The Dragon At War

by Gordon R. Dickson

  But Rrrnlf already had his hand on the curtain wall, preparatory to leaping over it.

  "Carolinus!" cried Jim, turning to the older magician.

  But Carolinus already had his finger extended; and his voice was echoing Jim's.

  "Still!" he said.

  Rrrnlf froze in position, his body turned toward the curtain wall, his head looking out over the open area with the green bodies and his hand on the curtain wall.

  "Rrrnlf, wait!" shouted Jim. Rrrnlf did not move, and Jim turned to Carolinus.

  "Let him turn his head and speak, at least."

  Carolinus gave a small twitch of his fingers. Rrrnlf turned his head on an otherwise motionless body to glare down at Jim and the others.

  "Essessili's out there!" he snarled. "What do you hold me for?"

  "Are you sure he's out there?" asked Jim. "Can you recognize him among all these others?"

  Rrrnlf turned his head to look out over the curtain wall again. The sight of him had caused the shrill voices of the serpents to raise in volume. The Sea Devil stared for a long moment, then cried out on a note of exaltation.

  "There he is!" he said. "And—"

  He broke off, his head suddenly as still as his body. Then he threw it back in what was an ear-numbing howl of pain and despair.

  "HE HAS NOT GOT HER!" he roared, like some enormous lion in deep torment.

  So powerful and unexpected was that great, agonized cry that suddenly there was silence everywhere; silence within the castle and silence among all the serpents without. So quiet was it that a breeze could be heard faintly moving the branches of the trees beyond the open space.

  Rrrnlf's head sagged. Then he turned it back suddenly to Jim.

  "He's hidden her somewhere. Let me go! Let me go so I can make him tell me where he hid her!"

  "Still!" snapped Carolinus once more, and Rrrnlf remained unmoving, his mouth opened as if he was still speaking. "He never had her. If he did I'd know it; but there's no trace on him. He has never touched your Lady!"

  "Let him speak, Carolinus!" begged Angie.

  Carolinus twiddled his fingers again, and once more Rrrnlf's face turned toward the humans on the platform, his eyes seeking out Carolinus.

  "I don't believe it! He must have!" he said brokenly. "How can you be sure?"

  "I feel it!" said Carolinus. "And if I feel it, Sea Devil, you had best listen to me!"

  "Rrrnlf," said Jim, in calmer tones, "if we release you from the command that holds you from moving, will you sit down again? You see what's out there. Even if he had your Lady, the chances are you couldn't reach Essessili. Not even you can take on thousands of these sea serpents at once. Stay with us and you may get her back. Go after Essessili now and you'll be the one torn apart; and you'll lose all chance of ever seeing her again."

  He waited a moment for this message to sink in, then Rrrnlf slowly nodded his head.

  "All right… for a while," the giant said. "I'll wait. But I'd better get her in the long run or else anything that stands in my way is going to be slain, until I'm dead myself."

  Jim looked at Carolinus; who nodded, twiddled his fingers and Rrrnlf's body moved as a whole. Slowly he sat down again, his head bent and his face staring at the ground between his knees. It was almost as if he had never moved.

  "There are many questions we have to answer here," Jim said, still trying to console the giant. "But I think we'll answer them in the end, and one of them will give your Lady back to you—"

  "But not immediately!" Dafydd's voice cut in on him. "Now it seems that those serpents have finally decided on a way to attack us. The moat has been holding them back because of being fresh water. But now they move about; and some of them have gone off into the woods. Nor is it that I think they are giving up their attempt to get at us, look you."

  Jim looked and Dafydd was right.

  "I wonder what it is about fresh water—" He broke off and turned to Angie. "Angie, you had a salt water aquarium in your apartment at Riveroak before we were married. Do you know why salt water creatures don't like fresh water?"

