Battledragon (22 page)

Meanwhile Birjit was unconscious while the surgeons and the Witch of Standing Endysia worked to save her life. They had issued a cautiously optimistic initial report. Relkin's bandage had been excellently dressed and had served well. The knife appeared to have missed the vital organs. The surgeon had sewn up the wound after it had been cleansed and treated with herbs and honey.

From other quarters there came unrelenting pressure. The captains of the fleet were insistent on immediate trial and punishment. The crews were aroused and angry; the situation could become disastrous at any moment if there was another clash. An all-out battle between crew and legionaries was possible. Unless they saw these oversexed dragonboys swinging from the yardarm, they would not rest.

Voolward issued an order for a court-martial. He also issued a statement declaring that until Birjit was able to testify, the court-martial would not take place. Evidence would be gathered in the meantime.

Then came another urgent message. Voolward hurried to Admiral Cranx's cabin; there he discovered that an ugly situation had developed onshore. A native village had been half destroyed by intoxicated dragons. The villagers were hopping mad, and demanding punishment for the dragons and restitution of the village.

Cranx reminded Voolward that relations with the islanders were of great importance to the Empire of the Rose and were particularly important to their own mission in Eigo. Relief ships and supply convoys would all pass this way and require freshwater. To turn the island hostile would be a terrible mistake.

The latest word was that the dragons were still in an uproar, armed with trees they'd torn down to use as clubs and standing in the ruins of the village defying the villagers to return.

The dragons had also announced that they would only communicate with their dragonboys.

"Which dragons are these?" said Voolward with a sinking heart.

"Dragonboys Swane, Relkin, and Jak of the 109th Marneri are mentioned in particular. Along with Manuel and Roos."

"How many dragons altogether?"

"As far as we can tell, the only dragons involved are from the 109th."

"It seems hard to believe. These are veteran wyverns. They've fought in so many campaigns for the empire."

"The Broketail has been in trouble before, you must admit. And the wild dragon is a problem and always has been, since it was first taken in."

Voolward sighed. The admiral had been fed some pretty old gossip. These notions were stale now.

"The wild dragon fought heroically at the Battle of Sprian's Ridge. There are songs about him, how he threw down ogres and killed them with his feet. Can you imagine?" Voolward grew quite passionate.

"As for the Broketail, what needs to be said? That dragon is a legend in his own lifetime. He single-handedly brought down the Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen."

Cranx remained unmoved. "I understand your concern for the dragons, but we really have to punish them for this. The islanders will not be satisfied with anything else."

"How are we to punish them? Are we to set other dragons against them?"

"The islanders suggest that we help them disable the beasts and then leave them here, to be beasts of burden for the natives."

Voolward turned ashen-faced with anger. In a tight voice he replied. "I will not agree to that, Admiral. It is against the basic code of contract between our kind and that of the wyverns. If they are to be punished, then they will receive the exact same treatment as any legionary. They will be arrested and confined until they can be brought before a court-martial."

Cranx pursed his lips for a moment.

"Well, some method of punishment must be chosen, and it must satisfy the islanders."

"You understand, Admiral, that those dragonboys are the very ones that the fleet is determined to see hanged for attempted rape of the sailor Birjit."

Cranx took a deep breath.

"I was aware of that, and I can allow no change in their status. As soon as they have persuaded their dragons to return to the fleet, they must be rearrested. The sailors will be satisfied with nothing less."

Left unspoken were other possibilities, including those of a rebellion among dragon troops, the worst nightmare for any legion commander.

Voolward took a pinnacle and five dragonboys from the 109th, and was rowed around to the beach in front of the village that had suffered dragon assault.

It was dark, but a large fire burned in the middle of the village, around which gathered wyverns clutching tree trunks and drinking from a looted barrel of real beer.

The monstrous great reptiles merely turned their heads to watch as the boat grounded and the commander, with two legionaries and the dragonboys, clambered out.

