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Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 22

They could follow the rescue operation even at that distance by the flaming breaths of both Dragons. Furbetrance shot up between columns where they were farthest apart, near the cataract, and climbed swiftly over Retruance's head.

"Be easier with a cable of some sort, but we'll have to make do without," they heard Furbetrance call to his big brother. "It seems to me the best way is to haul you up by the tail."

"Ouch!" cried his brother. "Be careful! My tail is very tender."

"It might hurt but it won't do any harm," declared Furbetrance. "Here we go now!"

They watched the younger Dragon hover over the other, reaching down with his powerful hind feet, beating his wings strongly but steadily over them both. The downdraft stirred ripples on the pool's mirror surface.

"Up! Up!" urged Retruance. "A bit to the left. My portside wing is twisted around that pillar there, as you can see. Ouch!

There! It's free! Ouch!!"

"Up you come, big brother," gasped Furbetrance. "Up!

Up!"

Suddenly the trapped Dragon was free. There was an DRAGON COMPANION.

167.

exciting moment when he spread his wings and took the first, thunderous flap.

Furbetrance gave a shout of triumph and warning. They collided in midair, almost losing airspeed, and began to tumble before each Dragon swung away from the other, beating thunderously to regain control.

With an exhilarated rush of wings the two beasts swooped down to the narrow beach, loaded the four young people on their heads, and flew to the ceiling far above.

The opening seemed much too tiny for the flying Dragons, but they popped through with room to spare, into the bright, cold afternoon sun. They soared triumphantly up, high into the sky, before gliding slowly in lowering circles toward the rolling foothills to the north of Snow Mountains.

THE nearest place to be sure of food and shelter for the com-ing night was Clem's cabin in Broken Land. They arrived just before an approaching rainstorm and by the time it began to pour, all were well on their way to being warmed, fed, bathed, and comforted in Clem's homey house.

Furbetrance and Retruance, too large to put even just their heads through the cabin door, remained outside, enjoying the show of lightning, thunder, and pelting summer rain. Retruance demanded a telling of their adventures, both seeking Rosemary and looking for himself, and his brother gladly complied.

The others, wrapped in warm blankets and furs, sat in front of the cabin's fire drying their clothing, still wet from wading in the underground river.

"What next?" asked Clem, handing around a pitcher of hot mulled cider before he settled down on the warm hearth beside Momie.

"Return to Overhall in the morning," Manda told him. "Murdan and I will go to Lexor for Fall Session. Murdan intends to bring charges against the nasty little Freddie. He'll need all of us for witnesses."

"That one deserves to be hung up somewhere to dry out," barked Clem. He was particularly fond of Rosemary of Ffallmar and her three children. "I'm sure the Historian has something like that in mind."

"Murdan wants to discredit my uncle Peter, at least for 168 Don Callander long enough to get my stepmother through her pregnancy and birthing. Goodness! I do pray it is a boy-child."

"In one way I agree," said Tom, thoughtfully. "But it seems a terrible burden to place on an infant, being a king whether he likes it or not!"

"What other way can you get a legitimate ruler?" wondered Momie. She yawned hugely. "Not that my opinion matters. I don't decide such things."

"But perhaps it should be decent, honest people like you who decide," said Manda, sitting up to gaze thoughtfully into the fire.

Tom put his hand in the small of her back to help support her position.

"There are other ways to find a good ruler," he said soft-ly. "I'll have to tell you about them one day. Or perhaps I shouldn't interfere."

"You have my respect, and that of Murdan," said the princess. "Your words will be heard, I believe."

They sat on the warm hearth together, speaking less and less as sleep overtook them.

"Furbetrance will go to his family. His Hetabelle and their kits live on the Obsidia Cliffs. Retruance will carry us to Overhall. What will you do, Clem? It's full summer now," Tom asked.

"Not too late to ready myself for the next trapping season, if I work fast," said the woodsman. He was silent for a long while before he went on.

"But, if you need me, you and Mandaa I could go east with you. See the great nobles at Lexor, for once. I'll miss my empty and beautiful wilderness, of course, buta a man needs to expand his vision, I believe. See new places and people now and again. It makes such good telling over a pint of autumn ale in some cozy inn."

"And there's Momie," suggested Manda with a mischie-vous glint in her eye, "who's already sound asleep here on your floor before your fire. Better gather her up. Clematis, old wallflower, and we'll put her to bed beside me in our room."

"Aye, the hearth*11 grow cold before morning," agreed the ex-trapper. He gently scooped the maid into his strong arms, as easily as though she were a bouquet of flowers. She stirred slightly, murmured his name, but didn't awaken.

DRAGON COMPANION 169.

Manda knelt before Tom, put her hands on his shoulders, staring for a moment into his brown eyes.

