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."If you wish."I envied him his calm, dead or not."Alright," I hissed, sitting quicklyin the pilot's seat."I'd ask you all to pray, but our god is worthless, sojust cross your fingers!" I then reached for the left lever and pulled itback.but nothing happened."You have to unfold the wings, Haifa," Frarim said, pointing to a smalllever.Page 191ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlI nodded, pulling the lever.The four wings of the ornithopter unfoldedlike a bird.Made of wood like the ship itself, they were much like a bird'swings, down to having individual, socketed wooden feathers.When they hadunfolded, I pulled back on the first lever.The wings began to flap slowly."Come on.""It will never work, Haifa," Frarim said, shaking his head.I pulled back on the lever, and the wings flapped faster.Still, theornithopter did not rise.I hissed, screaming in my language as I pulled back on the lever with allmy strength."If any god or goddess is listening and gives a damn about fiftyhalflings and my master, we would appreciate some help! If not, then to hellwith you all!"A brief flash of movement out of the corner of my eye - I snapped my headto my right, my third eye opening to smite any enemy.but there was no enemy.It was an owl, sitting on the ship beside us,gazing at me.Yet, as I gazed at it, I realized that I could only see it withmy third eye.The strands of my hair saw nothing, tasted nothing of bird inthe air, and sensed no heat from it.My own eyes saw only the boat it wassitting on, even though my vision at night was very keen.No, I could only seeit with my third eye - on the astral."Anything.Anything you want.Just help us.Help me." I hissed,straining at the lever.'Drop a bit of weight, Haifa.' a silent voice replied, then the owlvanished.I released the lever, and the wings slowed, then stopped.There wasnothing I could think of we could throw away, and it would take too long toinventory our supplies to see what we could afford to lose.I thoughtfuriously, trying to come up with a solution."What do we do now, chieftess?" someone nearby called.I looked to Frarim, then back to my people."Strip! Toss everything you'rewearing off the ship, keep only your weapons and your boots, we might need tofight and we might need to walk, but he's dead, we've no need of modesty! Weneed to make the ship lighter, there's fifty of us, including vambraces andgreaves that should be a good quarter ton! Strip, toss everything you'rewearing overboard except your knives and your boots!" I hissed, and began todo exactly that.Frarim watched silently as we quickly stripped to our skins, leaving onlyPage 192ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlour knives and our boots."Interesting notion," he said, then chuckled."Iwish I were alive, I might actually appreciate what I'm looking at quite a bitmore."Several of the nearer of my tribe-mates giggled at his words.I finishedstrapping my knives to my forearms again, then sat in the chair once more."That's a problem we'll address later if we survive, master," I replied,yanking back on the first lever again.The wings flapped again, slowly at first, then faster and faster, untilthey were beating rapidly.Slowly, painfully slowly, the boat began to lift."Very good, Haifa," Frarim replied, summoning his staff to his grip.Hemuttered briefly, gesturing, then relaxed in his chair, watching me."A sphereof deflection.There are more specific spheres that would be far stronger, butas I don't know what they'll use against us, that will do, for the moment.Oh- and when you pitch or roll the ship, push gently on the lever, Haifa."'Owl, I hope you're still with me and can teach me to fly in the next fewheartbeats,' I thought, and gently pushed the lever forward.To the surprise of everyone aboard (except likely Frarim), the ship tiltedforward, and began to move forward a few moments later.It moved slowly atfirst, then faster, and faster."Pull back to stop, Haifa, walls and buildings have the right-of-way,"Frarim said, pointing at the compound wall before us.I pulled back suddenly, and the ship pitched back quickly, causingeveryone except Frarim and I to scream - I didn't scream because I was busy,and Frarim didn't scream because he was too busy chuckling and he was deadanyway.We weren't high enough to fly over the compound wall yet - we werebarely four cubits in the air.Yet, we were slowly rising.I could hear thesounds of battle getting closer.Would it be fast enough?I experimented with the lever, discovering that to turn, one had to bemoving forward or back, and while moving, roll the ship to the side.It wasapparent from how quickly the ship turned it was very sensitive andresponsive, and I had to be careful - several had already nearly fallen out asI moved the ship around the compound, learning the controls.And, of course,there was much screaming each time the ship tilted wildly - which was almostevery time."I think we're high enough, master [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]