Voolward half wished that the damned trio of boys would abscond with their dragons and remove the problem from his jurisdiction in one swoop. They could be left to a subsequent fleet. It would weaken the force under his command, but it would save him from a terrible set of problems.

They approached the wyverns, Voolward and his men hanging back a little. In truth, these dragons did look a little wild. And they had done terrible damage to what had been a very solidly built village.

The native houses had been solid affairs of wood beams and wattle and daub walls. There were fireplaces of stone and brick floors. Assaulted by club-wielding dragons, many houses had taken on a shattered appearance with walls broken in and doors smashed to flinders.

The dragons had piled up flammable materials from the broken houses and ignited it from the coals in one of the native kitchens. In just an hour or two, they had done a century's worth of damage.

The dragonboys went up to their dragons. The wyverns were cool, they hardly spoke. Dragonboys murmured affectionate greetings and began the routine of checking their giant charges for damage. The dragons were so used to this that it calmed them immediately. The familiar bonds were reforged. Soon they were able to talk rationally once again.

Voolward waited. After a short while the dragonboys approached. Their reports only made things more complicated.

The dragons had a powerful complaint of their own. The incident had begun with the appearance of native men who gave the dragons small barrels of a beer called
pulji
that had a weird effect on them. Then groups of the islanders had tried to entice them to desert and stay on the island as pampered pets. When that had failed, they had thrown nets and ropes about the wyverns and tried to abduct them.

The dragons had fought off their attackers, but crazed by the
pulji
, they had gone a little too far with their retribution. They admitted as much, but they pleaded extreme provocation.

Now the fat was absolutely in the fire. The entire dragon force of the Argonath would be affected if these dragons were unjustly punished.

Voolward looked up at the sentry's cry and saw a delegation of the villagers approaching from the direction of the palm groves.

They were a well-fed lot, dressed in red linen and thick-soled sandals. They spoke poor Verio, except for one rotund member who had spent time in Kadein in his youth. They had many demands, but the prime one was that the dragons had forfeited their freedoms and should be left behind, in chains, to become the slaves of the islanders.

Voolward gave them the dragons' side of the story. The village elders were outraged and dismissed the charges with derisive insults. The dragons were mere animals and were not to be listened to in such things. It was a blasphemy against the old gods to even think such a thing.

The islanders would not listen to Voolward any further. Voolward signaled to the
Barley
. Another pinnacle, this time bearing Admiral Cranx and six armed sailors, arrived.

Cranx and Voolward strolled some distance from the village elders to converse. The admiral felt that first consideration must be given to keeping the natives of the Watering Isle friendly. In vain, Voolward pointed out the need for keeping dragon morale high.

A disaster was shaping up when there came a sudden interruption. A high piping whistle sounded from the palm trees. The villagers turned expectantly. A column of native men wearing armor of coconut matting and shell filed out carrying spears and shields.

The villagers beamed and looked meaningfully at Cranx and Voolward.

Then more men marched out of the palms; these were bound at the wrist and neck, however, by stout cords and driven on by others in the coconut armor. The faces of the villagers dropped. Several began to edge away from the scene.

At the head of the procession came a magnificent specimen, over six and a half feet tall, wearing red-lacquered armor. He roared commands at both the villagers and his men. Those who had been edging away froze. The armored troops fanned out to surround the villagers.

Voolward and Cranx exchanged amazed glances; the dragons and dragonboys tensed. If the armored men tried to attack the dragons, there would be a slaughter. The dragons still held onto their crude clubs.

The bound men were brought up and made to lie facedown on the ground while the giant in red explained in terrible Verio that they were the guilty parties. They had been apprehended fleeing the scene and taken and questioned. Under careful questioning, their lies had been pierced through and they had confessed. The dragons' tale was confirmed in virtually all aspects.

Voolward gave a huge sigh of relief. The dragons were absolved of blame. The very village that had conspired to drug them had been the one to take the brunt of their rage when they exploded.

