“Ready?” she asked, turning to look up at him.
“Ready,”he answered.
She pulled open the double doors and rushed for the automobile. Abernathy followed. She had the driver's door open and the trunk release pulled by the time he reached her. “Hurry!” she whispered and helped him climb hastily inside. “Don't worry!” she said when he was safely settled, pausing momentarily with her hands on the lid. “I'll be back to get you out when we reach the school! Just be patient!”
Then the lid slammed down and she was gone.
Abernathy lay hidden in the automobile for only a few minutes before he heard voices approach, the passenger doors open and close again, and the engine start up. Then the automobile began to move, jouncing and bumping him all over the place as it twisted and wound down the roadway and steadily picked up speed. The trunk was carpeted, but there wasn't much padding underneath, and Abernathy was thoroughly knocked about. He tried to find something to hold onto, but there wasn't anything to grasp, and he had to settle for bracing himself against the top and sides.
The ride seemed to go on interminably. To make matters worse, the automobile gave off a rather noxious odor that quickly upset Abernathy's stomach and gave him a headache. He began to wonder if he was going to survive the experience.
Then, finally, the automobile slowed and stopped, the doors opened and closed, the voices faded away, and all went still except for the muffled and somewhat distant sounds of other doors opening and closing and other voices calling out. Abernathy waited patiently, letting cramped muscles relax again, rubbing strained ligaments and bruised bones. He promised himself faithfully that if he could just get safely back to Landover, he would never, under any circumstances, even think of riding in another of these horrendous, mechanical monsters.
Time slipped away. Elizabeth did not come. Abernathy lay in the dark and listened for her, thinking that the worst had happened, that she had been prevented somehow from returning, and that now he was trapped there indefinitely. He began to doze. He was almost asleep when he heard the sound of footsteps.
The car door opened, the trunk latch was sprung, the lid popped up, and there was Elizabeth. She was gasping for breath. “Hurry, Abernathy, I have to get back right away!” She helped him from the trunk. “I'm sorry it took so long, but my dad wanted to come with me and I had to wait until he… Are you all right? You look all bent over! Oh, I'm sorry about this, really I am!”
Abernathy shook his head quickly. “No, no! No need to be sorry about anything. I am just fine, Elizabeth.”A few latecomers were passing in the distance, and he pulled the topcoat close about him and adjusted the brimmed hat. He bent down to her. “Thank you, Elizabeth,”he said softly. “Thank you for everything.”
She put her arms about him and hugged him, then stepped quickly back. “Mr. Whitsell lives a couple of miles north. Follow this road out here.”She pointed. “When you reach a road with a sign that says Forest Park, turn right and count the numbers until you find 2986. It'll be on the left. Oh, Abernathy!”
She hugged him again, and he hugged her back. “Don't worry. I will find it, Elizabeth,”he assured her.
“I have to go,”she said and started away. Then she turned and hurried back. “I almost forgot. Take this.”She thrust an envelope into his paw.
“What is it?”
“The money I promised, for an airplane ticket or whatever. It's okay to keep it,”she added hastily as he tried to give it back. “You might need it. If you don't, you can give it back when we see each other again.”
“Elizabeth…”
“No, you keep it!” she insisted, turning and starting quickly away. “Good-bye, Abernathy! I'll miss you!”
She ran toward the school building and was gone.
“I'll miss you, too,”Abernathy whispered after her.
It was approaching midnight by the time Abernathy turned up the walk to 2986 Forest Park, still wearing the brimmed hat and the trench coat. He had made a wrong turn some distance back and had been forced to retrace his steps. As he approached the little house with the shuttered windows and flower boxes, he could see a man dozing in a chair through the partially drawn blinds of the front window. The light next to him was the only light burning in the house.
Abernathy went up to the door cautiously and knocked. When there was no response, he knocked again.
“Yeah, what is it?” a voice growled.
Abernathy didn't know what to say, so he waited. After a moment, the voice said, “Okay, just a minute, I'm coming.”
