"Well, uh, I see what you meana ."
"It wouldn't have occurred to you to hire a magician to lift stones to the top of a wall like this one. You'd have hireda whatever it takes to do it in your world."
Tom leaned against the cool stone and thought about her words for a while. The rainstorm passed majestically down the middle of the valley but no rain fell on the castle itself. Had someone woven a simple spell to keep the rain away for the gala celebration? Rain, rain, go away! Come again some other day.
"It does explain some things I've wondered about," he said at last. "For example, why didn't Murdan recover Rosemary by magic?"
"But, you see, that's what Uncle Peter expected him to do. Then he could block any efforts to rescue Rosemary using his own mages. As it happened, you were on hand to act in your un-elfish way."
"I see. That's why the kidnappers never bothered to cover their tracks."
"Exactly, beloved! We were amazed by your methods. Getting Clem to go with us and read the signs seemed a stroke of genius. Still does!"
She threw her arms about him and kissed him soundly.
"Thank goodness love isn't different here," said Tom. He kissed her back and they clung together, breathless for a long, lovely moment.
"What's to become of us?" he wondered, pulling back to look into her wide, bright eyes.
"Well, I had a talk with Rosemary about us while we stopped at Ramhold. You thought we were playing with the babies."
She slid backward and hopped to the battlement pavement. Tom followed her down the stair to the crowded courtyard. Everyone was still having a marvelous time, singing old Carolnan wassail songs at the top of their voices and in several different keys.
"She said what?" prompted the librarian under cover of the noise.
"I said, I supposed in the end I would have to do what was best for Carolna, if I became queen. She laughed and told me, *The secret is, do what is best for you and it will be best for the country. If you're happy, the kingdom will be happy for and with you.'
"She told me her father had balked at her wishing to marry Ffallmar, when they first met and fell in love. Raised all sorts of Ned, he did! Threatened to shut her up in a tower, even."
"Sounds like my hot-tempered Historian, all right!" laughed Tom. "Lots of bluster and noise. Buta ?"
"In the end he came to his senses and realized that he couldn't be happy if Rosemary wasn't happy. As simple as that, yet something Uncle Peter will never understand. Although it helped that Ffallmar is such a good-looking, hardworking, devoted, loyal sort."
The discussion stopped there, but they returned to it many times in the coming weeks.
"WE'VE happily recovered my daughter and my grandchildren," began Murdan the next morning. "Gantrell sought to hold them hostage against my support of King Eduard, we know. Brevory has admitted as much."
"We have this Fredrick of Brevory to hand," commented Furbetrance. "He will confirm our suspicions?"
"Before witnesses," replied the Historian. "Guard! Bring in the prisoner."
Fredrick of Brevory was still a sorry sight, not because he was worn or torn, but because he wore a sullen hang-head look and a sneer. His gorgeous clothes had been cleaned, mended, and pressed, yet they had a tawdry, secondhand look in the morning light streaming through Murdan's study windows.
He tried to strut before them but spoiled the effect by cringing fearfully when Murdan leaned forward in his chair to see him better. And he kept casting fearful sideways glances at the Dragon in the window.
"You a you can't hold me long!" he shrilled. "I'm a man ofa-"
"Peter of Gantrell?" asked the Historian.
112 Don Callander "Gantrell will ransom me, and right soon," screeched the dandy without thinking how he gave his lord away. "He values my services too highly toa-"
"I should think so!" cried Manda. "Who else would he find so base as to kidnap a helpless woman and three small children?"
"I but carried out his orders. If there is blame, it is Lord Gantrell's."
"No excuse!" Tom told him indignantly. "Wicked leaders have ever claimed their underlings misunderstood or acted without orders. And underlings have ever said they but did as ordered by their superiors."
"True!" said Murdan. "And both are revealed as being without honor."
"I will repeat your words to Lord Peter when I next see him," sneered Fredrick. "We will bring down vengeance on you and your house, Murdan!"
"I would expect naught else," chuckled the Historian, "from such as youa and he."
He ruffled a thin sheaf of papers before him.
