The Whim of the Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page A

didn’t say we couldn’t get home,” said Laura, violating one of the tenets of good manners by referring to their host as if he were not present. “He said he couldn’t send us home again. There’s still the swords.”
    “That’s true,” said Ted. “And now that we don’t have to pretend anything, we should be able to get Fence to let us use them.” He turned to the man in red. “But how do we prove anything to Fence and Randolph?”
    “Ask them the three riddles,” said Apsinthion. “They will have more need than you to find the answers. Also,” he said, slowly, “tell them this. To Fence, ‘All may yet be very well.’ And to Randolph, ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci hath thee in thrall.’”
    “Claudia?” said Ted.
    Their host smiled. “I’ll set you on your journey,” he said.
    “Wait a minute,” said Ted. “The last time we left, we set up magic so we’d only be gone five minutes here. But it didn’t exactly work. And we can’t just disappear. Our parents would worry.”
    “What manner of magic?” said the man in red.
    “Shan’s Ring.”
    “Thou?”
    “Well, Ruth, actually.”
    “Lady Ruth of the Green Caves?”
    “Uh—”
    “Another changeling?”
    “Well, yes.”
    “ Now who’s telling too much?” demanded Laura.
    “We’re trusting him to send us back.”
    Laura was silent.
    “I’ll strike you a bargain,” said the red man. “By your oaths to the Hidden Land, use not Shan’s Ring even in direst peril. And I’ll blow time awry for you, that you be not missed.”
    “What’s wrong with Shan’s Ring?”
    “All too little,” said the red man, with a wry face, as if he were making a joke. “It doth wake powers that are better sleeping.” He frowned. “How often hath this thing been used?”
    Ted thought about it. He couldn’t remember exactly what Ruth had done to change the time. “Two or three times, I think.”
    “Three will do’t,” said the man in red. “Walk warily.” He frowned again. “It may be,” he said, “that that use did but awaken me. But wake not the others; in especial, wake not more than one. If they confer together, touching the disturbance, they will seek you to your peril.”
    “Okay,” said Ted, “I promise.”
    “And thou, Princess?”
    Laura hesitated, frowning. Then her face cleared. “Yes,” she said. “I promise, by my oaths to the Hidden Land, not to use Shan’s Ring.”
    “Then come away,” said the man in red.
    Ted wondered what Laura was thinking about. If it had been Ruth or Ellen or Patrick, he would have wondered what she was up to, but Laura was not a schemer: the trouble was to get her to do anything, not to keep her from doing too much.
    The man stopped beside a tall, narrow mirror with a plain silver frame. They walked over to him, a little slowly. He smiled. “Purgos Aipos Nun,” he said, and then, to Ted, “Go quickly.”
    Ted turned sideways and stepped carefully into the mirror. It gave before his shoulder like cloth, and he put his head out into cloth-smelling dimness and the sound of weary voices. He stepped through and was instantly entangled in heavy material. He pushed at it, and it parted for him. He was behind the Conrad tapestry in the Mirror Room at High Castle. Fence sat on Agatha’s sewing-table, and Randolph sat on the floor. They did not look at one another.
    Laura bumped Ted from behind and said frenziedly, “The house is flooding! Purple water!”
    “Shut up!” Ted didn’t care what was happening back at the stark house. Their business was with Fence and Randolph, who now knew a great many awful things about them.
    Fence and Randolph looked up, and then stared. Randolph stood up. There was no expression on his face at all, but Laura stopped trying to talk.
    “Edward?” said Fence.
    “No,” said Ted, his throat hurting him. “It’s just me.”
    “Wherefore,” said Randolph, as if he were demanding an explanation for the back gate left open and the dog lost, or perhaps a large