Dragon - Dragon Companion - Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 7
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Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 7

"Something amiss?" Tom asked Murdan at the first opportunity. "You and Manda look unhappy."

"I am unhappy!" growled Murdan forking a tender prawn into his mouth. "Rosemary and her children are long over-due! Word has come that they've not yet reached Ramhold, which was to be their next-to-last stop on their journey home."

Rosemary was his beloved only child. She and her children had been visiting at Overhall when it was captured but had escaped, Tom remembered, a skip and a hop ahead of the Mercenary Knights. She'd fled across Snow Mountains to her grandmother's Achievement until she learned Overhall had been retaken.

Everyone spoke well of Rosemary, especially Manda. Tom was prepared to like her at once, when he met her.

"Rosemary?" called Retruance, who was outside the Great Hall, except for his huge head which was "seated" at a special place at table, near the door. "What about Rosemary?"

"No one knows!" Murdan replied in an anguished voice. "Talber at Ramhold sends that he expected her to come over Summer Pass days ago and there's yet no sign of her, though the ice on the road is long melted."

"Talber will surely send a party over the Pass to inquire for her," said Manda. "She may have had a good reason for leaving late from her grandmother's house."

"Too many things could have gone wrong!" exclaimed the Dragon, greatly concerned. "I'd better go and see what I can find out. At least, if she is safe, I can get word to you and to Ffallmar faster than any rider from Ramhold."

Ffallmar was Rosemary's husband, one of Murdan's liege men, with a small Achievement some miles to the southeast of Overhall. He'd been with Murdan in Lexor when word of the capture of Overhall had come and had taken part in the siege with his levy.

"Would you, please?" begged Murdan, and the fact that he asked rather than demanded showed how worried he truly was.

"Shall I go with the Dragon?" volunteered Tom, shoving back from his place.

58 Don Callander "No, no. Companion," said the Dragon. "I'll go much faster alone on this flight. I'll fly very high and very cold. More cold than you could take without several hours of packing."

"Yes, stay with me here," ordered Murdan. "If anything has gone wronga Retruance Constable is the best to send on such a mission. If it's sickness or injury to Rosie or one of the little ones, he can bring them back in mere hours, rather than days."

"I'm off, then," said Retruance, withdrawing his head from the Great Hall. They heard him snap his great wings up and crash them down in a powerful takeoff that rattled the panes of the castle windows.

Manda smiled at Tom wanly, and Murdan grunted thanks for his offer to accompany the Dragon. The household finished its meal in glum silence. Rosemary and her children were great favorites.

All save Master Plume, Tom noticed. The accountant was spooning soup rapidly into his prim, purse-lipped mouth. He seemed for a brief moment before he felt Tom's eyes on him, to be smiling.

^8^ One of Our Dragons Is Missing MURDAN sent for Tom after Retruance had been gone for a day and a night. Deep lines of worry etched the Historian's face.

"I've word on the matter of your sudden appearance in this world," he began. "It's more complicated than I thought. All they can tell me is a a powerful spell was worked the day of your arrival, but so far no mage can tell me who wove it or why."

"Ia I must admit that I am not pressed to return home," admitted the Librarian. "I'm enjoying my work and Your Grace is a good employer. But I wondera ?"

DRAGON COMPANION 59.

"Presumably someone, somewhere, schemed to work some powerful spell and, as a side effect, it brought you here. Or you may have been intended to be a danger to us, or at least a confusion."

Tom sat forward in his chair. These thoughts had been in his own mind for several days.

"If it would serve, sir," he said, "I'll leave your service. I don't want to bring danger on you and the king a or his daughter. I can find work elsewhere."

"It's a tempting solution, I admit," growled Murdan, but he shook his head. "No! I judge you to be a gentle, honest man. You're a hard and effective worker, most pleasant to have about. And Princess Manda would certainly be most upset if you were to leave. No! I'll not drive you out of my house just because of some imagined threat."

He stood and walked around his desk to lay his hand on Tom's shoulder.

"I trust my judgments. I say you're a good man to have on our side. Stay, Bookminder. We need you."

"I thank Your Grace, most sincerely," replied Tom.

"Whatever it is, this purpose in your arrival, I feel it has a connection with myself, and more especially with Manda. She isa-I don't know how else to say ita-in love with you."

"And I with her, sir. I didn't intend it. Ita just happened."

