Suldrun reflected. "There have always been dozens of delegations.

I seem to remember someone like you. It was so long ago; I can't be sure."

Aillas took her hand, the first time he had touched her in affection. "As soon as I am strong we will escape. It will be a simple affair to climb the stones yonder; then it's over the hill and away."

Suldrun spoke in a half-whisper, husky and fearful. "If we were captured"—she hunched her shoulders together—"the King would show us no pity."

In a subdued voice Aillas said: "We won't be captured! Especially if we plan well, and are all-cautious." He sat up straight, and spoke with great energy. "We will be free and away through the countryside! We'll travel by night and hide by day; we'll be one with the vagabonds, and who will know us?"

Aillas' optimism began to infect Suldrun; the prospect of freedom became exhilarating. "Do you really think we'll escape?"

"Of course! How could it be otherwise?"

Suldrun gazed pensively down the garden and over the sea. "I don't know. I have never expected to be happy. I am happy now—even though I am frightened." She laughed nervously. "It makes for a strange mood."

"Don't be frightened," said Aillas. Her nearness overwhelmed him; he put his arm around her waist. Suldrun jumped to her feet. "I feel as-if a thousand eyes are watching us!"

"Insects, birds, a lizard or two." Aillas scanned the cliffs. "I see no one else."

Suldrun looked up and down the garden. "Nor do I. Still..." She seated herself at a demure distance of three feet, and turned him an arch side-glance. "Your health seems to be on the mend."

"Yes. I feel very well, and I cannot bear to look at you without wanting to touch you." He moved close to her; laughing, she slid away.

"Aillas, no! Wait till your arm is better!"

"I'll be careful of my arm."

"Someone might come."

"Who would be so bold?"

"Bagnold. The priest Umphred. My father the King."

Aillas groaned. "Destiny could not be so unkind."

Suldrun said in a soft voice: "Destiny doesn't really care."

Night came to the garden. Sitting before the fire the two supped on bread, onions and mussels which Suldrun had gathered from the tidal rocks. Once again they talked of escape. Suldrun said wistfully, "Perhaps I will feel strange away from this garden.

Every tree, every stone, is known to me... But, since you came, everything is different. The garden is going from me." Looking into the fire, she gave a little shiver.

"What is wrong?" asked Aillas.

"I am afraid."

"Of what?"

"I don't know."

"We could leave tonight, but for my arm. Another few days and I'll be strong again. In the meantime we must plan. The woman who brings your food; what of her?"

"At noon she brings a basket and takes back the empty basket from the day before. I never speak to her."

"Could she be bribed?"

"To do what?"

"To bring the food as usual, discard it, and take back the empty basket next day. With a week's start, we could be far away and never fear capture."

"Bagnold would never dare, even if she were so disposed, which she isn't. And we have nothing to bribe her with."

"Have you no jewels, no gold?"

"In my cabinet at the palace I have gold and gems."

"Which is to say, they are inaccessible."

Suldrun considered. "Not necessarily. The East Tower is quiet after sunset. I could go directly up to my chamber, and no one would notice. I could be in, out and away in a trice."

"Is it truly so simple?"

"Yes! I have gone this way hundreds of times, and seldom have I met anyone along the way."

"We cannot bribe Bagnold, so we will have free only a day, from noon till noon, plus whatever time your father needs to organize a search."

"An hour, no more. He moves quickly and with decision."

"So then, we must have a peasant's disguise, and this is easier said than done. Is there no one whom you trust?"

"One only, the nurse who tended me when I was small."

"And where is she?"

"Her name is Ehirme. She lives on a steading south along the road.

She would give us clothes, or anything we asked for without stint, if she knew my need."

"With disguise, a day's start and gold for passage to Troicinet, freedom is ours. And once across the Lir you will be simply Suldrun of Watershade. No one will know you for Princess Suldrun of Lyonesse save only me and perhaps my father, who will love you as I do."

Suldrun looked up at him. "Do you truly love me?"

Aillas took her hands and pulled her to her feet; their faces were only inches apart. They kissed each other.

"I love you most dearly," said Aillas. "I never want to be parted from you."

"I love you, Aillas, nor do I wish us to be parted ever."

In a transport of joy the two looked into each other's eyes.

Aillas said: "Treachery and tribulation brought me here, but I give thanks for all of it."

"I have been sad too," said Suldrun. "Still, if I had not been sent away from the palace, I could not have salvaged your poor drowned corpse!"

"So then! For murderous Trewan and cruel Casmir: our thanks!" He bent his face to Suldrun's; they kissed again and again; then, sinking to the couch, lay locked in each other's arms, and presently lost themselves in ardor.

Weeks passed, swift and strange: a period of bliss, made the more vivid by its background of high adventure. The pain in Aillas'

shoulder subsided, and one day in the early afternoon, he scaled the cliff to the east of the garden and traversed the rocky slope on the seaward side of the Urquial, slowly and gingerly, since his boots were at the bottom of the sea and he went unshod. Beyond the Urquial he pushed through an undergrowth of scrub oak, elderberry and rowan, and so gained the road.

At this time of day, few folk were abroad. Aillas encountered a drover with a flock of sheep and a small boy leading a goat, and neither gave him more than a cursory glance.

A mile along the road he turned into a lane which wound away between hedgerows, and presently arrived at the steading where Ehirme lived with her husband and children.

Aillas halted in the shadow of the hedge. To his left, at the far side of a meadow, Chastain, the husband and his two oldest sons, cut hay. The cottage lay at the back of a kitchen garden, where leeks, carrots, turnips and cabbages grew in neat rows. Smoke rose from the chimney.

Aillas pondered the situation. If he went to the door and someone other than Ehirme showed herself, awkward questions might be asked, for which he had no answers.

The difficulty resolved itself. From the door came a stocky roundfaced woman carrying a bucket. She set out toward the pig-sty.

Aillas called out: "Ehirme! Dame Ehirme!"

The woman, pausing, examined Aillas with doubt and curiosity, then slowly approached. "What do you want?"

"You are Ehirme?"

"Yes."

"Would you do a service, in secret, for Princess Suldrun?"

Ehirme put down the bucket. "Please explain, and I'll tell you whether such service lies within my power."

"And in any event you'll keep the secret?"

"That I will do. Who are you?"

"I am Aillas, a gentleman of Troicinet. I fell from a ship and Suldrun saved me from drowning. We are resolved to escape the garden and make our way to Troicinet. We need a disguise of old clothes, hats and shoes, and Suldrun has no friend but you. We cannot pay at this time, but if you help us, you will be well rewarded when I return to Troicinet."

Ehirme reflected, the creases in her weather-beaten face twitching to the flux of her thoughts. She said: "I will help you as best I can. I have long suffered for the cruelty done to poor little Suldrun, who never harmed so much as an insect. Do you need only clothes?"

"Nothing more, and our most grateful thanks for these."