Slith choked, coughed.
“It was a sight to behold, sir!” Kang continued fervently. “True glory and honor to our commander! Hip, hip! Hurrah!” He gave a cheer.
Slith, somewhat belatedly, echoed it.
Tchk’pal gaped, blinked, dazed.
Rajak walked over to the dead dragon. He could see the holes left by the minotaur’s horns in the dragon’s chest. Rajak gazed at Tchk’pal in awe.
“By the Dark Queen! I’ve never seen the like! Well done, Tchk’pal! As the draco said, you have earned great glory and honor. I shall see that you are rewarded. Regimental Commander, you will accompany me.”
“But . . . but . . .” Tchk’pal glared back at Kang. “They… I…”
“Don’t be modest, Tchk’pal,” Rajak said. “This army needs heroes. You’re a tribute to us all. Help him along, there, men.”
Two human soldiers steadied the stumbling Tchk’pal, escorted him, staggering and weaving and mumbling to himself, back to the ramparts.
“That was brilliant, sir!” Slith said. “He’ll never dare tell the truth now!”
Kang shook his head. “He won’t tell Rajak the truth. But wait until he gets hold of us. He’s still our commander, or have you forgotten?”
Slith’s tongue slid out of his mouth, curled at the tip. Together, they strode somberly back to the ramparts. Gloth came up and reported.
“Sir, we lost four men, counting the commander, and one ballista. I’ve already got third troop working on building another one. What’s the matter?”
Kang shook his head. “Don’t count the commander. He’s alive.”
Gloth dropped his sword, narrowly missing his foot. “Alive? How could he have lived through that? Sargas take him and-”
“Attention!” Kang saluted.
Tchk’pal was climbing up onto the ramparts.
“Now we’re in for it,” Slith muttered.
Kang braced himself.
Tchk’pal walked up to the draconian commander, grabbed hold of him by the shoulders, and kissed him on both sides of his face.
Kang almost passed out from the smell and the shock.
“S-s-sir?” he stammered.
Tchk’pal grinned. “Well done, men. I gain honor and glory in division commander’s eyes.” The minotaur’s own eyes narrowed. He jerked a thumb back at the catapult. “That my idea, you know. Both of you remember that!”
“Oh, yes, sir,” said Kang.
“Your idea, sir,” Slith added. “Genius. Pure genius.”
“Yes, wasn’t it.” Tchk’pal was smiling again. “And now I have another, even better idea …”
The draconians groaned inwardly, waited to hear their fate.
Tchk’pal turned to gaze fondly at the catapult.
“We’re going to do that again,” he said. “You will fire me into battle on the morrow. Except this time, I want to attain more range and greater height. I want to be able to fly at least twice as high and travel twice as far at twice the speed. Can you handle that, dracos?”
The two draconians looked at each other, and grinned.
“Your next flight will be truly glorious, sir,” Kang promised.
“You can bet on it, sir,” Slith said.
“Excellent.” Tchk’pal put a hairy arm around each of them. “And now, lizard-boys, let’s celebrate. Do you have any more of that tasty apple juice?”
Through the Door at the Top of the Sky
Roger E. Moore
He was hurrying home, the comfort of sheltering rock just a hundred and twenty miles straight down, when they caught up with him. Lemborg saw a streak flash across the left rearview mirror, but the word missile had not reached his brain when the port hydrodynamic maneuvering tank exploded at the rear of his ship.
Lemborg was slammed between his flight seat and leather seat restraints a dozen times like a rubber ball, ears ringing from the louder-than-thunder bang of the pressurized tank’s demise. When his double vision cleared, the diminutive gnome saw the great blue sphere of Krynn shining from his rearview mirrors instead of filling his forward command window. The Spirit of Mount Nevermind, Mark XXVIII-B was yawing to the right, clockwise, a miles-long contrail of twisted white smoke falling behind it like the tail of a burning comet.
On top of that, there was a new star ahead among the infinite constellations, a star that did not move with the others. The star was bright and steady, and even a novice wildspace pilot like Lemborg could tell with a glance that it was following him.