“What is it, Grandfather?”
“Listen!” Belgarath said.
From high overhead in the rainy darkness there came the ponderous flap of vast wings and a sudden flare of sooty red light. The wings flapped again, and then the sound was gone.
“Move, Garion,” Belgarath said urgently. “Get your sword—and put something over the Orb so that she can’t see the glow from it.”
Garion untangled his legs from his blankets and groped in the darkness for Iron-grip’s sword.
Again there was the vast flapping sound overhead, and then a strange, hissing cry, accompanied by another flare of that sooty red light.
“What’s that?” Ce’Nedra cried out.
“Be still, girl!” Belgarath snapped.
They lay tensely in the darkness as the flapping sound faded off into the rainswept night.
“What’s out there, Belgarath?” Silk asked tensely.
“She’s a very large beast,” the old man replied quietly. “Her eyes aren’t very good, and she’s as stupid as a stump, but she’s very dangerous. She’s hunting. Possibly she smells the horses—or us.”
“How do you know it’s a she?” Durnik asked.
“Because there’s only one of them left in the world. She doesn’t come out of her cave very often, but over the centuries enough people have caught glimpses of her to give rise to all those legends.”
“I’m starting to get a very uneasy feeling about this,” Silk murmured.
“She doesn’t really look that much like the dragons in all those drawings,” Belgarath continued, “but she is big, and she does fly.”
“Oh, come now, Belgarath,” Durnik scoffed. “There’s no such thing as a dragon.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Now, why don’t you go out and explain that to her?”
“Is she the same creature we heard that night in the mountains above Maragor?” Garion asked.
“Yes. Have you got your sword?”
“Right here, Grandfather.”
“Good. Now, very slowly, creep out and smother the last of those coals with dirt. Fire attracts her, so let’s not take any chances on a sudden flare-up.”
Garion inched his way out through the open front of the shelter and hurriedly scooped dirt over the fire pit with his hands.
“Is it really a flying lizard?” Silk whispered hoarsely. “No,” Belgarath replied, “actually she’s a species of bird. She has a long, snakelike tail, and what she’s covered with looks more like scales than feathers. She also has teeth— lots of very long, sharp teeth.”
“Just exactly how big is she?” Durnik asked. “You remember Faldor’s barn?”
“Yes.”
“About that big,”
From quite some distance off there came another screeching bellow and the murky red flare.
“Her fire isn’t really all that serious,” Belgarath continued in the same low voice, “particularly since these woods are so wet. It’s when she catches you in dry grass that it starts to be a problem. She’s big, but she’s not very brave—and on the ground she’s as clumsy as a pig on a frozen pond. If it gets down to a fight, we probably won’t be able to hurt her very much. About the best we can hope for is to frighten her off.”
“Fight?” Silk choked. “You’re not serious.”
“We may not have any choice. If she’s hungry and picks up our scent or the scent of the horses, she’ll tear these woods apart looking for us. She has a few sensitive spots. Her tail is probably the best. Her wings get in the way, so she can’t see behind her too well, and when she’s on the ground, she can’t turn very fast.”
“Let’s see if I’ve got this straight,” Silk said. “You want us to sneak up behind this dragon and hit it on the tail, is that it?”
“Approximately, yes.”
“Belgarath, have you lost your mind? Why not just use sorcery to drive it away?”
“Because she’s immune to sorcery,” Polgara explained calmly. “It was one of the little refinements Torak added when he and the other Gods created her species. He was so impressed with the concept of a dragon that he chose it as his totem creature. He tried in every way he could to make it invincible.”
“It was one of his character defects,” Belgarath added sourly. “All right, the dragon is clumsy and stupid and she’s not used to pain. If we’re careful, we can probably frighten her away without anyone getting hurt.”
“She’s coming back,” Eriond said.
They listened as the flapping of those huge wings reverberated again through the sodden forest.
“Let’s get out into the open,” Belgarath said tensely.
“That’s a good idea,” Silk agreed. “If I have to do this, I want lots of level running room around me.”
“Ce’Nedra,” Polgara said, “I want you to get as far back into this thicket as you can. Find a place to hide.”
“Yes, Lady Polgara,” Ce’Nedra replied in a frightened little voice.
They crept out of the shelter into the darkness. The rain had slackened to a kind of misty drizzle wreathing down among the trees. Their horses, picketed not far away, snorted nervously, and Garion could smell the sharp odor of their fear over the resinous scent of wet evergreens.
“All right,” Belgarath whispered. “Spread out—and be careful. Don’t try to attack her unless you’re sure that her attention is someplace else.”
They crept out of the thicket into the broad clearing and started across. Garion, sword in hand, moved carefully, feeling for obstructions with his feet. When he reached the far side, he located a large tree trunk and went around behind it.
They waited tensely, straining their eyes toward the rainswept night sky.
The heavy flapping of great wings reverberated down among the trees, and once again they heard that vast bellow. Even as the sound crashed down on them, Garion saw the huge billow of smoky flame in the sky overhead and, outlined by that flame, the shape of the dragon herself. She was even bigger than he had imagined. Her wings might easily have shaded an acre. Her cruel beak was agape, and he could clearly see her pointed teeth with the flames writhing about them. She had a very long, snakelike neck, huge talons, and a long, reptilian tail that lashed at the air behind her as she plunged down toward the clearing.
Then Eriond stepped out from behind a tree trunk and walked out into the center of the clearing as calmly as if he were merely taking a midmorning stroll.
“Eriond!” Polgara cried as, with a triumphant shriek, the dragon swooped down into the clearing. Talons extended, she struck at the unprotected young man. Her beak gaped, and vast billows of sooty orange flame poured forth to engulf him. With fear for the boy clutching at his heart, Garion ran forward with his sword aloft; but even as he ran at the huge beast, he felt the sudden familiar surge of Aunt Pol’s will, and Eriond vanished as she translocated him to safety.
The earth shook as the dragon struck the ground, and her vast roar of frustration filled the clearing with the ruddy light of her fire. She was enormous. Her half-folded, scaly-looking wings reared above her higher than any house. Her lashing tail was thicker than the body of a horse, and her curved, tooth-studded beak was dreadful. A sickening stench filled the clearing each time she belched forth her billows of flame. By the light of her fire, Garion could clearly see her slitted yellow eyes. From what Belgarath had said, he expected a look of dull stupidity, but the burning eyes that searched the clearing were alert and filled with an intense, frightening eagerness.
Then Durnik and Toth were upon her. They dashed from the shelter of the trees, Durnik with his axe and Toth with the smith’s sharp-bladed spade, and methodically they began to chop at the dragon’s writhing tail. She shrieked, belching flame into the air, and began to claw at the sodden forest loam with her talons.
“Look out!” Silk shouted. “She’s turning!”
The dragon whirled awkwardly, her wings beating at the air and her talons throwing up huge clots of earth, but Durnik and Toth had already run back into the shelter of the trees. As she swept the clearing with her burning eyes, Silk nimbly darted out behind her with his short, broad-bladed Drasnian sword in his hand. Again and again he drove it into the base of her huge tail. Then, as she floundered around to meet his attack, he danced clear to regain the safety of the surrounding forest.
And then Eriond stepped into the clearing again. Without any sign of fear but with a grave expression on his face, he walked out of the trees and moved directly toward the raging beast. “Why are you doing this?” he asked her calmly. “You know that this isn’t the time or place.”
The dragon almost seemed to flinch back at the .sound of his voice, and her burning eyes grew wary.
“You can’t avoid what’s going to happen,” he continued seriously. “None of us can—and you can’t change it with this kind of foolishness. You’d better go. We really don’t want to have to hurt you.”