The Dragon At War

by Gordon R. Dickson

  Jim picked up the sack of gems and, followed by Angie and Secoh, followed Brian into the Great Hall; but continued on up to the solar alone, to make his preparations for overflying the seashore and the sea serpents.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  From a much lower height than he had earlier thought might be safe, Jim studied the invading sea serpents.

  Secoh had been right; they did not look up. It was evidently not easy for them to do so without rolling on one side, so that they could turn their heads left or right, rather than lift them on their thick necks, which were less thick than their bodies, but not much.

  He was therefore still more than a thousand feet up; but any one of those below that did look up would have been able to tell quite plainly that he was a dragon, not a bird. But none looked.

  On the other hand, he was looking a great deal.

  There was no doubt that the serpents were now ashore in enormous numbers and some were still coming. Below him they covered the shoreline for two miles to his right and left, making a four-mile front in all. From there, their numbers stretched inland, still thickly packed together, for perhaps half a mile.

  They avoided any streams, he noticed. The ground was rocky here; and lifted rather quickly away from sea level. But it was not steep enough to make it difficult for them to climb.

  From the air, their green bodies looked small, and relatively harmless. It was difficult to remind himself that each one of those he could see below him was longer than Rrrnlf was tall, if you measured them from nose-tip to tail. They did not, of course, have the Sea Devil's massive upper body bulk and strength. But, compared to a human being, each one of them was an unstoppable engine of flesh and blood.

  For a moment Jim felt queasy over the message he had sent with Chandos, that the human army should wait until they had moved inland and then get into position behind them. It was hard to imagine how humans could stand for any time at all against these creatures.

  Packed as closely as they were, and moving all together, they reminded Jim of an invasion of green worms that, one bright fall season, had attacked the trees at Riveroak College, where he and Angie had taught in their original world. The worms had seemed uncountable in number, then, as the sea serpents did now.

  But his first impression, that they had been moving mindlessly together as the tree-worms had done, was wrong. Now, as he studied them, he began to see that they formed large groups. He found himself thinking of these groups as battalions; because they were roughly rectangular in shape and each possibly held around fifteen hundred of the sea creatures, traveling as a unit.

  He noticed that as soon as one of these units was formed, it started inland. Meanwhile, the number of new arrivals still coming from the sea was becoming less and less.

  Still, at a rough estimate it looked like at least ten thousand serpents had come ashore. For a moment he felt the hollow touch of despair. There was enough strength below him in those battalions to overwhelm both the human army and all the dragons of England, if they ventured to come to grips with the serpents directly. Somehow, some way, his plan to avoid an actual clash must be made to work. The dragons would most certainly be destroyed by sheer numbers. Ideas tumbled about in his mind, but as yet, none of the details were solid. All were only hopes.

  It was just then that he became aware of another speck, circling possibly as much as a thousand feet above Secoh and himself. He focused on it with his dragon telescopic vision; and his immediate suspicions were confirmed. It was another dragon.

  "Secoh!" he called to the mere-dragon soaring not far off from him. "We'll go talk to that dragon upstairs."

  Having said this, without looking to see if Secoh followed, he began to mount toward the speck. He found himself apparently climbing very rapidly; then realized the speck was descending toward him at the same time. A moment later, he and the other dragon were soaring wing to wing, and in seconds Secoh appeared on the other side of the unknown dragon.

  "M'Lord! M'Lord!" called Secoh. "You recognize Iren? You remember he was one of the three representatives from the French dragons who talked to you at the inn in Brest?"

  "Oh? Oh!" said Jim, for the fact was he had not recognized the French dragon; and would not have known him at all if Secoh had not identified him. Jim had got to the point where he was able to recognize most of the Cliffside dragons; but he was not as good at remembering and identifying dragons he knew less well.

  "Iren!" he said. "I didn't expect to see you here."

  "And why not?" answered Iren fiercely. "We are French dragons; and you have both our word and our gems. One or another of us has been keeping watch here on those creatures below, since they started coming out of the sea. They are all on land now—all that matter—now that their leader is here."

  "Their leader? You mean Essessili?"

  "Whatever he's called," said Iren, as if to even speak of the sea serpent left a bad taste in his mouth. "He got here a short while back; and from the time he arrived, they began forming groups and starting northward, inland."

  "Did you see—" Jim broke off, unsure how to describe it and still keep the importance of Rrrnlf's Lady a secret. "Did you notice if Essessili was carrying anything; say, something like the figurehead of a ship?"

  "He carried nothing," said Iren. "How could he, and why? What difference if he did?"

  "Oh, probably none," said Jim hurriedly. "I just wondered. Since you've been keeping watch here, you've probably also been watching Brest; or wherever else the French georges are getting ready to sail to England."

  Iren nodded.

  "Do you know if your georges are close to sailing?" Jim asked.

  "They have begun already," said Iren.

  The three dragons were all soaring together now in large, lazy circles above the shore and the departing sea serpents. The peacefulness of their effortless floating through the air was at odds with the turmoil inside Jim.

  "Our georges," Iren went on, "also have some more of those unmentionables, below, with them; in case some of their boats need assistance. So those boats should be reaching this part of the coast—for it is here, I understand, they are headed—in the next two days."

