The Dragon At War

by Gordon R. Dickson

  "They haven't!" said Carolinus. "Check with Rrrnlf when he wakes up, if you want. But I've lived long enough, and had enough to do with those in the sea, to know that the sea serpents, particularly when they're alone, are not all that brave where it means going into strange territory. Which is what all 'high land' is to them."

  "Second question, then, Sir John," said Jim. "Do you think the full army is gathered by now?"

  "It should be," said Chandos, "except for those who come from Northumberland, or from some of the deeper parts of Wales."

  "And you think what is formed right now would take about a day and a half or two, to get here?"

  "Yes," said Chandos, a slight frown between his eyes. "What's the importance of having them here? Aside from the fact that if this serpent—this Essess-something—is going to come here, so I take it you mean that other serpents will come along with him? I'm not so sure his Highness, the Crown Prince, and the captains of the army, will be so eager to put their fighting men against the serpents here at this spot, merely to save your castle."

  "No," said Jim, "I don't think so either. But that wasn't what I had in mind. What I'd like them to do would be to march down and around, and get behind the serpents; who, a day and a half from now, should certainly be surrounding the castle. The serpents may be great in numbers, but they're built low to the ground, and they haven't any war engines to assault walls like ours. Also, I wouldn't judge they're built to climb the walls, smooth as those are, with just those small, stubby legs of theirs. We could last for some time, even with thousands of serpents camped around us."

  "But you said you wanted the army to march around and get behind the serpents. Why?" demanded Chandos.

  "Because," said Jim, "they'll then be between the serpents and the sea. We'll have to wait until Rrrnlf wakes up to get a firm answer to this; but I believe the sea serpents, being sea creatures, may well be inclined to panic if they think their escape to the sea is threatened."

  "What's all this to do with us dragons?" demanded Egnoth.

  "Well, picture it for yourself," said Jim. "The sea serpents come ashore on dry land, which is not their usual home; and then they discover all of a sudden an army of georges is behind them, between them and their escape to the sea. At the same time—imagine this from the north—the sky begins to fill with wave after wave of dragons on wing; and at the same time, from the south and east, the sky there also begins to fill with wave on wave of dragons on wing from France. Until the two waves meet overhead; and they find themselves with an army blocking their way of escape and more dragons overhead than they ever knew existed."

  Jim finished speaking on a note of triumph. To his intense surprise, what he had just said was greeted merely with a complete silence on the part of everyone, knights and dragons alike.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Jim chilled. He was afraid he knew exactly what he had done wrong. Countless times he had told himself that when dealing with fourteenth-century inhabitants on this world he should never spring anything on them.

  These people had good reason not to want things sprung on them. In this place and time, mistakes in decision could kill you. Even apparently harmless wrong decisions could kill you. Like planting the wrong crop, planting a little too early or a little too late. Taking the wrong way home could kill you; because it might lead you either past a robber—and robbers of this world routinely killed their victims first, as the simplest way of making sure that those victims didn't put up a fuss while being robbed—or some large and dangerous animal that could end your life.

  This world, in short, was full of pitfalls. No one leaped without looking first. Even children knew that what appeared to be good luck should be looked over cautiously and examined from every angle before being accepted for what it seemed.

  Jim winced at the faces around him; then felt his heart suddenly bound upward with relief, as he saw Chandos looking back at him from the other side of Angie. The senior knight had little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and a hint of a smile at the corners of his lips.

  "An excellent plan of battle, m'Lord," he said. "But I see only one minor problem. How is it to be told to the captains of the army, who are no small distance from us, over land which may be filled with sea serpents?"

  Jim had literally not thought about this. Or rather, he had thought of it, but assumed that there would be an easy way of getting around it.

  "And, furthermore," went on Chandos, "even when the message is carried to them, can you be sure that the captains will agree to move the army as you suggest?"

  This was something Jim had not thought of at all.

