Cavalry

"I'm going with you, of course." said Mick.

"To take care of Elanor?" asked Jinx, as he threw travelling things into a sack. "Thank you, that might be a big help."

"No, not just to take care of Elanor. You haven't got the faintest idea what you're getting into, do you? You haven't got the faintest idea what you're getting into."

Jinx stopped packing and stared at him. "So tell me."

"You're liable to need me, even just to get into Rainmoor."

"Why?" asked Jinx. "A door just opens up in the ground. The place thinks Jinx is its King."

"You are, but from what Elanor says the whole place is becoming unstable. You do understand that Rainmoor is a plane? Or do you?"

"Well, people said so, anyway. What does that mean?"

"It means the entire place with everything in it could be destroyed." replied Mick. Elanor shuddered, and Mick hastened to explain. "Destroyed isn't putting it quite right, because the plane itself wouldn't get damaged, but from what I know of Rainmoor things could get mighty nasty in there for people..."

"How?" asked Jinx.

"I'd rather not say, seeing as we're all going there anyway. Or do you think you can talk Elanor out of it? Even if you could, I'd still need to go. I know one fellow who lives there, and I'd hate to see Rainmoor go chaotic while any friend of mine was in it."

"Chaotic?"

"You'll see. Fortunately, I do know some hexes that ought to work on Rainmoor's physical structure. I promise you, we'll need 'em."

"Do you have them with you?"

"No, so I'd better run home and get what I need. Don't go until I get back." said Mick, and scooted out the door. Jinx could see him jogging down the path toward his house, an astonishing sight: Mick never ran anywhere, so even this half-run was shocking to see. Jinx continued to pack.

"You're bringing a pan?" snapped Elanor, exasperated.

"It's a good pan! I got it from Mick!"

"Don't be ridiculous! There's lots of food in Rainmoor! You don't have to... what's this?" said Elanor, inspecting the sack. "Spoons?!"

"Look, Elanor, just because you don't have to eat..."

When Elanor had been an Astral Guard in Rainmoor, her job had been to wander the Astral Plane, or 'lonely place' as she called it, and this made it impossible for her to eat normally, so part of the enchantment on her was to sustain her body while her mind roamed freely. She did understand that Jinx had to eat: what was irritating her was all the seemingly pointless things Jinx insisted were part of the process...

"I mean, were you expecting to go to a dinner party?"

"Elanor, cut it out! Why shouldn't I want to keep on being civilized?"

"If you wanted to be civilized, why'd you leave Rainmoor in the first place? I wanted to stay, but you insisted on coming out here. What's so civilized about living in a little house out in the woods?"

"Okay, okay! You're right, Rainmoor was much more civilized than this. Anyway, we're going back there now. Does that make you feel better?"

"No!" wailed Elanor. "It's gone all wrong somehow, I just want to save my friends!"

Jinx's annoyance melted away upon seeing how upset Elanor was. "Aw, kitten, we'll save them. I promise. Mick's going to come along, and he's good with magic. He has a friend in Rainmoor he wants to save too."

"Do you really think we can? And who does Mick want to save?"

"I don't know, he didn't say. As far as saving people from whatever's happening, I don't know what's happening but we are going to try. What was it like when you found it? You said it was all falling apart, which sounds really bad."

"Well, not exactly, but it's going to. You know how, in the Lonely Place, you can see through all the walls a little bit? It wasn't just that the scary things were all back, even the walls of all those caves wanted to fall apart. They were still there when I looked, but I could feel them trying to break up... they sort of fizzed... it's hard to explain."

"The caves weren't actually falling apart? Not really?" said Jinx, relieved.

"Not yet."

Somewhat less relieved, Jinx continued trying to pack, feeling like he ought to bring useful things with him. This was difficult, because he didn't really own much anyway. There was his sword, such as it was, and the dining implements he wanted to bring. He found some rope and included that as well. He very nearly decided to bring the saw, axe, and other woodworking tools he'd used to make his house with, but the notion was clearly ridiculous...

"Jinx, could you give me a hand with this?"

