The Dragon's Back Trilogy

by Robert Dennis Wilson

  “Ouch!” he cried out, nursing an aching forehead and a scraped knee. “What in the name of the Gryphon is that? It feels like I just hit a scaline block wall!”

  Nathan motioned him back on the path before offering, “Your bruised expression would be humorous if it weren’t for the very serious cause of your pain. You have told me that you feel compelled to spread the Word of the Gryphon throughout Dragonsback and to do warfare with the Dragon himself if need be? This barren area is the reason why many like yourself have failed in that quest in the past. Take out your shellbowl and gain the perspective of reality. See this land as the Gryphon sees it!”

  Curiosity brought swiftness to his fingers as he quickly poured some dew into his reflecting shellbowl. Even before the liquid had settled Jason could see that the image in the bowl looked dark and distorted. When it settled, the reality shocked him more than he would have thought possible.

  Instead of the wide-open barrenness of the neglected plain, terrible images blocked his view even of the sky. Reflected in the bowl was a land filled with massive black towers, twisted castles and overshadowing fortresses of darkness.

  “What is this place?” he asked in confusion and horror. Remembering the recent lesson of the window, he withstood by sheer willpower alone an icy cold dagger of fear that threatened to tear its way into his heart. Even so, he shuttered slightly.

  “This is the Heartland of Dragonsback, surrendered by its owners to the powers of evil. These are strongholds built by dragons, held together by a cement made from the sludge of the River, the fibrous pulp of broken thorns, and rotted moss from the caves. Unknowing men, women, and children willingly supply this invisible cement to the ever-waiting black-winged workers every time they choose to use what the Dragon provides. The Dragon, himself, supplies the building blocks from his living form. Most people have never seen these workers of darkness. (Many would laugh at the concept of their very existence, thinking them myths or the tales of silly old women or over-imaginative children.) Those poor ignorant people have never imagined that these terrible fortresses are being built at their own expense. They only sense an almost imperceptible slow starvation and emptiness in their lives as they try to feed themselves on dwindling resources supplied by another man’s food.”

  “Oh, Gryphon!” Jason cried and fresh tears filled his eyes, prompted by the horrible extent of this tragedy visible in the lands spread before him. “What can be done? Do we have any hope of victory against an Enemy that is so well-entrenched? What can WE do?”

  “Each of us must start by knowing his or her own boundaries and diligently guarding their own personal soil. The forces of Darkness cannot build on cleansed land without the owner’s permission. But that permission is an easy thing to grant. As you take from the Dragon, you give of yourself! He jealously guards his accounts.”

  “What about my land? I have never visited it! It must be totally overgrown! What must the Gryphon think of me?” His thoughts also turned to a certain object hidden in his pack, to a bitter taste lingering in his mouth, and whispered words that still tickled his ear. Had he been giving the Dragon permission?

  “The Gryphon has already accepted you as you were: thorns and scars and castles! It takes a warrior to storm a castle and making warriors takes time. But you will be glad to know that you are not alone in your battle! The Gryphon has His workers as well!”

  “The eagles!” shouted Jason in delight, glad to change his thoughts to something more pleasant. His voice echoed through the invisible and unnatural canyons.

  “Exactly! When you first called on the Gryphon, You gave him permission to tear down the wall of thorns that had guarded your piece of the Heartland against an alien invasion.”

  “‘Alien invasion’? I don’t understand. What aliens?”

  “We have borders on Dragonsback that separate each of the different lands. As you know, we need to carry citizenship documents to pass legally between countries. Your papers mark you as a Heartlander, for that is your heritage. The sovereign of Pasca in the Headlands, therefore, has no claim to your allegiance, nor can he impose taxation on you. However, if you voluntarily emigrate to Pascal and then apply for citizenship, your relation to her Sovereign would change. After that, even if you traveled back to the Heartland, you would still be a citizen of the North and under her laws and protection.”

