11

'The Mermaid'

Many years ago, when we all lived in the forest and nobody lived anywhere else, a lonely old king lived by the side of a lake in a drafty castle which had seen better days. Once it had been the most beautiful castle, and he the most powerful king, in the entire forest, which covered half the continent. Once tapestries had glowed from the walls, gold plates had shone from the table, and all of the castle had seemed to sparkle with a light which was the image of the great king's glory. But the queen had died, and the princesses had married princes from lands far away, other kings in the forest had taken territory in battles, and the old king lived alone and bitter, without glory or affections. His army had died of old age or been taken from him or simply faded into the forest, and so he could not increase his treasury by conquest. Only a few woodsmen and hunters remained to pay his taxes, and they paid chiefly out of loyalty to what had once been.

One of the old king's few pleasures was to walk at evening along the shore of the lake near the castle. The water was deep and blue, and from time to time he could see a bass jump, disturbing the gloomy quiet with a splash loud as cannon fire and causing ripples to spread all the way to the shore. At such times, the king would mourn, remembering when his own power was such that its rumors and effects rippled and widened a hundred miles in every direction. The old times of love and power - how he ached for them!

One night, taking his melancholy walk beside the lake, he saw a mighty bass leap out of the water, and was so moved by longing that he mumbled quietly to himself, 'Oh, I do wish… '

Then he heard a voice as ancient and cracked as his own. 'Do wish for what, your Majesty?'

The king whirled about and saw a wrinkled old man with a crafty face and a threadbare robe seated on a fallen log half - concealed by overgrown vegetation. He did not immediately recognize the old man, for he had not seen him since the days he had just been mourning.

'Oh, it's you, wizard,' the king said. 'I thought you were dead.'

'I die fresh every morning,' said the wizard. 'Coughing brings me back.'

'Tricks and confusion, that's all I ever had from you,' said the king, turning away from the lake in irritation. In truth he was pleased to see the wizard again, despite the accuracy of what he had just said.

'Halvor is very important now in the north,' said the wizard, as if to himself, 'and Bruno has made a name for himself in the south, and Lester the Ambitious in the west, and - '

'Shut up,' grumped the king. 'I know all that. I suppose you sold yourself to them, like everyone else. I suppose you work your evil tricks for reptiles like Lester, who gained power by poisoning most of his relatives.' The great bass rose out of the water again, smacked back down with a silvery thrash of his tail, and the king's heart folded with loss.

'They have their own wizards - upstarts who think only of money. If I worked for them, wouldn't I at least have new robes?'

'Umph,' the king said. 'You do look rather seedy, wizard.'

'No more than I feel. But didn't I hear you wishing a moment ago? For old times' sake, I'd be pleased to help you.'

'And bamboozle me the way you did everyone else you aided.'

'Wizards must be paid, like everyone else,' said the ancient creature on the log. 'What were you wishing for? A vast army? A treasury full of gold?' Then he gave the king an extremely shrewd look, and all his wrinkles seemed to smooth out for a moment. 'Or was it a beautiful young wife to warm your bones? A young wife, perhaps, with the power to restore your kingdom and return to you all that you have lost?'

The king's face darkened.

'I think I could find a wife for you,' mused the wizard, 'who could bewitch the armies of Halvor and Bruno so that you could subjugate the territories that were once yours, then raise enough treasure to invade the province of Lester the Ambitious - and who, though incapable of giving you children, would give you the illusion of love.'

'Only the illusion,' said the disappointed king.

'Look at it from my point of view,' said the wizard. 'All love is illusion to a wizard. And to possess this great blessing from which the others would flow, you need only tell me that you would sacrifice your gray hair and wear a beard instead. It is a better bargain than I gave the sparrows. It is a bitter truth, your Majesty, that you have less to surrender than they.'

Though old, the king was still vain, and he hated the thought of baldness. 'Will it be a full beard?' he asked.

'A very noble beard,' the wizard said. 'Need I point out that you do not require your hair to enjoy the fruits of love? And the wife I shall give you will make you a young man again.'

'Where will you get her from?' asked the king. 'Some foul contraption of wax and bear grease?'

'Not at all.' The wizard smiled. 'I will get her from there.' He nodded to the lake, and on the instant the great bass again broke the surface. 'She will be as beautiful as beautiful, with the power to enchant armies, but she will have the cold heart of a fish. Yet as long as you are king, you will believe in her love.'

