|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
by Aragh, petting him behind the ears. "You have to admit that!"
Page 91
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Sensible or not," Brian resumed, his jaw muscles bunching, "my lady is held
and I will loose her. By myself, if need be. But I believe I can count on Sir
James."
"It's not Sir James' duty to free your lady!" said Danielle. "His duty's to
free himself from his enchantment by getting the Lady Angela out of
theLoathlyTower . In fact, it's his dutynot to risk his life and that
rescue by trying anything as foolish as takingMalvernCastle , two-handed!"
"I constrain none," said Brian. His burning-blue gaze swung around to lock
with Jim's. "Sir James, how say you? Are you with me in this matter, or do I
proceed alone?"
Jim opened his mouth to make his apologetic excuses. Attacking the castle
with Aragh and Dafydd to help put matters, perhaps, faintly within the realm
of success. Without them, such an attack would be nothing less than suicidal.
Better to make the situation plain to Brian right now, than to have to back
out later.
But, oddly, the words seemed to stick in his throat and would not come out.
Jim was under no circumstances the bravest man around and he was no better a
dragon than he was a man, as far as courage went. On the other hand, there was
Angie& for whose rescue Carolinus assured him he would need Companions and if
he let Brian down now, it was not to be expected that Brian would still come
along to the Loathly Tower to help him. Also, there was something about the
knight's determination& and something, as well, about this crazy world he was
now in: unbelievable as it seemed, there was something in him in the human,
not dragon, part of him that wanted to try takingMalvernCastle , even if he
and Brian must make that attempt alone.
"Well, Sir James& ?" said Brian.
"Count on me," Jim heard himself saying.
Brian nodded. Dafydd refilled his jack with wine, held it up to Jim and drank
it off in silent toast.
"Oh, yes!" Danielle flashed, turning on the bowman. "And you were the one who
would put yourself up against prince, or king or emperor, and were so sure it
wouldn't beyou who would go down!"
He looked at her in surprise.
"This is none of my concern, as I said," he answered. "How is it you're
making a comparison between this and what I would do for you, in your own
case?"
"Sir Brian needs help! Does Sir James hang back and say it's none of his
concern? He does not! I wondered about your courage with all those fine
speeches you've been making. I see I was right to wonder!"
Dafydd frowned.
"Ah," he said, "you mustn't go making talk like that. My courage is as good
as any man's and, in fact, I think better."
"Oh?"
He stared at her with a sort of slow wonder.
Page 92
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"You will be pushing me into this, now?" he said. "Indeed, I see you will."
He turned to Brian.
"What I said was no less than the truth," he told the knight. "It is nothing
to me, one way or the other, about this Sir Hugh of yours. Nor am I some
knight-errant, look you, to go rescuing maidens. That is for those of you who
are liking such things. But for this particular maiden with us now, and no
other, you may count on me, too, for what I can do to aid."
"Good man !" Brian was beginning, when Aragh interrupted.
"You've got visitors, Sir knight. Turn and look."
Brian turned. They all turned.
Emerging from the trees opposite the inn were the first of a number of men,
all in steel caps, brown, green or russet hose, and leather jackets with metal
plates fastened thickly upon them, wearing swords at their belts and with
longbows and quivers of arrows slung from their shoulders.
"It's all right, Sir Brian," said Danielle. "It's just Giles o' the Wold, my
father."
"Your father?" Brian turned back swiftly to dart a suspicious glance at her.
"Certainly!" Danielle explained. "I knew you'd need help, so I asked one of
Dick Innkeeper's sons to ride secretly last night on one of his father's
horses to summon him. I said to tell him you'd be glad to split whatever
wealth was to be gained from Sir Hugh de Bois and his men in retaking the
castle."
Chapter Fourteen
Brian stared at her for a second longer, then turned back to look at the
newcomers, who were already halfway across the open ground to the inn. Slowly
he got to his feet. Dafydd rose also, casually, his hand on his quiver. Jim
found himself getting to his feet as well, and Dick Innkeeper materialized in
the inn door, stepping out to join them. Only Aragh stayed seated, his jaws
laughing.
The man in the lead was a lean individual who looked to be in his fifties.
The ends of hair seen escaping from under his steel cap were iron gray, and
his short, curly, jutting beard was pepper-and-salt in color. Beyond his air
of authority, he seemed little different from the men behind him, except that
the weapon at his belt was not the short sword the others wore, but rather a
longer, two-handed weapon like Sir Brian's.
He came up to the ditch girdling the inn, crossed its bridge and stopped
before the knight.
"I'm Giles o' the Wold," he said. "And these are my free brothers and
companions of the forest. I take it you're Sir Brian Neville-Smythe?"
"I am," Brian answered, stiffly. "Master outlaw, I wasn't the one who invited
you here."
"I'm aware of that," said Giles. Above his beard, his face was tanned to
almost the color of old leather and the skin had gone into small, shrewd
wrinkles. "My daughter sent for me "
Page 93
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
He glanced past Brian for a moment.
"I'll talk to you later, girl," he said. "Now, Sir knight, what matters who
sent for me? If you need assistance, here am I and my men, and the price of
our aid's not so high as to be beyond reason. Shall we sit like reasonable men
and discuss it, or should my lads and I turn around again and go?"
Brian hesitated a second but only a second.
"Dick," he said, turning to the innkeeper. "Bring another jack for Giles o'
the Wold; and see what his companions will have."
"Ale," answered Dick, in a somewhat grim voice, "is all I have in such
quantity."
"Ale, then," said Brian, impatiently. "Bring it!"
He sat back down at the table. Giles took the other end of the bench that
Dafydd had been sitting on.
Giles looked curiously at Aragh, and then at Jim.
"The wolf I know by reputation, if nothing else," he said. "The dragon My
daughter's message said you were a knight under enchantment?"
"This is the good Sir James," Brian explained. "The bowman next to you is
Dafydd ap What's that family name of yours, Master archer?"
"Hywel," said Dafydd, pronouncing it with a lilt that Jim knew his own tongue
certainly could not have managed. "I am inEngland to teach the English that
the longbow, as well as the true blood of they that best use it, are fromWales
alone; and it is also that I am going to marry your daughter, Master Giles."
"He is not!" cried Danielle.
Giles' bearded face parted in a smile.
"If you ever get her permission," he said to Dafydd, "come talk to me about
it. You might have to concern yourself not only with my feelings in the
matter, but the intentions of some score or so younger members of my band."
"You've a clerkly way of talking, Master outlaw," said Brian as Dick came out
with bottles and another jack for Giles, followed by his two men servants
rolling a cask through the door into the yard.
"Use your caps," they could hear him directing the outlaws who came
clustering around. "I've no store of jacks for such a number as this."
"I've been that, too," Giles answered Brian, carelessly. He took off his own
steel cap and tossed it on the table, filled his jack from one of the bottles
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plmew.pev.pl
|