  “Wait!” said an excited Jason, “I see what you’re pointing to. We all are born citizens of Dragonsback and therefore are under the Dragon’s rule! When I called on the Gryphon, I was, in reality, changing my citizenship! I’ve become a citizen of the Gryphon’s Land! And now He’s my ruler and has the right to send his army to my aid! When we cry out for help, the Gryphon’s Son then has the full legal authority to invade the hostile land of Dragonsback to defend His fellow-citizens, His ambassadors, from attack! Awesome!”

  “Yes, son, that’s bards’ truth! But you wanted to know about your heritage in the Heartland, the piece of property that you own? His helpers, winged and otherwise, have been tending it already in your absence. They have been laboring tirelessly to tear down the dark fortresses you built there in your youth. They have been planting in that reclaimed land, a garden fit for the Gryphon’s Son to dwell in!”

  “Wait a moment! How do you know this? We have been together ever since I became a Swimmer, and we have never been here before!”

  Nathan smiled at his apprentice, “There are two ways that I know that this has happened, but if you thought for a moment, you would recognize them, also. You already know that a shellbowl reflection can focus on anywhere the Gryphon chooses. If we but ask, He will reveal our Heartland plot to us no matter where we are. At times, He is also willing to show us shadow pictures of another man’s plot, so that we may help him in his labors. Or defend him in battles against the Enemy! In that same way, I have seen yours.

  “The other way I can tell that your land is being tended by eagles is one that has brought much joy into my life. Day by day I see you growing taller and stronger as you eat the fruit the eagles bring you each morning. Where do you think they reap that harvest from?” Jason was incredulous, “I had thought they brought it with them from the Gryphon’s Land! But if what you say is true...”

  “Mortals can’t eat pure Gryphon’s food and remain on Dragonsback. The eagles bring our first taste of that just before we cross the bridge. It opens our eyes so we can see the way! No, Jason, you have been eating that which you yourself have helped to grow. The seeds came from the Gryphon. The dew came from His Son. But you alone can and must provide the fertile, thorn-free soil.

  “We are nearing your family ground, now. You may well find some of that soil needs to be tilled.”

  Yet when he looked around, what he saw forced Jason to exclaim, “I thought you said the Great Eagle had cleared it all!” Some of the land indeed looked fertile and green, Jason could see that with his unaided eyes, but elsewhere... To his dismay and shame, the dark gray shadows of strongholds and towers marred the reflection in his hand.

  “They have been too busy fighting battles here to accomplish that.”

  “I don’t understand. Doesn’t the Gryphon have the power to clear my land?”

  “Of course He has the power. What He lacks is the permission!”

  “You mean I’m keeping these dark castles here? How? Why? What must I do?”

  “You must enter each stronghold and lay bare its cornerstone, so the eagles can follow you in and begin their work. Some of these are very old castles, built even before you were born by those who came before you. A parent’s castles often become their children’s homes! These are well-fortified and heavily guarded positions.”

  Jason tried to keep the fear out of his voice as he asked, “Will you go with me?”

  “Of course! I would be honored to walk at your side, but the Gryphon’s Son must lead the way! Drink now the contents of your shellbowl and I will do the same, so that our eyes may be attuned. Draw your sword, for this is a place of warfare!”r />
  “Nathan, I feel afraid of what we might find there!” As he raised the bowl to drink, the young bard saw a brief reflected image of a small piece of moss.

  Furiously he threw unspoken words at the offending image: I have too much else to worry about now to deal with you! Later when Nathan won’t see!… My, but those shadows look like fortresses!

  Then he quickly finished his drink, but it did not bring him the usual gladness, nor did it taste as sweet.

  “Tearing down strongholds can be a painful thing, especially if you helped build them. But you do not need to fear the dragons that guard these dark places. They are here only because they have been granted permission by you or yours. Their greatest power is in the fear they inspire. If by the power of the water and the sword, in the strength of the Gryphon and the victory of the Swimmer, you stand against them, they must flee! Let me tell you why this is true.”

