Gordon Dickson Dragon 04 The Dragon At War (v1.3)

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spectacle.
"By the Seven Saints!" Chandos's voice came. "Will you see that one fellow!
He's rolling over and over on the dirt beyond the moat, as if to put out his
fire. He looks like a log come to life in a fireplace!"
The others cheerfully chimed in with comments.
"I feel sick," said Angie in a low voice to Jim. She had let go of his hand,
stuck her fingers in her ears, and closed her eyes. "Jim, lead me down the
stairs and away from here."
Jim led her by the elbow and they were halfway down the stairs before she
suddenly stopped, took her fingers out of her ears and opened her eyes.
"What am I doing?" she said. "Is this the way the fourteenth-century
chatelaine of a castle would act because she repelled attackers on her castle
with fire? Let me go, Jim."
Jim let her go. She turned around and went back up the stairs. He followed
her. To tell the truth, he had been rather glad of an excuse to leave the wall
himself, at that moment. But now that Angie was returning he felt under an
obligation not unlike hers.
If she felt she had to go back and face what was happening to the serpents
who had been caught in the fire he, a knight, could hardly do less. In fact,
by turning his back to the wall, even with Angie for an excuse, he had
probably lowered himself in the opinion of his friends and companions. He and
she went back up; and both of them deliberately looked over the wall,
rejoining the others there.
What was left of two of the serpents was still on the causeway. Three more
lay black and unmoving beyond the moat. The other serpents on the far side had
pulled back from the terrific heat; just as the humans and Secoh, on the wall
above, were already moved off to right and left along the catwalk. They all
watched the fire burn down. There was a sudden thunderous crash as the
half-burned drawbridge fell on top of the dead serpents.
"Usually lose a drawbridge when you use fire," commented Chandos, so
philosophically that Jim glared at the senior knight a glare that Chandos
happily did not see.
"Well, well," said Brian with equal philosophy, to Jim. "You've still the
portcullis; and the gates are only singed a bit."
He raised his eyebrows inquiringly.
"Actually," Brian went on, "right now would be a moment to sally, wouldn't
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it?"
"Go out against several thousand sea serpents?" said Jim. He knew Brian loved
fighting, but this was ridiculous.
"Yes. Not the usual enemy, here," said Chandos judiciously. "I think wiser
not, gentlemen."
"Ah, well, just a thought," said Brian. "I'd been thinking a quick sally to
slash a few throats, then back through the gates and close them behind us.
But as you think, Sir John, and you, m'Lord."
"Yes," said Jim.
Below them, the flames had now dropped to a flickering above the black mass.
It had now burned down enough that water from the moat had been able to flood
in over it to the depth of perhaps six inches. The moat water had not
completely taken the place of the causeway, because there was a sufficiency of
unburned lumber a little below the surface, packed so tightly with mud and the
weight of the serpents upon it earlier that it still remained a potential
causeway between land and castle.
"The only question," said Jim, "is what they can try now."
"It's important that the portcullis survived; though those iron bars of it
must still be pretty hot," said Angie.
Jim moved closer to the wall, to a point where he could stand and look
directly down. Even now, leaning over the wall, Jim felt a fierce heat
striking up into his face from below.
"The important question is," he said to himself, but also out loud to the
rest, "whether they're going to try to rebuild that causeway."
The others had come to join him where he stood above the gateway, looking
over the edge of the wall briefly, and then backing away from the heat that
was still coming up. Curiously, before anyone else could speak, he was
conscious of something very large looming over him.
Looking up, he saw that Rrrnlf was on his feet and beside them. The Sea Devil
had probably been there, for some time, watching the burning serpents, with
the same amount of interest as the medieval humans on either side of him.
Jim felt a pulse of encouragement at the giant's sudden awakening of interest
in the siege.
"What do you think, Rrrnlf?" he asked, looking up at the Sea Devil. "Will
they try to rebuild it?'
"Perhaps. Perhaps not," answered Rrrnlf. "How can they know but what you can
burn as many trees as they can put in the water there to build a way to your
gate? But I tell you, wee Mage, wee knight or whatever you are at the moment I
know no more than you what they are likely to do next."
"This is not rocky country," put in Brian, "but there are boulders, here and
there, even if part-buried in the soil. I think they would have little trouble
prying them out. They could try building up the causeway again, this time with
stones, which will not burn."
"Oil would coat them and burn; and it would coat on the water beneath and
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burn," said Chandos.
"Still, I was thinking we might have a chance to discourage them," said
Brian. "When they first approach with the stones, which they would probably
have difficulty ferrying on their heads or their backs or in their mouths or
however, we could make that sally I suggested earlier and see if we could not
kill a few of them, thereby discouraging the rest. Think you not?"
"The question's moot," said Angie's crisp voice. "There's not enough oil left
to begin to make a worthwhile amount to dump. We used it nearly all up in that
first pour."
It seemed to Jim the time had come to play their last card. If the serpents
had been able to think of building a causeway with trees, they
certainly almost inevitably would think of rebuilding it with other stuff that
would not burn. They might well believe it was the trees that caused such a
fierce fire, rather than the oil that had poured down on them earlier; and
which had seemed to have no particularly real deterrent effect.
He turned to Secoh. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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