Dragons of War (15 page)

"Only the need to fulfill my vow brought me to stay in this region this long. But we have summered now, and I would prefer to leave early and arrive at the migration sites early as well. The caribou will be fat this year. We must leave immediately."

"No, my love, my precious one, the mother of my young, do not say that just yet. We need you. You must go with us to Fort Dalhousie. There you will speak with the humans."

"Fool. How to speak with them when they cannot understand dragon speech and I cannot understand man speech?"

"Dragonboys can speak some dragon speech. Not perfectly, of course, but they can understand well enough. At least some of them, the sharper-witted ones."

""The humans have a great power with speech and its control. I see their designs spread out like sheep beneath my wings. I warn you, the father of these young, you should beware the evil power of the humans."

"They will execute the boy if you do not help us."

She said nothing.

"They will leave us to die here of starvation."

She grumbled. "You deserve no better. Males! I've no need for you now. Not for five more years, and I won't be coming back to this part of the world to hunt then."

"So you have said, my love, my beauty."

"Will you stop that, you besotted fool!"

"It is hard. Wyverns mate for life and live together for that period."

"A good reason never to lose your wings. Dragons mate once and never again with that male." She softened. "But these young are good ones. The eggs were large. They fly strong and true. You have been a good mate for me. I am still somewhat surprised by it. I was worried that they would not develop strong wings."

"I am glad to be their father. Still," he continued, "for the boy's sake, I must ask that you come to Dalhousie."

She glanced away to where Relkin stood, watching them.

"He enslaves you. He would enslave me; I can see how they work their magic on you. Always taking care of you. It makes you like young fresh from the egg."

"You overestimate him, I'm afraid. But he is good at dealing with wounds and feet."

"I will think about it. Leave me."

Bazil passed this on to Relkin, who thought about it for a moment and then shrugged and got up and headed down into the birch forest in search of some supper. Farther down there were stands of Red Oak. There would be squirrels available. As he went, he strung his bow and wound its spring. He wandered downslope, through a section cut up by long gullies where small streams had dug into the hillside. Hemlocks choked the streambeads, pines and birch clad the higher ground. Gnats whined through the air. He went on, moving as quietly as he might, eyes alert to the slightest movement.

The forest was strangely quiet. Nothing moved. After a quarter of an hour, he had still seen not a single animal or bird. He began to have the feeling that he was being watched. It was not the first time he had had this feeling, but now suddenly it had returned and become much stronger.

Someone or something was moving in the woods around him, but moving so skillfully that he saw and heard nothing. He sensed there were many, and still he could see nothing.

It could not be imps or trolls, neither of which had that degree of woods craft. It could be men. The enemy employed many men whose hearts were turned to darkness. For the reward of wealth and power, they would serve the Masters and do their bidding, no matter how vile. Relkin knew the tribesmen like the Teetol could move through the forest in complete silence.

They were ahead of him and on both sides. For a long moment he crouched quietly, eyes staring into the trees, then he turned and started climbing back up the streambed, moving as silently as possible, jumping from one tumbled rock to the next. Concern was mounting in his heart. He sensed the others out there, keeping pace with him.

His heart sank. It seemed he was leading a pack of Teetol braves straight to his friends. And there was nothing else he could do!

The trees thinned out ahead of him as he scrambled up a clay-covered slope, and at last he broke out onto the meadow and began running full tilt, skipping across tussocks of tall grass and darting around the occasional shrub, anything to put off the aim of the bowmen he felt somewhere behind him.

He came up screeching a warning to the others, who were all standing together watching him.

"No need to run," said Manuel, holding up a hand. "Look! They come."

Relkin turned. A line of slender figures had appeared out of the woods. "Elves," he said in sudden comprehension.

A forest horn went up and was answered by several others. Hundreds of elves, the forest elves of Tunina, clad in soft, grey-green, emerged from the eaves of the woods on both sides of the meadow. They drew forth black bows strung with red-feathered arrows.

"Don't make any sudden movements," said Relkin. "They use poisoned arrows. We're all dead if they start shooting."