  But Jason’s warring thoughts interrupted the lesson. Do I still have that power if I’ve been dreaming with moss? He wondered. But then, the image that had filled his mind the previous night touched him once more. Trapped in the spell of its burning beauty, he weakened again.

  Obviously unaware of his student’s silent battle, Nathan continued, “At one time in the past, all of mankind became trapped on Dragonsback. We had no hope of escape and faced certain doom from the Dragon. But then the Gryphon’s Son came to live among us, and was impaled with thorns and chained beneath the Falls, to slowly drown in the foul poison of the Stream. Then, at His death, all of the dragons great and small triumphed, thinking their claim to mankind finally secured. Dragons not only kill, they often dine on their victims! What a feast they planned that night! In victory, their followers chained the River-scarred body to one of the pillars on Dragonshead. For three days and nights, the broken form of the Gryphon’s only Son remained bound for public display to the very horn of the Dragon.

  “But all the powers of darkness, even the Dragon himself, did not understand the reason for all that had been done. That which He did, the Son did willingly, taking unto Himself, not the poison and penalty that He deserved, for He was innocent; but that which belonged instead to each of us! Those lists of offenses done and penalties due were, in fact, the Dragon’s title deed to mankind. They were the chains that bound us to its living form! But the Gryphon’s Cub had secretly wrapped those same chains about Himself and carried them with Him into the Stream, just as though they were His own! When the Infinite Son died, those debts we owed to His Father were paid and all the writing against us washed clean away! Down the Stream, they went to disappear into the infinite Sea!

  “As I said, the sacrificed Son had been chained to the horn of the Dragon for all to see. But on the third day, the Son stood forth alive once more on Dragonshead. In so doing, He broke not only the chains that held him down but also those that bound us all, crushing in His strength the mighty column that had been the Dragon’s horn. He stood alive upon the Dragon’s bruised head and sang his triumph song! Then, carrying our chains with Him, he dove into the Sea, to swim to His Father’s Land! It is said that when His Son died the Gryphon’s tears turned the Sea to salt: so now, through Him, we all can swim.”

  As the bard spoke, new hope filled Jason’s hurting heart and with it, a new resolution to rid himself of his secret burden at the first discrete opportunity.

  Nathan continued, “But the point I make is this: the dark Dragon and each of his evil ilk, have been defeated by the Swimmer. You know that, as Swimmers, we can rest now on the boundless waters of the Sea, it is also true that we can rest in the victory of the Son, though our foe seems as great as an ocean. We go now to battle against a defeated foe!”

  The first stronghold, a small one, stood empty and so easily taken.

  “What do I do to tear down this dusty dungeon?”

  “This is your property, your inheritance by birth. Only you can open a cornerstone, for it contains the title deed to this castle. Only you can choose who will occupy this ground. If you claim the title for your own and lock it back in its chamber, then in all likelihood, the dragons will return and in time, thrive here. If however, you present the cornerstone and its title to our Lord, the Gryphon, and ask Him to take back and guard this land, then the Swimmer Himself will garrison within, protecting this land from all invaders. When that happens the dark tower can, at last, be dismantled and the Dragon’s scaline blocks cast away.”

  The deed soon accomplished, Jason, with added confidence, moved on to the next objective. Yes! thought Jason to himself, I don’t have to be a slave anymore, even to the moss! I can just throw that thing out the first chance I get.

  “On the other hand,” the unspoken words entered his mind, “maybe I can have victories and yet still keep the moss if I don’t use it too much? After all, I conquered that last castle while the moss was in my pack!”

  They approached the center of the land and there discovered that an ugly blight had tainted the soil leaving it packed hard like sun-burnt brick and barren of all life. Their dew-washed eyes saw a dark shadow rising dismally into the heights above their heads.

  “The air is cold here,” said Jason with an involuntary shiver, “and smells of rottenness!”

  “I commend you! Not long ago you would not have been sensitive enough to notice. The Great Eagle has given you a warning. Raise your guard then, for that is dragonsign.”

