The Springer nearest the crest of the ridge turned its head. Its sensors had picked up something…
With a rush the lead dragon swept over the hill scant feet off the ground. A blast of dragon fire destroyed the first robot before it could even face its foe.
The second warbot had time to half raise its laser before the hurtling mass slammed it to the ground. The warbot next to it had only half turned when the massive tail caught it in its midsection and sent it sprawling.
By now the engagement was general as a dozen more dragons topped the ridge and piled into their metal enemies. Laser blasts and gouts of dragon fire lanced through the air and parts of robots and pieces of dragon bodies flew in every direction.
Then there were no more robots. Seven of the dragons lay motionless amidst the carnage and one dragged a wing.
As one, the unharmed dragons galloped forward and took to the air again. The one with the broken wing followed on foot.
Without warning clumps of guardsmen and wizards popped up all over the plain. Immediately they spread out into long, loose lines and started moving toward the castle.
Kenneth, at the head of his group, squinted at what lay ahead. Fortuna, what a mess! he thought. The wizards had been able to bring them no closer than a league to the castle because of interfering magic. They would have to cross the distance on foot, possibly under fire and almost certainly against enemies.
Kenneth felt especially naked without comrades at either shoulder. But they had been warned that concentrations which gave defense against sword and spear would only serve as targets for the weapons of these foreign sorcerers.
Well in front of the attacking forces a half dozen football-shaped metal containers popped into existence and split open on the red sand. A dark cloud poured out of each of them and dissipated in the air.
That was the signal. Kenneth raised his arm and motioned his men to move forward.
I wish I had a drink, he thought.
"Mikey! Mikey!" Craig beat on the door frantically. Finally it opened a crack.
"Yeah?"
"Why the hell didn’t you answer the net? I’ve been calling you for fifteen minutes."
"I told you. If you have business with me, you come to me. I’m not answering your goddamn pager." The door started to swing shut.
"Goddamnit, we’re being attacked!" Craig yelled. "We’ve got dragons and infantry and shit all over the place."
The door swung open and there was Mikey wearing only a pair of pants. In the back of his mind Craig realized he looked terrible, all thin and sort of stretched out. He moved like a speed freak, all jerky, uncontrolled energy. There was a predatory gleam in his eye that Craig didn’t remember seeing before.
"Yeah?" Mikey said. Then he paused as if listening to something that only he could hear.
"Come on, man! I need all the help I can get."
"You keep them busy. I’ve got something to set up."
Craig nodded and raced for his command center.
"We have isolated their control links," one of the Watchers called out to the group on the dais.
"Transfer the characteristics to my station," Judith called back. Instantly the Emac sitting cross-legged in front of her began to write in the air.
Judith smiled tightly. "Time to jam." She turned to the Emac.
"backslash"
"?" the Emac responded.
"blackwatch exe"
The Emac gabbled and several dozen demons appeared on the table. They were fashioned like men but each wore a skirt and shawl of dark green patterned with black. Several had drums and the rest had odd contrivances with several shiny black tubes extending over their shoulders. The leader carried a silver-tipped staff near as tall as he was and wore an enormous hat made of some black fur.
"Give them ’The Black Bear,’ " Judith commanded. "Then ’Scotland the Brave,’ ’The Highland Brigade at Maggersfontein,’ ’The Southdown Militia,’ ’The Earl of Mansfield’ and ’Lord Lovett Over The Rhine.’ After that use your imagination."
The tiny drum major nodded, turned to the demons behind him and raised his staff. The pipers inhaled as one, the drummer struck the beat and the skirl of the pipes reverberated off the stone walls.
"Let’s see them even think through that," she said viciously.
"I hope it is as effective on the enemy as it is on us," Bal-Simba boomed over the noise.
Judith looked up and realized everyone in the command center had stopped work and was staring at the table. Several of them had clapped their hands over their ears. Judith made a gesture and the sound died to a whisper.
"Sorry Lord, I keep forgetting it’s an acquired taste."
By the time Malus’s dragon approached the castle the fat little wizard was half-seasick and thoroughly miserable. Normally a dragon could not carry two people for very long. But the wizards had added their magic to the animal’s natural flying ability so they were able to keep up with the other dragons.
Not that it was much comfort to Malus. He was strapped into a second saddle back on the dragon’s shoulders. The beast was too wide to straddle comfortably at that point and the insides of his thighs ached terribly. Although the straps holding him to the saddle were secure, the saddle itself had a tendency to shift alarmingly whenever the dragon maneuvered suddenly. For Malus’s taste there had been far too many sudden maneuvers. The blue robe of the Mighty, which was so impressive on the ground, was totally unsuited for dragon riding. The wind tugged at the hem and tended to flip it back above his knees. The cold air whipped up the robe and around his legs. Probably the only part of him that was still warm was his seat, which was protected by the saddle. But he couldn’t tell for sure because it had gone to sleep long since.
He tried to shut out the discomfort by concentrating on the back of the rider and not looking down. Above all, he didn’t want to look down.
The castle erupted in flame and smoke as every weapon fired on the attackers. Artillery and mortars of every description fired and fired again as fast as the automatic loaders could feed them. Streams of tracers fountained up into the sky as anti-aircraft batteries sought their targets. Lines of laser light swept back and forth over the plain and sky.
Between the killer bees and the messed-up control system in the southern quadrant it wasn’t nearly as effective as it should have been. What ought to have been annihilating was merely deadly. Men went down like tenpins and dragons fell from the sky under the impact, but still the others pressed on.
From ground and air the attackers returned fire. Lightning bolts and fireballs flew from the wizards’ fingers destroying emplacements and blinding sensors. Then two squadrons of dragons peeled off and let fly with heat-seeking missiles. The missiles went for the hottest things in the castle, which were the barrels of the artillery and the firing tubes of the lasers. A series of explosions blossomed on the castle walls and here and there the secondary explosion of a magazine made a section of castle wall bulge outward and slump.
Still the attackers came on.
Circling above the battle Malus groped in the sleeve of his robe and brought out a crystal sphere just large enough to fit comfortably in the palm of his hand. It was held in a net that was tied to his wrist so he would not lose it and the netting made it harder than normal to concentrate. Still the picture was clear enough.