Alexander, Lloyd - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

Before Going Any Further READ THIS FIRST: This is my archival copy of a

copyrighted material. If you do not own the printed book, you have no legal right to

possess or read this eBook. You are required to immediately delete this file.Please

support the author. Go buy the book.#bookz & #ebooks v4.0 : scanned, fully proofed and

formatted by -NiHuA- May 30, 2005.

* * * Click here to Go Directly to the Table of Contents * * *Designed for my set-up of 17-inch

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Lloyd Alexander's THE

Lloyd AlexanderFirebird Penguin BooksISBN no. 0-14-131070-7this

eBook based on 2002 Firebird Penguin Book printing

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen
Table of Contents
Title Page Dedication Inside the Front Cover
Front Cover Map of Marianstat About The Author
PART ONE - Citizen Weasel
12345~
PART TWO - The Shambles
6 7 8 9 10 11
PART THREE - Marianstat
12 13 14 15 16 ~
PART FOUR - Florian's Child
17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 THE END
Back to Table of Contents
 
 
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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

Inside the Front Cover

Back to Table of Contents

"A splendid tale."

---Publisher Weekly

"FANS... will revel in Alexander's magnificent conclusion to his trilogy... [An]

adventure that is told with tongue-in-cheek humor and eloquent language."

---SLJ

"I NEED MARIANSTAT!"

"THE CITY is the key," said Florian. "Without it, all the rest will fail. When I'm

close enough to attack it, the city itself must rise up. It must be taken from within,

whatever the cost. And held, whatever the cost, until I reach it."

"Armed insurrection? Can it be done?"

"It must be done. And more. From now until the day I come back, there must be

constant resistance. Cabbarus must not have a moment's peace. Let him live in terror

of every day and night. Sap his strength and his will. The people will see that he can

be beaten. Then, when the signal is given, Marianstat will be ready to support me."

"It will," said Theo.

"Only if the city has a leader. One it can trust, and that I can trust. A Leader who is

also acceptable to the queen. The clear choice is you."

Theo stiffened and drew away.

Florian gripped his arm. "Give me Marianstat."

The words plunged Theo into nightmare..."

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

Dedication

Back to Table of Contents

For the old, who are children of their past. For the young, who are

their own best hope of the future.

Back to Table of Contents

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

About the Author

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LLOYD ALEXANDER is also the author of the five-volume Chronicles of

Prydain, widely considered a classic fantasy cycle. The Black Cauldron, the second in

the series, is a Newbery Honor Book, and the final volume, The High King, was

awarded the Newbery Medal.

About The Westmark Trilogy, he says: "Books, not authors, decide when they want to

be written. Vague shadows of Westmark and the volumes that followed had been in

my head for half a dozen years before I was able even to put a word on a page. World

War II was long over, and I had come home from Europe with my Parisian wife and

daughter. I had been writing happily for a good while, and had discovered that stories

of fantasy worlds were, for me, the best way to express my attitudes and feelings

about people, problems, and relationships in our real world.

"Still, questions stuck in my mind: the uses and abuses of power, not only the conflict

between good and evil but--- far more difficult--- the conflict between good and good,

noble ideas broken by violence even in a good cause; and, in the midst of tragedies,

events that were hysterically, incongruously funny. I have no idea why Westmark

chose to be written precisely when it did. More surprisingly, I found myself dredging

up distant memories of what I had seen and known myself in combat. I did not find

answers to questions raised and expect I never will. Nor was it an attempt to exorcise

my own demons. No, I keep and cherish those demons. I like to believe they're my

conscience."

Lloyd Alexander lives with his wife, Janine, and their cats in Drexel Hill,

Pennsylvania.

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

PART ONECitizen Weasel

Next to Chapter 1

Back to Table of Contents

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

Back to Table of Contents

KING CONSTANTINE IX of Regia had been killed three times and was bored with

it. He wanted a bath. He tossed aside his fencing mask and foil, dismissed his master-

at-arms, and went striding from the exercise gallery to his apartments, peeling off his

clothes along the way.

At eighteen, Constantine was a long-legged, well-knit young monarch with the ruddy

complexion of his royal ancestors. The fine flaxen hairs on his upper lip had

prospered; they could be recognized as a moustache. The bout had given his face an

added flush; he felt pleasantly tired. Apart from being killed--- his parry en tierce

needed improvement--- he was in the best of spirits.

