The Dragon and the Gnarly King by Gordon R. Dickson
"If you were able to put a broad-point war arrow through the thick top of a heavy table, as I saw you do, there in Giles de Mer's Castle," said Jim, "what will you be able to do with this?"
"Indeed, I have a strong wish to know that myself," said Dafydd. "But we must wait the event. Meanwhile, the Lady Angela tells me there is a hole in the wall of this Castle."
"Yes, in Robert's room."
"And it goes down beyond reach in the walls."
"That's right, too," said Jim.
Dafydd looked squarely into Jim's eyes.
"I do not think, look you," he said, "that this is any common taking of a child. Nor is it Magick, for Magick has no need to break walls or dig holes. No beast that I know of acts in this manner. I can think of only one other direction we may look for what took Robert."
"And that is?" asked Jim; for Dafydd had paused in a meaningful manner, while still keeping his eyes on Jim's.
"There is the sea," said Dafydd. "The sea is vast, possibly as vast as the land, and there may well be many creatures in it we cannot imagine, let alone ones we have seen. It could be such which came and took Robert."
"You really think so?" said Jim. He found himself at a sudden loss for words. "But what would something from the sea—deep in the sea, it would have to be to never have been seen—want, to dig its way inland and take a child?"
"I do not know," said Dafydd. "I do not even know there is such a creature. I only know that is the only other place I can think of to look. As for whether the sea holds such, you have one in your courtyard right now who can answer that question."
"Of course," said Jim. "Rrrnlf!"
"He may be able to tell us a direction we can go in, at least," said Dafydd. "Without that, how can we even start looking for the boy?"
"We've certainly got nothing to lose," said Jim, half to himself. He became aware that Dafydd was still looking at him and that reminded him of something. "You will be able to help me look for Robert, then, Dafydd?"
"What made you think I would not?"
"Well, I—" He found it difficult to put into words the almost antagonistic attitude that Danielle had shown when he had bumped into her and Geronde at the door to the Solar. "I thought maybe, Danielle being here with you…"
"Danielle will fight to keep her husband and the father of her children safe," said Dafydd. "Yet she will come to understand we must all help each other when need arises. She may indeed not be best pleased that I engage myself in this; but, at the last, she will not be standing in my way."
"Well, I hate to take you from her," Jim said, "but I'm going to feel a lot more certain with you at hand. A pity Brian's still so weak—"
"Do not concern yourself about Brian," said Dafydd. "If it is what he will do, he will do it, though the whole world stand in the way. It is how he is made. Now, should we step out and speak to the Sea Devil?"
"Right!" said Jim, getting to his feet. Dafydd rose too. "What do you think about having him take a look at the hole in the woods, as well? There's no hope of him getting into any place as small as Robert's room."
"I think well of it," said Dafydd
They were already headed down between the two long tables toward the front door of the Great Hall. Dafydd had picked up his bow, quiver, and the arrow he had been working on almost with one sweep of his hand, and now had the quiver slung over one shoulder and the bow on the other.
"When I last saw him, he was asleep," said Jim as they went through the door. "—Ah, he's awake now."
Rrrnlf was not only awake, but sitting up cross-legged on the ground of the courtyard, his head only a few feet short of the catwalk inside the curtain-wall.
He seemed to be moodily tossing something from hand to hand. Jim stared when he saw that the tossed object was in fact the same ugly little man who had been with Rrrnlf on his last visit here. The manling was as silent as ever, as his companion lofted him into the air and caught him, as he came down, in the other massive hand.
It was as if the little man was nothing more than a juggler's toy—nor did he seem to object to the treatment.
His oversize clothes seemed almost to have grown on his body—whatever it might look like underneath them—and not even the expression on his face changed as he was sent flying up into the air and caught again. Like a weighted toy, he stood upright, arms nearly at his sides, until he was tossed upward, and at the highest point of each toss he rotated neatly in a complete turn, without bending his body, so that he descended feet-down, to be caught in Rrrnlf's other hand. The same blank, open-mouthed expression Jim had always seen on his face before, remained throughout.
