The Flying Sorcerers

by David Gerrold

  And finally came the day that Purple announced his battery was charged. He would depart for the sky before the next dawning of the blue sun.

  And this time he meant it; — this was no test flight. This would be Purple’s actual departure. Once the airboat lifted from its cradle, he would be gone from our village and our lives forever.

  He spent almost all of his time on the Crag now, checking lists and counting supplies. Often he could be seen poking , carefully at the boat’s rigging or testing an airbag.

  “Look how the boat strains at the ropes, Lant — isn’t it beautiful? We have food aboard for at least four hands of | men, we’ve got four or five manweights of ballast; we’ve got a few extra windbags in case we rip any. I say we’re ready, Lant. How about you?”

  “Huh? I’d say you’re ready, too.”

  “No — I mean, are you ready?”

  “Huh?”

  “Aren’t you coming with us ?”

  “Me?!!” I squeaked. “I wouldn’t set foot in that — I mean, I have no intention — that is, I’m needed here. Business requires it! I’m a Speaker! I —”

  “But-but-your sons said —”

  “My sons?”

  “Yes — they led me to believe that you were going to come too. We planned for you.”

  “This is the first I have heard of it.”

  “You do not want to come then?”

  “Of course not; I can see no reason at all why I should.”

  “Well, neither did I,” said Purple. “But Wilville and Orbur seemed to think it necessary.”

  I shuddered. “No, thank you, Purple. I will forgo the honor.” I did not add that I would rather be in a village with no magicians, than in a flying machine with two mad ones.

  But later that day, in the heat of double daylight, a time when most of the villagers were sleeping, Shoogar took me aside. “Lant, you’ve seen how he has revalued my magic!” he said bitterly. “You must come with us, Lant. I will need you to help with the spell against him —”

  “Spell? Oh, no, Shoogar —”

  “I will be free of my oath when we leave this locality. But I will need you for a witness that I have killed him. You are the Speaker. Your word is law.”

  “Shoogar, can you not leave well enough alone? Purple is leaving. You will be the only magician here — and this is the greatest village of all! There may be as many as 5,000 men living here, maybe more! Never has there been a village of such size! Why must you risk it all be starting another foolish duel?”

  But at that Shoogar snarled and left me. He grumbled off down the dark slope, scattering villagers and women alike.

  Later, after the blue sun had winked out, Wilville and Orbur came to see me. As soon as I saw them, I said, “What nonsense have you been telling Purple? He says that you want me to come along on this fantastic journey.”

  They nodded. “Father, you must! You are the only one who can control Shoogar. Surely you must know that he is planning another duel as soon as we are out of this region.”

  “Yes. He’s mentioned it.”

  “Well then, you must come along to stop it. We will never return if you don’t; even if we should be lucky enough to survive this time. He’ll insist that we put on the sails again. He’s still not convinced! Father, you must come or we’ll never get home.”

  “I’m sure you can manage without me, sons — you did all right on your test flight —”

  “Yes, but that was only a test. Shoogar knew no more about the flying machine than anyone else. Now that he has been up in it once, he is convinced that he is an expert. Surely you have heard the tales he has been telling of his exploit.”

  I nodded. “But you have all been telling tales — and no two of your tales agree. The villagers don’t believe any of you. That fact alone should keep Shoogar from dueling. If he has no credible witness along —”

  “Father, he is not interested so much in a credible witness as he is in killing Purple.” Orbur lowered his voice. “You don’t know, do you, what he tried to do on our test flight?”

  “Huh?” I shook my head. “I have not heard —”

  “That is because Wilville and I have kept it quiet. We do not want to start even the hint of a rumor that there is trouble between our magicians.”

  Wilville nodded in agreement and said, “Shortly after we took off, they got into an argument about whether or not we needed sails. Shoogar got so mad that he tried to throw a ball of fire at Purple —”

  “A ball of fire?!! But — the airboat? The hydrogen?”

