The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality (11 page)

"That priest is very nosy," Jenna said as she led me through the cloister, "and he adores asking questions which are difficult to answer. What was he saying to you?"

"I don't remember," I said, and that was mostly true. She had lied about my ability to leave, hadn't she? But it had been out of her love, hadn't it? That was all right, wasn't it? What difference did it make whether I could leave? There was nowhere else I wanted to go. "You look very lovely in that dress, my lady."

Her eyes sparkled. "You may call me Jenna when we are alone, but you must be very careful otherwise, especially when I become queen."

"Are you really going to have Albert turn me into a bishop?"

"No! I think you would make a very pretentious bishop, strolling around in a robe with your hands clasped on your belly. I like you with a sword swinging from your hip. But truly, Jack, what did you think about what I said to him?"

"I thought it was very charming."

"You see, I am practicing to be queen. But I don't know if I've got it right."

"My advice to you, Jenna, is just to be yourself, and you'll make a wonderful queen."

"What, shall I throw away my clothes, and ride bare-ass down the road in my crown? There was a woman who actually did that long ago. Her name was Lady Godiva."

"I've heard of her."

"Do you think she really did that?"

"I don't know, Jenna. I think history is mostly stuff that people make up."

"Every woman wants to be queen, I suppose. But now it seems so . . ." She shuddered. "I think I'm too crazy, Jack. I don't know how long I can play that role."

"You mustn't try to play a role. You'll only make yourself unhappy. You have to be yourself, and if you're crazy sometimes, then you're crazy. What's wrong with that?"

"Crazy Queen Jenna!"

"Before you ever considered being queen, did you care what people thought?"

"Hell, no, I didn't."

"Well, there's no reason to change now."

"Screw 'em if they can't take a joke."

"Spoken like a true queen."

"You comfort me, Jack."

"I love you, Jenna, just the way you are."

She looked up at me with soft, brown eyes. "I love you too, Jack. But promise me you won't become possessive, dear. Promise you won't be jealous of Albert. And that you'll never try to own me. No one is ever going to own me, Jack. Not Albert, not you, not anyone."

"Can't I be a little jealous of Albert sometimes? It's just the way it is with us knights, Jenna. We're very sentimental."

"And, Jack, don't ever feel guilty about what we're doing, because I've already told Albert that I may take lovers. He's quite forgotten I ever said so, I'm sure, but I did tell him more than once. So you see there's nothing illicit in what we're doing."

In my mind was an image of a scaffold and a chopping block. "I can't tell you what a feeling of security that gives me, Jenna."

"On the other hand, it's very important that we keep up appearances around the common people. I don't think they understand these things the way we do. You're looking at me strangely, dear. What I mean is that the common people love Albert and look up to him, and it just wouldn't be possible to explain to them why it's quite proper for his queen to have a lover."

"But in this valley where everybody knows everybody, there will be rumors and gossip."

"As long as what goes on between us is only a rumor to them and not an obvious fact, then Albert's charisma will not be affected. That's why we have to be careful."

"I will be guided by you, my lady."

"Thank you, Jack. You're so understanding." She sank gently to her knees, and kissed me on the codpiece. "Take this off."

"Jenna . . ."

"No one will see."

We were some distance from the cloister now, in the meadow just to the north, where a footpath ran through waist-high grasses and flowers.

"Jenna, be sensible," I said, but sensibility wasn't what I wanted from her.

"I don't want to be sensible, dear. Only careful. Now help me." She was tugging on one of the thongs that held the codpiece. I undid the knot, and as she caressed me, my knees turned to butter; I slid helplessly down among the fragrant grasses and wildflowers.

"Is there any grass on my dress?" she asked me later.

I felt happy and satisfied lying there in the peaceful meadow and didn't want to move a muscle; but I managed to struggle up on one elbow. "Yes, a little," I said, brushing her off. "Turn around. That's got it."

"Well, that was fun, Jack. I wonder if we couldn't get away with it inside the cloister."

"Now you're just being wicked."