"There's the matter of you and me, too," she whispered. "What is to happen between, to, and for us, beloved?"

"Good and bad, of course, for that's what life is made of," replied Tom, feeling warm, sleepy, and philosophical all at the same time. He kissed his princess and she returned the kiss at once. For a while there was no sound in the cabin except the drumming of rain on the cedar-shakes roof and the hiss of raindrops falling into the fire.

"Carry me, also," said Manda at last. "A maid should not have better treatment than her princess, do you think?"

^16^.

Discussion, Decision, and Departure THEY bade a loving and rather tearful farewell to Furbetrance, who said he was needed at home.

"I've completed my mission," he said. "Here is brother Retruance, safe and sounda"

"My tail will long be painful from your hauling," moaned the older Dragon with a comical grimace.

"a and I promised fair Hetabelle I'd be home before Flight Time."

"Flight Time?" wondered Tom.

"It's the traditional time for teaching Dragon hatchlings to fly," explained Retruance. "Early summer is the best Flight Time. It's something every kitten remembers fondly, ever long after. A most happy time for a Dragon family."

"Kitten?" asked Manda with a laugh.

"Well, you wouldn't expect us to call them *calves' or *puppies,' would you?" protested the proud father.

"No, no! Kitten is just perfect," Manda replied, struggling to contain her bubbling laughter. "Why not, say, Dragonette, though?"

"A Dragonette is a half-grown Dragon. Sort of equivalent 170.

Don Callander to a teenager," Retruance told her.

"Give our love to the beautiful Hetabelle, brother! Per-suade her to visit Overhall in the fall, when the kits can make the trip."

"My good mate is rather shy but I think I can convince her she should visit the East, if only for the children's sake. Once she arrives, she'll love it, I know."

He lifted his black, leathery wings, called good-bye once more, and hurled himself into the clear sky over Bro-ken Land, angling into the updrafts breasting the Snow Mountains.

The rest of the party, perched on Retruance, left shortly thereafter, heading east.

"We could make it all the way to Overhall easily," the older Dragon told them, "but we should stop and tell the good people at the sheep station that I am found again."

"They were most helpful," agreed the princess. "I wonder if we should also stop by Old Place and reassure Lady Murtal. She has few visitors, I know, being far from other castles or towns."

"Easy enough to do. It's almost on our way," Retruance said, catching himself about to nod his head. "We'll stop there for lunch and go south to Ramhold for the night."

They soared. The Dragon's passengers enjoyed the wide view while Clem pointed out landmarks, recalling stories of ancient and not-so-ancient exploits that had taken place here or there.

Old Place appeared below in less than two hours and their welcome was warm and cordial.

"My Lady Princess!" cried Murtal when she rushed to meet them at her gate. "I'm so glad to see you safe and sound! My son has written me everything that happened and how you rescued my granddaughter and her children from that rogue, your uncle Peter's henchman."

Lady Murtal was a plump, jolly grandmother who embraced the entire world, willingly and happily, seldom speaking anything but good of anyonea-except Peter of Gantrell, it seemed.

She swept them immediately to her private sitting room and called for cool drinks and hot tea, with lunch to follow in an hour. Retruance excused himself to go off and speak to the sergeant of Murtal's small guard.

DRAGON COMPANION 171.

Lady Rosemary's escort, the sergeant told him, had been provided by a local piecework mercenary named Trout. He'd surrendered without a struggle to Brevory's armed band in Summer Passa-and now had run from Murdan's certain wrath. Not a man of the hired band had been seen in weeks.

"If I may ask, ma'am," Tom said after he'd gotten to feel quite at home with the Historian's mother, "why do you choose to live so far from your son and the center of Carolna?"

"It's a long, long and sometimes sad story. Master Librarian. Someday when it's snowing, blowing, cold, and gray outside, I'll tell it in absolute detail. Enough for now to saya-Old Place was the scene of my happiest and most loving years. Here my sons were bom. And here lived, *til his death, my good husband and beloved friend. Here I intend to stay until I, too, die."

"I hope it will be many years before that happens," said Tom, sincerely, for he had at once come to love the sprightly elderly woman with her very direct manner and violet eyes.

"As do I, Grand-Aunt Murtal!" cried Manda.

"That's especially nice, coming from you young people. May I ask a question, in my turn?"

"Of course! Anything at all!" promised both.

"Am I just a lonely old woman with too-vivid imaginings? Or do I sense between you two a ?"

"You are perfectly correct," said Manda, blushing crimson. "We love each other. Grandmother!"

"We do; that's as true as sunrise," Tom admitted, unable to keep himself from coloring, also.

"My! My! Don't be embarrassed by your love, children! What a splendid thing to share. I remembera but, as I said, that's a story for a long, wintery evening. I'm so very pleased for you both! Tell me, does my son know of this?"