"To business! It is my intention to forgo the usual ransom on such a wine-cellar rat as you, Brevory. The profit would hardly justify the bother. No, it is my intention to bring you before Fall Session in October. Let the king hear and judge your part in this, and Peter Gantrell's, too."
"You are duty bound to ask my liege for a worthy ran-som!" yelled Fredrick. "It's the law!"
"Hardly," Murdan demurred. "It's customary only in cases between gentlemen in honorable warfare, I remind you. You were apprehended in the commission of serious and venal felony. It's my will as well as my duty that you be brought to trial for kidnapping Rosemary of Fallmar and her children."
The prisoner began to snivel piteously but his accusers showed no clemency. He tried another tactic.
"What can I do to indemnify my crime?" he whined, holding out clenched hands. "I'll do anything!"
"All you can do is wait and see," Murdan told him. "I will carry your poor carcass to Lexor for trial. Don't think of rescue. I'd welcome open battle with your liege."
"There must be some way I can mitigate your anger.
DRAGON COMPANION 113.
Slake your thirst for revenge. It's not me you seek to confound. It's Peter of Gantrell, isn't it? Let me pay for your clemency with information and cooperation!"
"Your sort I do loathe," said Murdan, glowering darkly. "Criers! Beggars for mercy! Snivelers! Cowards! You've nothing we need so much as to accept in payment for what you've done. We know who you acted for and why. Just because you were a tool won't lessen your just punishment, when it comes."
He angrily laid his right hand upon the hilt of his broad-sword, which lay between them on the table, but drew it back.
"In the meantime, you'll be treated well but kept in a tower top with only a few bats and a jailer to tell your troubles to."
He waved to the guards to take the prisoner away. Fredrick of Brevory was dragged off, shouting hoarsely now of dire vengeance until they could hear him no more.
"I don't think we got much out of that exchange," observed Tom into the following silence.
"On the contrary," replied Murdan with a satisfied look. "We all heard him admit his orders came direct from Peter. I'll expect you to testify to that before the King. Now," Murdan continued with a wry shake of his head, "let us take up more pressing matters. There are two."
"My brother?" the Dragon asked.
Declared Murdan, "We must move at once to find and assist him."
"As Retruance's Companion, I claim that task," said Tom firmly. "I'll leave at once, accompanied by my friend Furbetrance."
"Not without me!" exclaimed Manda.
"Well, now, my dear princess a," began Murdan.
"You don't want me here when Uncle Peter comes to claim me," said Manda. "I have no wish to put either of us in such jeopardy. Gantrell is legally my guardian by royal decree. To withhold me from him will appear, to those who don't know the full story, an act of treason."
"Of course, you're right," sighed the Historian. "It would weaken our case when we place it before Session, if Lord Peter had demanded you and I refused. *Twere better if 114 Don Callander DRAGON COMPANION 115 I could truthfully say you had fled. You are, after all, a Princess Royal. Even I cannot hold you against your will."
"It's settled then," said Furbetrance, cutting off more debate. "We'll leave this afternoon."
"But where will you look for Retruance?" wondered the Historian.
"Best that you don't know," said Princess Royal Alix Amanda.
"What of Master Tom's status as your Librarian?" asked Captain Graham, who had listened until then in silence.
"He's a Dragon Companion. His first duty ever is to his Dragon, of course, regardless of other allegiances," Manda pointed out. She knew her law.
"He's not my liege man, anyway, although I intended to ask him to become so, soon," Murdan said thoughtfully. "He's only my contracted employee. As such, I cannot be held responsible for his actions, if Peter Gantrell seeks to use Tom's actions against me."
"Even Gantrell has to admit that a Companion is primarily responsible to his partner," said Furbetrance. "It's one of the most ancient provisions of our law!"
"I was referring rather to him carrying off a Princess Royal," responded Murdan, impatient now. "Peter will try to make it out that I ordered Manda's removal."
"Let him!" cried Manda. "I can testify for myself if it comes to that. The main thing is not to weaken your position, Uncle, on behalf of the king and before the law."
