He turned and strode from the room before Ben had a chance to object farther. Parsnip and Bunion exited as well. Ben was left staring at Abernathy.
“High Lord?” The dog beckoned to a spiral staircase that wound upward into the castle dark.
Ben nodded wordlessly. He was obviously not going to learn anything more for the moment.
“Lay on, Macduff,” he sighed.
Together, they began to climb.
It proved to be a rather healthy trek. They climbed numerous stairs and followed half a dozen shadowed halls before reaching the appointed rooms. Ben spent most of the time lost in thought, pondering the unpleasant news that he was a King without any of the trappings, that he was Lord over Castle Dracula and not much else. He should have been paying closer attention to where he was going, he chided himself when they finally arrived, if for no other reason than to be able to find his way back again without help. He had a faint recollection of stone-block floors and wooden-beamed ceilings, of oak doors and iron fastenings, of tapestries and coats of arms, of muted colors and the discoloration of the Tarnish — but not much more than that.
“Your bath chamber, High Lord,” Abernathy announced, halting before a heavy wooden door carved in scroll.
Ben peered inside. There was an iron tub with clawed feet and scrolled sides filled with steaming water, a tray with soaps, a pile of linen towels, with a change of clothing and a pair of boots stacked on a stool.
The bath looked inviting. “How did you manage to keep the water hot all this time?” he asked, wondering suddenly at the steam.
“The castle, High Lord. She still retains something other magic. Food for the larder, hot water for baths — that is about all she has strength enough left for.” Abernathy cut himself short and started to leave.
“Wait!” Ben called suddenly. The dog stopped. “I, uh… I just want to tell you that I’m sorry that I acted so surprised that you could talk. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“I am quite accustomed to it. High Lord,” Abernathy replied, and Ben didn’t know if he meant the rudeness or the surprise. The dog peered at him from over the rims of his glasses. “In any case, though I am recognized everywhere within Landover as a major curiosity, I doubt that I will prove to be the biggest surprise that you will encounter.”
Ben frowned. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning that you have a lot to learn, and the lessons are likely to be rather astonishing.”
He bowed perfunctorily, backed through the door and closed it silently behind him. Ben’s frown deepened. That last comment sounded almost like a warning, he thought. It sounded as if Abernathy was advising him that the worst was yet to come.
He brushed the matter from his mind, stripped off his clothes, lowered himself into the tub of water and lay back blissfully to soak. He remained in the tub for the better part of the hour that followed, thinking over all that had happened to him. Oddly enough, the focus of his concern had shifted completely since his arrival in Landover. Then, his concern had been with whether or not what he was seeing and experiencing was real or induced by clever special effects and the ingenuity of modern science. Now, his concern was with whether or not he should be here at all. Questor’s revelations about the condition of the kingship were disheartening at best. He had paid a million dollars for a throne that commanded no retainers, no army, no treasury, and no taxing program. He found himself more inclined to accept that Landover was indeed a world apart from his own, a world in which magic really did function, than to accept that he had purchased a throne that commanded nothing.
Still, he wasn’t being entirely fair, he chided. He had paid for a throne, but he had also paid for the land — and the land seemed to be exactly as advertised. Moreover, he had to expect that after twenty years with no King sitting on the throne, Landover’s monarchy was likely to be floundering somewhat. He couldn’t reasonably expect that a working tax system, a standing army, a body of retainers, and a full treasury would survive twenty years of no King. Matters would quite naturally get out of hand after a while. It was logical that there should be some work required of him to get things moving again.