Dragon Rescue

by Don Callander

  “And they’ve packed wagons with all sorts of loot,” Hoarling added.

  “Their stolen horses are in the traces, even now!”

  “Then you’re right,” said the King to Tom. “They’re preparing to break off, taking at least some of their spoils home with them.”

  “That’ll be their downfall, then,” exclaimed the Librarian. “Order the final assault, Lord King. Leave the wagons to us Dragons and Companions!”

  When the Carolnan soldiers burst into the inner fortifications, hastily thrown up by much hard digging, they found the Rellings were even then escaping in good order, taking the heavily loaded wagons with them.

  Soldiers spent more effort pushing the carts through the drifts still blocking the woodland road north of Lexor than they did fighting Ffallmar’s cheering troops pouring into their camp in triumph.

  Grand Blizzardmaker rode in one of the first carts, chuckling over the thick, soft robes and blazing gold, silver, and rare jewels he’d assigned to his own account, trusting his own loyal bodyguards to avoid pitched battie.

  “On! On!” he screamed. “Whip those nags harder! Clear the way.

  Head for home!”

  Seeing all of their hard-won loot disappearing northward with their fat War Chief, many Rellings threw down their weapons, found dry places to rest from running and fighting, and waited to be captured.

  Still, Blizzardmaker had a good chance to make his escape, moving quickly over roads his men had shoveled clear, working feverishly all the night before...until a dark-winged shadow fell over the sixty-odd horses, straining, cruelly lashed, pulling the ten remaining wagons filed with heavy plunder.

  One sensible lead mare stole a glimpse upward.

  Barely ten feet over her head she saw gleaming emerald claws, long and curved and thin and sharp as scythes. She felt a fiery breath on her neck.

  Before her wild eyes, a deep snowbank melted to steaming, stream-ing water in a flash.

  Screaming in abject terror, she bolted sideways into her off-side teammate, who slipped on the icy road and fell on her side, tangled hopelessly in the leather harness.

  The following pair pulled up to avoid piling into the tangled heap of struggling legs and screaming horseflesh.

  The wagon they had been pulling lurched wildly, and the enormously fat Relling War Chief pitched headfirst into the snowbank on the right-hand side of the road.

  He never touched frozen ground. When he opened his eyes and shut his mouth from a long, drawn-out scream, he was being carried aloft by shiny green talons, high into the cold air, away from the city he’d hoped to sack and burn and rule.

  No one ever really discovered what became of Grand Blizzardmaker.

  He was never seen again in Carolna or in the Northlands.

  Retruance told Tom years later that a certain floating iceberg had been washed ashore on a rocky island in the central Blue, a lonely, stormy place in the widest part of the eastern sea.

  The island fishermen found a crazed, all-but-frozen man clinging to a last bit of shattered, wave-washed sea ice. They kindly nursed him back to health, if not complete sanity, the Dragon said. The crumpled, wizened old derelict couldn’t even remember his name.

  The self-reliant fisherfolk gave him a new name, and healthful, useful work drying and mending their nets and packing salt herring.

  They thought his great rolls of fat had kept him just barely alive in his months adrift. He slimmed down considerably while a cast-away, Retruance had heard.

  “Heard rumors also that the Relling Allmoot proclaimed the Grand Blizzardmaker an outlaw. Not for his failing of victory in battle, but for deserting his men and attempting to steal away with their loot,”

  Retruance snorted in disgust. “Hoarling listened in and had a great laugh about it.”

  The King’s homeward way was a triumphal progress. Everywhere the women and children and the jubilant veterans from all the Small Achievements and farm villages lined the road to cheer their King and Queen, the little Prince and Princess, and their soldiers.

  The route, which had taken but five days westbound, took them nearly twelve on the return trip. Every village and farmstead wanted to share the moment of glory and bask in the King’s warm smiles of gratitude.

  In places, of course, there were solemn memorials to be observed, and the King’s royal presence made many a wife and child feel comforted for having lost their soldier in brave and worthy battle for King and Carolna.

  Each of twelve nightly bivouacs called for a gala banquet, and every stop along the road to Lexor meant a speech or two or more.