Footsteps approached. The front door opened, and the man from the chair stood there, bearded and sleepy-eyed, wearing jeans and a work shirt open to the waist over a sleeveless undershirt. A tiny black poodle stood next to him, sniffing. “Are you Mr. Whitsell?” Abernathy asked.
Davis Whitsell stared, his mouth dropping open. “Uh … yeah,”he said finally.
Abernathy glanced around uneasily. “My name is Abernathy. Do you suppose that…”
The other man started; then he seemed to understand and managed a slight smile. “The little girl at Franklin!” he exclaimed. “You're the one she told me about! You're the one she said was locked up somewhere, right? Sure, you're the talking dog!”
“I'm a man who was turned into a dog,”Abernathy said rather stiffly.
“Sure, sure, she told me about that!” Whitsell backed off a step or two. “Well, come in, come on in… Abernathy! Sophie, get back. Here, let me take that coat from you. Way too big, anyway. Hat doesn't do a thing for you either. Here, sit down.”
“Who is it, Davis?” a woman's voice called from somewhere down the hall.
“Uh, no one, Alice—just a friend,”Whitsell replied hurriedly. “Go back to sleep.”He leaned close. “My wife, Alice,”he whispered.
He took Abernathy's coat and hat and beckoned him across the living room to the couch. Sophie wagged her tail and whined softly, sniffing at Abernathy with dismaying enthusiasm. Abernathy nudged her away.
The TV was on. Whitsell turned the volume down carefully, then seated himself across from Abernathy. He leaned forward eagerly, his voice hushed. “Well, tell you the truth, I thought the little girl was kidding me. I thought she was making all this up. But…” He stopped, as if trying to gather his thoughts. “So, you were changed into a dog, were you? Terrier breed, right? Uh, English breed, I'd guess.”
“Soft-coated Wheaten Terrier,”Abernathy advised, looking around doubtfully.
“Sure, that's it.”Whitsell got up again. “You look all done in, you know that? Would you like something to eat, drink maybe? Uh, real food, right—you being human and all? Come on into the kitchen, I'll fix you something.”
They walked from the living room to a kitchen that looked out into the back yard. Whitsell poked through the refrigerator and came up with some cold ham, potato salad, and milk. He made Abernathy a sandwich, commenting over and over again on how amazing he was. God almighty, he said, a real live talking dog! He must have said it a dozen times. Abernathy was offended, but he kept it to himself. Finally Whitsell finished, carried the food to a small folding table with four chairs, made Abernathy sit down, grabbed a beer for himself, and sat down as well.
“Look, the little girl… uh, what's her name?”
“Elizabeth.”
“Yeah, Elizabeth said you had to get to Virginia. That right?”
Abernathy nodded, his mouth full of sandwich. He was starved.
“What do you have to go to Virginia for?”
Abernathy considered his answer. “I have friends there,”he said finally.
“Well, can't we just call them up?” the other asked. “I mean, if you need help, why not just give them a call?”
Abernathy was confused. “A call?”
“Sure, by phone.”
“Oh, telephone.”He remembered now what that was. “They don't have a telephone.”
Davis Whitsell smiled. ‘That so?” He sipped at his beer and watched while Abernathy finished his
food. The dog could feel him thinking.
“Well, it won't be easy getting you all the way to Virginia,”he ventured after a moment.
Abernathy looked up, hesitated, then said, “I have some money to pay my way.”
Whitsell shrugged. “Maybe so, but we can't just put you on an airplane or a train and ship you out. There would be all sorts of questions about who or what you were. Uh, pardon me for saying that, but you got to understand that people aren't used to seeing dogs who dress up and walk about and talk like you do.”
He cleared his throat. “Other thing is, the little girl said something about you being held prisoner. That right?”
Abernathy nodded. “Elizabeth helped me escape.”
“Then this might be dangerous business, me helping you. Someone's going to be pretty unhappy once they find you gone. Someone's liable to be coming after you. That means we have to be extra careful, don't it? ‘Cause you're pretty special, you know. Don't find dogs like you every day. Sorry. Men like you, I mean. So best to get in quick, get out quick. Make what we can off this, eh?” He seemed to be thinking his way through the matter. “Won't be easy. You'll have to do exactly what I tell you.”
