I started to make myself invisible. I started with the feet, pronouncing the heavy syllables of the Hidden Language as quickly as I could. The feet disappeared, then the knees, then the thighs, and I was further than I had ever before gone with this spell. But at the waist I became stuck. The top half of my body remained obstinately visible.
“Cover me with illusion,” I told the old wizard. “I’ve got to get close enough to the dragon’s throat to try to pierce it.” The duchess, realizing what I was doing, handed me her spear. Fortunately, I was able to make the spear itself invisible without difficulty, while still maintaining the invisibility spell on my lower body.
“All right,” said the old wizard. “Go!” I stepped on invisible legs into the courtyard and launched myself into the air.
I looked down at my upper torso. The old wizard had made me into a particularly ugly bird, clearly too small to be a person, and, I hoped, too unappetizing for the dragon to eat at once.
The dragon was scratching with whimpers of pain at its throat. When it saw me, it lowered its claw and opened its mouth. I darted upwards as a tongue of fire shot under me. But, uninterested, the dragon returned at once to scratching. I considered chirping to give my birdlike form an air of verisimilitude but decided not to stretch my luck.
I circled delicately, trying to find a good angle for a spear thrust. I couldn’t see the spear but I could feel it, gripped tight in my sweaty palms, and I hoped I had the point forward. Twice the dragon reached up to bat me away, and twice I had to duck as deadly razor-sharp claws passed within an inch of my invisible legs.
And then my chance came. Its head back, the dragon was roaring again, and I flew as fast as I could straight toward it, and thrust the spear with all my strength toward the base of the throat.
But just as I thought I had it, the dragon twisted its neck, and the spear, clanging uselessly against the heavy scales, was jerked from my hands.
I dropped to the ground outside the wall, waiting for the dragon to come after me. Maybe at least I could lure it away from the castle. But I knew it could fly far faster than I could.
But it did not pursue me. It sounded instead as though it had decided to start taking the roof off the great hall.
I flew back up in time to see the chimney topple. The screams from within seemed to excite the dragon. But as it saw me its scarlet nostrils flared, and again I was nearly burnt to cinders.
Then all around the dragon was a new cloud of red balls, bigger than before, swirling, popping, ducking and weaving. I dropped into the courtyard to pick up an abandoned spear and realized that I too had become an illusory red ball.
With my new spear newly invisible, I rose into the cloud of balls. Furiously angry, the dragon clawed at the balls and roasted them with fire, but both his talons and his breath passed harmlessly through them. Camouflaged among them, ready to dart up or down, I waited for my opportunity.
When it came I almost missed it. Half obscured by the red balls, the dragon’s throat appeared before me, the tiny wound in the center and all the scratches around it oozing black blood. Too close for a rapid approach and not daring to back up, I swung my feet up against the beast’s neck and plunged the spear with all the force in my body into the space between them.
And the spear went home. A geyser of burning dragon blood covered me, blinded me, so that I was barely able to keep on flying. The roar of the dragon above me could have been my own scream. The tail in its writhing caught me, whirled me far out beyond the castle walls, so that my invisibility spell was knocked completely from my mind, and if I hadn’t been able to free one eye in time to see the ground coming up toward me, the flying spell might have failed me as well.
I dropped gently to earth, looking back toward the castle. The dragon was in its death throes, still spurting blood. It managed to pull out the spear, but too late, for it had penetrated its heart. Pieces of the castle went flying as it rolled in agony. Then, with a final roar, it slumped lifeless over the wall.
I took a deep breath and gathered up some snow to scrub my face. My hands were rubbed raw, all my ribs ached, and I had some lacerations and bruises, but other than that I thought I was unwounded. But my new Christmas suit was completely ruined by dragon’s blood.
II
I walked back slowly toward the castle. It was incredible to me that only the evening before, after turning the young count into a frog, I had imagined myself a competent wizard. This was my worst failure ever. I had never before managed to destroy half a castle.
One would have expected, I thought, that a royal wizard would be able to deal with a product of wild magic without coming as close to getting himself and everyone else killed as I had done. For all I knew, there was a simple spell against dragons, taught in one of the lectures I had missed. I would certainly have to apologize abjectly to the king and queen. As I reached the castle and crossed the drawbridge, I wondered if I would have to resign as well.
I was highly startled when, as I stepped into the courtyard, the queen threw herself into my arms, heedless of the dragon’s blood, and began showering me with kisses. I would have been able to respond more enthusiastically if I had not been so surprised.
In a few seconds she pulled herself away. “Oh, excuse me, I don’t want to seem forward, but I’m so grateful! You’re our hero! You saved Yurt!” Maybe, I thought, I would not have to resign after all.
The rest of the people in the castle who could still walk were mobbed around me, laughing and jumping to get a better look at me. “Our hero! The savior of Yurt! He killed the dragon!”
“Well, yes, but it took me an awful long time to do it!” I protested. “Don’t thank someone who almost let the castle be destroyed! The old wizard is the real hero.”
They pulled the old wizard forward. “What are you talking about?” he said irritably. “Don’t go putting your blame on me!”
“But you’re the hero,” I said. “You’re the one who distracted the dragon long enough so that I could spear him! I never could have gotten close enough without your illusions.”
“Took you long enough to do the business, too,” he grunted, which was actually my assessment as well.
The king was checking the outer walls, but most of us went into the hall, where several of the wounded were already bandaged. Dominic was groaning steadily. “I wonder if the pigeons are still alive and flying, so that we could send for the doctor,” said the constable, and hurried off to the south tower to see.
The hall had escaped much better than I had feared. The chimney had collapsed into the fireplace, and several of the windows were broken, but I was pleased to see that the Christmas tree was untouched.
“Well, I guess we’ll just all have to squeeze into the kitchens for Christmas dinner!” said the queen.
“It’s going to be hours late,” said the cook.
“I must say,” said the young count, who had not said anything since the dragon first appeared, “that I think this affair was all handled very sloppily. Castles should have established procedures to deal with emergencies.” But no one paid him any attention-though I thought I heard one of the stable boys make a sound like a bullfrog just before he dissolved into hysterical giggles.
The queen stayed by my side. I was beginning to wish I had paid more attention while she was kissing me, but she showed no signs of starting again. “I’m afraid you’ve gotten dragon’s blood on your dress,” I said, as a hint that I had noticed how close she had been, only moments before. “And I feel terrible about my velvet suit, just after you and the king gave it to me.”