The Dragon Knight

by Gordon R. Dickson

  Jim found himself under no compulsion to keep from moving. To prove this, he pulled off his gauntlets and hooked one thumb in his sword belt. He stared at Malvinne.

  "Still I said!" snapped Malvinne again, his finger holding in midair. His eyes widened. "What have you learned to keep that command from touching you?"

  "I have made him proof against all your powers," said the dry voice of Carolinus. He stepped around from behind Jim to stand beside him, to a murmur of amazement from the men behind Jim.

  "But a second past he was not there…" Jim heard muttered behind him.

  "You!" said Malvinne." glaring at Carolinus. "What's he to you?"

  "My pupil, Stinky," said Carolinus conversationally. "Remember how we used to play our little tricks on each other when we were at school together? I haven't seen you in a long time, Stinky."

  "Keep your schoolboy slang to yourself!" said Malvinne. "A plus does not make that much difference between us."

  "I beg to differ," said Carolinus. "That plus can destroy you."

  He turned to Jim.

  "Didn't you want the real Prince here to see this?" he asked.

  "What is this of a real Prince?" asked King Jean. But before the question could be answered he had another. He stared at Carolinus. "Are you indeed that Carolinus of whom so much is said? There are those who claim you are of the same age as Merlin. What do you do here, this far from your magic isles in the western ocean?"

  "You've been misled, John," said Carolinus. "Merlin was lost to the world many generations before I was born. And I live in no magic western isles, but in England."

  "In England!" King Jean's eyebrows went up and he looked haughty. "What would bring a magician of your repute to dwell in England?"

  "The fact that I was an Englishman before I was a magician," answered Carolinus. "But that's beside the point."

  He turned once more to Jim. "The Prince?" he asked.

  "Yes," said Jim. He wheeled about and scanned those behind him. His eyes lighted on Theoluf, who was still on his horse. "Theoluf, ride to me west of where we waited for His Majesty, here, a hundred yards; and then turn right and go directly back. You will come to a pile of stone, which is all that's left of a small wayside shrine, within which you will find Sir Giles and His Highness waiting. Take two extra horses and bring them both back here—as soon as possible!"

  "At once, m'Lord," answered Theoluf. He turned his horse around, unceremoniously ordered off their horses two men-at-arms close to him, and snatching up the reins of the horses, headed off through the crowd that made way for him. The space that opened among those standing or sitting and watching the drama taking place beneath the great flag, closed quickly again.

  "What's this about a Prince?" asked King Jean.

  "Edward, Crown Prince of England," said Brian harshly.

  "Edward?" The King looked from Brian to the Prince at Malvinne's elbow and back again at Brian and then back again at the Prince.

  "What nonsense is afoot here?" he asked Carolinus. "Yourself—this young magician—a talk of Princes?"

  "You must ask any questions of Sir James Eckert," said Carolinus.

  King Jean stared at him for a long moment, but Carolinus's face did not change nor did he move. He might have been a carved wooden statue of himself.

  "What is this?" demanded the King, turning to Malvinne.

  "Your Highness," said Malvinne, "this is all a plot against me. I cannot explain it to you because it is magical in nature."

  "You, Sir!" said the King, rounding upon Jim. "Will you give me a straightforward answer? What is afoot here? I insist on knowing!"

  "You will know shortly, Majesty," said Jim. "It is something that must be shown rather than told."

  "I expect," said Malvinne, with a wicked twist to his mouth and a wicked tone in his voice, "they will produce some impostor and claim he is Prince Edward instead of this young man with us here, whom we both know and honor."

  "Something like that," agreed Jim, "but not just like that."

  "Sir James!" It was the voice of Theoluf calling at a little distance. A moment later the circle of watchers around the flag split apart and let through a horse so suddenly and strongly reined to a halt, that it danced and had to be tightly held. "Sir James, I found the stones and if the Prince is there he is being attacked! The attackers are knights like those here with the black stripes across the helm—there must be a dozen of them! I think I glimpsed Sir Giles fighting at the entrance of a little hole in the stones, but he will be overwhelmed shortly, unless help reaches him immediately!"

