Egelric is neither invited nor dismissed

“Oh, good!” Alred said as Egelric came into the study. “You’re here. That will save Bowdyn a trip.”

Egelric bowed to the King and asked his lord, “You needed me today? I only came to get some flour.”

“You know more about the elves than anyone, I suppose,” Sigefrith said.

“The elves?” Egelric noted the absence of smiles on the two of them, besides their initial, strained smiles of greeting, and he began to worry.

“You didn’t notice the people acting oddly when you came in?” Alred asked.

“How is Baby?”

“She’s upstairs,” Alred said.

“I asked how, not where.”

“Baby is fine. This isn’t about her.”

“What then?”

Sigefrith said, “We have a girl claiming to have been raped by five elves last night.”

“Five?” Egelric gasped.

“One would have surprised me as much.”

“Who?”

“Red Curran’s youngest girl,” Alred said. “She was coming home through the forest last night when they attacked her.”

“Oh, that one,” Egelric frowned.

“You don’t believe her?”

“She might have had some other adventure that she preferred to hide from her father by making up some such story.”

“That may be,” Alred said. “But even if the story is a lie, and we do not have elves attacking women, we still have all of the people believing that they are.”

“You will forgive us, Egelric,” Sigefrith said, “but we have been discussing why, after eleven years, the elves would suddenly take an interest in one of ours. I do not doubt the people will be having the same discussion today.”

“And we could only think of one reason,” Alred said.

“What?” Egelric asked warily.

“They will be angry because you have taken one of theirs,” Sigefrith said.

Egelric looked back and forth between the two of them. They were not quite hostile, but they were not quite on his side, either.

“Is that what they’re saying?” he asked.

“Not in our hearing,” Alred said. “Yet. But don’t you suppose they will?”

“And I left her alone,” Egelric muttered to himself.

“Egelric – what shall we do?”

“She came willingly to me!” he protested.

“I know that,” Alred sighed. “Perhaps the elves don’t. Perhaps the people don’t.”

“I can’t leave her alone,” Egelric said. He took a step closer to the door before he realized he had not been dismissed.

“What will you do, though?” Alred asked.

“I shall stay with her.”

“You can’t stay with her every day.”

Egelric hesitated, tapping his foot in his eagerness to be off.

“Did your young elf give you any indication that something like this would happen?” Sigefrith asked.

“No. He said the elves would consider our – our marriage, or whatever it is, to be sacrilege, but he said nothing about them attacking the men. Or the women.”

Egelric did not like the look that Alred and Sigefrith exchanged at the mention of the word “marriage.” He turned in a fury and yanked open the door.

“You have not yet been dismissed, Squire,” Sigefrith said, in the voice he used when one needed to be reminded that he was, however amiable, still a king.

Egelric stopped and turned back to the two of them. He did not bow his head.

“You might take her a dog,” Alred said. “One of the mastiffs. Does she like dogs?”

“I don’t know,” Egelric said, relaxing slightly. “I haven’t had a dog in years.”

“Don’t tell that to Belsar,” Alred smiled. “He thinks he’s yours. You might take him.”

“Might I?” he asked. A dog would help – against the men.

“You might. Now, what shall we do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you know where to find this young elf of yours?” Sigefrith asked.

“I wish you wouldn’t call him my young elf,” Egelric sighed. “I don’t know how to find him. He finds me.”

“You don’t suppose he was one of the five?” Alred asked.

Egelric felt his face grow hot with outrage, although he could not have said why. “No, I do not.”

“You see,” Sigefrith said. “He is more yours than you realize.”

“He saved my life.”

“Granted.”

“He needn’t have brought Sela back to me at all. I believe he risked punishment by doing so.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps he also knew what would happen if he did. Perhaps this was part of his plan.”

Egelric glanced at Alred in the hope of seeing some sign of disagreement on his face, or of the thought that Sigefrith was going too far. On the contrary, Alred only looked back at him with the same suspicious look that Sigefrith wore.

“You think this is my fault!” he growled.

“Not your fault, precisely,” Sigefrith said. “We might call it the consequences of your actions.”

“What’s the difference?”

“The difference,” Alred said, “is that we don’t blame you.”

“But the people do.”

“Perhaps they will.”

“Then I had better get back to Sela, for they will blame her too! May I be dismissed?”

Sigefrith looked at Alred, and Alred said kindly, “I may come to see the two of you later today. Will you mind if I bring this unwashed barbarian with me?”

“I don’t mind.”

“Sela?”

“I shall warn her.”

“Very well. You may have the honor of dismissing him, old man.”

“How does an unwashed barbarian go about that?” Sigefrith asked.

“I believe unwashed barbarians proceed by butting their heads together; however, to avoid the risk of putting out your eye on Egelric’s nose, I recommend you dispense with the formalities and dismiss him with a grunt.”

Sigefrith laughed. “Damn you, Alred, if you make me laugh I shall not manage a proper grunt.”

“And you call yourself a king!” Alred scoffed.

“I would butt heads with you, my little man, if only I could stoop so low!”

“Gentlemen?” Egelric sighed.

“Pardon, Squire,” Alred said. “I shall graciously dismiss you, since this triple-​​ninny lacks the dignity to grunt at you.”

“How do you graciously dismiss your man?” Sigefrith asked him.

“I follow the French fashion, and fart in his general direction.”

“Oh! In that case it might help if I made you laugh.”

“No, you’re thinking of my wife, there.”

Egelric finally went out without waiting for any sort of dismissal. He heard their adolescent laughter all the way down the corridor, and it pained him – not so much because they dared laugh in such a situation, for he knew that that was how the two of them managed to survive such situations, but because he didn’t feel he had been invited to laugh with them. They might not blame him, but they had not quite forgiven him either.