The guard looked down at me, lips pursed slightly, not in judgment but merely considering how to classify me. "Whose get?" he asked, and his tone was not one of curiosity, but only that of a man who asks for more specific information on a situation, in order to report well to a superior.

"Chivalry's," the old man said, and he was already turning his back on me, taking his measured steps down the graveled pathway. "Prince Chivalry," he said, not turning back as he added the qualifier. "Him what's King-in-Waiting. That's who got him. So let him do for him, and be glad he managed to father one child, somewhere."

For a moment the guard watched the old man walking away. Then he wordlessly stooped to seize me by the collar and drag me out of the way so he could close the door. He let go of me for the brief time it took him to secure the door. That done, he stood looking down on me. No real surprise, only a soldier's stoic acceptance of the odder bits of his duty. "Up, boy, and walk," he said.

So I followed him, down a dim corridor, past rooms spartanly furnished, with windows still shuttered against winter's chill, and finally to another set of closed doors, these of rich, mellow wood embellished with carvings. There he paused and straightened his own garments briefly. I remember quite clearly how he went down on one knee to tug my shirt straight and smooth my hair with a rough pat or two, but whether this was from some kindhearted impulse that I make a good impression, or merely a concern that his package look well tended, I will never know. He stood again and knocked once at the double doors. Having knocked, he did not wait for a reply, or at least I never heard one. He pushed the doors open, herded me in before him, and shut the doors behind him.