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tell me you don't know it practically by heart."
"Oh, yes, m'Lord Dragon Knight," said Secoh eagerly. "There is such a story,
and a great story it is!"
"Good," said Jim. "Now, quickly what can you remember from that story that
would tell me how to fight Essessili?"
Secoh sat down on the platform and his eyes became abstract, almost dreamy.
"It was more than one hundred turnings of the sun ago," he began. "It was in
a time when Agtval was already a very old dragon, and no longer left his cave
to do the mighty things he had done earlier "
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"No!" shouted Jim. Secoh stopped abruptly.
"I don't want the whole story," said Jim. He knew only too well the dragon
tendency to start a tale deep in the past, and make as long as possible a
story out of anything worth telling. "I want you to think. I want you to tell
me what you remember from that tale that would help me in fighting Essessili.
In short, how did Gleingul do it? Just how did he attack the serpent? What did
he do to the sea serpent to put him in a position to win? How did he finally
kill the serpent?"
Secoh looked disappointed, but swallowed and thought hard for a long moment.
"Well, m'Lord," he said at last, slowly, "there's this business that Gleingul
mentioned about using your wings. He said it was very important. Wings made
the difference. Oh, I don't mean for flying, m'Lord "
"What do you mean then?" Jim coaxed him.
"I mean forhitting , m'Lord! Of course," said Secoh, "you know our wings, how
strong they are. Otherwise how could we take off and lift so quickly into the
air as we do? Everything that flies has strong wings. It's said a goose can
knock a george, a grown george right off his feet if he hits the george right
with one of his wings. You can imagine what we can do. Use your wings, was
what Gleingul told us to do if we ever fought serpents."
"I see," said Jim.
And indeed he did. The first time he had ever tried flying as a dragon he had
shut his eyes and pumped his wings wildly for fear of falling off the
cliffside where he had launched himself into space. When he had opened his
eyes he had found himself high up, very much higher than he had expected.
It had been his first experience with the tremendous power of the muscles
that drove their great, long wings. Those wings might not be lovely to look
at in fact, they looked more like enormous bat wings than anything else but he
knew their power.
Now that he stopped to think about it, he could feel the heavy bands of
muscles that crossed his chest above the breast bone. Yes, the wings would be
the equivalent of heavy clubs even when a sea serpent was on the receiving
end.
"Good," he said hurriedly. "What else can you tell me? Think!"
Secoh squinted hard at the platform between his feet. He was giving every
physical evidence of thinking just as hard as he could. After a moment though,
he shook his head.
"That's all I can recall, m'Lord," he said.
"Thanks a lot," said Jim. A sarcastic note escaped into his voice. He
hastened to make up for it. "Forgive me, Secoh. You've been a great help."
"Forgive you, m'Lord?" said Secoh, raising his eyes in wonder. "What for?"
"Never mind," said Jim. "I appreciated you helping me as much as you did."
"Oh, that!" said Secoh. "Any dragon could do you that much, m'Lord. I wish I
could do more."
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"No," said Jim. "It's up to me, now."
He looked for Angie. Gazing around, he saw her standing on the other side of
him. Forgetting he was in his dragon body, he leaned forward to kiss her,
suddenly realized, and instead licked out a long tongue that just touched
briefly on her cheek.
"I love you, Angie," he said, in a very low voice.
She stepped forward and threw her arms around his dragon neck, burying her
face against his rough scales.
"You know I love you, Jim," she said.
She stood back.
"You'll take care of him, Jim," she said in a strong voice. "I know you
will!"
"Thanks, Angie," he said.
Reluctantly, he turned from her, spread his wings and went up in the air over
the edge of the wall, swooping down to where Essessili waited for him.
At the last moment he changed his mind. An inspiration had just struck him.
There was no reason why he shouldn't take a page from the method of peregrine
falcons he had seen. He would rise to a great height, and then dive on
Essessili with all possible speed, pulling out at the last minute to strike
with, not his open claws, but those same claws gathered into heavy-boned
fists.
Below him, the sea serpents burst out into shrill cries of condemnation,
seeing him apparently turning to flee. Above him, the waiting dragons of two
nations were ominously silent. He knew what they must be thinking. After
accepting the challenge, he had suddenly turned fearful; and was running from
the fight.
"M'Lord! M'Lord!"
Jim paused in his climbing for altitude, to see Secoh laboring to catch up
with him in mid-air. He held his position, going into a tight, soaring circle
as Secoh finally joined him.
"I thought of something else, m'Lord!" panted Secoh, as he began to soar
alongside Jim. "The tale definitely says that Gleingul killed the serpent by
driving his claws deep, deep into the base of the serpent's throat. But he did
it from behind. Clinging to the serpent's neck and reaching around it to drive
his claws in!"
"His throat?" said Jim.
He remembered how Dafydd had been having success shooting arrows into the
back of the open mouths of the serpents. His arrow undoubtedly passed into the
roof of the throat, behind.
Clearly it must reach the serpent's brain, or some vital nerve center. It
sounded as if Gleingul had killed his sea serpent by hitting the same spot
with his claws.
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"Thanks, Secoh!" he said. "I think maybe that's just what I needed to know.
Now, stay clear. I want to climb a little more and then dive I mean stoop. You
might tell the dragons above that's what this whole maneuver is about. Will
you do that?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]