The Dragon on The Border

by Gordon R. Dickson

  It might be, he thought, that he was becoming used to it. If so, it was not surprising. The water was not safe to drink; and he really sympathized with Sir Brian drinking the small beer. Small beer would keep you from dying of thirst, but that was about the best you could say for it.

  It not only was flavored differently in every place you came to, with every kind of condiment from rosemary to onions; but it was always a thin, flat, bitter brew with little to recommend it except that it was almost certainly safer than the local water.

  At the same time he found himself worried somewhat by the thought of what the steady and fairly heavy intake of wine might do to his liver over a matter of years. Particularly if he ended up staying here for a lifetime, as it looked like he and Angie very well might.

  The normal way of summoning people around the castle was simply to shout. It did not seem to Jim that it was polite for him to shout for Liseth, the way one of her brothers or her father might do. He compromised.

  "Ho!" he shouted.

  A servant appeared. One who conspicuously had not yet washed his hands, nor apparently changed his clothes in several years.

  "M'Lord?" he asked, bowing slightly.

  "Tell m'Lady Liseth that I've finished eating," said Jim.

  "At once, m'Lord," said the man and went off at a run toward the kitchen.

  A moment later, Liseth put in an appearance with an untidy bundle of clean cloths in her arms. Jim was about to offer to help her fold them up neatly so as to make an easier package to carry, then glanced at his own hands and thought better of it.

  "Shall we go, then, Sir James?" said Liseth. The fact that she addressed him by his knightly title rather than his rank indicated she now felt like a full partner in the upcoming operation. A recognition on her part that from now they were going to be co-workers.

  "Absolutely," said Jim.

  They took to the stairs; and, after a four-story climb and a walk down the corridor, reached the room where Brian lay. He was awake when they got there, and being given some of the small beer to drink by all four of his attendants. In fact, what Sir Brian was doing was drinking and at the same time swearing at them roundly—Jim suspected because the clumsy way they were holding him was putting pressure on his wound. But, being who and what he was, the knight was finding other excuses to complain.

  "Damme! Don't hold me like that!" He was roaring at the man holding him up from the bed and the other man supporting his head. "And you don't have to hold my head as if you were going to twist it off, either! I can hold my own head up. All the lump-fisted, pig-brained—

  He broke off on seeing Jim and Liseth enter.

  "Ah, m'Lord, m'Lady," he said in a voice so entirely welcoming and different that the change was almost comic, "a good morning to you. See for yourself, James, I'm probably half-healed already!"

  "That's what I intend to do, with m'Lady Liseth's help," said Jim.

  "Put me down, you stupid cattle!" snapped Brian reverting to his earlier manner and addressing the four servants. "Can't you see m'Lord is here to examine me? Make room there! Stand back!"

  The four gently lowered him to the bed and scurried away to the far walls.

  He turned to Jim and Liseth again.

  "Well, James," he said, throwing his arms wide on the bed, "examine me!"

  "In a moment," said Jim. "I must wash my hands first." Liseth had already turned to the servants and apparently done nothing but glare at them, but they were already producing a basin, some water and some soap.

  "It's part of the magic, you understand," Jim explained to Brian as he pushed up his sleeves and prepared to immerse his hands in the bowl of water that was being held for him.

  "Oh!" said Brian. Then he frowned, doubtfully. "James, I never remember seeing Carolinus wash his hands."

  "And I should think not!" said Jim, with as much indignation as he could manage. "An honored, esteemed, AAA+ magician like Carolinus wash his hands in front of any non-magician? Unthinkable!"

  "Of course," said Brian humbly. "Forgive me, James. I didn't realize."

  "Of course not," Jim said, in a kindly voice. He looked suspiciously at the water in the basin in front of him. "Has this water been boiled?"

  "Oh, yes, m'Lord," said one of the women servants, who was not holding the basin and therefore could give a sort of a bob which was neither a curtsy nor anything else, but passed for an acknowledgment of the situation. "Only yesterday."

