time to see a dragon land almost at the front entrance of the Mousehole.
It looked like a league dragon, but Wiz grabbed his staff and headed for
the main door anyway. The dragon scouts were under strict orders to stay
away from the Mousehole lest the coming and going of the dragons should
attract attention.
By the time he reached the entrance Moira was already there. Of the other
programmers or wizards there was no sign, but one of the guardsmen was
holding the door for their unexpected guest. As he strode in, Wiz
recognized Dragon Leader, the commander of all the League’s dragon
cavalry.
Dragon Leader was a bowlegged, solid little man with pale blond hair and
eyes like the fog off an arctic glacier. He was dusty and he and his
flying leathers reeked of the snake-and-sulfur odor of dragon.
“My Lord, my Lady.” His head bobbed in something more than a nod and less
than a bow. “Forgive me for coming here, but we have a problem I thought
you should hear of immediately.”
“I understand,” Wiz said. “We’re still trying to find what’s causing the
trouble with the communications crystals.”
“Thank you, my Lord. But now we have a new problem. In the past two days
we have started to encounter enemy scouting demons over the island-well
south of their usual routes.”
Wiz gripped his staff tighter. “Do you think they know we’re here?”
Dragon Leader considered. “So far as we know they have not tried to come
this far south. But they are searching the island. That means you are in
danger of discovery.”
“Well, danger or not we can’t leave.”
Dragon Leader nodded. “Your decision, Lord. But understand we cannot
protect you this close to our enemies’ base.”
“Understood.”
“You should be safe for another ten-day or so. Their scouts are thorough
but they do not move as quickly as dragons.” He shrugged. “Perhaps they
will not come this far south. Or if they do your disguise may fool them.”
“But you wouldn’t put money on it.”
“As I say, Lord, their scouts are thorough.”
“Anything else you can tell us?”
“Nothing not in our regular reports. There is constant activity around the
castle, but no sign of any more great explosions.”
“Okay,” Wiz sighed. “Well, thanks for the warning. We’ll do what we can.”
“Will you stay for refreshment?” Moira asked. “Perhaps a bath?”
“Sorry, my Lady, but I have to rejoin my patrols.” He sketched a bow,
turned on his heel and strode from the room. A minute later they watched
through the windows as man and dragon lifted off in a cloud of dust.
“What is that guy’s name anyway?” Wiz asked as they watched their guest
dwindle into a dot in the sky. “Everyone just calls him Dragon Leader.”
“Ardithjanelle, which means ‘shy flower of the forest,’ ” Moira said. “The
story is that his parents were expecting a girl child.”
Wiz watched the dot for a second. “I think I’ll just call him Dragon
Leader.”
* * *
It was less than half an hour after Dragon Leader departed that the
still-sleepy programmers, Moira and Duke Aelric met in the day room. Wiz
outlined the situation to them and then posed the question on everyone’s
mind.
“Well, what do we do now?”
“How much longer do we need?” Moira asked.
“Maybe another two weeks, if Lannach can keep those damn gremlins at bay.”
“There really isn’t much we can do,” Jerry said. “We have got to have this
place to keep using the supercomputer.”
“We could move to another island,” Moira suggested, in a tone that
indicated she didn’t think much of the idea.
Wiz shook his head. “We’d have to stop work, get the system into a stable
state, back up everything, move it all and then try to get up and running
again. I know companies that have gone broke in the process and they could
get spares from the manufacturer if they broke something. Besides, I think
those patrols already cover the other islands.” He grimaced. “Probably the
best we can do is continue here for as long as we can and be ready to cut