"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 02 - The Dragon Knight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

тАЬI havenтАЩt got the slightest idea,тАЭ said Jim, looking at her unhappily.

Chapter Three

Jim was lucky. He got safely out of sight of the castle and into the woods without changing back into a
dragon again. Happily, the Tinkling Water, where S. Carolinus lived, was not far from the castle.
Carolinus was the magician who had been involved with Jim in the matter of the Loathly Tower the year
before. He had turned out to be a trusty, if equally crusty and short-tempered, friend. He was a magician
with a AAA+ rating. There were only three magicians in this world, Jim had been advised by the
Accounting Office who had not only the AAA, which was the highest rating awarded, but the + which
lifted it above even the extraordinary level of those three letters.

Jim, by contrast, was a magician-if only an involuntary one-with a mere D rating. Both Carolinus and the
Accounting Office had intimated that he would be very lucky indeed if in his lifetime he ever progressed
up to the C class. In this world, apparently, as in the twentieth-century one that Jim and Angie had left
behind them, you either had it or you did not.

As usual, riding in the woods had a calming effect upon JimтАЩs nerves. There was something marvelously
relaxing about being out by yourself alone on a horse, which for the sake of common prudence and
economy, you rode at a walk. You were in no hurry, and usually whatever urgency there was in you
tended to bleed out gradually.

Furthermore, the fourteenth-century English woodland- even in the early spring of this world-was a
pleasant place to be. The trees had all grown high enough to throw enough shade so that only a little
grass, by way of ground cover, appeared in the sunnier spots and survived. There were occasional
brambles, thickets, and thick stands of willow; but the road sensibly avoided them by simply going
around any such obstacles. Like many things here, the road was very pragmatic. It dealt with things as it
found them, without trying to adapt them to its own will and circumstances.

Also, it was a very pleasant day. It had been raining for the past three days, but today the sun shone;
and the clouds that could occasionally be seen between the treetops were few and far between. It was
warm for a late March day, but just enough to make JimтАЩs clothing and armor bearable.

He was not dressed in the suit of plate armor he had acquired by involuntary inheritance from the former
Lord of his castle. The armor had required some adjustment. The former Baron de Bois de Malencontri
had been heavy-bodied and wide-shouldered enough, but he had not had JimтАЩs height. As a result some
changes had been made by an armorer in Stourbridge. But even with these, the suit of plate armor was
still uncomfortable to wear for any length of time, and particularly when there was no need to.

Today Jim had felt that there was no need to. Such heavy armor was kept, as JimтАЩs good friend,
neighbor, and comrade-in-arms, Sir Brian Neville-Smythe was fond of saying, for hunting mere-dragons,
spear-runnings, or otherwise important business. What Jim wore now was essentially a light mail shirt
over a leather hauberk, the whole reinforced with rings along the arms and plates over the shoulder,
where the impact of an edged weapon might not cut through to him, but could easily break the bone
beneath.

He also wore a light helmet covering the upper part of his head, with a nasal projecting down from it in
front to protect the bridge of his nose and try to keep it from being broken in case of trouble; also, a pair
of equally light greaves on the tops of his thighs.