Both were silent for a while as they watched the animals race off like living orange rivers. Overhead, the birds wheeled in their hundreds of thousands of numbers. They, too, were beautiful, and even more colorful than the hoobers. Occasionally one lit in the rigging in a burst of dazzling feathers and a fury of melodious song or raucous screeches.
“Look!” said the boy, eagerly pointing. “A grass cat! He’s been hiding, waiting to catch a hoober, and now he’s afraid he’ll be trampled to death by them.”
Green’s gaze followed the other’s finger. He saw the long-legged, tiger-striped body loping desperately ahead of the thundering hoofs. It was completely closed in a pocket of the orange-maned beasts. Even as Green saw him, the sides of the pocket collapsed and the big cat disappeared from sight. If he remained alive he would do so through a miracle.
Suddenly, Grizquetr cried, “Gods!”
“What’s the matter?” cried Green.
“On the horizon! A sail! It’s shaped like a Ving sail!”
Others saw it too. The ship rang with shouts. A trumpeter blew battle stations; Miran’s voice rose above those of others as he bellowed through a megaphone; chaos dissolved into order and purpose as everybody went to his appointed place. The animals, children and pregnant women were marshaled into the hold. The gun crews began unloading barrels of powder with a crane from a hatch. Musketmen swarmed up the rigging. The entire topmast crew tumbled aloft and took their places. As Green was already in his, he had some leisure to observe the whole outlay of preparations for fight. He watched Amra hurriedly give her children a kiss, make sure they’d all gone below, then begin tearing strips of cloth for bandages and of wadding for the muskets. Once she looked up and waved at him before turning back to her task. He waved back and got a severe reprimand from the top-captain for breaking discipline.
“An extra watch for you, Green, after this is over!”
The Earthman groaned and wished that the martinet would fall off and break every bone in his body. If he lost any more sleep…!
The day wore on as the strange ship came closer. Another sail appeared behind it, and the crew grew even tenser. From all appearances, they were being pursued by Vings. Vings usually went in pairs. Then there was the shape of the sails, which were narrower at bottom than at top. And there was the long, low, streamlined hull and the overlarge wheels.
Nevertheless discipline was somewhat relaxed for a time. The pets and children were allowed to come up, and meals were prepared by the women. Even when the swifter craft came close enough so that the color of the sails was seen to be scarlet, thereby confirming their suspicions of the strangers’ identity, battle stations weren’t recalled. Miran estimated that by the time the Vings were within cannon range night would fall.
“That is what they hate and what we love,” he said, pacing back and forth, fingering his nose ring and blinking nervously his one good eye. “It’ll be an hour before the big moon comes up. Not only that, it looks as though clouds may arise. See!” he cried to the first mate. “By Mennirox, is that not a wisp I detect in the northeast quarter?”
“By all the gods, I believe it is!” said the mate, peering upward, seeing nothing but clear sky, but hoping that wishing would make the clouds come true.
“Ah, Mennirox is good to his favorite worshiper.” said Miran. “He that loves thee shall profit, Book of the True Gods, Chapter Ten, Verse Eight. And Mennirox knows I love him with compound interest!”
“Yes, that he does,” said the mate. “But what is your plan?”
“As soon as the last glow of the sun disappears completely from the horizon, so our silhouette won’t be revealed, we’ll swing and cut across their direct path of advance. We know that they’ll be traveling fairly close together, hoping to catch up with us and blast us with cross-fire. Well, we’ll give them a chance, but we’ll be gone before they can seize it. We’ll go right between them in the dark and fire on both. By the time they’re ready to reply we’ll have slipped on by.