"After your experience at the Serpent Tower I would have thought that flying engines would not bother you in the slightest," Asea replied. Today she wore no mask, no armour, just a long red gown. Her face was flushed. She looked excited; it was not every day she was offered a new experience. He just wished that he did not have to part of this one. None of the spectators looked filled with envy for his position despite Asea's beautiful presence nearby.
“My experience was not entirely voluntary," he said. "Nor exactly enjoyable."
"Then perhaps you will enjoy this," she said. Rik shook his head. He did not see how. The whole device looked very fragile. There was a wicker basket large enough for three or four passengers. Long ropes connected it to a vast sack of alchemically treated silk. Within the basket was a modified athenor, the sorcerous furnace used by wizards.
"Benjario can assure you it's perfectly safe," said the mechanism's creator. Benjario's long hair and bushy moustache had been recently dyed. Obviously he intended to look his best for his trip into the history books but the hair was too black in places and very grey in others. It did not inspire Rik with confidence in his claims to be a master of the alchemical arts. "Benjario would not risk his life, or the Lady's."
Rik liked the order of importance the alchemist put his life and Asea's in. Perhaps he could be relied on after all although Rik would still not have bet money on it. Benjario was a Mazarean, and the natives of that hot southern land were famous for their impetuosity.
"It would be a tragedy if the beauty of Lady Asea and the genius of Benjario were lost the world," he added. Rik winced.
Sardec was there. He looked stooped and worried. Rena was by his side. She seemed thoughtful. Rik gave her a small ironic wave, which she ignored. He noticed some of his old comrades in the crowd watching them. Rik waved to Weasel and the Barbarian. They looked particularly villainous as they waved back.
"How does this work again?" he asked.
"It is simplicity itself," said Benjario. "As Benjario has explained to the Lady Asea several times."
"Indulge my protege," she said. "He has a curious mind."
Benjario's sniff said that as a genius he had better things to do than explain his work to lackeys but that he would do so as a favour to her. He twisted the corner of his moustache for a moment as he collected his thoughts and then said, "The athenor is powered by marsh gas that feeds a trapped fire elemental. It heats the ambient air. The heated air is collected in the great sack, which Benjario has called a balloon. The hot air is lighter than the cold air that surrounds it, and it is this that lifts the sack skyward."
"You are saying that we will be lifted into the air by the air itself," said Rik, unable to quite keep the disbelief from his voice. Benjario looked affronted by this.
"By the excitation of the air elementals by the fire element. It will work. Benjario made trials before, back in his native Mazarea. And you have seen how a paper bag rises up a chimney."
"There is a difference between floating a paper bag up a chimney and lifting the weight of three adults and this basket," said Rik.
"Only in scale."
"It will work, Rik," said Asea with absolute certainty. "I have studied Benjario's figures and I agree with his conclusions if not the language he has couched them in."
"Did your trials involve lifting people?" Rik asked in a last frantic effort to dissuade her.
Benjario sucked his lips for a minute, tugged his moustache agitatedly and admitted, "No. Only rocks."
"So we shall be the first people to fly using your method," said Rik.
"As far as I know."
"Perhaps we should allow Mr Benjario to make his trial flight alone," said Rik. "Until we see how well it works."
"Benjario is ready," said Benjario.
"I wish to do this, Rik. I wish to fly on this machine. I am forbidden to fly dragons but I will fly."
"What if it goes wrong," said Rik.
"I am willing to take that risk. You do not have to go with me, although I would appreciate your presence."
"Why, Milady?" he asked her, one last time. He was certain there had to be more to this than vague ideas about doing something new.
"Because flying here on Gaeia has been a dream of mine, and how often does one get a chance to live out one's dreams. Even in a life as long as mine, such chances do not come often."
Rik could see she was not to be swayed from her plan. She was determined to go ahead with it and as he considered it, he thought he understood why. Only the Dragon Lords knew what it was like to soar through the upper air of Gaeia. No one in history had ever climbed into a wicker chariot drawn by elementals and headed for the sky before. By doing this Asea would be writing her name in the history books yet again, and adding to her own legend. Did she crave fame so much that she was willing to risk her life for it, he wondered? Or did she have some other motive. She smiled at him.
"On Al’Terra we rode the skies on great ships. There is not sufficient magical energy in this world to allow that, but this — this is a way to give us back the sky again, if it works. I have seen great schools of magic develop over the centuries from the simplest of experiments. Perhaps this will be the beginning of something new. Perhaps someday centuries hence, there will be flying engines once more. Ones that do not need the old magic to keep them aloft. And if that happens I will be able to fly in them."
He responded to the excitement in her voice. The idea began to grip his imagination and do battle with his fear. Another thought struck him. "How do we get down?"
Benjario said: "We slowly kill the supply of hot air to the balloon. It will bring us back to the ground."
"Won't we fall?"
"No. The hot air will dissipate gently and we will be wafted back towards the ground. Shall we go, Milady? The day is getting no younger. And we must get aloft when conditions are propitious."
Asea nodded. Benjario opened a small gate in the side of the wicker basket to allow them to board and then tied it closed again. Once inside he ignited the athenor and twisted a knob to feed it the trapped elemental gas. A strange sickly smell filled the air and made Rik quite light headed. A jet of flame, like dragon's breath, belched forth. The crowd shrieked and drew back, at once appalled and thrilled.
Servants held the mouth of the balloon open and Rik could see that it was indeed slowly starting to fill up, like a paper sack into which someone breathed. He only hoped it would not pop with a bang. Slowly the balloon began to stand erect as hot air filled it.
"Reminds me of something," the Barbarian bellowed from nearby. "Although it’s not quite big enough."
The crowd jeered and groaned.
"He was talking about his head," shouted Weasel. "It's just as swollen and just as empty."
"Everyone is a jester," muttered Benjario. "Benjario is about to make history and they make a joke. Well soon we shall see who the joke is upon. "
Rik's stomach lurched as the basket trembled and shifted and the balloon bobbed skywards. He looked at Asea; she surveyed the crowd with a calm look upon her face, but her eyes looked huge and her nostrils flared. By the Light, Rik thought, this thing might just work.
He looked up. The balloon was impossibly huge above them, swollen with hot air, the fabric rippling slightly in the wind. What if it ripped, he wondered, but was afraid to ask. Benjario must have thought about that too, he told himself, and if he hadn't Asea would have.