“You are a tinker gnome from Sancrist, to the west,” interrupted the dragon, nodding once with understanding. “Your people build mechanical things that blow up.”
Lemborg grimaced. “Well, now, not all of them do, of course. That is something of a myth because less than ninety percent of all gnomish inventions for the last twenty fiscal years really ever blow up or need to be recalled for catastrophic defects in design or workmansh-”
“You called your flying device a technojammer,” said the dragon-Kalkon-patiently. “What exactly does a technojammer do?”
“Oh.” Lemborg’s forehead furrowed in sudden concentration. He had tried explaining this before to humans, but with little success. It was such a simple thing, too. “Well, that vessel, which of course has been misplaced, is a technojammer, and technojammers fly, rather like birds only without the flapping of wings and feathers and such-more like, um, powered gliding, um, the way that spelljammers fly-or glide, rather-only technojammers, unlike spelljammers, use no magic, only machinery, though both were designed for travel into wildspace-that being the, um, nothing that lies above the world, or around the world, or really between the different worlds, and these technojammers can, um-”
“You arrived here on a flying ship that could travel between worlds,” interrupted Kalkon. Surprised that the dragon had caught on so soon, Lemborg nodded his head vigorously. “Were you returning from another world, then?”
“Oh, no, took off from here, absolutely,” said Lemborg. He stuck out his chest a bit and pulled on his short white beard in pride. “In fact, first-ever successful flight of an Aerodynamics Guild technojammer! A miracle of modern achievement after only twenty-seven tries, not counting the eighty-six previous programs. Got out and took the old Spirit of Mount Nevermind, Mark XXVIII-B up for a spin at dawn this morning and …”
Lemborg stopped. His gaze dropped, the color running out of his brown face until he was almost gray.
The dragon waited, watching Lemborg carefully.
Lemborg looked up, licked his lips, and swallowed. “Um, pardon for having lost the thread of the current conversation,” he said distractedly. “Perhaps best to exchange names and addresses now and get together again as soon as scheduling allows. Yes. Certainly would be a good thing right now to find the way to that technojammer, if it has indeed been seen, then stay in touch later after the Nevermind Postal Guild strike has been settl-”
“Tell me,” said the dragon.
“Tell? Tell what? Oh, the address, it, ah, would be best to mail it over when-”
“Tell me now.”
“Really cannot remember it right now, but-”
“No. The truth.”
Lemborg’s face radiated anxiety. “Ah, nothing, really, just thought that it would be best to go before … before the welcome is worn out, and-”
Kalkon’s great head darted down close to the gnome, without changing expression except to open its mouth slightly.
“Before they get here!” said the gnome with a shout, stumbling backward and falling on the seat of his pants. His eyes were the size of dinner plates and locked on the dragon’s teeth. “Before they get here!”
A brittle silence reigned for a bit. The gnome’s hands trembled as he clutched at his white beard.
“They,” repeated the dragon, pulling back.
“Really need to go,” repeated the gnome urgently, fingers twisting strands of his beard into knots. “Really should go, before the .. . um, before … It was the passage device generator, there was never the slightest intention of taking the passage device generator from them, it just got in the way when things got out of hand and the time came to get out of there, quickly, before they, um, got to me, and in all the confusion and running everyone happened to wind up on the bridge, and there was the generator on its mounting, and bam, ran right into it, quite foolish of course, and the passage device generator snapped loose and got caught here on this sleeve, right here, and naturally there was no time to remove it or take it back so it came right along back to the Spirit of Mount Nevermind, and lucky thing it was quite light as such things go, so there it was, stuck on this sleeve, and it was left behind, back on the ship”- Lemborg paused for breath.-“and doubtless right now they want it back very badly-they must have it, really, or else their passage device is only so much junk, so they’ll certainly come for it fairly soon, perhaps only minutes from now as they were quite close when it became necessary to trigger the high-speed solid-fuel propulsion system, and it would be for the best of all to be gone and far away before they get here. Very far away. Please.”