  "Yesterday!" said Jim, now summoning as much anger into his voice as he could. "Yesterday won't do any good! I want some boiled fresh."

  "Lucy Jardine!" snapped Liseth at one of the women. "Down with you to the kitchen this instant and bring up a bowl of water fresh from one of the vats that are boiling right now and have had nothing—no clothes or anything else—in it!"

  "Yes, m'Lady," said Lucy Jardine, and ran out.

  "It ill becomes me," said Sir Brian after a moment to Jim and Liseth, "not to offer you the hospitality of something to drink. But I fear me this magic small beer might not be quite to your taste exactly—"

  "Why, it would be excellent," cooed Liseth. Then she looked uncertainly at Jim. "That is, if Sir James—"

  "I'm afraid not," said Jim sternly. "Recall the special duty we're engaged in here, m'Lady. It would be for the best if neither of us had anything to drink, small beer or anything else."

  "Ah! Well, there you are," said Liseth to Sir Brian. "I'm sorry, Sir Brian."

  "Not at all, m'Lady," said Brian. "It is I who am regretful to be such a sorry host."

  They continued exchanging deprecatory compliments for a number of minutes. At one time this would have astonished Jim. But he had learned it was the small talk of polite society under conditions like this. After a while, Lucy Jardine returned with the basin, the water in it steaming visibly and her face contorted by pain.

  "Set the basin down!" said Jim hastily. "Lucy Jardine, if you ever have to fetch such a basin of water for me again, take a couple of cloths—clean ones, that is—and use them to hold the basin in bringing it up."

  "Thank you, m'Lord," said Lucy, wringing her hands behind her after putting the basin on the table. "But m'Lady did specify that the basin should be filled directly from water that was freshly boiling. Luckily there was a vat of such in the kitchen."

  "Well, remember what I told you in the future," said Jim. "Come here, let me look at your fingers where you held it."

  Very shyly, she came up to him and displayed hands that had been at least partially washed, and therefore did a better job of showing the fact that she had acquired some blisters on the fingers that had pressed against the metal of the basin.

  "Go down again to the kitchen," said Jim, "and have someone down there rub grease thickly on those fingers and then wrap them each gently with a strip of dried, freshly boiled cloth, if there's any left. Also send somebody up here to take your place with Sir Brian."

  "If it please m'Lord," said Lucy, "I can come back myself and do all that I should. These small things on my fingers are nothing."

  Evidently, Jim decided, Sir Brian's stiff upper lip had its counterpart among the servants as well.

  "Very well," he said, "come back yourself, but have the fingers taken care of as I told you. Go now."

  She went. Once she had left the room, he cautiously tested the water that was in the basin. It was still hot but down to a level of heat where he could safely put his hands in it. He took the cake of soft, and very greasy, soap that one of the men servants was holding out to him, smeared it all over his hands and cautiously immersed them in the water. After washing his hands vigorously, he turned to Liseth and took one of the clean cloths he suddenly realized she was still holding. The weight of what she had carried was not great, but it was an awkward bundle.

  He dried his hands on the cloth, and laid it down on Sir Brian's bed.

  "You can put the other cloths here, m'Lady," he said.

  She unloaded her arms with a perceptible air of relief.

  Jim
turned to the two men servants.

  "Now, the two of you," he said, "would you slide the bed and Sir Brian on it out more toward the center of the room so that m'Lady and I can get on opposite sides of it?"

  They obeyed.

  Moving around to the far side of the bed, once the servants had gone back against the wall, Jim faced Liseth on the other side.

  "Now, m'Lady," he said, "let me show you how we will fold these cloths."

  The cloths were of all sorts of different material, but largely of woven wool. They had, of course, shrunk in the boiling water. However, Liseth had evidently anticipated this; and started out with much larger pieces of cloth than they might have needed otherwise. What was left, Jim with Liseth folded into either squares or long strips, the long strips to be those that would act as a bandage directly on Brian's wound. Jim reserved two of the thinnest, hardest cloths—which must have been, he thought, linen. He unfolded these and arranged them so as to wrap around the other cloths and keep them fairly germ-free; so that they would not need to be freshly boiled before the next bandage change.

