September 25, 2025 • 20 mins
In this captivating sequel to Palos of the Dog Star Pack, Jason Croft embarks on a thrilling new chapter of his adventures on Palos. Having shed his earthly form, his astral projection now inhabits the body of a Palosian man. With his exceptional knowledge and skills, the high priest hails Jason as the voice of God. However, this divine status threatens to derail his ultimate goal marrying Naia, the very reason for his journey. Will he be able to navigate the complexities of his new role while pursuing love? - Summary by Krista Zaleski
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eighteen of the Mouthpiece of Zitu. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
The Mouthpiece of Zitu by John uich Ghizi, Chapter eighteen.
(00:21):
The Man of the Hour Jason went to Bythour. Nya
remained behind in the week before the celebration of their
former betrothal they had so planned. Now with the red
and silver seal of a zeal once more glowing in
her girdle, Nya did not object. She was a woman,
(00:44):
Kroft knew she suffered. It was in her eyes, the
touch of her hand, But as he had seen her
prove once before, she was a Tameresian. First in the night,
Jagor's messenger arrived, the assembly of Afour was called together
to it. The Bythurian explained, faces darkened and eyes flashed
(01:06):
as the startled statesman learned that once more the integrity
of the nation was threatened. But as a man in
firm determination, they empowered Rober and Croft to respond to
Jagor's plea and accepted the challenge to war at daylight
with the airplane he had flown from the first and
(01:26):
a supply of grenades and fuel. Together with the additional
armoured motors aboard a swift galley, Jason left for Bythur
and the battlefront, taking Jagor's messenger along with him. Also,
he took a supply of dry cells to ensure the
better performance of the motors already on the ground to
Naya and Rober and the trained captains. He left all
(01:49):
the rest, the assembling of troops, the lating of galleys
with all sorts of supplies, the forwarding of other completed
airplanes with the men he started to train in their youth,
whose training Naya of Affir declared she would complete. Only
at the last did he hold her in his arms
and lower his lips to the low burning flame of
(02:09):
her mouth. For Nya of Affir's lips were pale as
they lifted to his farewell caress, and her slender body
quivered inside his arms, and her purple eyes were dark
with her soul's distress. Yes, she said, clinging to him briefly,
You will come to me again. Swear it to me
by a zeal whose sign you have placed upon me.
(02:33):
Swear yes by Zitu and a zeal I will return
to you, woman of all women, Kroft declared as he
held her and once more pressed her lips. Then, gripping
the hands of Gaia and Robeur, he left the palace
and Nia herself drove him down to the keys. Seven
(02:53):
days later he entered Beithra, the capital of Bithur, and
left it inside an hour. Hadading east along the bith
between banks, where a tropic vegetation came down to the
water's edge and the mighty flood of waters swept in
a turgid current between banks of trees. Morning brought him
close to Atla, as the pilot taken on at Bithra, declared,
(03:18):
also it brought attack of a sort from the banks.
As they advanced, the galley was suddenly greeted by a
flight of slithering shafts. Most of them, thanks to the range,
fell into the water, but one or two reached the deck.
Croft lined a company of riflemen he had hastily mobilized
and brought with him on either side of the galley,
(03:39):
replied with a crashing volley. As the galley advanced, so
after that, meeting flights of arrows with bullets, he progressed,
reaching a bend from which the gates in the city
wall spanned the river's flood, and flinging the flag of
a Fir into view before the sentries on the walls.
The gates swung open, the galley ran through. The gates
(04:02):
were closed again. The galley tied to a key below
the brown palace Croft had visited in his astral presence.
He marched off with his men. A procession was debouching
from the palace gate. It came toward him quickly. He
recognized Jegor and Medai in the van. He halted his
company and waited. The others came on five paces before him.
(04:26):
They halted a mouthpiece of Zitu. Jagor spoke in, greeting,
thy coming is welcome. What word from Afir and my
son a Fir sends men and weapons to by Thor.
Jason responded, and as for rob son of Jegor, he
remains in himaira to speed the departure for by Thor.
