Narlh stared.
Then he said, "Drunk? A dragon, drunk? What'd he do, drink a brewery?"
"Nay." Stegoman's face set into rocky lines. "Mine own fumes. When I breathed flame, I became giddy and crazed. I was rent for that, monster—my wings were torn in many places; I was condemned to crawl upon the ground for hurting other dragons."
"Oh, sure, dragons! But who cares about a lowly dracogriff, huh?"
"None saw that," Stegoman confessed, "or I might have been taken from the air much sooner."
"Sure. Right. A model of justice, these dragons."
Stegoman's eyes narrowed. "Do not mock."
"Why not?" Narlh blasted. "Who're you trying to feed the big lie, lizard? So you were grounded, huh? Then how'd your wings get healed?"
"By Matthew," Stegoman said simply.
Narlh stared at him. Then, slowly, he turned toward Matt again. "You traitor."
"I hadn't even met you yet! Besides, Narlh, I cured his drunkenness, too! He can breathe enough flame to fire a steam engine for a hundred miles and not even be tipsy! That's why I know he wouldn't fry you now!"
" 'Tis true," Stegoman said "I would summon other dragons and chase thee away from our borders, aye—yet not even that, if thou wert to tell me of thy complaint against one of our number."
"Sure," Narlh said. "Sure." But he didn't bellow this time.
Then he turned to Matt. "If you're such good buddies, how come he isn't traveling with you anymore?"
"Because," Stegoman said, "Matthew is a wedded man, and cannot go gadding about on a quest—and there's no place at court for a dragon."
"There will always be a place for you at Alisande's court!" Matt protested.
A hint of a smile showed at the corners of the saurian's mouth. "Bless thee for thy fond protestations, Matthew—yet even had I stayed, thou wouldst have had scant time for the company of a confirmed old bachelor like myself. Nay, a wife leaves a man little time for unwed friends."
Sir Guy frowned. "I would not say—"
"Nor would I," Matt cut in, "considering that I didn't marry her."
Stegoman stared. "Not marry..."
Sir Guy looked up, startled "Why, how is this, Matthew?"
"Alisande has this thing about being nobly born." Matt shrugged the issue away. "I developed a certain desire for a higher station in life."
Sir Guy lifted his head slowly, looking more and more worried as he went.
"Desire, yeah." Narlh's jaw lolled open in a grin. "And a big mouth. Tell 'em about your little memory lapse, Wizard."
"Memory lapse?" Stegoman turned to Matt, frowning.
Matt felt his face grow hot. "I, uh...kind of bent the Third Commandment a little..."
"Bent?" Narlh hooted. "He bent it so far it snapped back!"
" 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain'?" Sir Guy turned very somber. "What did you call Him to witness, my friend?"
"I'll, uh, tell you later." Matt forced a sickly grin. "Suffice it to say that it resulted in my undertaking a quest remarkably similar to your own."
"And not entirely voluntarily." Finally, a smile broke through Sir Guy's cloudy mood. "Well, no matter how you are come, you are well come! I thank all the saints for your presence; now I can hope!"
"So can I," Narlh growled. "Hope these bars'll rust! If I have to wait that long to get at that overgrown salamander, it'll be worth it!"
"Salamander? Why, thou knowest not of what thou dost speak, foolish halfling!"
"Halfling?" Narlh leaped forward, slamming into the bars and bumping the whole cage forward a yard. "You take that back, you nettled newt! Or so help me, I'll haul my brass over there and toast you for a mallow!"
"Thy cage is iron, not brass," Stegoman snorted, "and thou hast but half a brain! Half a brain, half a dragon, half a griffin—why, thou art so many things thou art naught of any, least of all a dragon!"
"I've had it!" Narlh bellowed. He threw himself against the bars, bumping his cage closer and closer to Stegoman's. "You high-and-mighty hypocrite! You self-righteous, pompous excuse for a syllabub! You're the kind of flag-waving traitor who'd turn around and lead a hunter to a nest, to kill the hatchlings for their blood!"
