"Aye," Angelique said, "for surely no one evil could live in so fair a fortress!"
But Gilbert didn't look convinced, and Frisson said, "Can any who are not evil hold a castle in Allustria?"
But Gruesome grinned from one side of his face to the other and chortled, "Food!"
"Yeah, but just grain, okay?" I looked up at him nervously. "No gobbling up the castle horses, now - we don't want to eat out our welcome."
"Goosum be good," he promised, and we pressed on to our new short-term goal with renewed vigor.
As we came up the slope, though, I frowned. "Odd. Drawbridge down, banners flying-but not a soul in sight."
"Mayhap they are all gathered in the bailey for some purpose," Frisson ventured.
"Surely they would have left sentries at the walls!" Gilbert expostulated.
"Well, we'll find out soon enough." We had come up to the drawbridge's edge. I called out to the little slit windows in the gatehouse, "Is anybody home?"
A face with a steel cap showed at one of the windows. "What wish you? " I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding.
"Hospitality. We are wayfarers who seek a night's lodging - and we are of gentle blood."
The face looked up a little above my head. "He is not." I looked around. "Who, Gruesome? No, he's a troll, but he's friendly. "
"I doubt the castellan would countenance his entrance," the porter called back. "He must stay without until the lord of the castle has spoken - but the rest of you may enter."
I stood rigid for a moment, then hissed to my friends, "Maybe we'd better look for a different campground."
"Mayhap," Gilbert said. But Angelique, unseen, said, "You could do well with a soft bed and a strong wall about you for a night, gentlemen, and the troll will not fret."
"Goosum hunt!" the troll averred.
"Well . . ."
Frisson's eyes were feverish. "A real kitchen, with true food!
A dinner of any other thing but journey rations!" He turned to Gruesome. "Surely you would not feel neglected, would you, good monster?"
Gruesome shook his head - or the whole top half of his body, whichever way you wanted to look at it. "Goosum no trouble!" Well now, that could have meant that he wouldn't be any trouble if we took him into the castle, or it could have meant that it wouldn't trouble him to be left outside, but I chose the latter interpretation. "Okay, Gruesome, you wait out here. Go hunt a boar or something. We'll see you in the morning - sooner, if the lord of the castle has a change of heart."
Gruesome nodded affably and turned away toward the nearest woods.
Somehow it bothered me, having him out of sight, but I reminded myself that I was probably safer that way, anyway. "Okay, he's taking a hike," I called up to the soldier in the little window. "Can we come in now?
"Aye! The drawbridge is down, and the keep awaits you!" he called back, and disappeared.
I turned to my companions. "Shall we, friends?" We went through the gatehouse, Angelique glowing visibly in its shadow-and the skin on the back of my neck prickled, expecting a volley from the little windows all along both sides of the passage. But nothing happened, and we came into the bailey.
" 'Tis fair enough," Frisson said.
It was. The courtyard was bare in the center but with a broad fringe of grass, where a few horses were grazing contentedly. They wore only bridles, but they were big-knights' mounts. Smoke came from some of the buildings against the wall, with cooking odors from the kitchen range and the steady clang of metal from the smithy. Both of them relaxed me a little more, though it still seemed odd not to see anybody around.
"No doubt they are all inside." Frisson sniffed the delicious aromas and smacked his lips. "Come, friends! To the keep! Must we not present our compliments to the lord and his lady?"
"Yeah, I guess that's the correct protocol." But this time, I let Frisson take the lead.
We walked across the courtyard to the tall, round building that was the keep and went through the doors at its base-into total gloom, in which Angelique shone brightly again. Frisson stopped with an exclamation, and Gilbert came through last, looked about him, and growled.
" 'Tis a ruin!" Frisson cried.
"Well, I wouldn't go that far." I prowled past him, looking around.
"Structurally, it's in good shape."
"But 'tis filthy, with the dust and dirt of a century at least!" Angelique protested.
It was. A little light came in from two small windows high up on the walls, enough illumination to show us a huge round room with fat pillars holding up the ceiling - and huge cobwebs that stretched everywhere there was a right angle. A few of them were new, with active spinners busily mending tears or rolling flies, but the others were lank and ropy, thick with dust. The floor wasn't much better, coated with humus that had once been moldering straw. Broken benches and tables poked up here and there, and I could see the remains of a few camp fires, where wanderers had spent the night.
"But how could it be?" Frisson protested, visions of a good supper fleeting away. "The outside is so fair, so well kept and well tended!"
"Wherefore would they neglect the keep?" Gilbert looked about him, frowning. "Do not the lord and lady live here?" The answer hit me like a thunderbolt. "No, they don't, and they haven't for fifty years or more! The place is deserted! Somebody just tidied up the outside to lure us in!"
"But who would go to such great labor?" Gilbert cried.
"What great labor? It just took a little magic! And I'll give you three guesses who uses magic on that scale! Out of here, folks!" I turned and headed for the door. just a second too late. A howling war cry cut loose all around us, waking echoes that the old hall hadn't even known it had.
Chapter Fourteen
Soldiers came charging out from behind the pillars. Around the edges of the room, knights stepped out from doorways, clanking down on our little group. iced. He swung it with a Gilbert's sword was out before I'd not bloodthirsty howl, as I snapped my staff up to guard. The squire chopped into a helmet, used the rebound to slash at a belly, and snapped the sword straight ahead to fend off the oncoming soldier.
But a huge net fell from the rafters to enshroud him. Gilbert roared and flailed at the net with his sword. He managed to cut a few strands, but more of them entangled the sword.
I howled in anger, yanked out my knife, and sawed at the mesh, trying to free my friend-but soldiers crowded me from either side, and I had to turn to dodge a halberd and lunge at its owner. The soldier yelled with pain and went down under the feet of his comrades, and a pike head jabbed at me from the side. I managed to parry, then remembered I was supposed to be a wizard and frantically tried to think of a verse. Difficult, because I was also dancing around the guardsmen, trying to leap in to cut at them and get out before a sword or halberd hit me. Worse, I was distracted by the sight of Angelique, almost a whirlwind of gauze, swishing across a trooper's eyes long enough for Frisson to thwack him with his staff.
Angelique undulated in front of another trooper long enough to make him stop in his tracks. The man behind him jarred into him, and the two of them turned to fighting each other with shouts of anger. Angelique sped away, flitting through the attackers, causing havoc.
Frisson fought gamely with a staff, though he was clearly getting the worst of it.
A bellow split the air, and the soldiers drew back in fright, for a behemoth strode into the fight with teeth and claws. "Gruesome !" I shouted with relief. The monster must have heard the sounds of the fight and come running back to get in on the pounding.
Then some sixth sense warned me, and I spun around. Someone had managed to get behind me, and a weighted club was swinging down toward my sinuses with a fully armored knight behind it. I took a breath to rattle off a verse, but the club swooped down to fill the world, a huge pain exploded at the side of my head, and I didn't get to see how the fight came out.