The Third Magic Read Online Free PDF Page A

materialize?" Hal asked.
    "When? Oh, just now? I was hoping for your house. I got fairly close on one of my tries—made it to the field—Arthur was there, by the way. And just before I landed on your lorry, I'd almost made it into your kitchen. Unfortunate, that. I was hoping to join in the merrymaking."
    "Instead, you got me," Hal said.
    "Quite. Oh, well, we'll be there soon enough. I presume you are merrymaking? Er, not you, of course," he said offhandedly. "You never do. I meant the knights. Because of the boy's coming of age."
    'They're always merrymaking," Hal said glumly, remembering an incident two weeks before when Dry Lips and MacDaire were arrested for engaging in swordplay on the loading dock at the local Wal-Mart. A month before that, a neighboring farmer nearly shot Lugh for swinging a fifty-pound mace at his prize Holstein. "They've been so merry, we're on the verge of getting evicted."
    "Ah. High-spirited lads, eh?"
    "They're idiots. Trying to pass them off as South Dakota farmers is like pretending that Attila the Hun is the Tooth Fairy. And don't call them knights. It took me three months to get them to refer to themselves as uncles."
    "Oh, yes. Uncles. You see, you're training them marvelously."
    Actually, the uncles were rather good farmers, not that it mattered. Taliesin had given Hal enough money for them all to live on for several more years, whether they worked the farm or not.
    "But I hate it!" Hal cried. "Do you understand? I'm from New York City, for crying out loud! I don't know beans about farming. I trained to be an FBI agent—"
    "And nearly committed suicide." The old man patted Hal's shoulder. "Believe me, Hal, this is a better life for you."
    "Bullshit! I didn't sign on to baby-sit eleven ghosts—"
    "Ah-ah," Taliesin said, wagging his linger. Uncles."
    "Whatever," Hal roared.
    "Yes." The old man met Hal's eyes. "Whatever they are, my friend, Arthur needs them." He put his hand on Hal's shoulder. "And you. You know that, don't you?"
    Hal was silent. He still often woke in the night thinking that what he believed to be reality was in fact only a dream from which he was just then waking. For a few groggy, confused moments, he could believe that he was an automobile mechanic in the Inwood section of Manhattan or, better yet, still with the FBI in the days before his slow descent into ruin.
    But then the confusion would clear, and the truth would fall on him like cold snow. He was not a mechanic; he was not a federal agent; he was no longer even a drunk. What he was, in fact, was the caretaker of eleven souls from the fifth century who had been brought into being to serve a young boy who once, lifetimes ago, had been their King.
    "Yes, I know," Hal said finally.
    "It won't be for much longer." Taliesin's voice was gentle. "It's almost time."
    Hal turned sharply to face him. "Arthur just turned eighteen today."
    "Yes, I know. That's old enough."
    "For what? He doesn't know how to do anything yet."
    "He'll remember."
    "I meant in this world," Hal said roughly. "He needs to go to college, learn a trade, meet a girl, have some kind of a life—"
    "No time for that, I'm afraid," Taliesin said crisply. "Too much work to be done."
    "Such as what?"
    "Well, I couldn't say, old chap. I'm not a fortune-teller, you know."

Chapter Three
    THE JOURNEY BEGINS
    T he old man entered in spectacular fashion, beginning as a vapor curling languorously through the floorboards of the farmhouse and finishing by standing, fully formed, on top of the dining room table as the knights shouted their approval.
    "I say!" Fairhands said, beaming. He poked Launcelot in the ribs. "You see? The greatest magician in the world."
    "He's standing in the cake," Launcelot said dryly.
    The old man looked down. Beneath his wizard s robe adorned with stars and crescent moons, his mud-caked work boots grew out of what had once been a whipped cream cake inscribed with a birthday greeting in red gel.
    "Dash it all," Taliesin