The Iron Tempest (12 page)

“I suppose it’s needless to say that Rashid was astonished at this example of vegetable verbosity. Nevertheless, he wasted no time in releasing the hippogryph.

“‘Whoever or whatever you are,’ he said, blushing, ‘whether ghost or god, please accept my apologies. If I’ve disarranged your branches or bruised your bark, it was only that I never suspected that a spirit dwelled within.’

“‘That’s all right,’ replied the tree. ‘There’s little harm done after all, thank you.

“‘I see from your arms,’ continued the spirit, ‘that you are Rashid, the great knight.’

“‘Then you have the advantage of me,’ Rashid replied, ‘since I don’t know who or what you may be—may Allah’s hailstones forever spare you! If I may, now or in the future, be of further service to you, by way of amends for the hurt I have done you however inadvertently, then I swear, by the fair woman in whose keeping lies the best part of me—’”

“He said that?” asked Bradamant. “Did he really say that?”

“Well, of course he did. As I was saying, ‘I promise you,’ said Rashid, ‘by the fair woman in whose keeping lies the best part of me—’”

“Oh!”

“‘—that I shall undertake to give you every cause to thank me.’”

“When the tree heard this, it quivered from crown to root and beads of dew oozed through every pore of its bark, like green wood will sweat when overwhelmed by the heat of a fire.

“‘I’ll tell you my story, and who I am,” replied the myrtle, its voice softer than ever. ‘My name is Astolph—’”

“Astolph!” cried Bradamant. “
Duke
Astolph? My cousin?”

“Astolph is a relative?”

“Yes! Through his father Otho he’s heir to the throne of the Angles! I remember him very well. Handsome and graceful and well-liked by everyone . . . especially by the ladies,” she added with a graceful blush.

“Well, that’s very nice—but
if
I may go on: Astolph told Rashid how he was shipwrecked on this very same island of Cipangu. When he awoke, he explained to Rashid, he found himself on a beach above which rose a high castle. As he lay there, still too weak to stand, he saw a beautiful woman glide through a gate and descend onto the sand. Taking no notice of the man who lay not twenty paces from her, she walked to the edge of the water and began to call the fish from the sea.

“‘I recognized her almost at once,’ said Astolph to Rashid. ‘It was the sorceress Alcina, of course.’

“‘Morgan’s sister?’ he exclaimed.

“‘Her twin sister, which is twice as bad as I was soon to learn. But on that beach, when I first saw her, I gave no thought to her reputation. All I could think was that this was the loveliest woman I had ever seen. What was more, I was certain she felt much the same about me, as I thought I could plainly tell from the expression on her face when she finally turned and looked at me.

“‘I didn’t think twice about following her into her castle, where I was entertained by every conceivable luxury, so inflamed she was with love for me. The same fire burned within me no less ardently, I can tell you, and, should you be so unfortunate to glimpse her yourself, you’d see why. She’s impossibly beautiful and indulgent. Every imaginable delight is condensed in that delicious, delicate, sinuous body; every treasure in the world is concentrated in those secret vaults. Lost within her, I forgot all about the emperor and my family and my duty and my honor. Every Godly intention I ever had ended in her and went no further.

“‘And in my conceit I was certain that she was equally enamored of myself. I believed her when she told me that she’d abandoned all her previous lovers in my favor—and I knew that they were numberless. She kept me by her side day and night—and I sat
at
her side as well, as she had made me her equal in the rule of the island and all its inhabitants. She spoke to no one else—only to me.’

“The tree shook so violently that it threatened to bury Rashid beneath a flurry of branches and leaves. ‘Why do I torture myself by recalling how good and lovely she was, when it was by her own hand that I am as I am now?’

“‘What happened?’ Rashid asked gently. ‘What did she do?’

“‘While I wandered around the castle,’ replied Astolph, ‘happily blind in my infatuation, thinking that Alcina loved me as she had loved and would love no one else in the world, she had already reclaimed her heart and given it to another.’

“‘She had found another lover?’

“‘As she had done, I discovered, a thousand times before. She cast me out without a word. I’d existed in bliss for but two months. No longer and no less than any lover before me. Why hadn’t I suspected this earlier?’

“‘I wondered that myself.’