  He had forgotten medieval commanders all had minds of their own; and it was seldom any two of them agreed. Each leader was used to being the only leader. If only the young Crown Prince of England was old and experienced enough to dominate his captains, Jim was fairly sure he would agree to a plan coming from Jim; since it was Jim and the others who had rescued him from the rogue French magician, Malvinne. But the Prince was not old enough yet.

  Jim decided to take the easiest question first.

  "Well," he said, "to answer you, Sir John, I don't myself have the magical ability to send someone to where the army is now. But I was hoping—" He looked at Carolinus, who stared back at him with a determinedly set face.

  "Jim," he said, "you must learn something, once and for all. You cannot be a spendthrift with magic. Now, compared to yourself, I must look like a wealthy noble compared to some serf toiling at his meager strips of personal earth; but—"

  He broke off suddenly; and Jim realized that his alarm was showing in his face.

  "Don't worry about the others," Carolinus said. "They see our lips moving, but they can't hear me nor you, until I let them."

  "I—I don't understand," said Jim awkwardly.

  "I mean simply you've had one problem from the very beginning, when it became apparent you had a magical balance with the Accounting Office," answered Carolinus.

  "But—" began Jim. Carolinus's voice overrode his.

  "Listen to me," said the senior magician. "You gained that balance by sheer accident; by coming from another place, not of this world, and leading your Companions to a defeat of the Dark Powers. You'll remember that when you allowed that balance to lie, unused, it began changing you into a dragon, whether you wanted it to or not. So, you had to come to me, become my apprentice, and start to learn something of magic in order to control what you had."

  "True," acknowledged Jim, humbly.

  "However," said Carolinus, lifting a stem finger and holding it upright as in warning, "once you began to have some control over your magical account, you immediately used it all up, and I had to come to your rescue. The upshot of that, you'll remember, was that I managed to get you promoted to a C level magician, with a special extra drawing account. I'd remind you now there are reasons for not allowing low-ranking, inexperienced magicians to have access to a great deal of magic. One of them is that an inexperienced magician could misuse a great deal of power to make a great deal of harm. You haven't done that; but you've already exhausted your extra credit, or nearly so."

  "But you—" began Jim.

  "As I say," Carolinus interrupted, "you look on me as the serf looks on the noble. You know I have vast amounts of magic at my disposal, compared to yours. But a thing can be large without being unlimited. A dragon's hoard may be fabulous, but it is not all the wealth in the world. It could all be spent. Ask your friend Secoh about that after he and his kind were blighted by the Dark Powers in the Loathly Tower."

  Jim glanced at Secoh involuntarily. The mere-dragon, like all the rest there, was watching their silently moving lips puzzledly.

  "So," Carolinus said, "in short, I must save what I have left; so that I've adequate reserves with which to do battle with this other, unknown magician. While I easily could use some to transport your messenger to the army, I must refuse. You'll have to find some other way of doing it."

  Jim sat, stunned. Then
he became aware that the others were all looking at the two of them and talking; and that the others had been allowed by Carolinus to hear his last two sentences.

  "If the Mage won't send someone," Secoh was saying, "how are we going to get a message to them? True, one of us dragons could fly to the army, for its gathering place is no secret to us. But would they listen to a dragon, of all people, who asked them to move their whole george army?"

  "You're quite right, of course, Secoh," said Jim soothingly.

  "I wouldn't ask one of you dragons to go. Of the rest of us, all but one are georges of some reputation, but not such that the leaders of the English army would listen to us."

  He looked at Chandos.

  "Sir John," he said, "the only one of us who stands a chance of persuading the English captains to move the army around behind the serpents is yourself. You must know that."

  "In fact, I do," answered Chandos, "and it will be no easy task, even for a gentleman with some little repute, like myself. But while I am not without skill with weapons, I'm not sure whether I could pass safely through the land between this castle and the army, if I encounter one of the sea serpents. Nor am I sure that I could win through, even with as many men-at-arms as you could lend me for escort. Then again, there is a matter of the time involved in getting there."

  Jim found himself checked once more.

