The Warlock's Companion

"Bad rep?" Weiser squalled. "We've been angels! Well… compared to…" His voice trailed off.

Donough nodded. "Just what I had in mind, Mr. Weiser. Who ever heard of a sedate sailor, sea or space? Now, I do want dignity at all times—but see if you can't be a little wilder about it, eh? All right, now, out we… What are you staring at?"

All three officers were gazing past his shoulders with eyes like saucers. "Captain… Gracie…"

Donough turned to look, and looked again.

She came toward them with small quick steps, one hand on the bulkhead to keep her down to the deck, eyes bright, an eager smile, and a dress that clung to every contour.

Donough gasped as though he'd been hit, or at least smitten.

Weiser was the first to recover. "Hey, Gracie, I know this great little place…"

McCracken bowled past him. "Grace, would you consider di

Whelk just looked unhappy; he had a wife waiting.

"Ten-hut!"

They all pulled a brace. The captain saw Gracie at attention, and took a deep breath himself. "Gentlemen," he said quietly, "for once, I'm going to pull rank. Ms. Muldoon, may I have the pleasure of your company for di

"Oh, yes, Captain!" Muldoon fairly glowed as she took his arm and stepped out under the stars, gazes locked with Donough's. Weiser stood in the hatchway staring after them, muttering, "She's in love with him. I knew it, yeah—so why's it hit hard, now?"

"Maybe because he never realized she was a woman before," Rod said.

Weiser turned to him, narrow-eyed. "Speak when you're spoken to, Mister! If she gets a heartbreak, it's you I'll come looking for!"

And, for a moment, Rod didn't think Weiser was going to wait. He braced for combat, resolved not to lose his head this time. All he could say was, "She needed it."

"Yeah." There was no definite sign, but he could see Weiser cooling down. "I oughta hate you for it—but I can't. 'Cause I love her." He studied Rod for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "You, too, huh, kid?"

Rod swallowed and nodded.

Then Weiser's arm shot out—to slap him across the shoulders and turn him toward the hatchway. "Come on, swabbie—let's go get drunk."

And they did. Totally.

He woke to the sound of singing, croaked piteously, and tried to bury his head under the pillow, but it was fastened down.

"Oh, Rod, it was so wonderful!"

Rod rolled up enough to crack one bloodshot eye open. The ultimate vision of female loveliness sat down on his bed, and he was in no condition to do anything about it.

"The whole night, Rod! He spent the whole night, just with me! No taking me back to the ship and going off!"

"I'm s' happy," Rod moaned.

"First it was di

Rod wanted to ask her to speak more softly, but he didn't have the heart.

"Then another club, and another, and I was hoping he wouldn't proposition me, 'cause I didn't know if I would've been able to resist—but he didn't."

Thank heaven for small mercies. Personally, Rod wished the ship would stop rolling.

Then he remembered it was a spaceship, and the waves were only in his stomach.

"No other women! No blondes! No brunettes! Just me!" Muldoon glided up into a pirouette. Rod caught his breath.

"We got drunk, but not terribly—we didn't need to. We had breakfast at Pastiche's and strolled back along the Boulevard Glazé, and I never realized before how beautiful the asteroids can be, like stars in a waltz! And he stopped in front of the church, Ceres' only church, and asked me to marry him!"

Rod stared, too horrified to make a sound.

"Of course I said yes. I didn't have to think about it—I already have, so many times! I said yes, and he took me inside and caught us a minister, and he helped us catch each other, and we stopped by a jeweler's on the way back to the ship, and here it is!"

She thrust a small glacier under Rod's nose. He goggled, staring at the iceberg and the slim gold band next to it, and felt his stomach sink, then lurch. But he managed to whisper anyway, "All best wishes."

"Oh, thank you, you darling! And I owe it all to you!" Muldoon seized his face, gave him a quick, warm, but thorough kiss, and said, "I'll never forget you for this." She bowed her head, suddenly looking terribly shy, and breathed, "Gotta go now. My husband is waiting."

Then she was gone, in a swirl of taffeta.

Rod moaned and rolled over on his bunk, hanging his head over the bucket beside it. "Fess—what have I done?"

"You have made a good woman very happy, Rod."

"But it wasn't supposed to work out this way!"

"How was it supposed to operate, then?"

"Oh… I du

"You will have her eternal gratitude, Rod. You will have a friend for life."

"A friend is not quite what I had in mind…"

Chapter 11

A low moan echoed through the hall.

The children were up in an instant, their hair standing on end. Gwen was sitting straight, glaring.

"Oh, no!" Rod groaned. "Not again!"

" T-'tis a spirit of another sort, Papa."

"I don't care what it is—we need our sleep!" Rod rolled over, sitting up to glare at Magnus. "Who did you wake this time?"

"I did not, Papa!" Magnus's voice broke. "Or if I did, 'twas unawares, from dreaming!"

"That's all we need." Rod held his head in his hands. "We're go

The moan turned into words. "I cry thy pardon, gentle knight. I would not affright younglings an I had any other way to seek thee."

"How about catching me alone, when I'm on my way to the jakes?"

"I ca

Rod glanced up at Magnus, eyebrow raised. "Settles that question, anyway." He turned back to the ghost, frowning, studying its appearance. The new apparition was a stocky suit of armor with a sword in its hand, clanking appropriately. "Have the courtesy to show your face, and tell us your name!" Rod growled.

"Thy pardon." The knight sheathed his sword and lifted not only his visor, but his whole helmet, too—and stopped looking frightening. He was balding, and had wrinkles in his kindly face, all in softly glowing outline. "I am Sir Donde L'Accord. I had not meant to affright, least of all little ones."

"We are no longer little!" Geoffrey snapped, but Gregory just stared.

"And I am Rod Gallowglass, Lord Warlock. This is my lady, and my children. What do you want with me?"

"A warlock!" The ghost's eyes lit with hope. "I cry thine aid, my lord! Have pity on a poor, troubled father, an thou wilt! Assistance, I prithee!"

"Father?" Rod was suddenly totally alert. "You wouldn't happen to have a daughter who roams this castle too, would you?"

"Aye." The ghost's expression darkened. "As will I, till I have found the means of my revenge!"

"Ah," Rod breathed. "Revenge on the man who wounded your daughter?"

"Aye, tortured her heart, then slew her! Would that he and I were flesh, that I might cast down my gauntlet and dash out his brains!"

"Not exactly a worthy thought, for one who presumably hopes to win to Heaven. How come you died so soon after your daughter's death?"

"I did not." The spirit stared. "Wherefore wouldst thou think I had?"

Well, so much for Holmes's methods; Rod wasn't scoring any higher than Watson had. "Had to be after, or you wouldn't have known how she died. Couldn't have been very long after, or you would have carved the villain's gizzard, and cheerfully gone to the block if you'd had to."