The king listened intently, his quick grey eyes drinking in every detail of the man before him as the seneschal whispered in his ear. Explaining a sanitised version of the rescue of the countess no doubt, thought Vulkan although, he doubted very much that Max would tell Leo that his wife had been well shafted by a no account border reaver.

"Prince Vulkan," said the king at last, "I hear that we have much to thank you for. Not least that you have restored the precious Countess Jessica to us, but also that you have slain the cowardly dogs who attacked her party, we are indeed most grateful."

Vulkan bowed deep once more and injected a healthy dose of pomposity into his voice.

"It was no more than my duty and my honour demanded, Majesty."

The king nodded graciously and a fraction of a moment later the bouncers all nodded too.

"Perhaps there is boon I may offer you by way of thanks," the king suggested expansively.

Vulkan considered his reply carefully. At the same time staring across at the glowering seneschal, who, by the increasingly suffused state of his complexion, must have visited his wife and seen the unholy state of her. Clearly, he wanted to move on to the next order of business with all speed. Vulkan decided that he had already been fortunate enough to secure rooms in the seneschal's tower and been granted an audience with the king, all within hours of arriving. Best not to push it he told himself.

"I require no special thanks other than those gracious words Your Majesty has already spoken," he replied.

The king nodded once. The matter was closed.

Later, after carefully exploring the corridors and halls of the vast, rambling keep, Vulkan headed back to his chambers to find a page awaiting him outside his door. The lad brought an urgent summons from the countess and so it was with a spring in his step that Vulkan followed the page up to the seneschal's apartments, but not before collecting some stuff from the small chest Malpurgo had given him.