Fred considered his options. For him to promise to aid the fairy in her
cause seemed rather a lot for her to ask in return for telling him where
he was.
Also she hadn't even
told him what her cause was yet. Supposing he promised to help her,
and then
it turned out
that she wanted him to do something evil? She might look both beautiful
and innocent, but
Fred had an Allarian's deep distrust of anything to do with magic, and
fairies
were magical beings. He had never seen one before, but he knew that not
all fairies
were good creatures; some had a very dubious reputation.
One the other hand, though his own quest had to take precedence over everything else, it no longer had quite the same urgency now that he knew that he was at best several months travelling time away from the Shreken. A delay of another few days or even weeks caused by helping the fairy was unlikely to be significant. He decided that before he could make a decision he needed more information. "A promise should not be given lightly," he said. "I cannot promise to aid you until I know what your cause is and what you would have me do." "A reasonable enough request, Sir Knight," Audrey said. "But I have already wasted too much time." She made a gesture with her tiny hand, at the same time saying something in her own tongue, which Fred could not understand. Her voice seemed to sound more like the chiming of bells than ever. Fred suddenly found that his memories of recent events were fuzzy. He could clearly recall King Emry sending him from Caemlyn to go on a great quest, but - strangely - he could not remember what that quest might be. Nor could he recall how he had got here - wherever "here" might be. "Now, Sir Knight," Audrey said, "you were sent here by your king to aid my people. Is that not so?" Fred shook his head to try to clear it. "I suppose I must have been," he said. "But you will have to fill me in on the details of my quest. I somehow don't seem to recall them" "That is quite all right," Audrey said. "No doubt your king did not brief you fully, just in case you should fall into enemy hands before you got here.
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3/24/2002 3:47:05 AM
Extending Enabled
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