Sightblinder's Story by Fred Saberhagen

Author:Fred Saberhagen [Saberhagen, Fred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Magic, Mark of Tasavalta (Fictitious Character), Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Swords, Fantastic Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780812552966
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 1988-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

"Then likely we'll be able to get in, before . . . we'll

chance it." Again Doon led the way inland, advancing

quickly.

Golok relaunched his airborne scout, and Dart flew

inland at low altitude. And returned in a few moments,

this time chattering urgently.

"The dragon's moving toward us," Golok translated.

"Coming straight this way." Then the youth ran ahead

of Doon, who had paused to listen to the warning.

"Let me get out in front of you," Golok urged, "and try

to manage it. It's accustomed to being managed, from

what you tell me."

"Manage a dragon?" But Doon let Golok get out

ahead, then led the others in a quick advance.

Ben, even as he trotted forward, drew Dragonslicer

from its sheath. Beside him he saw Mark pulling his

longbow off his back and reaching for an arrow. Hubert

paused for a moment, to throw his weight on the

crossbow, cock it, and set the trigger.

You had to hit a big landwalker right in the open

mouth, Ben was thinking, or in the tiny target of its

eye,, to do yourself any good even with a crossbow

bolt . . . and now already he could hear the first chim-

ing of the dragon. It was out of sight behind hillocks,

but no longer very far ahead. It had to be coming on to

meet them.

Ben scrambled up the nearest hillock to get a better

look. Golok had climbed another mound, some twenty-

five or thirty meters ahead, and from its top he was

already talking and crooning and gesturing to the

monster.

Not the same dragon I saw that night, thought Ben,

this one's a little smaller. Some twenty meters beyond

Golok it had paused, leaning with one of its forearms on a

mound three meters high, so that for a moment it made a

parody of some irate proprietor behind a counter. It was angry

at Golok for being where he was; it was probably angered by

his mere existence. Ben could hear the anger in the near-

musical chiming of its voice. So far it did not appear to have

noticed Ben, or any of the others. It bowed its head once

toward Golok, as if in some kind of formal acknowledgement of

his existence, and then without further warning it came after

him in a clumsy-looking charge. Fire sighed and whistled in its

nostrils.

People near Ben were scrambling wildly to and from among

the rocks. Golok abandoned the useless position of his mound

in a surprisingly graceful leap. A few long strides and he had

scrambled up atop another, farther from the people and the

dragon and a little closer to the cliffs. He was still gesturing

and singing, and something in his method took effect. The

dragon's movements slowed abruptly, the charge declining

into a mere advance. The monkbird was flying like a sparrow

round the dragon's head, as if trying to distract it, but Dart

received no attention.

Doon, near Ben's elbow, whispered fiercely: "Indosuaros?"

The wizard's whispered answer was just as taut. "We must

use no magic here, if we can possibly avoid it. There will be

traces of our passage, if we do."

Ben could sense Doon's indecision. The Baron wanted to

get his party into the cave as quickly as possible, and if

possible without an open combat against the dragon.

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