The Warlock is Missing (3 page)

"They have left with no plan aforetime." Gregory stared about him.

The unicorn halted, nose pointed toward the mountainside.

"'Tis here that she hath meant to come, I think." Cordelia's voice was low. "And she did intend to bring us here."

"'Tis reason enough to go, and quickly," Gregory whispered.

"Nay!" Magnus's heels jolted against the charred earth as he landed. "I would we had not come—but now that we have, we must discover what hath happed in this place. There may be folk in need of such aid as we can offer."

"Nay!" Puck popped up from a burned-out bush. "Thou must needs go back, and quickly! For the elves of this village have told me what hath happed this night past!"

"Then say!"

"What was't?"

"Tell, Robin!" The boys clustered around him.

"A dragon."

The boys only stared. Cordelia watched, wide-eyed, from the back of her unicorn.

Puck nodded. "A great, vile monster it was, fifty feet from nose to tail-tip, with fangs of steel and fiery breath!" He whirled, pointing to the mountainside. "Seest thou where it did crawl away?"

The children looked and, for the first time, noticed a broad trail of scorched earth that led away from the village and up the rocky slope, winding away out of sight around the curve of the hill.

"And it lurks up there still?" Geoffrey whispered.

Puck shrugged. "Who may say? Never have the Wee Folk seen the monster aforetime. Mayhap 'tis gone again."

"Or mayhap it doth lurk about the countryside," said Geoffrey, "awaiting the unwary passerby."

Huge feet pounded the dusty lane behind them, and a massive body clashed against a burned-out wall.

The children spun about, hearts hammering; the unicorn

whirled to face whatever came, and Puck leaped out in front of them all, arms poised to hurl his most dire spell.

An enormous black horse came around a cottage and out into the village square.

The children stared, frozen.

Then they whooped with relief and ran to leap onto the animal, throwing their arms around its neck and drumming their heels against its sides. "Fess!"

"How good art thou to come!"

"We should ha' known thou wouldst follow!"

Fess was their father's horse, and a very strange and wonderful horse he was. Papa said he was made of steel, and that the horsehair covering him was only put on with something like glue. Papa said he was a "robot," but the children weren't sure what that meant. They knew it was something magical, though, because Fess could do things that no ordinary horse could—and one of them was talking. Only to Papa, usually —but he could let Mama and the children hear him if he wanted to. Inside their minds.

"You should have known I would not let you wander without me, children," he scolded. "And you were very naughty to stray off by yourselves."

"But we are not alone," Gregory assured him. "Puck is here."

"And this!" Cordelia whirled away, suddenly remembering her unicorn. She threw her arms about the beast's neck, as though she were afraid it would get away. "I have a new friend, Fess!"

The big black horse stared at the unicorn for a moment. Then his knees began to tremble. "But… unicorns do not… exist…" Suddenly, his head dropped like a stone, and his legs locked stiff. His head swung gently between his fetlocks.

"We should have warned him," Gregory said.

"We should indeed." Magnus heaved a sigh. "Ever doth he have such a seizure, when he doth encounter something that he thinks cannot be real."

Puck nodded. "So he did when first he did espy an elf. Yet I should think he would have become accustomed to the sight of strange new beings."

"Papa said 'tis one of the nicest things about Fess," Cordelia explained, "that he never doth grow used to strange new sights."

Magnus groped beneath Fess's saddle horn for the big lump

in his backbone. He found it and pressed hard. Something clicked, and Fess slowly raised his head. "I… had a… seizure… did I not?"

"Thou didst," Magnus replied, "because thou didst see a unicorn."

Slowly, Fess turned toward the snow-white animal. "Unicorns… are mythical…"

"Mayhap
she
would think the same of iron horses," Cordelia said, irritated.

The unicorn
was
eyeing Fess warily, and her nostrils were flaring.

"I can comprehend her feelings," Fess murmured.

Geoffrey exchanged a glance with Magnus. "Ought we to tell him?"

"You surely must!" Fess's head swiveled, the great eyes staring at him. "What should I know?"

"We are not sure thou shouldst." Magnus avoided Fess's eyes. "It might cause thee to have another seizure."

