The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent by Gordon R Dickson

Author:Gordon R Dickson [Dickson, Gordon R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction, adventure, Humour
ISBN: 9780812562729
Goodreads: 263107
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Published: 2000-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

"I mean that!" Angie repeated. "You're looking more and more like death warmed over, every minute. You lie down. Now!"

"Well…" said Jim, thinking how ridiculous he would look in the midst of this crowd, lying on the bed when most of them could not even find a place to sit down. Then he remembered that people of this time were used to being on their feet for long periods. And it also occurred to him how good it would be to stretch out for a moment… "Until the hobs get back with a goblin, anyway," he answered.

Indeed, once he was lying down on the too-short bed (What possessed these medieval people to build beds for three-quarters-size humans?) he began to believe that he might actually need some rest.

Once horizontal, with all the crowd around him casting curious glances in his direction, but warned off from asking questions by Angie, who was standing by the bed with a grim look on her face that effectively announced that this was Magickian-knight business and none of theirs—Jim's head had begun to swim.

He was exhausted, his body told him. How the hell had he gotten this way? He had slept well enough last night… He closed his eyes—and opened them, it seemed only a second later, to find Angie gently rubbing his forehead, reluctantly bringing him back awake.

He stared.

Beside his bed, facing him, was a goblin, his arms pinioned behind him, and flanked by a triumphant-looking Hob and Tiverton hob. The goblin's eyes glittered malevolently. There seemed to be no cowards among these enemies, at least.

The Prince and the Countess stood like giants behind the three small Naturals, and the rest of the crowd in the room had somehow compressed itself to put a respectful distance between them and the gathering at the bed.

Reflexively, Jim threw a privacy ward around the little group by his bed. He was surprised at the amount of mental effort it took—perhaps it was because he had been lying down. He sat up on the bed and found that equally effortful. Manners said he should be standing if the Prince was standing, but his legs seemed to have lost their strength.

"You got him!" Jim croaked at the hobs.

"I—" began Hob.

"We—" began Tiverton hob in the same second. They glared at each other for a moment, then Malencontri hob went on alone.

"I must report to my lord," he said, "that the prisoner was secured as expected."

"There were five in the one room we could find that had the least in," said Tiverton hob eagerly.

"—The little dog growled at them and they didn't dare move a muscle," broke in Hob, once more. "I chose this one, the biggest, carried him off and we went back up the chimney—"

"I carried the prisoner—" Tiverton hob broke in.

"Yes," said Hob, "asking him all the way if this was fun and should you do it again! What were you doing to him?"

"Never mind," said Tiverton hob. "I may have pinched him a little from time to time because of the way I had to carry him.

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