There was no one at all in front of them and Horace's tail was striking and splintering with stunning force. They were to the side now, many dragon-lengths from where they had been. Behind them and scattered all over the ground were slithers of wood and pieces of rope and a large dragon-lance with its tip smeared with a dark-green paste. Far from the wreckage, thrown there by the destructive whip, three men in enemy uniform lay smashed.
It had been a catapult set to skewer Horace! A trap Zady or one of her wizards or witches had thought up. Without his gauntlets he would never have guessed.
They were on a new hill, and here there were only scattered dead. A second hill, equally devoid of apparent life. Now a third hill with Alliance soldiers and orcs. Kelvin drew a breath to hail them, but Horace was not wasting time.
They were in a glade. Heln was here, rushing to them. His mother was standing back, smiling.
His Mouvar weapon jerked in his hand. An old hag clutched her face and screamed. A second hag opened her arms before reaching them and dropped something that produced a big green smoke.
They were on a plain. A howling wind, unslowed by trees or rough terrain, tried hard to separate them. Kelvin held on while he and Horace were lifted and carried by the wind. They were being drawn up a wind funnel, to be slung out and dashed in a moment. Kelvin stopped his breath.
They were on the top of a hill he had briefly glimpsed while whirling. Whatever witch or warlock had hit them with the wind had taken the gauntlets by surprise. That didn't happen often! But now they were free, and—
They were in an almost familiar place. Alliance fighters and benigns were here and the gauntlets were not tingling. Why were all the faces turned skyward?
A great smashing, crashing wave of water roared through the hills, bearing down on them. Boulders and logs and torn-up trees and houses rode the crest. An illusion or real? Real, he guessed.
Horace was squatting. Hastily Kelvin motioned for the people nearest to climb on. Three people grabbed his outstretched hand and climbed up to join him. Then there was no time—the water was falling on them.
They were on a facing hill. Below, people wearing green uniforms were being tossed and drowned. There was no going back to make further rescues.
The man holding Horace's tail tight in his fighter's hands started to say something and at that moment the hill began to shake. "QUAKE!" the man screamed, and disappeared as he dropped off, and—
They were at a different place where there was fighting. Green and dun uniforms swirled about, seeming not to notice them. No shaking ground here, no monstrous flood, no destructive wind blowing. Behind the tangled, fighting knots was the glowing border of Rotternik.
The battlers stumbled across the magic barrier and disappeared. Kelvin knew that those men would see nothing behind them if they looked back—only the glowing border. As a deterrent to unwelcome visitors the border had long served its purpose. But now Rotternik was being invaded by fighting men as more and more unintentionally crossed the border.
As he watched from Horace's strangely still back, two Alliance soldiers stepped back into visibility. Gone were their foes—living or dead they had been left behind. One of the men screamed words, and then hairy arms and legs and beastly faces appeared just behind them. Hairy folk, big and small, were leaping, running, almost flying across the legendary barrier.
Kelvin heard a groan from one of the two men they had rescued. "Gods," the man said, clutching Kelvin's shoulders, "isn't it enough that we have to fight magic! What can we do against babkeys?"
"We can run from them," the companion in escape supplied. "If they keep pouring on out, we'll have to!"
"You don't mean that," the first soldier said. "You'll fight them, even if they're meaner and stronger than Zady's mercenaries. We—" He paused, staring. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah, that babkey's got a dung-clad! Eating off his face! Doesn't know its colors. Unless Zady cues them they'll attack anybody!"
"They aren't now! Look!"
The newcomers, apparent beasts all, were attacking with unparalleled violence only the dung-clads. They ignored the phantoms, possibly cued in by the lack of smell.
"Well, I'll be cursed! They're helping us! They enlisted on our side! Come on, let's help them as well!"
The two flood escapees dropped from Horace and ran with quickly drawn swords to attack five dung-clads battling one large gortan swinging a tree branch at their swords.
Soon Alliance soldiers and hairy folk were battling a common enemy.