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  "Black-striped helms?" cried Sir Raoul, leaping for the saddle on his horse. "They are some of Malvinne's own knights, sent to slay the Prince, the real Prince, before he can be shown here! Haste, before Sir Giles is overwhelmed!"

  There was a general scramble for horses. Giles was liked not merely by the members of his own class, but by the men-at-arms. Underneath his fierce surface there was an innocence that drew them all.

  Brian, for all the weight of his armor, made a running vault to place one foot in a stirrup and swing his other leg over the back of his horse. He started to rein it around, then recollected himself.

  "Take twenty men, Theoluf!" he shouted. "Only twenty. All the rest stay here to guard these knights who have surrendered!"

  Slowly, he began to dismount again.

  "So, there is such an impostor," said King Jean to Malvinne.

  "Assuredly, Majesty," said Malvinne, "though my knights have orders to capture him only, not to slay him. If they found him. I kept word of this from you because I did not wish to concern Your Majesty with what is after all a petty detail. Once brought here, it will be seen that he is totally unlike our Prince."

  "I think he'll prove exactly the opposite," said Jim. Almost to his own surprise, he felt a fury against Malvinne building inside him. "As for your knights being told to capture him only, that's a lie. They could have been hunting him for only one purpose: to slay him, and hide all knowledge of him from King Jean."

  "You call what I say a lie?" Malvinne swung rapidly toward him, raising his finger again. Then, as if realizing the uselessness of it, let the hand and finger drop again to his side. "We shall see."

  They waited for perhaps fifteen or twenty uneasy minutes, during which the wounded on both sides were attended to with as much skill as one fourteenth-century soldier could give another. The King, Brian, and everyone else not occupied had turned their attention back to the field of battle.

  The first division of the French, caught by the hidden bowmen, had been shot to pieces. In the past year Jim had seen the bow used many times, and was aware of the devastating effect of the arrows it could throw. But never before had he seen the concentrated effect of the shooting of hundreds of bowmen at once. Lines and bodies of armored knights at full charge were simply wiped out, their saddles emptied, their horses shot from under them. What had begun as an almost invincible sweep down the field turned into a tangle of untidy clumps of still surviving horsemen.

  As the English had expected, the sight of this had been too much for the French knights waiting in the second division. The knights and horsed men-at-arms had begun a charge toward the other end of the field without waiting for an order, so that it was not so much a line as an untidy gang that swept down, into the same deadly fire. Now the third line was attacking, and had been met head-on by a charge of the horse from the English side, so that the field had now disintegrated into innumerable knots of struggling and fighting men, in individual contests.

  It was at this moment that a shout went up from those near the outside of the group around the King, and a moment later a lane opened among the English there, and Theoluf rode through, followed by the Prince, without armor, the sword scabbarded at his side, and his head uncovered. He reached King Jean and the others beneath the flag and leaped from the saddle.

  "Cousin—" he said, advancing with both arms outheld toward the King, addressing him as monar
chs usually addressed one another.

  King Jean recoiled and folded his arms on his chest, so that the Prince stopped and his own arms fell to his side.

  "And who, sir, are you?" demanded the King.

  "I?" The young man's head came up haughtily. "Who else could I be? I am Edward Plantagenet, Crown Prince of all England, firstborn son of Edward, King of England. Who are you, sir?"

  The King ignored the final question.

  "Certainly," he said, turning to Malvinne beside him, "he greatly resembles our Prince."

  "Say rather, your Prince greatly resembles our Royal Edward, here," said Brian harshly.

  "Let us see," said Malvinne.

  He darted forward and jabbed out with a pointing forefinger that almost touched young Edward's nose.

  "Still!" he said.

  Instantly there was an immobility about the Prince, that left no doubt in anyone's mind that Malvinne's magic had worked. Malvinne laughed and threw a glance at Carolinus.

