Battledragon (51 page)

A mile to their south lay the ruins of a former Kraheen village, burned to the ground a few months earlier. Overgrown fields were rapidly being claimed by the sea grass and the gum trees. All the people were gone, except for a handful of men controlling a small force of imps. Every so often a small swift-moving sailing craft approached from the direction of the Bone and docked at the abandoned village. The men there were apparently unaware of the enemy presence nearby.

The dragons were asleep, tucked away beneath the gum trees. The legionaries were spread out across the gentle landward slope of the little hill. They, too, were catching up on their sleep except for a party of three that was netting some fish for dinner.

There had been no sign of their pursuers for days. It seemed that their use of a raft to float down the river had baffled the Kraheen.

Count Felk-Habren was left monitoring the seashore with the spyglass. It was a beautiful instrument, not much larger than his sturdy middle finger, which unfolded to three times its length and produced a tremendous magnification of the viewed image. Felk-Habren was impressed with the deftness of this piece of Cunfshon technology. The witch Lessis had given him the instrument, shortly after they had climbed up here from the river. She had suggested that he keep a lookout.

The seashore was largely disappointing. There were a few seabirds visible, but that was all. The place was empty. As Lessis had predicted.

"Our enemy must use this dock for communications," she'd said. "That is why the land around us is devoid of people."

The witch was right. As she always was. Slowly, Count Felk-Habren had become amazed at the talents of that woman. To think that such a drab could be such an effective leader went against the grain for any Czardhan knight. The women of Czardha cared for the hearth, for the children and the cooking fires. They did not roam the world. They did not produce fabulously expensive miniature telescopes from their sleeves. They did not indulge in magic.

Felk-Habren shivered. He had been seeing things that weren't right. There was" the mark of devils all over it. He prayed to the Father Protector to look after him.

Now the witch was up to some new weirdness.

It had started soon after they'd climbed up here after ditching the raft. Lessis had given him the spyglass and gone a short distance downslope, toward the sea, and vanished into a clump of trees. She was alone except for her assistant. Within a few minutes all kinds of birds had started to fly to her side. Count Trego had been stunned at the motley flock of pigeons, gulls, hawks, and even eagles that swung out of the sky to visit with the witch briefly and then loft away again. He lost count sometime around the sixth eagle. By then dozens of doves and seagulls had been released. Felk-Habren had seen many of them head out to sea in the direction of the Bone.

Later that day the birds had begun to return to Lessis, who remained in the same place, meditating, according to the lissome young woman who was always at the witch's side except for brief visits to the top of the hill for water.

For several hours birds continued to come and go. Then the disparate birds were replaced by a flock of crows that grew in size and gathered in the trees all around the spot where Lessis sat.

While the witch crafted her spell, reciting a thousand lines from the Birrak from memory and building several small volumes with magical declension, the crows gathered and formed a great croaking mass within the trees.

Felk-Habren had gone down to ask the witch what it all meant, but was intercepted by the girl and turned back. The witch had cast a great spell and could not be interrupted. The girl had been extremely determined. The count believed she would have even drawn steel on him if he'd tried to press the issue.

Felk-Habren had given way. In truth, there was something spine-tingling about the way the witch was sitting, her back unnaturally straight, her head lifted up, her arms at her sides, her legs crossed in a strange position.

She had taken no notice of the count's near interruption. He had retreated up the hill again beneath trees groaning with blackbirds that cawed at him as he passed.

Then the birds had grown silent, and a strange tension began to build in the air. Something made the hairs on the back of men's necks rise. They'd suffered from nervous fits. This tension had continued for an hour or more. Then it died away, leaving the men exhausted.

Felk-Habren raised the spyglass to the distant volcano again. The enemy was out there apparently. Lessis thought they should go and try to take him unawares. She hadn't explained how they were going to do it, but the count was sure she had some plan up her sleeve.

There was a distant flash of red light on the Bone, down below the volcano. Felk-Habren caught just a flicker of it and shifted the glass slightly to focus on the spot.

At this extreme distance he could make out only a headland of a somewhat lighter shade of gray and beyond it a dark mass that sloped up to the cone of the volcano.

