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Rodric and Melisande by Trismegistus Shandy This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Feel free to repost or mirror it on any noncommercial site or list. You can also create derivative works, including adaptations to other media, or new stories using the same setting, characters and so forth, as long as you mention and point to the original story. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ http://shifti.org/User:Trismegistus_Shandy ----- During the reign of King Piers the Lethargic, a peasant farmer named Rodric lived with his aged mother on a small farm near the great forest at the southern edge of the kingdom. He was the youngest of his mother's children; his sisters were all married, and his father and brothers had all gone off to fight in King Leander's wars, one after another, and all had died. His mother, whose health was failing, often told him that he should marry soon, and he was not averse to doing so, but he had not made up his mind which of the marriageable girls in the neighborhood he would start courting. One day in the spring of the fifteenth year of the reign of King Piers, Rodric was sowing barley in his north field, the one nearest the main road, when a mounted knight came along and hailed him. The last time Rodric had seen an armed man was when the Duke's tax-collector made his rounds, the previous autumn, accompanied by his body-guard. The last time he had seen a knight was when he was ten years old and Sir Thomas of Eastwall came to this far southern province, recruiting peasants for the army; Rodric's last brother, Vincent, had gone off with him and never returned. Rodric knew approximately what he was supposed to do in this circumstance; he set down his bag of seed, approached the roadside, and knelt. "Sir knight, how may I serve?" "Do you know where is the home of the wizard who is supposed to live hereabouts?" "Indeed, sir knight. You are not far from it, but you are going the wrong way. You should turn and go back eastward along this road; then, when you get to the third crossroad -- or is the fourth? I cannot recall for sure; but in any event you will know it is the one because it has a cornfield on the northeast corner, the other three being planted in barley. If you get to the crossroad where there are houses on all four corners, you've gone too far. Turn right, and after half a mile or so there will be a foot-path on your left between Daniel's barley field and Harold's turnip field. You will know Daniel's farm because his barn is larger and closer to the road than his neighbors'; he is very proud of it. The foot-path will take you to the forest and into it. It becomes twisty once it enters the forest, but you will know your way by the notches cut into the trees at the height of a man's eyes. A man on foot, I should say. The path will lead to a clearing with an oak stump in the middle. Sitting on the stump is a bell; ring the bell three times and say what your business with the wizard is. Then look for the paths out of the clearing, and take the third path on your left from the one you entered by. Again, look for the notches cut into the trees when the path grows unclear. You will pass through two more clearings. One has a wooden shed in it; take off your weapons and armor and leave them in the shed. They will be protected by the wizard, so no one can steal them while you are meeting with him. From that clearing, take the second path to your right. A stream runs through the third clearing, and there is a wide pool; toss a coin into the pool, or --" He was about to say what the knight should do if he had no money, but looking at his gleaming armor and the jewels his horse was ornamented with, he thought this unnecessary. "Then ford the stream above the pool and take the first path on your left, which will eventually emerge into the largest clearing, where the wizard's palace and gardens are situated." The knight was not wearing his helmet, which was hanging from his saddle, and Rodric could see that his face wore a confused expression. "Perhaps it were best if you came with me and instructed me," the knight said. "You need not accompany me all the way to the wizard's 'palace'." He gave this last word a sardonic inflection, and Rodric wondered why. "I hear and obey," Rodric said, looking sadly at his bag of seed and at the house where his mother would be expecting him to dinner long before he could guide the knight to the wizard's palace and return home. They told each other their names; the knight was Sir Hugh. The knight did not offer to let Rodric ride with him, and Rodric was grateful for that. He walked alongside the knight's horse, which ambled at an easy pace back up the road, to the crossroad (it turned out to be the fourth), and then to the footpath between Daniel's and Harold's farms. They met Daniel and his eldest sons, who were sowing in the part of the field nearest the forest. Daniel set down his bag of seed and knelt, and his sons followed his example. "Rise," said the knight; "Continue with your work. I hope to have good news for you soon." This piqued Rodric's curiosity, but he still felt it might be unwise to ask the knight what his business was with the wizard. If he himself were to pass by on his way to ask the wizard for medicine for his old mother, or for a charm to keep the beetles off his corn, Daniel or Harold would ask frankly why he was passing that way, and he would cheerfully tell them, and they would likely pass half an hour talking about their families and neighbors before he would go on into the forest. But somehow asking questions of the knight seemed like a bad idea. Anyway, if the knight wanted his assistance even as far as the first clearing, he would hear him announce his business after ringing the bell. They arrived in due course at the stump with the bell. But Sir Hugh simply asked him which path they should take from there. "You must ring the bell first, sire," Rodric said, "three times, and then say what your business is with the wizard." "I don't wish to announce my coming," the knight said. "Which path, peasant?" "But, sire --" Rodric said, stepping backward in case the knight should grow angry; "-- if you don't ring the bell, the wizard's palace may not be there. The paths don't always lead to the same place." "Very well," the knight said. "Hand me the bell." Rodric did so, though he wasn't sure if having two people handle it might not ruin the pathfinding magic. The knight paused, then rang the bell three times and said: "I desire to have an enchantment of perpetual sharpness placed on my sword." Then he handed the bell back to Rodric, who replaced it on the stump, and led the way into the next path. He felt uneasy, nearly certain that the knight had lied about his reason for seeking the wizard, and wondering if the wizard would punish him along with the knight for this deception. Surely not, he decided; the wizard had a reputation for fairness, though he was harsh with those who tried to double-cross him. He would know that this was not Rodric's fault. At the second clearing, the knight refused to remove his armor and weapons and place them in the shed. "I can hardly ask the wizard to enchant my sword if I don't bring it to him, can I?" "He could bring it to his palace from here by magic, sire," Rodric said, "but if you don't remove your weapons and armor, the path may not lead us to his palace at all." "We will take that risk," the knight said. "Lead on." Rodric feared that, if the wizard were paying attention to events here, the next path might go in circles and never lead them to the next clearing or back to this one. But his fears were unfounded. They reached the clearing around the pool in the stream, and he reminded the knight to throw a coin in the pool. The knight did so without a word, and Rodric led him around the pool to the final path. "This path will lead you to the wizard's palace, sire," he said, "at least if the wizard is not angry about you not removing your weapons and armor." "Very good," the knight said. "You need come no further. And after today, you need fear the wizard no more." Fear the wizard? What was the knight talking about? But he went on: "I have slain four trolls, two ogres, one dragon (in company with two other good knights, to be sure), and two wizards besides this one. This rebel against King Piers will trouble the peasants hereabout with demands for tribute no more after today." Rodric almost laughed, and carefully suppressed this reaction, feigning a cough. He wondered whether it would be wiser to warn the knight, or to let the wizard deal with him in his own way. He decided on the more merciful, though dangerous, course. "Sir knight," he said, "the wizard who lives in this forest is older and more powerful than all the other wizards I have ever heard tell of. And besides, he does good things for us in return for his small share of our crops and herds; my grandmother told me that our fields did not yield half so much, nor our herds multiply half so fast, before the wizard settled in this neighborhood." He thought, but did not say, that they got better value for the wizard's tenth of their harvest than for the Duke's tenth or the Church's tenth. "Nonetheless he is a rebel against King Piers and the Duke of the Marches, practicing sorcery and demanding tribute of the Duke's vassals contrary to law. And I have here," he said, pulling a jeweled reliquary from his saddle-bag, "a finger-bone of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, which was very effective against the other wizards I've fought. Go home, peasant." Rodric bowed and returned the way he had come. It was not his fault if the knight would not listen. ----- Rodric heard nothing more of the knight. The next time he went into the village, he happened to meet Daniel, who asked him about the knight he had seen him with. Rodric told the sad story, and Daniel shook his head. A month later, Rodric's mother grew sick again, and Rodric set out to ask the wizard for medicine. Each time, the medicine restored her health for a shorter time than before, but he hoped she would live a few more years, long enough to see him married and father of one or two children. He exchanged only a few words with Harold and his son Mark, who was hoeing in the turnip field, and pressed on into the forest. He rang the bell and announced his business, then set his small knife down in the wooden shed -- he could have left it at home, but people said it was wiser to bring a token weapon and lay it aside on approaching the wizard's palace. Into the pool he tossed the small coin he had brought -- he was poor enough that the wizard would probably not blame him for tossing in a crumb of barley bread, as many of his neighbors did, but he was proud enough that he always brought a coin. Then he followed the final path, which was so twisty that it seemed it ought to cross itself many times, but did not, and came to the garden outside the wizard's palace. There were fruits growing in the wizard's garden that were not in season yet elsewhere in the kingdom, and others that would not grow at all nearer than two hundred miles to the south, and others still that Rodric had never heard of growing anywhere. Rodric knew better than to pick them; sometimes the wizard sent gifts of fruit to the peasants living near the forest, and sometimes he offered some to those who came to see him. Approaching the main door of the palace, Rodric passed a strawberry patch, a grove of orange trees, and a few bushes bearing a yellow bulbous fruit that Rodric didn't recognize and didn't remember seeing on his previous visits. He stopped, seeing a girl picking these fruit and collecting them in a basket. She was dirty and sweaty from working in the garden, but not much less beautiful for that. But it seemed odd that he did not recognize her; the wizard hired his human servants from among the peasants within a few miles of Harold's farm, and Rodric knew everyone living in that region. When she raised her eyes from the bush and saw him, she called out, "Help me!" "Certainly, miss," he said, stepping a little closer. "Do you need me to help carry the basket to the palace kitchen, or...?" "No," she said; "You know more about the wizard's magic than I do; perhaps you can help me escape..." "Escape?" he asked. "Why not just ask for your wages and go?" "I am under an enchantment; I cannot leave the palace and garden. The wizard gives me no more than room and board." That surprised Rodric greatly. When his sister Evaine had been a servant to the wizard for two years before her marriage, he had paid her good wages, and she was allowed to return home every Sunday, usually with a basket of delicious out-of-season fruit; and when she left his service to marry Tully, he had given her a set of enchanted hair-ribbons. He had never heard of any other servant of the wizard being treated worse. "Who are you, and how did you come to be under such an enchantment?" She cast down her eyes and said, "You know me -- I am -- I was --" Each time she started a sentence, she seemed to choke slightly, unable to finish it. She paused and caught her breath, then said: "I looked different when you saw me last. Ah! I can say that. Let's see: I used to be --" She choked again. "Let me try something else..." She drew a sewing needle from where it was pinned into the right sleeve of her blouse, and said: "You warned me to lay this aside in the shed, but I refused." "I don't recall..." "This needle used to be -- It was --" As she was catching her breath after this attempt, Rodric realized what she was trying to say. "The needle was not always a needle? It was, perhaps, a sword?" She started to say something, choked, and nodded. "Then you are Sir Hugh?" She nodded again, apparently not trusting herself to speak. "Well. The wizard was more merciful to you than I expected." "Merciful?" she asked. "How is this mercy?" "Well, the oldest of those orange trees yonder was once another man who tried to kill him, when my father was a boy. If you've been serving him for a month, you've probably seen, and perhaps been called upon to dust and polish, some statues which tried to kill him when they were men. And most of the others who've tried were simply never heard of again. So you were really very lucky... though I suppose you don't feel lucky." "Indeed I do not. Can you help me escape? If I could but reach a holy place, surely it would break the enchantment -- any church might do, but if not, then I will make a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, or to Rome or Jerusalem if need be. But by my own power I cannot even leave the wizard's palace." Rodric looked at her and thought. "I will do what I can," he said, "which is not much. You must promise to show no surprise, whatever I say or do." "I promise," she said. "Has the wizard given you a new name? You were unable, just now, to tell me the name you had before..." "Yes; he calls me Melisande." "Very well; I will try to help you." So Rodric went on from the garden to the front door of the palace, and rang the bell. Another of the wizard's servants opened the door and admitted him; it was young Cedric, Guillaume's son. "Hello, Rodric," he said. "Here to see the wizard?" "Yes," Rodric said. As Cedric led him to the audience chamber, he asked: "Who is the new girl picking fruit in the garden?" "Oh, that is Melisande," Cedric said, and laughed. "I do not know if I should tell you about her. You can ask the wizard, if you like. She can tell you nothing herself." Cedric left him in the audience chamber, and said he would tell the wizard of his presence. Rodric sat on one of the benches and looked around the room. Perhaps half an hour passed before the wizard entered; Rodric, seeing him, stood and bowed. "Hello, Rodric," the wizard said. He did not sit in his ornate chair, but approached Rodric and sat on one of the benches in the corner. Rodric sat across from him. "So, your mother is ill again?" the wizard asked. "Yes, my lord," Rodric said. He described her symptoms, which were much the same as