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“If he releases them too high, he misses the target marker. If he releases them low enough so they’re sure to hit, he’ll pass over the town belly-down. Their war machines will get a chance at him then, and it will probably take many stones to collapse the wall. He still wants to try. It’s a terrible thing to have a vision and not be able to see it through.”
The Copper didn’t know what to say. If Nivom wasn’t smart enough to figure out how the walls might be brought down, the Copper certainly couldn’t improve on his plans and practices.
Out in the pool Fourfang speared a fish and bent over to retrieve it. The Copper nosed a river-smoothed rock toward Rhea.
She cackled and picked up the stone, then flung it with her arm out sideways so it skipped across the water and hit Fourfang square in that odd assortment of reproductive apparatus male mammals displayed.
Fourfang howled as he clutched his fish and his loincloth.
Nivom took a startled breath. “Of course! Of course! Why didn’t it occur to me? Speed—speed’s the thing, and he can get all he wants far from the walls. That’s it, Rugaard; your little human did it!”
He hurried off up the hill without any more explanation.
Chapter 18
SiDrakkon returned before Nivom’s attempt against the walls could be put into effect. He seemed rather surprised to find the drakes and HeBellereth still camped on that hilltop, with some of the signs of an intact army at war: herds of cattle and goats, blighters making charcoal, members of the Drakwatch on the adjoining hills and keeping watch from stone piles on the savanna.
With him were two young dragons with wings freshly uncased, and another veteran duelist, a one-eyed, rather fat dragon who collapsed to the ground as soon as they alighted and roared for food to be brought to him.
“Cursed ill luck,” SiDrakkon said, looking south at the rolling cloud banks portending the afternoon’s rain. “I set out from the Lavadome with a full score, but everyone had to get a turn of hunting in when they weren’t arguing. I’ve brought what I can; the rest will catch up or deal with my wrath on their return.”
Nivom and the Copper exchanged a soft snort.
SiDrakkon looked from the working blighters, using drag ropes to bring a boulder up the hill, to Nilrasha teaching some of the Drakwatch how to stalk in tall grass, to the temporary huts and corrals that had been built for the Bant king and his retinue.
“What transpires here?” SiDrakkon asked.
“We’re preparing for an attack on the walls,” Nivom said.
“With what forces?”
“HeBellereth.”
“He lives? Good. But one dragon would be wasted. Now, with all five of us, we’ve got a good chance of clearing those towers of war machines.”
“They’ve built more, many more, on every rooftop in the town,” Nivom said. “You can see them from our hilltop.”
“Delay always allows the enemy time to prepare,” SiDrakkon said. “Still, enough fire should make them abandon their machines. It may take several days, but I’ve seen it done.”
“Your honor, Nivom has a plan to bring down the walls,” the Copper said.
“Sacrifice every blighter here to the Earth Spirit; it still won’t bring an earthquake.”
“No, sir. With rocks. Dropped by HeBellereth.”
“Ahh, youth,” SiDrakkon said, softening his tone a little. “Always thinking they can reinvent warfare. It’s been tried in other places. Never works—not one stone out of scores of scores goes true. No, I’ve got the experience.”
“You don’t understand,” Nivom said. “It’s a matter of force and momentum. He’s been knocking down trees for days now—”
SiDrakkon’s griff dropped and rattled. “Trees don’t shoot back. No, we’ll start this very night. No, not another word out of either of you! It seems I got here just in time before you all got yourselves killed. Fire and terror are the way to go with humans; believe me. They’re not dwarves, after all. Fire and terror, drakes. Fire and terror. Now, we’ve got to hurry. According to the griffaran there’s an army of Ghi men on the march, big enough to sweep this collection and two more besides off these hills.”
SiDrakkon’s second assault on the city walls was an improvement on the first only in its brevity. His duelist, enraged by javelins fired into his wings and belly, plunged into the city, and managed to make a good deal of noise roaring and smashing before he was silenced. The two young dragons, fast friends since their days in the Drakwatch, according to Nivom, died together when one was brought down in front of the gate tower and the other flew to fight beside him.
HeBellereth had the sense to empty his fire bladder in one long pass over the city and returned, setting the blighters to work fastening shut the holes in his wings with bits of leather and wooden pegs.
“They’re ready for dragons, all right,” HeBellereth said, wincing as a bone needle passed through his wing skin.
SiDrakkon alighted and the blighters ran from his growlings. He knocked over a tree with his tail and tore apart a meat-smoking hut.
