CHAPTER 25

Return Visit

Horace was a very unhappy dragon. Not knowing whether to eat someone was frustrating. A mistake might deprive him of relatives. An equally bad mistake could deprive him of his life. As for Ember, the best reason he had yet found for living, he dared not return to her. The last time he had been there he had seen her as a male dragon filled with the mating urge and had been within one jaw snap of killing her.

Yet there has to be a way, he forced himself to think, using his inherited human faculties. Helbah had said she would try to remove the curse Zady had put on him, but to him it seemed that she was helpless.

Maybe someone else could help. Should he find Zady and ask her to remove the curse? No, no, she'd never do that, and besides he'd bite her first. Zady after all would hurt Merlain and Ember, and in all the existences there was nothing worse than something that would hurt Merlain and Ember.

It was very, very hard work, this thinking. It just wasn't natural for a dragon! Perhaps if he remembered everything he had ever done he would discover something that could help.

For days and nights Horace paced the area in front of his cave. He'd eat the meat that was brought to him daily by someone who seemed an enemy but whose thoughts were those of an ally. He always investigated the thoughts thoroughly, and so far he hadn't been wrong. Sometime he might be wrong, and the thought bothered him. After eating he'd resume his slow dragon pacing, his tail now and then lashing out in frustration. Somewhere in the past there was an answer.

One morning as he paced and hurt his head Horace noticed that the sky was changing. White clouds were assuming peculiar shapes. He had never seen them do that. The shapes strung all across the sky and did not appear to be moving.

The sky flashed a dazzling bright. Horace blinked and the strangely shaped clouds vanished. The sky cracked into halves. The ground shook and rock fell and bounced and slid from higher up the mountain.

BBBBBAAAAARRRRRROOOOOMMMMM!

The sound was louder than any dragon roar. Louder even than thunder. His head hurt and rang and did nothing good for his disposition. Overhead the sky finished cracking to reveal a land of trees and streams and farms. Horace hadn't known that there was a land beyond the sky—Merlain had never mentioned it.

The sky-land came closer. There was a road, now a big pile of rock, now a building with soldiers in front of it looking up into the sky. Did they see him? Were they enemies of his? Should he opal onto them and destroy them?

A voice came from the sky: "LOOK, YOU OF THE ALLIANCE! LOOK AND TREMBLE AT

ZADY'S POWER!"

Zady! It was Zady's voice! He tried to find a thought coming from the sky. He tried sniffing scent from the sky. Nothing! It was some sort of trick!

CRRRAAACCCKKK!

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The sound was like a breaking tree. Men fell down as the ground in the sky trembled and shook. The building fell, its top coming down and its sides splintering.

Now the sky-land was receding. Men were screaming at their sky—reaching out hands as though to pick fruit over their heads. The road was in the sky and the pile of rocks. Woodland, shying horses, men and women running, screaming. Children running—and now Horace felt a pang, remembering when Charles and Merlain were like these in size. Trees were falling. Wild animals were running, but no dragons or hunters were chasing them. Trees filled with fruit, grasses higher than Horace had ever seen, long stretches of green with men in uniforms prostrated in a line with weapons scattered by their hands.

All was growing dim, dim, dimmer.

CCCCCRRRRRAAAAACCCCCKKKKK!

The land in the sky changed with the sound. There were now no men or farms or buildings. Only trees and a stream and hairy creatures not quite like humans. This was an improvement! This sky-land Horace liked!

"LOOK, PEOPLE OF THE ALLIANCE, AT WHAT ZADY HAS DONE. THROOD IS NO

MORE. IT DOESN'T EXIST. IT HAS NEVER EXISTED."

Horace ceased to listen to Zady's unpleasant voice. It was shouting nonsense: things to be understood, if at all, only by humans.

"I HEREWITH DECLARE NO MERCY FOR THOSE I HATE AND IMMEDIATE OR

EVENTUAL DEATH FOR ALL THOSE WHO DARE TO OPPOSE ME. THINK ABOUT IT, BUT

DON'T THINK FOR LONG."

BBBBBLLLLLIIIIIPPPPP!

The sky was now the old, familiar sky—very blue with white fluffy clouds moving across it. Had it been some magic that had made him see the sky-land? Had it really been there? What about Zady? Where was she? He knew he had heard her voice, croaking as a froog's voice, loud as a dragon's first roar. Had she been up in that sky-land? Should he go up there and destroy her?

Horace wasn't too good with words but he recognized a threat when he heard one. Zady intended to kill her enemies. Zady's enemies were his parents, his friends, his brother and sister and himself. The only way to stop Zady killing them was to destroy her. Merlain said by fire. Horace understood fire; he had been burned by it after lightning struck. He had to help his father—it was a son's duty!—but he had to be able to recognize his father and to identify Zady.

Old problem right back again. But now he might not have time. Zady might start killing them. She might kill Ember.

Fright at the thought of losing Ember made him opal-jump. He was back at their spot. A big, ugly male in heat confronted him there.

HORACE! came Ember's thought.