She smiled. "Well, let's continue our walk. There really is something I want to show you."

The path ended in a grove of trees with some wooden benches in a semicircle. She took my hand and led me through the bushes just beyond. "Watch your step. It's steep here. Now, look!"

Not so far away, just on the near side of another river, was the loveliest castle anyone could have wanted to live happily ever after in. It was just a castle, not a palace; there was nothing ostentatious about it, and it was all of stone except for the drawbridge. Yet there the hand of that invisible designer had placed his signature. The castle was clearly the kingdom's centerpiece, its masterful work of art. And what the castle seemed to proclaim with every line and in every detail was that in this kingdom, this was where power and intelligence and beauty had finally come together to form a perfect bond.

It beckoned me. It invited me to come live there. I felt from the moment I saw it that my happiness on earth could never be quite complete until it could be my own castle. And the feeling was so strong, I was appalled by it. Not content with making love to Albert's queen, now I wanted his castle too.

"Jenna, who designed that castle?" When she didn't answer, I turned to look at her, and her eyes were moist with tears.

"He died of the flu three years ago. What a wonderful man he was!"

I felt a little jealous. Would she be crying for me if I had died of the flu three years ago? "Did he design the monastery too?"

"Oh, yes. He was a great genius."

"What was his name?"

"Joel. Joel Mason."

Joel Mason! One of America's most celebrated architects, his name practically a household word, he had vanished without a trace, leaving a scathing letter behind criticizing western civilization up one leg and down the other. A score of rumors had circulated around his disappearance, but the mystery had never been solved.

"He died here in the kingdom?"

"It was a great loss to us."

I couldn't ignore my sense that Joel had also been her lover. "He was an old man, wasn't he?"

"Oh, no! He was very mature, but he wasn't old. Not at all."

The drumming of hoofbeats on the road behind us was not entirely a welcome sound. Just since morning, I'd punched out the prince and made love to the queen; it occurred to me now that I'd never bothered to find out what the penalty was for high treason.

"That's Albert," Jenna said without any hint of anxiety. We looked each other over one last time for telltale grasses, and walked back toward the cloister.

Albert met us halfway. I was relieved to see him looking radiant and congenial. "Well, I suppose this means you've seen the castle, Jack. What a lovely view it is from the top of this hill! This is where I brought her ladyship to see it for the first time, isn't it, my dear? I'm sorry I missed the look on your face, Jack, but one can't be everywhere at once. So what do you think, Jack? Is there really a kingdom here, or was I making it all up?"

"Your majesty, I don't know what to say. It is a profound achievement, and I salute you." I gave him a deep bow.

Happiness bubbled out of him. Tears came to his eyes. "Thank you, Jack. A great deal of thought and planning and work went into it, and every time I come home, I'm amazed and delighted by it all over again.
This
time I'm home for good, thank God!"

"Dearest, I'm a little itchy from walking in the field," said Jenna, touching him lightly on the arm, "so I'm going to have a bath and get ready for dinner. I'm sure you and Sir Jack will have a thousand things to discuss." Off she went with perfect poise, smiling back at us as she turned the corner; she knew we wouldn't take our eyes off her until she was out of sight.

"Well, Jack, I saw Sir Leo and I must say he is very impressed with you. That's quite an accolade coming from Leo. I'd say you're doing pretty well for someone who's been here slightly more than twenty-four hours."

"Thank you, your majesty," I said, feeling somewhat relieved. "I like Sir Leo a great deal, and he's going to be a fine fencer when I get him loosened up."

"And then you rode over with Gordon, eh? What do you think of him?"

"I like him too. He's very deep. But I have to ask, what is this test that everybody took before they came here?"

"Not everybody took the test. Only the common people. The nobility didn't have to take it. I may have made a big mistake there. But it was very hard to find people for the nobility. That sounds funny, doesn't it, but it's true. They were all required to make quite a large financial investment, you see, and the test . . . well, it didn't seem appropriate at the time."

"What was the test about?"

