“Huh?”
“Karl’s called the king Arthur.”
Fellburg groaned.
“What else did you expect?” West asked. “Anyhow, the bunch that the army wiped
out was from some country over the mountains that’s at war with Arthur for some
reason, or something like that. But if these Taloids we’ve ended up talking to
are Arthur’s knights or whatever, then maybe we’ve gotten ourselves an
introduction.”
“So what are our people aiming at—a landing somewhere near that city you
mentioned if Arthur agrees to it?” Fellburg asked.
West nodded. “You’ve got it.”
“How long would we need to wait before Lancelot and his guys get there? Do we
know that?”
“Nobody’s figured out how they reckon time yet.” West nodded toward the screen.
“But if Karl gets his way, it won’t matter too much anyway. He’s trying to sell
the Taloids on the idea of letting us airlift them the rest of the way. And you
know something, Joe, I’ve got a feeling they just might buy the idea.”
18
A LOW ROAR SOUNDED DISTANTLY FROM BEHIND JUST AS THE riders reached the crest of
the saddle at the valley head, beyond which the land dropped again toward the
river that marked the Carthogian border. They stopped and looked back to watch
as the sky-dragon that had carried them high over the world rose, slowly at
first, with violet heat-wind streaming from its underside, and then turned its
head upward as it gained speed and soared higher to shrink rapidly to a pinpoint
and eventually vanish. Dornvald had needed all of his powers of argument to talk
the rest of the outlaws into allowing themselves to be flown the remaining
distance to Carthogia in one of the Skybeings’ dragons. Accepting a roof as
shelter out in the desert was one thing, but being enclosed on all sides as if
in a trap was another. And after watching the Skybeings entering and emerging
from their dragon furnaces unscathed, how could one be sure they appreciated the
limits that the mere steel and titanium casings of robeings could withstand?
“Those are strange dragon-tamers indeed, who reduce the King’s soldiers to scrap
in a trice, and then request Kleippur’s pleasure,” Geynor said as the riders
resumed moving. “If they wish to meet with Kleippur, why do they not simply fly
to the city of Menassim and command him forth? It seems to me they hold a
considerable advantage in persuasiveness, which would assure a rapid reversal of
any inclination he might choose toward recalcitrance.”
“It appears to be their desire to give opportunity for the citizens of Menassim
to be forewarned,” Dornvald replied.
Geynor shook his head in amazement. “From such unassailable strength they speak,
yet they would invite our agreement? Is this not true nobility of spirit?
Horazzorgio could have spared himself his not inconsiderable inconvenience by
attending more to his manners and yielding less to his impetuousness, it seems.”
“And yet, who knows what subtleties and unsuspected protocols might constitute
the chivalry code of Skybeings?” Dornvald asked. “Did their request in fact
confer the freedom of answer that might be supposed, or was it no more than a
command couched in such form merely through rules of foreign custom which we
know not?”
Geynor pondered the question for a while, and eventually answered, “If the
latter, then our refusal might have been construed as no less ill-mannered than
the assault by the King’s soldiers. As penalty for such error of judgment, we
could have found ourselves strewn across the desert in like fashion.”
“Aha!” Dornvald exclaimed. “Now, at last, I think you see my reasoning, for your
words echo my own conclusion.”
“Let us hope that Kleippur is compelled by the same logic,” Geynor said.
“You need have no fear,” Dornvald assured him.
Beside them, Thirg was unusually quiet. It was significant, he thought, that the
outlaws were referring to the mysterious domeheaded visitors as Skybeings now,
which seemed to indicate that they, like Thirg, no longer thought of them as
servants. The Domeheads didn’t act like servants. They seemed to come and go,
and act freely. The two dragons, by contrast, had just sat docilely throughout
the negotiations in the desert, and after a while had given the impression of