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move or make a sound. Now the voice, Mnrogar's voice from the box, went on.
" I am Mnrogar, and I go where I will. None wait to face me. Sometimes I have
gone far afield to see if there was not another troll who would not run at
sight or scent of me "
"Still the thing!" said the chain-bound Mnrogar himself, suddenly and
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harshly. "I will speak!"
Jim hastily shut the lid of the box, which was still talking, clipping off
the voice from it in mid-syllable.
"I was far from here once," said Mnrogar. "I smelled a female, her scent
mixed with that of a human. I went to it, found her den, at least two days
empty. But lying just outside it, almost dead but not moving, was a small
human. A young human.
"I was not hungry. I watched it a little while and it tried to crawl to me. I
was not hungry. I picked it up and brought it back here with me. Here to my
own den "
He stared at the Earl.
" And you know where that den is."
The Earl said nothing.
"On my own land here there are deer, swine, rabbits, many things. Here I have
never been hungry. I offered food to the little human, but it could not eat as
I eat. But living here, I have come to know humans. I went upstairs at night
when all were asleep and brought down their kind of food, and water. This she
ate. In time she became strong. The female had not known how to feed her. She
had taken the small one to replace a pup of her own which had died but it had
been no use. This human pup could not eat the fresh meat she threw to it. It
would not follow her when she went out of the den to hunt. It was weak and
useless. She left it.
"I was wiser. I fed it and kept it. The little her grew. She would hide a
small piece of rock, then tug and pull at me to look for it until I found it.
Then, she would give it to me to hide, so she could find it. It came to me I
liked finding her there when I came back from hunting.
"But in time she ceased eating, and grew thin again. I took her back to her
own human place, not far from that female's den and left her there before
sunrise. Then I came back here."
He stopped speaking so abruptly that it was a moment before those in the room
realized that he was actually done.
"This is all very well," said the Bishop. But he spoke in a somewhat less
loud and angry tone of voice. "The fact remains that this troll before us said
he smelled another troll among those who would have been in the stands this
morning; but the only one he smelled out was Lady Agatha. If Lady Agatha is
not a troll, or has no troll blood, how does she come to smell like a troll?"
The question hung on the air of the room, it seemed to Jim, like the single
strand of hair that had been tied to the hilt of the sword hanging directly
above the head of Damocles as that unhappy courtier at the court of King
Dionysius sat in his chair at a banquet. He looked at Carolinus for help; but
Carolinus's face was expressionless and unhelpful. Then the memory of the
suspended sword gave Jim a sudden inspiration.
"Lady Agatha," he said, "your nurse has told us that you were very attached
to a piece of stone after you had returned to your family home and carried it
with you constantly. Would you happen to have it with you now?"
Agatha Falon glared at him.
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"What matter to you whether I have or not?" she snapped.
"Don't be a fool!" said Angie. "He's trying to help you and this troll."
"If you've got it," said Jim, "may I see it?"
Agatha did nothing for a moment and said nothing. Then she reached into the
purse at her belt, and brought out something that appeared to be somewhat
smaller than a tennis ball. For a moment it seemed as if she would throw it
overhand with some force directly at Jim; then her arm dropped and she merely
tossed it to him.
He caught it in one hand, holding the box safely on his knees with the
other but still it stung the skin of his palm. It was heavy and hard; and this
in spite of the fact that it seemed to be completely covered by a thick
matting of some fine finely tangled material.
Jim put it close to his nose and sniffed at it. Then he passed it to Brian.
"Don't say anything out loud just yet, Sir Brian," he said, "but would you
smell that?"
Brian took the object, his eyebrows raising. He put it to his nose, and then
lowered it and looked at Jim.
"Did you ever remember running into that odor before?" asked Jim.
"I do," said Brian. "It was the stink we ran into in the den of this troll
here, below the castle, when we went down to remonstrate with him at Mage
Carolinus's command."
"Yes," said Jim, taking the rounded, heavy ball back from him. "That was what
came to my mind when I smelled it, too. By its weight I would judge it indeed
to be rock; and it has become completely covered with something that smells
strongly of troll. As everyone can see, though I think all here knew it
before, trolls have a sort of fine hair or fur all over them; and no doubt
they shed this either at certain seasons or regularly, like other furred
creatures. I remember noticing this hair clinging to all the lower surfaces in
the den; and eighteen hundred years of shedding by Mnrogar could account for
it. If this rock came from there, it would be covered and smell of troll so
strongly this is only a guess on my part "
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