  “But,” stuttered the young man as his face visibly blanched, “how can there be dragons here? I thought these were just empty buildings, cleared by the coming of the Gryphon.”

  “I would that it was so,” responded the bard, and Jason could see the sorrow in his face. “One of the First Followers of the Swimmer wrote Gryphonsong warning us about the battles we would face and the invisible obstacles we would need to overcome in the Gryphon’s name.”

  As though he were trying to bolster his own inner warrior, Nathan the Bard let the words and music of the march he sang fill the surrounding countryside, till it echoed off of the invisible canyons of darkness.

  For the weapons of our warfare

  Are not of the flesh we’re told,

  But are mighty before the Gryphon

  To the casting down of each stronghold;

  Casting down imaginations

  And every high and wicked thing

  That is exalted against the knowledge

  Of our mighty Lord and King,

  Making every thought a captive

  To the obedience of the Swimmer-Son;

  Being ready to avenge disobedience

  When our own obedience is done. 6

  Nathan continued with hardly a breath in between, “You see how we are warned that we would have to tear down castles of darkness that had to do with our very thoughts and that the battles had to be won with weapons other than our flesh could see? Though you now belong to the Gryphon and that can never change again, the condition of your Heartland can vary day by day. You make choices: over extended time those choices prove themselves in the character of this land. As for the dragons? Wherever they have permission, they willingly infest. Did you think they would go to all the trouble to build these castles and then let them remain unoccupied—at least without a fight? There is an ancient saying, titled ‘Guile’, that goes like this:

  The Dragon no longer owns you,

  But he knows how to dethrone you:

  To test, or tempt, or try you

  He’ll gladly beg, borrow, or buy you;

  Mold, manipulate, or master;

  Bring doubt, despair, disaster;

  Bend, break or burn you;

  Trick or treat to turn you:

  For any part, you do not guard

  The Dragon claims as his reward!

  “Jason, my son, there are battles to be fought in each of our lives; and though the Dragon’s head is bruised and his fate sealed, for now, he remains a formidable foe! But when we are diligent in watching our heartlands and rely fully on the Gryphon’s plentiful supply, then the victory
of the Swimmer-Son will be ours to claim day by day! And the dragons that we resist will flee! Open the door to the castle, for now, is the time!”

  Jason hurried to comply, for he knew if he hesitated for even a moment, uncertainty would bind his voice and chain his feet. The all-but-invisible portal stood before him, unassailably huge and dark in its strength. Boldly he pounded on it with the hilt of his sword, shouting in his strongest voice, “Open in the Name of the King!”

  The younger bard did not know what to expect as the door silently swung inward to reveal a black cavern-like interior beyond. For a moment there was an uneasy silence, but that was torn to discordant shreds as the shrieks of dragons and men filled the air!

  Jason raised his sword to defend himself and Nathan rushed to his side. If there had been only dragons hiding within, then victory would have been a simple matter: for, after all, the Gryphon’s rules are clear, even to those who dwell in darkness. But that was not the case.

  A huge icy cloud of shadows swept down on them from high within the darkened tower. Blasting past the two intruders, the screaming dragons pushed before them a living wave of Fear. It was fear that could be tasted and smelt. It was fear that squeezed the heart, wringing it dry with cringing pain.

  It was fear, but it also was false. Jason knew it for what it was: a shadow-spawned shadow with no power of its own. Like a boulder he weathered the harmless wave, turning slightly to watch the swarm pass by.

  But, by so doing, he had taken the bait prepared for him. That one action proved his undoing. Suddenly strong arms grabbed at him from every side as the vile-smelling mouth of the twisted tower vomited forth dozens of black-robed men. Clothed as they were in shimmering shadows, they had easily hidden within the dark recesses of the stronghold.

  This second wave, not of shadows, but of flesh and bone, crushed those who stood in its way. The action had been perfectly planned and perfectly executed. Nathan and Jason never stood a chance.