before. The wizard nodded, and proffered a small glass bottle containing a dense blue liquid. "Have your mother swallow one drop every morning and night for nine days," he said. "Thank you, my lord," Rodric said. He hesitated, unsure whether or how to speak of Melisande. The wizard looked at him for a long moment after he handed him the medicine, and said: "I think this medicine will help your mother, but it will not make her live forever. I cannot make myself live forever, still less others. If you want her to see your children, you should be thinking of getting married soon." Rodric stammered, unsure of what he meant to say, and then fell silent. An idea occurred to him. "Your new servant Melisande," he said. "I spoke with her in the garden..." "Yes?" the wizard asked, with a smile. Rodric wondered how much he knew, whether he had heard their conversation by his magic. "If I were to ask her to be my wife, would you object?" The wizard smiled more broadly than ever. "You would have my blessing." He clapped his hands, and that very moment Melisande stood beside them, looking startled. The wizard asked her to sit; she sat down on the same bench as Rodric, but not close to him, spreading her skirts awkwardly as she did so. "Rodric has something he would like to say," he said. Rodric paused, weighing his words. "Melisande," he said, "will you leave the wizard's service and be my wife?" She looked startled again, and more than a little frightened; but this look passed, and she said: "Yes, willingly I will go to the church with you." She smiled, and Rodric smiled back. Then she frowned and asked the wizard, "If, my lord, I may go...?" "With my blessing," he said. "Go and pack your things; you may leave today. This young man's mother is still living, so there will be no scandal if you live with him before your marriage; she can be your chaperon." She rose, curtsied awkwardly (it seemed that she started to bow and remembered after a moment), and left the room. "I don't know how much this girl told you of herself," the wizard said, "but it cannot have been much, I think. I found her wandering in the forest some distance from here, hungry and thirsty, her garments and her skin torn by briers, and I brought her home and gave her new clothes and a place to live. When she first arrived, she had a tendency to become distracted and wander aimlessly; I put a protective enchantment on her to keep her close to the palace, so that she should not get lost in the forest again. I think she came from some village to the south, on the far side of the forest, but I do not know for sure. She could tell me nothing but her name; she grows distressed when anyone asks her about her past. I suggest you refrain from asking her questions, therefore." "I shall," Rodric said. They sat there in silence for a few moments before Melisande returned, holding a small bag. Old Guillaume, the wizard's steward, entered the room just at the same time, by another door, carrying a bag. "I am ready," Melisande said. "Farewell," said the wizard. "Guillaume, count out Melisande's wages for the last month. Tell me when you know the day you will be married. I cannot attend the ceremony itself, but will send gifts for the wedding feast. And later on, I hope to send gifts for your children as well." As he spoke, the steward bowed and counted out several copper coins into Melisande's hands. "We shall send word after we speak to the priest about the wedding," Rodric said, uneasily. He rose and bowed low; then he and Melisande left the audience chamber. They did not speak until they reached the edge of the garden, where the path through the forest began. On the threshold of the path Melisande hesitated -- then stepped onto it -- then took another step, and dashed ahead, Rodric running after her. After a few steps she paused and laughed. "So this was your plan," she said. "It's clever, but I was worried for a moment when you first spoke. Then I realized that when we go to the church, the enchantment will be broken." "Let us hope," he said. "If not, I will find a way to get you safely on the road to a more powerful shrine." They spoke little as they wended the first twisty path to the pool. When they crossed the stream, he said: "The wizard told me a story about you -- that he had found you wandering in the woods, and that you could not remember anything but your name..." "That is the story he told the other servants about me, after he --" She choked, unable to say what she had intended. "After he changed you?" Rodric asked, and she nodded. "Then none of the wizard's other servants saw what happened when you met the wizard?" She shook her head. "After I... arrived in his house, he kept me locked in a small room for two days before he let me out and introduced me to the other servants." "Well, we shall tell the same story to my mother, and to the priest, and to anyone else who asks -- that you are probably from the land south of the forest, but that you cannot remember how you came to be near the wizard's palace, or anything before you arrived there." "Yes." They passed the weapon shed, where Rodric retrieved his knife; passed the stump with the bell; and emerged from the forest onto the path between Daniel's and Harold's fields. Daniel and his sons were working in the field near the path, and Daniel came over to greet them. "Good morning, Rodric," he said. "Who is this young woman?" "My betrothed, Melisande," Rodric said. "She has been working as a servant in the wizard's palace for some time. The wizard found her wandering in the forest, having lost her memory of all but her name." "A great misfortune!" said Daniel. "But being found by the wizard, rather than by a bear or wolf, was a turn for the better; and being Rodric's wife will be another, I expect." Melisande smiled nervously. "We must return home," Rodric said; "my mother is in need of the wizard's medicine." They left Daniel's farm, and followed again the road that Rodric had traversed on foot following Sir Hugh and his mount. What had happened to his horse, Rodric wondered, and to his armor, when he became Melisande and his sword had become a sewing needle? He could hardly ask her; she seemed incapable of talking about her past life, or about how she had changed. They met two others of Rodric's neighbors working in their fields near the road, and stopped briefly to talk, but Rodric frustrated their curiosity about Melisande by insisting that they must get home to deliver the medicine to his mother. At last they arrived at Rodric's farm and walked up the path through the barley field to the house. It was a single room, more than large enough for the bed, table, and two stools which were its only furniture. The few other articles of furniture it had once held had gone to the homes of Rodric's sisters over the years. Rodric's mother was not in bed, as he had left her, but sitting by the fire cooking a porridge. "Good day, Mother," Rodric said. "I hope you are feeling better?" "Just a hair, just a hair," she said, looking up. "Who is this?" "This is Melisande, Mother. I met her where she was serving in the wizard's palace. Here is your medicine, by the bye," he said, taking the bottle of medicine from his pouch. "If we've your consent, we'll go to the priest tomorrow and talk with him about when we may be married." She studied Melisande with a critical air. "Who are your family, girl? I don't know of a Melisande in these parts. It's a fine lady's name, I'm thinking." Melisande looked desperately at Rodric, who came to her rescue. "We think she's from the south side of the forest, Mother; but we don't know. She can't remember a thing before the wizard found her lost in the forest and took her in as one of his servants. She takes nervous if you ask her about her past; so if you don't, we'll be best pleased." Rodric watched as his mother continued to study Melisande's face and form. He tried to look as nervous as he would be if he were bringing home his real intended for his mother's approval. Of course, if his mother disapproved of Melisande, it made no