The Dragon At War

ROTATE DIGGING HANDS TO → TOP OF BUBBLE

  DIG → UPW—

  He broke off, suddenly remembering something. It was a form of incantation that Malvinne, the former magician-minister of the King of France, had used on them when he caught them in his castle.

  Jim pointed with his hand back and up in the direction in which Granfer must be. He wrote the equation on his forehead.

  STILL

  They had been out of hearing of the voices for some seconds now. But suddenly a faint noise that could have been a high-pitched screech or shriek came to them.

  Jim grinned to himself.

  DIG → UPWARDS INTO OPEN WATER

  The bubble went up.

  Jim grinned agin, this time openly. He had first encountered the still command when it had been used on him by Malvinne, who had been not a sorcerer, but—as Carolinus had put it—"a magician gone wrong." He had been a AAA rated, accountable magician until he had sold himself to the Dark Powers.

  Therefore, he had only had the regular magician's, non-aggressive, magic at his fingertips. But the command still was not necessarily a punitive command. It could be used, for example, to stop someone about to step into deadly danger. At any rate, it had worked now with Granfer.

  They popped out of the top of the tunnel and floated up into open water.

  LIGHTS → OFF

  commanded Jim; for the interior illumination was making all the sea outside an utter blackness.

  It took a moment for their eyes to readjust.

  When they did, they saw the Sea Devil facing them with his mouth open in astonishment; and Granfer just as he had been—except that he was absolutely not moving a tentacle or any other muscle of his huge body. Jim ordered the bubble back close to both Rrrnlf and the motionless Granfer.

  "Now," he said to Granfer, "what about this business of how Ecotti managed to get into contact with the sea serpents?"

  There was no response from Granfer; and Jim suddenly remembered that still meant exactly what it said. He made the necessary minor adjustment that would allow Granfer to speak—but nothing else.

  "… How could you do this—do this to a poor old person like myself?" burst out the voice of Granfer, plainly made audible in mid-sentence. "A poor old creature who just wants to lie still and eat his food and not bother anyone! I'll starve!"

  "Tell me what I asked," said Jim sternly—or thought he said it. To his own surprise the words did not come. Clearly still could not be connected to making people talk, or else it became aggressive magic. Jim tried approaching the question from a more oblique angle; and this time his voice worked.

  "Come now, Granfer," he said. "If you please me, I'll release you. If you think, you can certainly guess what would please me."

  He stopped speaking. Granfer said nothing for a long moment.

  "As a matter of fact," said Granfer, at last, sadly, "I told him—"

  "Him? Who, him?" demanded Rrrnlf with all the power of his bass voice.

  "Essessili," said Granfer.

  "That serpent! I knew it!" roared Rrrnlf. "Did he have my Lady with him when he spoke to you?"

  "Alas, no," said Granfer. "He just came to me, like they all do, and talked to me about how he and all the sea serpents wanted to get rid of all the dragons on your island. I told him it wasn't right. I told him he was foolish. But he kept insisting. So finally I told him to get in touch with this Frenchman, who was a magician but not a magician."

  "A sorcerer," said Jim coldly.

  "Oh yes, you must forgive this old brain," said Granfer. "I think this sorcerer had some name like—Eketry, Etoki—you said it yourself, earlier."

  "And how did you tell Essessili how to get the other sea serpents to work with Ecotti?"

  "Dear, dear me," said Granfer, in something so plainly close to a whimper that Jim was for a moment touched by it. "I, who never betrayed a confidence in all these many centuries, am asked to do so now. And if I don't, I stay forever fixed here. I can't catch fish and feed myself. I'll starve and die. Dear, dear me!"

  "Well?" asked Jim.

  "If you must know, I told him to promise Ecotti your Lady, Rrrnlf. You had put a fortune—as landers count it—in jewels on her!" cried Granfer. "Oh, he didn't really mean to ever give her to him, Rrrnlf. He just promised."

  "So," said Rrrnlf, "that's why he stole her from me!"

