“Me as well, High Lord,”Abernathy said, bending close. “Whatever happens to us, at least you must get back to Landover!”
Ben closed his eyes. There was that choice. He had the medallion back again. Alone, he could undoubtedly find a way to slip out. But it would mean abandoning his friends, and he wasn't about to do that, no matter what. Miles would probably be all right, but Willow wouldn't last the night. And what would become of Abernathy? He shook his head. There had to be another way out of this.
Miles leaned over. “Maybe you better think about hiding the medallion, Doc. Just for tonight. You can come back for it tomorrow. You can't let them find it on you!”
Ben didn't answer. He didn't have an answer. Hello, choice number two. He knew Miles was right, but he also knew that he didn't want to part with the medallion again for any reason. Twice now he had lost it, once before when Meeks had tricked him into thinking he had given it up when in fact he hadn't, and this time when he had given it to Abernathy in Questor's ill-fated effort to change the dog back into a man. Both times he had managed to retrieve it, but only after considerable difficulty. He was not anxious to risk a third mishap. The medallion had become an integral part of him since he had crossed into Landover, and while he didn't yet fully understand how it had happened, he knew that he could no longer function without it. It gave him the magic that made him King. It gave him power over the Paladin. And while he was reluctant to admit it, it gave him his identity.
He sat in the near-dark courtroom and thought about the medallion and all that he had become since it had been given to him. He looked at the trappings of the courtroom, symbols of his old life as a member of the bar, shards of the person he had been, and thought about how far he had gone away from them. Democracy to monarchy. Trial and error to trial by combat. A jury of his peers to a jury of one. No law but his. It had all been made possible by his acquisition of the medallion. His hand drifted to his tunic front. His smile was ironic. The trappings of his old life might be gone, but hadn't he simply exchanged them for new ones?
The doors pushed open and another deputy appeared. He spoke briefly with Wilson, and Wilson walked down to Martin. They in turn conversed, and then Martin got up and walked back up the aisle with the Chief Deputy. All three men pushed through the doors and disappeared.
Ben felt the hair on the back of his neck begin to prickle. Something was up.
A few moments later, they were back. Martin walked down the aisle to stand before Ben. “Mr. Ard Rhi is here, Mr. Holiday. He says you came to his house last night posing as a Mr. Squires in an attempt to buy the medallion. When he wouldn't sell, you came back tonight with your friends and stole it. Apparently, the daughter of his steward helped you. He says she's admitted her part in the matter.”He looked toward the courtroom doors. “Chief Deputy?”
Wilson and the other deputy pushed open the doors and said something to someone outside. Michel Ard Rhi stepped into view, his face impassive, but his eyes dark with anger. Behind him appeared two members of Graum Wythe's watch.
Elizabeth stood disconsolately between them. Her eyes were downcast and tears streaked her freckled face.
Ben felt sick. They had found Elizabeth. There was no telling what they had threatened her with to force her to confess to stealing the medallion. And there was no telling what they would do to her if Ard Rhi didn't get it now.
“Do any of you know the little girl?” Martin asked quietly.
No one said anything. No one had to.
“How about it, Mr. Holiday?” Martin pressed. “If” you return the medallion, this whole matter can be dropped right here and now. Otherwise, I have to charge you.”
Ben didn't answer. He couldn't. There seemed no way out.
Martin sighed. “Mr. Holiday?”
Ben leaned forward, just to shift positions while he tried to stall, but Abernathy misinterpreted the move, thinking he had decided to give up the medallion, and hurriedly brought up a paw to restrain him.
“No, High Lord, you cannot!” he exclaimed.
Martin stared at the dog. Ben could see in the man's eyes what he was thinking. He was thinking, how can the mouth on a dog costume move like that? How come he has teeth and a tongue? How come he seems so real?
Then a ball of crimson fire exploded outside the bank of courtroom windows, a black hole opened through the night, and out of the hole flew Strabo the dragon and Questor Thews.