The big male rushed at him. Horace crouched defensively, protecting his belly from a possible upward strike. The male dragon stopped.

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Horace? Horace, don't you want me anymore?

It was her! Cautiously he eased up and stretched out a forefoot to her. Her tongue came out and licked at him.

Could he leave her again? Did he dare?

With the opal in his gizzard he could go anywhere. But Ember hadn't an opal in her. She could only move at a dragon's customary dragon pace, and there was no way at all that she could go some of the places he had been. No way that she could have gone with him and Merlain and Charles and those other two child humans.

Merlain, then hardly more than a hatchling, had held the opal then. The children had got on his back and held on and she rubbed the opal and it took them to a place where there was this big chimaera creature with its two human heads and one proper dragon head. Merlain had explained later that this beast was their godparent who had helped them and their father, though Horace failed to remember how. Merlain had said that the creature had given their father a magic birthing powder that had made Horace a dragon and her a girl and Charles a boy and allowed them to live. He hadn't liked the chimaera the one time he had visited, but that had been because it tried to take the opal from Merlain. He had delivered the woman-arm a sharp slap with his tail, and Merlain had rubbed on the opal and taken them home and away from there.

Ember put her forefoot affectionately across his big back as she teased at him, wanting him to do his masculine duties by her. At another time he would have been pleased to oblige, but now he saw her as a male, and no male was going to clamber on his back! He wouldn't allow that, even if—even if it were really Ember.

Merlain and Charles and those hatchlings he had been told were kings had ridden on him. His father and Glint had ridden on him. Might not his mate ride?

Suppose he was to take her to see the chimaera? The chimaera had somehow saved his and Merlain's and Charles' lives before they were born. Might the chimaera be able to help him now? And suppose he had Ember with him? If he saw Ember as he knew her to be and not as a male dragon in excessive rut, he would know that he was truly helped. Then, with the curse lifted, he could return and find his father, and together they could go and find and burn Zady until she was nothing but a pile of ashes.

It was worth a try. The alternative to trying was to be frustrated indefinitely.

Ember, he thought forcefully, climb upon your lord and master's broad and willing back!

Mervania had been tending her garden all morning, shoring up drooping green and yellow corbean plants and patting dirt up around the bright-orange pumpquashes. She'd have to speak to her captors about better controlling her island's weather. Mertin and Grumpus were asleep on their necks, nodding and snoring as she eased their mutual body down the row of plants.

Mertin woke with a loud snort. He twisted his neck stalk to look at Mervania, his fellow head. He belched in typical Mertin fashion and stretched their carapace to the extent that that was possible.

"Mervania, we've company!"

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"Don't be stupid, I would have sensed—"

She stopped, having turned slightly, and was now looking at two adult dragons, one on the other's back.

They were right across her cabsprouts and ruttabeets. The dragon on the bottom was of a dimmer color—copper—than the shiny golden-scaled dragon on top.

"As if gophmice and molphers weren't enough! How can a poor chimaera get her gardening done?

How'd they get here?"

"Gwoomth!" said Grumpus, studying the creatures from its dragon eyes.

"Copper good!" said Mertin. "We always need copper to supplement our diet."

"Mertin, we are not going to eat one of our godchildren! This one has to be—the one that should have been a nice head like Grumpus without that ugly—"

Horace raised his head and hissed.

"Ah, so you're sensitive, are you, little beast!" That was not an insult, or at least no more of one than to refer to a creature as human or dragon. Everything was inferior compared to a chimaera, of course.

Compared to the chimaera, the two dragons, one atop the other, were not tall. They barely came up to Mervania's neck stalk. In all the worlds the three heads of the chimaera had explored in astral form they had never encountered an intelligent creature that towered over them. Dragons were large, orcs tall, and the chimaera largest and tallest of all.

You tried to take the opal from my sister!

Oh, that! But I saved her later, didn't I? Helped her, at least.

Maybe did.

Why are you here? She was really curious. To have come here as it had, the dragon must have swallowed the opal. It or the one on its back.

You help Merlain?

She needs help, does she? Can't humans do anything right!

Humans not problem. Witch.

Zady, I suppose. I don't know what Kelvin was thinking about, letting her escape! I really don't know if he can think.

Horace gnashed his jaws. Don't insult Father!

Don't you take that lone of thought with me! You're just a dragon! You could have been one-third of a chimaera, but stupid Kelvin wanted his mate to survive the birth. I don't see why—she never was other than human. His Heln isn't in the Mouvar prophecies and she can't even read minds.

Don't insult Mother! The female dragon on his back hissed loudly, giving support to her mate.

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If you aren't the most ridiculous creatures! Dragons are intended to eat humans, not defend their pitiful honor.

Father and Mother not ordinary humans. Horace not regular dragon.

I'll grant you that. But what's Zady doing that made you come here? No, don't bother to strain.

I'll get the answers.