CHAPTER 20
Retreat
Zady and her minions had been preparing spells all morning, but there seemed to be something unusually complicated in the spell she was working on now. Jon had to wonder about it. Hanging by her wrists, suffering little more pain than that of her swollen wrists and aching body joints, she had nothing to do but think. It was good to think about things that might later help. The old hag was up to something new, and it was best to concentrate on that. Instead of on the pain.
From the first moment that she had been tied here Zady had insisted that she watch the magic crystals lined up in front of her. There were three, each the size of a small table, and in each horrifying scenes occurred. Men were disemboweled with full sword sweeps, horses beheaded, limbs hacked off living bodies while blood squirted and the victims screamed their last.
Constantly Zady would interrupt her spelling to attend to Jon. Tapping an image of a suffering man she would toss a powder in her face, and Jon would inhale the powder every time. Under Zady's influence she felt the unspeakable pain of the one Zady had chosen. This had gone on and on, and only the fact that the hag was now involved in other mischief was giving her respite. Jon was grateful that there was nothing worse happening to her than sweat getting into her eyes and insects crawling on her face. She hadn't screamed for probably an hour.
It would be pleasant to sleep, Jon thought. But Zady would not allow it. To sleep would be to awake to another's agonizing fate.
Zady was reciting what seemed gibberish while making gestures with her young arms and hands and twisting and turning her young body in a macabre dance. Before her on the ground was what seemed a child's toy: a catapult of no great size with a man-sized spear loaded on it. Zady was dancing around the catapult and giving it her attention.
Jon wondered why the witch put all this time and effort on one spell. It had to be that the toy catapult brought here by soldiers in a cart was of some real importance, but of what importance she couldn't tell. With the full-sized military catapults she had at her command, why the toy? There had to be a reason.
Zady stopped her dancing and came over to her while her minion Lucernia smirked. She looked up at the ropes, making certain they were cutting off circulation just enough to maximize the pain, not enough to kill the limbs. Dead limbs didn't hurt. Then, smiling from her hideous warty face, she gestured at the object of her labors.
"You are wondering why, aren't you, dearie? Watch!"
With a wave of her hands and a sprinkling from a vial, Zady made a sulfurous cloud that sent Jon to coughing. When her eyes got unwatered there had been a magical transformation. The catapult was now large—several times bigger than those wheeled out to battle. Fast to the large central timber, the spear was now by itself as big around as a respectable tree. The witch pointed two fingers at her and brought her shapely arm around, ending in a finger snap and pointing at the catapult with a commanding forefinger.
Dragon Horace was there before the catapult, her unlikely brother riding on his own son's back. Magically, undoubtedly through the use of the opal, they had suddenly appeared. The copper scales of the dragon flashed in the bright sunlight, and Kelvin's jaw dropped as he looked with bugged-out eyes at her, his sister. In his right hand Kelvin held the Mouvar weapon she had seen him use so effectively, but the sight of his sister had to be distracting him.
WHACK!
The great timber shot forward, propelling the oversized spear with the speed of magic. Th
e spear entered Horace's back and came out his belly, burying its cruel forged head deep into the hard ground. Horace's legs and tail spasmed; his head jerked in a shower of his own human blood. The dragon was pinned there, through his backbone and torn vitals, and in time he would expire. In the meantime a blood-soaked Kelvin was scrambling from the victim's side. One of Horace's hind feet kicked in reflex and struck Kelvin.
Jon blinked. Her only brother, broken and bloody and undoubtedly dying, was lying almost at her feet. He raised a smashed face and looked up at her from the eye not hanging down his cheek. His mouth opened and dark blood gushed out between broken teeth.
"KELVIN!" Jon screamed.
The witch's fingers snapped.
Reality was restored. Kelvin and the dragon son were gone. The catapult was again small. Zady's warty face was gleeful and Lucernia was dancing as though from joy.
"Did you enjoy the show, dearie? It's only a preview."
Jon struggled with something she knew was not right. "They'll see! They'll have to see! Horace will even if Kelvin doesn't!"
"Wrong, dearie."
