"I haven't given it!" Millie protested. "Not to anyone! Not that way." But she seemed subtly nattered.
"The matter may be academic," Jumper chittered. "We are under siege here, and lack the means to do more than defend ourselves within this castle, with the aid of the loyal zombies. We cannot help the King anyway."
"And even if there were no siege," the Magician said, "I have suffered attrition of zombies. They are immortal, but when physically destroyed, with the pieces lost, they become useless. I could only bring a token force to the aid of the King. Not enough to overwhelm the curse on Castle Roogna."
"You could make more zombies," Dor said. "If you had more dead bodies."
"Oh, yes, without limit. But I need intact bodies, and fresh ones are best."
"Could we but overcome the Mundanes," Jumper chittered, "we could use their bodies to fashion a mighty army."
"If we had a mighty army, we could use it to vanquish the Mundanes," Dor pointed out. "Closed circle."
"I do not wish to interfere with human concerns," Jumper chittered. "But I believe I see a course through the impasse. There is some risk entailed-"
"There is risk entailed in remaining under siege," the Zombie Master said. "Present your notion; we can consider its merit jointly." He placed another piece of puzzle, uttering the mergeance spell under his breath. "It is an arrangement, a series of agreements utilizing all our efforts," Jumper chittered. "The Zombie Master and Millie must defend this castle for a time alone, while I convey Dor outside by night. I can swing him along a line to a near tree so that no one will notice. The Mundanes can not see as well as I can in darkness. Then Dor must use his talent to locate some of the real monsters of the wilderness-the dragons and such-and enlist their aid."
"Dragons will not help men!" Dor protested. "They would not be helping men," Jumper chittered. "They would be fighting men."
"But-" Then Dor caught on. "Mundanes!"
"But we are people too," Millie said. Jumper angled his head to cock eyes of three different sizes at her. He was obviously not human. "Well, still-" she faltered.
"I will be with Dor," Jumper chittered. "They will know me for a monster, and him for a Magician. Inside the castle will be another Magician and a woman, and many zombie animals. No normal human men. We will convey this promise: any monsters who die in the battle to lift the siege will be restored as zombies. But mainly, they will have the thrill of killing men with impunity. The King will not condemn them for what they do, since it is to assist him."
"It just might work!" Dor exclaimed. "Let's go!"
"Not until dark," Jumper chittered.
"And not until you've eaten," Millie added. She bounced off to the kitchen.
Jumper placed a final puzzle-piece and retired to an upstairs rafter to rest. That left Dor and the Zombie Master with the puzzle, which was coming along nicely. They had largely completed the center, with the scene of Castle Roogna, and were working toward the Zombie Master's castle. Dor was increasingly curious to know how it would turn out. Would they be able to see themselves in it, under Mundane siege? How much of reality did these magic pictures reflect?
"Are you really going to help the King?" Dor asked. "I mean, if we break the siege here?"
"Yes. To please the lady. And to please you."
Still Dor was troubled. "There is something else I must tell you."
"You are about to risk your life in the defense of my castle. Speak without inhibition."
"The lady is doomed to die young. I know this from history."
The Zombie Master's hand froze, with a translucent piece of puzzle held between gaunt ringers. The piece changed from warm red light to cold blue ice. "I know that you would not deliberately deceive me."
Maybe he had spoken too uninhibitedly "I would be deceiving you if I failed to warn you. She-maybe death is not the right word. But she will be a ghost for centuries. So you will not be able to-" Dor found himself overcome by remorse at what he could not prevent. "I think someone will murder her, or try to. At age seventeen."
"What age is she now?"
"Seventeen."
The Magician rested his head against his band. The puzzle-piece turned white. "I suppose I could make a zombie of her, and keep her with me. But it wouldn't be the same."
"She-if you're helping the King to please her-or to please any of us-we'll all be gone within the year. So it may not be worth it, to-"
"Your honesty becomes painful," the Zombie Master said. "Yet it seems that if I am to please any of you, I must do it promptly. There may not again in my lifetime be opportunity to please anyone worth pleasing."
Dor did not know what to say to this, so he simply put out his hand. The Magician set down the puzzle-piece, which had turned black, and shook Dor's hand gravely. They returned to the puzzle, speaking no more.
The puzzle, Dor wondered-for his mind had to get away from the grim prior subject. How could this puzzle be the tapestry, when they were all within the tapestry? Was it possible to enter this forming picture, by means of a suitable spell, and find another world within it? Or had the tapestry been merely a gateway, the entry point, not the world itself? Was it coincidence that he should be assembling this particular picture at this juncture? The Zombie Master was the key to this whole quest, the vital element-and he had the tapestry, the key to the entry to this world. Yet he had given it to Jumper. How did this relate?
Dor shook his head. Such mysteries were beyond his fathoming. All he could do was what he could do.
Chapter 8
Commitment
That night Dor and Jumper departed the castle on the spider's line. It would have been possible to convey Millie out in the same manner, but they cared neither to subject her to the risk nor to desert the Zombie Master, even had circumstances been otherwise. There were Mundane sentries posted; Millie would have screamed, and that would have been disastrous. As it was, Dor trusted Jumper's night vision to thread them through the dark foliage, and they managed to pass without being detected. Soon they were deep in the jungle, beyond the Mundane ring of troops.
"We'd better start with the lord of the jungle," Dor said. "If he goes along with it, most of the rest will. That is the nature of jungles."
"And if the lord does not cooperate?"
"Then you will use your safety line to yank me out of his reach, in a hurry."
Jumper affixed a dragline to him, then carried the other end. In an emergency, the spider would be able to act quickly. Dor found himself wishing he had a silk-making gland; those lines were extremely handy.
The spider found him a rock in the dark. "Where is the local dragon king?" Dor demanded of it.
The stone directed him to a narrow hole in a rocky hillside. "This is it?" Dor inquired dubiously.
"You'd better believe it," the cave replied.
"Oh, I believe it!" Dor said, not wishing to antagonize the residence of the monster he hoped to bargain with.
"And if you care to depart uncooked, you'd better not wake the monarch," the cave said.
Jumper chittered. "That small cave has a large mouth."
"What?" the cave demanded.