The Dragon At War

by Gordon R. Dickson

  He broke off, because Carolinus, still sitting propped up with pillows on his bed, had just now appeared in the courtyard, behind Jim.

  As Jim swung around to face him, Carolinus snapped at the senior knight.

  "Well?" he said. "I'm waiting. John Chandos, a word with you!"

  Chapter Eleven

  Jim looked away from the Mage, out over the hard-pounded ground of the courtyard, past those who had been fighting to where the still forms of his men-at-arms lay. He turned back to Carolinus.

  "There are wounded who need help," he said.

  "Oh, that," said Carolinus. "A few knocked heads!"

  He waved a hand.

  The bodies in the field stirred, raised their heads, sat up and looked around them—then pulled themselves slowly to their feet.

  "We were using blunted weapons, James," said Brian. "Surely you didn't think we wished to hurt any?"

  Jim looked at him grimly, then suddenly the anger went out of him, like air out of an opened balloon. This was the way these people were built. Fighting was fun to them and fun was fighting. You could no more change that than you could change the path of the Earth in its orbit about the sun. It was just something you had to get used to.

  "None dead, thankfully," Carolinus was saying cheerfully behind him. "I can do nothing with the dead. Come! To the high table!"

  Jim looked at him sourly.

  "Don't you think," he said, "that if you're able to hop around like this, carrying your bed with you, you could put yourself in some ordinary clothes?"

  Carolinus glanced down with a look of surprise at the nightgown that he had insisted on. It was not the ordinary custom in the fourteenth century to wear nightgowns to bed. Most people slept naked—or in their daytime clothes. But Carolinus didn't. He also usually wore nightcaps.

  "You're quite right, my boy," he said; and vanished again, bed and all.

  The spectators had disappeared by this time, and even those who had been in the battle were edging off to where they might be out of Jim's field of vision.

  "You can all go," Jim told them harshly, speaking over the heads of the knights before him. "And next time don't get into anything like this without my permission."

  There was a chorus of "Yes, m'Lord!" and the men-at-arms scattered like guilty school children. Jim turned and led the way back into the hall. When they sat down at the high table, Carolinus was already there, seated on a bench wearing one of his usual robes of deep red. His bed was nowhere in sight.

  Whether the elder magician had contrived it deliberately or not, Jim found that, once seated, he was on one side of Carolinus, Sir John was at the end of the table on the other side and across the table from Jim were Sir Giles and Sir Brian, in that order; so that Sir Brian faced Jim. Dafydd ap Hywel was a little ways down the bench from Brian.

  Jim, meanwhile, was already beginning to regret the way he had acted outside the front door. He was a generous-hearted person. He seldom lost his temper; and always afterwards regretted that he had done so—even when he still felt he had been in the right, Sir Brian was smiling hopefully at him now and so he smiled back as cheerfully as he could.

  "You were doing well out there, Brian," he said. "And Dafydd, it's good to see you both again, even if we did just part yesterday!"

  He extended his hands across the table. Brian gripped one strongly, as did Dafydd the other—if only briefly.

  "Indeed Sir Brian was!" said Sir John. "I swear before God that I was the only one left between him and the doorway; and I have little doubt that he would have overcome me and touched it, with at least his foot, shortly."

  Jim felt a little jump inside him. Invoking the name of God made Sir John's words almost a legal statement. Most ordinary swearing was with the names of Saints or martyrs. Chandos was reputed to be one of the best swords in the kingdom. If Brian could hold his own with him, let alone overcome the older knight, Chandos was acknowledging Jim's friend as also a first sword of the kingdom. All the remnants of annoyance inside Jim were swept away.

  "By—" He checked himself just in time. He had been about to say "by God" also; but he realized it would mean something different to these men than it did to himself. "—the—er—Curriculum! Brian, I am overwhelmed to hear that!"

  Brian's face was suddenly humble and appealing.