(04:48):
Of all that may be required, it is well, said Jagor,
return with us to the palace where all things may
be explained. Bedi of bay Thor greets you in by
Thor's name. Midai bowed deeply. The guards behind him, and
Jegor turned, followed by Kraft's company. They retraced their steps
(05:10):
until the palace was gained, and there in the room, Kraft, Midai,
and Jigor sat down. The latter eyed his former adviser
and friend. You are looking wondrous well, he said, yes,
Kroft added, in all things, have my efforts by success
been crowned? In all things? Jegor gave him a piercing glance. Yes,
(05:35):
Kroft again inclined his head, thanks largely to Roeber, Jagor's son.
But more of that later. Jigor, inform me how matters stand,
Jegor shrugged. It would appear to go not so well
with the things in my hands as with your plans.
From the first was the extent of this matter with
Mazer misjudged. And in addition, there is a fault in
(05:58):
these motors of yours when not controlled by the builder's mind.
Wherefore they failed when most needed at times, and were
by sheer force of numbers overborne. As a result, the
blue flood of Mazar laps even now against Atlas walls
on all sides. Yet it breaks against them, said Jason, aye,
(06:18):
as yet, Jigor replied, and shall break utterly. Kroft went on,
of this defect in the motors, already I had learned
in the same way in which I have learned other
things in the past. As Jigor knows. Wherefore his messenger
came not to Emira as a surprise, and for seven
sons before his coming, Rober Jagor's son, and I prepared.
(06:43):
He broke off and watched the Afurion closely. But Jigor
merely nodded as he responded, say on, among those things
which have been completed since my return to Hermira, Krofft resumed,
is one which flies in the air. Riding upon it
a man may cast down such bombs as were used
at the taking of Nera in the Zolarian war. And
(07:06):
now Jegor started and narrowed his eyes, and Medie, half
rising from his seat, exclaimed, ziitu, is this the truth? Yes,
said Kroft. One came with me aboard the galley between
decks are the bombs? To day shall it be set up?
And tomorrow shall these blue men meet with a surprise.
(07:27):
Also have I brought devices to make the performance of
the motors more assured? From the ground and from the air,
shall we smite the misarians at once? Aye me die,
roared Jagor to fly above them and rein death on
their heads. Never was such a thing heard of, you believe,
(07:47):
I Jagor of TAMERIZI arose Zitu's mouthpiece is a man
who speaks not in idle fashion, O me die, He
speaks true words. One does well to give credence to
his speaking. His hands snapped back and drew his short
sword from its scabbard. He presented it hilt forward, man
(08:07):
whom Zitu has sent to Tamarisia's strengthening to thee, I
yield no Kroft waved the sword aside. He looked into
Jagor's face and found it working mouthpiece of Zitu. Have
I been called in that at times? I have been
given the power to direct, or to advise in Jagor's
(08:27):
heart and mine. Must Tamarisia find first place. Always let
Jigor wear the sword. And suddenly Jegor's lips set together.
He sent the blade back into the sheath with a
rasping clash. You and I together for Tamarisia. Then he said,
with abrupt decision, and thrust out his palm, except Jagor's
(08:50):
hand at least the two men gripped, and the Efurian
resumed speak mouthpiece of Zitu. What do you advise? What
men have at your disposal? Jegor and Midai explained, and
Kroft decided upon a tour of the walls. The trio
set forth, and as they went, Jegor explained further that
(09:11):
three times within the past ten days had the Masarians
attacked them. Indeed, Kroft gained evidence of that. When the
top of the walls was reached, it came to him
first as an almost insufferable stench. Gegor noted the twitching
of his nostrils and burst into savage exultation. Aye, by Zitu,
(09:31):
they steak to the skies, these dead litter of an
unclean birth. The trenches about Atla's defenses are filled with
their corpses. They lie in heaps. They carpet the ground
with a blue carpet, even more foul in death than
in their life. By the thousands have we slain them,
Yet by the tens of thousands have their following spawn arrived.
