Realms of Magic - Brian Thomsen King [50]
"Wait! Back to your drawing, boy."
"My what?"
"You can't build a house without a drawing," he said. "And you can't crave a favor without an introduction."
"Ohil'mJame."
"And I'm Ambassador Carrague. Well met, young Jame."
"Carrague! They said you died!" Father had read the obituary aloud from the Trumpeter, then griped about who would replace Carrague as city building inspector.
"Dead? Pish posh. Those fools couldn't tell the difference between a corpse and a handsaw. Merely sleeping! Good thing I woke before they'd boxed me up. Eh?" King nosed Carrague's leg impatiently.
"Ah, yes, yes. Dauna's been kidnapped, has she? Who is this Dauna?"
"Dauna's my sister. They tried to get me, too. But I was playing in the street, and King ran up barking when he saw them carrying her. That scared them off, but they held on to Dauna. King and I chased them."
"Why would someone kidnap her?"
"We're rich," I explained. "They want my father's money."
"Have your parents alerted the watch?"
"Father's returning from Sembia with silks and wine for sale. He won't be home for days. Mother died years ago. And Chesley-our steward-he doesn't believe anything I say! He thinks I'm just telling stories again. But King saw it all, and we nearly caught the kidnappers."
"But now they've given you the slip, eh?"
"Yes," I replied sadly. King growled in affirmation. "If I'd been faster, I could have seen where they went. But by the time King got under the fence and I climbed over, they were gone. King couldn't find their trail with his nose full of pepper."
"I daresay not. Even King has his limits." King looked up defensively at Carrague. "Now, now. There are just some things you're better built to do, King." The terrier looked miserable.
"If King were a man, he could have climbed that fence in no time. Then we'd have saved Dauna."
King's gaze turned to me, his red and weary eyes large and full wounded by my remark. His jaw dropped in a remarkably human expression of astonishment at a sudden attack from a friend.
"Oh, I didn't mean it that way, King. No man could have picked up their trail the way you did. You did the best you could, for a dog." King crossed his front paws and laid his head down with a whimper. I knew I'd said the wrong thing again. Something about King made you feel he understood your words, not just your tone.
"You don't know King's secret, then. Do you, Jame?"
"I know he's the smartest dog in Raven's Bluff! Why, he's saved people from drowning, foiled robbers and killers, too, and…" Now that I thought about it, even the smartest dog in the world couldn't do half the things King did.
"Oh, all that's true enough. But it's only the facade. There's a deeper story underneath. King's foundation, as it were."
"What's that?"
"Better to show you. That is, if King doesn't mind my telling his secret." Carrague looked down, as if expecting an answer. "It could be a way to help Jame's sister," he prompted.
Lifting his head, King looked at each of us in turn. He sat up with an air of a judge deliberating on a man's life, his whiskered mouth thin and tight. Carrague returned the look, a bit of the caprice gone from his own gray face. They looked at each other a long time, 'the old dog and the old wizard. Then King made a very human nod.
"To my office, boys." Carrague lifted his stick like a general directing his troops. "To my office."
The Ministry of Art – the home of the city's most powerful wizards – stood well down the road from the mayor's palace. "Afraid we might blast a hole in the castle," complained Carrague. "Ridiculous notion. We're not mere apprentices. There's hardly ever an explosion."
With this and other remarks, Carrague had me terrified of the place before we arrived. It looked grand, ornate, well guarded, and thoroughly daunting.
"Your office is here?"
"Yes, yes. They moved me here when they realized I hadn't died. But they gave my job away. Just like that!" He snapped his fingers. "And that ridiculous gnome they hired!