The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson Page B

as you, of course, sir. But then, after that, they say the Dark Powers got pushed back again and sealed up, and the tower itself broken and ruined—not that it helped us mere-dragons any. Everybody else just went home and left us the way we'd become. So, it's supposed to be all right, now. But all the same I wouldn't go near there if I was your worthiness, I really wouldn't."
    "But what's there that's so bad?" demanded Jim. "What sort of thing, specifically, is it?"
    "Well, I wouldn't say there was any thing there," replied Secoh, cautiously. "It's nothing your worship could exactly put a claw on. It's just that whatever or whoever goes near it—without belonging to it, I mean—it does something to them, sir. Of course, it's the evil sorts that head for it in the first place. But sometimes things just as strange seem to come from it, and lately—"
    Secoh caught himself and became very busy searching among the bones of the cow.
    "Lately, what?"
    "Nothing—really, nothing, your excellency!" cried Secoh, a little shrilly, starting up. "Your illustriousness shouldn't catch a worthless little mere-dragon up like that. We're not too bright, you know. I only meant… lately the tower's been a more fearful place than ever. No one knows why. And we all keep well away from it!"
    "Probably just your imagination," said Jim, shortly.
    He had always been a skeptic by nature; and although this strange world was clearly full of all sorts of variances with the normal pattern of things as he knew them, his mind instinctively revolted against too much credit in the supernatural—particularly, he thought, the old B-movie horror type of supernatural.
    "We know what we know," said the mere-dragon with unusual stubbornness. He stretched out a scrawny and withered forelimb. "Is that imagination?"
    Jim grunted. The meal he had just gulped down had made him drowsy. The gray last light of day was leaden in its effect upon his nerves. He felt torpid and dull.
    "I think I'll grab some sleep," he said. "Anyway, how do I find the Loathly Tower from here?"
    "Just go due west. You won't be able to miss it."
    A shiver was to be heard in the last words of the mere-dragon, but Jim was becoming too sleepy to care. Dimly, he heard the rest of what Secoh was telling him.
    "It's out along the Great Causeway. That's a wide lane of solid land running due east and west through the fens for about five miles, right to the sea. You just follow it until you come to the tower. It stands on a rise of rock overlooking the edge of the ocean."
    "Five miles…" Jim muttered.
    He would have to wait until morning, which was not an unpleasant prospect. His armored body seemed undisturbed by the evening temperature, whatever it was, and the grassy ground beneath him was soft.
    "Yes, I think I'll get some sleep," he murmured. He settled down on the grass and yielded to an impulse of his dragon-body to curl his long neck back and tuck his head bird-fashion under one wing. "See you in the morning, Secoh."
    "Whatever your excellency desires," replied the mere-dragon in his timid voice. "I'll just settle down over here, and if your worship wants me, your worship has only to call and I'll be right here…"
    The words faded out on Jim's ear as he dropped into sleep like an overladen ship foundering in deep saltwater.

Chapter Seven
    When he opened his eyes, the sun was well above the horizon. The bright, transparent, cool light of early morning lit up the clear blue arch of sky overhead. The seagrass and the club rushes swayed slightly in the early breeze that was sending a series of light ripples over the stretch of shallow lake near where Jim lay. He sat up, yawned expansively and blinked.
    Secoh was gone. So were the leftover bones.
    For a second Jim felt a twinge of annoyance. He had been unconsciously counting on tapping the mere-dragon for more information about the fens. But then the annoyance faded into amusement. The picture of Secoh stealthily