Sir Arsam spoke words full of warmth to those who had followed him from dread Cuculna. “It is a risk to trust the words of a man who says what you hoped to hear. I am eager for risk. Here is my thought, and after you hear it, do what you judge best. Let us, we foreign knights and Sir Augusto, make a pact to give aid to the one of us who can wear those clothes, if any of us is so able, in whatever comes of it, whether the lord here bids the man to slay a tribe of ogres or else to carry off a bride for him from some eerie tower where the guards are made of bronze, or anything else.”

“I will swear to that, fearing only that the adventure before us is less demanding than what you conjure in words, Sir Arsam,” said Sir Kasya of Denes. All those three and twenty knights agreed to it, and Sir Augusto led them first to the house of a man friendly to Mordei that they might do off their cheerless mail and helms and second to the main square, for Saphonium had many, where were kept the unusual clothes. Near them was a screen that had the purpose of allowing a change of clothes in public while the lord's men watched behind it for any trick or theft. Men and women danced in the square, and when one had failed the trial, a priest threw a ball into that gleeful crowd whose grabbing hands chose the next to go.

When the stranger knights mixed themselves into that festival, it seemed much as when lions drink from the very river where do deer and squirrels. They waited in that crowd, joyful and vast, for the ball to be thrown. They hoped further by the deftness of their hands trained to hold swords and wield them to win their chance soon. Sir Mort of Clerod first among them earned the right to challenge the clothes, but he struggled a short time to pull a shirt over his broad shoulders before he surrendered a prize he had no hope of winning. Neither did Sir Joram of Calnim fit them for the size of his feet, and they covered Sir Eliot of Twicecreek as a funeral shroud might. He was glad to be out of them for that who was heedful of signs more than they deserved. Sir Kasya as well was overcome by the trial, and many knights beside him so that a few only had not failed.

Sir Arsam had not yet been tested, but his mind bent toward a matter other than that. “Sir Augusto, does the pact among us no longer please you? As many times as the ball has been thrown, you have not raised your hands high or made any try at it. Now my mind begins to form this thought, that you behave as would a boy playing with his brothers and sisters, the eldest, who leaves off from using all the skill that he has, knowing how speedily he would end the sport were that his will. Yes, that you know more of this matter than you have told us is what I begin to believe, and so I say this. I am a man who likes more for the best to do a task than for me to do worse in his place.”

Sir Augusto smiled when he heard that and made no answer, for Sir Arsam had read him well. He strove in the next contest to seize the ball and did not, but not long later he grabbed it to have his turn. And there was much of startlement then, though Sir Arsam did not share it, when the shirt fit him, and the coat, and the boots and hat that warded from the head sun and rain both, and all else as well, as if the tailor had measured him for it. The Saphonians saw that knight of Mordei their rival step forth the winner, and in all that square he looked the handsomest and most splendid. For one day the people of that proud city did not begrudge him that, but praised his looks and claimed this, that the thing altogether was a plot between Count Servius and the tailor to entice the best of their neighbors to visit and enrich the city.

The count himself came when word of it reached him, and the knights saw how ill those clothes doubtless fit him, for he was taller by far than Sir Augusto and narrower too. He had men with him as well and never was without them, for he said it were a shame that the lord of Saphonium should go about with less pomp than that of Mordei, a creed which the people liked. There were those who whispered he did it from fear, but many and strong knights who viewed him, and those with Sir Arsam agreed, had another thought, which was that when they saw the men about him they knew the lord to be the surest in his arms among them, and that he liked to be surrounded by his lessers.

“Welcome, visitor, to Saphonium our city. I ween you to be not a native, for a man of your seeming merit must be known wherever you choose to live, but here I must ask your name,” Count Servius said.

“I am Augusto of Mordei, son of Marciana.”

“Indeed? And what great man is your father?”

“No one it would cheer you to know.”

“Then we will pass over it, as well as your coming from that city. Cheer and gladness rule all the world now, and I obey those twin kings in full. I, their seneschal, have commands of my own, and bid you spend this night in the palace that you might not leave without my knowing it, for I will not allow you to go without such gifts as will make Mordei wonder at them.”

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“I, too, am able to obey,” Sir Augusto said, and he did not go against either gladness or cheer for all that day. Saphonium rejoiced and had such vigor in it that the efforts of its people seemed even to slow the sun in its course so that the one day had the length of two or three. But even that festival ceased, at least till the morning next, and Sir Augusto made his visit to the palace where a room was given him, one larger than houses are in cities less in wealth than Saphonium.