Fess was still a moment, then said, "I have braced my system for my senses tell me things that I know cannot be true. Since I am prepared, I will not have a seizure. Tell me, please."

Magnus exchanged one last glance with Geoffrey, then gestured about them. "Dost thou see signs of fire?"

"Of course. This village has suffered a major conflagration. No doubt that is why its people have fled."

"But it has burned out." Gregory tugged at Fess's mane in a bid for attention. "Would not they have come back?"

Fess was still a moment, then nodded. "One would think so, yes. Why do you think they have not?"

Gregory exchanged glances with Magnus, then said, " 'Tis because of what did cause this fire."

"And what was that?" Fess's tone hardened.

The boys locked gazes with one another, and Magnus said, "There is no easy way to say it." He turned to Fess. "It was a dragon."

Fess stood very still. They all watched, waiting in apprehension.

Finally, the robot said, "I have accepted the idea. I do not understand how a dragon may exist, but I recognize the possibility."

The four children heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Puck frowned up at the horse. 'Tell us, then, O Fount' of

Wisdom—how shall four children and an elf do battle with a dragon?"

"Do not forget the unicorn." Fess turned to look at Cordelia's mount. "It is a dragon's natural enemy, according to tradition."

Gregory stared. "Thou dost not mean to say that, because the dragon came, the unicorn appeared to battle it!"

Fess was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. "It is possible. Given the buried powers of the people of Gramarye and the potentialities of the environment—yes. It could have happened as you say."

"But the unicorn could not oppose the dragon by herself!" Cordelia cried. "Surely she is too delicate!"

"Do not underestimate her," Fess advised. "The legends say the unicorn had great strength."

"Yet there's truth in what Cordelia doth say." Geoffrey frowned. "This unicorn knew she stood in need of aid to fight so fearsome a monster—and therefore sought us out."

"But how could she have known of us, if she is but newly come?" Cordelia demanded.

They looked at each other, puzzled. As for Puck and Fess, if they suspected the answer, they kept it to themselves.

Then Magnus shrugged. "However 'twas, she knew of us. Can we not then lend her the aid that she doth seek?"

"We can," Puck said slowly, "but I've some doubt as to our powers. Mayhap all the elves in Gramarye could overwhelm the dragon—but there would be grievous losses. I misdoubt me an we poor few could bring it to defeat—and I'm loathe to try. If one of thou wast hurt, children, thy mother and father would ne'er forgive me. There might yet be elves in Gramarye, but the Puck would not be amongst them!"

Geoffrey scowled. "Surely thou art not afeard!"

"Nay, but I've some small amount of sense."

"He speaks wisely," Fess agreed. "We are too few to overcome such a monster by brute force—and you, children, might well be killed in the attempt. If we are to assist the unicorn and fight the dragon, it must be by trickery."

Cordelia, Magnus, and Geoffrey just stared at each other —but Gregory plumped down cross-legged and closed his eyes.

Geoffrey frowned. "What doth he? 'Tis no time to…"

"Hush!" Magnus held up a hand, palm outward. "Let him be!"

Gregory opened his eyes. " 'Tis his flame. An we put out his fire, he will sleep for an hundred years or more—until one doth give him flame again."

Geoffrey stared.

Magnus asked, carefully, "Whence cometh this knowledge?"

"Why, from Vidor."

"Vidor!" Cordelia stepped over to him, fists on her hips. "Thine imaginary friend? Are we to go to battle with naught but the advice of a dream?"

"He is no dream!" Gregory's face puckered in a scowl. "Vidor is real!"

"Then how is't none but thee ever doth see him?" Geoffrey gibed.

"Why, for that he's not here."

Geoffrey threw up his hands. "He is not here. Ever dost thou tell us he is real—yet he is not here!"

"I've never
said
he's here!" Gregory insisted. "He cannot be—he's in Tir Chlis!"

His brothers and sister were instantly silent, staring at him. Tir Chlis was the magical land they had all been kidnapped to when Gregory was a baby.

"There was a babe," Magnus said softly, "the son of Lord Kern, the High Warlock of that land;"

"The man who looked so like our Papa," Cordelia agreed, "and whose baby son was the image of our Gregory."