It was Mick, and Jinx gaped at the number of sacks and satchels he struggled with. "What is all that? I never saw one person carry so much stuff before!"

Mick dumped it all on the floor with an assortment of thumps and clunks. "That's why I was hoping you could help carry it."

"But what is it?"

"It's useful, that's what it is. Seeing as we don't know quite what we're up against, I thought I'd better be prepared for anything. With what I have here, I can work any hex that I could have worked at home. I don't think you know how much that covers..."

"It must be a lot." said Jinx, impressed. Mick was so unassuming and easy to be with that Jinx tended not to think of him as a powerful wizard, but this was an eye-opener. It wasn't just the tons of paraphenalia: Jinx had, on some level, expected that. Jinx hadn't been expecting the assurance Mick was showing. The man had cast off his cheerfully bumbling country-mage persona, revealing himself as a still cheerful but very competent and powerful wizard. In other circumstances, this would have distressed Jinx, but at the moment he found it comforting.

"Are you ready to go, Jinx?" asked Mick. "We best get moving. I surely do hope you'll help carry some of this, but if you'd rather not I'll manage."

"No, I'll help." said Jinx, swinging his own ridiculously light sack over his shoulder and reaching for one of the satchels.

"Uh, Jinx..."

Jinx nearly fell over, for the satchel was seemingly rooted to the floor. "What the hell is in that one?"

"Take this one, and this one, and this little one. Not that one. Oh, and this one, and this one..."

Jinx accepted the various bags as they were handed to him, asking "How did you ever lift it? I can't believe you're that strong..."

"No, it ain't that." said Mick, as he picked it up effortlessly. "It just won't let anybody but me carry it, that's all."

They set out for Rainmoor mountain, and Jinx asked warily, "If you dropped that thing on somebody, would it squash them flat?"

"No, it would stick to my hand. I have to set it down on the ground on purpose to let it go."

"Why?"

"Precautions, Jinx. This one's got the really tricky magics in it, and it could be awkward if it got into somebody else's hands. Dangerous."

"How?"

"Well, it depends on whether the person was a mage or not. If not, very likely nothing would happen. On the other hand, a mage would figure out that there are power taps stored here. A really good mage would recognize that the energies are held in a mirror-image chaotic balance, which is a dynamic system that burns off its residual leakage by oscillation and inverted feedback..."

"Mick?" said Jinx nervously. "Please don't talk like that. What does all that mean really?"

"Basically, it means that a dumb wizard who tried to use what's in this bag would find it blew up in his face, taking most of the countryside with it."

Jinx looked again at the satchel, dismayed. "Can we leave it behind?"

"We'll be needing a unlimited source of power, sooner or later. More importantly, it's a source of power that isn't drawing on Rainmoor. That means we can depend on it if we get in a jam."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, Jinx, I didn't mean to scare you with it. Tell you what, here's something that might take your mind off it. I never told you what I learned in the regress. Interested?"

"Yes. Did you find out why the wizard killed my mother?"

"Well, now, I'm not sure where to start. You don't have to believe this right away, but it was an accident. He did not mean to."

"Then why did he?"

"He was experimenting with her, and he lost his concentration." said Mick, hoping he wasn't telling too much. "The hex got out of his control, and he couldn't get it back."

"What was he trying to do?"

"That I can tell you. The man was incessantly trying to create a woman for himself, like sort of a cross between a tiger and a human. I'm not sure why he chose a tiger, but perhaps the size of the beast made things easier for him."

"But why did he make me? I'm not a woman!" protested Jinx.

"I know." remarked Elanor. "You're extremely not a woman." Now that they were headed for Rainmoor, she seemed less frantic and more confident.

"Well, Jinx," said Mick, "he was expecting to make a female when he made you. I can tell you that it came as quite a shock to him when he realized his plans hadn't worked out the way he wanted."

Jinx glowered. "That's not enough of a reason for him to hate me like he did."

"Uh, Jinx..."

"It's not!"

"He didn't hate you, not really. That's what he wanted you to believe, but it ain't so."

"What are you talking about? He kicked me and chased me and threw me away!"