The light came again, a distinct flash. The enemy was up to some fresh devilry. Felk-Habren shivered. At night, when he sought sleep, tears would often well from his eyes as he mourned the good men of Czardha, lost to those hellish weapons. Long would the lands of Czardha weep over the deaths of the fair and the brave on the field of Broken Stone. Rage and despair would fill their hearts when they looked to the east at the dread enemy of Padmasa.

There was the light again. The enemy had made more of the tube weapons. The count moaned. How would they prevail over such weapons when they were so few? Any charge at the weapons would see them all swiftly killed. Count

Felk-Habren had grown up wedded to the charge, as did all Czardhan knights. He could conceive of no other form of attack.

Watching the red flashes, which kept coming, the count grew depressed. It seemed that their mission was doomed to failure, despite all they had done. After such a journey, with victory over the savage tribes at Koubha, and after surviving the plague and then the monstrous animals of the ancient jungles of the Land of Terror, that they should finally succumb seemed terribly wrong.

And then, cutting through this gloom came a new sensation: a strange rush of joy welled up with him. A burst of light was spinning in his breast, and he raised his eyes to the blue vault of the sky. The trees came alive with thousands of raucous crows, and the birds lifted up en masse with a tremendous beating of wings and flew up and up and then broke apart and dispersed.

Openmouthed, Felk-Habren watched them go. He looked down into the grove of gum trees where the distant figures of Lessis and Lagdalen sat unmoving beneath a tree. Something was happening, but he had no idea what.

The strange, but wonderful, mood of elation passed and faded, yet left a mark. The count's mood remained improved. He ceased to ponder the difficulties ahead, but thought of the chances for revenge.

The day passed. The sun set in a lovely riot of orange and red. For a while the Isle of the Bone was silhouetted on the horizon. The flashes of the enemy weapons were still coming, in bursts every hour or so. In the gathering darkness, the flashes were more noticeable, and might even be detected by the naked eye.

The moon rode high in the western sky when Lessis arose and, leaning slightly on Lagdalen, made her way up the slope. Lessis was very tired, but seized with a fervent hope. Victory might yet be snatched from disaster.

Felk-Habren was asleep. They left him and moved down into the gum trees that sheltered the surviving dragons of the 109th. There they searched for the Broketail and Alsebra.

Lagdalen woke the dragons the dragonboy way, by lifting an eyelid and blowing on it. In moments there were two somewhat irritated wyverns sitting up.

Lessis had their attention. Not for the first time she marveled at how uncomfortable that could be.

"It is an old story, my friends," she began.

"What is?" said Alsebra waspishly.

"Well, I have some good news and I have some terrible news."

"Boys live?" said Bazil Broketail, scarcely able to believe it possible.

"They do."

Both dragons sat up straighter, with audible hisses.

"I knew it," rumbled Bazil. "It take awful lot to kill worthless boy. In many ways this is boy's best attribute."

"By the fire of the ancients, I am much relieved to hear this," said Alsebra. "Where are they?"

"Ah, that is the bad news. They are over there on that island, up on the cone of the volcano. They are held captive by our Great Enemy, and he torments them most grievously."

The dragons became dangerous again, instantaneously.

"We will swim to the island," said Bazil.

"We cannot swim," said the green freemartin. "This is the ocean."

"Actually," said Lessis, "that is a matter of debate. This is a completely landlocked body of salt water. It has no connection with the greater oceans. I think the prohibition can be ignored in this case."

"Then we swim," said Alsebra. "I take sword only. I find Jak."

Bazil's eyes locked on Lessis suddenly.

"Do you come with us, Lady?"

"If you will allow me to, yes. However, I doubt that I could swim so far unaided."

"You ride on my back. Lagdalen Dragonfriend knows how to do it."

Lagdalen smiled. "I will never forget that night we crossed the River Oon."

Lessis nodded. "We go, then, and bring a surprise to our Great Enemy."