"I think so," Tom told her. "We've made no effort to hide it. Should we have?"

"Of course not!" snorted Murtal. "Publish good news at the top of your voices, say I!"

"We foresee, however, some serious problems arising," Manda said, hesitantly.

172 Don Callander Murtal nodded soberly and then spoiled the effect by chucklinga-in a younger lady it would have been called a giggle.

"There are always problems, child! Don't concern yourself about them, at least not yet."

"But if Queen Beatrixa-" "I'm familiar with the situation as regards a royal heir,"

interrupted the old woman. "I am not that isolated here!" "Of course you aren't," murmured Manda. "But I can't help worrying about it. Frankly, I'm torn between my love for Tom and my feelings toward my father and our kingdom. If I am to be queen, how does Tom fit into my life?"

"Child, children, listen to me! Carolna has been around for more than seven centuries, through all sorts of kings and queens, interregnums and dual monarchies, anarchies and rule by merchants' committee, and even no rule at all. There're a lot of conflicting procedures and customs of the past, but every monarch, believe me, makes his own rules, when it comes down to that."

She reached out to ring for her servant.

"Whether you become queen or not remains to be seen," she continued. "Horatio, serve lunch in the garden, please. Find that big Dragon and ask him to join us there. I always liked Retruance," she confided to Tom. "Some Dragons I've met have been, well, rather too uppity. I gather it comes from being so large. But Constables have always been good friends."

She led them into her garden, a place of fragrant greenery and early summer blooms, lilacs in the cool shade of a fringe of poplars, and late iris and early daylilies, beds of bright cutting flowers, delphinium and gladiolus, just beginning to bloom, resplendent in the full sun.

The manservant Horatio, almost as ancient and fully as sprightly as his mistress, served them a delicate salad and a compote of fruit preserved from last fall's orchards, and a chocolate cake with swirled sugar-butter frosting.

"A great deal will depend on your power base," said Murtal, suddenly resuming her earlier discussion over dessert. "You'll have Lord Gantrell and his sycophants arrayed against youa actually a small number of men, taken all in all, but overproud and arrogant in their wealth. A great DRAGON COMPANION 173.

many others will sit on the wall, you realize."

"You mean, watching which way to jump?" asked Tom, accepting his second helping of cake, the first he had encountered in this world.

"Exactly! They'll swing their support to whichever side appears to be winning. Which is why, you see, my son is determined to bring Rosemary's foul little kidnapper to trial before the king. If his guilt is proved, the matter will cast doubt over Gantrell's ability and suitability. The undecided faction will go over to the king's side, especially if the matter of the royal succession is clear."

"I understand the king already favors Murdan and Manda," said Tom.

"True, but a king has to consider other things than friendship and kinshipa-if he is a good king. Eduard Ten is above all a responsible ruler. Would it be better for Carolna as a whole to be ruled by a mere slip of a giddy girl? A girl, in this case, very young anda-so fara-unmarried, inexperienced, kept virtually hidden away by her uncles since the sad passing of her mother? Would Their Lordships obey her willingly, support her policies if she has the scholarly Historian as chief adviser? That's why Peter wants to hold Manda close and away from Murdan. That way he controls what is known, believed, and expected of her by the wealthy and powerful on whom the ruler must depend."

"Plus," added Manda, "if Uncle Peter controls me, he'll gain the support of all those who don't really knowa- or care, it seemsa-what's going on, just because I'm my father's daughter, not a son."

"A lot of people think Gantrell is preferable to Murdan as regent for Manda," said Murdan's mother, sadly. "They don't know my son as we do. Gantrell is wealthy, holds many Achievements, and controls others because he's bought their owner's support a or gained it by promises or by threats."

"I guess it's easier to see the situation clearly if one is an outsider," said Tom with a sigh. "I'd oppose any ruler who uses threats and terror, even murder, to gain power. I've never met the man, but I have a hearty dislike for this Uncle Peter already."

"Suppose you had arrived suddenly in this world of ours, 174.

Don Callander as my son told me, and were hired by Peter of Gantrell instead of Murdan the Historian. Peter can be a delightful, charming man when he wants to be. Many, who never see his darker side, think he's the greatest man in the kingdom, not even excepting Eduard Ten!"

"At the very least it would have taken you some time to form an honest opinion of my Uncle Peter," agreed Manda. "Even if you, in the end, decided he was not to your liking, he would have tried to poison your mind against the king, against Murdan, and against me!"

"I suppose so, althougha I'd like to believe I'm politically mature enough to see behind the posturings and the promises. In my countrya-in the land of my birth, I meana- politics are no less convoluted. The form of our government is such that everyone must try to read a politician's innermost charactera-or get a destroyer instead of a leader. That's why, long ago, we chose a government modeled of laws, not just of men."