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a mighty Magickian who just healed you all up. Are you all right now?"
"Yes, I think so& " said the Tiverton hob after a short moment. His voice was
husky and a little more highly pitched than Hob's. "Could the good Magickian
do something so I forget the "
Jim shook his head.
"That, I'm afraid," he said, "is beyond my powers."
"Anyway, thank you, Mage let me up, hob!" Malencontri hob, a little
reluctantly, set him on his feet, but he seemed to be standing alone quite
steadily.
"He is my Lord Sir James de Malencontri," Malencontri hob told the Tiverton
hob. "And in the chair is the good Lady Angela whom he has to wife. They are
both good, kind, real humans."
"Then you must be the Magickian all hobs talk about!"
Malencontri hob cast a guilty look at Jim.
"No, that's probably the Mage Carolinus," Jim said. "I've done nothing but
follow his example."
"No, m'lord. All know the Mage, of course. But it is of you I speak, I'm
sure. None have been into such adventures as yours!" The Tiverton hob turned
around and hugged Hob. "How fortunate I am to have been saved by such a hob
and such famous humans as my lord and my lady! When I think of what would have
happened "
He had turned back to face Jim and Angie, his face radiant but even as he did
so, he stumbled and began to fall. Hob caught him before he could touch the
floor.
"I'll have to take him back to Malencontri," Hob said, softly. "To where he
can be in friendly, safe chimneys and where everybody likes a hob, and he can
slowly become all well again. Have I my lord's permission to do that?"
"Certainly," said Jim.
"Oh, Hob," said Angie. "Could you take that dog and her pups too, while
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you're riding the smoke with this other hob?"
Hob looked at the bitch, covered and surrounded by her puppies, some now
sleeping, others fighting with each other or perhaps playing, they made the
same sorts of noises either way.
"I am so sorry, m'lady, but I don't think I can. Tiverton hob or the dogs,
but not both. It isn't that they'd weigh too much, but "
"That's all right. I understand," said Angie. "Get your hob friend there
first. We'll handle the dogs."
"Thank you, m'lady. I'll be back as soon as I can leave Tiverton hob safely.
If he wakes up in a strange chimney without me there, he may do something
foolish."
"Of course. Go ahead," she said.
Hob turned with Tiverton hob in his arms, leaped into the fireplace and
vanished upward on the smoke.
"Now I've got to get cleaned up. I wish we had a bathtub here, as we have at
home and hot water."
"You can send for that," said Jim.
"I'm going to. But there's no use asking for a tubful, even if they could
heat that much in a hurry. Then I've got to dress for dinner. So do you."
"I'm already dressed for dinner."
"Not if at the last moment we're invited to dine with the King. Put on your
cote-hardie." She raised her voice to carry through the door. "Servant here!"
The same servant who had been sent for the soap and water came in.
"You haven't cleaned the floor yet," said Angie.
"Forgive me, my lady!" the servant wrung her hands. "Those wicked people in
the washroom are still hunting for a soap fit for Your Ladyship."
"Never mind that," said Angie. "I've got my own soap for myself. What I sent
you for was soap to clean the floor here. Their ordinary, everyday soap will
do."
"I'll fetch it right away, my lady " The servant whirled about and started to
run for the door.
"Wait a minute!" The servant skidded to a stop, almost falling. "There's
something I want you to do first. Go to the Serving Room, or whatever you have
here to keep the dishes from the kitchen hot until they're served, and have
them start heating a pitcher full of water as fast as they can. Then go to the
washroom, get everyday soap, come back to the Serving Room, pick up the
pitcher of hot water and this time I meanhot, and also one of cool water and a
basin I can wash in. If you need help to carry it all, tell them I said they
were to send somebody along with you to help. You've got all that?"
"Oh, yes, my lady. Go to the Serving Room "
"Never mind repeating it all. I trust you. Go!"
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And the servant was on her way with the last word.
"I didn't manage to ask Hob who treated the local hob like that, before they
left," said Jim, vexed with himself.
"I wonder if it was these local servants," Angie said. "They're an odd bunch
here!" She looked at the closed door.
Buttoned into the tight, form-fitting jacket that was the cote-hardie, Jim
remembered too late there was a spot halfway between his wrist and elbow that
had been itching, which he had not had time to scratch. He tried now to reach
the annoyance through his left sleeve, but the stout, thick wool fabric and
the narrow sleeve protected the itch as well as if it had been under armor.
He gave up. He was gradually sliding into the medieval idea that if nothing
could be done about something, there was no point in considering it the
equivalent of the supposed cure for a headache in ancientGreece .
"Oh, that reminds me," he said, "I haven't told you about Brian."
Chapter Twenty
"What about Brian?" Angie had unrolled her bedroll and was busily examining
the extra clothes she had rolled into its center.
"He and Sir Mortimer are supposed to fight tomorrow to entertain the
King with blunted weapons," Jim added hastily.
Angie abandoned her clothes suddenly and sat down hard in a chair.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"I haven't had a chance!"
"It's a lot more important than a load of puppies!"
The mother of those puppies looked out at them and licked the air in their
direction, to signal that she was really appreciating being a house dog. She
liked them both and hoped they would soon be friends again.
"You spoke up about the puppies in the sack before I could get started."
"What if Brian gets hurt and is laid up here for days maybe weeks? What about
the wedding?"
"It's just sport, Angie!"
"You know what kind ofsportthat is. So do I for that matter!"
"Angie, this is ridiculous. Brian's not going to get hurt. He's too wise an
old swordsman even if he is younger than I am."
"How much younger?" asked Angie, suddenly curious.
"Two or three years. I don't remember which."
"He looks older."
"I know. But that's because he started living as an adult years before I
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did."
"Anyway, even if he is a wise old swordsman, accidents can happen!"
"You don't get to be a wise old swordsman unless you come to know how not to
let accidents happen to you."
"You, yourself, ran a spear into him once."
"That was in a melee. We were both on horseback and got crowded into each
other, still, the only reason I speared him was because he raised his spear so
as not to run me through."
"See there? Just as I said. Accidents happen."
"But Brian's not going to be raising his sword so as not to hit Verweather."
Temporarily stopped, Angie took a deep breath.
"All that's probably so," she said. "But Geronde's not going to be very happy
about this, and the fact Brian's a wise old swordsman's not going to keep her
from worrying anyway, I've got to get back to getting dressed."
She returned to the contents of the bedroll. The terrier licked out her
tongue at both of them again, and Jim thought about taking off his cote-hardie
so he could scratch his itch, then abandoned the idea again. He would forget
it as soon as they started moving. "The fight'll be held just after breakfast,
almost certainly," he said. "Before the King's too deep in his day's wine."
It was. Tiverton had a small interior courtyard, the buildings around it cut
off the wind. With the sun out to warm the air, it was not exactly balmy, but
more than bearable for this time of year. Besides, none of the people [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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