great difference; he could escort her to the church the next day nonetheless, and most likely that would be the end of the enchantment and of his involvement with Sir Hugh. If not, she would leave and go on a pilgrimage, and again he would see no more of her, or she of him. Actually, he hoped that his mother would disapprove of her somehow; people would talk about him for years if he were betrothed to her and then she changed into a man the first time she entered the church, or even if she simply ran away before the wedding. "You'll do," his mother said to Melisande finally. "I don't know why my son is so particular that he won't marry one of the neighbor girls that he's known all his life, but I'm too old to wait longer for him to marry and give me grandchildren. So if the priest tells you two different days he can marry you, pick the earliest one, do you hear?" Melisande smiled nervously. "We will," Rodric said. "Well," his mother said, "were the wizard's instructions the same as usual?" "They were." Without another word she opened the bottle, let a single drop fall into her mouth, and then stoppered the bottle again. "The porridge is ready," she said. "You may eat before you go back to the field." ----- After the meal, Rodric went out to work in his fields, leaving Melisande with his mother. When he returned to the house that evening, his mother said to him, in a voice she thought was a whisper but was quite loud enough for Melisande to hear, "The girl has forgotten not only where she came from, but how to cook and clean, if she ever knew how. When I am gone, you may regret choosing the prettiest girl who would have you over one of those who know how to keep a home!" That night, Rodric slept on the floor, leaving the bed for his mother and Melisande. He said he would start building another bed the next day after he and Melisande returned from the rectory. The next morning, after breakfast, Rodric and Melisande left the house and walked several miles to the village. They spoke to everyone they met, of course, but Rodric tried to keep his explanations brief, to save further explanations later. At last they reached the church, and entered the front door. Nothing happened. Melisande walked through the vestibule into the sanctuary, Rodric following her. Nothing happened. Melisande walked to the altar rail and knelt. Rodric joined her there. They prayed for a long while. Nothing happened. Melisande rose, crossed herself, and left the church. Rodric followed her. "I'm sorry," Rodric said. "I did not entirely expect your parish church to be holy enough to break the enchantment," she replied. "I will have to make a pilgrimage to one shrine or another, first to the nearest and then to those of the greater saints, and as far as the Holy Sepulchre if necessary." "That will be difficult for a woman traveling alone," he said, "for my duties to my mother, and the farm, make it impossible for me to join you. And perhaps it is unnecessary. Why not stay a few days here, under my protection, and make your confession and receive communion this Sunday? The holy sacraments may break the enchantment when simply entering the church, or praying before the altar, does not." "I shall do so," Melisande said. She looked thoughtfully back at the church. "What now?" "Well, my mother will want to know the date of our wedding. So we must go see the priest now, and keep up the pretense until you can break the enchantment or leave the village quietly without being noticed. I suppose the market day, nine days hence, will be a good time to leave without being noticed, if receiving the sacraments does not break the enchantment; there will be strangers about, and perhaps you can travel with one of them." "Very well." She followed him to the door of the rectory, a small wooden house next door to the church. As he knocked at the door, he glanced at her; she was nervously twisting a lock of her long brown hair between her fingers. The priest opened the door after less than a minute. Father Jehan was younger than Rodric, though not by much. He was a local man, having been the old priest's acolyte, and ordained just three years ago after the old man became too feeble to say Mass. "Rodric," Father Jehan said, "it's good to see you. And who is this?" "This is Melisande, Father," Rodric said. He felt a sudden scruple about lying to the priest, so when he related the story about Melisande being found lost in the forest, he was careful to say, "the wizard told me this," rather than "this is so." "So you intend to marry?" the priest asked. "Well, we can publish the banns next Sunday, and you may marry sometime in the following week. It is best if you each make your confession between now and then. But I must be sure that Melisande understands what she is doing." "Why not now?" "I'll get my cope," Father Jehan said. Moments later they returned to the church with him. Rodric entered the confessional first. He had suspected that the wizard might overhear what they said to Father Jehan in the vicarage, but he was sure that the wizard couldn't hear what was said here on consecrated ground and in the sacrament. So after confessing several things he'd done since Easter which are none of the reader's business, and his misleading of the priest himself mere moments before, he told him plainly everything he knew about Sir Hugh, now Melisande, and about their plan to use the proposed wedding as a ruse to free her from the wizard. "The wizard will probably be watching and listening," he said, "so you'd better publish the banns as though we really are going to be married." "I'm not sure this is right," Father Jehan said, "though at the moment I can't think of anything else to do, if the sacraments do not break the enchantment. As soon as I've heard her confession, I will celebrate a private mass for the two of you and, God willing, the wizard's enchantment will be broken. If not -- then I suppose I must help you with your ruse, and help Melisande -- or Sir Hugh? -- to depart on next market-day. I'll hear her confession now." "Remember, she's under that enchantment -- she may not be able to confess anything she did before the wizard transformed her." "Let me deal with that. If she tries to confess and is unable, due to malign magic, God will take the will for the deed -- if indeed he does not break or suspend the enchantment by the power of the sacrament." Father Jehan assigned Rodric his penance (the details of which, again, are none of the reader's business) and absolved him; then asked him to go over to the rectory and summon his acolyte while Melisande was making her confession. He returned a few minutes later with Father Jehan's acolyte, a pimply- faced boy of twelve or thirteen summers, then knelt near the front of the church to pray. A while later, Melisande knelt beside him. She whispered to him: "I still couldn't say anything about -- what happened to me before. Even in the confessional. It's a very powerful enchantment." "I'm sorry," Rodric said. "Perhaps..." He fell silent as Father Jehan and his acolyte approached the altar. "Introibo ad altare Dei," the priest said. ----- An hour later they returned to the house, very subdued. As they left the church, Melisande had said "I suppose I'll go on a pilgrimage, then," and Rodric had said, "Yes, I suppose you'd better." They remained silent the rest of the way home. "Well?" Rodric's mother asked. "Father Jehan will publish the banns this next Sunday," Rodric said, "and we can marry the Saturday after that." The market-day, when Melisande would depart, would be the following Thursday. "Good," she said. "You'd better start building another bed, for you to sleep in until the wedding and me to sleep in afterward. I'll take Melisande around to meet your sisters and brothers-in-law, shall I?" Melisande didn't object, but followed the older woman out of the house with a curious glance back at Rodric. He looked around, found some suitable materials, begged others from neighbors, and spent the hottest part of the day building the bed; then went out to work in the