"He yet is," Gregory said helpfully. "He looked into a mirror for me, and I looked out through his eyes. I might have been gazing at myself."

"When Mama was in Tir Chlis, she could hear Gregory's mind." Magnus was watching his littlest brother. "She could hear him when she held Lord Kern's babe."

"Aye," Cordelia breathed, "because Gregory's mind did reach across the emptiness between our world and Tir Chlis, to blend with the babe's."

"It is all impossible," Fess sighed, "but since you children, and your parents, have experienced it, I cannot but acknowledge that it may have happened."

"And if it did, then why should Gregory not have continual conference with this Lord Kern's son?" Puck's gaze didn't waver from Gregory's face. "How sayest thou, O Beast of Cold Iron? Is there no absurd word for this?"

"There is, though it's not absurd," Fess said stiffly. "Lord

Kern's son is Gregory's analog, in an alternate universe."

"And could he indeed advise our Gregory as to dragons— this 'analog'?"

"His name is
Vidor
!" Gregory cried.

"Yes. Vidor is your analog in Tir Chlis." Fess nodded. "And he could give you information about dragons—if there are dragons in Tir Chlis."

"Oh, there are! Their knights have had to fight them for
ever
so long!"

The others exchanged glances again. "Ought we to believe it?" Geoffrey asked.

"Certes thou shouldst! Vidor would not fib to me!"

"'Tis difficult to do so, when another hears thy thoughts," Magnus agreed, "and I see no harm in making the attempt."

"No
harm
!" bawled his baby sitter. "When thou and thy brothers and sister could but serve as kindling for his flame? When this dragon may but roast thee first, and taste thee later?
No harm!!?.'"

"Nay," said Magnus, "for how doth one put out a dragon's flame?"

They all looked at one another, at a loss.

Then Fess said, "With water.".

"Aye, certes!" Cordelia beamed. "Thou lads can all make things to disappear, and appear again in different places! Thou canst wisk small boulders inside trees—for I've seen thee do it, for no better reason than to watch them fly apart with great explosions!"

"Thou hast
what
?" Puck cried, scandalized. Trees were very special to elves.

"'Twas but an idle prank." Magnus couldn't meet Puck's gaze, "A foolish notion, and deeply do I regret it." And
how
he regretted it—when the treetop fell, it had almost crushed him. "But boulders will not damp a dragon's flame." .

"Nay, but water will, as Fess doth say." Gregory's eyes lit with enthusiasm. "And if we can Whisk boulders about, we can do the same with gobs of water!"

Magnus and Geoffrey looked at each other. Magnus lifted his eyebrows. Geoffrey shrugged, and closed his eyes, tilting his head back.

There was a loud CRACK! and a three-foot shimmering ball appeared right above Cordelia's head. An instant later, it fell apart with a huge splash, drenching her from head to toe.

"Oh! Thou
curmudgeon
!" she cried, and a glob of soot

flew from the nearest burned-out house to strike Geoffrey right in the face. "Thou shrew!" he shouted, and leaped at Cordelia.

But Magnus jumped in between them, slamming his body against Geoffrey's. The younger boy tumbled to the ground. "Nay!" Big Brother said. "'Tis the dragon we must fight, not one another!"

"But she hath soiled my doublet past believing! Mama will have my hide!"

"Pear not," Magnus assured him, "I'll wash it for thee," and with a CRACK! another globe of water appeared over Geoffrey and, with a SPLOOSH! surged down over him. He floundered to his feet, sputtering in rage, while Cordelia laughed in delight. Geoffrey glared at Magnus, but Big Brother said, "Nay, hold! Ere thou dost bethink thee of any more mischief, consider—thy tunic's cleaned, and thou hast still a dragon to fight."

Geoffrey calmed instantly, and even began to smile again. The thought of a good fight always cheered him up.

They drifted up the rocky hillside, following the dragon's trail. Scorched earth and cracked rocks showed where the monster had passed.

"Is he still so angered, that he must needs blast at all that doth come within his path?" Geoffrey wondered.

Magnus chewed at his lip. "Thou dost bethink thee that he must needs breathe fire out of anger."

"Why, certes," Geoffrey said in surprise. "I would."