"I? Never!" Stegoman roared, outraged—and Narlh had to duck the tip of his flame. "I, stoop to so vile a vengeance? To crawl beneath the lowest of the low? How durst thou accuse me of such! Blood must answer! Wizard, take away these bars, for I am hot for..." He suddenly froze.
Matt looked at the dragon's eyes and made a guess as to what was going on in his mind.
Narlh turned to him, narrow-eyed. "What'd you do to him?"
"Nothing," Matt said, low-voiced. "I think he's just realized how come you would think of such a vile insult."
"Aye." Stegoman gazed at the dracogriff out of hooded eyes. "Thou, too, hast known their horrors, hast thou not? Thou wast not the only egg hatched from thy brood, wast thou?"
Narlh, glared, outraged. Then he whipped his head around to Matt. "You told!"
Matt shook his head. "I didn't know. You never told me. You were here, you heard—I didn't say a word about it."
"Why else wouldst thou have thought of such scum?" Stegoman said. "Why else wouldst thou think that the nadir of life-forms is the hunter who doth seek out hatchlings to drain and sell their blood, even as they destroy those of dragons? Thou must needs have known them, must thou not?"
"Awright awready! So I ran, I flew, I fled! The fiend was towering up into the sky, from where I was! I was only two feet long! I chickened out, all right? I didn't even try to fight! Now you know! Y' happy now?" Then Narlh bowed his head, his voice choked, hushed. "All of 'em! All my brothers and sisters, all five! And I didn't even raise a claw to defend 'em! Well, almost none." His head snapped up, glaring at Stegoman. "I did scratch his face for him! And my sister almost got away! But he..." He choked and turned his face aside.
"None can blame thee," Stegoman said quietly. "Thou didst fight whiles thou couldst, and fled when thou couldst not fight. Nay, I, too, fled, for the wight was far too huge for me."
Narlh looked up, startled. "You...?"
"I was not born vast, no more than thou wert," Stegoman reminded him. "I, too, was hunted by these vile humans, who pander to the more depraved of the sorcerers." He turned to Matt. "Take off these bars, Wizard!"
"Hey, hold on!" Narlh bellowed. "If you let him out, you got to..." He stared as his cage faded away. "I didn't even hear you talk."
"You were kind of loud." Matt was beginning to understand a lot about his monstrous friend.
Stegoman waddled up toward Narlh. The dracogriff braced himself, but the dragon only said, "Come. We must discuss how we will clear the earth of these vile sorcerers, who buy our blood—how we will chase them, as their minions have chased us, and scour them from the land, thou and I."
Narlh stared at him for a few long minutes.
Then he nodded. "Yeah, sure. Awright " He turned his head a little away, eyeing Stegoman narrowly. "Truce?"
"Truce," Stegoman confirmed, "and peace, if thou wilt, for no greater reason than our common friendship with one of the few wizards who doth disdain to feed his power from others' lives. Nay, and if thou dost wish to seek justice for thy mother, I will myself escort you into Dragondom—when this coil is done, and Ibile is cleansed."
"Yeah. Yeah, sure." Narlh nodded, faster and faster. "Yeah, we'll get the wizard to work up the right verses, and tear 'em outa their lairs!...You really think we got a chance?"
"As to that..." Stegoman said, and led the other monster away, chatting quietly, plotting mayhem.
People began to look out of arrow slits and doorways, wondering if the quiet in the courtyard meant anything trustworthy.
Sir Guy blew out a shaky breath. "For an instant, I feared our keep would be tumbled from within! Yet I doubt me not we have strengthened our forces amazingly, by these two monsters' union." He forced a grin and finally managed to clasp Matt's hand, slapping him on the shoulder. "And you do strengthen us tenfold! How good of you to come, Matthew! Yet how did you know we stood in your need?"