  “We were lucky,” said Orbur. Purple screamed when he saw it. I thought he would jump out of the boat-; but Wilville was thinking fast, and he threw a bucket of water on Shoogar.”

  Wilville said, “And then Orbur jumped on Shoogar and held him down. We drenched him all over with another bucket of water and then made him strip. We made him throw away all of his fire-making devices. Purple was as white as a cloud —”

  “I can imagine.” I was thinking of a blackened stump of a housetree.

  “But that’s not all,” said Orbur. “Later, he tried to push Purple out. Purple was climbing on the rigging — you know, father, for a man like that, he is remarkably brave; he climbed across those ropes as if he had not the slightest fear of falling.”

  “He did slip once, though,” said Wilville. “Fortunately, it was only a few feet, and he fell into the boat.”

  “Well, we all had to get used to it,” Orbur said to him. “Nobody has ever been in an airboat before. There is no one to teach us what to do —”

  “Except Shoogar,” said Wilville. He looked at me imploringly, “Father, Shoogar is convinced that only he knows the vagaries of Musk-Watz the wind god, but somehow his magic doesn’t seem to work right in the upper sky. His sails didn’t work, his fireballs almost killed us —”

  “My sons, you survived that experience, didn’t you?”

  They nodded reluctantly.

  “Good, then I have faith that you can survive another. From what you have just told me I am all the more sure that I am not getting into that airboat.”

  I returned to my nest tired and irritated.

  It wasn’t just the way everyone badgered me. It was the crowds. By now every family in the five villages were here on the Heights. The nearly bare rock was a maze of tents, practically edge to edge, the meager gaps filled by a swarm of sprats and women and strangers. The sea had swallowed the rest of the island.

  The only clear spots were on Idiot’s Peak, around the launching cradle, and the wide servicing area that now led all the way down to the water. Keeping those areas clear enough to work in only made the rest of the Heights more crowded.

  My tree, like a few others, still reached partway above the waters. We still used the nest and thus avoided some of the crowding; but we had to wade waist deep between nest and Heights.

  The sea was tepid and very wet. I was still bristling from the need to push my way between the tents and among the hordes of strangers when I climbed into my nest, my fur dripping. I sank gratefully onto my cot.

  “Wives,” I called, “I am ready for a hot brushing. I have had such a day as to try even the greatest of men!”

  “Oh, our poor Lant,” they mourned. “Surely even the greatest of tribulations is only child’s play to a man so brave as you —”

  “Naturally, but the effort is tiring. Purple wants me to come on the airboat with him; so do Wilville and Orbur —”

  “Oh, no, not my brave Lant! Not in the airboat! You might fall!” cried one Missa.

  “You mustn’t, my husband! You will never return! What would we do if we lost you?” said the other whose non-name was Kate.

  “Of course, you told them that you wouldn’t!” said the first.

  “You have your carving to tend to,” said the second. “And there are other things besides. The nestwalls are leaking and must be repaired —”

  “Wait a minute,” I cuffed them into silence. “What is this noise you make? You
dare to tell me what I should do?”

  “Oh, no —” They flung themselves at my feet.

  Missa, the second, looked up and said, “It is just that we love you so much, we do not want you to go —”

  Missa, the first, said, “It is such a dangerous thing to do — maybe even too dangerous for such a brave man as our Lant.”

  I looked down at them, “How dare you even suggest such a thing. I am the Speaker of my village — I have tamed two of the wildest magicians ever known, and, I kept them from killing each other. I have guided the construction of an actual flying machine —”

  “Yes, my husband, but that does not mean that you should fly in it!”

  “Yes — leave that honor for somebody else —”

  “And why should I?” I demanded. “I have as much right as anybody to voyage on the Cathawk, perhaps even more.”

  “Oh, but we are so afraid for you —”

  “You think I am afraid of the dangers?”

