Titans of Chaos

Instead he laughed. I felt his arm that clamped my legs, his hand that clutched my buttocksgrowing stronger, almost as if I could see muscles swelling, bunching up, growing like the limbs ofa giant.

And suddenly we were not in Colin's arms anymore. The talons of an enormous eagle-or I shouldcall it the bird from the Sinbad tale, the Roc-the talons of the Roc were around our waists, and hiswings threw out hurricanes in a frenzy of beating.

There was no transition to it, no logic. Colin was gone and the Roc was here. We moved frombeing over his shoulders to under his talons all at once.

The deck dropped away down-or from our point of view, fell up and away from our heads. I couldhave kept my cool and been delighted with the sensation of flying, even in this foul weather, ifVanity hadn't screamed.

Vanity let out a piercing shriek, and suddenly I was not Amelia the leader being carried by loyalColin, I was the helpless cavegirl again, except this time, it was not the Neanderthal who wascarrying me off to the cave for some savage mating ritual; it was the pterodactyl monster whowas carrying me off to eat me. (I realize that pterodactyls and cavegirls were not actuallycontemporaries, but I am saying how I felt.)

Well, I screamed, too. She screamed, I screamed, and the Roc raised its terrible cruel beak into thelightning storm and let out a shrill and blood-freezing cry that echoed from the clouds.

We all screamed. It was just a screaming sort of moment.

The Silvery Ship, luminous in the rain-swept dark, and winged with streaming foam, came dartinglike an arrow into view below us.

The Roc folded his wings, and suddenly we were without weight. Down we plunged. Vanity ranout of scream-gas, or maybe the talons, the zero-g fall, or the prospect of instant death bysplattering drove the breath out from her. I do not think I was screaming at that moment, either,although I would not testify in a court of law to that fact I was paying somewhat more attentionto the silver deck that was shooting upward at terminal velocity toward me. Terminal There is theoperative word in the sentence.

But I heard more screams. Someone was answering the Roc's fierce challenge cry. It was horns:shrill horns and trumpets. The men on the swift black ships were shaking the air with horn-callsand challenges of their own, horns so loud that even the storm seemed quiet.