Brian and Dafydd had appeared beside the magician, and were now also holding to the staff with both hands. Stranger even, Aragh had appeared from nowhere and taken a grip on the staff near its bottom, with his teeth. Even from where he stood, James could see that the wolf's great jaws were locked, completely closed. The vicious, yellow teeth must be completely through the wood.
All of these seemed to be trying to hold the staff upright against the buffeting of the wind, which increased steadily. The other spectators were huddling away from it like sheep in a storm, pressed back across the drawbridge, up against the bulk of the castle wall, as if that would support them.
"James!" It was Carolinus's voice again. "Come! Hurry!"
Jim turned toward him.
"Take hold of the staff!" shouted Carolinus. "Strip off your gauntlets, and help hold the staff with your bare hands. Quickly!"
Jim obeyed. The minute his fingers closed around the wood of the staff, it seemed that a further change came over everything about him. It was as if he had taken off dark glasses and could now suddenly see clearly.
What he saw was that the staff was radiating small lightnings out at right angles from the upright wood. These lightnings ran away from the staff on either side, to encompass the people behind them; and forward, to encompass those on the field. The lightnings went farther and ran around the castle, up its gray stone corners and along its battlemented top, enclosing it in an outline of barbed and brilliant light, flashing and flickering with constant life.
"Help hold, James!"
Carolinus's words were whipped from his mouth by the wind. They reached Jim's ears only faintly, in spite of the fact that the other man was no more man a foot from him. His white beard tugged and tore, this way and that, as if it would fly from his face under the force of the winds.
"Put all your strength into it!" called Carolinus's voice. "We must hold! For the protection of your people and your castle and everything you keep dear. Hold!"
The clouds were thick and heavy and low, now. It was so dark that Jim could hardly see across the cleared space in front of the castle to the trees. Sir Hugh still lay without moving, as he had lain when he had yielded to Jim a few moments before. Higher up in the sky and a little ways off from that, directly over the cleared area and the castle, Jim saw a lightening of the clouds; as if a cave had been hollowed out in them, and that cave had light of its own. In its space he saw, like ghost figures against the clouds, the King and Queen of the Dead seated on their thrones; and below them a horde of those they called their bodyguard. Together, they were watching, from the clouds.
The wind increased. Far off in the woods to Jim's right, he heard a crashing sound, as if several great trees at once had been felled by a downward hammer blow of the wind. A moment later there was a second crash a little closer, and then a third crash, even closer yet. An icy chill crept over Jim. It was exactly as if some great, invisible giant was walking toward the castle, crushing the trees like grass under its feet as it came.
"Accounting Office!" cried the wind-thinned voice of Carolinus. "Give us strength! They are attacking the fabric that holds the Kingdoms! Give us strength!"
The wind lashed and struck and tugged at the staff, trying hard to pull it from the grasp of their hands and Aragh's teeth. It was very close to succeeding. Then, from somewhere that was both outside and within him at once, Jim felt new energy pouring into him. It had no body, no mass, no feel of anything solid or gaseous. It was simply an incoming.
As it came, he seemed to feel himself grow—not physically, or even mentally, but in some strange way he could not define. His vision sharpened even more. But this time, it was with an inner vision. With the extra energy it came to him that he understood and saw much more than he had ever understood or viewed before.
It seemed that he looked upon fields of knowledge he had never realized existed. Almost, he could see, as through a number of panes of different, lightly tinted glass, his own twentieth-century world, that he and Angie had left a year before. His grip on the staff tightened. He looked at Carolinus, and he saw Carolinus smiling at him through his wind-whipped beard.
Now, they held the staff firmly upright, for all the wind could do; and the lightnings that sprang from it were thicker and stronger, drawing lines of protection about the people and the castle.
Still, what sounded like the footsteps of an invisible giant were getting closer and closer.
Suddenly, Malvinne, who had been standing within the bright line of protection, broke away and ran out into the field—half of the distance at least to where the shape of Sir Hugh still lay motionless in his armor. He fell on his knees, raising his arms to the dark clouds above.
"Stinky, you fool! Come back!" shouted Carolinus.
His voice was strong now and carried even over the wind. Malvinne could not have helped hearing it; but he paid no attention. He lifted his arms even higher to the clouds, his hands appealing.
"Help me!" he cried to them. "Help me, now! I have been faithful!"
"Stinky!" cried Carolinus, a note of pain in his voice. "Listen to me—"
Still, Malvinne ignored him, holding his arms to the clouds, stretching up to them. His attention was all on them, alone.
The giant's steps were very close now. Jim saw, or felt, or heard—it was all these things together—something like a string being stretched to the breaking point, a string ringing with the single note of its tension. Then, suddenly it snapped; and ceased to sound.
"I have been faithful…" Malvinne's voice came faintly once again through the roar of the wind.
There was a sudden turbulence in the clouds above where Malvinne knelt. The King and Queen of the Dead were already fading in their enclave farther off. Jim felt the new energy that had flowed into him, beginning to go; and the clouds did not break, but a brightness began to come through them, as if they were thinning from above.
He saw Malvinne then, for the last time; a limp figure, hanging like a dead man from the end of a string, being pulled up and up and up in the direction of where the fading ghosts of the King and Queen of the Dead had been. As he got higher, he grew harder to see, almost as transparent as they, until finally they were one with the clouds, indistinguishable, and he was one with the clouds, indistinguishable from them and the clouds.
Then, at last, the clouds broke. Sunlight poured down through them upon the castle and its surrounding grounds. The wind died; and the last of the energy that had suddenly come to fill Jim, left him. As it went, his own strength failed; and darkness moved in to enclose him.
He was not even conscious of falling. But again, he woke within seconds. Dafydd and Brian were holding him up and stripping the armor off him. Carolinus stood by, now with a staff that was no taller than the one he had brought originally. His face was white, and he looked a thousand years old. But the staff seemed to uphold him; and when the last of the armor was off Jim, he reached out an arm that was surprisingly strong and caught one of Jim's arms, holding him upright by himself.
"Go you," said Carolinus to Brian and Dafydd, "to those who wait for you."
Dafydd and Brian hesitated a moment, then turned together and ran toward the castle. Held up by Carolinus, Jim found himself walking after them. Now, from the suddenly empty open gateway above the drawbridge, three figures came running down. They were Geronde Isabel de Chaney, Danielle—now heavy with child—and Angie.
"Angie!" Jim cried; and with an excess of strength he had not realized he had, he broke from Carolinus and enclosed Angie within his arms as she came running to him.
Only a few steps ahead, Brian also was holding his Lady close; and to Jim's left, Dafydd's long arms were wrapped around Danielle, who was both crying and laughing at once.
"My golden bird, my golden bird," said Dafydd, his cheek against her hair and rocking her gently in his arms.
"What kind of a golden bird am I?" answered Danielle, between tears and laughter. "Look at me. Look at me!"
"I am looking," said
Dafydd, releasing her enough so that he could reach down and stroke the great swell of her lower body. "At this greatest thing that my golden bird could give to me. What else could I ask, now, except more of the same?"
They fell together, again embracing, Dafydd now laughing himself, but with his own eyes shiny.
Jim and Angela held each other for a long moment without words. Then Angie's voice sounded softly in Jim's left ear.
"You're home," she murmured, "home, at last."
"Yes," said Jim.
"To stay," said Angie.
"Yes," said Jim.
And knew he lied. And knew that Angie knew he lied.
But for now the words were true enough.
The Dragon Knight Page 54
