Chapter 12

Lord Drago, in his human persona, transported into the palace throne room where he was met by an almost overwhelming surprise. There was Jack reclining on his throne and idly munching on popcorn and sipping iced tea.

"Ah, Lord Drago, I've been expecting you. Actually, I have been wondering what kept you so long. I suppose you have noticed that Lady Ulna and I have made a few changes since you departed so unceremoniously. She conjured up these very comfortable reclining thrones and that monster HD video screen over your head. It's wonderful for playing video games during my idle moments. But, enough of that. I am placing you under arrest. I guess you know that, under the circumstances, you have no Miranda rights. Please remain calm while I transport you to a very comfortable holding cell."

Drago screamed out an inarticulate noise and shifted to his true form of the misshapen dragon. He hurled a bolt of magic fire at Jack, hot enough to melt iron. Jack was wearing all of his shielding armor, so the exploding fire ball only served to warm him up a little, though his prized reclining throne vanished into a pile of ash.

Jack gazed at Drago with a baleful stare and said in a quiet voice that could still curdle the blood, "Now you have done it. That recliner was a present from Lady Ulna. You have tried my patience to its breaking point. Prepare to be clobbered!"

Jack leaped onto Drago's back where he could not be reached by either of Drago's stunted arms. Jack drew his mace from his magic fanny pack and began to beat Drago about the face and ears. Jack was putting his entire strength into the blows, and they were further multiplied five-fold by the magic of the mace. If Drago didn't react quickly, his head was going to be smashed to pulp.

As much as Drago tried, he could not reach Jack where he was perched on the dragon's back. In desperation, Drago tried to roll over, but he could not get enough purchase on the marble floor with his misshapen and stunted feet and legs. He tried using magic to fly about and dump Jack from his back, but his magic spell had a safety side effect of not allowing anything to fall away from Drago while he was airborne. While all of this was going on, Jack was still pounding on Drago's head with the magic mace. Some of the scales were beginning to show the wear and tear of the attack, so Drago was rapidly approaching serious injury.

There was only one thing left for Drago to do. He could not escape as long as Jack was holding so tightly to his back with those legs of veritable steel. An effort of terrible will allowed Drago to raise his deformed tail and sweep it across his back, knocking Jack to the floor. As soon as Jack was gone, Drago transported himself somewhere else, Jack had no idea where.

Sue was ready, this time, when the dragons showed up. As soon as they were in range, she fired off her chain lightning. It bounced from dragon to dragon, severely injuring some and having little or no effect on others. Those dragons that fell to the ground and were not yet dead were attacked by members of the army with stabbing spears magicked by local wizards to penetrate dragon scales. This worked, but only on dragons that were within human arms reach.

The battle raged for over 30 minutes, with the dragons spitting destructive balls of explosive fire and lightning, and Sue throwing her devastating chain lightning at the dragons that got close enough. Sue had one advantage with her chain lightning spell—only one dragon had to be in range. The bolt would still jump from dragon to dragon, even if the dragons later hit by the same bolt had been out of range when it was originally launched.

The dragons would not give up if they still had any ability to fight, so the battle lasted much longer than was good for the dragons. Toward the end of the fight, when only two dragons were close enough, the bolt of chain lightning would jump back and forth between them until one dragon was dead. This was fascinating to watch, but the dragons were not amused.

When the battle ended, the last dragon had been killed and there were none left to fly away to their lair. Sue hoped that this meant that there were no dragons left to resume the attack tomorrow. She was concerned about Jack, so she concocted a summoning spell the locals could use to call her back to Enlow if the dragons showed up again. Sue transported herself to the palace throne room where she found Jack reclining on her throne and waiting for her to return.

Sue conjured up another throne for Jack, and they sat there comparing notes and trying to decide what to do about Drago. It was obvious that he could not be permanently stopped until something could be done about his ability to transport away as soon as he ran into trouble he couldn't overcome.

They talked about the problem for a while and could not find a solution, so they got into a multiway discussion including Hat which lasted for over two hours, but they still could not find a fool-proof way to bind Drago. Finally, Jack suggested bringing The Unconquerable in on the discussion since, after all, he was a dragon. He just might have some useful ideas.

They ate supper and decided to visit The Unconquerable the next day. They adjourned to their bedroom and played several rounds of hide-the-weenie before going to sleep. Sue found herself wanting to have the formal wedding so that she could get pregnant and insure a legal heir to the throne of Isbardia.

Sue and Jack showed up at The Unconquerable's chambers only to find him dashing around from place to place in a great show of frustration. He was so upset that they had a terrible time getting him to slow down enough to tell them what was going on. Finally they got him to calm down enough that they could talk to him.

Sue thought that a neutral subject might get him enough under control of himself that they could work out what to do to help their friend. She chose to talk about his name. "My friend, could we find something less formal to call you. The Unconquerable is so stately and formal that I have trouble remembering that you are my friend when I use it."

"Ah, dear Lady Ulna, I understand what you are saying and even agree, but I only have that one name, so I don't know how the situation could be improved."

"Hmm ... That does present a problem. We certainly can't call you George or Henry if those aren't your names. Ah ... I have it! Suppose we call you TU, your initials. That is commonly used among friends where we had been living, and TU certainly speaks to your dragonly bearing."

"Oh, Lady Sue, I like that! Certainly, you and Lord Jack may call me TU, and I would be honored to have you do so."

"Wonderful, now that's settled, maybe we can find some way to help you with the problem that has you so upset. Would you care to explain it to us so that we could offer suggestions?"

"I certainly will tell you, but I don't know what you could do to help. The essential problem is that my cousin wants to move in with me. That would not be so bad, except that he and I really don't get along. He is the pushy, assertive type of person, and I am much more the laid back and go-with-the-flow type. Always before, whenever we have spent much time together, we have wound up bickering and eventually hating the sight of each other. That's why I threw him out of here approximately 17 years ago, but now he wants to come back.