"The test was developed to measure how deeply an individual was addicted to the modern world. I didn't want people here who would miss what the modern age had to offer and try to recreate it. I wanted people who yearned for the life that is available here."

"Okay, I get it. And who are the Picts?"

"Did you run into some Picts?"

"Gordon went charging into the woods after something he called a Pict. Whatever it was, I didn't see it. I wasn't sure if he was daffy or what."

"Oh, they're real enough!"

"What are they?"

"That's a very good question, Jack. What are they, indeed! They're one very good example of how easy it is to outsmart yourself."

"Gordon couldn't tell me much about them. He got himself all twisted around, and then gave up."

"I'm not sure I can do much better. All I can say is that they passed my test with flying colors. I transported them out of the modern era into the past, and when they got here they kept on going. But where it is they went to, I can't really say."

"So they're people who've turned wild?"

"Apparently I overdid it a little when I had that test developed. A percentage of the people who came here weren't interested in civilization at all, modern or otherwise."

"They took one look at the woods and off they went?"

"Not quite. It started with one man. A very unusual, very gifted man. A meditation master. He arrived at the invitation of the abbot. He was the first to go, and since then many others have joined him."

"How many?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe a hundred and fifty. Maybe not quite so many. How many of them are still alive, I have no idea."

"Women too?"

"Oh, yes! Whole families."

"Gordon seemed very pissed off at them."

"Some people want me to wipe them out or chase them away, as if I could really do either. They steal things sometimes, or so people say. Stealing is a very serious crime here, and if people kill Picts and say they caught them stealing, there isn't much I can say about that. But I'm not so sure it's the stealing. I think it just makes it that much harder to raise children and look after the womenfolk when the woods are full of wild men. Do you know what I mean?"

"The farmers fear them, so they want them dead?"

"Some do. Some are indifferent to them. Some are in awe of them."

"What about you, Sire?"

"I'm not going to tell you anything more. Here is an assignment for you. Once you have an experience with them—and you will—come and tell me what
you
think."

"Beg pardon, your majesty." A monk waving a wooden spoon was calling to us across the meadow. "If you're having supper with us this evening, we are about to sit down."

"We're coming, Brother Joseph! Well, Jack, are you hungry?"

I was very hungry, not having eaten since breakfast, and I was hoping as we walked in from the field that the monastery fare wouldn't be too abstemious. I was happy to discover that the monks liked to eat as much as they liked to cook.

Jenna and Albert and the abbot and I and several monks ate dinner in the monastery refectory. We had chicken in a delicious sauce, fresh potatoes and carrots and peas, bread right out of the oven, fruit wine, and custard pie. Leaning back in my chair with a full belly, I felt very glad to be living in Albert's kingdom. I felt peaceful and satisfied in a way that was so new to me that I couldn't help wondering what exactly to attribute it to.

"What did you put in this food, Brother Robert?" I said to the cook. "It's made me high as a kite."

People looked at one another and smiled in a mischievous way that made me wonder if I'd set myself up for something.

"It's a very well-kept secret, Jack," Jenna teased me.

"You have to attain a very high level of sanctity before it can be revealed," said Albert. He looked pretty high himself, and I knew it couldn't be the wine, which was tasty but not potent.

"But since you're a friend of the king," said the abbot, "we'll make an exception."

"We don't put anything in it," said Brother Robert. There was an expectant pause. They were playing some kind of game with me. "But that's not the secret." There was another pause. They wanted me to say something or take a guess, but I couldn't think what to say.

"I give up," I said.

"The secret is what
doesn't
go into the food."

"Pesticides," I guessed.

They all looked at one another in a very stylized way that was obviously part of the game. "Pesti-what?" said Brother Joseph.

"Pesticides," I repeated.

"What a strange word," said Émile.

"The man's raving," said Albert. "Get the straightjacket."

"Straight-what?" said the abbot.

Something seemed to dawn on Albert, and he squirmed a bit. "Oh, come now!"

"Straight-what?" said the abbot. Everyone was smiling except Albert. I could tell he had lost some points, but I didn't quite get the rules of the game yet.