  He was not at all sure that this would keep the under-cloths clean enough for covering an open wound. But then, everything he was doing here was by guess and by gosh; plus a few little snatches and bits of first aid he remembered from his own time and world.

  Ah, well, he thought to himself, after all, they could only do the best they could. It would, in fact, have been the best he could have done for himself; if—as was more than likely—one of these days he ended up in Brian's position and without Angie around to help.

  Brian and the four servants watched them interestedly. When all the cloths were folded and taken care of one way or another, Jim lifted the bedclothes off Brian's upper body and exposed the long strip of cloth that covered his wound.

  "I'm afraid the bandage will be stuck to the wound; and it's going to be rather painful when I pull if off," he said to Brian.

  "My dear James," said Brian, "what of it?"

  "Well, nothing," said Jim. "I just thought I'd mention it."

  "Pull away," said Brian, with a wave of his hand.

  Jim accordingly did. The bandage was indeed, glued hard to the wound by dried blood. Outside of a small twitch at the corner of Brian's mouth, the other gave no sign that there was any discomfort at all in having the cloth yanked loose from the slash in his side. As soon as they removed it, the wound began to bleed again. Somewhere, Jim had been told that this was a good sign; and that the wound should be let bleed for a little while to help clear itself of any possible matter or infection that had gotten into it since the first bandage was put on.

  Accordingly, he waited a few moments, mopping up the excess fresh blood from the edge of the wound. The strip of cloth they had taken off was an ugly sight with jellied red and black blood striping it all the way down, where the cloth had rested against the wound.

  Jim could not help feeling a little queasy, looking at the open, bleeding wound and the strip of cloth. The flesh was flushed slightly around the wound. But looking closely at it, Jim did not think that it had become infected.

  Looking up, however, he found no echo of his feelings in the faces around him. Brian was looking almost proudly at the blood on the bandage, Liseth was examining it with bright-eyed interest, and the servants were crowding forward to look at both wound and bandage themselves.

  Jim passed the bandage to Liseth, who immediately handed it off to the nearest servant, who happened to be one of the two men.

  "You've been watching closely," Jim said to Liseth, in as authoritative a voice as he could manage. "This is the proper magic treatment for all such wounds, and you may have to do what we're doing here now for Sir Brian if I have to leave the castle for some days."

  "You're leaving, James?" asked Brian interestedly. "Not for a few days yet, I hope. I will be up and about in that time, and we can go together."

  "I'm sorry, Brian," said Jim, "but I'm going on a secret mission; and it will be best to leave you behind to help take care of matters here, if necessary."

  "Damn it now!" said Brian. "Am I all that necessary, with the whole de Mer family here?"

  "I will be taking some of the de Mer family at least, along with me," said Jim. "Particularly Sir Herrac, if he is willing to go. That will leave you as the only experienced knight with age and authority on hand."

  "True," said Sir Brian. But he was obviously downcast.

  "You've said nothing about this to me—this leaving," said Liseth across the bed, looking fixedly at Jim.

  "It is not just the proper time and opportunity," said Jim, looking meaningfully at the servants—not without a feeling of guilt, since he knew that they were merely an excuse in this case. But the trick worked, both with Brian and with Liseth.

  "Ah. Of course," said Liseth. "And that is why you will be wanting me to take care of Brian while you're absent?"

  "Yes m'Lady," said Jim, "if you will be so good."

  "It will be my duty, of course!" said Liseth. Whether by accident or design, she managed to move just then so as to jangle the keys at her belt. "So that's why you have me here with you now, not so much to aid you in what you're doing, as to learn how such things are done. But you have not taught me the spells to magic the small beer."

  "That's something else I haven't had time to do. But I will, before I leave," said Jim, making a mental note to make up some kind of odd arrangement of words that would give the impression of putting a spell on the beer.

  "As well as other magic elements," said Liseth, driving the point home.