"I could take the obvious path and release you from my employ," Murdan said directly to Tom, "but I disdain to take that cowardly route. You go to find your Dragon with my blessings. If the princess chooses to accompany you, for her own ends, I can't stop her going anywhere she pleases. Only her father can attempt to do that."
"Good luck to him in that!" Manda exclaimed. "He would urge me to go."
"So be it!" declared Murdan, striking the hilt of his battered old sword with his clenched fists. "When Gantrell arrives, I'll be as innocent as spring flowers but tough as rawhide, too! I mean to take him to task about the Mercenary Knights, although I can't prove that he hired them, when you get right down to it. With any luck, I can keep him unbalanced long enough to slow him down a bit. That's my role."
"And while you play it, we'll seek my dear brother," said Furbetrance with a nod.
"Do you have any idea where to begin?" Tom asked Furbetrance Constable as he folded a few items of clothing and toiletry into his rucksack. Manda had gone up the stair to her own apartment to do the same.
"You're in charge of the smart thinking," said the Dra-gon. "I can't think of a thing. Murdan says asking even the best doom caster would be futile if Retruance is being held by minions of Gantrell. Even if not, it would take weeks, probably, and no guarantee of results, even then."
"We last saw him flying north by west from these very walls," said the Librarian. "We'll do the same ourselves, as soon as my lady runaway completes her packing. Any tips on finding Dragons when you want them?"
"Ah! Well, as to that, a Companion can usually make himself heard."
"A way Retruance didn't tell me about?"
"Dragon calling is a secret between mount and rider, and I've never had one. I guess Retruance didn't have time to instruct you. Too bad!"
"Anyone else we could ask?"
"Let's see! It's a tough question you ask. Arcolas is the one to tell you."
"I don't want to involve Murdan's people any more than I have," decided Tom. "The less they know of our going, the better for Manda."
"My name is being bandied about," said Manda, coming down the stair followed by her attendant, pretty Momie. "What's the need?"
"We need to get going," said the Dragon. He prepared to take the ladies aboard his head while Tom swung open the heavy flight doors. The day beyond was warm and still. The sky was dotted beautifully with puffy balls of cloud in neat rows, moving on upper-air winds from west to east in precise ranks.
"Here's a tracking expert," said Manda. The fur trapper Clem had arrived, easily carrying his own pack.
"If you can't use me further," he said, apologetically, "can I beg a ride home? If you're going that way, that is."
116.
DRAGON COMPANION 117.
Don Callander "Pay for your passage by telling us where we could ask about sighting a Dragon," said Tom, making room for the trapper.
"Now we're ready at last!" cried Furbetrance, and he flung himself and his four passengers through the door into the air above the castle.
He went so suddenly and so fast, no one saw them depart.
*^.2'^.
The Crossbeak Migration "I KNOW that Dragons can talk," Tom said to anyone who would listen. "But can birds?"
"They can, among themselves," said Manda. "Dragons can speak their song-language."
"I learned it at my mother's knees," said Furbetrance. "Well, actually Retruance is much better than I am. I can make myself understood, however."
"Wizards learn the language, but it's very difficult, they tell me," continued Manda.
"Nonsense, ma'am!" scoffed Clem. "Begging your par-don, too. I can bespeak most birds and I taught myself to do it. Birds are generally pretty flighty. The problem is to get one to sit still long enough to start a conversation."
"Which kind of bird might have seen the flying Retruance?" asked Tom.
"Any flocking bird," Clem replied. "They usually travel further afield than solitary pairs. They all migrate north or south, of course, depending on the season."
As they were talking, a flock of crows rose from a plowed field ahead of them and Furbetrance accelerated quickly to catch up with them before they could scatter.
"Crowtalk is easier than most," observed Clem. "We're lucky to find a flock this soon."
The lead crow was a huge specimen with striking white markings on her shoulders and under her tail. Otherwise she was coal black, except for her bright yellow beak. She and her flock of fifty eyed the Dragon cautiously, but didn't seem particularly frightened of him.
"We seek information," the Dragon called to them. "Will you stay and talk to us?"