His uncle was not. When Duke Conrad was vexed, he overate, and he had grown very

corpulent these past months. He had some difficulty keeping up with his light-footed

nephew. The duke sat uncomfortably on a stool in the alcove while valets poured

water over the king's head.

The royal tub, shaped like a large, ungainly shoe, was one of the king's latest fancies.

Conrad disapproved of it: another example of his nephew's attraction to novelty in

furniture as well as politics. The tub, new-fangled and therefore menacing, infuriated

Conrad as much as its occupant, who had disappeared under the water. The duke's

heart leaped as he allowed himself the joyous fantasy of his nephew remaining

submerged. Conrad's dream shattered when the king resurfaced, spouting.

"Would you like a bath?" Constantine wiped the dripping hair out of his eyes. "It's

quite refreshing."

"What I would like, Connie, is your attention."

"You have it," said Constantine. "In fact, you've had too much of it these days."

Conrad clung to the shreds of his temper. "This Westmark business must be settled

once and for all."

"I thought it was."

"You cannot, you dare not continue to recognize the present government of

Westmark."

"Why not? they recognize us."

"Because the queen insists on keeping revolutionaries in the highest offices of state.

Her consuls, as she calls them: Florian, Justin, and that other one, Theo. Brigands and

cutthroats, all three of them. Those butchers are destroying the aristocracy. They've

been rewriting most of the laws; they want to slice the noble estates into pieces and

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

turn them over to the peasantry. And the queen agrees. Indeed, she encourages and

approves. That fellow Theo even expects to marry her."

Constantine beckoned for a towel. "That's her business. What's it to do with us?"

"Everything," said Conrad. "It is a contagious disease. It infects, it spreads. We

already have a rash of it. Your own subjects are making outrageous demands---"

"Modest ones," put in Constantine, frictioning his scalp. "I prefer giving them

something willingly now to having them take everything later."

"Give a vicious dog a scrap of meat," said Conrad. "He will gobble it up, then tear off

your arm."

"Skin ailments, now dogs," said Constantine. "What, exactly, do you expect of me?"

"As for Westmark, renounce the treaty you made with that royal guttersnipe. Close

our borders, end all trade. Enforce the strictest embargo. Here at home, take firm

action against malcontents. Hang a few. You will be astonished how quickly the

others come to see reason."

"Is that all?"

"It makes an excellent beginning."

"Good," said Constantine. "You've told me clearly what you have in mind. I can tell

you clearly what I have in mind. I don't intend to do a single one of those things. You

don't have to think about history, but I do. I'd rather be written up as a generous,

understanding monarch---"

"Mend your ways," Conrad broke in, "or you shall have a remarkably short history."

"Would that displease you?"

"Now, really, Connie---"

"Now, really, uncle." Constantine looked squarely at him. "I'm glad we've had this

talk," he went on, "because we won't have to chew it over again. I don't want to hear

any more about putting an embargo on Westmark or hanging my own people. That's

flat." He grinned. "Are you sure you don't want a bath?"

Conrad left his nephew soaking in the heel of the tub. Once out of the steamy alcove,

the duke breathed easier. His mood brightened. He felt relieved, not only because of

the fresh air. He had finally decided to take action.

He had given the king every chance. The young fool was set on a course of utter

destruction. For a long while, the idea had floated in Conrad's mind. Sometimes it

whispered. Sometimes it shouted. Sometimes it sang sweetly. He had even lost sleep

over it. Yet his decision had now come quite simply: not a decision so much as

accepting an absolute necessity. Understanding that, Conrad wondered why he had

ever hesitated.

ONE OF the duke's estates lay in the countryside a little distance from Breslin Palace.

A few days after his talk with the king, having made certain arrangements, Conrad

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

went there to tend his dogs and horses and confer with his bailiffs. He was also,

secretly, entertaining a guest.

After visiting the kennels and stables, Conrad strolled to one of the cottages. The

duke's guest, lean and sallow, somberly garbed, was sitting by the fire. He did not rise.

Supposedly, he was not there at all, or anywhere else in the kingdom. Already exiled

from Westmark, he had been banished from Regia. However, with the knowledge of

only his most trusted aides, and some others in Westmark, the duke had been housing,

feeding, and catering to the demands of the former chief minister of Westmark:

Cabbarus.