  “Oh, no, my brave Lant — but we are —”

  “You think too much, wives — it has addled your brains. I am fully aware of the dangers of such a voyage. You think I am not? Let me tell you this though: if I did not think it was a safe journey, I would not be planning to go.”

  “Oh, my husband, my brave, brave husband, you do not need to prove it to us. We know you are the greatest of all husbands. Just stay with us, and we will not even protest your purchase of a third wife —”

  “You will not what — What makes you think you have even the right to do so? If I want a third wife, I will buy one. If I want to go flying in a flying machine, I will do that too! And I am going to do both! And neither one of you will say another word about it or I will beat you! Now bring me my supper! And be grateful that I am not yet too angry to do the family-making thing tonight!”

  Red sunset, still and quiet, a hot mugginess in the air — the memory of the blistering heat of day.

  Trone and four other men were holding a line; Wilville and Orbur were up in the rigging rearranging the position of two of the balloons in the cluster. On their signal, Trone and his crew released the rope and the balloons snapped into position.

  Purple had spent this day recharging the tired windbags.

  Even now, he was just filling the last from a water pot balanced on the narrow deck slats.

  Shoogar and I stood quietly to one side. I was carrying a narrow pack and wondering how I had gotten myself into this position. I kept replaying the conversations of the day over and over in my head, but somehow the why of it still eluded me.

  I had been ready enough to change my mind when I left my nest. But, in their zeal to persuade me not to risk my life, my wives had been busily asking the advice of a great many other women. And those women had been telling their men.

  … I soon found out that every man, woman and child on the Heights knew that Lant the Speaker would be aboard the Cathawk when it rose into the sky at red sunset.

  Wilville and Orbur climbed down from the rigging then. Purple made a mark on his checklist. Orbur turned and burrowed under a cloth-covered pile of supplies. “The blankets are under here, Purple.”

  “Good,” he replied, “I would not want to leave them. Have we plenty of drinking water this time ?”

  “More than enough,” said Wilville; he looked at Shoogar as he said it.

  Purple came over to us then. “I am glad you are coming, Lant. It will be a long journey, and I welcome your company.” To Shoogar, he said, “You have brought no fire-making devices, this time, have you?”

  Shoogar shook his head dourly.

  “You remember what I told you about them, don’t you?”

  He nodded.

  “Fine.”

  He went back to the boys and told them. Wilville and Orbur looked over at us and exchanged a glance. They excused themselves from Purple and climbed out of the boat. “Oh, Shoogar,” they said, “could we speak with you a moment; we have a question about one of the finer points of the spell —”

  Shoogar toddled off after them. They disappeared behind a clump of blackbushes.

  There was a sharp cry and the sound of a struggle. Another cry and then silence. After a moment, there was a ; sputtering and the sound of water being poured out of a pot, Wilville and Orbur returned then, smiling. A few moments later a soaked Shoogar followed them. He was glaring angrily.

  He came up to me, “If they weren’t your sons —”

  “And if they also weren’t necessary to the success of the journey home,” I said calmly, “you would do what?”

  “Never mind,” he grumbled. “I’m just glad that you decided to come along, after all. I am going to take a revenge on Purple such as no one has ever dreamed of!”

  Despite the hour there was a considerable crowd gathered on the slope. Many of them were from the other villages, people who had heard of our wondrous machine, and had , come to witness our ascent. Still, there were quite a few people from our own village as well, proudly pointing out what part of the machine they had worked on. Again, there were mongers selling sweetdrops and spicy meats. I had eaten some the last time, and had been sick for hours afterward. This time I had resolved not to eat anything; if I was going to be sick, I didn’t want to be so in an airship.

  “All right, Lant,” said Purple. “You can get in now.” He gestured. “Shoogar?”

  We went. Purple directed us where to sit, far forward in the boat, one on each side of a cloth-lined bench. Purple took up his position at the rear. He peered about him anxiously, as if he had forgotten something.

