The Dragon At War

by Gordon R. Dickson

  He dreamed that he heard a deep booming noise. No, even in his dream, he decided it was not just a noise, it was the voice of a dragon speaking to him. But what dragon… ?

  He opened his eyes.

  Standing over him were three large dragons, one even larger than the rest. The largest one was also darker of skin; and had, Jim thought, although he could not pin down why, a vaguely sadistic look. It was this dragon that was speaking to him.

  "—Well, dragon?" the largest dragon was saying. "You are in our France, and you are English. Where's your passport?"

  "But I'm not—" Jim was stopped by the sound of his own voice, which was not the sound of his own voice but the booming sound of his voice when he was in his dragon shape. He suddenly became aware of something. He was indeed in his dragon shape. The cloak and the clothing that had covered him were scattered around him. Once again, something magical had happened without reason.

  He struggled to his feet, feeling absurdly awkward in his dragon shape.

  "You don't understand," he began. "I—"

  "We aren't here to understand," boomed the large dragon, who was almost as large as Jim himself. "We know who and what you are. You are the george-dragon who deals in magic. You were here once before; but that time you had a passport. You'd better have a passport with you now, too!"

  "But what I'm trying to explain—" Jim began.

  He was cut off by the sound of a new voice, a familiar voice, even though it was a dragon voice. It was somewhat higher than the voice of any of the other dragons in the room, including himself.

  "Did your ambassadorship want your passport now, or later?" asked the voice from behind the three dragons.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The three spun around, revealing—of all individuals—Secoh, the mere-dragon, the stunted result of many dragon generations who had been blasted by the Dark Powers in the Loathly Tower, on the mere that was their home area. Right now, however, it was not his size that was important but the fact that he was holding a large, bulging leather bag. He had an innocent look on his face.

  "Your honor told me to keep your passport until I was called for it," said Secoh, still innocently, "but I was afraid of being responsible for it all by myself all night long. So I was just bringing it to you—"

  Jim was not slow to take the hint.

  "Of course!" he boomed, shoving his way between two of the dragons.

  He took the bag from Secoh and was agreeably surprised at its weight. If anything it was larger and heavier than the passport he had carried before. He held it out; and the largest dragon took it, loosening the thong that held its top shut and pouring some of the gems out into his great horny palm to look at them. The first one out was the enormous pearl that was Secoh's only treasure and heirloom. But the diamonds, rubies and emeralds behind it were equally large and fascinating.

  The biggest dragon poured the gems back in the pouch, tightened its top and looked suspiciously down at Secoh.

  "Who are you? Where'd you come from? Or are you the george-dragon who deals in magic?"

  "Oh, no," said Secoh. "I just happened to step through the door just now. I'm a mere assistant to his ambassadorship here, who's come to save your lives."

  Save their lives? Jim thought fast.

  "Yes!" he boomed; and the three turned back to face him. "I am the dragon you thought me to be. I am also the magician you thought me to be. Behold!"

  He wrote the proper spell on the inside of his forehead, and was instantly back in his shape as a human—unfortunately completely naked now. He snatched up his cloak and wrapped it around him. Not only because he thought that it gave him a certain amount of dignity; but because it was cold in the room. Outside the window it was night and blackness was all that could be seen. A rush-light, possibly brought in by one of the obviously French dragons, was illuminating the room.

  "My assistant is only too correct," he went on. His human voice was much more high-pitched and less impressive than his dragon one; but, nonetheless, he could see his human form producing a strong impression on the three dragons. Like most people and most dragons he had met, these seemed to feel an immediate sense of awe and caution on facing a magician. If he actually was a worker of magic, Jim could see them thinking, what might he not do, besides what they had just seen him do?

  "How did you three get in here?" he went on fiercely, seizing the advantage. "Here in this inn in the heart of a city belonging to georges?"

  The three French dragons shuffled their feet.