Abernathy nodded. “I understand.”He drank the last of his milk. “Can you help at all?”
“Sure! You bet I can!” Whitsell rubbed his hands briskly. “Best thing for now, though, is to get some sleep, then we'll talk about it in the morning, come up with something. Okay? Got the spare room down the hall you can use. Bed's all made up. Alice won't like it, doesn't like anything she can't understand, but I'll handle her, don't you worry. Come on with me.”
He took Abernathy down the hall to the spare room, showed him the bed and the bath, provided him with a set of towels, and got him settled in. All the while he was thinking out loud, talking about missed opportunities and once-in-a-lifetime chances. If he could just figure out a way to make things work, he kept saying.
Abernathy pulled off his clothes, climbed into bed, and lay back. He was vaguely bothered by what he was hearing, but he was too exhausted to give the matter proper consideration. He closed his eyes wearily. Whitsell switched off the light, stepped outside, and pulled the door shut behind him.
The house was very still. Just outside, the branches of a tree brushed against the window like claws.
Abernathy listened for only a moment. Then he was asleep.
It was approaching nightfall when Questor Thews, the ko-bolds, and the G'home Gnomes arrived at Rhyndweir. The sky was hazy blue-gray with tiny strips of pink where the sun still lingered as it fled from the encroaching darkness. Mist clung to the Greensward in gauzy strips, turning the land to shadows and blurred images. Rain still fell, a thin veil of damp that seemed to hang on the air. Sounds were muted and displaced in the murkiness, and it was as if life had lost all substance and drifted bodiless.
Bunion led the way cautiously as they crossed the bridge spanning the juncture of the rivers that fronted the towering plateau on which the fortress castle of Lord Kal-lendbor had been built. The town beneath was closing down for the day, a jumbled mix of grunting men and animals, of clanging iron and creaking wood, and of weariness and sweat. The little company passed down the roadway through the shops and cottages; the buildings were dim, squat mounds in the mist, from which slivers of candlelight peeked out warily. The roadway was rutted and muddied from the rain, a morass that sucked at their boots and the horses’ hoofs. Heads turned to watch them pass, evidenced momentary interest, then turned quickly away again.
“I'm hungry!” whined Fillip.
“My feet hurt!” added Sot.
But Parsnip hissed softly in warning, and the gnomes went still again.
Then Rhyndweir materialized before them out of the mist and rain. Walls and parapets, towers and battlements, the whole of the great castle slowly took shape, a monstrous ghost hunkered down against the night. It was a massive thing, lifting skyward over a hundred feet, its uppermost spires lost in the low-hanging clouds. Flags hung limply from standards, torches flickered dimly from within their lamps, and dozens of sodden guards kept watch upon the walls. The outer gates yawned open, huge wooden and ironbound jaws fronting a lowered portcullis. The inner gates stood closed. It was a forbidding sight, and the little company approached with mixed feelings of wariness and trepidation.
The gate watch stopped them, asked them to state their business, and then moved them into the shelter of an alcove in the shadow of the wall while a message was carried to the Lord Kallendbor. Time dragged slowly past as they stood shivering and weary in the gloom and the damp. Questor was not pleased; a King's emissary was not to be kept waiting. When their escort finally arrived, a pair of lesser nobles dispatched directly from Kallendbor with perfunctory apologies for the delay, the wizard was quick to voice his displeasure at their treatment. They were representatives of the King, he pointed out coldly—not supplicants. The escort merely apologized once again, no more concerned about the matter than before, and beckoned them inside.
Leaving the horses and pack animals, they circumvented the portcullis and inner gates by slipping through a series of hidden passages in the walls, crossed the main courtyard to the castle proper, entered an all but invisible side door which first had to be unlocked, and then passed down several corridors until they reached a great hall dominated by a huge fireplace at its far end. Logs burned brightly in the hearth, the heat almost suffocating. Questor winced away and squinted into the light.
