Free The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality by Gahan Hanmer

full of sweet promises. I noticed Rudy Strapp watching me, and the way he was standing gave me a flash of intuition.
    "Not Sir Rudy, by any chance?"
    "Even so," he said, and bowed very slightly in a courteous way.
    I nodded appreciatively. "What am I supposed to call you?"
    "You can call me Rudy when we're alone because we're equals. But in front of the common people, we always use our titles."
    "I see."
    "Why are you smiling?"
    "I just became a knight. Didn't that make you smile?"
    What I had really been smiling about was Rudy's remark about the common people. Rudy, unless I missed my guess, was a commoner born in the kingdom of Detroit, or maybe Cleveland. Well, that had been in the past, or the future, depending on how you looked at it. We had all slipped through a doorway in time, and now our reality was different. It would be wise, I thought to myself, to keep these little ironic notions to myself, to follow along and see what there was to see. I had no great nostalgia for the civilization I had left behind. Nor had my prospects there been very good. If fortune or fate was willing to deal me a whole new hand of cards, then I would play them and see what turned up.
    Now we mounted up and rode on our way: one king, his lady, two knights, and a livery of servants. There was no track or trail by which we rode, but our direction was easterly by the sun toward a pass between the mountains.
    Soon we had more company: all boys at first, hunters like Aaron, wearing homespun clothes and carrying slings and sticks. Word of our arrival had spread quickly. Then there were girls in woolen dresses down to the ground, who pointed shyly and whispered to each other as they walked along beside us.
    By the time we topped the rise between the mountains, we had two dozen children in our procession. It surprised me that they didn't shout or even talk, though they seemed excited and happy for the novelty and whispered together quite a lot. One little boy cried out, "Ho, King Albert!" in his excitement, and got himself a rap on the head from one of the older boys. Very polite they were, these commoner boys and girls.
    As we crested the pass, an old woman in a shapeless robe and cowl was waiting for us with a little bouquet of flowers which she held up for Jenna. "Good day, my lady," she said. "Good day, your majesty." There was no telling how old she was, but she seemed solid on her feet and her voice was deep and husky.
    "Good day, old mother," said Albert, leaning down to take up the flowers. He passed them to Jenna, who smiled and looked pleased. "And how is your health?"
    "Good, your majesty, though I'm about as old as a person can get."
    "And how does my kingdom?"
    "Good enough, your majesty, now that you're home."
    Albert looked thoughtfully at the old woman, then dismounted and took her aside. They spoke quietly and earnestly, though I couldn't hear what they were saying.
    It was late in the afternoon; the sun was sinking behind me and the valley before me was slipping into the shadow of the mountain. It was a large valley, long and wide, with two rivers I could see in the last rays of the sun. Here and there, so tiny I could easily have missed them, were wisps of smoke above the trees. And as the daylight faded away, here and there I could see specks of light.
    It was then that I truly believed in Albert's kingdom. Costumes and swords hadn't convinced me. Even that flock of children hadn't really done it. Wisps of smoke and specks of light had brought me to the truth of it: hundreds of miles from anywhere, tucked away between northern mountains, there really was a kingdom where Albert was king.
    Jenna rode up beside me, and we sat there wrapped in our cloaks, knee to knee, gazing down into the valley where the tiny lights flickered. Sometimes there were none at all, and the valley looked dark and dead. Sometimes as many as three or four little specks could be seen at once, and then the valley seemed alive with people.
    "How many live