Dragon - Dragon Companion - Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 16
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Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 16

"And set us up for trouble in this generation," said Manda, making a wry face. "Which is unfair of me, for most Gantrells are decent folk. It's just my overambitious Uncle Peter a"

"So you think Gantrell might have knowledge of these Hiding Lands?" asked Furbetrance. The herder nodded in reply.

"I wonder, then," said Manda, "why Freddie of Brevory didn't carry Lady Rosemary there, after he captured her in Summer Pass?"

"Several reasons occur to me," replied Talber. "For one, Summer Pass is much closer north than Hiding Lands is west. It would have meant carrying m'lady Rosemary overland almost twice as far as taking her to Wall, you see."

"Also," put in the Dragon, "from what little I know and what the crossbeaks and others tell me. Hiding Lands is no place to take a lady you want to save as hostage."

"Do you want to guess what I think?" said Clem, smack-ing a fist into his palm. "I think our Retruance reached the top of Summer Pass, found the signs we saw there, and, knowing the Gantrells had knowledge of Hiding Lands, gambled that Brevory would take Rosemary there, instead of Wall."

Said Tom, "I don't see friend Freddie as a desert rat."

"Ha!" Manda gave an unladylike snort. "Anything dry would be anathema to Freddie the Sponge!"

"No more help you can give us on landmarks and so on?" Clem asked. "I've heard tales, but few men of the north ever see the south slopes. What would be the use?"

"There's said to be gold and silver, even diamond mines there. Men go into the lands regularly, looking for them. They seldom come out," said Talber, ominously.

"Let's not forget we're looking for a Dragon, not a man," said Tom. "I for one can't imagine any desert dangers that would phase Retruance, or prevent him from coming home to Overhalla-or sending word, at least."

DRAGON COMPANION 125.

Furbetrance sniffed. "Yet the fact remains, he went in, and didn't come out." "Magic, then?" asked Tom. "Magic, perhaps!" answered Furbetrance Constable.

THEY talked to the veteran sheepherders, hoping that one of them would have an idea where Retruance might have alighted in Hiding Lands.

"My pappy went that way once, as a youngster," said the oldest of the herders. He blew a cloud of rank tobacco smoke from his stubby clay pipe before he went on.

"Told us it were desolation doubled and tripled! Leagues and leagues with nary a drop of water and not a living ani-mal nor plant. The mountains shade the land from the rains from the sea, he said. It rains there maybe one day in five, six years! When it does, the hills melt away like sugarloafs and slip down into the canyons. Dangerous place, said he, and I believed him so well I never went there myself."

Asked Tom of the old-timer, "What could the Dragon have seen and where was he headed, can you guess?"

"Pappy said there were a few, tiny water holes in deep canyons where water was to be had and a few trees and some grass could grow. Seems to me one of these must be the place the Dragon was headed, if his quarry were men. After all, men need water, even if a Dragon don't."

"Look for spots of green deep in cracks in the land," said Furbetrance. "That sounds like a sensible way to proceed."

"In a spot of green, ye might find your Dragon or some trace of the passing of his quarry," the veteran agreed. They thanked him and prepared to go their way again, heeding the factor's advice to carry extra bottles of water.

Tom and Manda approached Clem then, saying, "We can put you over the mountain at your house in the woods, Clem, if you want to go home. This is not your work to do, if you don't want to. We'll understand."

The trapper drew himself up proudly.

"I'm committed to serve and help Master Tom and you, m'lady! And to help you and this fair lass." He gestured to a suddenly blushing Momie. "Face the terrible desert without my being there to ease the ordeal? No, thank you muchly, ma'am and sir! Order me away, if you wish, but 126 Don Callander DRAGON COMPANION 127 unless you do, I signed on for the full portage."

"We had to offer," said Tom, pounding the trapper on the shoulder in his delight. "We could think of no better, braver companion, old man!"

"Oh, we would be quite lost without you. Clematis!" cried Manda, and Momie kissed him on his cheek.

"You may become lost even with me, ladies," he protested. "But I'll feel much better about myself knowing I'm along to help you."

"If you people are finished being mawkish," sniffed the Dragon, "I would like to get under way. We have less than six hours of daylight before we must stop for the night out there on the desert."

"Do Dragons cry, I wonder?" Manda asked nobody in particular as they shot aloft in the warm, dry afternoon sky.

"I haven't the faintest idea," replied Tom. "But it wouldn't surprise me a bit. They are like Murdan, in a way. They like to appear tough and self-reliant, but underneath they're softhearted and kind and extremely sensitive."

"Huh!" snorted Furbetrance. "Hah! Your experience is limited to two Dragons reared by the same Dame, my gentle mother. Wait *til you meet a really tough, bad-tempered, terrible, man-hating Dragon with chronic dyspepsia and sharp clinkers in his gut!"

