The nearest hostile craft approached. Ruori tried to meet it in a professional way. He had attired his prize crew in captured Sky outfits. A superficial glance would take them for legitimate Canyonites, depleted after a hard fight but with the captured Maurai ship at their heels.
As the northerners steered close in the leisurely airship fashion, Ruori picked up his speaking tube. гSteady as she goes. Fire when we pass abeam.д
гAye, aye,д said Hiti.
A minute later the captain heard the harpoon catapult rumble. Through a port he saw the missile strike the other gondola amidships. гPay out line,д he said. гWe want to hold her for the kite, but not get burned ourselves.д
гAye, Iвve played swordfish before now.д Laughter bubbled in Hitiвs tones.
The foe sheered, frantic. A few bolts leaped from its catapults; one struck home, but a single punctured gas cell made small difference. гPut about!д cried Ruori. No sense in presenting his beam to a broadside. Both craft began to drift downwind, sails flapping. гHard a-lee!д The Buffalo became a drogue, holding its victim to a crawl. And here came the kite prepared on the way back. This time it included fish hooks. It caught and held fairly on the Canyonite bag. гCast off!д yelled Ruori. Fire whirled up the kite string. In minutes it had enveloped the enemy. A few parachutes were blown out to sea.
гTwo to go,д said Ruori, without any of his menвs shouted triumph.
The invaders were no fools. Their other blimps turned back over the city, not wishing to expose themselves to more flame from the water. One descended, threw out hawsers, and was rapidly hauled to the plaza. Through his binoculars, Ruori saw armed men swarm aboard it. The other, doubtless with a mere patrol crew, maneuvered toward the approaching Buffalo.
гI think that fellow wants to engage us,д warned Hiti. гMeanwhile Number Two down there will take on a couple of hundred soldiers, then lay alongside us and board.д
гI know,д said Ruori. гLetвs oblige them.д
He steered as if to close with the sparsely manned patroller. It did not avoid him, as he had feared it might; but then, there was a compulsive bravery in the Sky culture. Instead, it maneuvered to grapple as quickly as possible. That would give its companion a chance to load warriors and riseч It came very near.
Now to throw a scare in them, Ruori decided. гFire arrows,д he said. Out on deck, hardwood pistons were shoved into little cylinders, igniting tinder at the bottom; thus oil-soaked shafts were kindled. As the enemy came in range, red comets began to streak from the Buffalo archers.
Had his scheme not worked, Ruori would have turned off. He
didnвt want to sacrifice more men in hand-to-hand fighting; instead, he would have tried seriously to burif the other airship from afar, though his strategy needed it. But the morale effect of the previous disaster was very much present. As blazing arrows thunked into their gondola, a battle tactic so two-edged that no northern crew was even equipped for it, the Canyonites panicked and went over the side. Perhaps, as they parachuted down, a few noticed that no shafts had been aimed at their gas bag.
гGrab fast!д sang Ruori. гDouse any fires!д
Grapnels thumped home. The blimps rocked to a relative halt. Men leaped to the other gallery; bucketsful of water splashed.
гStand by,д said Ruori. гHalf our boys on the prize. Break out the lifelines and make them fast.д
He put down the tube. A door squeaked behind him. He turned, as Tresa re-entered the bridge. She was still pale, but she had somehow combed her hair, and her head was high.
гAnother!д she said with a note near joy. гOnly one of them left!д
гBut it will be full of their men.д Ruori scowled. гI wish now I had not accepted your refusal to go aboard the Dolphin. I wasnвt thinking clearly. This is too hazardous.д
гDo you think I care for that?д she said. гI am a Carab‡n.д
гBut I care,д he said.
The haughtiness dropped from her; she touched his hand, fleetingly, and color rose in her cheeks. гForgive me. You have done so much for us. There is no way we can ever thank you.д
гYes, there is,д said Ruori.
гName it.д
гDo not stop your heart just because it has been wounded.д
She looked at him with a kind of sunrise in her eyes.
His boatswain appeared at the outer door. гAll set, captain. Weвre holding steady at a thousand feet, with a man standing by every valve these two crates have got.д
гEach has been assigned a particular escape line?д
гAye,д The boatswain departed.
гYouвll need one too. Come.д Ruori took Tresa by the hand and led her onto the gallery. They saw sky around them, a breeze touched their faces and the deck underfoot moved like a live thing. He indicated one of many light cords from the Dolphinвs store, bowlined to the rail. гWe arenвt going to risk parachuting with untrained men,д he said. гBut youвve no experience in skinning down one of these. Iвll make you a harness which will hold you safely. Ease yourself down hand over hand. When you reach the ground, cut loose.д His knife slashed some pieces of rope and he knotted them together with a seamanвs skill. When he fitted the harness on her, she grew tense under his fingers.
гBut I am your friend,д he murmured.
She eased. She even smiled, shakenly. He gave her his knife and went back inboard.
And now the last pirate vessel stood up from the earth. It moved near; Ruoriвs two craft made no attempt to flee. He saw sunlight flash on edged metal. He knew they had witnessed the end of their companion craft and would not be daunted by the same technique; rather, they would close in, even with their ship burning about themчif nothing else, they could killdle him in turn and then parachute to safety. He did not send arrows.
When only a few fathoms separated him from the enemy, he cried: гLet go the valves!д
Gas whoofed from both bags. The linked blimps dropped.
гFire!д shouted Ruori. Hiti aimed his catapult up and sent a harpoon with anchor cable through the bottom of the attacker. гBurn and abandon!д
Men on deck touched off oil which other men splashed from jars. Flames sprang up.
With the weight of two nearly deflated vessels dragging it from below, the Canyon ship began to fall. At five hundred feet the tossed lifelines draped across flat rooftops and trailed in the streets. Ruori went over the side. He scorched his palms going down.
He was not much too quick. The harpooned blimp ordered compressed hydrogen released; the vessel rose to a thousand feet
with its burden, seeking sky room. Presumably no one had yet seen that the burden was on fire. In no case would lhey find it easy to shake or cut loose from one of Hitiвs irons.
Ruori stared upward. Fanned by the wind, the flames were smokeless, a small fierce sun. He had not counted on his fire taking the enemy by total surprise. He had assumed they would parachute to earth, where the Meycans could attack. Almost, he wanted to warn them.
Then flame reached the remaining hydrogen in the collapsed gas bags. There was a sort of giant gasp. The topmost vessel became a flying pyre. The wind bore it out over the city walls. A few antlike figures managed to spring free., The parachute of one was burning.
гSantвsima Marl,д whispered a voice, and Tresa crept into Ruoriвs arms and hid her face.
VIII
After dark, candles were lit throughout the palace. They could not blank the ugliness of stripped walls and smoke-blackened ceilings. The guardsmen who lined the throne room were tattered and weary. Nor did 5в AntOn itself rejoice, yet. There were too many dead.
