The King led the way to the royal fishpond, while Dor's prior qualm grew into a full-fledged funk. No troops, no dragons-and now the King planned to depend on fish?
King Roogna netted a bright goldfish. 'Let me see,' he said, concentrating.
The fish turned blue; Ice formed on the water. 'Oops-I made it into a coldfish,' Roogna said. 'That's no help.' He concentrated again. The fish became a fiery red, and the water boiled with the thrashing of the creature's tail. 'No, that's a boldfish. I am having a difficult time!'
Dor merely watched. The King was performing significant magic, his misses more potent than any lesser person's wildest successes.
The King concentrated again. The fish turned brown, its skin wormlike. 'Ah! There's my groundfish!' he exclaimed, satisfied. He scribbled a note, wadded it into a ball, and inserted it in the fish's mouth. He spoke to it: 'Go check on the zombie army and report back here with the Zombie Master's reply.'
The fish nodded, then swam through the net and into the wall of the pond, disappearing. 'Now let's see what else offers,' the King said. He moved to the Royal Aviary and netted a bird shaped like a ball. Its wings were so stubby it could hardly fly, and its beak and claws projected only marginally. 'This round dove really isn't much use in this form.' He concentrated.
Suddenly a great ugly strap appeared, constricting the dove's body. 'No, no!' the King said, annoyed. 'Must Murphy's law foul me up even on minor details? Not a bound dove. I want a ground dove!' And the bird turned the color of the groundfish. 'There! Now you wait here until I have a message to send; then you fly through the ground and deliver it.'
He returned his attention to Dor. 'You are a comparative stranger to me, Magician, yet I have faith in you, and in your friend Jumper. I am extremely short of personnel at the moment. Will you accept a position in my service?'
Dor was taken aback. 'Your Majesty, I am only visiting here. Soon, very soon, I must go home.'
The King smiled grimly. 'I would offer you transportation, as I did before. But I am short of that, too, and the goblins have closed in about the Castle. Your only egress is toward the castle of the Zombie Master, and even that is uncertain now. I would prefer that you weather the siege here at Castle Roogna, even if you choose not to participate.'
'Another siege. I was just in one!'
'This one will be worse, I assure you. We have greater resources than the Zombie Master did, but the situation is more complicated. I would rather oppose Mundanes than goblins and harpies.'
The Dragon King had suggested the same thing. Worse than what they had gone through at the Zombie Master's castle? Dor still could not believe that. He had fought goblins and harpies and found them revolting but not that devastating. And the enemy forces were not actually attacking Castle Roogna; they just happened to be staging their own private war here. Still, it would be pointless to try to travel through the midst of those hordes. 'Well, I have a few days yet. Might as well be of what help I can.'
'Excellent! I shall put you in charge of the north ramparts. You will have to keep strong rein on the centaurs there, but they'll mind you if they respect you. They must be kept working on the wall as long as possible; every stone laid in place augments our security.'
'Oh, I'm not a leader!' Dor protested. 'I'm only-'
'My roadrunners kept me informed of your progress, before enemy forces closed in. It is true that you are not yet an experienced leader, but you seem to have good potential. You responded excellently during the Mundane attack on the Zombie Master's castle.'
'Your spies saw that? I thought you had no knowledge of what happened there!'
The King laughed. 'It is wise for a King to have greater information than he allows others to be aware of. My spies could not approach near the battle itself. But there were reports of a man answering your description making a deal with monsters, and something about green sashes, and of course the message I received from the Dragon King. I inferred that you knew what you were doing. I really do not have firsthand information, however-which is why I was eager to have your report.'
But the King had pretty good secondhand information! King Roogna resembled King Trent in certain fundamental ways. Perhaps all kings had an inherent similarity. There was something about them. Perhaps it was a special aspect of maturity.
'One day you will understand, Dor,' Roogna said. 'It is evident that your land is grooming you for the office, and in this way I can to a certain extent repay you for your services to me. You should make a creditable king, with proper experience.'
Dor doubted that, but didn't argue. He didn't follow how doing another service for King Roogna constituted Roogna's repayment to him for a prior service. If this were adult logic, he certainly fell short of it.
The groundfish poked its head out of the ground at their feet. The King reached down to take the wadded paper from its mouth. 'Thank you, courier,' he said. 'You may return to your pond for some refreshment now.' He spread out the paper, frowning. 'This is from the Zombie Master himself. Your marked path is good, but they are now surrounded by goblins and cannot proceed.'
'How far are they?'
'Just beyond the antenna grove.'
An image of himself fighting his dearest friend came to him. What a horror! 'If any goblins bother the center of that grove-'
'They are too canny for that. They are waiting for the zombies to clear the grove, before taking any action.'
'Why do the goblins care about the zombies? It's the harpies they're fighting, isn't it?'
'An excellent point. The zombies should be able to march on unmolested. Unless something is wrong.'
'And obviously something is wrong,' Dor said. 'I'm beginning to get annoyed at Magician