"I know! I know! I went through all that, remember? I suspect I noticed some things that you never figured out. Where did your food come from?"

"My mother got it."

"From where?"

"I'm not sure, she just did. She must have gone outside or something."

"Jinx, I don't remember seeing any doors to the outside in that castle. That's typical for reclusive wizards, you go live in a well-defended keep of some sort and seal it off completely. He provided that food. There's more. You remember he broke your leg? Or is that a blank to you?"

"I remember part of it."

"What happened next?"

"I dragged myself out of the room..."

"No, I mean the next day and so on. What did you do for the weeks and months it would take for bones to knit, how'd you get them set properly? How'd you get around during that time?"

"What time? It got better soon, I don't remember how."

"His doing. He froze you, snuck up and healed you. He then gave you a pat and snuck back, all without letting you see him. Naturally, you couldn't figure out what had happened, but there was no mistaking it."

"Then why did he hurt me in the first place?!" protested Jinx. "He always did! Why did he act like that? I can't believe you!"

"Now, Jinx..."

"Why?"

"Well, he had a nasty temper, and he wanted to be left alone. He would keep you around and feed you, but he did his best to make you fear him so you wouldn't be in his way. He got his wish, but even so you managed to... to get in his way." Mick shuddered, hoping Jinx wouldn't put two and two together.

"Then why did he get rid of me? I mean, if he was keeping me around on purpose. I don't know whether to believe you. It doesn't make sense..."

"Keep in mind, Jinx, that he was a madman. Perhaps you might want to make some allowances considering he was sick in the head?"

"Why?" said Jinx, as that seemed like an awfully flimsy excuse.

"Anyhow, he got rid of you mainly because you finally jumped him. Do you remember that?"

"No."

"Well, he didn't have a lot of choice. You pounced on him and went for his throat, and even though your teeth aren't suited for such work you made up for it with determination. You had his arms pinned, so he couldn't use any gestures, and he had to fall back on a purely verbal hex that zapped you into the middle of a forest. Another minute, and you might have killed him. You were trying very hard to do just that."

"I attacked him?"

"Viciously."

"I'm happy to hear that. This regress thing wasn't all bad."

"Look, could you try and consider the possibility that this man wasn't all evil? He had some dreadful faults, but I promise he ain't the monster you thought he was..."

Jinx thought for a moment. "Maybe. Jinx would like to hate him some more, though."

"Oh, Jinx."

"What's so strange about that? Can you blame me?"

"I reckon I'll wait and see." replied Mick evenly. "Depends on how hard you hang on to that hate, and how much you like it. It can hurt you worse than your father ever did, and you'll never know it, because most of the damage will land on other people..."

"Look!" cried Elanor. "I can see Rainmoor now!"

Jinx patted her head, tactfully not mentioning that he'd been able to see it for some time, since his eyes were farther off the ground. "I can see it too, Elanor. It looks the same as it always did."

"I'm glad it didn't blow up or go poof or something." she said. "I was afraid something like that would happen before we got there."

They approached the mountain in silence. When they stood at its base, Mick inquired "Do you have a usual way of getting in, Jinx?"

"Not really. The door that opens up is around here somewhere, though."

Before long, Jinx found the place, complete with small circular depression in the ground. When he'd first entered Rainmoor, he'd announced his presence by placing a magic rock in the little hole. It seemed like a very long time ago. He stared at the small hole in the ground in frustration: the ground wasn't opening up before him this time. Perhaps it was because he didn't have a magic rock.

"Mick, can you make a magic rock to put in this hole?"

"I surely can, but who do you expect to answer?"

"What do you mean?"

"That hole's a doorbell cantrip." said Mick. "I could spot it a mile away. I can ring the doorbell, sure, but who's on the other side?"

"Nobody, probably. This leads to my old room. King-Thomas used it sometimes before he died."

"Then why do you want to ring it?" asked Mick, exasperated.

"To open it. This is one of those Kings-gates, but it isn't opening."

"Hm! Jinx, it should be opening for you. You shouldn't need to kick it to get it to work. This isn't any too promising."

