The Eyes of the Dragon - Stephen King [51]
"Dragon Sand, by the gods!" Flagg whispered hoarsely. "Don't, for pity's sake, breathe that steam!"
Anders Peyna's courage was as hard as his reputation, but h was afraid now. To him that single wink of green light had seemed inexpressibly evil.
"Put out the other two," he said hoarsely. "Now!"
"I told you," Flagg said, calmly dipping his pinkie again and staring at the obsidian. "They can't be put out-well, there is one way, the tales say, but only one. You wouldn't like it. Yet we can hold them, and then get rid of them. I think."
He carefully plinked a drop into each of the other two holes. Each time there was a sullen green flash of light, and a plume of steam.
"We're all right for a bit, I think," Flagg said. One of the Home Guards sighed in gusty relief. "Bring me gloves or folded cloths anything I can use to pick up this rock. It's as hot as fury, and those drops of water will be boiled away in no time. Ť
Two hot pads from the butler's closet were brought quickly. Flagg used them to grasp the obsidian. He lifted it, careful to keep it level, then dropped it into the bucket. As the obsidian sank to the bottom, all of them clearly saw the water turn a momentary light green.
"Now," Flagg said expansively, "that is well. One of these guards must take this bucket out of the castle, and to the large pump by the Great Old Tree in the middle of the keep. There you must draw a large basin of water, and put the bucket in the basin. The basin must be taken to the middle of Lake Johanna, and sunk in the middle. The Dragon Sand may heat up the lake in a hundred thousand years, but let those that come in that time-if any do-worry about that, I say."
Peyna paused for just a moment, biting his lip in uncharacteristic indecision, and then he said: "You and you and you. Do as he says."
The bucket was removed. The Home Guards carried it like men carrying a live bomb. Flagg was amused, for all of this was, in large part, magician's foolery, as Peter himself had momentarily suspected. The single drops of water he had allowed t fall into the holes had not been enough to stop the corrosive effect of the sand-at least not for long-but he knew that the water in the bucket would damp it well. Even less liquid would have served for more of the sand a goblet of wine, say. But let them believe what they would; in time they would turn against Peter with that much more fury.
When the guards had gone, Peyna turned to Flagg. "You said there was one way the effect of Dragon Sand could be neutralized. Ť
"Yes-the stories say that if it is taken into a living being, that living being will burn in agony until it is dead and when it is over-the dying-the power of the Dragon Sand also dies. I had meant to test it, but before I could do it, my sample disappeared."
Peyna was staring at him, white around the lips. "And on what sort of living being did you intend to test this damned stuff, Magician?"
Flagg looked at Peyna with bland innocence. "Why, on a mouse, my Lord judge-General, of course."
At three that afternoon, a strange meeting took place in the Royal Court of Delain at the base of the Needle- a great room which, over the years, had become known simply as " Peyna's Court."
Meeting-I don't like that word. It's too tame and small to describe the momentous decision that was arrived at that after-noon. I cannot call it a hearing or a trial, because that gathering had no legal meaning at all, but it was very important, as I think you will agree.
The room was large enough to hold five hundred, but there were only seven there that afternoon. Six of them huddled close together, as if it made them nervous to be so few in a place meant for so many. The royal arms of the Kingdom-a unicorn spearing a dragon-hung on one of the circular stone walls, and Peter found his gaze returning to this again and again. Besides himself, Peyna was there, and Flagg (it was Flagg, of course, who sat slightly apart from the others), and four of the Kingdom's Great Lawyers. There were ten Great Lawyers in all, but the other six were at various far-flung