"Well, as I recall, that's the way love usually comes. Knowing our enemies," the Historian said, thoughtfully, "I can't think that stealing Manda's heart was what they had in mind. That and becoming so firmly bound to a Dra-gon, either. They may have brought you here for mischief, but perhaps you have unwittingly confounded their plans, just by being who and what you are. That's my belief at any rate."

Tom nodded wordlessly. The two shared a silence.

"So! We'll proceed with our lives and plans, keeping your situation in mind, nevertheless," decided Murdan, returning to his seat. "There are several other matters, my boy, which concern me at the moment."

"Retruance's absence? Your lady daughter's disappear- 60.Don Callander DRAGON COMPANION.

61."Those, primarily. And the fact that Peter of Gantrell has written to me, demanding that Manda be returned to his brother's household."

"Manda has told me of her uncles. I don't think she will agree to go. She has put herself under your protection, sir."

"I'm damned well aware of that! Don't get me wrong, Tom. If she were just an ordinary girl, say the daughter of an ordinary friend, an ordinary family, I would stake my Achievement on her wishes. The king, her father, has secretly agreed that she remain here with me, but he is in too dangerous a positiona-he has not yet an heir to provide his kingdom a future kinga-to defy the very wealthy and powerful Gantrells."

"Why should he, a king, fear his brothers-in-law? After all, Peter of Gantrell is in exile!"

"So we believed, but the king's agents abroad have sent word. He has returned to Carolna! For Eduard to enforce his decree of exile now would cause dangerous rebellion, what with Peter's web of influence and favor spread all over the kingdom."

"His brother Granger?"

"Granger of Momingside is an enigma. At one time he was entirely under his older brother's thumb, but fifteen years of association with Princess Alix Amanda and her father may have changed that."

"I can easily see how Manda would have a powerful influence on almost anyone, buta"

"I've discussed him with Manda, who should know best. For example, I don't believe she and her maid could have escaped to Overhall as easily as they did, if Granger had not willingly turned his eyes away. He may even have wished her to escape, in order to rid himself of responsibility for her. I think he is no longer his brother's man."

There was a knock on the chamber door and, when Murdan called "Enter," Manda slipped in, looking apologetic.

"My ears were burning," she said, taking the chair beside Tom's. "You have been talking about Princess Royal Alix Amanda of Carolna, haven't you?"

"We have," admitted Murdan, "among other things. I was about to send for you, but Tom and I had a matter between us to discuss first."

"I see. The matter, I suppose, of his strange appearance in our world?"

"That's right, Manda," Tom said. "I've said that, if I pose a danger to you or your father, the king, I would leave at once, go where I couldn't be used against you, if that's why I was brought here."

"Leave me not!" Manda cried indignantly. "I warn you, Murdan! If Tom goes, expect me to follow, even if you prison me at the top of Aftertower!"

"Calmly, love!" Tom said, taking her hand. "The Historian refused my offer in no uncertain terms."

"He'd better have!" snapped the princess, but then she smiled brilliantly at both. "Because he knows I love you!"

"Well, now that's been settled, for good or ill, I'll abide by it," promised the Historian. "You both know there are ruts in any road, especially one paved with good intentions. I don't intend to let our enemies dictate where I go and who rides with us."

"Well put," Manda approved.

"We were, at the moment of your knocking," said Tom, returning to business, "speaking of your Uncle Granger. Do you feel he is still under his brother's thrall?"

Manda thought of this carefully before replying.

"I am quite fond of Granger, I must admit. He never did me harm or treated me less than as his own daughter. His goodwife. Lady Phyllis, by all her actions and demeanor, has been as my own mother!"

"His sons? Was there not talk of marriage to one of them, to cement the Gantrell family to the crown?" asked Murdan.

"Long since, yes. I learned of it from the king, my father, some months ago. I love my foster brothers, but I could not consider either of them as consorts if I became queen. They are both outgoing, sweet-natured young noblemen but not as husbands for me."

She leaned far forward and lowered her voice.

"I'll tell you a secret, Murdan. A while ago I called both Robert and Richard to me one day where we could speak unheard. I told them what my father had said. They both swore to me that they knew nothing of it and would not countenance such an alliance against my will. They will resist their uncle on the matter, they promised me."

62 Don Callander DRAGON COMPANION 63 "A short while ago?" asked Murdan.

"Yes, and even before that I sensed a change in Uncle Granger's attitude, a stiffening in his resistance to Uncle Peter. Will Uncle Granger go against his own sons' wishes and promises? I think not. Lord Historian! Not even for fear of Peter of Gantrell."