field when it was getting cooler. His mother and Melisande returned not long before sunset. Rodric saw them approach the house and enter, and waved to them; a little later, as the sun was setting, he returned to the house to find the women cooking supper, his mother frequently scolding Melisande, who scarcely knew one end of the saucepan from the other. After they sat down to supper, Melisande said: "Your sisters seem to think highly of the wizard." "Yes." "Especially Evaine --" "She worked for him, as you did." "Perhaps not exactly as I did." Melisande could not say more than that, but she seemed pleased with herself for being able to say that much. They ate a few bites in silence, then Melisande asked: "How long has it been since this wizard cursed or blighted anyone?" Rodric chewed thoughtfully for a moment and said, "Well, there were a few knights and such like who tried to kill him. But other than that... I don't know. Mother?" "It was when I was a girl," she said, "not half your age; when Giles's father died and he got the farm, he refused to pay the wizard's tax --" "It's an illegal tribute," Melisande said, and Rodric's mother slapped her. "Don't interrupt. Giles refused to pay the tax, and his crops failed. It was a dry year outside this neighborhood, we heard -- Giles's wasn't the only farm in the country to suffer, but he was the only one within a league of the wizard's palace whose farm didn't get the extra rain the wizard made for the rest of us. I don't know if you'd call that a curse, exactly, unless you blame the wizard for the drought in the rest of the country that year too." Melisande was clearly angry, Rodric saw, but she didn't interrupt again, or speak much at all during the remainder of supper. The next four days passed uneventfully. Rodric worked in the field, and Melisande helped his mother in the house, learning housekeeping and cooking. Rodric slept in the new bed, while his mother and Melisande shared the larger one. Rodric and Melisande had scarcely any time to talk privately; when they occasionally did, they reiterated their plan for her to leave town on the next market day. Sunday, Father Jehan read the banns for their marriage before Mass; after Mass, everyone wanted to meet Melisande and congratulate Rodric and Melisande on their betrothal. Many of the congratulations sounded reasonably sincere. Rodric overheard a few people talking in low tones (but not low enough) about Melisande's mysterious past; but they seemed evenly divided over whether this made her sinister or pleasantly exotic. Cedric, the wizard's servant, hung back talking with some other young men until nearly everyone else had gone home. When Rodric bade Gervase goodbye and began to look around for his mother and Melisande, spotting them amid a cluster of women some distance away, Cedric approached him. "So you're to wed Melisande," he said. "When the wizard told us she'd left, and why, we could scarcely believe it." "I suppose she remained in the wizard's service for a shorter time than most." "Yes, but that's not why we were surprised... Do you know of her past?" "She cannot speak of it." "I see that you do," Cedric said. He must have read something in Rodric's expression, for he was sure he'd kept his voice level. "Well, that's your business; I only wanted to be sure you knew what kind of woman you were marrying..." "Who else knows?" "The other servants, and perhaps others they have told; I have told no one." "I thank you for not spreading gossip about my betrothed." "But I can't speak for the others." "You might mention to them that if they gossip about her, they will displease me, and probably the wizard as well; this may be bad for them." As they returned home, Rodric asked Melisande, "While you were in the wizard's service, did you become friends with any of his other servants?" "No," she said, "I passed a lot of time with Maud, who taught me my business -- where to find things and what I must clean and what I must never touch, and so forth... but we didn't become friends. And the other servants didn't speak much to me at all." "I see," Rodric said. ----- On Thursday, Rodric and Melisande left early to go to the market. His mother was feeling poorly, and said she'd stay at home. It was a fine day. The market wasn't as busy as it would be in harvest season, but it was much busier than the last couple of market days, which had been rainy. They spoke as they walked to the village of their plans. "We'll find a group of women talking and looking at the traders' goods, and I'll leave you with them. Then you can slip away and ask various traders for a ride toward the capital. I won't notice you're gone until after most of the traders have left, and I'll tell people I last saw you with the women... Does that make sense?" "I think so," she said. "Thank you for your help." All proceeded according to plan. Rodric and Melisande paused by a cloth merchant's wagon, as Melisande and several other women looked over and fingered the man's wares; Melisande listened for a few moments' to the other women's conversation, and then joined in -- a little awkwardly, Rodric thought, but not suspiciously. He said: "I'll go along and look at this other fellow's tools, my dear," and moved along. He saw her for the next few hours speaking with different merchants when no other customers were in earshot; several shook their heads vehemently, but as sunset neared and the merchants began to hitch up their horses and secure their loads, he saw her talking at length with a tinker. When he glanced that way again a little later, the tinker's cart was gone and so was she. He waited another hour until he began asking folk whether they'd seen her. "I saw her with some women by the cloth merchant's wagon," he said, but didn't mention how many hours ago that had been. When Daniel said he had seen her with the tinker not long before he left, and that he suspected she'd run off with him, Rodric feigned numb astonishment. Some of the men were for chasing them down, but he shook his head and spat on the ground. "No," he said, "let her go. She is not the woman I thought her. I will marry a local girl, as I should have done years ago." ----- After explanations to his mother, and recriminations from her, Rodric went to bed. He lay awake long after his mother began to snore, thinking of Melisande, of Sir Hugh, and how dangerous it was for her to travel with no protector... What payment might the tinker demand for giving her a ride? And if she escaped him with her honor intact, how far could she get on the way to Rome or Jerusalem without first finding a protector? Well, it would have to be someone other than him. He had done all he could; he had a filial duty to his mother, and no particular duty towards her. He was still thinking uneasily about what he might have done otherwise when there came a soft scratching at the door, and quiet voices. He got up, put on his tabard, and went to the door, saying quietly so as not to wake his mother: "Who's there?" "It is I, the wizard, and another you know." Rodric opened the door. The moonlight revealed the wizard, and beside him, bedraggled and miserable, Melisande. "I found her wandering the roads north of the village," the wizard said. "I am afraid you will have to keep a close watch on your bride for a while longer; she may be subject to relapses of the fit which left her wandering in the forest with no memories." Rodric was speechless for a moment. "Has she lost her memories again?" he asked. "No," the wizard said; "she only grew confused for a few hours, it seems... Speak up, girl. Tell him." "I was trying to find my way back," she said in a whisper, her eyes downcast, "but it was dark and cold and I didn't know the roads... The wizard found me and led me here." "Thank you," Rodric said. "I will take care of her." "See that you do. Good night." When the wizard was gone, Melisande bundled up in the blankets from Rodric's bed, and the fire stoked, Rodric asked: "What happened?" "All went well at first," she said. "The tinker agreed to take me as far as