  "It's not a matter of liking," said Angie. "It's an actual physiological reaction that can be very uncomfortable for them. In fact, it can kill them. Their body cells are loaded with salt, not like ours, and haven't the ability to keep out fresh water that comes flooding into the cells, as ours can. The result is, cells keep getting filled with fresh water until they actually burst. If you lived in the sea originally, it'd be a rather horrible end for you to be put in fresh water; and even a brief plunge into it, like into our moat or a stream, would be very uncomfortable."

  "Hmm," said Jim. He remembered how the serpents coming ashore had avoided the fresh water streams running into the sea along the shore front. "Well, so the moat's been holding them off until now. But do any of you have any idea of what they'd have gone for in the woods?"

  "If they were men and soldiers—like us," said Chandos, "they'd have gone to build a portable bridge, or, more likely, fascines to fill the moat."

  Fascines, Jim knew, were bundles of sticks used to fill any ditch that stood in the way of an invading army.

  "Indeed!" said Brian. "We would do that. But since they are sea serpents only, would they think of fascines? Surely not."

  "Portable bridges, certainly," said Jim. "Fascines, now—that might just occur to them. Something, anyway, to fill up the moat so that they can get at the gate. They must know that, even barred, with its portcullis down and the drawbridge up, it's still the weakest part of our defense."

  "Here comes one now," put in Dafydd, "dragging something large. I can still not see what it is, though."

  Jim found himself wishing for his dragon-sight. He wheeled on the mere-dragon.

  "Secoh," he said, "what do you see? What's that serpent dragging?"

  "Why, it seems to be a whole tree, m'Lord," said Secoh. "He is dragging it by the roots, and the stem and the branches are trailing behind. Also, here comes another one with another tree. The trees are not very large."

  "Large enough, probably," said Jim grimly, "if they keep bringing them. Let's see if they do what we expect and try filling the moat before the gate."

  Down in the open area, the other serpents were opening up lanes in their numbers, through which serpents emerging from the forest could drag their trees. Sure enough, they headed directly for the moat in front of the castle gates.

  Dafydd put several arrows into the first one to get close. But he failed to make the vital shot through the mouth into the brain, in spite of the superb archer and marksman he was.

  The serpents' eyes were hooded by the ridges of a bony skull that could evidently deflect an arrow. One arrow did stick in the skull of a serpent, but the serpent ignored it. It reached the edge of the moat; and with the help of other serpents pushed the tree, top first, into the moat.

  Close behind it was the second serpent and behind it, a long line of other serpents dragging trees.

  The moat was not more than eight feet deep, anywhere. Clearly, it would not take them long to fill up the space before it. Then they would be able to reach the underside of the portcullis. Even if they did not go on building until they could get to the top of it, and use their great strength to snap the chains that held it, and battle their way through the portcullis to the gate itself.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Jim leaned over the top of the curtain wall just above the archway containing the two great wings of the main gate, with its portcullis and drawbridge. There was a cold, crawling sensation in the region of his stomach.

  "There's got to be an answer to this," he said. "It seems to me I remember—"

  "There is," said Chandos, "but I'm sure your Lady-wife can tell it to you as well as I can."

  "Certainly!" said Angie crisply. "Let them fill it up until they're well up on the drawbridge; but not high enough to reach the top of it and use their weight to pull it loose from its chains or break the chains. They'll want it high, anyway, to make sure they don't get the
ir feet wet. Also, they won't feel secure in that until they've got enough wood piled up and pounded down into the mud until it doesn't float; and does stick up at least half a dozen feet above any water."

  "And then what?" asked Jim.

  "And then we use this," said Angie, slapping the round metallic side of the deep, iron pot on its pivot beside them, which clearly had the capacity for at least a barrel of liquid. It was suspended from two points high on the rack that supported it above a wide fire-pot; so it could be tilted to empty its contents downward. "I've been saving my rancid oil for some emergency like this. We'll start putting it in the pot right now, and heat it up as fast as we can."

  She pointed to the firepit underneath the pot, placed there for that exact purpose of heating.

  "Then," she went on, "when they've built as high as it's safe for us to let them, we pour it over on them. Then we toss blazing torches down."