Zady sprinkled some more vile-smelling liquid, made a twirl, and pulled out a nothing from under her dark wrapper. She spread the nothing and her body vanished, leaving only her head. The head floated over the catapult. The body reappeared and then disappeared as she stepped up on the catapult's platform. The catapult vanished by degrees until it seemed gone. Zady reappeared, gesturing at nothing and obviously very pleased with herself.
"You see, dearie? No, you don't, do you? Nor will the lizard see, nor your brother. I will restore the size and when they come here, drawn in part by my magic, they will arrive at this spot. It won't be long now. I suggest you resume screaming."
Zady's long and beautiful fingers snapped, drawing Jon's attention to a crystal she could not avoid seeing. In the crystal Kelvin, covered with his son's blood, was sliding off the copper scales. A great scaled foot swung, caught him across the lower back, lifted him, and flung him hard.
Jon screamed as pain exploded in Kelvin's body, as his face struck ground and smashed. She felt it all as his mangled features lifted, one eye hanging by a thread on his mashed cheek. There was no way she could deny she felt the agony.
She screamed and screamed, uncontrollably. Zady listened, pleased, savoring it.
Kelvin saw the lone light-colored swoosh circling, somehow avoiding the fireballs imploding all around. It had to be one of his side, he hoped; this seemed logical since his side's magic-makers were giving it protection. He'd better warn Horace, since to Horace the big, ungainly bird would look like lunch.
Horace, I think that bird's a friend. Don't eat it.
What's the matter, you think I'm stupid?
As a matter of fact Kelvin had thought that until fairly recently. Dragons were, after all, dragons, and though dragons were known for strength and ferocity, no one ever had credited them with brains. Horace of course was different, but it was all too easy to think of him as a typical dragon.
The swoosh landed between them and the three hairy people pulling apart a dung uniform with the unfortunate malignant mercenary wearing it. Blood and intestines soon burst, but in the meantime smoke puffed where the bird had been and cleared to reveal a handsome young blond man without armor.
"GLINT!" Kelvin exclaimed. He hadn't expected his son-in-law.
"Helbah sent me. There's a mission for you, but I have to help. She knows where Zady is, but she wants me to reconnoiter first. I have to get close to find out what defense she has planned. After I find out I tell you, and then we move in and attack."
Kelvin considered that reconnaissance hadn't helped them much. Glint had only confided what he had learned to Helbah, and Helbah had revealed nothing about any of it to him. At the time Kelvin's being left out had rankled, but now he knew there had to be a reason. Helbah wanted Zady destroyed at least as badly as he did.
"Where is she?"
"Help me up, Kelvin." Glint held up his hand.
Kelvin's gauntlets clasped Glint by the wrist and easily lifted him up and behind him. Glint locked his arms around Kelvin's chest, clasping his hands in front.
"Don't go where I tell you first—Helbah warned against it. Zady's with her main minions atop that mount, in where she can keep watch. There is an outcropping about halfway up that will give some protection from fireballs. If Horace can focus on it and take us there, that's where we go first."
They were. The rocks above them were almost a roof. Behind them was a cave mouth and the remains of something's kill.
"Well?"
Glint closed his eyes. Kelvin felt him slump and reached back to brace his elbows. He knew the telepath was trying for minds up the mountain. If Helbah had let him take the dragonberry as he had wanted to, he would have done the reconnaissance himself. But the dragonberries were dangerous, as witness the time his brother and sister-in-law-to-be had been trapped in astral form in the world of the silver serpents.
Glint lifted his head. "It's going to be tricky. She's got Jon tied by the wrists to this tree limb before an array of crystals, and she wants to use her to bait you and Horace. She knows you won't like the way she tortured your sister."
"Tortured? She tortured Jon?"
"Mentally. Illusion stuff, but bad. She has a trap set for us. I don't know what it is, but I got a little of it from Jon. The problem is that Jon's in so much agony that her thoughts are mainly of what she's feeling. She's trying to think a warning, but all I get is 'Don't come! Stay away, Kelvin! Please, please stay away!' I think she's tried to believe that one of your children or I would read her."
