Dragon's Breath (18 page)

Twenty-Five

Greater Greensward is a fairly large kingdom, but it didn't take long to cross it on the back of a full-grown dragon. I was familiar with the border, having visited it many times, so when we didn't hit the correct spot immediately, I told Grumble Belly to head north.

Long before we saw the armies, we spotted dragons circling in the sky. There were three of the scaly beasts, all a vivid orange shading to crimson and all larger than Grumble Belly.

"Do you recognize them?" I asked our dragon friend.

"I've never seen them before. They must not be from around here. Siblings, probably, since they're all the same color and their shading matches."

I studied the dragons as we flew closer. They didn't look at all like the dragons I'd seen at the Olympics. Even the way they moved seemed odd; the sweep of their wings was jerky and the way they turned their heads too abrupt.

"Hello!" Grumble Belly called, but the trio of dragons ignored him.

We finally passed the last of the trees in what had seemed to be an endless forest. Below us lay farmland already taken over by the two armies. They faced each other in straight rows with only a few hundred yards and a trickling stream between them. Both sides appeared to be waiting for a signal.

"I'd better see my father first," I said, and leaned forward to tap Grumble Belly's shoulder. "Can you take us down now, please? I want to talk to the king in the green armor."

My father had to calm his plunging horse when Grumble Belly landed beside him. When he finally stood still enough that we could talk, Father turned to me. "So, Emma, I expected to see Grassina. What are
you
doing here, and
what
are you riding?"

"Grassina finally fell victim to the family curse, so I'm the new Green Witch. This is our friend, Grumble Belly. He's helping us."

"Grumble Belly, huh?" Father said, eyeing the enormous dragon. "You say he's a friend? Then he isn't under a spell?" I noticed that my father's hand had moved toward his sword, but when I nodded, he took his hand away. "Someday you'll have to tell me how you two met. And you mean to say that Grassina acts like Olivene now?"

I nodded. "And Haywood is a man again."

"I'll have a lot to get used to, won't I?" he said. "What do you plan to do, Emma?"

"Whatever you need." I glanced at the knights trying to calm their frightened horses. "But I think we'd better get back in the air before we scare away your army."

"Then see what you can do about those orange dragons. We can handle Beltran's troops, but not while dragons are attacking."

When Grumble Belly leaped into the air, he headed straight for the other army. The men in the front lines looked like peasants fresh from the fields. Wearing stiffened leather for armor, and carrying pitchforks and axes for weapons, I didn't think they stood much of a chance against my father's trained soldiers. Beltran had kept his own trained men toward the back and it looked like he was there as well, seated on a black horse behind the foot soldiers and the mounted knights. I decided that another, trimmer figure seated on a white horse to his right must be Prince Jorge since they were dressed almost alike. Helmeted and wearing suits of chain mail, the triple griffins of their family crest decorated their horse's trappings as well as their shields, but while the king wore black, Jorge was dressed in shining silver.

Another man sat astride a gray horse to the left of the king. Taller than Beltran or Jorge, he had flowing white hair and wore a long black cape. His face was uncovered, and from where I sat, he looked like he might be handsome, although not as handsome as the prince. When the man gestured at the dragons, I realized that he must be the wizard.
That can't be Olebald,
I thought.
He doesn't look anything like Olefat.
Realizing that Grassina must have been mistaken, I swallowed hard and tried to ignore the tight feeling in my chest. This was no incompetent wizard who would be easy to defeat.

My father sat at the head of his mounted knights, his visor raised as he watched the dragons descend. The beasts flamed and my father's men cried out. Horses reared and pranced, creating havoc in my father's ranks.

"Beltran's wizard must be controlling those dragons," said Eadric. "It would take a strong wizard to control three dragons at once, wouldn't it, Grumble Belly?"

The dragon snorted, and a sour puff of air wafted past us. "I've never met a wizard who could control one dragon so completely, let alone three. Dragons don't normally involve themselves in the affairs of men. He must be a powerful wizard indeed."

I watched as the dragons swooped and veered, flying low over my father's men and scattering the more skittish horses. Some of the foot soldiers broke ranks and ran, leaving the lines in even greater disorder. The dragons were fearsome enough, yet they seemed so odd.

"Let's challenge them," I said to Grumble Belly, "and let them know we're here."

"But there are three of them, and they're the biggest dragons I've ever seen," said Eadric.

I sniffed the air. "That doesn't matter. Do you smell boiled cabbage?"

Eadric grunted. "What are you talking about? Even I can't think of food at a time like this."

The orange dragons swerved and came back toward my father's troops. Beating their wings in unison, they swooped low over the cowering men. Horses screamed and fought their reins, and a full third of my father's army disappeared into the forest.

"You're right!" exclaimed Grumble Belly. "I don't smell anything even though they've been flaming."

"Exactly! Now, how about that challenge?"

"Cover your ears!" Grumble Belly's sides expanded as he inhaled. The roar was deafening, even with my fingers stuck in my ears. My father's remaining troops looked up, but they stood their ground and watched us with their swords raised and their bowstrings taut. Beltran's men looked surprised, and I saw fear in the way his foot soldiers drew closer together. The three dragons' movements became jerkier for a moment, then they turned and headed toward us.

When Grumble Belly flew higher, the three orange dragons rose to meet him, flaming long before they were within reach. After seeing how far a dragon could flame at the Olympics, I thought their flames looked meager.

"Watch out!" shouted Eadric. "Those flames may not hurt you, Grumble Belly, but we'll be burned to cinders."

I shook my head. "I don't think so, but you can close your eyes if you want."

"Close my eyes? What good will that do?"

"Sometimes your eyes can trick you even though your brain knows the truth," I said.