  "Just about the time it should take Essessili and the serpents with him to reach Malencontri," said Jim grimly. "Secoh, can our dragons gather there as well, by that time?"

  "It is certain they can," said Secoh.

  "Also," put Iren, "our French dragons are in waiting, close here, but out of sight of the serpents. They can be at your castle in one hour… or a little more."

  "Good," said Jim, hoping that would not be too far.

  "I was going to fly to Brest to see the French ships for myself; but now I don't need to," he added. "I think, instead, Secoh and I will swing east and north to the place where the army of our English georges has gathered. They too should be moving soon, I hope, in this direction."

  "Good!" said Iren. "I'll come. The more we know of matters here, the better. Just let me send a signal to the next watcher."

  Immediately, Iren started to mount, leaving them below him. After he had gone a couple of hundred feet he turned, went into a dive for half the distance back down to them, braked abruptly in mid-air, made one small, tight circle, then dived again and checked himself beside them.

  "What was all that?" asked Jim. "Was that the signal you said you were sending to another watcher?"

  "Have you so poor faith in us not to guess that?" said Iren. "I told you. We've been keeping watch on the southern coast of your island for some days now."

  "It's a long flight here from Brest," said Jim. "Not that you couldn't do it, of course—"

  "You underestimate us," said Iren. "I am only one of five French dragons on wing at all times. The next in the air, watching from farther out at sea, and south of us, can see me and he'll have seen my signal just now. It told him all watchers should move up one position. In short, that watcher who got the message will repeat the signal to the next in line, then move here to take up my pos
ition, so that he can replace me, and even be ready to follow the march of the sea serpents inland, if needed."

  "But still—" Jim was saying doubtfully. Iren cut in on him.

  "You did not let me finish," he said. "I said there were five watchers. When the farthest off of them moves out from where our dragons are gathered, a new one takes wing, to begin the chain. So there are always five aloft. Our watch periods are two hours, unless a dragon feels that he should leave his post for some reason. Then all the rest move up one. You understand?"

  "Yes," answered Jim, "it's a very good arrangement."

  "So," went on Iren. "Each dragon in line sees the other; and so messages such as I gave just now can be sent. Just before you got here, I had sent a signal that the sea serpents were beginning to move on from the coast. Now, I am free to go with you, to find this English george army of yours."

  "It'll be something of a flight to the north," said Jim. "Nothing for Secoh and myself, of course, since we're close to home. But it'll make your own flight back to France a long one."

  "You have our word, and you have our gems," said Iren. "Do you think so little of French dragons as to imagine one of us would not extend himself to the utmost in this case? True, it may be a long flight. But as you know yourself, we dragons are capable of soaring for days, if need be, and covering great distances; though it may not be easy."

  Jim felt a small, unexpected, bump of pride and warmth on finding himself included by Iren among the other dragons. It was something like the feeling he had had when Smrgol, the grand-uncle of Gorbash in whose body Jim had first appeared in this world, had taken time out before the battle with the Ogre at the Loathly Tower to give him advice.

  For a moment the memory came clearly back to him. It had only been seconds before the very old dragon had locked himself in personal conflict with the young and powerful Bryagh; and it was at a time when Smrgol himself was half-crippled from a stroke. Still, Smrgol had taken time out, both to encourage Jim, and advise him on how to fight the Ogre, since Smrgol had fought one once himself.

  The warm feeling spread all through him. It was strange, this business of wanting to feel kinship with two entirely different species. It was confusing; but there was no doubt that deep within him, he wanted to belong to both.

  "Well," he said, to get his mind off the subject, "here we go, then."

  He led, hunting from updraft to updraft in a northern direction that diverged from the movement of the sea serpents below.

  There was no doubt at all now, he noted, that the long, massive, green creatures were headed for Malencontri. Recognition of the fact did not make him feel happy.

  He forced his mind back to present matters.

  He had been both impressed and touched by what Iren had told him about the actions of the French dragons. He had underestimated them. Possibly he had been influenced too much by the fact that the English dragons, like the English georges—he corrected that thought in his mind: the English people—considered all others to be somewhat less than themselves. He had fallen into the easy trap of assuming they were right and the French dragons were more fearful, less ready to honor their obligations, and in every way inferior to the dragons he knew. They were clearly no such things. But then, the French dragons held similar opinions about the English ones.

  For that matter, his thoughts ran on, he was continually both intrigued by and dismayed with all of this world around him—with its people and animals, its dirt and refuse, its tempers and manners. Possibly that was what had made Angie and him decide to stay here in the first place; after the victory at the Loathly Tower. Even at the cost of giving up their one chance to return to the world they knew.

  It took the three of them a couple of hours of alternately flying and soaring to reach the location of the English army. Happily, Secoh, with his natural dragon instinct for location, was able to take them directly to it; even though they came by a way the mere-dragon had not used before.

  Now, the day around them had moved into mid-afternoon. The weather was still fair, evidently, over all of southern England; with only a few scattered clouds in the sky, so that they were clearly able to see what was below.