  "No, no, not just that!" Granfer's voice rose timorously. "He'd told me how he had long envied you, Rrrnlf, in your possession of your Lady; and how he wanted to steal it, but didn't know how he could do it safely. He wanted me to give him some suggestions."

  "And you did?" demanded Rrrnlf, dangerously.

  "For a price. For a price for the good of all," said Granfer, whimperingly again. "I had tried to talk him out of this nonsense of gathering the other sea serpents—he's possibly the only one who could do it, since if the rest of them would listen to anyone else of their own kind, they'd listen to him. But he wouldn't. He took my advice about your Lady, and said he was all for the serpents invading!"

  "Why?" demanded Jim.

  "He said he was going to show them the Lady, and explain how much gold and jewels they could win from the dragons of your island."

  "I see," said Jim. "So—"

  But Rrrnlf drowned him out.

  "So that's it!" he snarled. "I remember now. There was a sea serpent voice that called me from somewhere out of sight. It surprised me so much I left her for just a second. And when I looked back—she was gone."

  "Essessili probably got another serpent to help him," explained Granfer.

  "I'll find him. I'll find them both!" said Rrrnlf. "There'll be no place in all the seas or on high land where they can hide from me! I'll get her back!"

  To Jim's surprise there were actually tears in the Sea Devil's eyes.

  "She was so lovely!" said Rrrnlf brokenly, in a softer voice. "To think of him putting his dirty, serpenty paws on her!"

  "All right," said Jim. He released Granfer from the still hold he had placed on him. "That's what I wanted to know. You're free now."

  Granfer's tentacles stirred and spread out until their tips were lost to sight in the silted water which had been stirred up by their movement.

  "Ah," said Granfer, in a tone of relief.

  "Well, Rrrnlf," said Jim, "we better go now. Thanks for the information, Granfer, even if I had to twist it out of you."

  "Maybe it was all for the best," said Granfer, hauling in a four-hundred-pound grouper, and popping it into his mouth as a human being might pop a peanut.

  "Let's go, Rrrnlf," said Jim.

  Immediately, the Sea Devil was moving again; and they were moving with him. Again, the acceleration could not be felt, but they were plainly headed downward; and while that downward movement was on a slant, once more it was swift enough to produce the stomach-floating sensation that a fast elevator does when it drops with its passengers inside.

  Chapter Fifteen

  "Eeek!" cried Angie.

  "It's only me," said Jim. He advanced to take her in his arms, but she fended him off.

  "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

  "Well, I came back. That is, I—ah—" Jim suddenly realized that she had a good deal of right on her side. The natural thing for her to imagine was that he might be any place in the world right now except back here in their own solar bedroom. "It's not something easily explained in just a few words."

  But he tried. What had happened was that as long as the bubble had turned out to be such a good vehicle for traveling swiftly under the seas, it suddenly occurred to him there was no reason why it should not be equally useful taking the three of them to his castle. Rrrnlf might have been able to bring them here faster; but Rrrnlf had left them at the seashore to go look for Essessili.

  The idea of using the bubble had been simple enough. The problems involved in turning it into reality had been somewhat larger than he had expected.

  So Jim had figured out the magic to propel the bubble through the air at a high
altitude, where its transparency and their relative tininess, seen from the ground, would make them effectively invisible. He finally set the bubble down at the very top of the castle, where only a single man-at-arms, on watch, was standing.

  A magic command caused the man-at-arms to forget that he had seen them or could see the bubble. They had gone down the stairs to the interior of the castle and Jim had turned left into the short corridor that led to his own solar bedroom; meanwhile sending Brian and Giles down one floor to Giles's room with orders to stay hidden there.

  It had been a stroke of luck, he thought at first, finding Angie there. She relaxed as he told her the whole story of what had happened.

  "So now you'll stay this time," she said. "Thank goodness."

  "Well, no," said Jim awkwardly. "You remember John Chandos wanted us to go to France. We've still got to do that. But I wanted to tell Carolinus about what I heard from Granfer. He may be able now to tell us something more that'll help us in our search over there."

  Angie tensed up again immediately. Her hands formed into fists at her side.