Villette; I returned to his cart when he was near ready to leave, and he hid me among his things. I found tools I could use as weapons if he tried to have his way with me when we stopped for the night, and settled down to wait; but the further the cart got from your village, the more uneasy I got. I tried to make plans for my pilgrimage, how to find someone I knew in Villette and prove to him who I am and ask him to accompany me to a powerful shrine... but I couldn't think clearly. I found myself thinking of... of this place. I wanted to come back, though I also wanted to go as far as possible and never return... At last, the first desire became so strong that I leapt out of the cart and began running down the road to the south, scarcely knowing why but desperate to return here. The tinker cried out, but I ignored him; if he tried to pursue me, he didn't follow for long. "Before long it was dark, the moon wasn't up yet. I lost my way. The desire to return here became a little weaker, but I still couldn't make myself think of the pilgrimage. Just as the moon rose, I saw a man approach, and I was afraid, and hid behind some trees; but he called me by name -- it was the wizard. "He told me he had put another spell on me to keep me from leaving you. If I get too far from you, a few miles, I'll become frantic, unable to think of anything but returning. Nearer, and I can think clearly again, but still want to return to you." "That's terrible," Rodric said. "There's no way you can get to a shrine, then." "Unless you come with me?" she asked shyly. "No," he said. "I can't leave my mother." "She could come too --" "And how would we pay our way? We have scarcely any money, and will have no more until the harvest; and soon after that it will be too cold and wet for pilgrimage... And this Saturday, we are to marry." She shrank back from him. "Do not fear; I will not force you. The wizard has tricked us into going through with the wedding we feigned we intended; well, he can't make me lie with you. But we'll have to playact as man and wife until we find a way for you to return to yourself." "You are a good man," she said. "I have asked much of you." "Indeed," he said. "Well, God is good; sooner or later he will free you from this enchantment. Perhaps the friars will come to preach a mission, and bring with them a powerful relic; perhaps we can save money for two or three harvests and go on pilgrimage together." He thought, but did not say: By then my mother will be dead, and two can travel easier and cheaper than three. ----- By the time Rodric woke, his mother and Melisande had been speaking in low tones for some time. When she saw he was awake, his mother said: "So, you will take her back?" "Yes," he said. "The wizard told me: she was not unfaithful, she merely became confused and lost her way. It was my fault for not keeping her with me all during the market." "Well," she said. "She seems penitent enough, and she's still a virgin, and I'm getting too old to wait any longer for grandchildren." Rodric felt a pang; his mother would almost certainly be dead by the time he was free of this impending feigned marriage and could truly marry some suitable local woman. She would see none of his children, if God ever blessed him with any. After working in the fields for a few hours, Rodric walked to the village to speak with Father Jehan. He met a few people on the way, who had heard about Melisande's disappearance; he told them a suitably circumspect story about her return. "We will wed tomorrow," he said. "I hope to see you there." To Father Jehan he confided their hasty change of plans. The priest listened silently, then mused for a while before replying. "I am not sure this is licit," he said. "I was willing to announce a wedding that I did not expect to take place, though even that seemed morally doubtful, as it seemed necessary to help break a wicked enchantment... But now, to perform a wedding for a couple where the woman is actually a man under an enchantment: I am nearly sure it is not licit. I will go to Villette and consult the bishop." "But as I said, we do not intend to lie together," Rodric said. "There can be no sin in it, surely?" "It is deception," Father Jehan replied. "No more so than Our Lady and Saint Joseph, perhaps -- was it deception for them to call themselves man and wife when they did not lie together?" "That's not fair," Father Jehan said with a smile; "you've been paying attention to my sermons." "That is a special case," Father Jehan said, "but perhaps..." "And if the small deception when you published the banns last Sunday was allowed to help her break the enchantment, this lesser deception, if it is deception at all, can surely be allowed for the same reason? The wizard has her in his power, and he seems to want us to marry; if we do not, he may torment her further. If we do marry, there will be opportunities to break the enchantment later -- and perhaps this sacrament will break the enchantment, or protect her from any further black magic, where the others did not." "It is doubtful," Father Jehan said, "and yet I think we must try it. To postpone the wedding without saying why may cause scandal... and our bishop perhaps does not understand the situation here in the neighborhood of the wizard's palace; he might order me to confront the wizard and try to banish him or force him to break his enchantments; this course would soon leave the parish without a priest. Very well. We will proceed with the wedding." ----- Rodric's sister Evaine had loaned Melisande her best dress to wear on her wedding day, but early that morning, when Rodric went out to the privy, he found a sack on the doorstep, which proved to contain a much finer dress and veil, white with an iridescent train, and a new suit for Rodric as well; as fine a set of clothing as peasants could wear without arousing the ire of their lords. His sisters arrived soon afterward and exclaimed over it as they, supervised by their mother, helped Melisande dress. The iridescence of the dress faded once Melisande crossed the threshold of the church, like most of the wizard's smaller decorative enchantments; but it sparkled to life again when she and Rodric emerged into the sunlight after the rite. They were accompanied by a cheering crowd all the way back to Rodric's house. Once inside with the door shut, Melisande sank exhausted onto the bed, her eyes red. Rodric sat on the stool by the fireplace, nearly as far from her as he could get in the small house. "Are you very disappointed that the sacrament did not break the enchantment?" "I did not greatly hope for it," she said. "If the Holy Mass did not, why would Matrimony...? But yes, a little disappointed." The cheering of the crowd outside faded into a low hubbub of conversation. "They'll stay there until they think we've done it, you know," he said. "I'll have to hang out a bloody sheet. Can you stand up for a moment?" She did so, and he removed the coarse linen from the bed. "I hope this is enough blood," he said, pricking his thumb with his knife and smearing it over a spot in the center. "Does that look about right to you?" "Oh, peasants," she said disgustedly. "Fine folk like you don't hang out their sheets after the wedding?" "Not since my grandfather's time." "Well, I'll have to do without your advice, then. That looks about right to me, but I've never seen one of these up close, you know." He started toward the window and she said: "No, wait, it's too soon." "Oh," he said. "How long, then?" He thought back to the last few weddings he'd been to. Indeed, there was usually a bit of a wait before the bridegroom hung out the sheet. "I'll tell you when," she said, and sat on the bed again with her back to him. "Shouldn't we make a bit of noise, too?" he asked. "I seem to recall they sometimes do that, other weddings I've seen." "You may cry out if you like," she said, "if you think you can remember what a peasant bridegroom sounds like. Not now, but when I tell you." He tried to remember. When, a little while later, she said: "Now," he gave