"I can wait for that," said Manda with a laugh. "Oh, look, that must be the beginning of the Hiding Lands. How desolate it is!"

^13^ Search for a Dragon

THE summer after his college graduation Tom had traveled in an ancient truck all over America's Far West, from Texas and the Gulf Coast to Montana's Big Sky country, from Pike's Peak to the Golden Gate.

He was enthralled by the dry, high desert. At the very bottom of Death Valley, almost three hundred feet below sea level, he'd stood alone on a dune and turned completely around. He saw not a single living being, animal or plant! Not even an insect in the sand or a bird in the sky.

He never decided if he loved the deserta-or hated it.

As Furbetrance bucked in the first hot updrafts over Hiding Lands, the memories returned to him. This land, too, was flat as a pancakea-a uniform yellow-tan pancake. No trees, little shrubbery or even dried weeds. No creature stirred anywhere within the fifty-mile circle of horizon.

In a way, this place made Death Valley seem almost hospitable. Death Valley at least had a road and motorcycle tracks to show that men had once been there.

"Yet, it has a beauty," he said quietly to Manda. She was staring at the desert over the Dragon's nose. "The colors are subtle. The stillness is overwhelming."

"I prefer greenery with noisy people," the princess answered shortly. "How can you say it's beautiful?"

"I prefer forests with lakes myself," said Clem to Momie.

"So do I, really," answered the maid. "But I can see how Master Tom thinks it is a well, starkly attractive here."

"If you were down there, afoot and without water," observed Furbetrance glumly, "you'd soon learn to loathe it. And I say that when it's much more to a Dragon's liking than many places I've been. I was brought up on such a desert,"

"It really lacks only a little rain to be a garden," said Tom, dreamily. "I've seen whole great valleys abloom where men brought water to the American desert."

"I won't say I hate it," said Manda, reasonably, "nor that I cannot see why it might attract you, my love, but I do say I wouldn't like to live here."

"Even if I built you a green garden and a blue lake to reflect the stark mountain peaks?" teased Tom.

"Well, I suppose even this desert could be made livable, if one had the means and time."

"It's the challenge," replied Tom, "to make it livable and yet not spoil its setting."

They flew straight into the heart of Hiding Lands until the Dragon judged they had come to where the crossbeaks had seen the Dragon. Then he angled north toward the Snow Mountains. Through air void of all moisture. Snow Don Callander Mountains appeared sharp and clear, as though modeled in blue clay on a tan tabletop.

For hours the Dragon flew straight toward them without seeming to get any closer.

"Distances are hard to estimate in this clear air," Furbetrance worried aloud. "I wonder if the birds were able to judge accurately?"

"Well, but their words are all we have to go on," Manda pointed out.

"Ah, well, yes," sighed Furbetrance. "I intend to go only a little farther. I can stand the dry and the heat below but you'll need shelter from the cold of night and it would be nice to find a little water."

He flew swiftly on. At last the Snow Mountains began to rise up over them rather than just being a ragged edge to the skyline. His passengers had been silent for some time, hypnotized by the rhythm of wing beats and the monotony of the scene.

"Wake up!" Furbetrance called. "I need your eyes here! Help me find a patch of greenery. Green means water."

The four on his head stirred like sleepers awakening. Where the mountain wall swept abruptly toward the sky the Dragon turned at a right angle to it and flew east,. dropping lower and lower as he went, barely skimming the higher desert floor at the foot of towering cliffs.

"I see water courses but they're all quite dry," said Manda, scowling into the fierce afternoon glare. "Gads! It's hot here!"

"Shade, shade is what I seek," sang Clem under his breath, "and cool, clear water." He leaned further forward until Momie grasped his belt in back to keep him from tumbling off his perch.

"There! Up that canyon!" shouted Tom. "Hey, go about! I'm sure I saw a glint of green and sun on water."

Furbetrance banked steeply, made a tight turn, and glided slowly into a vertical-sided canyon whose perfectly flat floor was covered with rippled sand.

"There!" cried Manda, pointing. "That's water!"

"Further, further," urged Clem, nodding in satisfaction. "There must be springs in the rock here. Ah!"

He guided the gliding Dragon lower until they were no more than fifty feet off the canyon floor, just room enough DRAGON COMPANION 129.

for Furbetrance to beat his wings. They passed over short stretches of stream that were filled with an inch or two of murky water, but no more.

"Beware the comer!" shouted Tom to the Dragon.

"Got it!" replied Furbetrance, easily. He banked to make the curve around a jutting rock. "Look at that! What did I tell you?"

Before them the canyon, now fully a thousand feet deep, widened to a thousand feet. Down its center, a long, narrow lake filled most of the floor. Its banks were choked with dark pine and light willow, as closely set as jungle. The Dragon's reflection shot across the still water with him, perfectly mirrored on the surface. The place was absolutely silent. They saw no birds at all in the air or in the trees.