  Tom sent messages back to the few who remained at Overhall, describing the slowness of their march and the joy of the people, but promising to return to Overhall as soon as Fall Sessions were over.

  The last day of their eastward progress was blustery with a soft and lovely fresh snowfall. The soldiers still under royal arms were those from Overhall, Morning-side, and Manda’s foresters of Greenlevel Forest, and the Royal Army, stationed at Lexor or at Frontier, a mere handful compared to the entire force that had responded to the call to arms.

  All the same, they made an impressively long four-abreast line as they wound through Lexor’s west gate; tramped along broad Trusslo Avenue, lined with cheering citizens; and passed at nightfall into the bright, torch-lit and banner-decked Palace Square, which was located between Alix Amanda Alone Palace, with the great Sessions Hall opposite.

  Little Prince Ednoll at once described his adventures all over again to anyone who would listen.

  “Obviously, it didn’t harm him at all,” Eduard said to Beatrix.

  “Oh, he had a marvelous time!” she said, laughing. “It was you and I who suffered, my beloved! Now, our Amelia wants to go spend the summer with Arbitrance Constable on his swampy redoubt island! She’s a little jealous of her brother’s adventuring, I’m convinced.”

  “Well, and why not?” rumbled Retruance, who had accompanied the returning King, also. “Papa loves children, and he’s very good with them...as we found out.”

  “We’ll have to wait and see about that,” said Eduard, with some doubt. “It’s pretty far out of the way, the Dragon’s island.”

  “Oh, now, my dear! When has there ever been a Princess, other than perhaps our Manda here, with a Dragon for a friend and nurse-maid?” exclaimed the Queen.

  “Besides, it might be a fitting punishment for old Papa,” Tom suggested. “After all, he did kidnap a Prince Royal!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Lexor Fall Sessions

  On the far edge of the ecstatic crowd in the square, Tom recognized a pretty young countrywoman holding aloft a beautiful child to allow her to see the pageantry and celebration. They were accompanied by a rather uncomfortable-looking young farmer wearing painfully neat clothes and the wary manner of a countryman amid city splendor.

  “There’s someone I want you to meet,” he said to Manda.

  He drew her off to the side and greeted Phoebe and little deaf Katy.

  “I’m so glad you decided to come now,” he cried. “Introduce us to your husband, Mistress Phoebe.”

  “This is my wonderful, understanding, hardworking Martin,” said she, blushing bright red under her farmyard tan. “Katy’s father. Sir, if we’ve come at a bad time, with the great victory celebrations and Fall Sessions and all, we can come again in the spring.”

  “Never think of it, not for a single minute!” insisted the Librarian.

  He cordially shook the young farmer by the hand and clapped him on the back, introduced them all to Manda, and told her the deaf child’s story.

  “Next to Dragons,” said Katy, lisping, eyeing Manda carefully,’ ‘I think Princesses are the most beautiful people in the world!”

  Manda shed tears as she hugged Katy and then Phoebe as well.

  “You must come and meet the King, my father, and my stepmother, who really is the kindest and best lady in the whole kingdom, no matter what the old stories say about stepmothers
. And my uncle Murdan, who’s heard all about you, Katy. Between all of us we can surely find a way to help the child.”

  “I’m not sure I need helping,” murmured the little girl, carefully reading Manda’s lips. “I know I miss hearing all sorts of good things, but I can still see...and everything is so beautiful! Maybe I’d better stay as I am.”

  “Well,” Tom told her very seriously, “there’s always the possibility that your lost hearing is incurable, so it’s good you feel that way. However, I think, Katydid, we should let some good and wise people see if they can help. Don’t you agree?”

  “Yes, Sir Tom Librarian,” the child said with equal gravity. “Can I ride on Retruance, do you think?”

  “He’d take you anywhere you asked him to, sweetheart Katy!”

  Manda assured her.

  They waited until the cheering crowd had somewhat dispersed—

  some to Sessions Hall, and others to try the savory sausages toasting over the bonfire coals in the middle of the wide square despite the snow that continued to fall.

