Labyrinth (14 page)

This was more than Ludo could stand to see. With a great roar of anger he set about Sir Didymus. The tiny knight responded vigorously, with lunge and thrust. Deft footwork danced him out of reach of Ludo’s massive swipes. Sir Didymus made adroit use of the terrain, skipping on and off the parapet of the pier, tripping nimbly along the very brink of the bog. As for Ludo, he had no finesse, but his ire and the strength of his bulk kept him shuffling after his adversary, ignoring the bruises that were inflicted upon him. Had just one of Ludo’s blows landed, it would have been enough to knock Sir Didymus clean over the bog.

While the fight went on and on, Hoggle craftily seized his opportunity to scuttle across the bridge. Sarah watched him with dismay. He was just looking after himself again. There was little that he, or she, could do to assist, but she felt strongly that they owed Ludo their moral support.

Bits of the bridge fell off as Hoggle pounded over it. The whole structure shook and rattled.

At least Hoggle had the decency to stop, when he reached the far bank, and watch the rest of the epic battle. Sarah had expected him to vanish into the forest. Perhaps she was winning the battle with Hoggle’s thick skin. Gradually, she was getting through to him.

The present battle was still locked. Holding her nose, Sarah cheered Ludo on, but there was no sign of victory for either side. Sir Didymus swung his staff, Ludo grabbed it and wrenched. Instead of being disarmed, Sir Didymus clung on, and was carried up into the air, legs kicking. Ludo lost hold of the twisting stick, and Sir Didymus thudded to the ground. He was up and at it again like a rubber ball, thwacking away at Ludo’s shaggy legs.

Surprised by the minuscule martinet’s ferocity, Ludo stood off for a moment, whereupon Sir Didymus took the opportunity to dive between his opponent’s legs, crawl up his tail, as though storming a battlement, and belabor the back of Ludo’s head. With a jerk of his neck, Ludo threw Sir Didymus clean over his head, then peered left and right for his plucky opponent, who was holding on to Ludo’s whiskers and dangling beneath his chin. Ludo felt an itch and raised his hand to scratch it. He got Sir Didymus’s teeth in his finger. With a howl, Ludo flicked his hand. Sir Didymus was shaken off and flew through the air until he hit the cliff. He was bouncing back in a trice, buzzing with the chance all this was giving him at last to prove his mettle.

Now Ludo had found a log and was crashing it down at Sir Didymus, but it was like trying to swat a fly with a club. All it did was make pits in the shoal. Sir Didymus took cover under the exposed roots of a mangy tree. Ludo advanced and brought the log down with such force that he smashed the roots and the tree keeled over.

For a moment, there was a stillness. Ludo gaped. He had killed the little knight. He sighed, feeling wretched, till Sir Didymus darted out of a hole in the trunk of the tree.

Both of them were exhausted by now. Sir Didymus’s legs were too tired to risk getting close enough to wound Ludo. Ludo could not swipe fast enough to hit Sir Didymus.

Eventually it was the diminutive chevalier who leaped back into his position on the bridge, raised his staff,
sans peur et sans reproche
, and gasped, “Enough! Thou fightest as a true and valiant knight.”

Ludo gratefully accepted the truce. He sat down on his haunches, panting, and when he had recovered his breath he used it to bellow, “S-M-M-E-L-L-L-L!”

Sir Didymus regarded him with admiration. “Before this day,” quoth he, “Never have I met my match in combat.” He smiled ruefully at Sarah. “Yet this noble knight has fought me to a standstill, quite.”

Sarah’s concern was all for Ludo. “Are you all right?” she asked him tenderly. “Ludo?”

Ludo was still recovering. “Uhhh …”

Sir Didymus marched, wearily but still smartly, to confront his equal in combat. “Sir Ludo, if that be thy name,” he declared. “Here I yield my staff to thee.” He held it out before him.

Ludo glanced at the staff without much interest. He was preparing to utter yet another howl about the stench, in the hope that someone could do something about it. He opened his mouth.

Sir Didymus continued his speech. “Let us be brothers henceforth, and fight for the right as one.”

Ludo’s mouth remained open, but he postponed the howl. His face, beaming, came down to regard Sir Didymus. “Ludo — get — brother?”

The pocket-sized poursuivant, bushy tail erect, went to clap his brother-in-arms on the shoulder, which he could just reach since Ludo was almost prone. “Well met, Sir Ludo.”

“Ludo — sir?”