Now, at last, there was the prospect of Cabbarus shortly leaving. This cheered the

duke personally and politically. Conrad always felt uneasy in the man's presence. He

had, at one time, judged Cabbarus a common, though diligent, schemer. Since the end

of the war--- its outcome had been a humiliation for Cabbarus most of all--- Conrad

had glimpsed a wild animal under the man's waxy skin, gnawing at him from within,

glaring out from behind the slate-colored eyes. The man's body was simply a cage for

the beast.

"You must prepare to return to Westmark," said Conrad, after they exchanged the

briefest civilities. He expected this news to raise at least a flicker of pleasure.

Cabbarus merely gave him a long look.

"In what capacity?"

"As we have all agreed. Head of state."

"I refer to my specific title," said Cabbarus. "In time, of course, I shall be acclaimed as

king. Until then, I prefer something to suggest guidance and service. Director would

be suitable."

Conrad was tempted to answer that he did not care a fig what Cabbarus called himself

as long as he did his work. Instead, the duke nodded. "Most suitable."

"There are prerequisites."

Conrad waited. The future director of Westmark was going to talk about money.

Statesmanship always turned on the penny.

Cabbarus beckoned. His confidential secretary, bearing papers, stepped from the

shadows. Pankratz had chosen exile with his master. An admirably faithful act,

Conrad thought, and wiser than staying in Westmark to be hanged. Short and stocky,

bandy-legged, with huge muscular calves, Pankratz had been nicknamed The

Minister's Mastiff. Well chosen, Conrad thought: a dog to serve a wolf.

"You understand," Conrad said, "no funds can come officially from Regia. Our

finance minister will make certain they are untraceable; the king will remain unaware

of them. But your associates in Westmark must carry their share of the expenses."

"I need troops more than money," said Cabbarus. "The Westmark officer corps will be

loyal to me. But additional soldiers will be required. When the signal is given, I must

be absolutely sure of military superiority."

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Lloyd, Alexander - Westmark 3 - The Beggar Queen

"You shall be," said the duke. What Cabbarus meant was that he had no intention of

setting foot in Westmark until it was quite safe for him to do so. "While there can be

no Regian presence, I have spoken with Colonel Zouki from the Sultanate of Ankar.

He will join us here momentarily. He and many of his brother officers command

proprietary regiments. They will be at your disposal."

"Mercenaries? I prefer soldiers with more patriotic fervor."

"Money inspires fervor," said Conrad. "You will be more than satisfied."

"I will not be satisfied," said Cabbarus, "until I am able once again to serve my

country with the full measure of my strength and devotion. I will not be satisfied until

Westmark is happy and free of these self-styled consuls. They are common criminals

and will be dealt with accordingly. I will not be satisfied until they stand before the

bar of justice and pay the extreme penalty."

"And Queen Augusta?"

"Her conduct proves her unworthy of the throne. She will be removed, and the nation

cleansed of corruption. This is my task; no, my solemn duty. The honor and virtue of a

suffering people lie in my hands. It is an awesome responsibility."

Expensive, too, thought Conrad as Cabbarus turned his attention to the tedious

business of finance. The duke's head ached. He was relieved when Pankratz

interrupted to usher in Colonel Zouki.

The Ankari was a little peacock of a man in a gaudy uniform. He saluted stiffly, then

bowed to his host and Cabbarus. Conrad eyed him with distaste. These Ankaris were

all of a kind. The duke had reports of their conduct in the field, which he preferred not

to think about. Colonel Zouki had reddish hair, curled and pomaded. He reeked of

cologne and snuff. Beneath his tailoring and barbering, the fellow was a brute.

As Conrad expected and dreaded, the Ankari began an endless parade of polite

formalities: the peacock circling the meat of the matter like a vulture. By the time the

Ankari was ready to discuss business, Conrad felt exhausted. Then came the eternal

question: money.

"Whatever Your Highness may have heard," Colonel Zouki said, "we do not hold life

cheaply."

"Indeed not," said Conrad. "At these prices, you sell it very dearly."

Colonel Zouki spread his hands. "The choice is yours. We offer; you accept what you

please. All is available: infantry, cavalry, light cannon, even some heavier fieldpieces.

You will choose combinations suitable to your needs and to your advantage. If you

agree, say, on a certain number of infantry, we shall include artillery batteries at a

lower rate. Or, with each brigade of foot soldiers, a unit of horse. If you wish transport

in Ankari vessels, we shall provide it."

Cabbarus began closely questioning Zouki and writing notes on a sheet of paper.

Conrad paced back and forth. The two might as well be haggling over carpets in some

Ankari bazaar. By the time the questions had been settled and Zouki had taken his

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