It occurred to Jim crazily that possibly the little man might even be enjoying being tossed back and forth like this. Though why he should be stretched Jim's imagination beyond its limits to answer.
Rrrnlf, on the other hand, was looking somewhat out of sorts. However, he cheered up at the sight of Jim and almost absently tucked the manling out of sight inside his shirt.
"Ah, wee Mage," he boomed. "Here you are again!"
Jim was tempted to point out that here was his own proper territory and base, the place where he belonged. It was Rrrnlf who came and went from it. He did not, however. It was always easy to get sidetracked when talking with the Sea Devil.
"Rrrnlf," he said, "there is a strange hole in the forest, and Dafydd and I would like to go out with you and have you take a look at it."
"Me?" said Rrrnlf. "Look at a hole? What's in the hole?"
"We don't know," said Jim. "That's why we want you to look, and maybe sniff at it, and tell us what you think. Maybe you will see or understand more about it than we do."
"Certainly, wee Mage," said Rrrnlf, standing up. Towering over them, he added, "But I wouldn't worry. Holes very seldom bother wee folk like you. In over ten thousand years, I can't ever think of a hole bothering a wee person."
"Do they bother sea devils or others in the sea?" asked Jim.
Rrrnlf laughed.
"Nothing bothers a sea devil, wee Mage," he said. "You know that. As for other sea-folk, it would depend on what the sea-person said or did to the hole. Though…" Rrrnlf scratched his head thoughtfully, "I can't really think of anyone in the sea being bothered by a hole, either. Where is this hole?"
"You had best follow us," said Dafydd.
"Run along ahead then," said Rrrnlf.
He stood with a friendly smile as Jim and Dafydd walked out through the gate and across the open ground. There was neither sight nor sound of Rrrnlf until they were into the forest—when there was a loud sound of breaking branches just behind them, and Rrrnlf's voice making noises that sounded as if he was swearing in what might, Jim thought, be Anglo-Saxon—at any rate, he could make no sense out of it.
"Wee Mage!" roared Rrrnlf's voice almost over their heads, somewhere out of sight beyond the leafy branches. "Where are you?"
"Down here!" Jim called back. "Just follow the sound of my voice. I'm… going… in… this… direction…"
He continued, walking and shouting at the same time, until he came to the hole. Then he stopped.
"Here it is!" he called.
There was a final rending of wood. Branches and leaves rained down. Rrrnlf's face peered down at them.
"But where's the hole?" Rrrnlf said.
"Right at my feet!" answered Jim. "If I took another step I'd fall into it."
"Oh," said Rrrnlf. There was some more tearing of branches, and a moment later Rrrnlf was on hands and knees beside Jim and Dafydd, looming only about a dozen feet above them in that position and peering at the hole. Jim and Dafydd had to back away so that the Sea Devil's massive face could get right down to ground level. Undoubtedly, thought Jim, he was positioning one eye directly over the opening of the hole, but it was impossible to see from where they were standing.
After a long moment, Rrrnlf grunted, lifted his head, wiped a certain amount of dirt and grass from around his eye, and peered at Jim and Dafydd.
"It's a hole, all right," he
'Yes," said Jim, hanging on to his patience. "But it seems to go someplace. Aargh looked into it and said it goes down about a distance as tall as I am, and then tunnels off at an angle to your left there, Rrrnlf."
"Aargh?" said Rrrnlf. "Oh, the wee wolf."
"That is so," said Dafydd. "Would you be having any idea, Rrrnlf, where that tunnel leads?"
"Why, where else could it lead?" said Rrrnlf. "It runs south and west of here to where you wee folk dig in the earth for lead and tin and silver."
Jim and Dafydd looked at each other.
"Cornwall," said Dafydd. "To the mines, there."
"—And then, of course," said Rrrnlf cheerfully, "it goes to the sea, of course."
Jim felt a sudden happiness.
"Dafydd!" he said. "You were right!"
"How could he not be right?" said Rrrnlf. "Do not all things finally go to the sea?"
Chapter Fifteen
"Not everything, Rrrnlf," said Jim.
