“Look yonder!” Alianora’s cry drifted down the slope. He gazed the way she pointed and saw a narrow cave mouth in a nearby cliff. “He canna follow us in there!”
“No!” bellowed Holger. “Keep out of that! It’s death!”
She cast him a frightened glance, but obediently urged the unicorn away from the cave. Holger felt the first billow of heat on his back. Ye gods, if they went to earth in that hole, the dragon could suffocate them with six puffs.
“We’ve got to find water!” he bawled.
Up and over the stony land they fled, while the thresh of wings and the rumble of flames grew louder. Holger drew his sword. But what chance would he have? The dragon could grill him in his hauberk.
Well, he thought, I may win a chance for Alianora to get clear.
He didn’t stop to reason out why he must find water. There was only time to flee, over the hills, along a precipice edge, down a gorge. Papillon screamed as fire touched him.
Then they burst through a screen of brush, and a river ran below them, green and swift and thirty feet wide. The unicorn plunged in. Spray sheeted about the spiral horn. Papillon followed. They stopped in midstream. The river was icy cold, daggers in their feet.
The dragon landed on the bank. It arched its back and hissed like an angry locomotive. Afraid of water, Holger realized. So that was what his intuition had known.
“’Twill fly above, snatch us into the air,” gasped Alianora.
“Get down, then!” Holger leaped to the pebbly streambed. The current swirled strong around his chest. Hugi and Alianora clung to the tails of their respective mounts. “When the attack comes, duck below the surface,” Holger commanded.
But no human could stay down long enough. They were done.
Yeah, done to a turn.
The dragon flapped clumsily aloft. Its shadow fell on them as it hovered against the sun. Slowly, it descended. Flame gushed ahead, out of the open jaws.
Flame! Holger sheathed his sword, snatched off his helmet, and scooped it full of water. The dragon rushed down. He threw up one arm to protect his eyes. Blindly, he sloshed.
Steam burst around him. The dragon bellowed, nearly splitting his eardrums. The scaled bulk wobbled in flight, long neck dashing to and fro, tail churning the stream. Holger cursed and threw another helmetful of water at its snout.
The dragon stunned him with a shriek. Slowly and painfully, it rose in the air and flew back south. They heard its clamor for a long while.
The breath sobbed into Holger’s lungs. He stood motionless, exhausted, till the beast was out of sight. Finally hd led the others back to shore.
“Holger, Holger!” Alianora clung to him, trembled and wept and laughed.
“How’d ye do it? How’d ye conquer him, best o’ knichts, darling, my jo?”
“Oh, well. That.” Holger felt his face gingerly. He’d gotten several blisters. “A little thermodynamics is all.”
“What manner o’ magic be that?” she asked with reverence.
“Not magic. Look, if the creature breathed fire, then it had to be even hotter inside. So I tossed half a gallon of water down its gullet. Caused a small boiler explosion.” Holger waved his hand with elaborate casualness. “Nothing to it.”
11
A FEW MILES farther on they entered a hollow sheltered by cliff walls, as mild and sunny as any lowland. Beech and poplar rustled above long grass full of primroses, a brook tinkled, a flock of starlings fluttered off. The place seemed ideal for a rest such as they and the mounts badly needed.
After a defensive circle was constructed, Alianora yawned—she could do even that quite charmingly—and curled up to sleep. Hugi sat down below the cross, whittling with his new knife. Holger felt restless. “I think I’ll take a look around,” he said. “Call me if anything goes wrong.”
“Is ’t safe to gang off alane?” said the dwarf. He answered himself: “Aye, o’ coorse ’tis. What can harm a drakeslayer?”
Holger blushed. He was the man of the hour, but knew much too well what a series of accidents had caused that. “I won’t go far.”