  "What if the oil doesn't catch fire?" Jim asked uneasily.

  "If it's heated sufficiently," said Chandos, "it will start fire—and very suddenly. Colder, it will still probably catch fire; and the trees, catching fire beneath it, will help; but it will not blaze up so quickly."

  "And it should end with several of those serpents nicely singed," said Angie, with a bloodthirsty relish of which Jim would not have thought her capable. "But, mainly, we'll have destroyed their causeway."

  "Excellent!" said Jim. The cold feeling had left him to a small degree. Then a worrying thought occurred to him. "But how much oil have you? If they fill the moat and try it again, and keep that up—"

  "They won't try twice," said Carolinus. "At least, in all likelihood they won't try twice. How are they to know you don't have an ocean of oil; and can keep pouring it, and setting fire to it, indefinitely?"

  "I hope you're right," said Jim.

  He wheeled about and shouted down into the crowded courtyard below.

  "Ho! A man-at-arms or a servant here, immediately!"

  It was only seconds until a gasping man-at-arms had reached the top of the steps and was standing before them. Jim was about to speak, but Angie was faster.

  "Fetch enough men," she ordered him, "then go to the castle cook and have her point you out the barrel of rancid oil we've been saving. Take as many men as you need to bring it here. Then start filling it into this pot beside me. You understand?"

  The man-at-arms nodded, too breathless to speak. He turned about, ran down the steps again and was lost in the crowd.

  Within ten minutes the barrel was being rolled up the stone steps to the walkway by four men pulling on a rope that had been tied and rolled around the barrel before its ascent started. Another half-dozen pushed from below. The lower group gazed fearfully at the rope, in case it should break and let the barrel roll over them on its way toward the ground. But it did not. Another fifteen minutes saw the pot filled and the fire blazing merrily beneath it.

  By that time the serpents had got a number of trees into the water. At first, these tried to float away; but the following ones, piling so rapidly on top of them, forced down the earlier ones until at last they were mounded up well above the level of liquid. The water that had formerly occupied the space where they now were was now pushed off to the right and left in the moat itself, and some of the serpents were gingerly trying their weight on the causeway.

  Their great weights pushed the trees down farther to the soft silt and mud at the moat's bottom; and compacted them into a mass, until they had become a thoroughly firm platform, still several feet above the level of the moat; and wide enough so that three or four of the sea creatures could be on it at the same time, without any danger from the unsalted water.

  Above them, Jim was in a fever of impatience. The fire had been blazing away merrily, but the oil had been stored in a cool part of the interior of the castle; and it was even now not too hot for his testing fingers to endure, when he stuck them into it.

  Meanwhile, the fire below had the pot itself almost red-hot on the bottom.

  Jim abandoned the pot to its heating and looked again over the edge of the curtain wall. There were three serpents on the causeway they had built; and, as he watched, one of them tried to stand up against the underside of the drawbridge, using the soles of his front feet against its surface to support him.

  But he was only able to achieve an angle of about twenty degrees. The tips of his great jaws were still eight to ten feet below the edge of the drawbridge itself. He dropped down on all four feet again; and, with his two companions, retreated to let the line of serpents still dragging in trees add more height to the causeway.

  Shortly, the oil in the pot was so warm that Jim did not want to risk putting his fingers any farther than close to its surface.

  "Hot enough, Sir John?" he asked, turning to Chandos.

  Chandos also held his hand out over the oil, standing as far away from the pot as he could because both the fire in the fire-pot and the pot itself radiated a fierce heat.

  "I think so," said Chandos. "In any case, it would be unwise to wait much longer. The new trees are adding all their bulk to the height of the causeway. Also, at any moment, the serpents may think of climbing on top of each other to get closer to the edge of the drawbridge. If one of them can take hold of the edge of the drawbridge with his jaws and hang all his weight on it, I fear me both your chains keeping it upright at short draw, as they now do, will break."