The bed was big too, but Sir Augusto had no thought of sleep. He moved away the panels that covered the room's sole window, leaned out from it, and waved. Soon he welcomed to his room Sir Arsam and all those many and bold knights with him, who fit inside less well than did Sir Augusto in the clothes Festus had made, but they bore the discomfort nevertheless. The knights said not a word but only waited while Sir Augusto took to the bed as if he would not leave till he had dreamt all he was able, though in truth he did not do off his arms or close his watchful eyes.

For some hours the knights stood there without noise in the dark, which was no new thing for any of them, though some had last been posted to such duty as that years before when squires. They knew therefore how to say nothing when they saw light under the door that soon yielded again to sun-conquering night. The light showed again, and again it went away. A third time there was light, and a sound as well, the unsheathing of threatening swords meant for grim work.

Even hearing that, the knights stayed still without drawing their own glistening blades, which they had no need to do, for they had them in hand, and had so long since. They moved only when the door opened and let in light and men, some with lanterns and all with ill purpose they failed in the doing, for warlike men fell upon them and bound them, the five of them, and never did any strike a blow.

They shouted though, those murderers, and warned the count their master of the risk for him there in his own palace. Nor was it small, for the two and twenty knights and Sir Augusto together, who no longer doubted whether Count Servius was a scoundrel but were sure of it, seized the rooms close by and held them against the foe. The count, for his part, gathered his knights and guards around him such as were awake and sent men to rouse the rest. He was too canny and aware of war's dreadful lessons to go against a force of unknown strength in any hesitating way, to send men singly and lose them thereby. Instead he mustered his three dozen armsmen in the courtyard that made the middle of that large and splendid palace. There he waited to learn what he could of the enemy.

Neither did he have care for the servants and think what was good for them. Those common people who never had any part of war were much afeared then, those who were roused by the cries and tumult, and spurred their families and fellow servants that all might flee and be safe, for they had no will to die for their master's sake whom they loved not. The winemen, the cooks, the grooms, and all the rest waxed more in fright when they passed foreign knights on their way through the maze of rooms in that grand palace, but Sir Augusto calmed them with noble words, and none did any harm or threatened them.

Not till the servants had left, as many as wished to, did the knights move against their enemy, much as when the rainbow in all its colors leaps toward the land it desires after the storm ceases to hide the sky by its fierceness. They marched on the courtyard, and Sir Augusto faced Count Servius across it and spoke in this way. “Time wears down even mountains, to say nothing of men. And so it is not strange, if I say what hardly needs it, that you found it a deed harder to murder me than it was to slay my father, Count Lucius, all those years ago when I was only just born. To fail your plot at the end is woe enough, but the beginning of it will do you the worst of ill. For I was not set on your death when I came here to this Saphonium you hold or knew for sure it was murder that undid my father the count. It may have been, this was my doubt, some dispute between brave men who make their arms the judge of their dealings, however often the tears of my mother said otherwise. But now I am sure of it.”

Count Servius made this his answer. “If it is your wish to have others think you foolish rather than fierce, I will say nothing against it. What I will speak on is this matter of our combat, which there was never any hope of avoiding. It was your very birth that urged me to the deed, or rather when he told me of it, how he had an heir he planned not to make known to the people till later. On that day I understood not what he meant, but I was not bothered by that, as we were never of one mind. I know now of course from your words, still taking you for a fool as we agreed, that your mother is Marciana, daughter of Fausto Mordei's lord. Lucius therefore had some thought of bringing about friendship between our two cities when they saw how fine the son of both was, but then I had worry for nothing but that I had waited too long to do away with him. Still, better the noon than the evening, so I slew him the next chance that I was able, during our war against Viljami's men who thought their master's help more than was needed to humble us and judged wrong in that. I never found that wife and secret son, and never would have, but for this, that you are a confessed fool. Ah, and yet this is a festive week when we ought to look kindly on one another. I will even do this favor for Lucius my old friend and remove from the land his shameful son before the truth of his line is widely known.”

So he said and readied himself, and his men did so as well, none of them eager to leave their lord though he had done foul deeds and spoke of them openly. Rather they esteemed him all the more for it, that he did what they dreamed of daring, and neither did he hide any of his feats whether just or wicked. They further had their arms from him, some among them, and all of them their livelihood. None therefore did what was right, but what was full of risk for them instead.