Warlock - The Warlock Enraged Part 16

Rod winced. "All right, already! I'll go for the content, and stop worrying about the form."

"Then you would make a very poor critic...."

"Oh, shut up and head off the coach."

Fess swerved in front of the coach horses, and the animals reared, screaming with fright. The woman hit the brake with frantic strength, then lashed out with the whip at Rod.

"Hey!" He ducked, but too late; the lash cracked against the side of his head. The roadway tilted and circled, blurring; distantly, he heard the whip crack, again and again. Then the world levelled, and he began to see clearly. The familiar 702 rage surged up in him. Appalled, he tried to remember her fear. The woman stood on the box, brandis.h.i.+ng the whip for one more try.

Rod held up a palm. "Whoa! Hold it! I'm on your side!"

He pointed to his chest. "No uniform. See?"

The woman hesitated, but anger and fear still held her eyes wide.

Rod was working hard to stifle a huge flood of anger of his own; his head ached abominably. "You wouldn't hit a poor, wandering tinker, would you?"

"Aye, if he threatened me or mine." But sanity began to return to the woman's eyes. "And why would a poor tinker stop a n.o.ble Lady, if not to harm her?"

"To tell you, you can stop running!" Rod cried. "We knocked out your enemies!"

The woman stood frozen, but hope flared in her eyes.

Rod pointed back along the road. "Take a look, if you doubt me!"

She darted a quick glance back up the road, then glanced again. She turned back to him, joy beginning to flower in her face. Then her knees gave way, and she collapsed onto the box. "Praise Heaven! But how didst thou..."

"I had a little help," Rod explained.

She was instantly on her guard again. "From whom?"

"My wife," Rod explained, "and my children."

She stared. Then weariness filled her face. "I see them; they pick the corpses of the soldiers. Do not lie to me, fellow. How could a tinker and his bairns and wife, fare against an armored knight and a dozen soldiers?" She hefted the whip again.

"Now, hold on!" Rod felt his anger mounting again, too.

He took a deep breath, and tried to remember that the poor woman had been chased for most of the night-probably.

"My wife and kids aren't robbing bodies-they're trying to break the enchantments that bind living men. Uncon- scious, but living-I hope. You see, we're not quite what we seem to be."

"Indeed," she hissed between her teeth, and forced her- self to her feet again, swinging the whip up. "So I had thought!"

"Not that way! This tinker outfit is just a disguise!" Rod 103.

straightened in the saddle, squaring his shoulders. "I am Rodney Gallowgla.s.s, Lord High Warlock of Gramarye- and that woman back there is the Lady Gwendylon."

She stared. Then her lips parted, and she whispered, "Give me a sign."

"A sign?" Exasperated, Rod bit down on his irritation and forced himself to imagine just how paranoid he'd be feeling in her place. He took another deep breath, expelled it. "Oh, all right!" Rod closed his eyes and let his mind go blank, concentrating. His usual haze of needs and respon- sibilities seemed to ebb and clear, till he could hear his children's voices, as though they were right next to him.

He singled out the one who looked least threatening and thought, Gregory! Come here!

Air popped outward, and Gregory floated next to his shoulder. "Aye, Papa?"

The woman stared.

Then her knees gave way again, and she sat down, nod- ding weakly. "Aye. Thou art the High Warlock."

"Papa?" Gregory c.o.c.ked his head to the side, frowning up at his father. "Why didst thou call?"

"For what you just did, son."

The child stared. "What did I?"

"You proved I'm what I said I was." He turned back to the woman. "And whom have I the pleasure of addressing?"

Now it was her turn to pull herself together and remember her dignity. "I am Elyena, d.u.c.h.ess of Romanov."

7 Rod steered the tottering horses off the road and into the meadow near Gwen, holding up the d.u.c.h.ess with his left arm. As he pulled them to a halt, she raised her head, looking about, then crowded closer to him. "The soldiers..."

Rod turned, and saw all the soldiers gathered in a knot under a low tree. Most of them held their heads in their hands. Some had lifted their gazes and were looking around, blinking, their faces drawn and uncertain. The knight lay by them with his helmet off. Gwen knelt over him.

"Don't worry," Rod said, trying to sound rea.s.suring.

"They feel as though they've just awakened from a bad dream. They're on your side again." He jumped down from the box. "Just stay there."

She did, huddling into herself-and not looking at all rea.s.sured.

Rod sighed, and thought sharply, Cordelia!

The little girl leaped up halfway across the meadow and looked around. She located her father and jumped on her broomstick, zooming straight over to him. "Aye, Papa?"

Rod noticed the d.u.c.h.ess staring. Well, at least she was distracted. "Cordelia, this lady needs..."

But Cordelia was staring past him, toward the windows 104.

105.

of the coach, and a delighted grin curved on her lips. "Chil- dren!"

Rod turned, suprised.

Two little faces filled one of the windows, looking about with frank curiousity.

Cordelia skipped past Rod, hands behind her back. The d.u.c.h.ess's children watched her warily. Cordelia stopped right below them and c.o.c.ked her head to the side. "I am hight Cordelia."

They didn't answer; they just stared.

Rod touched her shoulder. "They've been having some bad scares lately, honey."

The elder boy looked up in indignation. "Was not scared!"

"Yeah, sure, you were calm as a mill pond. Just go easy, honey."

