Only once in a while did they look up to see the progress Kremer’s rangers had made in moving steadily downslope. They were getting closer all the time.
Arth and Linnora had just about completed their task when Dennis finished his.
Linnora had thought herself long past surprise at anything the wizard would ever do. But then Dennis stopped carving, admired his handiwork for a second, then reached under the glider to give the stick to the robot!
“Here,” he told it. “Take it firmly in the middle with your center manipulator arm. Yeah. Now spin it clockwise. No, I want a rotary motion along the axis of that arm. That’s right!
“Don’t strain yourself at first, but spin it as fast as you can. Your purpose,” he emphasized, “is to cause a breeze to blow back toward us, and generate forward lift.”
He turned back to the others and smiled. When they only stared back at him, he tried to explain. But all they really were able to get down was the name of the new tool…a propeller, he called it.
The stick turned faster and faster. Soon it was only a blur, and they began to feel a stiff wind.
Dennis asked Arth to stay on the ground, holding onto the rear of the craft to keep it from moving. Linnora climbed aboard and took her accustomed position.
Dennis picked up the Krenegee, who whimpered slightly in exhaustion. “Come on, Pix. You’ve still got a job to do.” He climbed in front of Linnora and nodded for her to begin the practice trance.
“Propeller.” Linnora mouthed the new word to memorize it. She picked up her klasmodion and strummed.
On Tatir, sometimes even people benefited from practice. The four of them slipped into another felthesh trance as if they had been born to it. It was nowhere near as intense as the powerful storm of change they had wrought so desperately the day before. But soon there was a familiar shimmering to the air near the front of the glider, and they knew alterations were taking place.
Now it was a gamble against time.
6
The last of the balloons on the south spur floated away just after sunrise as the defenders of its anchor rope fell before the dawn onslaught. These aeronauts, at least, had learned from prior disasters. Immediately they dumped overboard all of their sandbags, weapons, clothes, anything that could be cast loose. The balloon shot up into the sky, past the waiting, vulturelike gliders. The ligher-than-air craft caught a fast air current to the east and relative safety.
Gath watched it happen and hoped that balloon was the one with his friend Stivyung aboard.
Well, at least they had managed to bold off the inevitable for an entire day. During the night the smoldering glow of the balloon maws had been a reminder to the troops below that Kremer wasn’t having everything his own way.
“The gliders will now be free to attack our forces on that ridge,” a L’Toff bowman in the gondola with him said. “They’ll sweep the southern spur, enabling invader troops to follow and enfilade our forces in the valley.”
Gath had to agree. “We need reinforcements!”
“Alas, our reserves have all been pulled back to stay the thrust from the northern front.”
Gath cursed. If only he had been able to come up with a way to drive balloons against the wind. Then they might have been of some use in the northern fight as well. Then they would not have been sitting ducks for those damned gliders!
“Here they come again!” one man shouted.
Gath looked up. Another stoop of the damned dragon-winged devils was on the way. Where had they all come from? Kremer must have brought in every one he owned to finish them off.
He picked up his bow and made ready.
7
Arth struggled to maintain his grip on the tail of the cart-glider. His heels skidded in the powdery sand. The blowing air was filled with floating grit.
“I can’t hold it back!”
“Just hold on a little longer!” Dennis urged over the backwash. The wind from the whirling stick was now a roar, blowing their hair about wildly. The cart kept bucking and heaving as the rushing air made the wings strain and hum.
Linnora leaned into the brakes, her long, blond hair whipping around her.
Arth shouted again, “I can feel it slippin’!”
Dennis yelled back, “I’ve got the robot running its treads in reverse. In just a minute you can hop aboard, Linnora can release the brakes, and I’ll tell the robot to take off!”
“You’ll tell the what to what?” Arth was straining as hard as he could.
“I said,” Dennis shouted, “I said I’ll tell the robot to let go! Then you can—”
He never finished his sentence. There was a sudden shift in the whine below them as the treads stopped whirling in reverse and immediately slammed into forward gear.
“No! I didn’t mean now!” Dennis was whipped back against Linnora as the craft bolted forward like a racehorse released at the gate.
Caught in a spray of sand, Arth let go just in time. He sprawled face first to the ground, inches from the cliff edge. “Hey!” He coughed and spat and sat up, complaining. “Hey! Wait for me!”
But the “cart” had already leaped out of earshot. It was out over the boulder canyon, doing cartwheels in the air.
Arth watched, enthralled, as the flying machine zoomed high, stalled, fell into a steep careen, then recovered into a series of powered loop-the-loops.
The maneuvers certainly were amazing, Arth thought. The wizard must be showing off for his sweetheart. And who could blame him? Arth’s heart soared with the wild, capering dance of the airplane.
Still, for one brief moment he thought he heard a loud, foul-tempered curse as the machine flew past the plateau.
He watched, amazed, until a noise reminded Arth about Kremer’s soldiers. A hurried look around a small bluff told him the party of rangers had finally arrived. Arth decided then that he had better go about finding himself a hiding place.
Linnora was laughing again. And once again, it was hardly a help.
Dennis’s pulse pounded and he gasped for breath. The Princess clung so tightly to him that it was hard to breathe!
He tugged at one of the strings he had attached to the robot so he could control the crude airplane by hand and not have to shout all of his commands. He pulled gently, so as not to overcompensate, having learned that lesson the hard way. Several times he had almost stalled the little craft, or sent it into uncontrollable spins.
Finally, the damned thing steadied down. The robot spun the propeller at an even rate, and Dennis got the contraption flying smoothly away from the vicinity of cliffs, rock walls, and downdrafts. He set the plane into a slow climb, then sagged back against Linnora’s soft, strong embrace, hoping he wasn’t about to be sick.
Linnora laughed richly, and hugged him out of sheer exhilaration.
“Oh, my Wizard,” she sighed. “That was marvelous! What a great lord you must be in your homeland. And what a land of wonders it must be!”
Dennis felt his breath returning. In spite of that period of panic and almost disaster, things had turned out pretty much as he had planned this time. It looked like he was getting the hang of the Practice Effect!
He couldn’t help feeling happy, sitting back as she rubbed the muscles of his neck and played happy nuzzle games with his ear. He controlled the plane with gentle nudges, letting it gain practice with use.
The pixolet peered over the side, bright-eyed with amazement as they cruised leisurely across the sky.