"Why, of course everything," said Rrrnlf, standing up to look down through the hole he had torn in the foliage. "If you go anywhere on or in this land of yours, wee Mage, you end up at the Sea. How could it be otherwise?"
"But you don't know for sure that this hole leads to the sea," said Jim.
"But it does," said Rrrnlf. "Can't you smell it? You people on land are great for smelling things."
"Not all of them!" said a harsh voice, and a furry nose slid into Jim's field of vision, dipping down into the hole. "I have the best nose there is; and I smell no sea."
"Well, there you are, Rrrnlf," said Jim. "But you say you smell it?"
"No," said Rrrnlf. "I never bother smelling things. I…"
He stood for a moment, frowning and gazing past them at nothing.
"I feel it!" he said, returning his gaze to Jim's.
"How do you feel it, then?" asked Dafydd.
"I just feel it," said Rrrnlf. "I feel this tunnel runs on and on, past the place where you wee people dig and then it runs into other tunnels and they into other tunnels, and they into a place under-the-hill with an underground river running through it and down the river to the Sea."
"And where is this place under the hill?" asked Dafydd, almost sharply for him.
"Oh, it's under the Sea—out there—"
He pointed generally southwest, not quite in the tunnel's direction but almost.
"One of the Drowned Lands?" said Dafydd, still sharply. Jim looked at him.
"I suppose you could call it that," said Rrrnlf, after scratching his head again for a moment. "Like here, but middling deep in the ocean."
"Would you tell me then which one it might be?"
"Are they different?" asked Rrrnlf doubtfully. "We sea devils aren't allowed into places like that; and they all look alike from the sea-bottom alongside."
"James, Aargh," said Dafydd, once more with the different edge in his voice. "I think we should talk together of this as soon as possible."
"What's there to talk of?" said Aargh. He dipped his nose at the hole, indicating it. "Let James make the way down there wide enough for all of us to go side by side, and follow the hole to its end."
"I do not think it will be that simple," said Dafydd. "And the reason for that, look you, will have to come out when we sit in the Great Hall and talk."
He paused and looked at Aargh.
"Or is it that you will not come in with us?"
"I told Jim I will, and I will," growled Aargh. "But I see no sense to it. Why not talk here?"
"Brian might be able to be carried down to the Great Hall," said Jim. "But he could probably not be carried out here."
Aargh gave a small growl but otherwise said nothing. Knowing Aargh, Jim took this for a reluctant "yes."
"That little place you talk in," said Rrrnlf over their heads, "it's too small for me to come into. I'll be out in your courtyard if I can be of any help."
"Thank you, Rrrnlf," said Jim, mentally uncrossing his fingers. He had already been trying to think of reasons that would persuade Rrrnlf not to want to attend the meeting in the Great Hall.
It seemed to Jim to be a typical situation for him lately: trying to get a sort of war council organized while the desires of others pulled in many directions—as Brian, for instance, would certainly demand to be there, even though he should not get up.
Brian would have to be told of the meeting—otherwise he would be mortally offended. But once he knew, it would be hard to talk him into staying in bed upstairs. Perhaps impossible.
Impossible it was, but that turned out to be the least of the complications. Not only was Brian there—having been carried down by servants and propped up in a barrel chair with padding all around to keep him comfortably upright, his legs resting on a backless seat doing duty as a footstool—but Geronde, Danielle, and Angie had made themselves members of the meeting.
Aargh was not complaining, but Jim was more than sure that he was not exactly pleased to be there. He was lying on a bench at one end of the table, his rear legs out to one side and the front of his body upright, facing forward with the paws out front. This put his head very close to being on a level with the heads of the rest of them seated at the table.
All having been arranged, Jim sat down. Brian looked at him sternly, his face still pale. He had managed to bully the servants into dressing him; they had even slung his sword-belt around his waist.
The presence of the sword was improper for a guest in a friendly house. Jim doubted that Brian had the strength to draw, let alone wield, it for the moment; he suspected it was there, essentially, as a statement that he was ready for anything, whether they liked it or not.