  "Well, you see—Mage," said the large one, awkwardly, after a moment, "we have an arrangement with this innkeeper. He brings in cloths of a strange, soft material, and other things that you—er—that georges prize highly, from far in the east; and the wagons bringing it to him pass through some very open territory. We've guaranteed the safe passage of those wagons, in return for some casks of wine; which he sends out by the wagonload for us, every so often. Because we need to talk to him from time to time, he made doors in the roof of this wooden box of his, so we could get in. And that's how we got in tonight."

  "He didn't happen to send you a message that he needed you?" asked Jim. "He didn't tell you to come here tonight?"

  The three shuffled their feet a little more.

  "Yes," admitted the largest French dragon finally. "He said there might be an English dragon coming in without a passport."

  "He knows that much about dragons, does he?" demanded Jim. "That a dragon from England would need a passport to come to France?"

  "Yes, Mage," said the large dragon, and added hastily, "but he doesn't know what the passport is. We were too clever to tell him that."

  Jim reflected that if the word hadn't already gotten out that dragons used gems from their hoards to make up a "passport," then the human race was vastly less aware than he had thought it to be.

  "I see," he said. "Well, now that you know that I am here as an ambassador from all the dragons of England with a message for all the dragons of France, I must talk to your leaders immediately."

  "Mage, you know we don't have any leaders," said the large dragon. "But you could tell us. We all represent different parts of France. Mine name's Lethane, and I represent all the north and northwest of France right down to the sea. Iren, at my left here, represents the south coast and all the far south of France. And Reall, on the other side of me, represents all the rest."

  "Very well, I will!" said Jim ominously. "You all know of the sea serpents, little as France has been bothered by them because it is not an island country like our England."

  "The sea serpents know better than to bother us much," said Lethane.

  "Don't be so sure," said Jim. "In England no part of the island is far from the sea. You know as well as I do of the deadly hatred sea serpents have for all dragons; and you keep hoards which the serpents covet, like any other dragons. You'd better understand now that all of them, from all the seas, are planning to exterminate all dragons and get those hoards."

  There was a moment's uneasy silence from the three French dragons. Then Lethane spoke up again, a little sharply.

  "We are French dragons!" he said. "And admittedly our experience with these serpents is slight. But even if you're right about this, none of them have ever come more than a short way in from the coast, and that for a short time only. Yes, we know they hate us. We hate them. Still, Mage, you tell us this; but how do we know it's true?"

  All dragons, Jim knew, were difficult to rouse; but Lethane seemed more hard-headed even than most.

  "Would I be handing you a passport like that if the danger wasn't real?" Jim asked.

  "Well," said Lethane grudgingly, "it might be—for you. The serpents may be getting together to threaten your island; but it's beyond belief that they would dare attack France!"

  "You know they're capable of anything," said Jim. "You know they outnumber all the dragons in the world—at least twenty to one."

  He had pulled the ratio out of his imagination, but Lethane would not kn
ow the exact ratio either. He went on.

  "If they swarm over England, while your georges are busy keeping our English georges busy, they'll find, root out and slay every dragon there. Flushed with victory, and riches, do you think that they won't want to get even richer by attacking you? No! They will look immediately at France, and decide to plunder it."

  "They might not," said Reall, speaking up for the first time.

  "Would you stop, if you French dragons attacked them and wiped out a whole area of them?" asked Jim. Three pairs of eyes turned red. Of course, they wouldn't stop.

  "Besides," went on Jim, "as long as they keep winning, they'll go on attacking. They'll attack around the world like that. In the end, because there's so many of them to so few of us; and because, one on one, they are bigger and stronger than we are, there'll be no dragons left."

  "But, Mage—" began Lethane, and stopped, apparently at a loss for words.

  "Think about it," said Jim.

  They did. Obviously, they did. They stood looking at each other, closing their lids or turning their eyes inward, then opening their eyes to look at each other again. It was something much appreciated by dragons, the matter of thinking something over. Normally, the only danger was that they would go on thinking it over until it was too late for action.