  "It's very simple," Angie's voice broke in decisively. "Rrrnlf will have to take him. Not only can Rrrnlf take him safely past any sea serpents that are in the way, Rrrnlf can carry him; and so cover the distance in very little time. Besides, their seeing Rrrnlf will back up Sir John's arguments."

  Jim stared at her in mingled awe and admiration. He had become used to her excellent management of the castle, to say nothing of the Malencontri estate as a whole, in times when he had been gone; but when she had joined them for this council of war he had not really thought of her as taking a decisive part in it. He was suddenly ashamed of himself.

  "It's an ideal solution, Angie!" he said. "Perfect!"

  Then, he thought of something else.

  "But will Rrrnlf do it?" he asked. "Remember, he doesn't want to leave here, because he's waiting for Essessili to show up, and he doesn't want to miss a chance at getting his Lady back."

  Help came from an unexpected quarter.

  "In that, since it is a small thing," said Carolinus, twisting the right wing of his mustache, "I believe I can aid."

  They adjourned to the courtyard.

  The sleeping Rrrnlf and the trussed-up sea serpent beside him—who seemed also to be sleeping, surprisingly enough—were an awesome sight. The two enormous bodies were such as to make Jim feel that he, and those with him, were just as "wee" as Rrrnlf was fond of calling them.

  "Wake up!" said Brian, kicking the nearest part of the huge Sea Devil's body, which happened to be the calf of his leg. Apparently, he could have just as well kicked a mountain. The toe of his dark blue, slipperlike footwear, that was considered to be shoes for those of gentle blood when they were not in armor or in some activity requiring boots, did not even dent the Sea Devil's flesh; and Rrrnlf went on sleeping.

  "I think I can wake him," said Angie. She pulled a pin from the back of her hair, so that the hair fell loose, and she shook it free for a second; then she walked around to Rrrnlf's feet and, bending over, drove the point of the pin into the tip of the big toe protruding from one of Rrrnlf's sandals.

  "Whup! What?" roared Rrrnlf, waking immediately and leaping to his feet, into a posture of defense, with both big hands ready to take action.

  There was a moment of bewildered silence all around. Rrrnlf had just awakened and did not know why. The humans at his feet were regaining their balance, after the ground shock caused by someone Rrrnlf's size suddenly going briefly up in the air and coming down with a thump on his feet next to them. Angie was the first to recover.

  "I woke you," she told Rrrnlf. "I had to stick a pin into your right big toe to do it. Isn't it sore?"

  "I don't think so," said Rrrnlf bewilderedly, reaching down to feel his right big toe. "Yes… maybe."

  He straightened up and looked down at them all.

  "Why?" he asked.

  "Because we need you," Angie said. "Jim, you tell him."

  "Never mind," said Carolinus decisively. "I'll take care of this. Rrrnlf, you are to carry Sir John Chandos across country to where the army is gathering. You are not to let anyone harm him on the way, particularly sea serpents."

  "Ha!" said Rrrnlf. "As if they could—with me carrying him. But, just a minute, wee Mage. I can't take your Sir John anywhere. Essessili is coming here. I have to wait for him."

  "Nonetheless," said Carolinus, "it is necessary that you take Sir John as I say. If Essessili comes while you're gone, we'll make sure he stays here until you get back. I shouldn't expect it to take you more than a day to go and come."

  "It wouldn't," said Rrrnlf. "But—all the same, wee Mage—I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do any such thing. I'm not going to take the chance of somehow missing my Lady; just because you asked me to carry someone someplace and so I was gone when that sea snake got here with her."

  "Rrrnlf!" said Carolinus; and, while he did not suddenly grow in stature to Rrrnlf's size, his voice suddenly resonated on the air as clearly and penetratingly as Rrrnlf's itself. "I will not say it again. I do not ask you, I command you to take Sir John to the army, by virtue of my rank as Master Magician."