With groans of woe, the village elders were rounded up by the men in armor. The leader in red announced that they would be whipped and then made to repair their village.

Further signals were sent to the fleet, and more boats came ashore to ferry dragons to the
Barley
. Once they were aboard, however, the three accused dragonboys were taken below and clapped in irons in the brig.

Admiral Cranx called a meeting of the captains of the fleet, and asked Voolward to attend. The captains demanded an immediate trial for attempted rape.

Voolward requested a delay, at least until Birjit should awake. As yet there had been no actual complaint from Birjit. The charge of rape had not even been made by the victim. After the meeting ended, inconclusively, the witch Endysia entered to confer with Admiral Cranx.

Later Cranx announced his solution. There would be immediate first-grade field punishment of twenty strokes apiece, to satisfy the fleet. Voolward protested, and Cranx accepted that the protest would be marked in the log, but the punishments would stand. Cranx admitted that it might even be an injustice, but still it must be done. Nothing else would satisfy the fleet.

The floggings were set for the forenoon of the next day. Relkin, Swane, and Jak were chained up in a morose group in the brig.

That evening Commander Voolward tried to get Dragon Leader Wiliger to admit that he had jumped to conclusions and made a hasty and perhaps unfair charge. Voolward felt a growing sense of desperation as the hour of injustice approached. Wiliger would not budge, and Voolward came close to losing his temper with the man. However, in such a situation, Wiliger's opinion counted for a great deal, and Voolward could not simply overturn it on his own.

When Wiliger was dismissed, Voolward considered carefully and then sent for the witch Endysia. At his request she visited the dragonboys. She was reluctant, admitting to Voolward that her sympathies lay with the female sailors for what they had endured during the long voyage.

Voolward wrote an urgent message for General Steenhur and dispatched it by boat at once.

Endysia approached her interview very cautiously. She was aware that all three young men were veterans, allied to experienced dragons, and one was a much decorated hero. She was determined not to let such things sway her judgment, for she was in the middle of a very difficult political situation. The fleet was aboil with rage, fed by weeks of chafing confinement with all these young legionaries. There was widespread resentment among the men against unfair punishments being handed out without even the benefit of a proper trial. Endysia was charged with expediting the voyage to Eigo. She felt the weight of the responsibility and looked forward to being free of it. Sometimes she rued the day that Lessis had walked into her chamber. The Grey Lady was always a dangerous visitor, they said. Endysia came from Cunfshon and perhaps erred in siding with the sailors in sympathy with her sex. To all Cunfshoni, rape and assault on women were crimes of a peculiar horror. The Isles were prosperously ruled by a matriarchal cult, after all. And their society was regarded as a model of the well-ruled state, with justice and equality for all beneath the small and elastic technocratic hierarchy of the Empire of the Rose. The Common Weal of Cunfshon was certainly the most sophisticated political culture in the world. Endysia was proud of her native isles, and she had a slight degree of suspicion for all outsiders, even for the folk of the Argonath, who were an organic outgrowth of Cunfshon. This led her to build a wall between herself and the hearts of the fighting men. Sexual assault was the worst crime in the world, for it tore at the very basis of the great Commonwealth of Cunfshon. These boys had to be taught a lesson, and if it was summary punishment, then so be it. A trial could be held later, and maybe after that they would be hanged.

Her mind was set on a cool elevation therefore, and her visit was short and changed nothing. She asked only a few questions and did her best not to even make eye contact with Relkin of Quosh. Afterward she suffered a degree of self-reproach and then recalled poor Birjit's pale face. She hardened her heart against these boys. The fleet must come first. Endysia returned to the sick bay and sat beside Birjit, mulling over what to do next. The one remaining hope was that Birjit would awaken and reveal what had really happened. How that might be achieved was a question beyond the competence of a Witch of Standing. If only Irene had been there, or Lessis herself.