  Humans, unlike dragons, did look up. But clearly, no one in the English army was expecting dragons; and hopefully, they would jump to the conclusion it was a bird if they did look up. What Jim saw, when at last they looked down on that army, was a good-sized host. His own best estimate was it held roughly the same number of humans as there were sea serpents—possibly more.

  Unlike the serpents, however, the humans were clearly divided and grouped according to the part they would play in battle. The knights occupied tents clustered around one large tent, which must be the Prince's, apart from the rougher shelters of the heavily armed footmen, the scanty ones of the more lightly armed footmen—and the near-shelterless area of whatever levies had been brought from farms with only a pretense of armor and an occasional scythe or other homely weapon.

  Last of all, and a little apart, were the shelters of the longbowmen and crossbowmen.

  Nowhere among all these could he see any sign of Chandos, or—one who would have been much more visible—Rrrnlf. On the other hand, probably Rrrnlf had already got there, left the senior knight, and headed back to Malencontri. The Sea Devil could already be halfway back, considering his anxieties over his Lady, which Jim had just unhappily found out Essessili was not carrying after all. Another potential cause of trouble at the castle.

  "What are the georges doing here?" asked Iren suddenly. "Shouldn't they be moving to the seashore to fight our georges when they land?"

  "Actually," Jim answered him, "they're supposed to move, soon. But the place I want them to move to isn't the seashore; but to a point between the sea serpents and it. So they'll seem to be blocking the serpents' escape back to the sea."

  "Escape?" demanded Iren sharply. "What makes you think the sea crawlers want to escape? The last we saw of them they looked like doing anything but escaping."

  "That's true," said Jim. "But I'm hoping to change their attitude."

  Iren looked at him strangely.

  "Magic, you know," said Jim lamely, giving his all-purpose excuse. But Iren, unlike many other dragons—and most humans—did not seem impressed.

  All the way on the flight from the seashore Jim had been considering taking Iren and the other French dragons into his confidence. Now, he decided to do so.

  "At the moment, our most important georges in the army are arguing," he told Iren, "about what to do. But we've got one very important george speaking for us. His name is Sir John Chandos. If he succeeds, he'll get the army to where I just told you of."

  "But you aren't telling me why they should do that," said Iren.

  "My hope," said Jim, "is that the serpents can't either climb over or break down the walls of Castle Malencontri. If they fail in that, they've got to begin doubting their ability to capture me, who they evidently think is leader of all the English dragons."

  "Well, you are!" put in Secoh, unexpectedly and strongly.

  "Thanks, Secoh," said Jim, looking fondly at the mere-dragon, "but I think they're seeing me as more capable and powerful than I am. At any rate—"

  He turned back to Iren, who was soaring on the other side of him from Secoh.

  "At any rate," Jim said, "if the serpents start doubting they can catch hold of me, we want to reinforce that doubt. If most of the sea serpents are at Malencontri, we'll then call in the English dragons, who will take the air over them at about half our present height, so they seem to fill the north part of the sky. Happily, the serpents won't be able to see very far beyond the tree-tops, because they're built so low to the ground. Then, if you and your fellow French dragons, who've been waiting in position but out of sight, move in when I ask, to fill the southern part of the sky; then the sea serpents will find themselves completely closed in overhead by dragons, and faced by a castle they can't take."

  He paused, but Iren was silent. Presumably the Fren
ch dragon was thinking it over.

  "My hope," said Jim, "is to get them to turn away, without actually having to fight them. Our advantage is, with you French dragons joining ours we'll seem to outnumber them. Also, whether they'll admit it or not, most of them know that one of them was slain in single combat by a dragon named Gleingul, a hundred years or so ago, at a place called the Gray Sands. So most of them must know that there's at least the chance that, one-on-one, our dragons can destroy them. Now, I haven't asked you French dragons to do any more than show up and help us try to frighten the serpents; but—"

  "If dragons fight serpents, and there are French dragons where the fighting is going on," said Iren, "French dragons will be fighting too!"

  The unexpectedly savage tone of Iren's voice sparked a sudden jolt of conviction in Jim. For the first time, direct combat between the dragons and the serpents—just like his combat with the Ogre when he had first come to this world—became a reality to him. Along with it came the realization that if the dragons were fighting sea serpents, he would be fighting one, too.

  He felt a cold savagery building inside him. He had forgotten for the moment that, as always, in magically taking on a dragon's body, he invariably took on a full measure of dragon instincts; one of which was the dragon-rage which the dead Smrgol had warned him against in his fight with the Ogre—cautioning him not to let it cause him to lose his head, but to fight a thinking battle.

  Smrgol had reminded Jim he was faster than an Ogre. Ten to one, Jim thought now, he should be faster than a sea serpent—particularly on land where the pull of gravity would be slowing them down; gravity ordinarily balanced out in the sea.

  Also, as a dragon he was used to fighting on the land and they were not. True, certain things would be unaltered, but many of their battle reflexes would be based upon that weightlessness they were used to under the waves…

  He woke up suddenly to the fact that Iren was no longer with him and Secoh. The French dragon evidently had peeled off to begin his long flight back to France.