Off he went, trying to look important. Hehad a right to look important: through his crystal, the king would speakto the village. Garivald had never imagined such a thing. If he got closeenough to the crystal, he might actually see King Swemmel, though the kingwould not see him.

That was exciting. But, try as Waddo wouldto walk with the best swagger he could with his bad leg, that nasty, slinkinghint of fear stayed in his step. It had nothing to do with the limp, either.Garivald didn’t like it. If Waddo was afraid, he probably had good reason to beafraid. Garivald wondered what the firstman had heard on the crystal and thenkept to himself.

Whatever it was, Garivald couldn’t doanything about it. He hurried back to his own house to tell Annore and Syrivaldthe astonishing news. “The king?” his wife said, her dark eyes going wide. LikeGarivald, like most Unkerlanters, she was solid and swarthy, with a proud nose.She repeated herself, as if she couldn’t believe it: “King Swemmel will talk toour village?”

“Powers above,” Syrivald added around acrust of black bread. Leuba, a toddler chewing on another crust, was too littleto care whether Swemmel spoke to Zossen or not.

“I think he’s going to be talking to thewhole kingdom,” Garivald said, “or to as many places as have crystals, anyhow.”

“Will we go see him?” Syrivald asked.

“Aye, we will,” his father answered. “Iwant to find out what the truth is about this miserable war we’ve got ourselvesinto with Algarve.” After he’d spoken, he paused to wonder how much of thetruth King Swemmel was likely to tell.

Annore said, “If we’re going to go, we’dbetter go now, so we can get up close to the crystal.” Suiting action to word,she scooped up Leuba and carried the toddler out of the house. Garivald andSyrivald followed.

They weren’t the only family with the sameidea. The square got as crowded as Garivald ever remembered seeing it, and thena little more crowded than that. Not everyone in Zossen had heard Waddo’sannouncement, but no one could miss friends and neighbors and relatives headingfor the square. People jockeyed for position, stepped on one another’s toes,and loosed a few judicious elbows. Garivald caught one, but he gave it backwith interest.