Dragonbards by Shirley Rousseau Murphy Page B

laughing. “I want to
hear all about last night. How were you sure they were going to
attack? How did you get the horses away?”
    “We have spies in the palace,” Mikk said.
“Sivich decided to attack Nightpool when he found out we had been
stealing his food and weapons.”
    Charkky laughed. “He was pretty mad, raving
about wiping out Nightpool and killing all of us. Vermin, he called
us!”
    “So the night of his planned attack,” Mikk
said, “we loosed the horses and drove them off toward the
mountains, to be picked up by rebel troops from the coast.”
    Teb looked impressed.
    “Horses do not like growling otters biting
at their heels,” Charkky said.
    “You’re pretty well organized,” Teb
said.
    Mikk’s whiskers stiffened with pride.
    “What happened when Sivich discovered his
horses were gone?” Kiri asked.
    “Hah,” Charkky said. “He was madder than
sin, too mad to scrap the attack. He set out for Nightpool with
half his soldiers—a hundred soldiers on foot and only himself and
three officers mounted.”
    Mikk twirled his worry stones. “His foot
troops came at double march, and we followed them all the way,
running in the darkness. Sivich kept grumbling and muttering about
how he would slaughter us all.”
    “ He thought he’d just march down the
cliff,” Charkky said, “and swim his soldiers across to kill us like
sheep in a pen.”
    “Ebis was waiting for Sivich in the valley
between Auric Palace and Nightpool,” Mikk said. “His mounted men
picked off Sivich’s foot soldiers like minnows in a tide pool.
But,” he said more quietly, “Sivich will get fresh horses from the
countries friendly to him, and more soldiers. He’ll come at us
again, you can bet your flippers.” In spite of his steadiness,
Mikk’s dark eyes showed a chill of fear.
    “Hah,” Charkky said. “Now Tebriel is here!
And Kiri! And two white dragons to cut Sivich down from the sky,
burn him.”
    “How long will it take Sivich to get new
mounts?” Teb asked.
    “A week or more,” said Mikk. “By now, the
rebel troops will have swum the horses we stole, across the channel
to Lair Island for safekeeping. Sivich would never find them there,
in that tangle of caves and cliffs. He’ll send north for
reinforcements.”
    “We could join with Ebis now,” Teb
said. “Attack Sivich while he has few soldiers and no horses.”
    “But even without horses,” Mikk said, “he’s
at an advantage when he’s fighting from within the palace. He will
not come out into the open until he has reinforcements.”
    Teb nodded. “I don’t want to burn Auric
Palace. If we wait until new troops arrive, we can wipe them all out.”
    “Yes,” Mikk said. “That would be Ebis’s
choice, too.”
    “There will be more dragons in a few days,”
Teb said. “Seven more, and three more bards as well.”
    “Hah!” Charkky and Mikk shouted
together.
    “Nine dragons!” Charkky yelled. “The sky
will be filled with dragons!”
    “And there will be a surprise for Thakkur,
too,” Teb said. He wouldn’t tell them what, though they teased him
to find out. He soon left the two otters and Kiri talking about the
night’s battle. He went along the rim of the island to the caves
that looked down on the inner valley, to Mitta’s cave.
    The little pudgy otter was waiting for him.
Teb knelt and put his arms around her.
    “You are safe, Tebriel.” Her whiskers
tickled his neck. “Oh, you are safe.” She squeezed him with eager
paws, then held him away to look deep into his face, her whiskers
twitching with happiness. Teb tried not to see the gray hairs that
rimed her muzzle. “Dragonbard,” she said softly, her dark eyes and
her eager otter face filled with bright wonder.
    It was Mitta and Thakkur who had nursed him
through his long illness when he hadn’t known who he was, had fed
him, watched over him, set his broken leg, and changed the
dressings on it.
    “Dragonbard,” she repeated. “And you killed
the black hydrus. Oh, I