  "I've already said, 'No'—"

  Rrrnlf disappeared; and his words were cut off in mid-sentence. Everyone there stared blankly at the empty space where he had been a moment before.

  "Where'd he go?" said Brian, turning around. "I don't see him—"

  "Don't move!" snapped Carolinus. "Don't any of you move your feet."

  He was now pointing at the ground almost at his own toes.

  They all looked, including Brian, who had to crane his head back over his shoulder to do so. What they saw in line with the pointing finger of Carolinus was a large black beetle—large, but not extraordinarily so. It was standing upright on its two hind legs, its middle two arms merely hanging, but its upper two arms extended and crooked as if they were powerful engines of bone and muscle with hands bigger than barn doors at the end of each of them.

  "Don't take that tone with me, sir!" said Carolinus, speaking to the beetle. "Mind your manners! You're a beetle; and you'll stay a beetle until I change you back to your original shape again. Do you hear me? Then say so!"

  There was a slight pause.

  "No, I will not have mercy!" said Carolinus. "A beetle you are and a beetle you'll stay until you are prepared to take Sir John to the army!"

  The next second Rrrnlf was back with them in all his thirty-odd feet of height, staring down in anguish at Carolinus.

  "Wee Mage!" he said, in anguished tones. "You will lose me my Lady—that is absolutely sure. I feel it."

  "Nonsense!" said Carolinus. "I give you my word, the word of a Mage, that you will have your Lady back from Essessili the moment he turns up with it. Now, let us decide how you are going to carry Sir John."

  It took a bit of discussion, and a bit of engineering on Jim's part, plus some work by the castle carpenters and blacksmith (during which Brian went back with Chandos into the castle to arm and armor the senior knight). But eventually they had built an arrangement that fitted over Rrrnlf's right shoulder and was not only firmly fastened there, but padded against any possible jolts and jars of travel. Attached to it was Sir John's saddle, facing forward.

  Rrrnlf lay down on the ground to have the apparatus attached to him; then got back to his feet, vaulted the courtyard wall and lay down again beyond the moat outside the castle.

  Chandos reappeared, ready to travel, said his polite farewells and strolled out the now-open main gates to the Sea Devil. He climbed aboard the saddle with absolute coolness, as if he was going for a canter on some familiar horse. Rrrnlf rose once more to his feet and strode off in a northeasterly direction, un
til he disappeared among the trees.

  "Well, m'Lord," said Brian, "perhaps best you give the order for the great gate in the curtain wall to be closed again, the drawbridge pulled up, and the portcullis let down. Then the rest of us can adjourn to the Great Hall and the wine cups for a further discussion of what we may do by way of defense, if and when the sea serpents reach us here."

  "If m'Lord doesn't mind," said Dafydd—and the fact he used the word "Lord" to Jim was effective notice that he intended to do what he was just about to announce, whatever Jim might think about it—"I think I'll stay on the wall in hope a stray serpent may show up. I have a mind to try some arrows on such if it appears; to see if I cannot find the more vulnerable parts of it that an arrow might reach. There are the eyes, of course; and I suspect that a war arrow driven deep into its throat should have some effect; but there may be other possibilities."

  "Fine," said Jim. "Brian, I'm afraid you and Carolinus may have those wine cups to yourself. I think I'd like to go back up to the solar, take off my clothes and change into a dragon. Then I'll take off from the tower roof and fly east and south to have a look at the numbers of the sea serpents that Secoh had reported. Perhaps Secoh will go with me?"

  "Oh, yes!" said Secoh. "I mean, of course, m'Lord."

  "As for you other dragons," said Jim, turning to them, "you will no doubt want to take word of our plans back to your people."

  "Indeed we do," said Egnoth. "And as quickly as possible."

  He looked at the other dragons.

  "Unless I am mistaken about one of the other representatives? Perhaps one of them still has a question, or wishes to wait for a while for some reason?"

  The other dragons all murmured negatives. As the humans watched, they took off from the courtyard with a tremendous explosion of multiple wings, and disappeared into the sky in various directions.