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thing being done.
But then, as often happened with him, his own embarrassment made him angry,
and anger made him stubborn. The words had just popped out; but he was not
going to take them back now.
However, he said to the QB, I suppose you won t be able to take me to him
until the next dark of the sun. The question here and now is what we can do
with our strength other than magic.
It will be dark soon, said the QB; and there was a hard note in his voice
that Jim would not have imagined from the way the other had always spoken to
him. But you are right, Sir James, about our needing to count our strengths.
For what use it will do, I will speak to the trees, of course-but King
Pellinore is right. I have little hope of any direct help from them.
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As for the Old Magic, I know of no one who can speak to it at all-or if it
has the ability to hear our words. But I believe it has a kindness for you,
Sir James, and possibly could be your friend as well, because it helped you to
escape the Queen of Northgales. Perhaps it will help, in its own way and time.
But as to who may fight for us; and what they may hope to do-it is beyond me.
That was why I ventured to bring these new friends to my oldest friend.
He looked at Pellinore.
Pellinore s eyes were looking past them, off at something in the distance.
Never since Arthur left us for the Vale of Avilion, he said, as if he was
speaking more to himself than them, have all those here who once sat at the
Round Table gathered together. I will go to them one by one and perhaps we can
meet again. Be sure there will be none who dare not fight; but there may be
some who for other reasons would stand aloof.
He stood up.
Horse! he said in a strong voice.
There was a whinny from behind the log cabin; and not more than a couple of
minutes later, a tall horse, already saddled and bridled, and all white except
for a black blaze on the muzzle and four black feet, came around a corner of
the building and walked toward them, nodding with each step. It came to
Pellinore and rubbed its head against the large man s chest.
Pellinore patted the white shoulder in an automatic gesture, took up the
reins, and stepped into the near stirrup to swing himself lightly into the
saddle.
I will sound my horn when I have something to tell you, he said to the QB.
God s grace be with you, Sirs.
And with you also, King Pellinore, said Brian.
The big man on the big horse rode off and was lost to sight among the trees.
He seems a man of much strength and valor, said Brian, looking after him.
But at that pace, on that horse for all its long legs, we may have to wait
months before he calls you with the word he has gotten from his fellow
Knights.
I pray you not to judge by appearances, Sir Brian. The Originals, as I can,
may travel swiftly when they wish. If it would have taken a long time, he
would have warned us of it.
I doubt that not, said Brian, now that you have told me about this matter
of swift-going. I meant no slighting word. As I said, he seems a Knight
valiant and of great power.
He is indeed, said the QB. And he had two pure and noble sons, as worthy
in their own ways as himself. One was named Sir Percival and the other Sir
Lamorack of Wales.
As he was speaking, the sky, the trees, the earth, and the building behind
them all seemed to fade and to lose the sharp lines of their edges, as the day
dimmed.
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Now comes the dark, Sir James, said the QB.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The dark came swiftly.
Sir Brian, said the QB, I suggest you lead your horses with you to the
bench and seat yourself there until we return. When the last of the light is
gone, Sir James and I will be gone with it. But we will be back before the
first light shows.
I will await you, said the voice of a Brian already becoming a dim figure.
But I would I were going with you.
Jim swallowed. He had not forgotten what he had so unthinkingly said a little
while past. But now, with the QB s last words, it had suddenly become
immediate- and far too real.
Face it, he told himself, you spoke up all right to Merlin the last time
you saw him, but don t try to dodge the fact-Merlin chills you.
Now that he had put the feeling into actual words, he realized how true it
was. But the strangest part of what he felt was that even now he did not know
why he should feel so. Merlin had not been threatening in any obvious way. The
closest Jim could come to an explanation was to remember that in his first
meeting with Carolinus he had been aware of a great deal of real power and
strength in the older man-in spite of Carolinus s apparent ego and rather
ridiculous cantankerousness. There had been a similar awareness-without the
cantankerousness-at a much greater level when he spoke to Merlin.
But the QB was now speaking again.
I pray you pardon me, Sir Brian. Merlin would not permit it.
I should entreat your pardon, said Brian. It is for him to say, of
course.
Brian had already led the horses to the bench and seated himself. He was all
but lost in the obscurity now. Surely, thought Jim, this was too soon for
night to come again? Of course, this was Lyonesse and the last dark period had
been in the Borderland, which was more or less in the Drowned Land.
But still, he had been assuming that the white sun above Lyonesse was the
yellow daystar of the Drowned Land, only robbed of its color. But it could be
they were different, as the kingdoms themselves were different-now the utter
blackness of the dark period surrounded him.
You need not move, Sir James. The QB s voice seemed to speak almost in
Jim s ear.
I wasn t planning to, Jim said, a little more sharply than he had meant to.
Once more, as on his earlier visit to Merlin, he felt a breeze in his face.
It cooled his skin for a few minutes, then stopped abruptly. He waited. Then,
without warning, he was hearing the QB s voice in what surely had to be the
tail end of a conversation.
-if in your kindness you will permit, Merlin.
I will, came the same strong voice he had heard once previously. He is a
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magician of a different sort; and that makes him welcome when others would not
be, so soon after his last visit. Beginning now, QB, you will hear, but not
understand as we talk. We will be speaking of things it is not time for you to
know.
You know why I m here? Jim stopped his hand just before it went up in a
ridiculous, instinctive effort to fan aside the darkness, as if it had been
smoke or mist.
That and many other things. Live as long as I have, Jim, and you will also
know many things. You will also know that you know nothing-you are a babe just
beginning to understand. But you do realize that simply by living, you are
learning more each minute?
I hadn t thought of it that way, said Jim. Strange how Merlin pricked him
to a kind of defensiveness. He was feeling the other s strong influence, but,
as before, he found he could talk. But if you want to include every bit of
information, useless as well as useful, you ve got to be right, I suppose.
There is no such thing as useless information. You will learn that, too,
someday. But there was a question you have come to me with.
Yes, said Jim. It was-
You did not know that I never answer a direct question. The time may come
when you do not either.
Then I ve wasted your time and mine in coming, said Jim, a ready anger
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