It was one of those rare moments in life when everything seems to come to a halt, where movement is suspended, and everyone is trapped in a sort of three-dimensional still life. It was one of those moments that imprints itself in the memory, so that years later everyone still remembers exactly what it was like—what the feelings were, the smells, the tastes, the colors, and the lines and angles of everything around; and most of all, the way everything that happened just before and just after seemed focused on that moment like sunlight reflected off still water in colored threads.
It was like that for Ben Holiday. For that one moment, he saw everything as if it were captured in a photograph. He was half-turned in his seat in the front row of that courtroom gallery, Willow on one side, slumped down against his shoulder, Abernathy on the other, eyes shining, and Miles further left, still in his gorilla outfit, his cherubic face a mix of astonishment and dismay. Martin and Willoughby stood just in front of them on the other side of the gate, two generations of three-piece suits, their entire lives given over to a belief in the value of reason and common sense, the former looking as if he had just witnessed Armageddon, the latter looking as if he had caused it. Behind and to the rear, just visible in Ben's peripheral vision, were Chief Deputy Wilson and his brothers-at-arms, minions of the law, bent in half crouches that gave them the appearance of startled cats poised to run either way. Michel Ard Rhi had black hatred etched on his face, and his men were white with fear. Only Elizabeth radiated the pure wonder that was captured, too, somewhere in Ben.
Outside, pinned against the backdrop of the lights of the city of Seattle, was Strabo. His bulk seemed to hang in the air, wings outspread like a monstrous hang glider's, his black, crusted, serpentine form framed in the windows of the courtroom like an image projected on a screen. His yellow-lamp eyes blinked, and smoke trailed in streamers from his nostrils and mouth. Questor Thews sat astride him, patchwork gray robes so tattered they seemed to hang in strips, white hair and beard streaked with ash and flying in the wind. There was wonder mirrored in the wizard's face as well.
Ben wanted to howl with the exhilaration he was feeling.
Then Martin whispered, “Good God!” his voice like a small child's, and the moment was gone.
Everyone began moving and shouting at once. Wilson and the second deputy came down the aisle still crouched, slipping their guns from their holsters, yelling at everyone to get down. Ben yelled back, telling them not to shoot, glancing once over his shoulder to where Questor Thews was already making a quick circling motion with his fingers, then back again to see the astonished deputies staring at fistfuls of daisies where the guns had been. The hallway outside had become an impassable jungle, floor-to-ceiling deepest Africa, and Michel Ard Rhi and his men, trying desperately to flee, found their exit blocked. Elizabeth had broken free of them and was running down the aisle to greet Abernathy, crying and saying something about a clown nose and Michel and how sorry she was. Willoughby was pulling and tugging on Miles as if somehow Miles might get him out of this nightmare, and Miles was trying in vain to shove the other man away.
Then, suddenly, Strabo shifted positions outside the window, and his huge tail swung about like a wrecking ball and hammered into the bank of windows with an explosion that shattered glass, wooden frames, and half the wall. The city night rushed in, wind and cold, the sounds of cars from the streets and ships from the docks, and the lights of the adjacent high rises which now seemed magnified a hundredfold.
Ben went to the floor, Miles was thrown back into the gallery seats, and Abernathy and Elizabeth came togeth
er in a rush.
“Strabo!” Michel Ard Rhi screamed in recognition.
The dragon flew in through the opening like a dirigible and settled onto the courtroom floor, flattening counsel benches, the reporters’ stand, and part of the gate.
“Holiday!” he hissed, and his tongue licked out from between the blackened spikes of his teeth. “What an ugly world you come from!”
Martin, Willoughby, Wilson, the second deputy, Michel Ard Rhi, and his men were climbing all over one another in an effort to get out of the way of the dragon, but they couldn't break through the wall of foliage that blocked the courtroom doors. Strabo glanced at them; his maw opened, and a jet of steam shot out at the five, who screamed in terror and dove for the cover of the gallery seats. The dragon laughed and clicked his jaws at them.
“Enough of that nonsense!” Questor Thews snapped. The wizard began climbing down from the dragon's back.