  "I thought not!" he said. "You would not have been able to throw the cloak of your protection over all these here. Now I have this one you call the Prince!"

  Carolinus did not answer. He was as still as the Prince, although something about him gave the appearance of being free to move if he wished. But he did not. It was as if he stood and watched all that went on, but Malvinne did not exist.

  "Meanwhile," said Jim, going to his horse and detaching his saddle flask, "let's establish now which is which."

  "Stop him!" cried Malvinne. "What he carries in that flask is a magic potion! Don't let him approach the true Prince!"

  "It's only water," said Jim. He stepped to King Jean, removed the top of the flask and poured some of the flask's contents into the palm of his hand. He held it up for the King to sniff.

  "Do you smell anything, Your Majesty?" he asked. "As I say, it's only water."

  "It is enchanted water!" shouted Malvinne.

  Jim ignored him, as Carolinus was ignoring him. He walked over to the real Prince.

  "Forgive me, Your Highness," he said, "but it is absolutely necessary!"

  He threw the palmful of water into Edward's face.

  Edward was not able to stir, and no muscle about him moved. But his eyes blazed with fury, and something between a moan and a growl arose from the other English present. There was a general move, on horseback and on foot, in Jim's direction. But then it stopped.

  "Forgive me again, Your Highness." Jim bowed. "If there had been any other way I'd have taken it."

  He turned and went toward the other Prince, who now stood between the King and Malvinne. Malvinne tried to get in his way but Brian took one quick step forward and jerked the magician clear. Before Malvinne could turn upon Brian and immobilize him, and before the King, who had begun to stir, could interpose himself between Jim and the Prince at his elbow, Jim threw the second palmful of the water into the face of Malvinne's Prince.

  A cry arose from everyone there, even King Jean; who stepped back that a startled oath.

  The face of the Prince that had been splashed with water, was changing. There was a slight hissing, sizzling noise from it; and although the features of the Prince's nice did not distort, they shrank. The mouth became shorter, the nose smaller, and the eyes closer together.

  All of this, the Prince who had just been splashed did not seem to be aware of. He continued to stare at Jim with the stare of one who does not understand what is going on.

  Jim took the open bottle and generously splashed as much of its contents as he could slosh with a couple of quick jerks of his arm into the face before him.

  The hissing and sizzling noise increased. The face shrank rapidly. The figure itself lost stature and dwindled inside its clothing, so that same clothing now hung loose upon it. Within the garments, the Prince himself continued to dwindle, even though the water had disappeared.

  Jim stood back. Before the view of all of them, the Prince who had stood between Malvinne and the King grew smaller and smaller until he dwindled away completely; and there was nothing but a pile of the clothes on the ground.

  Carolinus moved, turning about sharply on his heel.

  "Accounting Office!" he snapped.

  "I am here," responded the startling deep bass voice out of thin arm about four feet above the ground.

  "Take special note," said Carolinus, "of the questions and answers you're about to hear. James?"

  Jim looked up from the pile of clothing at Carolinus. In spite of the fact that he had known what would happen as a result of what he did, he was shaken by it. He could not help feeling as if he had committed a murder.

  His eyes met Carolinus's.

  "James," said Carolinus, "was that water you used literally nothing more than water?"

  "Plain water," answered Jim. "I got it from a stream a few hours ago. Sir Brian saw me empty out the wine that was in this flask and replace it with the water."

  "By Heaven's Hand, I did," said Brian, in a shaken voice.

  "Why did you splash the water on the false Prince?" asked Carolinus.

  "Because—" Jim had to swallow. "Because I knew it would make him melt. I knew that such simulacra always had to be made by magic out of snow fresh from the mountaintop."

  "And who told you that simulacra had to be made of snow?" demanded Carolinus. "Who told you that anything made that way would melt if you poured water on it, as snow itself does, when water is poured on it?"

  "It's mentioned," said Jim, "a number of times in the fairy tales in my—in the place where I come from."

  "You heard all that, Accounting Office?" said Carolinus.