"Jon's in agony! We have to stop it! Horace—"
They were surrounded now by trees. Horace had jumped them further up the mountain.
"Slow, Horace!" Glint urged. "I don't know what the trap is, but Jon's warning us away. I think I should—"
They had moved. They were on a narrow ledge, Horace clinging to a slope. They moved again.
A plump, middle-aged woman hung from her wrists and screamed uncontrollably. Her eyes were wide with horror and focused on where they now were, though there had been no instant's time to notice their arrival.
WHACK!
A spear of unlikely size had buried itself in the ground, at the spot they had momentarily occupied. But now, thanks to Horace's sudden thought, they were only close. Somehow the dragon had barely touched the spot and then ordered the opal to hop them to the side.
Thinks I'm stupid! came Horace's thought. At the same instant he launched himself physically, possibly with the help of the opal, to an apparently empty spot between trees. Wood splintered invisibly beneath them, and wood and bits of metal and broken ropes became visible beneath the dragon's weight and fury. Suddenly all the device's remains were visible, and even to Kelvin it was clear that the dragon's instincts had carried him to the logical spot to set up an invisible catapult.
Kelvin would have drawn a sharp breath, but his Mouvar weapon snapped up and triggered. To their side a fireball changed course and swooped on a plump, wide-mouthed witch who had been its sender. The witch burned, screaming.
Zady was standing directly facing them, her hands raised to throw a magic spell.
No. Horace! It's a trap! was Glint's thought, so desperately strong that it was dizzying.
Zady vanished as Horace's weight broke through a thin covering revealing a pit lined with large, piercing spikes. Kelvin had time to notice the dark green smears on the points almost touching Horace's copper belly scales, and then—
They were back where Horace had been when he pounced for Zady. The witch's evil minion burned brightly now, not getting help, her form turning into ashes.
"I don't catch Zady's thought," Glint complained. "She's blocking me. Where'd she go?"
"Take me to Jon!" Kelvin ordered.
They were in front of his sister. Horace stretched and Kelvin stood up on him, pulled erect by the gauntlets and balanced by the boots more than by athletic ability. The
right-hand gauntlet drew his sword for him and sliced through the ropes holding Jon's wrists.
"Oh, Kelvin," Jon said, sinking into his arms and reminding him unavoidably that she wasn't a slender girl any longer. "I knew you would come! I knew—"
He positioned her in front of him, ignoring her senseless chatter. His left gauntlet pulled her hand over to a vestigial wing and cramped her fingers to it.
There she is! Glint's warning thought stabbed at him.
Yes, Kelvin thought, if it's really her this time. Careful, Horace; it may be another trap!
Before he could focus his eyes properly the trees had again changed positions. Horace was clawing at something. When his eyes did adjust he saw a serpent squirm out from between Horace's talons; then a bird of great ugliness, dropping its feathers as its wings beat in frantic takeoff.
"WHOOOF!" Horace huffed, and they slammed to the ground as the bird evaded his pounce.
"I'M NOT DONE! I'M NOT DONE!" the bird called down, circling.
"You'd better get, Zady," Kelvin said. He wished he had the copper sting now, or Helbah to hurl a few fireballs.
The bird made an obscene fluff of its rump and dropped a big and evil-smelling dropping.
Horace roared. His eyes fixed red and glowing on the escaping witch.
Kelvin saw air beneath them and ground far below. Horace was bent over, jaws snapping, and a loud squawking came from under him.
Let her go, Horace! Opal us down, Glint urged.
They were falling, and then they weren't. Trees and grass blurred and they were at the spot where Jon had been. Horace was holding something under his talons, and then his jaws were down, snapping. Jon was sitting up, watching.
Kelvin wanted to help, though not exactly through biting. He had been ready to make love to Zady once, but that had been a consequence of magic and was now unreal. He felt as he knew Horace must, that killing her was necessary.
Horace lifted his head. Hanging from his mouth was a snake's tail. He opened his jaws and turned, permitting Kelvin to see the serpent's body and head.