Elanor was getting worried again. "It's bad?"

"Rainmoor magic ain't supposed to break down. Unless... Jinx, do you want to go in here?"

"Not particularly."

"Ha! That explains it. Jinx, in order for a King's Gate to open, you being the King have to want to go through it. You don't have to be all that specific about where you're going, but you got to make up your mind to go. If you want that Gate to open, come up with a reason why you want to get into Rainmoor."

"Why? It's Elanor that wants to go there. I don't like the place much, and she said it's going bad."

"Don't you have friends there? People you don't want to get hurt?"

The Gate promptly began to open, as Jinx remembered Peter and Lord Sean and Julia and Michael the King's-Page. There were indeed people Jinx cared about in Rainmoor. As the Gate opened, it shimmered faintly, and flickered in a irregular fashion that Jinx hadn't seen before. Mick, noticing this, glowered at it.

"I hope that hesitation's from you and not from it..." he muttered.

They entered, Elanor rushing in right away, Mick warily following her, and Jinx tagging reluctantly along. The first thing to greet his eyes was the bonfire in midair that King-Thomas had set up, and the sight was not reassuring. It seemed to have gone mad: rather than smoothly burning, it flared randomly in all directions, suddenly changing from a small flicker to a huge gout of flame that reached almost to the walls. The flames reached up, down, and to all sides indiscriminately, in shocking contrast to the way fires were meant to behave.

Elanor gave one horrified look at it and recklessly rushed past it to where her friends stood, frozen in place, trapped in Astral form. "Do something!" she wailed.

Mick wasted no time. Digging into a bag he was holding, he produced a handful of sand, throwing it at the blaze. As the sand hit it, the flame flared into angry whiteness and went out with a shower of sparks. With another handful of sand ready, Mick looked hectically around for other threatening things, then relaxed and carefully put the sand back into his bag.

"What is that stuff?" asked Jinx, impressed.

"Dispel dust." replied Mick. "Good thing I had it ready, that was just the sort of thing that it's meant for. It ain't always safe to use, but there's some situations that need it."

Elanor was still with the rigid, frozen animals and birds, and Jinx and Mick hurried over to join her. None of the animals seemed to be burned by the flames, although the bear, being closest to the blaze, was singed slightly. With a start, Jinx noticed that Elanor had used her ability to enter the Astral Plane and had joined them. She stood like a statue, responding to nothing.

"Elanor!" he protested. He put his hand on her back, getting no reaction.

"Your callback ain't working?" asked Mick.

"What call back? She's not listening! She could come back by herself, but she won't!"

"So callback her friends there, that'll get her."

"How am I supposed to do that?" protested Jinx, and Mick gaped.

"You don't know how to get them back?"

"King-Thomas did, but he's dead!"

"Oh dear. If those are Astral Guards like they look to be, they'll be keyed to a particular person, and that person would be King Thomas. Seeing as he's dead, we do have ourselves a little problem..."

"Throw some of that dispel stuff on them!"

"Hell, no!" sputtered Mick. "Unless you want them to have living bodies but no minds? We got to get them back first before we snap the thread!"

"Vernon!" exclaimed Jinx desperately. "Vernon would know what to do. He's this dragon that lives behind that door there, and he knows these things..."

Jinx rushed to the door, flung it open, and stared in shock at an inky blackness, sprinkled with stars.

"Calm down, Jinx. This dragon, he's done work with the Astral Plane of Rainmoor?"

"I don't suppose it matters." said Jinx, his energy draining away into futility. "He's gone."

"Take it easy, Jinx. Step away from that door, that's it. Looks like that Gate's gone out of focus on you, ain't no dragon there."

"He's not there. Nothing is."

"Well, all we got to do is tune it a mite, and that I can do for you. Could you recognize this Vernon's home plane by sight?"

"I think so." said Jinx, brightening a little.

"Tell me when you spot it." said Mick, and fell silent. The stars visible through the door began to flash into different patterns, and suddenly changed to countless different scenes that switched over with blinding speed, far too fast to keep track of.