Sarah thought she would soon die if she had to go on breathing in the fetid air. She was trying not to breathe at all. Seeing that the two noble knights had apparently reached a satisfactory agreement, she said, “Good. Come on, then.”

She made for the bridge, but Sir Didymus was there before her, blocking the way. “Hold!” he cried. “You forget my sacred vow, milady. I cannot let you pass.”

It wasn’t possible. Sarah thought she might pick the little figure up and hurl him far into the bog. But he had raised his staff again and was holding it toward her. “Oh …” She made a noise of frustration through her pinched nose. “You said Ludo was your brother. Surely in that case …”

Sir Didymus replied with a firm shake of his head. “I have taken an oath. I must defend it to the death.”

“SMELL!” Ludo bayed.

Sarah closed her eyes and gave it some thought. “Okay,” she said, “let’s handle this thing logically. What exactly have you sworn?”

Sir Didymus raised his staff high above his head and gazed up at it devoutly. “With my lifeblood have I sworn, that none shall pass this way without my permission.”

Sarah nodded. “Ah,” she said, and considered the point. “Then,” she asked slowly, “may we have your permission?”

Complete silence followed her question. Sir Didymus was thunderstruck. He tried looking at the proposition from one side, then from the other. He turned it upside down and inside out. He went away from it and came back to take a fresh look at it. No matter how he tried it, he could see no flaw in what Sarah had suggested. Finally, he shrugged, drew himself up straight, and delivered his considered conclusion. “Yes.”

“Good,” Sarah said, trying not to breathe deeply with relief. “Shall we go?” She gestured past Sir Didymus to the bridge. At the far side of it she could see Hoggle still waiting.

Sir Didymus executed a gallant bow, and offered her the bridge with a flourish of his hand. “Milady.”

“Well, thank you, noble sir,” Sarah said, and stepped onto the rickety bridge.

The moment Sarah’s foot landed on the bridge, the whole structure creaked and settled down a couple of inches. She jumped off again quickly.

“Have no fear, sweet madam,” Sir Didymus reassured her. “This bridge has stood a thousand years.”

Sarah looked warily at the bridge. “I just hope it stands another five minutes.” She put her foot on it again and felt it sway beneath her. Gingerly, with a hand held out for Ludo to grab it if need be, she put her whole weight on the bridge. It settled again, with a noise like a very dry hinge. A couple of fragments fell off, with a puff of dust, and plopped into the bubbling bog.

One hand on the rickety handrail, the other arm outstretched like a tightrope walker, Sarah advanced a step, then another. There were noises of squeaking and cracking at every movement she made. Behind her she heard a dull splash. A stone in the pier, loosened by her weight, had fallen. She felt the plank beneath her feet give another inch. The only thing that made her go on was the certainty that she had no alternative.

Sir Didymus, in contrast, had no qualms. He was giving no more thought to the bridge, in fact. His brain was glowing with the prospect of, at last, submitting himself to the supreme test of the chivalric code — a quest. He had no idea what these people’s purpose was, but it was clear that they must have one, from the sense of urgency that his trained eye had detected in the damsel. It was, moreover, a purpose of such high import that her courtiers were willing to engage in unarmed combat with a warrior such as himself in order to achieve it. His skin tingled and his eyes flashed as he turned to Ludo, and said, “Since thou art my brother, I will come with thee whate’er thy quest. Lead on!” With a little bow and a flourish of his hand, he invited Ludo to follow Sarah across the bridge.

Ludo shook his head. “Ludo — wait!”

And even as Ludo eyed the bridge suspiciously, another large chunk of masonry crumbled out of the pier and rolled into the bog. The bridge suddenly sagged and swayed. Sarah grabbed hold of the handrail with both hands. Other stones and loose cement were falling from the pier. In the middle of the shaking, sinking bridge, Sarah was stranded. She looked around in horror, saw that the whole thing was collapsing, and made a run for it to the other side.

Too late. With a screeching, rending noise, the rotten timbers gave way beneath her. The vile muck bubbled over the edges of the planks in front of her. Sarah leaped for an overhanging branch of an ailing, leafless tree beside the bridge and managed to get both hands onto it. Swinging there, looking down at the crust of scum bubbling beneath her feet, and at the remains of the bridge floating on the bog, she moaned at the thought of being stained and stinking forever. With each swing she heard the branch tearing away from its trunk. “Help!” she cried pitifully. “Ludo! Hoggle! Sir Didymus! Help! Do something!”