“‘Well, this is where you’ll understand the sort of monster she truly is. In order to maintain the purity of her reputation—without which her island would be shunned like the plague-spot it is—she transforms each of her spurned and disdained lovers into some feature of this lovely landscape you’ve been enjoying.’

“‘You mean—?’

“‘Yes. Some she turned into fir trees, some into fruit and nut trees, some into willows or aspens or poplars. Others became beds of flowers and vegetables, birdbaths and lawn ornaments; others were transformed into sheep and lambs and goats and pigs and chickens—I shudder even now when I think back on all the sumptious meals I enjoyed in the company of that damned witch. And that wasn’t the end of it! All of this island, every rock, pinnacle, cave, spring, stream and cascade, every path, meadow, hut, haywain, sundial, cast iron deer, mushroom, bird and insect, every visible feature of it is a testimony to her fickleness.’

“Rashid leaped to his feet, looking with uncomfortable apology at the rock upon which he had been sitting. Had he just committed an unpardonable rudeness to some fellow knight?

”’And now you’re here and whoever’s currently enjoying Alcina’s favors is doomed to become a paperweight or doorstop. She’ll offer to share her scepter with you and you’ll reign over this island and her heart and think yourself the happiest of all mortals—but make no mistake, in two months’ time you’ll be joining the rest of the bric-a-brac in cluttering up the landscape. Well, there you are. I’ve warned you, for whatever good it may do you.’

“This remarkable account certainly gave Rashid something to think about. He might not have believed it had it not been sworn to him by a shrub. He had sworn to help Astolph in your name, Bradamant, and would have done so gladly if he’d any idea how to do it. But he couldn’t imagine what he could do, other than to offer the plant a little water.

“The only plan he could think of was to confront the sorceress boldly and force her to recant her spells. Having decided this, he said his farewells to the grateful plant and prepared for his trek, which Astolph said shouldn’t be long since the castle lay scarcely two or three miles distant. Rashid decided to ride Papillon, but with the beast’s great wings bound to its sides. He no longer trusted it to obey the bridle if he again allowed it to take flight.

“As he rode, he resolved to do whatever was necessary to avoid falling into Alcina’s power. ‘I shall simply overwhelm her with force, if I go about it the right way,’ he told himself. ‘My inherent virtue should be proof enough against her magic.’

“He had scarcely gone two miles when he caught sight of the castle, rising between where he stood and the distant shoreline. It was a very strange-looking place with its slender towers shimmering as though through a heat-haze. It was as brilliant, cold and translucent as blown glass. An odd, pleasant, melodic sound, carried by the faint breeze, drifted from it. Goading his beast, he began the descent into the valley. As soon as he entered the woods that surrounded the castle, he was barred by a high wall defended by a horde of monsters.”

“Monsters!” Bradamant cried. “Oh, Melissa, I wish you wouldn’t drag the story out like this! Where’s Rashid
now
? What’s become of him? Is he well or is he hurt? Please! I must know!”

“I know this is difficult, my brave girl, but it
is
necessary, as you’ll see. Please bear with me just a few minutes more and everything’ll be clear.”

“If you say so,” was the girl’s surly reply, “but it’d better not be
very
much longer and it’d better be worth it.”

“Patience. As I was saying, Rashid was facing a covey of uncanny monstrosities, no two alike—a blessing, he realized quickly, since there was not one of them he’d care to see twice.

“The leader of these creatures, a monstrosity with its face in its stomach, barked at Rashid to turn around and return from where he came.

“‘Not while I can still wield this,’ the knight replied, brandishing the point of his sword in the monster’s face. The creature’s only reply was to snarl and lunge at Rashid with its spear, but the knight skewered it by the force of its own rush and the loathsome thing burst like a pricked boil. Grasping his shield, Rashid leaped from the back of Papillon, flourishing his sword in every direction. The enemy came in overwhelming numbers, absolutely heedless of their companions whom Rashid was slicing, eviscerating and beheading left and right. The horrible things burst like fleshy piñatas. They poured over him like locusts, biting, scratching, clawing, stinging, sucking, licking and chewing. Rashid did the best he could, chopping away savagely. Fortunately, the monsters were unarmored—indeed, most of them were innocent of any adornment—not that helmet or cuirass or mail would have been of any avail against Balisard, Rashid’s incredible sword—and the brave knight was soon buried to his hips in wriggling body parts, drenched from head to foot in steaming gore and entrails. Not that it did him any good because for every creature he despatched, five more sprang onto him. To hold his own he would have needed the hundred arms of Briareus.”

