Roger Zelazny: Here there be dragons

"Yes, sir!" said Mister Gibberling, stumbling over his cloak as he dashed from the hall.

". . . Be very quick about it!" said Belkis, flaming. "Or I will take this place apart, stone by stone, and drag you out by your whiskers like a rat from a brick heap!"

Mister Gibberling was back in record time. While he was gone, though, Belkis ate three roasted pigs and a dozen chickens with dumplings. Then he roared again and scorched the ceiling and charred the throne.

"You have them now?" he asked.

"Yes, yes! Right here! See?" "Very good. You are coming with me now."

And with that, he seized Mister Gibberling's cloak in his talons and flew out through the great double-door at the end of the hall, through which the Honor Guard sometimes entered on horseback. He took him high into the sky and they both vanished from sight.

"I wonder where he is taking him?" asked the third adviser.

"It is probably better not to think about it," said the first.

"We'd better get to work cleaning up this mess," said William.

AND THEY FLEW far beyond the kingdom, and Belkis pointed out to Mister Gibberling that there were other kingdoms, and that there were rivers and lakes and other mountains, and valleys and plateaus and deserts, and ports and pastures and farms and granaries, and ships on the ocean and armies in the fields.

Every now and then he would say, "Are you getting that all down on paper?" and Mister Gibberling would answer, "Yes! Yes!" and he would scratch away with his quill and record all of the places which really existed in those spots where he had always been accustomed to write HERE THERE BE DRAGONS.

Much later, they returned. Belkis set Mister Gibberling down in the courtyard, perching himself upon the wall like some great, red-green bird.

"Have you learned your lesson?" he asked.

"Yes. Yes, sir, great Belkis, sir," said Mister Gibberling, clutching his maps close to him, as if for protection.

"Then I will leave you now," said Belkis, "and I expect you to make good maps from now on. And remember this," he added, "I want you to forget about dragons."

"Yes, I promise," said Mister Gibberling. "I will forget all about dragons."

"See that you do," said Belkis, "or I will hear of it and I will return. You would not like that."

"No, no I wouldn't!"

"Then good-bye." And Belkis spread his great wings and rose into the sky. No one in the kingdom ever saw him again.

After that, though, the king came to listen to William more than he did to his other advisers, and soon William became his first adviser and his old first adviser became his new fourth adviser.

And Mister Gibberling went on to draw beautiful maps, showing all of the things he had seen other kingdoms and rivers and lakes and other mountains, valleys and plateaus and deserts, ports and pastures, farms and granaries. His maps were quite good, and after a time people were no longer afraid of dragons and they began to go over the mountains and to trade with people in other kingdoms, and to learn of them, and to have other people come to visit them.

After a time, the king came to realize that his kingdom was not so large as he had once thought it to be, and he encouraged commerce, to make his kingdom prosper and grow.

One day, though, while he was studying one of the new maps, the king said, "My, but there are so many seas in the world!"

"Yes, sire," said William. "That appears to be true."

"I wonder what lies beyond them?" asked the king.

"Perhaps they go on forever and ever," said William, "or perhaps there are other lands beyond them."

The king nodded. "I believe I will ask the Royal Cartographer," he said, "since he has recently had a postgraduate course in cartography."

So he went to the chambers of Mister Gibberling and asked him, "What lies beyond all those seas which your maps show as bordering the lands?"

Mister Gibberling stroked his beard (which had grown back in again) and he studied a map for a long while. Then he picked up his quill, and with a great flourish of the feather he wrote (in fancy letters) in that place at the farthest edge of all the waters:

-HERE THERE BE SEA SERPENTS-