(09:54):
Their souls have we hurled to Ziitemku, and their bodies
to the ditch. He swept his arm toward the outer
parapet in a wide arc. Behold, Croft looked out of
an embrasure and down an arrow rattled against the stones
beside him, and he drew back. But the one glance
had been enough. This was grim reality he faced. In
(10:19):
heaps and rows, the rotting bodies of uncounted dead lay
jumbled in dissolution beyond Atla's walls. He began to think
it would be no mean undertaking to defeat the men
of an army who fought like that. Back, he said,
back to my galley, Jagore, let us put together the
flying device I have brought. Tomorrow, I swear we shall
(10:41):
give them new death from the skies. And for the
rest of the day Croft sweated and worked, assembling the
airplane on Atla's broadest street, which, like Keemaira's, faced the
river a splendid concourse above a terrace, offering him a
spot for starting two hundred feet in width. What of
(11:02):
the armored motors remained he had also driven up and
under their metal bodies. He installed his batteries, wiring them
to the ignition system, explaining to their drivers how should
the former supply of power be thrown out of service,
this auxiliary source might be employed toward evening. However, he
altered his plans. To his mind, it appeared that the
(11:25):
more unseen the destruction which came upon them, the greater
on superstitious minds the effect might be. And as he knew,
even from his association with the Missarian serving caste in
the nation he had literally adopted the Misarians were superstitious
to a degree. About twilight, he loaded the plane with
a good supply of bombs, ascending from the broad thoroughfare
(11:49):
and returning to it, outlined as it would be by
the fire urns, which, as at Helmira, marked the banks
of the byth along the keys would be no more
than child's. As a result, he decided to make his
first bombing expedition beyond the walls so soon as night
came down, carry what consternation he could to the Misarian forces.
(12:12):
This decision he definitely reached after a conference with Jigor,
who announced that for a great distance before the walls,
the Misarian camps were nightly marked by the flares of
many fires. Jigor Medai, the major captains of their armies,
and many of the citizens of Atla stood to witness
Croft's start. Wearing his flying suit, which he had brought
(12:35):
for the purpose, Jason climbed aboard. Then, at his instruction,
two frightened looking soldiers seized the blades of the propeller
and turned the engine round. They let go and scampered
well out of the way. As it roared, the plane quivered, moved,
it darted forward along the perfect pavement, tilted, and took
(12:56):
the air. In a moment, it soared high above the walls.
Croft shouted once and then forgot all else in the
sight beneath his eyes. As far as he could see
before him and to either side, the night was dotted
with fires in a wide semicircle. They blinked and winked
and flared. They outlined the main position of the Miserian army.
(13:21):
His heart leaped into his breast as a rising stench
told him he was passing those rotting bodies stretched out
among a mass of broken weapons at the foot of
Atla's walls. Then the walls were passed, and with the
breath of a clean night on his nostrils, the roar
of the engine in his ears, he swept toward the
(13:41):
line of fires. Far far out he swung. It was
his intention to circuit the back areas of the Miserian line,
to come upon them not from in front, but from
the rear, to make his coming appear that of some huge,
undreamed monster, a superstitious seeming to traverse their main body
(14:03):
from one end to the other, dropping bombs which, under
the conditions he felt, could hardly fail of a telling effect.
Far far out he swam, on the new wings he
had built for himself and for Nya Naia. He smiled
in Himyra, she was perhaps flying by day even as
he was flying, now flying as he had taught her
(14:26):
to fly in body and soul, teaching others to fly
for the strength of her nation, as he was flying
for her nation and his to make it strong and secure.
For a moment, the thought gripped him, and he flew
on in a sort of waking dream, until the flare
of a hundred leaping fires directly beneath him brought him
(14:46):
back to the matter in hand. He passed the first
line of the Miserian bivouac and darted above a wood,
and came above a great savannah, a tree dotted plain
where the camp fires were flashing again, then, and then
only for the first time, he reached down and took
up a bomb, and, sailing high above the plain, where
(15:07):
the camp fires looked like a myriad of fire flies
far beneath him, he let it fall a flash, a ruddy,
great mushroom of golden raying light, a splash of rending
destruction in the night. The explosion came up to him
long after he saw it on the lagging vibrations of sound.