She sifted quickly through Horace's recent memories. The first thing she discovered was that Horace saw his mate as a large male while the mate saw her and her fellow heads as just what they were. The poor dragon had been spelled and spelled properly. It took but a moment to learn the rest of his story, and then she cautioned him to stay while she scuttled to her herb patch, where she plucked several silver-headed flowers from among bright yellows. She brought them in front of Horace's face and held them before his nostrils.

Horace sniffed just as she blew out a breath and disturbed the tiny feathered seeds.

The dragon opened his mouth, probably to roar, and she tossed the bouquet inside and almost down his throat. He choked, blinked, coughed. His eyes got big and he hiccupped.

Ember, you're you again!

Well, who did you think I'd be?

I can see right again! I can know friend from foe!

Of course you can, you ridiculous creature! Mervania thought to him. Your curse is lifted.

I will go back and kill Zady!

Not just yet. I want to mind-talk.

You help kill Zady?

Now why would I do that, Horace?

"Guuuuurrrrrrrr!"

Oh, very well, I won't tease you anymore. Don't go back—not just yet. I need to take an astralberry and go see what's happening. I can't help until I know what Zady plans. If your father can't handle it and Helbah and Katbah can't, then maybe I can advise them.

Help Merlain!

That's the idea. Ember, aren't you uncomfortable perched atop him? Why not get down and stretch your legs? I can't offer you anyone to eat, but maybe you'd like to gnash a pumpquash or a couple ripe zellons?

No. I like being here. You got carrion?

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No carrion, Ember. Sorry. Grumpus ate the last we had. We weren't expecting company. Actually we mostly eat company. Family's the exception.

Glad we mated. Not want to be meal for human-headed crawly thing.

Mervania half-raised her sting in intended reprimand, but forbore shocking their guest. It would be difficult to shock one of the dragons without shocking the other, and Ember had intended no insult but simply described in her terms the scorpiocrab body of a chimaera. Simple minds had simple concepts.

Swallow that astralberry! Horace ordered.

Mervania sighed. So impolite, but she ignored it. The berries were growing in the shade of a big wilpuss tree. She crawled over to it, plucked a ripe white berry, and held it in her human hand.

Swallow it! Horace ordered her again.

Very well. But you guests stay here until after we return to our body. Otherwise we might have to chase you down and eat you, to teach you manners. With that gentle admonition Mervania popped the berry into her mouth and swallowed.

Aw, what did you do that for?

Shut up, Mertin. It's only a short trip.

But I wanted to eat them.

Gwroomth!

You too, Grumpus.

They were now floating over their island. At her urging they drifted on over the swamp and the trees and the desert and into the cave of the transporter. The square-ears were not there now, Mervania not having bothered to mind-communicate with them that they were coming. The transporter, though, was set on the same coordinates it had been set on since Kelvin's last visit. Wanting to go where they needed to go, they drifted their consciousness into the booth, through the Flaw rupture, then out into the chamber intended for roundears. The chimaera had nearly round ears on her Mervania and Mertin heads; not so on Grumpus', but astral was not physical and so the trap was not sprung and the molecular structure of the installation was not instantly destroyed.

They drifted out of the chamber, along the underground river, up above the ancient stairs, above the old masonry, across country to where the dragons had started their journey. Here there were mountain crags and spires and an abundance of rough. Where was Zady? That was what they had come for.

They drifted at thought-pace, speeded by being chimaera and astral. To the highest, darkest, most forbidding mountain in this whole mountain range. Along the way they saw dragons and sheoats and goeeps and other denizens of the mountains. Grumpus commented twice, having spotted living or dead creatures that appeared appetizing. Then they were where she was, and even to a chimaera she had the ugliest of human faces. The rest of her was bare and what Kelvin and his father would have considered beautiful. Were they not in astral form Mervania saw no reason why Grumpus and Mertin should have been denied. One reason only—the head was excessively unappetizing and would make them sick.

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The old witch was doing something with lighted crystals and bottles and retorts and powders piled around her. On her biggest crystal a face loomed, and it was a face that Mervania recognized.

Mertin, do you see it?

I see it!

Whimper. Whimper.

Don't be afraid, Grumpus. It won't get us. It can't.

What's it doing with her? It must want this world. It's cheating. Mouvar won't like it.

Of course it is cheating, Mertin. What else would you expect?

Do we dare advise Mouvar's hero? Will we if we can?

It's cheating. It's proper that we help Mouvar.

It may go to our frame and destroy our square-ears.

Not until the end of the game. It doesn't know we are here. If Mouvar wins, we're safe.

If. Mouvar loses sometimes.

Many times. At least as often as he wins.

Whimper, whimper.

Yes, Grumpus, we go back.

They went back the way, all the way, that they had come. They were in their chimaera body, which had remained untenanted. The two dragons waited, munching on Mervania's prize plants.

You have to return, you dragons. Horace, you must not delay helping your father. We'll watch what happens. We'll help when we can.

Horace squatted down and Ember reached up with her foreclaws, hooked his small, worthless wings, and pulled herself up and back into place. The two visitors abruptly vanished.

Poor dragons, poor humans, Mervania thought. Even if we could go there physically there would be no protecting them.