  "I pray you, James," he said, "take not too seriously what Sir John says. He had to keep one foot on the lintel of the door; and so, since this could not be his shield side, else he would be facing me with sword alone, he must stand at an angle to me. This meant he had to reach around his own shield to match swords with me; and this put him at a considerable disadvantage—"

  "Have done, have done!" interrupted Chandos with a laugh. "You'll end up proving you lost, instead of near-winning, Sir Brian. I meant what I said."

  He filled a cup from the pitcher of wine that stood already on the table.

  "But let us to business, gentlemen, since we are all together," he said. He looked down the table. "Mage—"

  "And high time, too!" interrupted Carolinus fussily. He looked directly at Chandos. "There is more to this situation than you understand, John."

  "Oh, by the way," interposed Jim quickly, "Sir John, may I make you acquainted with S. Carolinus, one of the three greatest magicians in the world."

  "Thank you, Sir James," answered Chandos, but without taking his eyes off those of Carolinus, "but I know the Mage well. Why do you tell me this, Carolinus?'

  "Can you imagine a situation which you do know more about than I?" returned Carolinus bluntly.

  There was a pause. Chandos shook his head slowly.

  "You're concerned about a French invasion," Carolinus went on. "You should know that the French themselves are not to be feared by England at the present, without allies. But this time they have allies—who aren't human ones. They're sea serpents from the sea-depths. Creatures twice the size of any dragon; and there are many of them. More than that, they can make a safe crossing of the Channel by King Jean's army a virtual certainty."

  Sir John looked at him for a long moment.

  "No," he said slowly, at last, "as you say, I can't imagine a situation you would not know more about than I, Mage," he said, "and you have just proved that. But why should these serpents have any interest in aiding King Jean or ravaging this fair island of ours?"

  "The serpents don't give a groat for us or our island," said Carolinus snappishly. "But they want to exterminate every dragon on it and plunder the dragons' hoards. It's a long story—too long to go into at this time—but the sea serpents have been itching to do something about the British dragons for a long time. The two creatures are natural enemies. They seldom meet, of course, since one lives entirely on land and very seldom goes near the sea; and the other lives in the sea and seldom goes near the land. Still, they are rivals for gold and gems; and each hates the other."

  "I see—" Chandos was beginning, when he broke off abruptly. "Er, good morning, m'Lady. It is always an honor and a great pleasure to see you; but we are having something of a council of war here and—"

  "—And women aren't invited?" responded Angie tartly, seating herself at the end of the bench beside Jim. "Oh, I perfectly understand, Sir John. Moreover, although I'd originally determined to be along on this expedition you're all planning, I've come to the conclusion after all that we have a home here in Malencontri; and if Jim goes, somebody has to be here to hold it together and once more that person will have to be me. I don't like it. I tell you plainly I don't like it. But I'm going to accept it. That doesn't mean I'm not going to know as much of what's going on as there is to know. So, simply count me as one of your council, gentlemen."

  Jim looked at her gratefully. Angie glared back at him for a second, then softened. Jim prolonged his grateful smile until Chandos's words drew his attention back to the end of the table where the senior knight sat.

  "As you will, my Lady," said Chandos. He turned back to Carolinus. "Now, as I was saying to you. Mage, I understan
d now why the sea serpents would want to get at our dragons. But why be in league with King Jean? The reason for that must be discovered—"

  "Precisely," broke in Carolinus, "and that is why—"

  "—Must be discovered," interrupted Chandos firmly, in his turn, "in a hurry, by the going of these gentlemen to France itself, to where the expedition is being readied; since our advice is that King Jean is there, himself, with his court."

  "John," said Carolinus, "you're a fool!"

  Sir John was considered the first courtier of Europe. His urbanity, his coolness, and his politeness to other gentlemen, and anyone else worthy of respect, was a byword. But he was still a knight, and he reacted as any knight would to Carolinus's words.

  "Sir!" said Chandos. And the tone of the word was matched by the glare from his angry gray eyes.

