He spoke to himself, meanwhile glancing at the screen which showed him the plains and the city of Estorya beneath, ever-dwindling as their height increased.
“Do me a favor, Grizquetr. Run out to the cave’s mouth and tell me if those walls have fallen over. And on your way back, close the door to this room. It’s going to get colder very quickly, and the air will be thin. But I imagine that this room is equipped with automatic heat and oxygen. If it isn’t I want to find out now.”
The boy began running back. “The walls are all shaken down, all right!” he said, breathlessly. “And the Fish Goddess fell over, and her head almost blocks up the cave’s mouth. I wriggled through without any trouble. I think you can squeeze through.”
Green felt a little sick. That possibility had not occurred to him. It would have been ironic if the statue had completely blocked the entrance and he’d had to stay inside until he starved to death. The Estoryans, of course, would have considered his death a case of poetical justice… No, he wouldn’t have died, either! He’d just have gone back to the controls and rolled the island over on one side until the statue’s head came loose. But what if the big stone blocks from the tumbled wall had fallen down behind the statue so that they wedged her too tightly to be released? He sweated at the thought and glanced fondly at the black cat. He wasn’t superstitious, not at all, but it seemed to him that his luck had been better since she’d adopted him. Of course, that wasn’t the scientific attitude to take; nevertheless he felt comforted just knowing she was around.
By now, the whole nation of Estorya could be encompassed in one glance. And the sky was getting darker.
“We’re high enough.” He stopped the island. “If anybody didn’t get off, he must be dead by now, the air’s so thin. And I was right. We do have automatic heat and air-providers. Very comfortable in here. I only wish we had something to eat.”
“Why not lower us to the height where I can go out and find food in the garrison’s kitchens?” said Grizquetr. “Nobody’ll be alive to stop me.”
Green thought that was an excellent suggestion. He was very hungry, for he always had to eat for two, himself and the Vigilante. If the symbiote within his body provided him with more than normal strength and powers, it also demanded fuel on which to operate. And, deprived of food, it would survive by living upon Green’s tissue. A Vigilante wasn’t all advantage; it had its dangers.
He lowered the island to about two thousand feet, set the controls on neutral, then decided that it would be safe to go out with the boy. Just as he got to the doorway, however, he began feeling uneasy and wondering what he would do if, somehow, the door closed and he couldn’t get it open again. That would be a fine situation, to be stuck two thousand feet in the air, and no parachute!
Perhaps he was silly, absurdly apprehensive, but he wasn’t going to take any more chances. Grinning sheepishly, he told the boy to go on by himself. He’d decided to study the controls more closely and think out his strategy in finer detail.
When Grizquetr returned with an basket loaded with food and wine, Green swore at himself for his moment’s weakness, then forgot it. After all, discretion was the better part and all that, and he was only playing it smart.
Greedily, he devoured the food and drank half a bottle of wine, knowing the Vigilante would use alcohol before food and that little of it would remain in his bloodstream before being consumed. Between bites, he told Grizquetr what he planned.
“We’ll descend as soon as we’re finished eating. I’ll write a note, and you’ll drop it over the side upon the steps of the palace. The note will inform the King he’d better release his prisoners, unharmed, just outside the windbreak. There we may easily pick them up and then take off like the proverbial big bird. If he refuses we will proceed to lower the island upon the Temple of the Fish Goddess, crushing it and her jewel-encrusted golden idol. And if he still isn’t convinced we’ll then smash the palace, not to mention toppling over the entire ring of towers around the country. Of course, before we drop the note we’ll knock over a few anyway just to show him we’re not bluffing.”