The Whim of the Dragon by PAMELA DEAN Read Free Book Online Page A

spirit,” said Fence. All three of them jumped at the sound of his voice.
    “Fence, is it really you?” said Ellen, peering at him from under her hat.
    “Turn that question on thyself,” said Fence, rather sharply.
    “Oh, hell ,” said Ruth. “You read my letter.”
    “Wherefore writ, if not to be read?”
    “Well, but I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
    “It sounded fine,” said Ted.
    “It sounded stupid, ” said Ruth. “I was in a terrible hurry.”
    “It was well enough,” said Fence.
    “Fence,” said Ruth, “I’m sorry.”
    “Thou hast said so already, in the letter,” said Fence, and smiled. “Be of good cheer. The fault’s not yours. But in good earnest we desire you back, to play your parts yet for a little while.”
    “Ellen has now missed her bus,” said Patrick, “and Ruth and I will miss ours in ten minutes.”
    “You’d better tell us,” said Ellen.
    It was beginning to rain, but nobody suggested finding shelter. They stood there with misty drops gathering on them while Fence told Ted and Laura’s story.
    “Good,” said Ellen, when he had finished. “Let’s do it. I knew it was wrong to leave.”
    “Good?” said Ruth. “Claudia can look at a piece of glass and make Randolph do what she likes, Claudia did make us do what she liked, and you say good?”
    “So let’s get her,” said Ellen.
    “You won’t make Ted fight Randolph?” said Ruth to Fence.
    “Stars in heaven, lady, why should I meddle so?”
    “ Randolph ’ll make Ted fight Randolph,” said Patrick.
    “I’ll strive to prevent him,” said Fence.
    “Well, I’m willing to risk it,” said Ted. “Do remember, can’t you, that the red man said everything we were afraid of would happen if we didn’t go back?”
    “It can’t all happen,” said Patrick. “You can’t kill Randolph if you aren’t there.”
    “Ruth’s letter told Randolph how to get here,” said Ted.
    Ellen stood up. “Well, let’s go,” she said.
    “I’m in the middle of an experiment,” said Patrick.
    “Does he have to come?” said Ruth to Ted. “If he was missing, wouldn’t that be an excuse to go after Claudia?”
    “We have been after Claudia,” said Fence, poking one arm out of his cloak and wiping rain off his forehead. Laura stared at the shift and glimmer of his starry sleeve, waiting for one of the points of light to swell into vision. Nothing happened. Fence went on talking, in a tone of wry patience. “We have accusations. Mind you that she tried to stab me on the stairs.”
    “Besides,” said Laura, “won’t your parents miss you and Ellen?”
    “Sure they will,” said Ruth, grinning maliciously. “Pat can explain to them.”
    “You better watch it,” said Patrick. “Our parents aren’t suspicious, but Ted and Laura’s are.”
    “That’s true,” said Ruth, sobering at once. “Mom just thought we’d grown and she hadn’t noticed until now; she’s been awfully busy trying to run this blasted farm. And we’d have to dye our hair green and put safety pins through all our finger-joints before Daddy would notice. But your mother called me Mary Rose, and your father called Patrick Thomas the Rhymer.”
    Laura thought that Patrick was about as unlike Thomas the Rhymer as anybody could get, and just managed to turn her laugh into a snort.
    “It isn’t funny,” said Ruth, undeceived. “ They’ve read all the right books. They think we’ve been in Elfland, and that’s really not so far off the mark.”
    “It is,” said Patrick, in his most annoying voice, “about as far off the mark as you can get. Time stands still in Elfland and goes along as usual here. By that definition, this is Elfland.”
    “Well, it is for Fence,” said Laura.
    “Don’t think about it,” said Ruth, a little wildly, not to Fence but to the rest of them. “I just meant Patrick’s right. They’re suspicious.”
    “They were joking,” said Ted. “They do it all the time.”
    “Not just joking,” said