"Well," said Tom, "I think we can camp on the shore, don't you, Furbetrance? There seems to be no danger."

"Don't be too sure," said Manda. "It's much too quiet. You'd think there'd be birds, at least. a"

"Only birds who would live in a place like this," Clem reasoned, "are kinds who could fly high enough to escape over the canyon rim. That leaves out most of *em, except maybe eagles and falconsa-and vultures."

Furbetrance picked a smooth rock beside the lake upon which to land. On the ground they all sat in place for a long moment, savoring the peace and beauty of the spot and looking for signs of lifea-and danger.

"Lunch!" cried Momie, sliding from the Dragon's head, feetfirst.

"I'll gather some firewood," said Clem and he went off to the edge of the wood to find fuel.

"Well, I must admit, this is beautiful!" Manda said after looking about for some minutes in silence. "If someone were to build me a comfortable castle above this tarna say over there? A few dozen loyal retainers and servants. A marvelous place to get away from the bustle and clamor of court life, I do say, and to be alone."

"No need for a fortress here," replied Tom. He jumped from his perch and helped her alight.

"True enough. Princess," said the Dragon. "No one could bother you here. A handful of men at arms could defend the narrow places for years, as long as there was water and food."

130 Don Callander "I prefer to dream of it as a sort ofa well, retreat," Manda said with a pleased laugh. "I wouldn't want it to be a fortress."

Tom went down to the lakeside and scooped up a handful of water to taste. The ripples of his touch spread as far as his eye could see in wonderful, even patterns, changing direction and constantly overlapping as the waves struck the rocky sides of the tarn, echoing back upon themselves.

He called to Manda and they watched the show silently together.

"I feel as if I've broken something," said Tom. "It'll take hours for the lake to be as still as it was when we came."

"It'll be still again," promised Manda, softly. "It will always return to stillness."

Momie and the trapper returned with armfuls of fragrant cedar and dried pitch-pine boughs for a fire. In a few minutes a thread of blue smoke was rising straight as a ruler into the unmoving air, scenting it pleasantly with cedar and pitch. Momie boiled water from the lake for tea and Clem carefully sliced cold meat brought from Ramhold, to go with biscuits he was baking in front of the hot coals.

"He does it all so easily!" Momie marveled. "Cooking is a pleasure and a necessity, I know, but he makes it an art even here in the middle of nowhere, I vow!"

"The best part is, no matter what he cooks or where, it always tastes good," said Manda, clapping her hands.

" *Tis because when you're eating my cooking," chuckled the trapper, "you're always famished from healthy exercise!"

"Maybe," laughed the princess, "but few of my Uncle Granger's highly paid and much-honored chefs can match you, Clem!"

"Just good, fresh ingredients and sensible preparation," said he, modestly. "The biscuits need to be turned end for end, my lass," he said to Momie. "To cook *em evenly on all sides. A campfire is not like an oven in your castle home!"

They sat on the smooth, cool rock in the shade of one enormous willow at the water's edge and ate lunch cheerfully together.

"If there is this place," said Tom around a mouthful of tender, buttery biscuit and cold roast lamb, "there may be DRAGON COMPANION 131.

other such hidden oases in other valleys and canyons. And perhaps signs of Retruance are hidden in one of them."

"I suppose we can investigate them all, in time," sighed Manda. "Thank goodness for Dragon-flying. It'd take a century on horseback!"

"There're not really that many canyons to explore, if we stay in the area indicated by the crossbeaks," Clem reasoned. "We can fly over them as we come to them. Should be able to spot sign of Dragon when we come to it."

"Yes, you've said Dragon-sign is hard to miss," said Furbetrance. "Well, I suppose that's because we never had any reason to hide our comings and goings."

"That's as I sees it," agreed Clem. "Ho, lassy! Let's set things aright here and put out the fire. We'll return the place as it was when we came. That's a law of the forest."

As the pair worked, laughing and talking privately, Manda walked along the lakeshore, studying the trees, the calm water, and the smooth, water-rounded stones with equal interest. The Dragon rested, his eyes closed against the brilliant sun, lying on a flat rock in the full sun, soak-ing up its heat, as Dragons do to recharge the furnaces within.

Tom leaned back in the shade and built, in his imagination, a castle in air for Manda upon the far shore. This place greatly appealed to something within him. He had always loved lonely places.

He must have dozed off, for the next thing he knew, Manda was calling softly to him. He popped his eyes open and found she was bending over him, smiling lovingly.

"Come down the shore a way," she urged. "I want you to see something beautiful."

She led him around a bend of the shoreline, into a tiny cove overhung by huge, old willows. In the deep and crys-talline water around their roots swam a thousand or more tiny, golden fish, swirling and turning, weaving patterns and breaking them apart to make another.