"Yes, but Peter is a power to be reckoned with, even for his brother," Murdan pointed out. "And a month ago Peter was far off, in exile, was he not?"

"And now he has returned, secretly? Well, a close-by Peter might explain why Granger and Phyllis let me flee to Overhall. He certainly went far out of his way to bring me near here. Momingside is south of Lexor, not west."

"That's what I was thinking," the Historian agreed.

"What's to be done, then?" Tom asked.

"As I said, I won't let my foes dictate my course. In the Fall, three months off still, I'll take Manda to Lexor to Sessions. Your father, the king, has agreed to it. By then, the queen will be delivered of their first child. The omens say it will be a strong, healthy boy-child."

"Oh, I hope so, for everybody's sake!" breathed Manda.

"It'll solve Manda's problems," Tom said carefully, "but probably create others."

"We'll conquer them as they come, though," decided Murdan. "Right now, however, there is another problem that requires action."

"Retruance Constable and my good friend. Lady Rosemary," stated Manda.

"Yes. At the longest, I expected to hear from Retruance about Rosie by this noontime. There has been no word. In fact, Talber sent a message by carrier pigeon, arrived this morning, that he had personally ridden to my mother's Achievement north of Summer Pass and found that she had sent Rosemary and her babies with a strong escort south a week past!"

"Oh, no!" cried Manda, echoed by Tom.

"Retruance has either been waylaid or has had to go off somewhere, tracing Rosemary's true path," guessed Tom. "Hard to think of anyone waylaying a Dragon, though."

"It's not easy, but not impossible, given the right magic," Murdan said. "The fact is, the possibility of magic is very strong in this, too."

He stroked his close-shaved face in thought while the others waited.

"I've decided that I will wait until noon tomorrow. If there's no word from Retruance by then, I'll send someone to look for him and for Rosemary."

"Who has magic strong enough to counteract?" wondered the princess aloud. "I have no one to recommend. A Seeker of Beymera, perhaps? Or one of the Recluse brothers? They are said to be available for such work although their fees are exorible."

"Exorbitant," whispered Tom.

"Well, then, exorbitant!" amended Manda.

"I've a better choice in mind myself," interrupted Murdan. "When it comes to confusing magics, a human is ideal, and we have one on hand now."

Manda's eyebrows shot up. She turned sharply to the young man at her side.

"You!"

"Me?" cried the surprised Librarian.

"The antidote for a powerful poison," quoted Murdan, smiling grimly, "is its opposite."

"You're the best one to look for Retruance, my Tom," said Manda. "And for poor Rosemary and her babies, too."

"Buta I know absolutely nothing of magic," Tom protested.

"Pay attention, boy!" exclaimed the Historian. "It's just that quality that makes you the ideal searcher. You don't know any magic. Therefore a magic maker has almost no hold over you, almost no power to change you or baffle you. Magic is a part of our lives from birth. We know what it does and have some idea how it does it. Therefore, it has great influence upon us."

"Tom, why do you think my father's father was allowed to legitimatize a son bom outside noble ranks? Everyone knows that a common-born child has greater resistance to magical powers! By making my father king, the kingdom was assured of a sovereign who would not be subject to all sorts of magic influences, enchantments, or spells. He has both the power of the royal line in him, and the com-mon sense and resistance of the hardworking, tough-minded merchant who was his maternal grandfather."

She paused, looking earnestly at him.

DRAGON COMPANION 65.

64 Don Callander "I see, I think. It makes some sense," Tom said at last. "I will, at least, not be terrified by what a wizard or a magician might do, because I have no idea what it could be."

"It's a lot more than that," said Manda, positively. "But never mind. To explain it too closely would be to adulterate it. Take our word for it, Tom."

She turned to the Historian.

"What is true of Tom is also true of me. I am almost as magic resistant as he!"

"Oh, no. Princess! I cannota"

"You have no choice. Historian. Tom must not go alone. He doesn't know our ways, the means, the geography, the history, the lore. I can help him in many ways. We must recover Rosemary before Uncle Peter can use her to blackmail us."

"But you are a Princess Royal! If I were to let you wandera"

"You have no choice!" repeated Manda, slapping the desktop with her hand. "I will go!"

The Historian turned away to hide his hot anger and cold fear. He glared out the window behind his desk.

"Well, if you choose to go, I cannot stop you, although I will be blamed if anything happens to you, Manda."