The Unwelcome Warlock. Lawrence Watt-Evans

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СКАЧАТЬ the Warlock Stone is gone, and…what? It released you? You had all been Called?”

      That was close enough to what had actually happened that Hanner just nodded. “Yes,” he said again.

      “There were a lot of you.”

      “Yes,” Hanner said, and this time he thought a little more explanation was called for. “It was everyone who was ever Called, ever since the Night of Madness. We were caught in the…the Warlock Stone’s protective spells.”

      Dumery let out a low whistle. “All of you? But there must have been thousands!”

      “Yes,” Hanner said again, hoping he didn’t sound stupid, saying the same thing over and over.

      “What will you all eat?”

      “That’s a very good question,” Hanner said. “We have some theurgists, and they were able to summon Piskor the Generous. She gave us those bundles — see?” He gestured toward the one at his feet, and then at the hundreds that had been dropped by people fleeing Aldagon’s approach.

      “That doesn’t look like enough to last very long,” Dumery said.

      Hanner turned up an empty palm. “Three days, the goddess said.”

      “Then what?”

      “We were hoping we could reach civilization by then.”

      “’Twould be a vigorous walk, to reach a city so soon,” Aldagon rumbled.

      Hanner started, and looked from Dumery to the dragon, then back. “How… You were riding it.”

      “Her,” Dumery corrected him. “Yes, I was.”

      Hanner gave the dragon a sidelong glance, not wanting to say anything that could possibly offend it — or rather, her. “Have you… Is she…”

      “Is she tame?” Dumery grinned. “No. Far from it. But we’re business partners.”

      “Partners?” He looked back and forth from the dragon to the man, but could read nothing from either’s expression. “Is that…is that sort of thing common? I was caught in that spell for seventeen years, so I don’t know what the World is like now, but — partners?”

      Dumery smiled. “No, it’s not common. I think Aldagon and I are the only such partnership since the Great War. We’ve been working together for about ten years now.” He turned his smile toward Aldagon. “I think we’ve both been pleased with how it’s worked out,” he said.

      “Aye, I am not displeased,” Aldagon said. “Though certes, I am kept from my repose more than e’er I was these four centuries past. Dumery would work me to skin and bone, did I allow.”

      “Oh, you were bored silly until we met, and you know it,” Dumery said, reaching up to slap Aldagon’s jaw — the only part of the dragon he could reach from where he stood.

      “Said I not, I am not displeased?”

      Hanner closed his eyes for a moment to gather his wits.

      As far as he was concerned, a day or two ago he had been trying to fight off the Calling while Arvagan finished up the Transporting Tapestry he had ordered. He had been home in Ethshar of the Spices, living with his wife and children in his late uncle’s mansion on High Street, and everything had been fairly normal.

      Now he was standing in the mud of Aldagmor, a hundred yards from the pit where the Calling had originated, talking to a dragon. He had seen and heard a goddess. He had seen and heard the Response that had carried the Warlock Stone back into the sky. He was seventeen years in the future.

      That was all a little difficult to absorb.

      “But see you, friend Hanner,” Aldagon said, interrupting his thoughts, “while I would do you no harm, you and your compatriots are in lands that have known no human habitation in many a year, and lands that I and mine had thought our own. I had thought these lands to be forbidden to your kind, and like to remain so. My home lies not far hence, chosen that none should trouble me there, and likewise I should trouble none with my presence, yet here you are, in your thousands. Do you, then, intend to dwell in this place henceforth?”

      “What?” Hanner looked up, startled. “Oh, no, we aren’t staying — at least, most of us aren’t. I told you, we want to get back to civilization.” He looked around, and saw several people watching, but they were all keeping their distance; no one wanted to approach the dragon. “Some of these people did live here, before the Night of Madness, but I don’t know whether any of them want to rebuild.”

      “I suspect they could be persuaded not to,” Dumery said. “No offense, Aldagon, but most humans are unlikely to want dragons as neighbors.”

      Aldagon looked as if she was about to reply, but then stopped, cocked her head to one side, and said nothing.

      Dumery laughed. “She’s too polite to say the feeling is mutual,” he said. “But it is, and I really think you people do need to get out of the area as soon as possible.”

      “We were planning to,” Hanner said. He pointed. “We were going to follow that stream south.”

      “You’re heading for Ethshar, rather than Sardiron?” Dumery asked.

      “I am. Many of us are. I can’t speak for everyone.”

      “It’s probably wise,” Dumery said with a nod. “Heading northwest, toward Sardiron, would take you directly through Aldagon’s territory, and there are other dragons there who are…well, they’re much younger, too young to talk, but still big enough to eat people.”

      “Oh,” Hanner said.

      “It’s a long walk to Ethshar, though.”

      “Then we should get started,” Hanner said. “We were getting ready when you, ah…interrupted —”

      “You mean, when Aldagon scared everyone into running off in a hundred different directions?”

      Hanner smiled wryly. “Yes.”

      “Well, then,” Dumery suggested, “perhaps we can guide you, or carry a message somewhere, to make up for our little intrusion.”

      Hanner blinked. “Could you?” he said. “That would be appreciated. That would be very appreciated.”

      “We’ll also make sure the other dragons don’t bother you,” Dumery added.

      “Aye,” Aldagon said. “I’ve no desire for bad blood betwixt our peoples.”

      “That’s…that’s very kind of you,” Hanner said. He was still having some difficulty in accepting the fact that he was holding a civil conversation with a hundred-foot dragon.

      “‘Tis naught but sense,” Aldagon replied. “Come, then, and call your folk together. Gather yourselves up, make ready, and be off with you, and Dumery and I shall do what we can to ease your path.”

      Slightly stunned, Hanner СКАЧАТЬ