  "I knew it!" she said. "And you didn't have to jump at me like that without warning when I thought you were thousands of miles away!"

  "Well," said Jim, in the most soothing voice he could imagine. He had had time to think of an answer to this one. "If I'd known you were in here, I'd have shouted from the corridor, 'Angie, I'm back!' but since I didn't know you were here I just walked in, expecting to find the room empty. So I frightened you."

  "You didn't frighten me!" said Angie angrily. "You startled me!"

  "Startled you—I mean," said Jim. "At any rate, the point is, I'm back. So are Brian and Giles. I sent them to Giles's room to stay hidden. I thought it'd be wiser not to let anyone but you and Carolinus know I was back. Possibly, Sir John too—if he's still here?"

  "He left," said Angie. "Shortly after you did. I don't think he was too happy with Carolinus."

  She hesitated.

  "You know, Jim," she said, "about telling Carolinus—I think that sickness must have done something to him. He's better now. But—for example, he's never sounded so… sour with people as he did with Sir John."

  "Oh, I don't think that'll bother Sir John too much," said Jim. "In any case, Carolinus—is Carolinus. Is he able to walk around, or is he still in bed?" asked Jim. "He was sitting up all right down at the table when I last saw him."

  "Oh, he's still in bed," said Angie irritatedly. "Though he can walk. But any real physical effort is a problem for him. If the rest of you want to see him, you should go to him. Why do you have to go to France, anyway?"

  "I told you before I left the first time," said Jim. "I'm in direct fief to the King—"

  "Oh, I know all that!" interrupted Angie. "It still seems to me Sir John simply wants some information and doesn't care what happens to you. I do!"

  "How about Brian and Giles?" asked Jim cunningly. "I'm a lot safer with them along, you know."

  "Of course I care about Brian and Giles too," said Angie. "Brian because he's a friend, and Giles because you've told me how much a friend he is of yours. But that's beside the—"

  She broke off abruptly.

  "—Oh, I forgot to tell you. Dafydd will be around the castle someplace. You'll want to include him when you talk to Carolinus, won't you?"

  "What's he doing here? I'd thought he'd leave the minute we were gone," said Jim.

  "He did. I don't know if you know it or not, but you've been gone about four days—"

  "I have?" said Jim, astonished.

  Subjectively, the time they had spent under water, crossing the ocean and talking to Granfer, had seemed like hours rather than a matter of days.

  But of course, magic was strange stuff, whether it was Carolinus's or the kind that Rrrnlf used. In fact, now that he thought of it since Rrrnlf was a Natural, and could do things like moving at better than jet plane speed under water and taking others with him, maybe he could play tricks with time too.

  Perhaps it had actually taken them a day or so to cross the ocean even at top speed. Maybe that was why Rrrnlf was able to answer his call so quickly. He should have asked Rrrnlf where he had been when he first heard Jim calling for him.

  "—I'm telling you," Angie was saying, "as I say, Dafydd left right after you did. But when he got back home, it turned out Danielle turned him loose after all, because he was moping around so at being left out. She got so sick of that, that she kicked him out. Anyway, he came back here, hoping that Carolinus could send him to you, wherever you were. So he could join you."

  "That's marvelous!" said Jim.

  Dafydd not only increased their strength by a full quarter—in fact, counting his bow, he multiplied it by an unknown amount—but his particular cool and calm temperament was a great antidote to the free-flying emotions of both Brian and Giles. These, like most knights, tended to act and speak in whatever way they happened to feel at the moment. They were difficult to reason with. Dafydd would listen, at least until you finished explaining something.

  "But why didn't Carolinus send him after us, then?" said Jim, getting his questions backward and asking the second one first. "When did he get back here, anyway?"

  "About a day ago," said Angie. "He did ask Carolinus. But Carolinus said he should wait here, and you'd be back. Dafydd's been waiting ever since. You know him. When he has time to kill he simply sits and makes arrows. Of course, he occasionally makes a bow, too, but generally it's just more arrows. I've had to jump on most of our female staff to leave him alone. You know how he is. He attracts women like flies."