The dragons grumbled. Dragoness High Wings gathered the young and prepared to depart with much snarling and growling of horrid threats.

An elf clad in the same grey robes but with fetishes of red and yellow flowers attached to his costume, came forward and called to them in good Verio, albeit with the usual elfish accent.

"In the name of Dodolfin, king of the westmark and Mt. Ulmo. I greet you great beasts of land and air. We have watched your coming with awe and were honored. But we have become concerned at your continued presence.

"Our king, the great Dodolfin, is titular ruler of all this land, from the edge of the Gan to the eastern slopes of Mt. Ulmo, for this is the ancient westmark of Tunina and long have the forest elves lived here.

"Our king has dominion over all the land and the creatures thereon it. But he is a wise king and would not order anything beyond that which nature provides. The animals must live in the forest without hindrance, thus can the elves live in the forest, too, for we live upon the animals.

"Our king must now request that the great beasts of land and air return to their own homelands. Their depredations upon our elk and deer cannot be accepted any further. The elk of Mt. Ulmo are fleeing. The deer are on the verge of panic. There is terror throughout the wood.

"Our king has therefore sent me to give you his commandment. You must go at once from these lands, and if you refuse his just judgment and do not remove yourselves from our lands, we shall slay thee."

A typical example of elf diplomacy, thought Relkin, an all inclusive statement. Not that he wished to argue with it.

Relkin turned to the others. "Well, that does it my friends. We either go back to Dalhousie, or we die. We do not have the strength to march all the way north without hunting the elk and the deer."

"How can they kill us?" said the Purple Green.

"Elves are masters of poison. They will put a hundred arrows into you, and within minutes you will be paralyzed.

Then they will come close with their swords and hew open your throat and take your head."

Relkin turned back to the elf prince.

"We hear the words of the King Dodolfin, and we tend our apologies. We did not know that we committed offense." Relkin briefly outlined the events that had drawn the three dragons to the mountain meadow.

"So you see," he concluded, "we were on the point of leaving anyway, but we will now accelerate our departure. However, it must be said that for all the terror we have caused, we have eaten very little game. We will have to beg permission from you to hunt and eat some more, or we will starve to death before we can leave your lands."

"The dragons have devoured much of our game. I see that two of the dragons are from the Argonath. They are not in our reports. It is the others, the flying dragons, wild drakes from the utter north. They sometimes come to Mt. Ulmo but never for this long. The elk are terrorized. The dragons stoop from the sky like enormous eagles and carry off the largest bulls as if they were rabbits. They have even taken bears and devoured them!"

"The dragons will all leave, be assured of this. The flying ones will depart within a day. The others will go soon after. But I must beg for some food. We are starving to death."

The elf prince had come closer and had dropped his fierce demeanor.

"Now that I understand why you are here, I can perhaps allow this. If the flying dragons leave at once, then the others will be allowed to take elk and deer."

"You know, they're getting tired of elk. Have you any aurochs?"

"I am Prince Edofoon, and I would much rather play the harp and sing songs with you than be forced to slay you, dragonboy. But if you were to kill one of the king's aurochs, then I would have to do just that."

"Oh, well, in that case forget it. We'll eat elk. In fact, we'll eat anything right now."

Now the dragons and dragonboys came together to discuss the situation.

"We cannot stay here. High Wings and the young must leave at once."

"We can go back. There is an offer of clemency." Manuel's use of
we
elicited no response from the dragons.

Baz said nothing. They all looked at the Purple Green. He heaved a vast sigh.

"We go back."

Relkin expelled a deep breath. Bazil spoke up. "Dragonboy will be given fair trial. Not be hanged."

"But the dragoness must go to Dalhousie to give her evidence to the captain," said Manuel.

Bazil turned to the dragoness, High Wings.

"What will it be, my love, my beauty?"

The green dragoness snapped her jaws a moment.

"We will go to Dalhousie. But I will take the boy with me. He will act as go-between. I do not trust the men, ever."

"Take the boy with you…" muttered Relkin. "What? You're going to fly there with me?"