  "I heard," responded the bass voice.

  Carolinus's own voice relaxed. It was almost gentle.

  "That's all for now then," he said. "Jim, step aside with me so I can talk to you."

  He turned without looking at Malvinne, and Jim did not have the heart to look at the other master magician himself. He was about to follow Carolinus when there was a stir among the men in front of him. Seven men-at-arms appeared, carrying someone on a battered shield, which was being used as an impromptu stretcher. At one end, one man supported a helmetless head; at the other, two held up the legs that reached beyond the further end of the shield. They brought their burden up into the open space not far from the flag, and laid it gently down.

  "Giles!" cried Jim. And at that, two things happened at once.

  "You are released," said the invisible bass voice just above the ground, and a slight bluejerkined body pushed past Jim and fell on its knees beside the man on the shield.

  "My brave Sir Giles!" It was the true Prince, and he was weeping. "How can I thank thee for this, and for all that thou has done to save me, my life, and my honor?"

  On the stretcher, Giles's face was bloodless. His lips moved; but Jim could not hear what he said. The Prince took up Giles's limp hand and pressed it to his lips. The armor still on Giles's body had been hacked almost to pieces, and there seemed to be none of it that was not smeared with blood. Theoluf dropped to his knees on the other side of Giles and began with damp cloths to clean and stop the bleeding of Giles's wounds.

  At this moment, a commotion among the thick circle of armed men diverted their attention. The body of men parted almost as if a battering ram had come through it. Coming down the open lane were four knights on horseback. The leader, a large, burly man, rode his horse almost to the foot of the flag. There, he dismounted and took off his helmet, to reveal a round, graying head and a short-cropped, graying beard on a square, heavy-boned face. He went down on one knee before King Jean.

  "Your Majesty," he said, completely ignoring Jim, Brian, and the rest. "Forgive me for not being here sooner; but word of your yielding personally to an Englishman just reached my ears. I am, with your favor, Robert de Clifford, Earl of Cumberland and Commander of the English forces here. It was our sorrow that such a Monarch and knight as yourself should be forced to so yield; but it brings upon us a question that must be answered. Since you yourself are n
ow an English prisoner, are you prepared—as you should be by right of arms—to yield the field by all the French force to our Englishmen as victors hereon?"

  "Rise, Earl Robert," said King Jean dryly. "But you are under a misapprehension. I yielded myself, not to one of your English, but to a Frenchman—the Comte d'Avronne here—and ordered only the personal knights of my bodyguard about me to lay down their arms. I see no reason why I should yield the field while the battle is still in doubt."

  He looked out again, over the field, as they all did. Indeed, the battle was still in doubt. Struggles were still going on as far as the eye could see, between individuals and small groups. But there was no cohesiveness to the fighting, and no clear line of battle on either side. It was impossible to say who was winning, except in the cases of combats between individuals.

  The Earl of Cumberland, who had risen, scowled.

  "Surely Your Majesty can see no benefit in this continuing," he said, "since it can only end in the death of many of your Frenchmen."

  "And many of your Englishmen, Earl Robert," said King Jean. "At this moment, who can say who shall lose the more? Or in which way the fighting will eventually go? In the end one side or the other must drive its opponents from the field. So far that has not happened; and I know not about you English, but we French are not likely to give up a field where the issue is still in doubt."

  "But Your Majesty—" Earl Robert was continuing, when there was a second, unexpected interruption.

  It came in the shape of a very attractive young lady dressed in a light and flimsy robe of green; who ran lightly down the way opened for the Earl of Cumberland through the surrounding soldiers, to the group by the flag. Unfortunately, as Jim recognized at once, the lady's beauty was balanced for him by the fact that her name happened to be Melusine; and she was headed directly for him.

  He would have dodged her, but she caught him and clasped her arms around him.

  "Oh, my beloved!" she cried. "I have found you at last. How could you think that I should let such a beautiful one as you escape from me! We'll go back to my lake at once! You are mine!"