  "Did he ever attract you?" demanded Jim, suddenly jealous.

  "Of course he did," said Angie. She smiled a little evilly. "But of course I'm in love with you."

  "You better be!" growled Jim.

  He reached for her, and this time she came to meet him.

  "What you'd better do," said Jim, when their mouths were free for talking again, "is go find a servant to locate Dafydd and bring him to you. Is Carolinus in his room?"

  "Yes," said Angie.

  "Good," said Jim. "We'll get together there. Any servant is going to scratch on the door first, before daring to enter a magician's room. Don't say anything to Dafydd about Carolinus's room until you two are alone. Meanwhile, I'll go get Giles and Brian and we'll all go to Carolinus's room, so we'll be there when you show up with Dafydd. That way nobody but you and Carolinus will know that we're here."

  "All right," said Angie. But the tone of her voice said that she still hadn't reconciled herself to Jim's going to France. "Dafydd and I will meet you at Carolinus's room."

  "Good," said Jim. "Here we go, then."

  They left the solar together and parted on the stairway. Jim went down to Giles's room that now held both Brian and Giles. They were seated at the table there, each on a stool, rolling dice for small coins. The small amounts must be either because they were both low on funds; or else Giles was simply accommodating himself to Brian's financial straits. Brian's ancient Castle Smythe was badly in need of repair, and he had no means of income except for what he won at tilting tourneys with his lance-work.

  At the sight of him they both got to their feet and Giles put the dice away in the purse at his sword belt.

  "We're going to get together with Carolinus now," announced Jim, "—and Dafydd…"

  He explained what Angie had told him about the bowman. The faces of the other two lit up. They liked Dafydd as well as he did; although occasionally one or the other of them would feel uncomfortable in social situations in which Dafydd had to be treated before company in a manner that was above his station. They could not help such feeling, in spite of the fact the Little Men on the Scottish border remembered Dafydd's connection with an ancient royalty. It was part of their training. Bowmen did not socialize with knights.

  Jim explained the situation.

  "… So, we should go to Carolinus, now," he wound up.

  The others nodded and followed him.

  Caro
linus, when they got to his room, was sitting on the side of his bed, wearing his red robe, magician's peaked hat, and for whatever occult reason, building with clay on his table a sort of small castle; it was not unlike the peel tower that had been the original form of Giles's family home, the Castle de Mer. The table was a duplicate of the one that Giles and Brian had been dicing on back in the other room.

  "Ah, here you are!" said Carolinus, calmly adding another little dab of clay to his handiwork. "Well, sit down and tell me what happened."

  In his everyday robe, he looked, as Angie had said, for all practical purposes as well as ever. Jim, however, could not resist a teasing remark.

  "I thought you'd know all that already," he said. "—With your magic, that is."

  "Jim," snapped Carolinus, "for a C class magician, what you know about magic—"

  There was a tinge of querulous anger in his voice that Jim could not remember having heard before. But…

  But then, having checked himself in mid-sentence, Carolinus went on, sounding no different than he usually did.

  "Suffice it to say," he added, "that I want you to tell me what happened."

  So Jim did, his report interrupted by only an occasional "hmm" from Carolinus.

  When Jim had finished there was a silence. Jim himself broke it.

  "I really didn't learn a lot," he said, "as you know now."

  "On the contrary, my boy." Carolinus stroked his mustache with an air of satisfaction. "We now know a great deal. We know we've got two individuals to find. One is this Essessili, the sea serpent—"

  "Rrrnlf has already gone off to do that," said Jim. "He left us at the beach and said he would bring the sea serpent to us; and hold off taking him to pieces until we had a chance to ask him questions. Actually, I'm a little puzzled as to how he could take a sea serpent to pieces. One of them must outweigh him at least a couple of times."

  "Ah, but he's a Natural!" said Carolinus. He was, Jim noticed, now sounding like his old self. "And don't interrupt. As I was saying, we need two individuals, the sea serpent—this Essessili—and Ecotti. Rrrnlf will find the sea serpent, all right. You've got to find Ecotti and question him."