  I was petrified. My heart was pounding — I could not believe it — I was actually here — in a flying machine! And I was going to rise up into the sky in it!

  A voice was calling, “Lant! Lant!” I looked over the side. There was Pilg the Crier.

  “Pilg!” I cried. “Where have you been?”

  “I have been coming back,” he called. “Lant, are you really going flying with Purple the Magician?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I am.”

  “You are a brave man,” he said. “I shall miss you.”

  Farther up the slope I could see both my wives with Gortik. They were sobbing copiously. Little Gortik waved happily.

  “All right,” Purple was saying, “ground crew take your positions.”

  I looked around me, thousands of faces were looking back.

  Wilville and Orbur waved at them. They had climbed onto their bicycles, and were just tying their safety ropes. Underneath, the boat rocked gently. “You know,” I said suddenly, “I think I ought to stay behind, after all. I —”

  Shoogar pulled me down again. “Shut up, Lant — you want everyone to think you’re a coward ?”

  “I’d just as soon they know it for sure — let go of me, I Shoogar!”

  Purple was standing at the rear of the boat, one hand on the rigging to balance himself. He was gesturing at the ground crew. I pulled myself away from Shoogar and looked. Trone and his men were stationing themselves around the cradle. “Each had a heavy knife and was waiting by a mooring rope.

  “All right, now,” Purple shouted. “All the ropes have to be cut at once, so wait for my signal. We will do it just as I said. I will count backwards — ready, now? Ten, nine, eight —”

  “Shoogar, let go of me!” I said. “I’m not going —”

  “Yes, you are!”

  “— to do anything foolish!”

  “You are too!”

  “Seven, six, five —”

  “Shoogar!”

  “Four, three —”

  There were fifty jarring thunks! as the knives came down on the ropes. We shot upwards! The crowd cheered. I yelped. Shoogar screamed and clutched at me. The boat rocked wildly and I grabbed at something to keep from falling — there was a tearing sound — it was Shoogar’s spell belt.

  We were in a tumbled heap at the bottom of the boat. I pulled myself into a sitting position, and back up onto the bench. Purple was cursing furiously, “You add
le-brained idiots! You can’t even count right!! I didn’t even get to Finish —”

  “Finish what?” I said. Three is the spell number, Purple. All spells start with three.”

  He looked at me stupidly, then he turned away muttering; “Of course, Purple; three is the spell number, Purple; how can you be so stupid, Purple — Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a —” His words were whipped away by the wind.

  I looked around. Shoogar was peering curiously over the side.

  “What is the matter?” I asked.

  “My spell belt, you fool! You ripped it.”

  I joined him at the rail. The boat tipped precariously, but Purple shifted his weight in the rear, and we balanced again. “It must be the lack of a keel,” called Orbur from his outrigger.

  And now, for the first time since the ascent, I had a chance to look down. Far below us was the Crag, red sunlight slanting severely across it. Blue shadows stretched outward to infinity. Tiny people, getting tinier every moment, moved below. I could see the landing cradle, the housetrees, the foamy edge of the sea, and the rippled surface of it stretching out to the end of the world.

  On the other side were the peaks of the mountains. We were even above them.

  Shoogar was still looking down “What are you so upset about?” I asked. “Most of your spells are here at the bottom of the boat.”

  “I know,” he said. “I saw them — but the one you ripped — it spilled out. It’s going to hang in the air over the village for days.”

  “Oh,” I said. “What is it?”

  “A powder. You remember the dust of yearning?”

  “The spell we used on Purple the day we destroyed his black egg?”

  “That’s the one.”

  I shuddered. I remembered it well. After just a few sniffs of it, Purple had gone into the village and done the family-making thing with my wife. Repeatedly.

  “I wonder,” said Shoogar. “I wonder…”

  “Well, we must go back,” I said. “You must show them the proper herbs to chew — there isn’t another magician in the region. There will be chaos —”