The King's Fool

As they resumed walking, he decided to make one last attempt to make Astra see reason. "My own father was killed by the dragon, you know," he said. "So it must be evil."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Astra replied. "But if a knight came intent on slaying you, surely you'd be entitled to kill him in self defence?"

Fred decided that any further argument would be futile, and they continued for a while in a rather awkward silence. Both of them were wondering whether there was any point in continuing to accompany the other, since one of them wanted to kill the dragon and the other to seek its aid. (Actually, Fred thought of the dragon as "it" and Astra thought of the dragon as "him".)

Then Fred had an uncomfortable thought. Runcible, the King's jester, had pointed out an instance where the dragon had seemingly conducted two simultaneous raids in widely separated parts of the kingdom. Even the dragon could not be in two places at once, Runcible had said. But everyone had dismissed his arguments. After all, he was a Fool. Water clocks and candles did not keep time all that accurately, and the raids need not have been nearly as simultaneous as the reported had stated.

1. Fred began to wonder if Astra could just possibly be right.
2. Fred pushed his doubts aside. The dragon had to be responsible. Some survivors from the raids had said they had seen it.

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