The water of the Inland Sea was warm and salty, and thus not really to the taste of the wyverns, who would have preferred colder water. Still, they swam it happily enough, Bazil, Alsebra, and Vlok, who had volunteered at once and would not let anyone talk him out of it. The remainder of the survivors of the unit were left hidden on the wooded prominence. They were to wait there for three days, and then if no word had come to them, they were to slip away southward and seek to join up with the rest of the expeditionary force.

The dragons carried two persons apiece on their backs. Bazil carried Lagdalen and Lessis. Alsebra had Dragon Leader Wiliger and Spearman Rikart, and Vlok bore Swane and the Count Felk-Habren.

Lessis had tried to persuade either the count or the dragon leader to stay with the main party, but neither would be budged. To the count, honor and the need for revenge made it imperative that he be included. Wiliger had pointed to the Bone. "Those are my men out there. I'm going to get them free."

The wyverns experienced the shocking effect of ocean water, and the call to the wild thrilled through their beings. Each overcame it in turn, in very different ways. For Bazil it was expected and familiar, and he turned it aside as he had done before. His boy was on that island, and he was going to rescue him and bring down the enemy that had done them so much harm. Alsebra rationalized it skillfully. She had also expected it, and she placed her legion career and a future prosperous life on the frontier of Kenor above the appeal of living wild. Vlok was the most vulnerable, except that he was so puzzled by the new emotions that he became afraid of it, and grew determined to ignore it and concentrate on swimming to the island and the job ahead. This time, Vlok was adamant: Vlok was going to be in at the kill.

Since wyverns are great swimmers and the water was calm as a millpond, the passage was uneventful. However, there were occasional reminders of the perils of these ancient waters. At one point the waters parted about two hundred feet ahead of them, and a long neck rose up topped by a head brimming with teeth. Eyes like saucers regarded them intently. The dragons were too big to be prey. After solemn contemplation, the sea monster decided against troubling them. The head subsided beneath the waves, and they were alone once more.

Later, they saw a triangular sail, somewhat to the north of them. Soon they made out a small fleet, one large ship and three smaller ones, all with triangular sails. The fleet passed to their north, heading toward the island, and gave no sign of having noticed the dragons or their passengers, who dropped down into the water and clung to the dragons' shoulders and scabbards.

In time the island, fringed with beaches of dark grey sand, grew large in their sight. Beyond the beaches rose tumbled cliffs of friable lava. Here and there grew patches of scrub forest. The place had a stark, spare beauty to it. It was a work in progress, and the author was the volcano, which rumbled and gave off a short stream of dark smoke.

They came ashore on a beach littered with volcanic debris. The sand was harsh and gritty. At the top of the beach it turned into volcanic shingle, a mound of thumb-size pieces of pumice. They found a way up the cliffs through a place where the lava had crumbled under wave action, and a series of giant steps had been left behind.

Up above they found a scrub forest, small palms clumped in the watercourses. In places, the scrub was thick with thorn bushes. This slowed their progress considerably, and they were still but halfway to the cone when night fell. Now when the volcano rumbled, which it did once or twice an hour, they felt the ground shake every so slightly. They could also hear the sound of hot gas seething from lava on occasion.

They rested while Lessis conferred with Wiliger and Felk-Habren. She knew where the boys had been during her inspection of the island on the hidden plane. They were perched on high, over the crater, where they were in danger of smothering in the hot gas. The steps to reach them ran up behind the foundry complex built on the volcano's southern side. Here, behind stern walls and towers of guard, Lessis had sensed the great presence of Heruta Skash Gzug himself. Caution had impeded her search. Heruta was sensitive to witch magic, but no living witch had a lighter touch than Lessis of Valmes. She might dare this visit where few other magi would dare to tread. At any moment Heruta might sense her presence and ensnare her, so powerful was he on the higher planes. A true enthraan of the Tathagada system, he had overcome the resistance of the matter of the Mother's Hand and fed off it with parasitic vigor. Thus inhibited, she had made no effort to penetrate the fortress on the volcano's side. From a distance, it was hard to see clearly on the astral plane, especially when you trod as lightly as she did, and thus she had no more than a vague idea concerning the inner parts of this complex of buildings.