  "But we don't want to take any chances on the trees not catching fire," said Jim anxiously.

  "I do not fear that," said Chandos. "I've seen oil cooler than that take flame, if the torches are well afire, well coated with pitch and tightly bound. The smaller branches will catch quickly."

  Jim glanced at Angie, who nodded. He swung back to the servants who had been keeping the fire going. There were six of them on the platform, and room for a few more if necessary.

  "Allright," said Jim. "Dump the oil on them!"

  The men looked at him and hesitated. One or two made tentative movements toward the heated metal of the pot, but most stood still.

  "You idiots!" snarled Jim. "Use poles! What do you suppose those ears there, with the sockets in them, are for?"

  The "ears" he referred to were a couple of metal extensions from the top rim of the pot on either side. They had holes in them to a depth of perhaps four inches, which was perhaps half the thickness of the extensions themselves. Jim almost never lost his temper with the servants. His doing so now, as the result of the pent-up nervousness in him, made the men glance fearfully at him, then hurry down the steps. He might forget, but they never did, that he had the legal right to hang them, or worse, if he simply took the whim to do so.

  They were back in moments, with a pair of quarterstaff staves.

  There was a further delay while Jim fumed and the ends of the quarterstaves were whittled down to fit in the holes. To Jim, the men working with their knives seemed to take half an hour to do it. In all probability it was less than another five minutes.

  Meanwhile, he had looked over the curtain wall again. The serpent currently trying to reach the top edge of the pulled-up drawbridge was now bringing his jaws to only four feet below it.

  "Ready!" Angie sang out behind him. Jim spun about just in time to see the poles inserted and the men throw their weight on them.

  For a moment it seemed that the pot would not tilt. It had probably not been moved out of the vertical position for some years; during which it had sat in the rain and air, rusting in position. Then the top creaked. It canted forward a little, then a little more—then, with a sudden movement that had the first two men on the poles falling forward almost into the still-blazing fire-pot, it went full over. The heated oil cascaded on to the causeway and those serpents currently on it.

  Brian let out a shout of delight.

  "They like that little!" he shouted. "They're tangled all together, trying to turn fast and leave the causeway without falling into the moat!"

  "The torches!" shouted Jim. "Haven't you men g
ot them lit yet? Light them, then!"

  "Yes, by all means light them," said Chandos, in an unruffled voice. "But do not throw them down until all those now leaving have either been replaced by others on the causeway, or come back themselves. They will soon find out that the oil alone, though unpleasant to them, does them no real harm. The aim is to teach them a real lesson; and the way to do that is to set the causeway and several of them alight at the same time."

  "The oil may have all drained down by the time they come back," said Jim doubtfully.

  "Fear not," said Chandos. "There will be enough still coating the dry wood on top to cause it to flame up immediately and that will set fire to the rest. Wait and see."

  They did wait. And, true to Chandos's prediction, after about fifteen more minutes, the serpents ventured back onto the causeway, finding it a little slippery underfoot, but not otherwise altered.

  They began to cross over tentatively, then finished with a rush; and others crowded behind them until there were a good six serpents on the causeway—which was really too many. Jim, and everyone else now up there watching with him over the wall, saw one of the serpents in front trying to climb on the one who had put himself against the base of the drawbridge.

  Having the other serpent's back to stand on lifted the climbing serpent by a good four feet. But this time, as he opened his jaws, he was at the proper angle for Dafydd's bow. There was the twang of a bowstring, the flash of an arrow disappearing between his jaws; and this time, clearly, the arrow went to the killing spot it was aimed at.

  Jim had expected the serpent to thrash around to a certain extent before dying. Instead, he simply fell back from the wall like a tree just chopped down, landed with a thump on the serpents below, and lay still.

  There was a certain amount of consternation amongst the others. They pushed the dead body off into the moat, where it floated.

  A couple more of the serpents rushed forward over the backs of those already on the causeway and began to try climbing the underside of the drawbridge, this time prudently keeping their jaws shut.