"How am I supposed to follow that? Can't you do it slower?"

Mick blinked, and the scene settled on a bleak seashore with waves battering towering granite cliffs. "Do you have any idea how many planes we need to look through? Tell you what, just try to picture in your mind the scene we want, as vividly as you can. I'll monitor that, and when I get an echo of it from the Gate I'll lock it in."

Jinx did so, and Mick fell silent once more, and the scene through the door became a roaring blur of images, switching with such furious haste that it made Jinx dizzy. He closed his eyes and concentrated on remembering Vernon's cave, the shape of the walls, the rock of the floor, the hole at the top seemingly too small to let a dragon through, even the smell that hung delicately in the air, a sort of blend of flesh and hot metal, presumably from Vernon himself. Soon Mick said "That it?"

Jinx opened his eyes and found himself looking straight at the dragon's huge head. Vernon gazed levelly back at him. "Oh, you've found new friends?" said Vernon.

"Please, Vernon, you..."

"I trust you're ready to make an apology for shutting off the Gate to Rainmoor, Jinx. By the way, who'd you get to do it? I rather doubt you could manage it yourself."

"What?"

"You shut off the Gate. Perhaps you didn't know how these things work, and didn't realize that casting me adrift in such a way made it virtually impossible to find my way back. The Gate cantrip is on the Rainmoor side, you know. None of it was left." The dragon seemed distinctly annoyed, which was puzzling since Jinx had never seen him annoyed.

"Are you angry at me, Vernon?" said Jinx in a small voice. Mick watched this dialogue, frowning.

"Of course I am!" snapped the dragon, and Jinx had to duck a small gout of flame that inadvertently punctuated the dragon's words. "Just when things were getting interesting, suddenly you forget about me entirely! I imagine old Tom is history now, which explains why he didn't drop in, but couldn't you have shown the common decency to..."

"Just a minute!" interrupted Mick. "Just a minute! Stop it! You'd better hear him out. That Gate going out of adjustment was not Jinx's fault, and I dislike to hear a friend of mine spoken to that way."

"Why should I hear him out? I'm already planning to shame and then forgive him, and hopefully he won't let it happen again. And who are you, to talk so boldly to a live dragon? I must say I find it unappealing..." said the dragon, and trailed off noticing a small amulet Mick held firmly in his hand.

"Oh." said the dragon, glowering. "I might have known. Sir, you need not clutch your blasted amulet so tightly. I can see it's a dragonbinder, but you have no call to use it on me. I am not about to eat you, nor was I planning to. Don't even think of trying to compel me."

"Well," said Mick, "it's hard not to think of such things when a friend of mine is in danger."

"Jinx? He's in no danger from me. Never was. You, on the other hand, are the most irritating thing I've seen in years. It's most annoying that you claim to be a friend of his, because I'd like to toast you for your infernal effrontery in bringing that damned amulet here. Seventh class, is it?"

"Eighth."

"Splendid! I can handle that with no trouble."

"I lied." said Mick. "Twelfth. Try me."

Jinx had been listening with increasing dismay as his two odd friends casually traded increasingly deadly repartee, and finally thrust his stripey body between them, begging, "Please don't fight! At least help Elanor first, and let us out of this horrible place, and then you can fight if you have to..."

"Elanor?" replied the dragon, taken aback. "What's the matter with Elanor?"

Mick seemed startled. "You like her, do you?"

"Of course! She's a wonderful being! Now, what's the matter with her? Quickly, man!"

Mick, impressed by the dragon's obvious concern, explained. "She's all right, apart from being pregnant and having absolutely no sense..."

"Pregnant?"

"That's right. By Jinx here, of course. At the moment, she's off in the Astral Plane trying to help her friends, and she won't come back. Jinx here was hoping you could get them back into the real world, seeing as she won't leave them. I expect I could get them back in time, but we're a mite hurried."

"Pregnant! And I never got to see her wear a bridal gown! I'm glad she's all right." rumbled Vernon. "But why don't you ask the King to thaw her friends? Or is old Tom dead, as I suspected?"

