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Gordon R. Dickson - The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent




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The Dragon and the Fair Maid
of Kent by Gordon R. Dickson
Chapter One
Jim (Baron Sir James Eckert, Lord of Malencontri Castle and its environs, and
also now uppermost-level apprentice in Magick) woke two hours before
moonset, and rose from bed, going to the nearest of the Solar windows to look
out.

Behind him in their bed his wife, Angie (Lady Angela) slept peacefully. Beyond
the window it was still full night, but cloudless and moon-bright. From just
under the top of Malencontri's tower, where the Solar's large, single room was,
the full moon itself was still up, and everything far below him stood out clearly.

The tall trees beyond the cleared space surrounding the castle blended together
in an unbroken wall of blackness, the stubbled ground of the cleared space
showed a faint shine on its patches of grass, evidence that the night's rain had
stopped only recently.



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Gordon R. Dickson - The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent


As he watched, two figures, bent under the loads on their backs, came out of the
woods to his right and cut across the cleared space at an angle to enter the woods
again on its further side. They walked slowly, heavily, one figure taller than the
other, the large bundles riding high on their shoulders.

The prospect of dawn must have roused them, with its hope of sun to dry their
worn clothesтАФfor clearly all they owned was carried on their shoulders nowтАФ
and put a little heat into their bones. So they had roused from whatever forest
nest they had made in the rain for the night and were once more moving on, to
what they did not know, but someplace better than this, and much better than
wherever they had left.