At first there was a rather ominous silence around the table. Happily, however, now that everyone was seated, more servants appeared with wine-jugs, water-jugs, mazers, and several plates of small finger food.
Then they left. It was clearly up to Jim to get things started.
He cleared his throat.
"Dafydd, Aargh, Rrrnlf, and I all looked at the hole in the woods together, just now," he said, in what he hoped was a tone of voice that would encourage discussion. "Rrrnlf says it leads at last to the sea. Dafydd, however—" he suddenly realized he might be getting into dangerous territory. Dafydd might not have envisioned the three women being present; and neither Danielle nor Geronde looked as if she was about to agree happily to their men being involved in whatever action might be discussed.
"—Dafydd," Jim hastily changed his direction in mid-sentence, "thought we should all sit down and talk it over before we decided on anything, though."
The expressions around the table did not change. Jim looked at Aargh, to see if the wolf could help him by saying something. But Aargh stayed true to his sphinx-like pose. He said nothing at all. Dafydd, however, spoke up.
"Ah, well now," said Dafydd, "it seems to me there may be a better way for us to travel and a quicker. We—"
"You're not going!" Danielle interrupted him.
Dafydd turned to look at her.
"Am I not, then?" he said.
"No!" said Danielle.
Dafydd nodded his head slightly several times, with the absent-minded motion of someone who is still considering a situation and would make up his mind later.
Jim felt the pressure of someone looking at him, and turning his head slightly, saw it was Brian. One of the servants had made the mistake of putting a mazer in front of him and pouring some wine into it. Brian was now lifting it—a little shakily, to be sure—but with a look of triumph on his face as he met Jim's gaze.
Jim said nothing. He watched as Brian put the mazer to his lips; and the expression on Brian's face suddenly changed. He took the mazer from his mouth and stared into its contents with some surprise, then put it down on the table again.
"Quite right!" said Geronde. "Far too strong a wine." She took a pitcher from the table and filled Brian's mazer to the brim with water—a mazer whose wine Jim had already changed to half-water, even as Brian was lifting it
Brian turned his head and smiled at her grimly.
"Is this talk to go on all day?" said Aargh. "It's like you people. You talk and nothing happens. Now, if Carolinus were here—"
"I am here!" interrupted the cross and unusually hoarse voice of Carolinus. They looked to see him standing—and wavering around his edges—between the two long tables. It was clear to Jim, at least, that Carolinus had once more appeared only as a projection. "You left a message with my kettle, Jim? I haven't but a moment or two. What is it?"
Jim got hastily to his feet.
"Carolinus!" he said. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you. Can I speak to you for a moment privately—I mean privily?"
"That's all right," said Carolinus sourly. "We AAA+ Magickians can just manage to understand the word privately from—well, come along, then."
His projection slid off in the direction of the Serving Room. Jim pushed his chair back and hastily followed.
They left the others behind and stepped into the Serving Room, which, Jim was surprised to see, had no servant in sight. Then understanding came: the Castle staff might be used to Jim's magic, but Carolinus was another kettle of fish. None of them were going to take the risk of offending or bothering the Mage. They would all now be out of earshot.
"The thing is—" Jim began, but Carolinus cut him short, as they stopped before the fireplace.
"Never mind, never mind," the elderly magician said. "I don't have time, I tell you! Now, let Dafydd guide you where to go, and follow him into Lyonesse, then across it to the entrance to Overhill-Underhill. But you cannot take Aargh along on this journey."
"What's Overhill-Underhill?" Jim asked. "Why not?"
"Never mind. You'll find out when you get there," said Carolinus. "And Aargh's presence would have a bad effect. Never mind that now!" He shook his head.
"But pay attention to what's written in the stone over the entrance before you go in. Now, my time is short. I must tell you, some days back you lost your unlimited drawing-account. Your old antagonist, Son Won Phon, got active as soon as I was tied up as I am now, and the result is your Account's been put on hold. I don't know how much you had in it—and since you still technically are an Apprentice, the Accounting Office won't tell you. So use as little of the magick you've in it as possible—stretch it. But above all, remember! The King and Prince Edward must be preserved at all cost. I have to go—"