“Hey, wait a minute! How do I keep predators off this carcass?”
Karin turned back to him. “Use your weapon,” she called and then
disappeared in the brush.
Mick drew the 9mm automatic and looked at it sourly. Then he looked over
at the elephant-sized monster he was supposed to be guarding. Then he
thought about the kind of thing that was likely to prey on something the
size of an elephant.
“Right,” he said again.
* * *
The sun was close to the horizon when Stigi waddled out of the forest with
Karin alongside. Mick moved to meet them, but Stigi drew back his head and
hissed like a jet engine starting up. Mick took the hint and backed off.
“He does not like you,” Karin said, quite unnecessarily. “Perhaps it would
be better if you gathered wood for a fire. It looks as if we shall have to
camp here tonight.” Mick noticed that both his and Karin’s packs were tied
to the saddle.
Mick retrieved the hand axe and started gathering firewood. After he saw
Stigi tear into the carcass he spent as much time as he could with his
back to the dragon. Stigi’s manners ran to the enthusiastic rather than
the polite and Mick, who hated the chore of field dressing a rabbit, was a
little put out by the sight.
By the time Mick had a double armload of firewood Stigi had finished his
meal. The dragon followed docilely behind Karin and settled down near the
fire with a belch that smelled like smog in a butcher shop.
Their own dinner was a thick stew of parched grain, dried fruit and jerky
from Karin’s pack. By mutual agreement they had decided to save Gilligan’s
rations against future need.
While they ate Stigi washed himself with his tongue like a giant cat and
then curled up and went to sleep. With his belly full he snored
astonishingly loudly.
Around them the plain was alive with the sounds of night birds and the
roars of hunting predators. Gilligan took to running his thumb over the
butt of his pistol and searching the darkness.
“Nothing will come close to us,” Karin told him, catching his expression.
“They are afraid of Stigi and the fire.”
“What about scavengers after the carcass?”
Karin shook her head. “Especially not the scavengers. Besides, if
something did approach Stigi would sense it instantly and waken.”
“What’s left of that carcass is going to get pretty ripe in a couple of
days.”
“We will not be here that long. Indeed, we would not have camped here
tonight if darkness had not caught us. We need to be back among the trees
for safety.”
“Doesn’t that just make it easier for things to sneak up on us?”
“Not the predators.” Karin pointed outside the firelit circle. “That.”
Mick followed her arm with his eyes. Off in the distance there was a
greenish glow against the sky, as if there were a city lit entirely by
mercury vapor lamps just over the horizon.
“What is that?”
“Our enemies’ hold,” Karin said grimly. “A great castle and fortress.”
“So close? They must be on the next island over.”
“No,” Karin told him. “They are on this island.”
Mick started. “Then what the hell are we doing sitting around a campfire?”
“Keeping off predators,” Karin said sharply. “Without the fire they would
be a danger, Stigi or no.”
“Besides,” she added, relaxing slightly, “those of the castle do not hunt
by night.”
“If you say so,” Mick said neutrally.
“Such has been our experience.”
Despite the roaring and the snoring, Mick finally got to sleep that night.
But he didn’t sleep easily or comfortably and his dreams weren’t nearly as
pleasant as they had been the night before.
Thirty: GRAND REVIEW
Craig looked down from the balcony and out over the serried ranks of his
handiwork.
The narrow valley was full of rank upon rank of war machines. There were
warbots ranging from two-ton Fleas to 200-ton Deathbringers, there were
tanks and armored cars and artillery and jeeps and scout cars and missile
carriers and on and on. They were there by the companies and battalions
and regiments, by the hundreds and the thousands. They packed the valley