"You're looking at the King." said Mick, with a gesture toward Jinx, who was too distracted to respond.

The dragon gaped incredulously, then burst into laughter. "Now see here!" exclaimed Mick, offended, but it was no help: they had to wait for the dragon's chuckles to subside.

"Hoo hoo hoo... So it must have been Charles all along! Who'd have thought it? Of course, I'd thought of that, but... Those humans! They're absolutely mad, you know that? And Elanor pregnant! Elanor, the Queen Mother! Hoo hoo..."

"Are you ready to help now?" asked Jinx.

"Oh, certainly... What's this?" said Vernon, looking over their shoulders.

The cave wall was rippling, as if coming to a boil, bubbling more and more intensely. It began to buckle slowly, pressing inward and swaying outward again.

"Hell!" snapped Mick. "The place is going chaotic!"

"Step in here!" suggested the dragon. "I'll cut the Gate loose from this side, I can do that..."

"But what about Elanor?"

"Run and get her."

"And what about all the other people here? Peter! What about Peter?"

"You know Peter? The same Peter? Wife named Julia, good sense of humor, resigned from being a First Lord?"

"That's right! Can you locate him? I can teleport him back to my own plane!"

"Certainly. Hm! You're good." remarked the dragon, as Mick dropped into a deep trance.

"What's he doing?" said Jinx.

"It's a teleport. He's serving as a channel, and I just gave him Peter. Hm! He's not stopping. He must want to be given more people. I'll bring back the Astral Guards, they must be scared silly... There they go. This friend you've got is quite good, he still wants more. He must want to evacuate all of Rainmoor through his teleport. Think of people, Jinx, and so shall I, and never mind whether they're friends or foes. Anyone we forget will very likely be lost..."

They stood, thinking of people and racking their tiger and dragon brains to remember strangers glimpsed briefly. Vernon ran out of people before long, because many of the people he remembered were generations ago, but Jinx kept at it, growing faint with exertion.

"Jinx!" snapped the dragon. "Think of me now! I can't fit through this door and out that silly little tunnel!"

"But, Vernon, you're safe there! Why don't you want to stay where you are?"

"I wouldn't miss this for the world..." said the dragon. "Wait, before you do, when you go snap your friend there out of his..."

The dragon was gone. Seemingly Jinx's speaking with him had been enough to trigger Mick. The ceiling of the cave, which was once hidden by a fake magical starry sky, was folding up on them, yet it seemed to pay no attention to gravity, rippling and writhing in an eye-twisting fashion. Jinx prodded Mick, eager to flee this place.

"Get 'em?" said Mick vaguely, returning to consciousness.

"Yes."

"Good." replied Mick, and fainted. Jinx swung the limp mage over his shoulder and made for the exit, which opened for him: all else might be failing, but this King's-Gate still worked and this King badly wanted to get out. Alarmingly, the cave began to shrink behind him with sickening speed, and he made the exit barely in time. The front of the tunnel opened before him, and the collapsing cave behind flung him out as if it was spitting him out, and he and the unconscious Mick tumbled onto the ground.

Jinx got to his feet and noticed the huge crowd of people Mick had rescued. Elanor was back from the Astral Plane and moving around again, and he spotted one of the owl Astral Guards fluttering about. He saw no sign of the bear, which surprised him. Hugo, Peter, and Julia were standing nearby, and he spotted Sean, and Michael the King's-Page, and Vernon's huge gold-scaled bulk behind the crowd, and then Hugo strode forward and announced, "My liege! Our greatest thanks and deepest appreciation for saving all our lives single-handedly!"

Hugo turned to the crowd. "Three cheers for the King! Hip hip..."

"Hooray!"

"Hip hip..."

"I did not!" interrupted Jinx.

"Hooray!"

"Hip hip..."

"Not all by myself, anyway!"

"Hooray!"

Hugo turned to Jinx again. "What are your plans, my liege?"

Jinx had had enough. "I'm going home!"

Hugo turned again. "King Jinx has spoken! He shall lead us to shelter, as he led us out of danger!"

Jinx stared out at the crowd of beaming faces, appalled.