  "You must listen to me, John," plowed on Carolinus, unmoved. "The truth is that the answer does not lie at the French King's court, but elsewhere. You know he has made a first minister of the Italian, Ecotti?"

  "Oh, yes," said Chandos. His face was back under control again, but his voice still had an angry edge to it. "Yes, that Italian, er, magician. Of course I know who you mean!"

  "Sorcerer, John, sorcerer!" said Carolinus. "A rare breed, but a despicable one. They are not magicians but men or women who have sold themselves to the Dark Powers to learn a sort of dark magic. A magic that is dangerous—but limited. Ecotti alone could not bring sea serpents to the aid of King Jean; even with the enticement of their own advantage—a chance to get at all the dragons of England."

  "If not Ecotti," said Chandos—he had got his voice and face completely back under control now, and was as if his momentary burst of dangerous fury had never been, "who, then?"

  "The short answer to that," answered Carolinus, "is I don't know yet. But, what you and I had better find out first is how many of these gentlemen are prepared to take on the task of finding out. James, of course is not only committed but indispensable."

  Jim found a small coal of anger suddenly bursting into flame inside him. Carolinus was taking him very much for granted. Then he remembered his dragon connections, which left him with little choice in the matter. The coal faded and died.

  "—Giles also, I take it, has agreed to go," Carolinus was continuing.

  "Most assuredly," said Sir Giles, twisting the right-hand point of his massive blond mustache with a tinge of excitement. "

  Carolinus's eyes moved to Brian's.

  "And you, Brian?"

  "I will be at Jim's side, as always," said Brian simply.

  Carolinus looked farther down the table.

  "Dafydd?"

  "Ah, now, there's nothing I'd like better than to be one of those on this small adventure," said Dafydd, in his soft voice. "But my wife is carrying a second child. She was very plain, look you, about what I might do; and told me so before I set out. "To Malencontri you can go,' she said, 'but no further. And return to me within two days.' "

  Dafydd sighed a little.

  "So it seems that I must stay at home. Perhaps"—his face brightened—"it is all for the best. I feel that I shall have a girl, this coming Christmastide, to add to the boy to whom my wife has already given birth—and a bouncing little lad he is. In truth, gentlemen, much as I wish to accompany you, it would take a braver man than myself to go against my wife's wishes in this matter."

  "Three!" said Carolinus. "Leaving out Dafydd and of course Aargh. That should be more than enough—"

  "And I, too, would be going with them!" said Angie, fiercely. "If there was only anyone at all I could trust to leave in charge here."

  She looked angrily at Carolinus.

  "You would plan to send these gentlemen, then, into the sea somewhere?" asked Chandos. "Could I ask where and why; and looking for what?"

  "Yes," said Carolinus. "They're going to find a kraken named Granfer, the oldest living individual in all the seas; and see if he can't help point them toward the guilty party."

  "A what?" said Chandos.

  "A kraken," said Carolinus. "You understand what a kraken is?"

  "Yes—yes, I've heard of krakens," said Sir John. "But why should this one be able to tell them anything of worth?"

  "He can. Take my word for it."

  "I take your word for much indeed, Mage," said Chandos. "But I can hardly risk the King's business, and the hope of survival for our English race, on as slight a thing as the trust of one man like myself for another like yourself, Sir James and his friends must go to France. If necessary I have authority from the King to order them to do so."

  "Oh?" said Carolinus.

  He said nothing more. Chandos stared at him for a second, before realizing that suddenly at the table there were only himself, Carolinus, Dafydd and Angie. Jim, Brian and Giles had vanished.

  "Send them to France by all means, John," said Carolinus icily. "On the King's business and under the King's authority. But you will have to find them first; and they have already started on their way to do my bidding in the sea."

  Chapter Twelve

  "Where are we?" asked Giles.

  He, Jim and Brian were standing in the center of a little bay at the seashore, with stony cliffs some thirty feet high, crowned with a rim of dark earth and rough grass, behind them and enclosing a semicircle of stony beach perhaps three hundred yards in length.

