called: "Sir Herald, listen well! Sir
Faude Carfilhiot, Duke of Vale Evander and Prince of Ulfland, knows nothing of
Aillas, King of Troicinet, and does not acknowledge his authority. He requires
the invaders to leave this domain which is alien to them, on pain of bitter
war and awful defeat. Remind King Aillas that Tintzin Fyral has known a dozen
sieges and has succumbed to none."
"Will he or will he not surrender?"
"He will not surrender."
"In that case, make announcement to your fellows and all those who bear arms
for Carfilhiot. Tell them that all who fight for
Carfilhiot and shed blood on his behalf will be deemed no less guilty than
Carfilhiot and will share his fate."
Dark moonless night fell across Vale Evander. Carfilhiot climbed to the flat
roof of his high tower and stood in the wind. Two miles down the valley a
thousand campfires created a flickering carpet, like a drift of red stars.
Much closer a dozen other fires rimmed the northern ridge and suggested the
presence of many more across the ridge, away from the wind. Carfilhiot turned
and, to his startled dismay, at the top of Tac Tor he saw three more fires.
They might well have been built only to daunt him, and so they did. For the
first time he felt fear: first, a gnawing edge of wonder if possibly, by some
tragic failure of fate, Tintzin
Fyral might, on this occasion, fall to a siege. The thought of what would
happen were he captured sent a clammy coldness down
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- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume through his bowels.
Carfilhiot touched the harsh stone of the parapets for reassurance. He was
secure! How could his magnificent castle fall?
In the vaults were stores for a year or even longer; he had ample water from
an underground spring. A gang of a thousand sappers, working night and day, in
theory, might excavate the base of the cliff so as to topple the castle;
practically the idea was absurd.
And what could his enemies hope to achieve from the top of Tac
Tor? The castle was protected by the width of the chasm: A long bow-shot.
Archers on Tac Tor might cause a harassment until screens were raised against
the arrows, whereupon their efforts became futile. Only from the north would
Tintzin Fyral seem vulnerable. Since the Ska attack Carfilhiot had augmented
his defenses, providing ingenious new systems against any who might hope to
use a battering-ram.
So Carfilhiot reassured himself. Further, and superseding all else, Tamurello
had avowed support. Should supplies run short, Tamurello could replenish them
by magic. In effect, Tintzin Fyral might stand secure forever!
Carfilhiot looked once more around the circle of night, then descended to his
workroom, but Tamurello, through absence, neglect, or design, would not talk
with him.
In the morning Carfilhiot watched as the Troice army advanced almost to the
base of Tintzin Fyral, evading his ambush by marching single-file behind a
screen of shields. They cut down his impaling poles, released the stretched
men of Femus Castle from their weights, and set up camp on the meadow. Trains
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of supplies moved up the valley and along the ridge, preparations of an
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