Sir Didymus was transfixed. His bridge had been erased from the landscape. It took him a little time to accustom himself to the new view, and a little more to accept that the role he had always played so devoutly had now been abolished. Then he remembered that he had just dedicated himself to these people’s quest.

“Fear not, fair maiden,” he called out to Sarah. “I will rescue thee.” He looked around giddily for the means. “Somehow,” he called, encouragingly.

Sarah, feet swinging, hearing the branch splitting, gurgled, “Help!”

Sir Didymus held his staff out toward Sarah. It bridged about a thirtieth of the gap between them. “Here!” he shouted.

Hoggle, on the far bank, just closed his eyes.

Ludo sat back on his haunches, threw back his head, opened his huge mouth and howled ten times more loudly than he had when the goblins had been tormenting him.

Sir Didymus gaped round at the amazing noise. “By the saints in their stockings!” he exclaimed. “Can I believe my ears?”

Sarah felt the branch starting to lower her and screamed, but none of the others could hear her above Ludo’s earth-shaking roar.

Sir Didymus was shocked. “Sir Ludo, my brother!” he said reproachfully. “Art thou the manly knight I fought e’en now? Canst thou sit by and do no more than howl when yon damsel stands in need of our most gallant assistance?”

“HOOOOOWWWWWLL!” Ludo continued.

Sarah’s feet were by now wriggling only inches above the khaki-colored slime. She bent her knees up to postpone the dreadful moment of contact, but she could feel that the branch was tearing its last fibers.

From the far side of the bog, a rumbling noise could be heard, growing louder as it approached. A huge rock was rolling itself across the ground. Hoggle, hearing the noise behind him, had to jump out of the way. The boulder went past him, slipped itself gently into the bog, and came to rest, breaking the surface, immediately underneath Sarah’s feet. As it arrived there, the branch cracked off the tree. Sarah landed on the dry rock, curled up and crumpled. She lay there sobbing with relief, but nearly asphyxiated by the stench a few inches from her nose.

Ludo’s howling had not been a cry of useless dismay. The stones of the earth had saved him not long since, when Sarah’s aim at the tormenting goblins’ helmets had proved so accurate. Now he was summoning them again.

Sir Didymus was openmouthed. He kept turning his head, looking from the boulder to Ludo and back again, unable to decide which element of the miracle more deserved his attention, cause or effect, brother or rock.

Ludo was not done. His head was still back, and he sustained his howling. This time he was answered by rocks dwelling beneath the mire. One by one they came to the surface, shedding the slime as though it were egg white. They stood themselves side by side, until they had created a perfectly flat causeway stretching from Sarah’s rock to each side of the bog.

Sarah stood up. She gazed at Ludo and shook her head in wonder. Then she smiled, gratefully blew him a kiss, and ran across the causeway to the far shore, where Hoggle held out his hand to help her onto the dry ground.

“Oh!” Sir Didymus sighed in a low, respectful voice, and looked ardently at this most potent knight, the flower of chivalry, his brother. In almost a whisper, he asked, “Canst thou then summon up the very rocks, Sir Ludo?”

“Rocks — friends.” Ludo stood up, and charged joyfully across his causeway to rejoin Sarah.

“Sir Ludo!” Sir Didymus called after him. “Wait for me.” He did not want to lose this noble company. He looked around and barked out, “Ambrosius! My noble steed!”

From behind a tree a woolly Old English sheepdog poked his nose warily out. When he saw that it was safe, he trotted obediently up to his master, panting in anticipation.

Sarah, waiting on the far side of the bog, was incredulous when she saw Ambrosius. He was the identical twin of Merlin (who, she thought glumly, was probably still confined to the garage). “That’s your steed?” she called to Sir Didymus.

“Indeed it is,” Sir Didymus called back, mounting up. “And no knight has one better — fleet and surefooted in battle, loyal and obedient in peaceful times, he is a flawless mount. Except when he sees a cat.” He squeezed Ambrosius in the ribs with his heels. “Onward,” he commanded.

Ambrosius carried him at a trot over the causeway. There, Sir Didymus dismounted and led his steed, walking beside Sarah and Ludo. The valiant knight was agog to hear how perilous their quest was to be, but he contained his impatience like the perfect gentleman that he was.

Sarah looked around for Hoggle. The dwarf was still hanging around the edge of the bog. Could he have gotten to like it there? “Come on, Hoggle,” Sarah called.