The Lord Kallendbor turned from where he stood before the blaze—so close to the fire, it seemed to Questor, that he must be scorched. Kallendbor was a big man, tall and heavily muscled, his face and body scarred from countless battles. He wore chain mail tonight beneath his robes, armored boots, and a brace of daggers. His brilliant red hair and beard gave him a striking appearance—more so against the flames of the hearth. When he came forward, it was as if he brought the fire with him.
He dismissed the lesser nobles with a brief nod. “Well met, Questor Thews,”he rumbled, extending one callused hand.
Questor accepted the hand and held it. “Better met, my Lord, if I had not been kept waiting so long in the cold and the wet!”
The kobolds hissed softly in agreement, while the G'home Gnomes shrank back behind Questor's legs, their eyes like dinner plates. Kallendbor took them all in at a glance and dismissed them just as quickly.
“My apologies,”he offered Questor, withdrawing his hand. “Things have been a bit uncertain of late. I must be cautious these days.”
Questor brushed the loose water from his cloak, owlish face twisting into a frown. “Cautious? More than that, I would guess, my Lord. I saw the deployment of your watch, the guards at all the entrances, the portcullis down, and the inner gates closed. I see the armor you wear, even in your own home. You behave as if you are at siege.”
Kallendbor rubbed his hands briskly and looked back at the fire. “Perhaps I am.”He seemed distracted. “What brings you to Rhyndweir, Questor Thews? Some further bidding of the High Lord? What does he require now? That I battle demons with him? That I chase after that black unicorn again? What does he wish now? Tell me.”
Questor hesitated. There was something in the way Kallendbor asked his questions that suggested he already knew the answers. “Something has been stolen from the High Lord,”he said finally.
“Ah?” Kallendbor kept his eyes on the blaze. “What might that be? A bottle, perhaps?”
The room went still. Questor held his breath.
“A bottle with dancing clowns painted on it?” Kallendbor added softly.
“You have the bottle in your possession, then.”Questor made the question a statement of fact.
Kallendbor turned now, smiling as wickedly as the ko-bolds ever thought of doing. “Yes, Questor Thews, I have it. A troll gave it to me—a miserable, thieving troll. He thought to sell it to me, actually, this thief. He had stolen it from some other trolls after they had quarreled among themselves. He survived the quarrel, wound
ed, and came to me. He would not have done so—come to me, that is—if he had been thinking clearly, if he had not been so badly hurt…”
The big man trailed off, shaking his head. “He told me there was magic in the bottle, a little creature, a demon, a Darkling he said, who could give the holder of the bottle anything he wished. I laughed at him, Questor Thews. You can understand. I have never had much faith in magic; only in strength of arms. Why would you want to sell anything so dear, I asked this troll? Then I saw the fear in his eyes and I knew why. He was frightened of the bottle. Its power was too great. He wanted to be rid of the bottle—but there was enough greed left in him to wish something in return.”
Kallendbor looked away. “I think he believed the bottle was responsible somehow for the destruction of his companions—that in some way this creature that lives within caused it.”
Questor said nothing, waiting. He wasn't sure yet where this was leading and he wanted to find out.
Kallendbor sighed. “So I paid him the price he asked, and then I had his head cut off and spiked on the gateway. Did you see it when you entered? No? Well, I put it there to remind anyone who needs reminding that I have no use for thieves and swindlers.”
Fillip and Sot were shivering against Questor's legs. Questor reached down surreptitiously and slapped them. He straightened again as Kallendbor looked around.
“You claim the bottle belongs to the High Lord, Questor Thews, but the bottle does not bear the mark of the throne.”Kallendbor shrugged. ‘The bottle could belong to anyone.”
Questor bristled. “Nevertheless…”
“Nevertheless,”the big man cut in quickly, “I shall give the bottle back to you.”He paused. “After I am finished with it.”
The flames in the hearth crackled loudly in the silence as they consumed the wood. Questor was buffeted by a mix of emotions. “What are you saying?” he asked.
“That I have a use for this bottle, Questor Thews,”the other said quietly. “That I intend to give the magic a chance.”
There was something in the big man's eyes that Questor could not identify—something that wasn't anger or determination or anything else he had ever seen there before. “You must reconsider,”he advised quickly.