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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] and covers, and sat drinking it, feeling generally that all was right with the world. As he woke up even more, it began to dawn on him that this morning had been made unusually comfortable for him. Not only had Angie supplied the safely boiled water for mixing with wine, the tea and the cup, she had even tried to show Brian how to make tea; and Brian himself had been ready to give up any Page 171 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html other morning activities. Instead, he had sat around here, waiting for Jim to wake, as solicitous as if he was taking care of a wounded comrade. Ordinarily, Jim would have felt embarrassed on realizing this. But right at the moment, he was entirely too comfortable drinking the tea, warm under his blankets in the pleasantly dim room with its one dazzling shaft of incoming daylight no longer in his eyes. There was a sort of half-buried feeling in him that, after all, perhaps he more or less deserved this kind of comfort after the way things had been going for him. "How are you feeling, James?" asked Brian. "Fine!" said Jim; then was suddenly aware of a deep urge in him to talk about his worries. It occurred to him that if there was one thing he had been needing, it had been a sympathetic ear to talk to an ear that was not Angie's. Some of what was bothering him, he had been determined not to tell Angie. Also, he was used to living with his own thoughts and his own concerns, here in the Middle Ages. But even if Brian did not understand and it was a hundred to one he would not it would be a great relief just to tell him about it. "I mean 'no,' " he said. Brian's face took on an expression of extreme concern. "Oh? You are not ill or hurt, James? Surely Angela would have told me. What troubles you?" "A few hundred that is, a number of things," said Jim, correcting himself with the realization that Brian would take the idea of his facing several hundred troubles quite literally. "I never knew so many things could go wrong at the same time." "Indeed!" said Brian with gratifying concern. "Who is the lady?" "Lady? Lady?" Jim found himself sounding like a parrot in his own ears. He stared at Brian. "What's a lady got to do with all this?" "Oh!" said Brian. "Ah& forgive me, James. I just thought this being the Earl's party, and you being gone so much of the time and not even Angela knowing always why or where well, clearly I was mistaken. I& " He was obviously highly embarrassed. "Good Lord, no!" said Jim. He found himself laughing. "Aside from everything else, I wouldn't have had time to get tangled up with any other but in any case, it'll never happen as long as I have Angela. Cheer up, Brian. I'm the one who ought to apologize. I've given you the wrong impression. No, these are perfectly polite troubles; but bad enough in spite of that!" "Oh?" said Brian, recovering. "Well, however I must still crave pardon for suggesting " "No, you needn't," said Jim. "My mistake, as I say. Forget that for now. The other troubles are bad enough." "Well, of course. That troll, I would venture for one thing," said Brian. Page 172 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "Yes," said Jim, his earlier comfortable feeling clouding over. "I don't understand this. Carolinus acts as if it's one of the most important matters in the world that the Earl and the troll come to some kind of agreement, so the castle stops being shaken and damaged " "Damaged?" said Brian. "Oh sorry, Brian," said Jim, suddenly remembering. "That's something I shouldn't talk about. At any rate, as I was saying, Carolinus seems to think it's that important; but he simply leaves it all to me with a wave of his hand. And it's not that simple a matter. After all, the troll and the Earl's family have been at swords-points for eighteen hundred years, or so." "You are Carolinus's apprentice, James," said Brian reasonably. "He's teaching you by letting you find your own way to do it. Doubtless, the Mage could, with a twitch of his finger, manage the affair. But he wants you to learn by doing. It is always so with Masters and apprentices." "Well, he didn't twitch his finger at theLoathlyTower ," said Jim. "He was there with his staff to hold back the Dark Powers, themselves. But we were the ones who had to do the fighting. You and I, Dafydd, Smrgol and Secoh you haven't heard from Dafydd, recently, come to think of it?" Dafydd ap Hywel was their archer friend, who had since married Danielle, daughter of Giles o'the Wold; and who already had either a son and a daughter or two sons. Jim could never remember exactly which. "Not since we both saw him last," said Brian. "Last summer, if you recall." "We'll miss him and Danielle Angie and I," said Jim sadly. "But even more we'll miss you and Geronde, Aargh, and all our friends." "Miss?" said Brian suddenly. "How? Miss? Were you and Angela going some place?" "Not willingly," said Jim grimly. "And probably, possibly, not at all. We just might have to go back where we came from; or I might be stripped of my magician's ability. In which case the Dark Powers might be successful in destroying Angie and me. But it's a long, involved story. I shouldn't bother you with it." "Certainly you must!" said Brian. "What? I am your comrade-in-arms! Your Companion in more than one essay and I should not know when to come to your [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |