King of the Murgos

by David Eddings

  ‘How far did we come today?’ Ce’Nedra asked in a voice near sleep as she leaned wearily against Garion’s shoulder.

  ‘Seven or eight leagues, I’d guess,’ Durnik replied. ‘It’s slow going when you don’t have a road to follow.’

  ‘We’ll make better time, once we hit the high road from Muros to the Great Fair,’ Silk added. His eyes brightened at that thought, and his long, pointed nose started to twitch.

  ‘Never mind,’ Belgarath told him.

  ‘We will need supplies, Belgarath,’ Silk said, his eyes still bright.

  ‘I think we’ll let Durnik take care of that. People who do business with you always seem to develop this sense of outrage once they’ve had time to think things through.’

  ‘But, Belgarath, I thought you said that you were in a hurry.’

  ‘I don’t quite get the connection.’

  ‘People always travel faster when somebody’s chasing them—or hadn’t you noticed that?’

  Belgarath gave him a long, hard look. ‘Just let it drop, Silk,’ he said. ‘Why don’t we all get some sleep?’ he suggested to the rest of them. ‘We’ve got a long day tomorrow.’

  It was well after midnight when Garion suddenly started into wakefulness. He lay rolled up in his blankets beside Ce’Nedra, listening to her regular breathing and the soft patter of the rain on the tree limbs. The wind had died, and the fire at the front of their snug shelter had burned down to a few ruddy coals. He shook the last remnants of sleep from his mind, trying to remember what it was that had awakened him.

  ‘Don’t make any noise,’ Belgarath said softly from the far side of the shelter.

  ‘Did something wake you, too, Grandfather?’

  ‘I want you to get out of your blankets very slowly,’ the old man said in a voice so quiet that it scarcely reached Garion’s ears, ‘and get your hands on your sword.’

  ‘What is it, Grandfather?’

  ‘Listen!’ Belgarath said.

  From high overhead in the rainy darkness there came the ponderous flap of vast wings and a sudden flare of sooty red light. The wings flapped again, and then the sound was gone.

  ‘Move, Garion,’ Belgarath said urgently. ‘Get your sword—and put something over the Orb so that she can’t see the glow from it.’

  Garion untangled his legs from his blankets and groped in the darkness for Iron-grip’s sword.

  Again there was the vast flapping sound overhead, and then a strange, hissing cry, accompanied by another flare of that sooty red light.

  ‘What’s that?’ Ce’Nedra cried out.

  ‘Be still, girl!’ Belgarath snapped.

  They lay tensely in the darkness as the flapping sound faded off into the rain-swept night.

  ‘What’s out there, Belgarath?’ Silk asked tensely.

  ‘She’s a very large beast,’ the old man replied quietly. ‘Her eyes aren’t very good, and she’s as stupid as a stump, but she’s very dangerous. She’s hunting. Possibly she smells the horses—or us.’

  ‘How do you know it’s a she?’ Durnik asked.

  ‘Because there’s only one of them left in the world. She doesn’t come out of her cave very often, but over the centuries enough people have caught glimpses of her to give rise to all those legends.’

  ‘I’m starting to get a very uneasy feeling about this,’ Silk murmured.

  ‘She doesn’t really look that much like the dragons in all those drawings,’ Belgarath continued, ‘but she is big, and she does fly.’

  ‘Oh, come now, Belgarath,’ Durnik scoffed. ‘There’s no such thing as a dragon.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it. Now, why don’t you go out and explain that to her?’

  ‘Is she the same creature we heard that night in the mountains above Maragor?’ Garion asked.

  ‘Yes. Have you got your sword?’

  ‘Right here, Grandfather.’

  ‘Good. Now, very slowly, creep out and smother the last of those coals with dirt. Fire attracts her, so let’s not take any chances on a sudden flare-up.’

  Garion inched his way out through the open front of the shelter and hurriedly scooped dirt over the fire pit with his hands.

  ‘Is it really a flying lizard?’ Silk whispered hoarsely.

  ‘No,’ Belgarath replied, ‘actually she’s a species of bird. She has a long, snakelike tail, and what she’s covered with looks more like scales than feathers. She also has teeth—lots of very long, sharp teeth.’

  ‘Just exactly how big is she?’ Durnik asked.

  ‘You remember Faldor’s barn?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘About that big.’

  From quite some distance off there came another screeching bellow and the murky red flare.

  ‘Her fire isn’t really all that serious,’ Belgarath continued in the same low voice, ‘particularly since these woods are so wet. It’s when she catches you in dry grass that it starts to be a problem. She’s big, but she’s not very brave—and on the ground she’s as clumsy as a pig on a frozen pond. If it gets down to a fight, we probably won’t be able to hurt her very much. About the best we can hope for is to frighten her off.’

  ‘Fight?’ Silk choked. ‘You’re not serious.’

  ‘We may not have any choice. If she’s hungry and picks up our scent or the scent of the horses, she’ll tear these woods apart looking for us. She has a few sensitive spots. Her tail is probably the best. Her wings get in the way, so she can’t see behind her too well, and when she’s on the ground, she can’t turn very fast.’

  ‘Let’s see if I’ve got this straight,’ Silk said. ‘You want us to sneak up behind this dragon and hit it on the tail, is that it?’

  ‘Approximately, yes.’

  ‘Belgarath, have you lost your mind? Why not just use sorcery to drive it away?’

  ‘Because she’s immune to sorcery,’ Polgara explained calmly. ‘It was one of the little refinements Torak added when he and the other Gods created her species. He was so impressed with the concept of a dragon that he chose it as his totem creature. He tried in every way he could to make it invincible.’

  ‘It was one of his character defects,’ Belgarath added sourly. ‘All right, the dragon is clumsy and stupid and she’s not used to pain. If we’re careful, we can probably frighten her away without anyone getting hurt.’

  ‘She’s coming back,’ Eriond said.

  They listened as the flapping of those huge wings reverberated again through the sodden forest.

  ‘Let’s get out into the open,’ Belgarath said tensely.

  ‘That’s a good idea,’ Silk agreed. ‘If I have to do this, I want lots of level running room around me.’

  ‘Ce’Nedra,’ Polgara said, ‘I want you to get as far back into this thicket as you can. Find a place to hide.’

  ‘Yes, Lady Polgara,’ Ce’Nedra replied in a frightened little voice.

  They crept out of the shelter into the darkness. The rain had slackened to a kind of misty drizzle wreathing down among the trees. Their horses, picketed not far away, snorted nervously, and Garion could smell the sharp odor of their fear over the resinous scent of wet evergreens.

  ‘All right,’ Belgarath whispered. ‘Spread out—and be careful. Don’t try to attack her unless you’re sure that her attention is someplace else.’

  They crept out of the thicket into the broad clearing and started across. Garion, sword in hand, moved carefully, feeling for obstructions with his feet. When he reached the far side, he located a large tree trunk and went around behind it.

  They waited tensely, straining their eyes toward the rain-swept night sky.

  The heavy flapping of great wings reverberated down among the trees, and once again they heard that vast bellow. Even as the sound crashed down on them, Garion saw the huge billow of smoky flame in the sky overhead and, outlined by that flame, the shape of the dragon herself. She was even bigger than he had imagined. Her wings might easily have shaded an acre. Her cruel beak was agape, and he could clearly see h
er pointed teeth with the flames writhing about them. She had a very long, snakelike neck, huge talons, and a long, reptilian tail that lashed at the air behind her as she plunged down toward the clearing.

  Then Eriond stepped out from behind a tree trunk and walked out into the center of the clearing as calmly as if he were merely taking a midmorning stroll.

  ‘Eriond!’ Polgara cried as, with a triumphant shriek, the dragon swooped down into the clearing. Talons extended, she struck at the unprotected young man. Her beak gaped, and vast billows of sooty orange flame poured forth to engulf him. With fear for the boy clutching at his heart, Garion ran forward with his sword aloft; but even as he ran at the huge beast, he felt the sudden familiar surge of Aunt Pol’s will, and Eriond vanished as she translocated him to safety.

  The earth shook as the dragon struck the ground, and her vast roar of frustration filled the clearing with the ruddy light of her fire. She was enormous. Her half-folded, scaly-looking wings reared above her higher than any house. Her lashing tail was thicker than the body of a horse, and her curved, tooth-studded beak was dreadful. A sickening stench filled the clearing each time she belched forth her billows of flame. By the light of her fire, Garion could clearly see her slitted yellow eyes. From what Belgarath had said, he expected a look of dull stupidity, but the burning eyes that searched the clearing were alert and filled with an intense, frightening eagerness.

  Then Durnik and Toth were upon her. They dashed from the shelter of the trees, Durnik with his axe and Toth with the smith’s sharp-bladed spade, and methodically they began to chop at the dragon’s writhing tail. She shrieked, belching flame into the air, and began to claw at the sodden forest loam with her talons.

  ‘Look out!’ Silk shouted. ‘She’s turning!’

  The dragon whirled awkwardly, her wings beating at the air and her talons throwing up huge clots of earth, but Durnik and Toth had already run back into the shelter of the trees. As she swept the clearing with her burning eyes, Silk nimbly darted out behind her with his short, broad-bladed Drasnian sword in his hand. Again and again he drove it into the base of her huge tail. Then, as she floundered around to meet his attack, he danced clear to regain the safety of the surrounding forest.

  And then Eriond stepped into the clearing again. Without any sign of fear but with a grave expression on his face, he walked out of the trees and moved directly toward the raging beast. ‘Why are you doing this?’ he asked her calmly. ‘You know that this isn’t the time or place.’

  The dragon almost seemed to flinch back at the sound of his voice, and her burning eyes grew wary.

  ‘You can’t avoid what’s going to happen,’ he continued seriously. ‘None of us can—and you can’t change it with this kind of foolishness. You’d better go. We really don’t want to have to hurt you.’

  The dragon faltered, and Garion suddenly sensed that she was not only baffled, but that she was also afraid. Then she seemed to clench herself. With an enraged bellow, she sent out a vast sheet of flame from her gaping beak to engulf Eriond, who made no effort to escape.

  Every nerve in Garion’s body shrieked at him to run to his young friend’s aid, but he found that he could not move so much as a muscle. He stood, sword in hand, locked in a kind of helpless stasis.

  As the billow of flame subsided, Eriond emerged from it unscathed and with an expression of regretful firmness on his face. ‘I’d hoped that we wouldn’t have to do this,’ he said to the dragon, ‘but you aren’t giving us too much choice, you know.’ He sighed. ‘All right, Belgarion,’ he said, ‘make her go away—but please try not to hurt her too much.’

  With a kind of surging exultation, as if those words had somehow released him from all restraint, Garion ran directly up behind the dragon with his suddenly blazing sword and began to rain blows on her unprotected back and tail. The awful reek of burning flesh filled the clearing, and the dragon shrieked in pain. She flailed her huge tail in agony, and it was more to protect himself from that ponderous lashing than out of any conscious effort to injure the beast that Garion swung a massive blow with Iron-grip’s sword. The sharp edge sheared effortlessly through scale and flesh and bone, smoothly lopping off about four feet of the writhing tip of the tail.

  The shriek which thundered from the dragon’s beak was shattering, and her fire boiled skyward in a huge cloud. A great jet of streaming blood spurted from the wound the sword had left, splashing into Garion’s face and momentarily blinding him.

  ‘Garion!’ Polgara shouted. ‘Look out!’

  He clawed at his eyes to clear away the hot blood. With terrifying agility, the dragon whirled, her talons tearing at the earth and her wings thundering. The Orb exploded into intense fire, and its blue flame ran anew up the sword, hissing and smoking as it burned away the thick blood which besmeared the blade. In the very act of striking at him with her beak, the dragon flinched back from the incandescence of the burning sword. Garion raised his blade, and once again the dragon flinched, retreating step by step across the wet clearing.

  She was afraid! For some reason, the blue fire of the sword frightened her! Shrieking and trying desperately to defend herself with furnacelike gusts of fire, she backed away, her wounded tail still spraying the clearing with blood. There was clearly something about the fire of the Orb which she found unbearable. Once again filled with that wild surge of excitement, Garion raised his sword, and a searing pillar of fire erupted from its tip. He began to lash at the dragon with that whip of flame and heard the crackling sizzle as it seared her wings and shoulders. Fiercely he flogged her with the flame of his sword until, with a howl of agony, she turned and fled, tearing the earth with her talons and desperately flapping the huge sails of her wings.

  Ponderously, she hurled herself into the air and clawed at the night with her wings, struggling to lift her vast bulk. She crashed through the upper branches of the firs at the edge of the clearing, fighting in panic to rise above the forest until she was clear. Shrieking, she flew off toward the south-west, filling the murky air with seething clouds of fire and streaming blood behind her as she went.

  A stunned silence fell over them all as they looked up at the great beast fleeing through the rainy sky.

  Polgara, her face dreadfully pale, came out from under the trees to confront Eriond. ‘Just exactly what were you thinking of?’ she asked him in a terribly quiet voice.

  ‘I don’t quite follow you, Polgara,’ he replied, looking puzzled.

  She controlled herself with an obvious effort. ‘Doesn’t the word “danger” have any meaning to you at all?’

  ‘You mean the dragon? Oh, she wasn’t really all that dangerous.’

  ‘She did sort of bury you up to the eyebrows in fire, Eriond,’ Silk pointed out.

  ‘Oh, that,’ Eriond smiled. ‘But the fire wasn’t real.’ He looked around at the rest of them. ‘Didn’t you all know that?’ he asked, looking slightly surprised. ‘It was only an illusion. That’s all that evil ever really is—an illusion. I’m sorry if any of you were worried, but I didn’t have time to explain.’

  Aunt Pol stared at the unperturbed young man for a moment, then turned her eyes on Garion, who stood still holding his burning sword. ‘And you—you—’ Words somehow failed her. Slowly she sank her face into her trembling hands. ‘Two of them,’ she said in a terrible voice. ‘Two of them! I don’t think I can stand this—not two of them.’

  Durnik looked at her gravely, then handed his axe to the giant Toth. He stepped over and put his arm about her shoulders. ‘There, there,’ he said. For a moment she seemed to resist, but then she suddenly buried her face in his shoulder. ‘Come along now, Pol,’ he said soothingly and gently turned her around to walk her back to their shelter. ‘Things won’t seem nearly so bad in the morning.’

  Chapter Three

  Garion slept very little during the remainder of that rainy night. His pulse still raced with excitement, and he lay under his blankets beside Ce’Nedra, living and reliving his encounter with the dragon. It w
as only toward the tag end of the night that he became calm enough to consider an idea that had come to him in the midst of the fight. He had enjoyed it. He had actually enjoyed a struggle that should have terrified him; the more he thought about it, the more he realized that this was not the first time that this had happened. As far back as his early childhood, this same wild excitement had filled him each time he had been in danger.

  The solid good sense of his Sendarian upbringing told him that this enthusiasm for conflict and peril was probably an unhealthy outgrowth of his Alorn heritage and that he should strive to keep it rigidly controlled, but deep inside he knew that he would not. He had finally found the answer to the plaintive ‘Why me?’ which he had voiced so often in the past. He was inevitably chosen for these dreadful, frightening tasks because he was perfectly suited for them.

  ‘It’s what I do,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Any time there’s something so ridiculously dangerous that no rational human being would even consider trying it, they send for me.’

  ‘What was that, Garion?’ Ce’Nedra murmured drowsily.

  ‘Nothing, dear,’ he replied. ‘I was just thinking out loud. Go back to sleep.’

  ‘Ummm,’ she murmured and snuggled closer to him, filling his nostrils with the warm fragrance of her hair.

  Dawn crept slowly under the overspreading limbs of the sodden forest with a kind of growing paleness. The persistent drizzle joined with a morning mist rising from the forest floor to form a kind of damp, gray cloud enveloping the dark trunks of fir and spruce.

  Garion awoke from a half doze and saw the shadowy forms of Durnik and Toth standing quietly beside the cold fire pit at the front of the shelter. He slipped out from under the blankets, moving carefully to avoid waking his sleeping wife, and pulled on his clammy boots. Then he stood up, pulled on his cloak, and moved out from under the tent canvas to join them.

  He looked up toward the gloomy morning sky. ‘Still raining, I see,’ he noted in that quiet tone people use when they rise before the sun.