  "In this case, the time is short," said Jim. "Your george King Jean hopes to sail against England soon; and the sea serpents will invade then. You've got little enough time, even now, to get the message back to your fellow French dragons and make them ready. You can tell them I've a plan by which the sea serpents may be turned back; without a drop of dragon blood being spilled. But, to make that plan work, the French dragons will have to fly over to England and join the English dragons in making a common front against the serpents!"

  "Oh, we couldn't do that!" said Reall, and looked up at Lethane.

  But he and Iren were silent.

  They hesitated for a long moment; then Lethane spoke up.

  "Mage," he said, "I don't think we can get that word to everybody and get together and get over to England in just a few weeks. We're not like you English, you know. We don't gather together to live, the way you do. We're scattered over the countryside, as your Mageness knows, though of course we can be pulled together by a message being passed. But we'll need to be able to tell them what this plan of yours is."

  "No!" said Jim. "I'll tell that to them only once they have committed themselves to going to England. And they will guarantee that commitment by handing back to me the equivalent of a passport—but it will have to hold not one, but at least five of the best gems from each dragon's hoard."

  "F-five?" stuttered Lethane. The two others seemed frozen in place, staring at Jim.

  "You heard me," said Jim.

  "But—but—that's impossible!" said the largest dragon. "I couldn't—none of us could part with our five best gems and risk our lives as well."

  "Then stay here," said Jim. "Leave the English dragons to defend themselves. And when there is not one English dragon left, then you and your five best gems apiece can stand alone to face the overwhelming horde of serpents from the sea!"

  There was another long moment of indecision in which the three dragons did nothing but look at each other.

  "How can we tell? How do we know—" The biggest dragon ran out of words again.

  "You have my own guarantee in your hand," said Jim. "Look at those gems. How many of you have even one gem that's their equal? All of those in that bag are of the same size and color and worth. Do you think I would be handing you something like this if the situation were not as desperate as I put it?"

  Once more, the large dragon slowly loosened the thong that bound the bag that held the passport; and poured the gems into one of his hands until the hand was filled with all it could hold.

  All three stared again at the diamonds, rubies and emeralds in his hand and audibly drew in their breaths. Clearly, they had never seen anything like this.

  The large dragon put the gems back, tightened the thong and looked at Jim.

  "Mage," he said, "I can promise you nothing. If we are going to be there by your side when the sea serpents come in, we will be there. I will be there, anyway! Otherwise—we'll have failed with the others."

  "That's all I need to hear," said Jim. "I well know, all our English dragons well know, the mettle of their French cousins, once aroused!"

  The three dragons straightened up and slightly spread their folded wings.

  "You need not remind us of that," said the large one. "We will do what we can. Farewell, Mage."

  They turned and went out, having to squeeze painfully through the small door of the room with their large bodies. When they were gone Jim closed the door behind them and turned to Secoh.

  "Now tell me," he said, "just how did you happen to turn up just at the right moment—and with that passport?"

  "Oh, Carolinus did it all—" Secoh broke off. "But I should start at the beginning, m'Lord."

  "Go ahead," said Jim resignedly. Secoh was being himself now, and showing off; by using the george term that underscored the fact he understood Jim merited "m'Lord" as an address.

  Secoh might be stunted and a mere-dragon; but he had all the ordinary dragon's usual ways, including a desire to start at the beginning of a story and work his way up to the climax, even if that made a long process out of something that could otherwise be pretty short.

  In this case, thought Jim, it would be uncharitable to hurry him; and besides, it was still dark outside, although he thought the darkness was beginning to pale a little bit—perhaps the night was getting on toward dawn. In any case Secoh should have his way, this once.

  "Tell me the story from the beginning then, Secoh," he said. As the other started talking, he took off his cloak and began to dress. There was no point in trying to go back to sleep now.