(15:28):
Again and again he hurled a second and third as
he swam from left to right, faint far away, oddly detached,
he thought he heard a distant shouting, though it was
hard to be sure above the motor's roar, But the
light of other fires showed him the silhouette of many figures,
running of arms, uplifted, as though those who swarmed like
(15:52):
a hill of angry ants driven into panic, were pointing
into the air, where that cluster of pointing forms seemed thinkest.
He soared on swift, sure wings and let go another bomb.
It fell beyond his vision. It burst, The blur of
bodies into which it descended was no more, and now
(16:16):
a strange mood seized croft in its grip It was
unlike anything he had ever known. It was, in reality
a sort of air intoxication, one may suppose. But suddenly
it was as though he were a superman, indeed above
all things mundane, so far above the puny mortals who
crawled on the ground beneath him, who writhed under the
(16:38):
force of his bombs, that he moved in a world
detached from them or anyone or anything save himself. It
was as though he rode on Destiny's wings, rather than
upborne by those of the roaring airplane. He tilted his
veins from no sane purpose, with nothing to gain. Up, Up,
(16:59):
he shot up, up, until he could see the whole
night wrapt region about him, the forest, the fire studded
camp of the Mezier's army Atla, a ruddy glow behind
her walls, where shortly he must return. But not yet,
not yet. For a time it was enough to chase
(17:21):
this new found exultation, to swim here in the void
between Earth and Heaven, alone with the thing he had
made on which he rode, alone with it, with his
spirit and his thoughts of Naya, of a fir of
the time when these blue spawn driven back to their
lairs in the hinterland of Palos, he should return to
(17:42):
claim her. It was enough to ride thus the winds
of eternity, as it were sweeping on and on in
the wheel of a mighty circle beneath the stars. A sputter,
a cough from the motor. Croft came back from his
dreams to the present. In a flash. The engine was missing.
(18:03):
Apprehension touched him with a breath arresting recognition of the fact,
and hardly had he taken it into account, when the
motor missed again, and having coughed for the second time,
it died. He was falling, falling the bombs. Oddly enough,
he thought of them rather than of being dashed to death.
(18:24):
He reached down and found the remaining four he had brought.
He hurled them over the side of the fuselage, tossing
them wide. Then he began a frantic effort to once
more start the engine. In vain. Below him, four ruddy
flashes told him the bombs had struck in a rushing whirlwind.
The air of the night was driving past the plane, doomed,
(18:46):
as it seemed, still, the will to live, to struggle,
to overcome danger and death itself remained within him. He
began an effort to straighten out the dead Plaine's course,
to catch and use to his own advantage that wind
that was whistling past him now, to catch it, to
ride once more upon it, if only as a kite
(19:07):
may sink back to the earth, and so a light
little damaged rather than broken splintered by a giddy fall.
So in the end he did straighten out at last,
and slid swiftly where before he had eddied and whirled
Z two. He breathed the prayer of thanksgiving God. For
(19:28):
an instant the face of Nia swam before his mental vision,
so clear, so bright, so seemingly herself, that it was
almost as though he beheld her in the flesh. Then
the fire dotted plane was very close, and the airplane
was shooting down toward it. Even though no longer falling,
there was little chance to choose a course. With a crash,
(19:51):
the pontoons beneath it struck through the top of a tree,
and the whole machine swerved in mid air. It staggered, checked,
lunged ahead again like a restive living creature, tipped, slid
off sidewise, and crashed down on a crumpling wing. Unable
to maintain himself in his shaken condition, Croft gave vent
(20:14):
to an inarticulate cry of anguish. The entire bulk of
Pylos seemed to rise and hit him. As catapulted from
the fuselage by the ruinous landing, he struck and lay
in a dark and senseless huddle on the ground. End
of Chapter eighteen.
Chapter eighteen of the Mouthpiece of Zitu. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
The Mouthpiece of Zitu by John uich Ghizi, Chapter eighteen.