"Oh, Papa!" she said, exasperated. "Can they not see I wish them no harm?" Before he could answer, she whirled away to the d.u.c.h.ess. "May I play with them?"

The d.u.c.h.ess stared down at her. Then, slowly, she said, "Why... an they wish it... certes."

That they would wish it. Rod did not doubt; he knew his daughter. Already, the two boys were watching her with marked interest.

"Oh, good!" Cordelia spun back to the children. "I have brothers, too. Thou mayst play with them also, an thou dost wish it."

The two boys still looked wary, but Cordelia's friendli- ness was infectious. The younger opened the coach door, and stepped out. "I," he said, "am Gaston."

Rod turned away, quite certain the d.u.c.h.ess's attention would be fully occupied for a while, and went over to his wife.

As he came up, she sat back on her heels, gazing down at the knight and shaking her head. Instantly, Rod was alert.

"What's the matter? Is the hypnosis too strong?"

Gwen shook her head again. "I have broke the spell, my lord. Yet I can bring him no closer to life than this."

Rod turned, staring down at the knight. He saw a lined face and bald head, with a fringe of gray hair. His skin was gray, and covered with a sheen of sweat. Guilt swept through 706 Rod. He knelt beside the knight. "But it was only 120 volts!

Only fifteen amperes! And I only hit him with it for a few seconds!"

Gwen shook her head. "It may have as easily been the fall, my lord. His heart had stopped, and I labored to make it begin to beat again."

"Heart attack?" Rod took a closer look at the knight.

"He's middle-aged-and he's let himself sag out of shape."

He shook his head, looking up at Gwen. "There was no way I could tell that. He had his helmet on, and the visor was down."

"In truth, thou couldst not," she agreed, "and anything thou hadst done to stop him, might have hurt him this badly."

She lifted her eyes, gazing into his. "Yet, my lord, I mis- doubt me an 'twas any action of thine that did strike him down. He had ridden too many miles in harness."

Rod nodded slowly. "Whoever sent him out to lead a troop in full armor, at his age, must've seen him only as a thing, not a person. Who... ? No, cancel that. Of course- who else? Alfar."

"We will tend him, milady."

Gwen looked up, and saw the sergeant kneeling across from her.

"Sir Verin is old, but dear to us," the soldier explained.

"How he came to this pa.s.s, we know not. We will tend him." He lifted his head, showing haunted eyes. "Lady- what have our bodies done, the whiles our souls slept?"

"Naught that is any fault of thine." She touched his hand, smiling gently. "Trouble not thine heart."

Geoffrey darted up beside her. "Mama! There are chil- dren! May we go play?"

Gwen looked up, startled. "Why..."

"We've got company," Rod explained.

A short while later, the parents sat around a hasty camp- fire while the children played nearby. The d.u.c.h.ess sat, s.h.i.+vering in spite of the sun's midday warmth. Gwen had fetched a blanket from Fess's pack and wrapped it around her, but the poor lady still s.h.i.+vered with reaction. She gazed at the children, who were winding up a raucous game of tag. "Ah, bless them! Poor mites." Tears gathered at the 107.

comers of her eyes. "They know not the meaning of what hath happed."

"Thou hast not told them, then?" Gwen said softly.

The d.u.c.h.ess shook her head. "They know what they have seen, and no more." She looked up at Rod, a hard stare. "And I will not tell them until I know."

Rod stared back, and nodded slowly. "Why not? Your husband could still be alive. It's even possible that he's well."

The d.u.c.h.ess nodded slowly, maintaining the glare. But she couldn't hold it long, and her head dropped.

Nearby, the children collapsed in a panting tangle.

"Nay, but tell!" Cordelia cajoled. "Didst thou truly see the evil sorcerer?"

"Nay," said the youngest; and "We saw naught," said the eldest. "Naught save the inside of our keep. Mother penned us there, and would not even let us go so far as the window."

"Yet thou didst come in a coach," Magnus reminded.

"Didst thou see naught then?"

The boys shook their heads, and the youngest said, "We knew only that Mother bade us follow her down to the courtyard, and placed us in the coach. Through the gate house, we heard the clash of arms afar off; yet she drew the curtains closely, and bade us open them not."

The oldest added, "We could hear the rumble of the wheels echoing about us, and knew that we pa.s.sed through the gatehouse. Then the portcullis did crash down behind us, and the noises of war began to grow nearer."

Geoffrey's eyes glinted.

"Then they began to grow fainter, till they were lost behind us," the eldest went on, "and we heard naught but the grating of the coach's wheels."

The youngest nodded. "When at last we did part the curtains, there was naught to see but summer fields and groves."

The d.u.c.h.ess pressed her face into her hands, and her shoulders shook with more than s.h.i.+vering. Gwen tucked the blanket more tightly around her, murmuring soothing in- anities. She glanced at Rod and nodded toward the children.

Rod took the cue. "Uh, kids-could you maybe change the subject?"

708 "Eh?" Cordelia looked up and took in the situation at a glance. "Oh!" She was instantly contrite. "We are sorry, Papa." She turned to the other children, catching the hands of the d.u.c.h.ess's sons. "Come, let us play at tracking."

The fatuous look they gave her boded well for her teen- aged future, and ill for Rod's coming peace of mind. But they darted away, calling to one another, and Magnus hid his face against a large tree, and began to count.

The d.u.c.h.ess lifted her head, turning it from side to side in wonder. "They so quickly forget such ill!"