'A strong back and firm flesh,' said the king. 'And the power to enchant armies.' He trembled on the edge of his decision for a moment, fearing that he was about to make a great mistake, but then thought of a woman as beautiful as beautiful, with the power to turn the armies of Halvor and Bruno against them, and his blood stirred, and he whispered, 'I take your bargain, wizard.'

'You must be on this spot at midnight,' said the wizard, all his wrinkles deepening as he grinned and disappeared.

At eleven o'clock the king stood by the lake. By eleven-thirty his bones were aching and he sat on the wizard's hollow log, burning with hope and impatience. Fifteen minutes later he saw a great bubble burst on the surface of the lake. He stood up in the moonlight and went to the very shoreline. He rubbed his aching hands together. He sucked his teeth. He felt years younger already.

At midnight something broke the surface of the water in the center of the lake. Terrified, the old king stepped backward just as the head of a beautiful young woman appeared. Her shoulders lifted from the water, then her whole upper body, as well as the neck and head of a horse. The old king backed up until he felt bushes pressing against him. The woman emerged entirely from the lake, dressed in a long white gown and astride a magnificent white charger. Her hair was golden-red; her face was beautiful as beautiful, and the king saw that she could indeed enchant armies. 'Come, my husband,' she said, and reached down to him a hand which, when he touched it, was as cold as if no blood ran there. With the strength of a giant, she pulled him up onto the saddle with her, and they went on the white horse to his castle. And that night, with the horse stabled outside, the king knew the delights of the marriage bed as thoroughly as any twenty-year-old prince.

The next day they went north to Halvor's land, and met his army, which was going to kill them until the soldiers looked into the face of the queen. Instantly the soldiers dropped their weapons and swore their allegiance to the old king. Then they proceeded to Halvor's castle and found that Halvor had already escaped and fled farther north, to where only reindeer and wolves lived.

That night, the old king knew again the joys of love. Though his bride was fish-cold to the touch, she had beauty to break his heart and swore she loved him. And the king again felt his youth restored as half his kingdom had been restored.

On the second day, he and his bride and Halvor's army went south, where Bruno's soldiers fell to the ground and wept, welcoming them. Bruno himself fled farther south, to the land where alligators and giant lizards crawled over black rocks and slipped into stinking rivers.

The king rode back to his palace dazed with happiness. In two days he had recaptured all his old kingdom and more, and he had an army to take any land he wished. Lester the Ambitious would fall in a day. His new bride gave him glances sweeter than maple sugar, and he knew that the wizard was mistaken about her ability to love.

When the king and his wife and the joined armies had reached the palace, the king saw the wizard sitting on a broken pediment by the gates. 'Hail, great king,' said the wizard. 'Are you satisfied with your bargain?'

'I am satisfied with everything, friend,' said the king, feeling very grand astride the great white horse. He and his nobles went inside to feast on beef and roast pig and gallons of ale; and during the feast the king saw with pride how his nobles, the bravest and strongest men in three lands, paid court to his queen; and saw how like a queen she treated the nobles, giving a word to this one and a smile to that one, but reserving the best of herself for him, so that all knew that her heart was his alone.

When the king and queen left their guests to go to the royal bedroom, the king locked the door behind him and advanced toward his bride.

'Hold a moment, your Majesty,' said the wizard, who was seated in a window casement.

The king swore, and made to push the trespasser out of the window, but the wizard held up his hand and said, 'Since you are satisfied that I have kept my word, now I will ask you to keep yours.'

'Take my hair… give me my beard… but leave!' bellowed the king. The queen, who had begun to disrobe, continued to do so.

'It is done,' said the wizard, snapping his fingers, and a great agony overtook the king, an agony greater than any he had known, pain that threatened to split him apart and burn his eyes from his skull. He fell howling to his knees.

Before the queen, who concluded her undressing as if nothing of any importance were happening, and before the wizard, who merely smiled as coldly as had Lester the Ambitious when the last of his relatives had been poisoned, the old king was transformed into a goat. The hairs of his head became coarse stubbly goat fur, and long goat whiskers sprouted from his chin. He bleated and kicked, but could not bleat and kick himself back into human form. The wizard joined the queen in the bed, the goat was sent down to the kitchen, and the entranced nobles continued their feast. Thus the wizard ended his many days with a beautiful wife, a great army, and the possession of kingdoms.