A moment later, the flames from the orange dragons reached us. I felt nothing, however, except the rush of the wind against my face as Grumble Belly beat his wings and soared.

"What's going on?" asked Eadric.

"Watch and learn," I said, and recited a quick and easy spell.

Let all that's false
Now disappear.
We do not want
To see it here.

The orange dragons flickered, then one by one they faded away, leaving nothing behind to mark that they had ever been there. "They weren't real," I said.

An excited shout went up from my father's troops, echoed by a groan of despair from Beltran's men. Suddenly a lone horseman broke away from the enemies' lines, galioping toward the closest trees. Beltran's wizard was kicking his heels into his horse's sides to make it go faster. "Follow that man," I told Grumble Belly, and an instant later we were passing over the heads of my father's foes. Drawing closer, I was surprised to see that the wizard was bald-headed and pleasant-faced; he looked a lot like Olefat. Just like the three dragons, the wizard's appearance had been a lie.

Grumble Belly was almost directly over him when Olebald turned and looked up. I was too far away to hear what he said, but I saw his hands wave and suddenly a small dark cloud appeared above us. Thunder rumbled in its depths and a bolt of lightning zigzagged through the sky.

"Hold on tight!" bellowed Grumble Belly as he tucked his wings and dove. Eadric reached around me and we both clutched the dragon's ridge, our knuckles white from pressure. The first bolt missed us, but the second hit the dragon's tail, jolting him with a surge. He plummeted, tumbling head over heels. The lightning had stunned us as well, and we fell from his back, unable to control our muscles enough to hold on. I couldn't hear anything but the ringing in my ears, although I must have screamed, since I made my throat sore. I was too numb to think, let alone say a spell, and Eadric and I would have been killed if Grumble Belly hadn't come to his senses and beaten the air with his wings, bringing him level beneath us. He caught us with his skull, a lumpy and uncomfortable place to land. As the air woofed out of me, I knew I'd bear the bruises for days.

Although I couldn't hear, my head cleared as Eadric helped me back to my seat on Grumble Belly's neck. I realized that even though the cloud was shrinking as it leaked rain, it probably still held enough energy to shoot more lightning. Bending toward the dragon's neck, I shouted, "Would you mind heating up that cloud?"

"I'd be delighted!" said Grumble Belly, and with a blast of flame, he turned the cloud into steam, which quickly dissipated in the clear blue sky.

Before Olebald could aim his magic at us again, I pointed at him and said,

Go to the isle of sun-warmed sand,
Where memories were taken.
Stay there till your king's gone home,
His urge to fight forsaken.

A tiny whirlwind sprang up under the horse's hooves, growing until it engulfed both horse and rider. I watched as the swirling wind rose from the ground and carried them away.

When Eadric spoke, his voice was faint in my still ringing ears. "It looks as though the fighting has started without us."

While fleeing the storm cloud, we had flown over the forest, leaving the battlefield behind. I turned and saw that the archers had sent their first volleys into the opposing armies' ranks. Men had already fallen, and more fell as we watched, cut down by the iron arrowheads. I had to do something fast. People's lives were at stake, and one of those lives was my own father's.

"I have to stop this!" I said.

Although Grumble Belly circled above the battlefield, no one on the ground seemed to notice us. "I could fry them if you'd like," the dragon suggested, and his belly began to grumble.

"No," I said. "I don't want you to hurt them, either."

Eadric tapped my shoulder. "What kind of magic did the Green Witch use in the tapestry?" he asked. "Maybe you could do something like that."

"I don't know what she did. I'm going to have to come up with something on my own. Wait a minute." A bizarre picture had popped into my head. I couldn't keep from laughing, a deep-down belly laugh that made Grumble Belly snort blue flame and turn his head to look at me in surprise. It was loud, and I know I sounded strange, but it wasn't anything I could control. I had just had the most wonderful, impossible, amazing idea.

"What's so funny?" demanded Eadric when I'd started to calm down.

"You'll see," I said, wiping tears from my eyes. "Just sit back and give me some room. First of all, I need a way to deliver a spell. Pointing my finger from up here wouldn't work very well. How about this?" I used my hands to shape a ball bigger than a witches' light. Although I hadn't asked it to be, the ball turned out to be green. "Now to add the right spell, and I think this one is perfect!"

Strangers came to steal our land,
To take what they could carry.
're free to go, if they leave now, They
As long as they don't tarry.

If they stay to fight a war,
They'll have to pay a price.
While they remain upon our land
They'll live as frogs or mice.

"You're turning an entire army into frogs or mice?" asked Eadric.

"Not the
whole
army," I said. "Just enough so they'll get the point. Grumble Belly, would you mind flying lower? Right over Beltran's army would be fine."

While the dragon swooped and turned, I tossed the ball as hard as I could, aiming for the center of the front line. The ball glittered as it fell, and some soldiers in the back shot arrows at it but missed. Grumble Belly flamed and turned the arrows to ash before they could hurt anyone.

When the ball hit the ground, it exploded in a shower of green droplets. The men closest to it disappeared immediately, then the men next in line disappeared as well. My father's men cheered as an ever-widening green circle devastated the front lines. It looked as though Beltran's men had simply vanished. It wasn't until the soldiers behind them pointed at the ground and began hopping around like they'd suddenly lost their minds that I knew that my spell had worked. Grumble Belly flew lower, and I saw that the ground was swarming with brown mice. Although the frogs blended in with the spreading green magic, I thought I saw a few of them as well.

"Good!" I said. "Now let's go see King Beltran."

"The king might listen to you better if you go armed," warned Eadric.

I nodded and hurried through the spell, making another green ball.

Grumble Belly flapped his wings, creating a wind that knocked over a half dozen foot soldiers. The archers raised their bows, but he ignored them and soared past the army before they could let any arrows fly.