The children spun about, startled. "Puck!" Cordelia squealed in delight.
"Wherefore art thou amazed? Did I not assure thee thou wouldst be guarded?"
"Truly," Magnus admitted. "Canst thou find a broom for Cordelia, Puck? Then we can fly out the window."
" 'Tis in the corner, yon. Thou hast but to clean ten years' worth of cobwebs from it."
"Ugh!" Cordelia flinched at the sight.
"Art thou so squeamish, then?" Magnus sighed. He went over to pick up the broom and clean it.
"Puck," Geoffrey asked, "what will the giant do with the maiden, when he doth catch her?"
"Eat her, belike," Cordelia said wisely.
"Mayhap summat of the sort," Puck said nervously. "Come, children! We must rescue!"
"Why, certes, we will," Geoffrey said, surprised, "but wherefore dost thou say we must, Robin?"
"For that this maiden ever did cry, ' 'Ware, Wee Folk!' ere she did pour out filthy wash-water, and did ever leave a bowl
of milk by her hearth for the brownies. Shall the Wee Folk desert her now, in her hour of need? Nay!" He raised his voice.
"Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and
groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him When he comes back; you demi-puppets that By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew! Thine aid she doth
require,
Who hath ever paid the tributes which thou dost desire!"
He was silent a moment, his head cocked to one side; then he gave a satisfied nod. "'Tis well. Come, children."
He started toward the window. Puzzled, they followed him, Cordelia dragging the broom.
Howling exploded outside.
The children stared at one another. "What noise is that?" Magnus cried.
Geoffrey grinned.
"Come see," Puck invited as he hopped up to the window-sill.
The boys levitated, drifting up behind him. Cordelia followed on her broom. They flew out the window, drifting over the woodland to a meadow, bisected by a cow path. A young girl was fleeing away from them, running flat out for all she was worth.
"The Wee Folk did afright her with the semblance of a bear," Puck explained.
"It truly doth sound like one." Geoffrey peered down, then slowly grinned. "Whatever thy folk have done, Puck, they have done well!"
Below them, Groghat was stamping and howling as though he were demented.
"What have they done?" Cordelia gasped.
"Only cozened a hiveful of bees into thinking the giant's a
field of sweet flowers," Puck said innocently.
"'Tis strong magic indeed." Gregory remembered Groghat's odor.
"Aye, but if they stop, he'll pursue her—or go home to find thou art gone, and run amok through the woods seeking his captives. And there are still the count and his family in the dungeons, on whom he might wreak his vengeance."
"Then we must put him to sleep," Magnus said firmly. "Come, Gregory. Where is this thought-path thou hast found?"
Gregory visualized Groghat's nervous system for them, and they all struck together, a massive stimulation of the solar plexus. Groghat folded as though the wind had been knocked out of him—which it had.
"He sleeps," Gregory reported.
"Recall thy bees, Puck," Magnus requested.
Puck was silent a moment, then smiled as a buzzing cloud lifted from Groghat and headed back into the woods.
Magnus sat back with a sigh of relief. " 'Tis done."
"Aye." Geoffrey gazed down at the giant. "Good folk may travel the High Way again."
"Not yet," Cordelia corrected. "Those loutish robbers do still hide in the forest."
Geoffrey lifted his head, a slow grin stretching his lips. "Why, then, we'll hale them out!" And he turned away, reaching for his dagger.
"Thou shalt not!" Puck's hand closed around his wrist. "When thou art grown, thou mayest do as thou dost please, and hazard thyself as thou wilt—yet for now, thou wilt leave such measures to those grown-ups whose office it is!"
Geoffrey turned back, frowning. "But he lies imprisoned!"
"Then let us free him!" Cordelia clapped her hands. "Oh, please, Puck!"
"Certes," the elf agreed. "There should be no danger in that. Yet wilt thou leave thy father's horse for the crows?"
"Fess!" Cordelia pressed a hand to her lips. "I had forgot!"
"The bird that could harm Fess must needs be an iron crow," Magnus assured her, grinning. "Naetheless, we assuredly must not leave our stalwart companion. Come, let us seek him."
He banked away toward the forest, and the others sailed after him.
The great black horse lay on its side, eyes clouded.
Cordelia knelt by him. "Pray Heaven he's not truly hurted!"
"I doubt it quite." Magnus dropped down beside the robot and felt under the saddlehorn for the enlarged vertebra that was the hidden circuit-breaker. "Papa hath told me that Fess's 'brain' is enclosed in padding that can withstand shocks fifty times greater than the pull of the earth… There!"
The amber eyes cleared. Slowly, the great head lifted. "Whaaat… wherrrre…"
"Self-diagnostic," Gregory said quickly.
The robot held still.
"What hast thou said, sprat?" Geoffrey frowned, worried.
"I know not—only that 'tis something Papa doth say, when he's afeard Fess may be hurted. What is its meaning, Magnus?"
"Iddt cuezzz uh brrrogram that eggzamines mmy circuits forr dam-mage," the great black horse put in, "then mmy phyzzical strugdyure. In this instanzze, mmy circuitry is unnn-damaged, and therre izz only a slllight weakening inn mmy left hind leg."
"Oh!" Cordelia's eyes widened. "How may we mend it?"
"It is unnn-nezessary ad this tlmme. Stannd aside, dzhil-dren."
They leaped up and stepped back as Fess lurched, scrambling to his feet. "Yet will not the weakening prove harmful, an thou art embattled?" Geoffrey protested.
"The probability of such stress-failure is .97," Fess ac-knowledged. "When we return home, I shall see to its replace-ment. Yet for now, I am safe enough." He lifted his head suddenly, looking off toward the north. "Your friend has re-turned, Cordelia."
They all turned, to see the unicorn step out of the wood. Cordelia ran to embrace her with a glad cry. The unicorn nuz-zled the girl's face, then cocked her head in question. "Gladly!" Cordelia cried, and leaped up sidesaddle. The uni-corn trotted toward the boys, but halted ten yards away.
Puck smiled, pleased. "Now, children—shall we fetch that count thou dost seek?"
"And his children," Cordelia added.
The count was in his dungeon, eating bread and water. His wife was in the cell next door, encouraging her children in
their efforts to dig their way out with a spoon. She knew they didn't have a chance, but it kept them busy. Needless to say, she was overjoyed when the young Gallowglasses let her out. So was the count.
"I shall call up my men!" he cried.
"First thou must needs go back to thine own castle," Magnus reminded him. "Be wary and go by the northern path."
"Wherefore?"
"For that we left the giant sleeping by the southern pasture, and he may be wakening now."
"And we have met a poor old witch in the south who was accursed by a foul sorcerer; we left them sleeping, too," Gregory added.
"And there is a peasant wench who doth work her wiles to persuade all the young men to join with the Shire-Reeve," Cordelia put in.
"All this, in a few days' time!" The count shook his head. His lady tactfully didn't mention that she had told him he should pay a little more attention to the monsters in the under-brush.
"All lie to the south," Magnus explained. "Sin that thou art afoot, we do think thou wouldst be wisest to go toward the north."
The count didn't argue. He and his family faded into the forest, moving fast.
Magnus turned to confer with his brothers, sister, and elves. "The count and his family are freed, and the giant is vanquished; I doubt me not he will prove small trouble, an we can muzzle his master."