  "Much of the magic is in the handling," said Jim. "As it is in the use of soap and water this way. But I promise you, you shall be fully informed before I leave. Now, we must get a new bandage on that wound."

  He chose one of the long strips that were laid out on the linen he had spread on the bed, having Liseth take the other end.

  "Now," he said to her, "either one of us can do this alone, using both hands, but it is more effective and the chances of getting the bandage on straight are better if you put your end down and I put mine down at the same time. Ready?"

  "Ready, m'Lord," said Liseth, frowning fiercely at the end of the cloth in her hands. She held it poised above the end of the slash that was closest to her.

  "Good. Now I'm going to count one, two, three, and then say 'down'," said Jim. "Ready? One, two, three—down!"

  They put the bandage on the wound, and then Jim showed Liseth how it should be tied down with cloth strips around Brian's chest. When it was all done he put the covers back over Brian's naked chest.

  "Now, we'll bundle all the boiled strips up in these other pieces of cloth I've spread out, then tie them up tightly, you and I," Jim said to Liseth. "Then we'll put the bundles at the back of the table here, if we can make space for it—no, we can't make space. Well, we'll put it at the foot of the bed. Be careful, Brian, not to kick it off onto the floor."

  "Of course I won't," said Brian.

  "It's of utmost importance that those cloths inside there are not touched by anyone else but me or Liseth and—that they eventually touch no one else but you," said Jim.

  "I understand," said Liseth. She turned to the servants. "Do all of you understand?"

  There was a chorus of voices assuring her that they did.

  "Now, m'Lady, we must be getting back downstairs," said Jim.

  "Could you not stay a while and talk?" asked Brian, so wistfully that Jim almost gave in.

  "I'd like to, Brian," he said, "and if there's time before I leave, we'll have some long talks. But for the present it's important that I gather Dafydd and all the men of the de Mer household here with me in the Great Hall for a discussion of sorts."

  He put one hand apologetically on Brian's good shoulder, and Brian covered it for a moment with his own hand.

  "I will be patient, James," said Brian, "I promise you."

  This meek and trusting assurance threatened for a second to break Jim's composure; but he kept his face as s
tern as he could and simply nodded.

  "I know you will," he said. He took his hand away and turned to Liseth. "Shall we go then, m'Lady?"

  "If m'Lord wishes," said Liseth.

  They went out. On the way down the stairs, Liseth bubbled over with questions, that Jim did his best to either satisfy or parry. The first and most important was whether she was to be included in the conference down in the Great Hall.

  Jim had no real reason to keep her away from it, although he found himself worrying about what kind of suggestions and intrusions she might make into the conversation. Perhaps, he thought, he could slip a hint to her father to keep her quiet during the important parts. If her brothers could be called curious, it had to be admitted that Liseth outdid all of them together two times over, in curiosity. She wanted to know the why and wherefore of everything.

  To get her mind off that, Jim went into the business of the care of Brian while he was gone. He explained that cloths should be boiled fresh every day and be ready in case anything had happened to those left over from the day before. In fact, to be completely safe, freshly boiled and dried cloths should be used every day, provided it was she herself who carried them upstairs. He managed to convey, without exactly saying so, that her carrying them upstairs somehow helped to infuse the cloths with the healing magic. Liseth took this as a compliment.

  In all things, Liseth expressed herself as being not only able, but willing to take care of everything exactly as he said. Then she brought the conversation back to the business of the gathering.

  "My father and my brothers, with Lachlan, are out around our own land, right now," she said. "I don't believe any of them have left the vicinity of the castle, however. Shall I send servants to call them in?"

  "If you'd be so kind," said Jim. "Tell them I consider it most urgent that we talk together as soon as possible; and that right away would not be too soon. Particularly this should be impressed on your father."

  "That is easily answered," said Liseth. "I will ride after my father myself. I know where he will be found. As for your friend the bowman, he is actually in the castle, or just outside somewhere, working away with those special arrows that he's been making against the Hollow Men; like those that had such success against them yesterday, when we were with the Little Men."