“I have already explained—“
“Stop explaining!” Abernathy was suddenly livid. “Stop being rational! Stop being passive! Stop standing around waiting for me to make this decision all by myself!”
“But it is your decision to make, Abernathy—not mine. You know that.”
“I know nothing of the sort! I know nothing at all! I am sick and tired of being ignorant of what is happening in my life! All I want is to be able to go back to the way things were, and I am not being allowed to do that! I am still being required to perform, just as I was when we appeared at that Bumble-whatever festival, only the audience isn’t anyone we can see! Why should I agree to go along with this? It would be better just to sit down and refuse to do another thing!”
“Doing nothing is the same as doing something!” Questor was growing a bit heated himself. “A choice is made either way!”
Abernathy clenched his hands in fury. “So it still comes down to the same thing, doesn’t it? A choice must be made one way or the other, even if the choice is not really a choice at all?”
“You are babbling!”
“I am trying to make sense!”
Questor Thews sighed. “Why don’t we eat some breakfast and then perhaps—“
“Oh, forget it! I’m going back!”
“—things will be a little easier.” The wizard caught his breath sharply. “What did you say?”
Abernathy struggled to keep his voice from breaking. “I said I am going back! I want you to use the magic to change me!” He grimaced at the look on the other’s ragged face and was suddenly calm. “It isn’t so difficult a decision, Questor Thews. When this matter is over and done, I have to be able to live with myself. If I am required to be a dog again, I can adjust. I can accept it knowing that I did everything I could to help the High Lord and his family. But if I stay a man and learn later that by changing to a dog I could have saved their lives… well, you can imagine.”
He cleared his throat. “Besides, I swore an oath.” For a long moment he looked to be the saddest man who ever lived. “I am Court Scribe to the throne of Landover and pledged to serve her King. I am bound to serve in whatever way I can. I might wish it otherwise just now, but I cannot change the fact of it.”
Questor Thews stared. The old eyes were fierce. “You really are quite remarkable,” the wizard said softly. “Really.”
Impulsively, he wrapped his arms about his friend and hugged him, whiskers rubbing roughly into Abernathy’s smooth skin. “Well,” Abernathy said in reply, overcome by the other’s response. He tried to shrug his indifference. “Really, yourself.”
They went up to the house to have breakfast with Elizabeth. The three of them sat at the little kitchen table, crowded over bowls of cereal and milk. Mrs. Ambaum bustled about officiously for a few moments as if attempting to supervise in some way, then gave up trying and disappeared out the front door with a promise to be back by noon.
As soon as she was gone, Elizabeth said, “Dad is coming home tonight, flying in from New York.”
“So Mrs. Ambaum informed us,” Questor advised.
He did not look at Abernathy. His friend was eating with his head bent close over the bowl and his hand to his forehead.
“We have to make up a new story,” Elizabeth continued. Her curly hair was damp from washing, and her face was freshly scrubbed. “It won’t be hard. We’ll just say that Mrs. Ambaum got it wrong, and that you…”
But Questor was already shaking his head. “No, Elizabeth. That won’t be necessary. Abernathy and I are leaving.”
“Leaving? When?”
Questor smiled sadly. “Right away. As soon as we finish eating.”
Disappointment showed immediately. “You found a way to go back, didn’t you?” Questor nodded, “Last night.” She bit her lip. She looked at Abernathy, brow furrowed. “But you only just got here. Can’t you stay another day or so? Maybe I can—“