"You are smaller than most elk. The human place is not far. A matter of a few dozen wing beats."

"Fly? Like a bird?"

"Like a dragon."

"Fly?"

Relkin was perfectly torn between glee and terror. To see the world as a bird does. And to have nothing beneath his feet but air!

It seemed altogether too soon, but in less than an hour all was ready. The others would stay with the elves in a great camp that night, and they would feast to perpetual amity between elf, dragon, and men. Then they would head back to the Argo and Dalhousie.

The sun was falling into the western sky by this time, and Relkin stood in front of the dragoness. Gingerly she seized him in her foreclaws. The first squeeze was too hard, and he squawked until she relaxed her grip.

Then with a tremendous bound, she hurled herself ten feet into the air; her enormous wings cracked once, twice, and thrice, and she was lifting away. With one more beat she was aloft, and Relkin gazed down in awe as the world fell away and the mountain towered up beside him on his right, cloaked in trees until its very top. The wing beats were fast and regular, and enormous muscles were bunching and releasing above his head. He looked down and gasped, and felt a sudden fear of falling. The meadow was far below now, and his friends were reduced to specks, even the dragons. Then the dragoness turned, and he saw the river Argo and beyond it the great vale of the river Dally, which wound like a silver snake through the dark forest of Dalhousie. The sight was such that in a moment all fear was obliterated and replaced with wonder. He turned his head and saw the line of the mountains, the mighty Malguns, from Snowgirt and Red Oak to Bascoin, Kohon, and distant Livol, ranked like giant guardians of the east, the snow glittering off their crowns.

The grip around his body tightened suddenly, and he looked up and caught the dragoness looking down at him for a moment with one great eye. He realized that she was thinking how easy it would be to get rid of him. She could just open her claws, and he would be lost. He held his breath.

But she looked away again and kept him clutched fast in the enormous grip and flew on across the leagues of forest and vale toward the river Argo.

Relkin gazed south and west and saw in the vast distance, far away, a glitter of fire as the sun shone on the peaks of the White Bones Mountains. Much closer stood the lone cone of Mt. Kenor. In that direction lay the enemy, a rumor of death and terror and great sorcery. Relkin had seen enough of those to understand the enemy's power.

His gaze returned to the south where the vale of the Dally narrowed up against the plateau of Kohon. To the west of Kohon lay the basin around Lake Tuala. Relkin dreamed of owning a farm someday, and he had heard that the Tuala basin had excellent soil.

And now they were above the river Argo, and the dragoness turned and flew downstream, her wings carrying them closer to Dalhousie with every powerful beat.

Into the glorious light of late afternoon the dragoness flew, her mighty wings crackling every so often as she soared above the river. When they were still several leagues distant, Relkin caught a glimpse of Fort Dalhousie on its hilltop, and he let out a whoop of exhilaration. What a return this would be! His legend would be set in stone forever after this. The truant, the deserter, who came back in the talons of a flying dragon.

The dragoness circled over the town, and below him Relkin saw panic break out. Horses bolted. Carts were overturned. People stared upward with open mouths. He heard distant screams and saw people running this way and that, and then the town was behind him and they were swooping low over the fort.

Cornets were blowing, screaming into the evening air. Men appeared from tents and buildings, and then began running. The dragoness swung right, passing just above the top of the tower gate. Relkin fancied he saw General Wegan himself staring, openmouthed, from a high window at this apparition. Then the tower was gone, and he was speeding just above the walls and back across the serried tents and buildings of the fort to the parade ground, where with a sickening suddenness the dragoness dropped to the ground. She landed hard, and released him quite suddenly, so that he found himself running to keep his feet, and unable to run fast enough, he tumbled and went head over heels in a forward fall.

He came back onto his feet in a moment, still breathing hard, amazed by the power and speed of flight. Such things he had seen that were not given to any other man in the history of the world. To soar above the land of Kenor with the mighty Malgun Mountains as a rampart to the east and the flat vastness of the Gan spreading out in the northwest. Such things he had seen! The world could never seem the same.