Free The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers Page B

pigeon popped out of the hole the knife had made. Two lively little bird’s eyes fixed on Aidan’s face. The small round head bobbed forward and back two times, then the pie exploded in a shower of crumbs and bits of pastry as the pigeon burst out of the pie and took flight, followed by a dozen more pigeons. They whirred away in a gray blur, over Aidan’s head and out into the courtyard.
    The feasters howled at Aidan’s shocked expression, and at the jester’s cleverness in devising a pigeon cote disguised as a pigeon pie. It took Aidan a minute to catch his breath, but when he had, he laughed as heartily as anyone in the room.

Chapter Ten
Two Speeches
    As the jester capered away, King Darrow rose from his seat on the dais. The feasters’ uproar died down, and the king called down the center table to Aidan, “What think you of my jester’s pigeon pie, young Errolson?”
    “Your Majesty, I think your jester uses the freshest meat of any chef I know.”
    The great hall erupted again with laughter. The king, himself laughing, remained standing. When the room was quiet enough, he began his speech.
    “Dear countrymen! New Pyrthen friends! We are gathered at Tambluff Castle on an important day in Corenwald’s short history. Today we join with Pyrth to say that we are no longer enemies but friends and partners; together we will build a better future.”
    All applauded. Darrow looked at the Pyrthen delegation on his left and right. “Pyrthens, look around you. You sit among the Four and Twenty Noblemen of Corenwald. They all have raised their hands in battle against Pyrth. Today they extend their hands in friendship.”
    Throughout the great hall, the Corenwalders applauded, nodding and smiling in the Pyrthens’ direction. The Pyrthens, on the other hand, looked as if they might collapse from boredom. They hardly bothered toacknowledge the king’s welcome. Darrow continued addressing the Pyrthens: “True, our two nations have not always seen eye to eye. But even when we faced you in battle, Corenwalders have always held the Empire of Pyrth in the highest esteem.”
    “Hear, hear!” said Lord Cleland, raising his goblet in salute. Lord Radnor, who sat next to a member of the Pyrthen delegation, patted his neighbor on the back. The Pyrthen shot him a dirty look and turned his back to him. At the far end of the great hall, Errol snorted; a scowl began to form on his face.
    “Corenwald is still a young nation,” continued the king, “a nation of explorers, of pioneers, of settlers. When we shaped a nation out of this vast wilderness, we did it alone; we had no other choice.”
    Swept up in the spirit of things, Lord Aethelbert raised his goblet in a toast: “To self-reliance!” Lord Halbard and Lord Cleland fixed Aethelbert with a withering glare of disapproval. Confused and embarrassed, Aethelbert withdrew his toast.
    King Darrow, ignoring the interruption, continued his speech. “But we cannot remain a nation of explorers and pioneers forever. The time has come for Corenwald to settle down, to grow up, to take our place among the civilized nations of the world.”
    Now Lord Halbard raised his goblet and, looking in Lord Aethelbert’s direction, made a toast of his own: “To the partnership of nations.”
    Sensing that this, and not self-reliance, was the theme of Darrow’s speech, the Four and Twenty and their sons joined the toast.
    “Hear, hear!”
    “To partnership!”
    “Hear!”
    Darrow picked up where he had left off. “Corenwald has been like an old alligator: slow to move, set in its wild ways, secure in its own thick skin and in its isolation from the rest of the world. But the river of human history continues to flow. We must wade out into its current and not remain, like the alligator, mired in a stagnant swamp.”
    Aidan didn’t like the direction this speech had taken. Darrow, keeper of alligators, was the one who had established the alligator as Corenwald’s national symbol. And now the