But it wasn’t right. There was something odd about this stretch of ocean, something that made his eyes hurt to look at it and made him queasy the deeper the patrol penetrated. It was like trying to look at two things at once, he decided. Two pictures that were almost but not exactly alike.
His dragon sensed it too. Whatever there was about this place, his mount didn’t want anything to do with it. He signaled his patrol to extra alertness and pushed on. Then he reached for his communications crystal to report.
There-again there was strangeness. He managed to reach the Watcher on Oak Island, but the voice was weak and there were gaps, requiring several repeats to get the message through.
Interference? he thought as he replaced the crystal. But that didn’t seem right either. He knew the effects of jamming spells on communications crystals. He had felt them often enough during the years of war against the Dark League. But this was more as if someone had substituted a poorly ensorceled crystal for his own. It was as if the spell on the crystal had suddenly become much weaker, less competent.
He noticed that the rhythm of his mount had changed as well. The dragon’s wingbeats had increased, as if they were climbing instead of flying level. The beast wasn’t exactly laboring, but he was definitely working harder. He did a quick calculation and decided that if this continued, the extra effort would reduce his patrol’s flying time by one-third.
Down below the sea seemed the same, but this place was definitely different.
Off to his right one of the dragons flying top cover waggled its wings to attract attention. The riders on the right wing caught it as soon as Dragon Leader did and used hand signals to pass the information on to their commander.
Dragon Leader kneed his mount gently and his dragon banked gently left and right to acknowledge. Craning his neck he saw the rider rise in her saddle and raise both her arms above her head in the signal for land.
Dragon Leader hesitated for an instant and then signaled the entire patrol to turn toward the land.
The patrol was barely halfway into their turn when three gray shapes hurtled down on them out of the clouds.
"Break! Break!" Dragon Leader screamed into his communications crystal. The warning was unnecessary, already the squadron was scattering like a flock of frightened chickens as the screaming intruders dived on them. Riders fumbled for their war bows as they twisted and dove in every direction, trying desperately to get away from their attackers.
In the end it was biology rather than maneuvering that saved them. Dragons have poor radar returns and the targeting radars on the robot fighters were unable to get a lock. Craig hadn’t thought to equip his creations with cannon, so the planes were impotent against the dragons.
Of course the dragons were equally impotent against the planes. The aircraft were too fast and too unexpected. They swooped through the formation before a single rider could draw a bow or a single dragon could breathe fire. The planes made a tight curving climb back into the clouds and then they were gone.
The dragons didn’t hang around either. The entire squadron dove for the wavetops and ran for home as fast as their wings could carry them.
"That," said Wiz grimly, "is definitely a jet fighter."
The recording had been frozen at the moment that the plane was climbing away from the dragon squadron. The view was almost from directly above and the outline and details were unmistakable.
"Looks like it was drawn by a fourteen-year-old," Danny said contemptuously. "It’s a combination of a bunch of different planes."
"Notice that it’s unmanned," Jerry said, sticking his finger into the image to point at the place where the cockpit should be. "Either these guys are real cautious about risking their necks or there aren’t very many of them. Maybe only one or two."
"The main thing," Wiz said, getting up from the table, "is that we’ve got both dragons and jet fighters in the same air at the same time." He turned to Arianne, who had brought them the recording.
"You say the dragon riders were having trouble communicating?"
"Their voices were weak. And they said their dragons tired easily."
Jerry gestured and the image started moving again.
"Those planes don’t look like they’re doing any too well, either."
"Basically then," Wiz said, "both magic and technology work in that place, they just don’t work very well."
"Sounds like an IBM shop," Jerry said.
"Whatever. Anyway that explains the drone. It was only designed to work in that world and it got in here by accident."
"But it does not tell us who sent it," Moira said. "Or why. Those are the things we most need to know."
"It seems to me," Bal-Simba rumbled, "that we have two ways to find out. We can sit here and wait for whomever or whatever is sending these things to come to us or we can send our own scouts through to spy out this new world."
"Lord, that’s not much of a choice," Wiz said. "So far these things aren’t hostile, but they’re sure not friendly. If we wait we may not like what we get."
"My thinking precisely, Sparrow. So we must go and see."
"Forgive me, Lord," Moira said, "but might that not be taken as an unfriendly act? True, they have not sent us embassies, but they have done us no harm either."
"Unfriendly, perhaps. But no more so than what they have done already. If you have a better suggestion, Lady, I am anxious to hear it."
"No, none, Lord. But I would not have us blunder into war unnecessarily."
"Fear not, Lady. We shall be very circumspect."
Eleven: A WALK IN THE WOODS
Across the river from the castle mount a line of hills ran down to the water’s edge. Because the land was so rugged it had never been farmed. Instead it was left as a source of firewood, mushrooms and herbs for the denizens of the Capital.
It also made a pleasant place to walk on an Indian summer afternoon. Which is why Wiz, Danny and Jerry were picking their way through the woods as the sky started to darken from twilight to evening.
"I still think we ought to try to catch one of those drones," Danny said as the trio made their way down a trail that skirted the edge of the bluff.
"For the tenth time, no," Wiz told him. "And watch your step here, it’s steep."
"We already have one drone," Jerry said, stepping to the side of the trail away from the cliff. "What do we need another one for?"
"Yeah but…"
A small black-clad shape hurtled out of the trees above them, screaming and waving a samurai sword as he came. The trio watched open-mouthed as he passed a good four feet to their left, missed the path completely and went over the edge of the cliff.
There were a couple of bounces, a thud and then something that sounded like a particularly inventive brand of profanity.
"What was that?" Jerry asked, peering over the edge.