Peter’s Diary part 11: An Unwelcome Guest at the Funeral

In The Doom that Came to Amber

 

The 27th day of Bull

This day was to be the funeral of the Archmage Clarence, and given that I had no invite (for who would invite a Faerie bard to such?), I passed pleasantries with those of the Blood gathered for breakfast, intending to practice the art of the longbow all day.

 

Ambassador Khitan of Cordoba was there, and he acted in a most peculiar way – he watched carefully what Morwaith ate, and then ate the same – from the same dishes, and to the same amount. Almost I would think he acted in mimicry for some jest, though he has shown little humour before now, save he was so serious in his intentions.

 

Princess Bathsheba was able to recommend a guard – Marak by name, as a master archer and a good teacher also and, once breakfast was done, it was to him I went to learn to shoot.

 

Marak set up the tuns, and I shot two dozen arrows at 50 paces – a good distance, according to Marak. He seemed surprised as I loosed the shafts and each one hit gold. Looking at me somewhat askance, he moved the target back 50 paces, with the same results. Again, the targets were moved, to 200 paces, and each shaft left the bow as sweetly as a falcon stoops, and landed with the same ferocity. Marak looked to me as if I were jesting with him, then seeing my obvious surprise, muttered that there was little he could teach me in this art, though the least he could do was to point to a bowyer who could fashion a bow to my size.

 

I visited this crafter, and though he smiled at my slim physique, none of the bows in his stall were any challenge. Looking at me askance, he asked me to bring in some seasoned timbers from his yard. He selected one far past my ability to lift, but yet I lifted it. Looking at the huge log in my arms, he shook his head and claimed that no tools he owned nor skill he had would make a bow that would test me and that I should seek a crafter whose art was as great as he who had made the arrow I wished to shoot.

 

I must speak to Morwaith.