(00:21):
The Man of the Hour Jason went to Bythour. Nya
remained behind in the week before the celebration of their
former betrothal they had so planned. Now with the red
and silver seal of a zeal once more glowing in
her girdle, Nya did not object. She was a woman,
(00:44):
Kroft knew she suffered. It was in her eyes, the
touch of her hand, But as he had seen her
prove once before, she was a Tameresian. First in the night,
Jagor's messenger arrived, the assembly of Afour was called together
to it. The Bythurian explained, faces darkened and eyes flashed
(01:06):
as the startled statesman learned that once more the integrity
of the nation was threatened. But as a man in
firm determination, they empowered Rober and Croft to respond to
Jagor's plea and accepted the challenge to war at daylight
with the airplane he had flown from the first and
(01:26):
a supply of grenades and fuel. Together with the additional
armoured motors aboard a swift galley, Jason left for Bythur
and the battlefront, taking Jagor's messenger along with him. Also,
he took a supply of dry cells to ensure the
better performance of the motors already on the ground to
Naya and Rober and the trained captains. He left all
(01:49):
the rest, the assembling of troops, the lating of galleys
with all sorts of supplies, the forwarding of other completed
airplanes with the men he started to train in their youth,
whose training Naya of Affir declared she would complete. Only
at the last did he hold her in his arms
and lower his lips to the low burning flame of
(02:09):
her mouth. For Nya of Affir's lips were pale as
they lifted to his farewell caress, and her slender body
quivered inside his arms, and her purple eyes were dark
with her soul's distress. Yes, she said, clinging to him briefly,
You will come to me again. Swear it to me
by a zeal whose sign you have placed upon me.
(02:33):
Swear yes by Zitu and a zeal I will return
to you, woman of all women, Kroft declared as he
held her and once more pressed her lips. Then, gripping
the hands of Gaia and Robeur, he left the palace
and Nia herself drove him down to the keys. Seven
(02:53):
days later he entered Beithra, the capital of Bithur, and
left it inside an hour. Hadading east along the bith
between banks, where a tropic vegetation came down to the
water's edge and the mighty flood of waters swept in
a turgid current between banks of trees. Morning brought him
close to Atla, as the pilot taken on at Bithra, declared,
(03:18):
also it brought attack of a sort from the banks.
As they advanced, the galley was suddenly greeted by a
flight of slithering shafts. Most of them, thanks to the range,
fell into the water, but one or two reached the deck.
Croft lined a company of riflemen he had hastily mobilized
and brought with him on either side of the galley,
(03:39):
replied with a crashing volley. As the galley advanced, so
after that, meeting flights of arrows with bullets, he progressed,
reaching a bend from which the gates in the city
wall spanned the river's flood, and flinging the flag of
a Fir into view before the sentries on the walls.
The gates swung open, the galley ran through. The gates
(04:02):
were closed again. The galley tied to a key below
the brown palace Croft had visited in his astral presence.
He marched off with his men. A procession was debouching
from the palace gate. It came toward him quickly. He
recognized Jegor and Medai in the van. He halted his
company and waited. The others came on five paces before him.
(04:26):
They halted a mouthpiece of Zitu. Jagor spoke in, greeting,
thy coming is welcome. What word from Afir and my
son a Fir sends men and weapons to by Thor.
Jason responded, and as for rob son of Jegor, he
remains in himaira to speed the departure for by Thor.
(04:48):
Of all that may be required, it is well, said Jagor,
return with us to the palace where all things may
be explained. Bedi of bay Thor greets you in by
Thor's name. Midai bowed deeply. The guards behind him, and
Jegor turned, followed by Kraft's company. They retraced their steps
(05:10):
until the palace was gained, and there in the room, Kraft, Midai,
and Jigor sat down. The latter eyed his former adviser
and friend. You are looking wondrous well, he said, yes,
Kroft added, in all things, have my efforts by success
been crowned? In all things? Jegor gave him a piercing glance. Yes,
(05:35):
Kroft again inclined his head, thanks largely to Roeber, Jagor's son.
But more of that later. Jigor, inform me how matters stand,
Jegor shrugged. It would appear to go not so well
with the things in my hands as with your plans.
From the first was the extent of this matter with
Mazer misjudged. And in addition, there is a fault in
(05:58):
these motors of yours when not controlled by the builder's mind.
