And I heard Schmendrick’s answer, and his voice was so cold I wouldn’t have recognized it if I didn’t know. “He has died before. Better that death‌—‌better this, better any death‌—‌than the one he was dying in that chair. If the griffin kills him, it will yet have saved his life.” I heard the door close.

I asked Molly, speaking as low as I could, “What did he mean, about the king having died?” But she put me to one side, and she went to King Lír and knelt in front of him, reaching up to take one of his hands between hers. She said, “Lord…Majesty…friend…dear friend‌—‌remember. Oh, please, please remember.”

The old man was swaying on his feet, but he put his other hand on Molly’s head and he mumbled, “Child, Sooz‌—‌is that your pretty name, Sooz?‌—‌of course I will come to your village. The griffin was never hatched that dares harm King Lír’s people.” He sat down hard in the chair again, but he held onto her hand tightly. He looked at her, with his blue eyes wide and his mouth trembling a little. He said, “But you must remind me, little one. When I… when I lose myself‌—‌when I lose her—‌you must remind me that I am still searching, still waiting…that I have never forgotten her, never turned from all she taught me. I sit in this place…I sit…because a king has to sit, you see…but in my mind, in my poor mind, I am always away with her…”

I didn’t have any idea what he was talking about. I do now.

He fell asleep again then, holding Molly’s hand. She sat with him for a long time, resting her head on his knee. Schmendrick went off to make sure Lisene was doing what she was supposed to do, getting everything ready for the king’s departure. There was a lot of clattering and shouting already, enough so you’d have thought a war was starting, but nobody came in to see King Lír or speak to him, wish him luck or anything. It was almost as though he wasn’t really there.

Me, I tried to write a letter home, with pictures of the king and the castle, but I fell asleep like him, and I slept the rest of that day and all night too. I woke up in a bed I couldn’t remember getting into, with Schmendrick looking down at me, saying, “Up, child, on your feet. You started all this uproar‌—‌it’s time for you to see it through. The king is coming to slay your griffin.”

I was out of bed before he’d finished speaking. I said, “Now? Are we going right now?”

Schmendrick shrugged his shoulders. “By noon, anyway, if I can finally get Lisene and the rest of them to understand that they are not coming. Lisene wants to bring fifty men-at-arms, a dozen wagonloads of supplies, a regiment of runners to send messages back and forth, and every wretched physician in the kingdom.” He sighed and spread his hands. “I may have to turn the lot of them to stone if we are to be off today.”