“But the shield! That was Atalante’s shield! Why didn’t he uncover it and use it?”

“Who knows? Perhaps he thought it an unworthy advantage, to resort to such magical trickery in lieu of valor.”

“True! That would be just like him!” Bradamant sighed admiringly.

“Then again, he may have absent-mindedly left it attached to Papillon’s saddle.”

“Never!”

“In any case, he decided that he’d prefer to fight to the death than give himself up as a prisoner to such filthy beasts. And it looked as though that’d be the dénoument of this encounter: his death—by exhaustion if nothing else—seemed the only possible end.

“Well, just as he’d abandoned himself to this fate, what should happen but that a gate swung open in the wall! Rashid was a little too busy to take much notice of the newcomers who came through the opening, other than to realize that they were a trio of maidens each riding her own unicorn. However, as soon as the monsters became aware of the women’s presence, they melted away like salted slugs, leaving Rashid standing waist-deep in melting heads, arms, legs and bowels and feeling somewhat embarrassed at having to meet three lovely young women in such a condition.”

“‘Lovely young women’?” repeated Bradamant, her eyes narrowing to splinters of steel. “
What
lovely young women?”

“Control yourself. Rashid soon faced dangers greater than a horde of monsters and these three beautiful maidens.

“And they were indeed beautiful. So exquisite were they that only a god could have told whether they were human or Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia, those daughters of Jove whom men call the Graces. Indeed, for all I know, they may actually have been those goddesses. In any event, they brought their ermine-white mounts to a halt before the gory knight and held out their hands to him.

“Rashid, blushing like a schoolboy, thanked them for his rescue and, if it pleased them, he would gladly accompany them through their golden gate.”

“Gladly, would he?”

“Bradamant, if you want to know what’s become of your lover, you must cease these jealous interruptions!”

“I’m not jealous. Besides, I can’t help it.”

“Yes you are. Yes you can. How can you say you love this man if you are constantly demonstrating that you don’t trust him? There’s no such thing as love without trust, Bradamant.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, we’ll see about that.”

“Please continue and I’ll try not to interrupt again! I promise!”

“Hmm. Where was I?”

“Rashid was about to go through the gate. With those . . . women.”

“Yes. Rashid decided to leave Papillon outside the wall, if for no other reason than that the castle didn’t appear so far off that he couldn’t walk to it if he had to. Besides, the beast seemed to make the ladies’ unicorns skittish. He took his lance and weapons and walked alongside the mounted damsels, declining to ride their spare animal. As Rashid and the maidens approached the wall, he noticed that beneath the covering of vines and ivy and moss it was made of silver and gold, encrusted with jewels as big as his fist and supported by columns of solid diamond. The gate was swung open for the quartet by bevies of winged nymphs—graceful, lithesome, shamelessly naked creatures that fluttered lasciviously around the knight. They called him by name and welcomed him to Paradise.”

“
Paradise
!” cried Bradamant. “Oh. Sorry.”

“Rashid was as surprised and doubtful as you, but once he’d passed within the wall, he began to question his own senses instead. It seemed to him that perhaps he’d been suddenly immersed in a magically animated Pompeiian mural. Even the colors seemed unnatural, as though the artist who had created the landscape had either been too bold to temper his palette or too afraid not to. Everywhere were greens and blues and reds and yellows and oranges and violets as intense as electric shocks. Rashid’s eyes watered as he squinted against the radiant glamour.

“The nymphs floated around his head like the nebulae of unformed planets around their sun, the unicorns looked like white-hot iron, the maidens riding them incandescent, their alabaster flesh gleaming from some bright, internal flame.

“The three women now turned to Rashid and said, ‘We’ve long been familiar, even in this distant isle, with your valorous deeds. That’s what gives us the courage to beg you for your aid.’ They all spoke together in a pleasantly harmonious chorus.

“‘Whatever I can do, you only need ask,’ replied the honest knight.