“You drag me here against my will, force me to rescue a man I despise, a man who is nothing less than what he deserves to be—the victim of his own foolhardiness—and now you would deprive me of the tiny bit of pleasure this pointless venture affords!” Strabo huffed and snapped his tail, taking out another row of gallery seats. “You are so tiresome, Questor Thews!”
Questor ignored him. “High Lord!” The wizard came forward and embraced Ben warmly. “Are you well?”
“Questor, I have never been better!” Ben exclaimed, pounding the other on the back so hard he almost knocked him over. “And I have never been happier to see anyone in all my life! Not ever!”
“I could not tolerate even the thought of you being here another moment, High Lord,”Questor declared solemnly. He straightened. “Let me make my confession here and now. This entire mishap has been my fault. I am the one who made a mess out of things and I am the one who must put them right again.”
He turned, his eyes settling on Abernathy. “Old friend!” he called over. “I have done you a grave disservice. I am sorry for what I did. I hope you will forgive me.”
Abernathy wrinkled his nose with distaste. “Cat's whiskers, Questor Thews! There is no time for this nonsense!” Questor assumed a pained look. “Oh, for the… Very well! I forgive you! You knew I would! Now, get us out of here, confound it!”
But Questor had caught sight of Michel Ard Rhi. “Ah, hello, Michel!” he called up the aisle to where the other was crouched behind a line of benches. He smiled brightly, then whispered out of the corner of his mouth to Ben, “What is going on here, anyway?”
Quickly, Ben filled him in. He told him what Michel had done to Abernathy and tried to do to them.
Questor was understandably appalled. “Michel hasn't changed a bit, it seems. He remains the same detestable fellow he always was. Landover is well rid of him.”He shrugged. “Well, this is all great fun, but I am afraid we must be going, High Lord. I suspect the magic I employed to close off this room won't last very long. Magic has never enjoyed much success in this world.”He took a moment to survey his handiwork at the courtroom door, then sighed. “That's a much better than average forest wall I conjured, don't you think? I am quite proud of it. I have always been rather good at growing things, you know.”
“A regular green thumb,”Ben acknowledged. He had his eyes fixed on Michel Ard Rhi. “Listen, Questor, as far as I'm concerned, the quicker you get us out of here, the better. But we have to take Michel with us. I know,”he added hastily, seeing the look of horror on the other's face, “you think I'm nuts. But what about Elizabeth if we leave him? What happens to her?”
Questor frowned. Clearly, he hadn't considered that. “Oh, dear,”he said.
Elizabeth, a dozen feet up the aisle, was clearly thinking much the same thing. “Abernathy!” she begged, tugging on his sleeve. When he looked down, her eyes were huge. “Please don't leave me behind! I don't want to stay here anymore. I want to come with you.”
Abernathy shook his head. “Elizabeth, no…”
“Yes, Abernathy, please! I want to! I want to learn magic, and fly dragons and play with you and Willow and see the castle where…”
“Elizabeth…”
“… Ben is King and the fairy world and all the strange creatures, everything, but I don't want to stay here, not with Michel, not even if my father said it would be all right, because it wouldn't, not ever…”
“But I can't take you!”
They stared at each other in anguish. Then Abernathy bent down impulsively, hugged the little girl close, and felt her hug him back. “Oh, Elizabeth!” he whispered.
Outside the window, still in the distance, sirens sounded. Miles grabbed Ben. “You have to get out of here now, Doc—or you're liable not to get out at all.”He shook his head. “I still think this whole thing is just a crazy dream. Green fairies and talking dogs and now dragons! I think I'm going to wake up tomorrow and wonder what I had to drink tonight!” Then he grinned. “Doesn't matter, though.”He glanced at the dragon, who was chewing on a section of the judge's bench. “I wouldn't have missed a minute of it!”
Ben smiled. “Thanks, Miles. Thanks for sticking with me. I know it wasn't easy—especially with so many weird things happening all at once. But someday you'll understand. Someday I'll come back and tell you everything.”
Miles put a big hand on his shoulder. “I'll hold you to that, Doc. Now get going. And don't worry about things here. I'll do what I can for the little girl. I'll find a way to straighten it all out, I promise.”