  “Come along and meet my own papa,” Manda invited them all, taking the little girl by the hand. “Sooner we see what can be done, the better. There’ll be a lot of good music and singing and street plays and carnivals and such for days here during Fall Sessions, and you wouldn’t want to miss any of it if you can help it, sight or sound!”

  If they know anything well at Alix Amanda Alone Palace, they know how to put on a grand party.

  Lord High Chamberlain Walden, despite his reputation as a fully stuffed shirt, had the happy ability to make everyone feel completely at home, whether a reigning monarch or a farmer’s little deaf daughter.

  He expertly orchestrated all sorts of strange and wonderful sights, sounds, tastes, smells, textures, and pleasures.

  The celebration started, when Fall Sessions adjourned after the first long day, with a wonderful wintertime picnic. Despite the snow-storm without, Alix Amanda Alone Palace’s servants spread rich carpets and soft cushions on the floor of the vast King’s Hall. Everyone sat on the floor and dined on crisply fried chicken and spicy hot sausages, hot loaves of various breads fresh from the city bakers’

  ovens...some of which had marvelous treasures baked in them...and three kinds of potato salad.

  The Constable Dragons had brought bushels of bright yellow lemons, and everyone marveled at the full, rich taste they gave the fruit punch dipped from eight vast crystal basins, each with a silver-and-blue enamel ice statue of the awesome Ice Dragon in their center, spouting the drink from its mouth and keeping it cold for hours and hours.

  The royal couple’s special guests, the next evening, piled into sleighs drawn by the most experienced and surefooted horses in Eduard’s stables and pulled along the ice-slicked streets to Rosemary and Ffallmar’s new town house for the Sessionstime Dinner, stopping at the famous Lexortown Inn, halfway there, to warm themselves in front of glowing-red sea-coal fires, to sip warming cups of hot, spiced rum, and listen to the delightful singing of the children of Spread, a tiny village near Ffallmar Farm.

  The next evening, despite a second heavy snowfall that made the entire capital look like a sugary confection two feet deep in pure, white silence, Eduard Ten, King of Carolna, held court in Sessions Hall, which had been draped with the most expensive and colorful tapes-tries the Queen could find, and hundreds of lanterns and torches that burned forever with the wonderful odor of cedar and spruce and juni-per woods.

  “Friends, brave soldiers, dear countrymen all!” began Eduard, grinning broadly. “It is fit and right to honor those who have saved our homeland from the northern armies, our kingdom from foreign invaders and cruel warriors.”

  The crowd cheered lustily.

  “Once again my sweet bride and I have a single knight to thank for warding off great tragedy and horror from our family—which we like to think is your family, too.”

  There was more cheering, stomping, and much nodding of heads to show him his listeners agreed.

  “You know, of course, that Sir Thomas Librarian of Overhall and my oldest daughter, Princess Alix Amanda—Tom and Manda, with their wonderful Dragons—were instrumental in rescuing our little son, Prince Royal Ednoll, from a most dangerous captivity.”

  Now the audience went wild, cheering and yelling, clapping and waving, stomping their feet and clashing their cups together. Tom and Manda were ever great favorites at Sessions...or wherever in Carolna they might be.

  “I know! I know!” cried the King above the clamor. “They will say they couldn’t have done it without the help of their great Dragons, Retruance and Furbetrance Constable...”

  Loud shouts of approval rose for the Dragon brothers.

  “...and they are right! I want officially and publicly to speak of my fatherly gratitude to them, all four, beloved Dragons and beloved Companions. Their deeds and their names will be engraved into the Official Records of Trusslo, never to be forgotten as long as men can read words on paper.

  “Some might insist I give them material rewards, but these two young people say that they already have everything they could possibly wish or ever will need. They won’t hear of additional titles, rewards, and benefices.”

  He took a sip of rum punch before he continued.

  “As a token of our love and gratitude, the Queen and I have decided we will ask to share with these two young people the cost of building their Achievement at Hidden Lake, above Hiding Lands. We hope they will accept our gift, for it is given in light of the truest love and fullest admiration!”

  Tom and Manda stood to the uproarious acclaim of the assem-blage, blushing with pleasure, pride, and modesty.