a yell, hoping it sounded convincing. A little after that, she turned to him and said: "Now hang the sheet out. Oh, bother -- the blood's already mostly dry. You should have waited... Prick your thumb again." He smeared the sheet with fresh blood and hung it out, to renewed cheers and jeers from the crowd. Soon after, the voices outside subsided and they were truly alone. (His mother was to spend the night with Evaine and her husband and children.) "Now that that's done," he said, "we might eat something." "We might," she said. "I suppose you want me to cook it?" "That was my intention, yes." "Turn your back; I want to change out of this fine dress first." He turned his face toward the hearth; a few moments later she approached his side, wearing her everyday dress. "Stoke the fire," she said, "and put some water on..." ----- Rodric's mother stayed a few days with each of her daughters before returning to his home. She was in worse health when she returned. "Do you need me to go to the wizard again for medicine?" he asked, listening to her cough. "Matilda's husband went and got more just a few days ago," she said. "It will do no good now. Let us speak of other matters. Have you gotten Melisande with child yet?" "She would know better than I," he said, flushing. "But she had her monthly bleeding a few days ago." "Well, keep trying; don't mind my presence." Rodric fixed a curtain between his mother's bed and his and Melisande's, and they conspired to jostle the bed and give little cries of feigned pleasure for half an hour or so every night. This seemed to do his mother good; her spirits rose and she seemed to make a partial recovery. But when Melisande's bleeding recurred as usual the following month, she drew her aside and gave her detailed instructions which left her blushing for the remainder of the day. For Rodric, at least, it was becoming more and more difficult to keep their marriage a matter of appearance. To lie beside her was temptation enough; to see her squirming about so as to jostle the bed, and hear her utter cries of feigned pleasure, was almost too much for his self-control. But he had promised her, and by dint of frequent confession and communion, he managed to keep that promise. Just after the harvest, they received a visit from Cedric. "The wizard sent me with gifts," he said, entering the house and beginning to draw things from a large bag. "This is a reliquary containing a finger-bone of a saint -- the wizard could not tell me his name, of course, he cannot pronounce holy names; but he gave me hints, and I'm guessing that it's a relic of --" "St. Gregory Thaumaturgus," Melisande said, and then gasped, as if surprised that the enchantment allowed her to say that. "However did you know?" Cedric asked, winking at Rodric. Rodric's mother looked puzzled and suspicious, but said nothing. "He also asks that for the next week, you keep it in the house, but not too close to the door; after that you may do what you like with it, put it anywhere in the house or give it to the church." "Give him our thanks," Rodric said. "Then this jar of sweetmeats," Cedric continued, drawing an alabaster jar as big as his head from the sack; "he said there's a beneficent enchantment on them, but would not tell me exactly what." "He is very generous." "And lastly, a gift for your firstborn son. Store it at the far end of the house from the reliquary." This last gift was a book, bound in vellum with gold trim; Rodric wondered at the idea of giving a book to the child of parents who could not read. -- Or could Melisande read? Sir Hugh had been an aristocrat; some of them could read, though by no means all. "See," Cedric continued, laying the book down on a stool and opening it, "it will teach your son to read Latin." On the open page was an illumination of a beehive, with many small bees and one larger one. The bees' wings fluttered, and the smaller ones moved in circles around one another. Below it was some text in large letters; moments after Cedric opened the book, there was a faint buzzing sound, and then a voice spoke: "Apis. Bee." "This is a princely gift," Rodric said, trembling. The wizard had not lost interest in them; what did he plan for them? That they should have at least one son, obviously; what then? "But I fear it may be dangerous; the Duke does not like peasants to read." "The Duke knows better than to meddle with the wizard," Cedric said. "Don't worry." They pressed Cedric to stay and eat supper with them; after he left, Rodric's mother asked Melisande: "How did you know whose bone is in the reliquary?" "I -- I remember to have seen it before. But I cannot say where or when." "So your loss of memory isn't total." "No..." "I could wish you had remembered how to cook and clean... Oh well." Melisande looked suspiciously at the jar of sweetmeats, and refused to eat any. Rodric thought he would try a small slice of one, to test the enchantment; his mother ate two of them, declaring them delicious. As the evening passed, Rodric found his gaze lingering more and more on Melisande -- she had already been the most attractive object in view by far, but now he could scarcely tear his eyes from her. He felt flushed, and the desire for her that was almost always present became stronger. "I think I'll take a walk," he said. "It is already dark," his mother urged. She was restless, more active than he'd seen her in days, now poking the fire unnecessarily, now rising to putter around the house making things tidier than they already were. "Not so dark; the moon is already high." He did not return until he felt the effects of the sweetmeat fading. By then his mother and Melisande were both asleep. Still not trusting himself to be too close to Melisande, he slept on the floor for a few hours, then crawled in beside her after getting up to use the privy early in the morning. After that, his mother never ate any of the sweetmeats, but urged them on Rodric and Melisande; they pretended to eat one of them each evening, and afterward disposed of them discreetly in the midden. ----- Five days later, the wizard came to call one evening just after Rodric's mother had fallen asleep. He found Rodric and Melisande sitting before the fire, not talking. "Good evening," he said. "May I come in?" "Be welcome," Rodric said. Melisande looked nervous, but Rodric didn't think it safe to antagonize the wizard openly. "Thank you," the wizard said. The moment he stepped across the threshold, a pained look came over his face. "Ah, the relic," he said. "I won't be able to stay long under the same roof with it, but it will enable us to speak privately, and there are things I must tell you and ask you." "Speak," Rodric said. "Where to begin? First, I must tell you that I know of all your subterfuges. You can fool your mother for a time, but not me; I see that Melisande is still a virgin. That is not what I intended when I gave you my blessing to marry!" As the wizard spoke, little red spots appeared on his face, arms and hands. "And you despise my gift of sweetmeats, which I intended to help you overcome your discomfort with the idea of lying together. They would make you, Rodric, forget for a time that Melisande was once a man, and remind you that she is now a woman, and a very desirable one, and your wife; they would make you, Melisande, learn more quickly how good it is to be a woman, and the wife of so good a man as Rodric. But you despise or fear them, and you still entertain vain hopes of becoming a man again." The wizard began to scratch at the spots on his arms and hands. "I will tell you plainly, now, why your attempts to break the enchantment have failed. Perhaps I should have done so sooner; but I hoped to spare you your good memories of your father." "What about my father...?" Rodric began, but the wizard interrupted: "I mean Melisande's father. There is a simple reason why my enchantments on you, the binding on your tongue to keep you silent about your past and the binding to keep you from getting more than five miles from Rodric, were not suspended when you entered the