Questor had been studying Elizabeth and Abernathy while Miles was speaking, but now suddenly he started. “Straighten things out!” he exclaimed. “That gives me an idea!” He wheeled and hurried up the aisle to where Michel Ard Rhi and the others still crouched behind the gallery seats. “Let me see,”the wizard muttered to himself. “I think I still remember how this works. Ah!”
He muttered a few quick words, added a few curt gestures, and pointed, one after the other, to Chief Deputy Wilson, to the second deputy, to Michel's two henchmen, to Martin, and finally to Lloyd Willoughby of Sack, Saul, and McQuinn. All immediately assumed a rather blissful look and settled to the floor sound asleep.
“There!” Questor rubbed his hands together briskly. “When they wake up, they will have had a very pleasant rest and all this will seem a rather vague dream!” He beamed at Miles. “That should make your task somewhat easier!”
Ben glanced at Miles, who was studying the vacant look on Willoughby's face suspiciously. The sirens had settled underneath the Courts Building, and a spotlight was playing about the ragged opening in the wall.
“Questor, we have to get out of here!” Ben called sharply. He picked up Willow and cradled her in his arms. “Bring Michel and let's go!”
“Oh, no, High Lord!” Questor shook his head adamantly. “We can't have Michel Ard Rhi running about Land ver again! He was much too much trouble the last time he was there. I believe he will do better here, in your world.”
Ben started to object, but Questor was already approaching Michel, who was on his feet again and backed up against the courtroom wall. “Stay away from me, Questor Thews,”he was snarling. “I'm not afraid of you!”
“Michel, Michel, Michel!” Questor sighed wearily. “You were always such a pathetic excuse for a Prince, and it seems you have not changed. You appear determined to bring unpleasantness into the lives of everyone around you. I simply don't understand it. In any case, you are going to have to change—even if I have to help you.”
Michel crouched. “Don't come near me, you old fool. You play tricks with your magic that might fool others, but not me! You always were a charlatan, a pretend wizard who couldn't begin to do real magic, a ridiculous clown everyone…”
Questor made a short chopping motion, and the words ceased to come out of Michel Ard Rhi's mouth, even though he continued trying to speak. When he realized what had been done to him, he reeled back in horror.
“We can all improve ourselves in this life, Michel,”Questor whispered. “You just never learned ho
w.”
He made a series of intricate motions and spoke softly. There was a wisp of golden dust that flew from his fingers and settled onto Michel Ard Rhi. The exiled Prince of Landover shrank back, then stiffened, and his eyes seemed to catch sight of something very far away, something that none of the others could see. He relaxed, and there was a strange mix of horror and understanding mirrored in his face.
Questor turned away and started back down the aisle. “Should have done that a long time ago,”he muttered. “Simple sort of magic, best kind there is. Strong enough to last, too, even in this barbaric world of nonbelievers.”
He stopped momentarily as he reached Abernathy and Elizabeth, and he put his gnarled hands on the little girl's shoulders. “I am sorry, Elizabeth, but Abernathy is right. You cannot come with us. You belong here, with your father and your friends. This is your home, not Landover. And there is a reason for that, just as there is a reason for most of what happens in life. I won't pretend that I understand all of what that reason is, but I understand a bit of it. You believe in the magic, don't you? Well, that is surely part of why you are here. Every world needs someone who believes in the magic—to make certain that it isn't forgotten by those who don't.”
He bent to kiss her forehead. “See what you can do, will you?”
He continued down the aisle past Ben. “Do not worry* High Lord. She will have no further problem with Michel Ard Rhi, I assure you.”
“How do you know that?” Ben asked. “What did you do to him?”
But the wizard was already through the gate and climbing back up on the dragon. “I'll explain later, High Lord. We really have to be going now. Right this instant, I think.”
He motioned back up the aisle, and Ben could see that the wall of foliage blocking the courtroom entry was beginning to fade. In moments, the entry would be clear again.
“Get out of here, Doc!” Miles whispered roughly. “Good luck!”