"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 09 - The Dragon and the F" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

him. I'm telling you this nowтАФand the other matter that brings me hereтАФ
because the problem is dire, and I believe I have seen in you a capacity no other
apprentice has ever shown."

"I see," said Jim, fully awake to the conversation now and at last impressed by
what Carolinus was telling him. He had never heard the elder magickian speak to
him with quite this much urgency before. "All right, if it's that serious I won't
even tell herтАФthough we generally don't keep secrets from each otherтАФ"

"This is not your secret!"

Carolinus glared at Jim for a moment. He seemed to grow in stature.

"I understand," Jim said.

"Then engrave this thought in your mind. Whatever must be done to prevent it,
whatever it costs you, me or anyone elseтАФthe King must not die! The King must
not die!"

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




"You've mentioned this before," Jim said. "But never this seriously. Is there
some immediate dangerтАФ" Jim began to ask, but it was too late.

Carolinus was gone.

Quietly Jim went back to bed and slid carefully under the covers. Angie did not
stir. The image of the two refugees, drifting westward, was still with him, riding
on top of it in his mind was what Carolinus had said. The part about his now
being considered for membership in the Collegiate was welcomeтАФhe had ideas
of what he wanted to do with that membershipтАФbut it was no great surprise.
They would have had to do something about him eventually.

Although he had no direct evidence of the fact, he was sure that no other
apprentice-rated magician came within a country mile of him in terms of magical
abilitiesтАФnot anywhere in this world, though that was not really due to his
having an innate genius where magic was concerned. It was to do with the
advantage of having grown up in a world of scientific method and knowledge
more than five hundred years in the future of this time.

Carolinus' unusually powerful concern over the life of the King was something
else again. There must be not only reason for it, but reason that deeply concerned
the world-wide Collegiate of Magickians itself. According to the history that had
been his undergraduate and graduate study where he had come from, Edward IV
was not due to die for years yet.