  The powerful, white-maned, icy waves of the Atlantic pounded on the stones of that shore, coming in one after the other—Jim could not remember who had said it originally, possibly it was the Vikings—"the Wild White Horses," someone had called them.

  "About five miles north of the Loathly Tower, I should judge," Brian answered Giles. "James, if we're supposed to start doing something or other, we're damned short of equipment. I'm wearing my sword, but outside of that I'm a naked man. I need armor and a horse. Also, it would probably be prudent to have some provisions."

  This was entirely true. Jim himself had been fully conscious of this aspect of Carolinus's sudden sending of them off this way. Well, it was Carolinus himself who had reminded them all of the fact that Jim was also a magician.

  "You're quite right, Brian. Anything particular you want, Giles?" Jim said, turning to Giles. "In addition to what Brian mentioned for himself, that is?"

  "Merely my horse, weapons and saddle goods," answered Giles, referring to the blanket-roll of personal property that most servantless traveling knights carried with them behind their saddle for emergency living.

  "Oh, I'll need my saddle goods too, James," put in Brian.

  "I'll be back in an hour with all of them," said Jim.

  For himself, there was something more than the other two had mentioned that he personally wanted to go back for. He concentrated and wrote on what seemed to be the inside of his forehead:

  TAKE ME TO ANGIE → NOW

  He felt once more in him the curious generative sensation that Carolinus insisted was the magical form of creativity at work; but was different from any creativity feeling Jim had ever experienced before. Suddenly he found himself immediately behind Angie as she was entering their solar from the corridor outside and the tower staircase just beyond.

  "Angie—" he began.

  Angie gave a small shriek, jumped and rotated—it seemed in mid-air—to face him. Seeing him, she backed away from him for several steps, before catching herself. But she still stared at him as if he were a ghost.

  "Angie, it's all right. It's just me," Jim said, following her into the solar. "I had to use magic to come back to see you. I just couldn't take off like that without a word. It's all right—it's me—the flesh-and-blood me."

  To prove it, he put his arms around her.

  She was stiff when he first touched her, but melted almost immediately into his arms.

  "Oh, Jim!" she murmured after a moment; and unexpectedly burst into tears.

  "I at least wanted a chance to say goodbye," Jim said.

  "Oh, yes!" Angie sobbed against his chest. "It would have been—on
top of everything else, it would have been too cruel! I hate them all! Chandos and Carolinus and all of them!"

  "But you'll forgive them, won't you—Carolinus, anyway?" asked Jim.

  Angie stood back from him and carefully wiped the corners of her eyes.

  "I suppose so," she said in a shaky voice. "Carolinus, anyway—eventually. But it was too cruel! And I've treated you just terribly these last two days. I always treat you terribly!"

  "No you don't," said Jim soothingly, "just—"

  He broke off, aware that he was about to step into a verbal quagmire.

  "Just most of the time, I suppose," said Angie ominously.

  "No—no!" said Jim hastily. "I was just going to say—ah—just put the whole thing out of your mind."

  "It doesn't bother you that I'm angry with you, then?" asked Angie.

  "Well, of course it does—" Jim was beginning when Angie suddenly threw herself into his arms again.

  "What am I doing?" she said. "Pay no attention to me—to what I say, I mean!"

  She lifted her head and kissed Jim firmly and long upon the lips.

  He kissed her back.

  It was some little while later before they got around to talking about the things that Jim needed to take back with him to Brian and Giles.

  "They won't need their horses," Jim was saying. "Horses won't do any good under water."

  "How are you ever going to go safely under water?" asked Angie.

  "It'll have to be done by magic, of course," said Jim. "You know how hard I practiced up here all winter. Carolinus was quite right, essentially you have to teach yourself. I told you about him having me swallow a shrunken-down copy of the Encyclopedic Necromantick, didn't I?"

  "Yes, you did," Angie shuddered. "How big did you say that was before you swallowed it?"

  "I didn't have a chance to measure it," said Jim, "but it was the biggest and heaviest book I've ever seen."