  "Well, I heard Carolinus had been ill but was at your castle and getting better and I thought I might just go see him," said Secoh earnestly. "I admire the Mage very much; and as a fellow Companion with you and him, I thought—"

  "Quite all right, Secoh," said Jim, pulling on his hose. "Go ahead."

  "Well, anyway, I went," said Secoh. "By the time I got there Carolinus was already much better; and you, Giles, Brian and Dafydd had already left. After congratulating Carolinus on regaining his health, I asked about the rest of you, and he told me that your destination was France and that you had already gone.

  " 'Without a passport?' I asked.

  " 'Passport? What passport?' he said to me," Secoh went on, "and I explained to him that you couldn't possibly go into France, being a dragon as well as a Mage, without having a passport from your own community of dragons here in England—that passport to be the best gem from each dragon's hoard. And no dragon liked to part with any gem from his hoard, let alone the best one. It was very hard for you and I to get it from them the last time."

  " 'Well, that's no problem!' said the Mage. You know that snappish way of talking he has?"

  "I do indeed," said Jim.

  " 'Well, that's no problem,' he said," Secoh went on. " 'You just fly up there and tell them I said they were to give you the gems, right away!'

  " 'But, Mage,' I said, 'they won't just give up their gems that quickly or that easily. Even if you went up there yourself and argued with them, it still might lake several days. We were just lucky, the last time, the Lord James and I, to get our passport when we went before.'

  " 'Oh, they will, will they? I'll just—' and then he stopped, suddenly, just like that," said Secoh. "And then he said, No, why go to all that bother? I'll make you a passport. How many gems should there be in it, and what size should they be? All kinds, I suppose?'

  " 'There are eighty-seven dragons old enough to have collected hoards; so we need eighty-seven gems. Almost as big as this.' " Secoh held out two claws several inches apart. "And also I showed him my pearl, for size and beauty, which I happened to carry always with me, for safety."

  J
im was now dressed and unconsciously tapping the toe of his right shoe on the floor of the room in impatience.

  "Well, to make a long story short," said Secoh hurriedly, "he made the gems; but after he had them done he said it needed one real gem in with them to make them come alive—and indeed, they were kind of dull until he added my pearl to them. Then they seemed to glitter the way you saw them do, just now. So, that's what I brought to France to be your passport; and that's what you handed over to… Lethane, I think his name was."

  "Oh, and by the way," added Secoh, "the Mage said that the gems would 'evaporate'—I don't know exactly what that means. Sort of go away, I understand, in thirty days; so we have to have them back at that time."

  "Hmm," said Jim. "I'm really cheating the French dragons, as well as falsely representing my own community of the Cliffside dragons."

  "Well, yes," said Secoh. "But you'd have to go back to England with me to get the real passport. Even if they'd give it to you a second time."

  "True," said Jim, frowning.

  "Anyway," went on Secoh, "then Carolinus told me where to find you and he was just about to send me, when he said, 'No, wait! Stay with me. I'll tell you when it's time for me to send you over to them.' "

  "Ah," said Jim. "He must have scented that something was going to happen; and that someone might interfere with his magic."

  "Oh, he did. I'm sure of it," said Secoh. "He may not have known exactly what, but he knew something would happen. Anyway, I waited with him until he suddenly said, 'Now you go!' and all of a sudden I found myself outside your door, here. So I came in."

  "Did he tell you to say to the French dragons that I was an ambassador?'

  "Yes, he did," said Secoh, brightening. "I forgot that part."

  "Well, thank you," said Jim. "All his magic and my magic wouldn't have done the trick, if it hadn't been for you coming in at just the right moment and saying just the right things."

  "Oh, thank you, m'Lord!" said Secoh.

  "So, we now have something stirring with the French dragons—something I hadn't counted on before. It might pay off," said Jim. "The only trouble is the fact that your pearl is one of the gems that Lethane carried off with him."