Wherefore they failed when most needed at times, and were
by sheer force of numbers overborne. As a result, the
blue flood of Mazar laps even now against Atlas walls
on all sides. Yet it breaks against them, said Jason, aye,
(06:18):
as yet, Jigor replied, and shall break utterly. Kroft went on,
of this defect in the motors, already I had learned
in the same way in which I have learned other
things in the past. As Jigor knows. Wherefore his messenger
came not to Emira as a surprise, and for seven
sons before his coming, Rober Jagor's son, and I prepared.
(06:43):
He broke off and watched the Afurion closely. But Jigor
merely nodded as he responded, say on, among those things
which have been completed since my return to Hermira, Krofft resumed,
is one which flies in the air. Riding upon it
a man may cast down such bombs as were used
at the taking of Nera in the Zolarian war. And
(07:06):
now Jegor started and narrowed his eyes, and Medie, half
rising from his seat, exclaimed, ziitu, is this the truth? Yes,
said Kroft. One came with me aboard the galley between
decks are the bombs? To day shall it be set up?
And tomorrow shall these blue men meet with a surprise.
(07:27):
Also have I brought devices to make the performance of
the motors more assured? From the ground and from the air,
shall we smite the misarians at once? Aye me die,
roared Jagor to fly above them and rein death on
their heads. Never was such a thing heard of, you believe,
(07:47):
I Jagor of TAMERIZI arose Zitu's mouthpiece is a man
who speaks not in idle fashion, O me die, He
speaks true words. One does well to give credence to
his speaking. His hands snapped back and drew his short
sword from its scabbard. He presented it hilt forward, man
(08:07):
whom Zitu has sent to Tamarisia's strengthening to thee, I
yield no Kroft waved the sword aside. He looked into
Jagor's face and found it working mouthpiece of Zitu. Have
I been called in that at times? I have been
given the power to direct, or to advise in Jagor's
(08:27):
heart and mine. Must Tamarisia find first place. Always let
Jigor wear the sword. And suddenly Jegor's lips set together.
He sent the blade back into the sheath with a
rasping clash. You and I together for Tamarisia. Then he said,
with abrupt decision, and thrust out his palm, except Jagor's
(08:50):
hand at least the two men gripped, and the Efurian
resumed speak mouthpiece of Zitu. What do you advise? What
men have at your disposal? Jegor and Midai explained, and
Kroft decided upon a tour of the walls. The trio
set forth, and as they went, Jegor explained further that
(09:11):
three times within the past ten days had the Masarians
attacked them. Indeed, Kroft gained evidence of that. When the
top of the walls was reached, it came to him
first as an almost insufferable stench. Gegor noted the twitching
of his nostrils and burst into savage exultation. Aye, by Zitu,
(09:31):
they steak to the skies, these dead litter of an
unclean birth. The trenches about Atla's defenses are filled with
their corpses. They lie in heaps. They carpet the ground
with a blue carpet, even more foul in death than
in their life. By the thousands have we slain them,
Yet by the tens of thousands have their following spawn arrived.
(09:54):
Their souls have we hurled to Ziitemku, and their bodies
to the ditch. He swept his arm toward the outer
parapet in a wide arc. Behold, Croft looked out of
an embrasure and down an arrow rattled against the stones
beside him, and he drew back. But the one glance
had been enough. This was grim reality he faced. In
(10:19):
heaps and rows, the rotting bodies of uncounted dead lay
jumbled in dissolution beyond Atla's walls. He began to think
it would be no mean undertaking to defeat the men
of an army who fought like that. Back, he said,
back to my galley, Jagore, let us put together the
flying device I have brought. Tomorrow, I swear we shall
(10:41):
give them new death from the skies. And for the
rest of the day Croft sweated and worked, assembling the
airplane on Atla's broadest street, which, like Keemaira's, faced the
river a splendid concourse above a terrace, offering him a
spot for starting two hundred feet in width. What of
(11:02):
the armored motors remained he had also driven up and
under their metal bodies. He installed his batteries, wiring them
to the ignition system, explaining to their drivers how should
the former supply of power be thrown out of service,
this auxiliary source might be employed toward evening. However, he
altered his plans. To his mind, it appeared that the
(11:25):
more unseen the destruction which came upon them, the greater
on superstitious minds the effect might be. And as he knew,
even from his association with the Missarian serving caste in
the nation he had literally adopted the Misarians were superstitious
to a degree. About twilight, he loaded the plane with
a good supply of bombs, ascending from the broad thoroughfare
(11:49):
and returning to it, outlined as it would be by
the fire urns, which, as at Helmira, marked the banks
of the byth along the keys would be no more
than child's. As a result, he decided to make his
first bombing expedition beyond the walls so soon as night
came down, carry what consternation he could to the Misarian forces.