  “Speak! Speak!” the crowd chanted as one.

  Princess Manda pushed her husband forward to do the honors for them both. Tom stood, bowing and nodding for long moments as the great audience roared their approval.

  “Well, of course, any household just starting out welcomes help when it comes to paying the really big bills,” Tom began.’ ‘Our house at Hidden Lake Canyon will take not a little money and a lot of time to complete. I wish you all would come and see it, as soon as you can. If you bring a hammer and a saw, we will put you to work, come next summer...”

  A hundred men promised at once to come, even those who didn’t know a hammer from a frying pan, or so said Retruance to Graham.

  “Hidden Lake House will not be a castle like Overhall,” Tom continued when they had quieted. “There can be only one Overhall, and we will always love it best of all. Our home at Hidden Lake will be but two or three stories tall, long, low, rambling, fitting itself into the magnificent setting of lake and forest and canyon walls. It will be, I think, uniquely ours, Manda’s and mine, where we will live when we are not serving our King here in Lexor or off adventuring with our friends and companions, the Constable Dragons.

  “There we will bring our children into the world, and rear them to be as strong and good and true as we possibly can manage.”

  Manda turned to him with a fierce hug and a kiss before them all.

  ‘‘Speak! Princess, speak to us!” the crowd clamored.

  “Oh! Well,” said Princess Alix Amanda Trusslo, Dragon Companion, when the cheers had at last died down a bit. “My husband speaks for a family. He will need the practice. Our family will shortly become larger!”

  There was suddenly a complete silence, as if each listener caught his breath and turned to a neighbor to raise his eyebrows, asking silently, Did I hear her a-right?

  Then, if the earlier cheering had shaken the sturdy rafters of Sessions Hall, this new shout of pure delight that leapt up from the assembled friends, noblemen, soldiers, servants, Dragons, and family was so loud it shook the deep, wet snow from the steep-set roofs of the enormous hall and was heard by guardsmen on the city walls and far beyond.

  Even the deaf child Katy, who had been eating it all up with her big, wide-set blue eyes, sprang up with surprised wonder, for she had heard the glad shout as clearly as she saw sunrise
each summertime morning!

  “The child’s ears are responding to treatment,” said Arcolas, Murdan’s magician-physician, to Phoebe and Martin. “I venture to say in a day or two at the most...”

  Laughter and tears mixed freely and the evening was a tremendous success.

  King Eduard had one further award. He apologized to Ffallmar and Rosemary for leaving them until the last.

  “If I had known my daughter’s wonderful news, I would have known to speak praises of you, Ffallmar, before I spoke of Tom and Manda. I intentionally kept you for last, to give you the greatest share of praise.”

  “Nothing you can say would make me happier than I am,” said the soldier-farmer, beaming proudly. “Tom is like my dearest brother, which I never was lucky enough to have! And, Manda...well, what more can I say?”

  “However, as your sovereign, I have the pleasant duty and the intense gratification...” Eduard went on, “of declaring, subject to the certain endorsement of this present Fall Sessions, you now and hence-forth my Royal Champion, Sir Ffallmar of Ffallmar!”

  When the new Royal Champion could get his breath he thanked the King simply and suggested that all that cheering and declaring and, yes, weeping for joy, called for a round of strawberry ice cream (thanks to the abundant early snow, ice cream was available in quantity that Sessionstime), with some of the absolutely tremendous layered chocolate-and-raspberry cake Mistress Grumble of Overhall Castle had baked, and now stood ready to slice at the other end of Great Hall.

  Eduard and Murdan closeted themselves in the King’s comfortable study early the next morning, and shortly called for Tom and Manda to attend them.

  Retruance had gone off to relieve Furbetrance and Hetabelle at Sinking Marsh and tell them all the latest news. Ffallmar and Captain Graham were in attendance, however, as well as Clem of Broken Land, who had arrived from Ramhold the morning before with his wife and sons, despite the heavy snow on the road east.

  “We still have a few loose ends to fold over and tuck in,” said Eduard Ten, seated beside Murdan, his oldest adviser and most trusted friend.