He strolled the long way, past the glider sheds and then the main gate. As he neared the section of the castle where the L’Toff Princess had her rooms, his doubts returned. Every parapet was rimmed with sharp stakes, practiced every day by teams of soldiers armed with slabs of meat. To land a glider upon one and take off again would be as impossible as climbing those sheer walls appeared to be.
Should he take an already risky plan and reduce its chance to negligible by trying to free Linnora as well? Would that be fair to Arth?
Dennis rounded a corner and felt his pulse rise. In the light from the flickering wall cressets, he saw a slim girl dressed in white holding onto the bars three levels up. The L’Toff Princess stared into the starry night, the breeze tugging at her filmy gown. As Dennis approached, his guards keeping a steady five paces behind, he saw the girl turn. Someone else had come out onto her balcony.
Dennis bent in the shadows to tie the laces of his boots, and he looked up as casually as he could. He saw Baron Kremer come forth and confront Linnora. She looked terribly small before him.
The warlord spoke to her and she shook her head in reply. She tried to turn away, but he grabbed her arm and spoke again, more sharply. Dennis still couldn’t make out what was being said, but he could catch the tone.
Linnora struggled, but Kremer only laughed and pulled her close, holding her against his broad chest in spite of her resistance.
One of the guards behind Dennis made a rough joke. Obviously they thought their Lord was giving the haughty tirbeswoman only what she had coming.
Dennis felt under his waistband. Four carefully selected smooth stones made a lump there. He hadn’t had any opportunity to practice his crude weapon. It would only be as good as he had made it. All told, it was not much better a makeshift sling than the cummerbund he had used for the same purpose at that last Sahara Tech party.
Still, he could probably get one or two stones off before the guards brought him down. And Kremer was a big target.
If I were one of Shakespeare’s characters I’d consider it worthwhile to die for a lady’s virginity, he thought. Or at least her honor.
Dennis’s shoulders sagged. Most of Shakespeare’s characters had been poetic idiots. Even if he succeeded in striking down Kremer, it would only buy Linnora a respite. At the cost of his own life.
It wasn’t worth it. Not when he might be able to get her out of here tomorrow if he were patient. He was willing to risk his life for her, but he would not throw it away uselessly.
There was the sound of ripping cloth.
He turned away so he wouldn’t have to witness it. At least by forcing the guards to follow him, he could spare the girl an audience to her humiliation. He walked away quickly, shoulders hunched. The guards chuckled as they followed.
He got ten paces, then a hint of motion in the sky caught his eye.
Dennis stopped. He looked to the south.
Something in the southern sky was blocking a small patch of stars. It moved in the night, faster than a cloud and more regular in outline, growing larger as it came closer. He squinted, but with his night vision ruined by the tower torches, he couldn’t make it out.
Then a smile came unexpectedly. Could it be…?
At the southern edge of the encampment there was a sudden outcry, then a clamor of anxious shouts. Men came running out of the barracks, struggling into armor as an alarm bell began to clang.
Out of the night gloom, into the light of the tower torches, a giant round shape suddenly loomed. It had two great eyes that shimmered and glared angrily. At the bottom of the huge, looming face was a great maw. A fire burned within.
“Ha-ha!” Dennis jumped and struck at the air with his fist. “Kremer didn’t catch the others! They practiced it, and it flies! It really flies!”
A giant globe of fabric and hot air hissed and cobbed over the outer wall, slowly gaining altitude. In a wickerwork gondola below the globe, the dim shapes of his friends were vague shadows against the flames.
Still, something seemed to be wrong with the balloon. It wasn’t rising as fast as Dennis would have hoped. And worse luck, it was headed right for Kremer’s castle! It looked like it would barely clear the palace peak!
“Come on, guys,” he muttered while his guards pointed fearfully, their eyes outlined white in fear. “Up! Rise up and get out of here!” Dennis stared hard at the balloon, practicing it at climbing.
And it did seem to rise faster now, gaining slowly. Tiny faces peered from the gondola down into the courtyard below. A few soldiers threw spears and stones but none quite reached the majestic, silent craft.
Dennis turned to see how Kremer was taking this. It would be great for something to stick in the tyrant’s imperturbable craw.
The Baron had let go of Linnora, who huddled against the wall, rubbing her bruised arms and weeping silently.
But unlike his men, Kremer did not appear frightened at all. Instead, a smile spread across his lips as he reached into his tunic.
“Oh,” Dennis said, realizing. “Oh, no you don’t, you son-of-a-bitch.”
He hurriedly unraveled his waistband as his guards cowered underneath the glowering shadow of the balloon. There was a thumping sound as two bags of sand exploded into spray nearby, sending men fleeing.
Dennis’s carefully selected stones popped into his hand. He ran toward the first parapet, stretching out his sash and praying he would be in time.
Kremer was savoring the moment, bless him, letting the crude aerostat approach as he fondled the Earthmade needler. Dennis measured out a length of waistband, dropped a stone into the fold, and began swinging the makeshift sling over his head.
Except for that evening at S.I.T., he hadn’t used a sling much since his Boy Scout days. If only he had been able to practice!
Kremer raised the needler and languidly aimed it at the great balloon just as Dennis cast loose.
The stone struck a parapet spike just in front of the Baron and ricocheted noisily into the night. Kremer jumped back in surprise. He looked about for a second, then saw Dennis in the lighted courtyard below, struggling to ready another stone.
Kremer grinned and aimed downward, at the Earthman. Dennis knew, in that telescoped moment, that there wasn’t time to get off another stone. He had barely begun his second swing when Kremer fired.
A hail of deadly slivers tore up the ground a few meters to Dennis’s right. Dennis blinked in surprise as he found himself alive. The reason was readily apparent. A small storm of blond hair and fingernails had struck the Baron, spoiling his aim a second time.
A little amazed but not yet counting his luck, Dennis swung the sling, looking for a clear shot. But now Linnora was in the way. The Princess was all over her captor, struggling to take the handgun from him.
Dennis’s arm was beginning to tire. If only she’d move aside now!
The balloon was directly overhead and moving fast. All the aeronauts needed was maybe another half minute to get away…
Kremer got a grip on Linnora’s arm and flung her down. There were scratch marks on his face, and at last he looked perturbed. Kremer cast Dennis a look that seemed to say his turn would come, and he lifted the needler to bear on the balloon.
Dennis’s guards must have caught on at last. He finished swinging even as he heard them running toward him. He felt a rightness as he let go of the second stone just in time.
The stone struck Kremer’s left temple at the same moment as the balloon reached the zenith, and several hundred pounds of guard tackled Dennis from behind.