church and did not break when you made a confession and ate the body and blood of my patron's enemy. Your father never had you baptized; thus the other things could have no effect on you." As he spoke these last words, many more red spots appeared and his face began to swell up. "That can't be --!" Melisande began, and choked. Rodric was silent, wondering why the wizard had mentioned the two lesser enchantments but not his changing her into a woman. "You have spoken to your godparents, or those who thought they were your godparents, and they told you about the ceremony; very well. They did not lie, but they were mistaken. They did not know Latin. For reasons that seemed good and sufficient to him at the time, your father bribed a venal priest to give you an invalid baptism; he lit candles and poured water over your head while he recited random passages from canon law and the war-epic of Vergil." "But why?" Melisande said. "Because baptism would have broken the enchantment he had gotten his friend, the Red Wizard of Green Hill, to place on you the day before. And if he had had you baptized first and then enchanted, then the enchantment would have broken some years later, the first time you confessed your sins and ate -- you know." The wizard was having difficulty breathing now, and gasping a little after each phrase. "After begetting six daughters, and losing his wife in the birth of the last, he determined to have a son." "But I have only five sisters --" "Yes; you were his sixth daughter, for the first three days of your life. Your mother named you Melisande with her last breath, but your father wanted to give you another name, and another state in life. And in making you a boy, the Red Wizard of Green Hill not only did a favor for your father, who repaid him with many other favors in the years that followed, but nearly thwarted my own long-term plans. Not quite, however. When you came to kill me, I perceived who you were and what enchantment was on you, and I broke the enchantment. "I can't stay much longer in the presence of the relic, but I must tell you a few more things here where my patron cannot overhear us. A hundred years ago I began trying to figure out a way to escape my contract with my patron. It should be as simple as receiving the sacraments; but my patron has ensured that I cannot go near holy things without growing sick. If I even begin to receive the sacraments, I will die almost instantly. I need not merely a priest, but a -- a man who is very strong in the service of my patron's enemy. One who can cancel my patron's miracle with a miracle by the power of my patron's enemy. And your son will be that man -- assuming you beget him soon enough to do me any good. My contract with my patron expires in twenty-six years, and a man must be twenty-four before being ordained." These last words were uttered in little gasps. "I beg you, be merciful; think of how I've been to the people of this district. I have tried to use my magic for good, though my patron gave it to me for bad ends. I have tried to make amends for the wrongs I did when I first acquired power; but it will be of no avail if you do not help me. Good-bye." He dashed out of the house and vanished a few steps from the door. ----- Rodric's mother did not wake all through the heated conversation which followed; in hindsight, Rodric realized that the wizard must have enchanted her to sleep soundly so she wouldn't hear what he said about Melisande. "How could he?" Melisande said, after sitting in stunned silence for a time. "Such a trick to play --" She paused, unable to speak. "Do you mean the wizard," Rodric asked, (Melisande shook her head) "or your father?" (she nodded). "Do you believe what he said, then?" "I don't think he could tell a lie in the presence of the relic," she said. "And... it fits with what I --" Choked silence again. "Does it explain things about your father you did not understand before?" "Yes... Yes, I think what he said is true." "Then we must tell Father Jehan, and he can baptize you at once." "Yes." "And... I suppose it frees us, doesn't it? The baptism will break the other enchantments -- you'll be free to speak of your past, and to travel as far from me as you like; you can go back to your family and tell them who you are. And we must ask Father Jehan to be sure, but I think it means our marriage was not valid, since you were unbaptized at the time." "But..." She paused. "I don't want to --" "No? Perhaps you don't have to go back, but you'll be free to go wherever you want." "If I -- I can't become -- And if I did, I -- If I returned, he would - -" After choking on her words several times, she cursed, winced, made the sign of the cross, and said: "This is too frustrating. Let us make haste to have me baptized; then I shall be able to tell you what I want to say." "Very well," Rodric said. "Tomorrow morning." Early the next morning, they made hasty excuses to Rodric's mother and set out for the rectory. Father Jehan came to the door, listened briefly, and then led them into the church. "I suppose you are going to tell me something about the wizard," he said, "and it is wisest to do so here where he and his diabolical masters cannot hear us... Do you want to tell me in the confessional, or right here?" "Here will do," Rodric said. His last confession was less than a week ago, and Melisande could get no good out of the sacrament until she'd been baptized. He began to explain, beginning with the gifts the wizard sent by Cedric, and in a few minutes had told everything. "This explains much," Father Jehan said. "Indeed, if Melisande was never validly baptized, then of course the other sacraments could not break the enchantments she was under; it may even have made them stronger, or twisted them into worse shape, since her receiving the sacraments invalidly was technically a blasphemy -- though not intentional and thus not sinful," he hastened to add, seeing Melisande's horrified, guilty look. "No, you are not to blame here; if we can believe what the wizard said, your father and the other wizard bear nearly all the blame in this matter. Our own local wizard is partly to blame, for not revealing these matters as soon as he discovered them, but I will leave that aside; it seems that if he ever makes a confession, it will be to another man than me." "Please, Father," Melisande said in a small voice, "can you baptize me now?" "I am not quite as sure as you are that the wizard was telling the truth," he said; "the relic should have prevented him from using some enchantment to make you believe everything he said, but I am not sure it would keep him from telling ordinarily persuasive lies. Still, what he said explains much that we did not understand, so I think it more likely than not that he was telling the truth. Under the circumstances I think it wise to do a conditional baptism; that is, it will be a baptism if you are not already baptized, while avoiding accidental sacrilege by repeating the sacrament if the wizard lied and you were indeed baptized... We shall see." And he baptized Melisande at the font, with the abbreviated form of the rite, which he used upon sick babies who might not live long enough to go to church. Melisande stood wringing out her hair, radiantly happy. "Let me see," she said, "if the enchantment is broken... My father is Sir Carl of Green Hill. He named me Sir Hugh. I was knighted on the eve of Epiphany, the winter before last... It is broken!" She hugged Rodric fiercely. "This is further evidence that the wizard told the truth," the priest said with a smile. "At least in part. But now there is another matter I must speak of. Your marriage was not valid, though not for the reason I thought at the time." "I thought so," Rodric said. "What do you wish? You are free to part, though it may cause scandal; or..." "What was it you were trying to tell me last night and couldn't?" Rodric asked Melisande. "I don't want to go back to my father," she said. "He will be wroth that the enchantment was broken. I saw how he treated my elder sisters; I suppos