(12:12):
This decision he definitely reached after a conference with Jigor,
who announced that for a great distance before the walls,
the Misarian camps were nightly marked by the flares of
many fires. Jigor Medai, the major captains of their armies,
and many of the citizens of Atla stood to witness
Croft's start. Wearing his flying suit, which he had brought
(12:35):
for the purpose, Jason climbed aboard. Then, at his instruction,
two frightened looking soldiers seized the blades of the propeller
and turned the engine round. They let go and scampered
well out of the way. As it roared, the plane quivered, moved,
it darted forward along the perfect pavement, tilted, and took
(12:56):
the air. In a moment, it soared high above the walls.
Croft shouted once and then forgot all else in the
sight beneath his eyes. As far as he could see
before him and to either side, the night was dotted
with fires in a wide semicircle. They blinked and winked
and flared. They outlined the main position of the Miserian army.
(13:21):
His heart leaped into his breast as a rising stench
told him he was passing those rotting bodies stretched out
among a mass of broken weapons at the foot of
Atla's walls. Then the walls were passed, and with the
breath of a clean night on his nostrils, the roar
of the engine in his ears, he swept toward the
(13:41):
line of fires. Far far out he swung. It was
his intention to circuit the back areas of the Miserian line,
to come upon them not from in front, but from
the rear, to make his coming appear that of some huge,
undreamed monster, a superstitious seeming to traverse their main body
(14:03):
from one end to the other, dropping bombs which, under
the conditions he felt, could hardly fail of a telling effect.
Far far out he swam, on the new wings he
had built for himself and for Nya Naia. He smiled
in Himyra, she was perhaps flying by day even as
he was flying, now flying as he had taught her
(14:26):
to fly in body and soul, teaching others to fly
for the strength of her nation, as he was flying
for her nation and his to make it strong and secure.
For a moment, the thought gripped him, and he flew
on in a sort of waking dream, until the flare
of a hundred leaping fires directly beneath him brought him
(14:46):
back to the matter in hand. He passed the first
line of the Miserian bivouac and darted above a wood,
and came above a great savannah, a tree dotted plain
where the camp fires were flashing again, then, and then
only for the first time, he reached down and took
up a bomb, and, sailing high above the plain, where
(15:07):
the camp fires looked like a myriad of fire flies
far beneath him, he let it fall a flash, a ruddy,
great mushroom of golden raying light, a splash of rending
destruction in the night. The explosion came up to him
long after he saw it on the lagging vibrations of sound.
(15:28):
Again and again he hurled a second and third as
he swam from left to right, faint far away, oddly detached,
he thought he heard a distant shouting, though it was
hard to be sure above the motor's roar, But the
light of other fires showed him the silhouette of many figures,
running of arms, uplifted, as though those who swarmed like
(15:52):
a hill of angry ants driven into panic, were pointing
into the air, where that cluster of pointing forms seemed thinkest.
He soared on swift, sure wings and let go another bomb.
It fell beyond his vision. It burst, The blur of
bodies into which it descended was no more, and now
(16:16):
a strange mood seized croft in its grip It was
unlike anything he had ever known. It was, in reality
a sort of air intoxication, one may suppose. But suddenly
it was as though he were a superman, indeed above
all things mundane, so far above the puny mortals who
crawled on the ground beneath him, who writhed under the
(16:38):
force of his bombs, that he moved in a world
detached from them or anyone or anything save himself. It
was as though he rode on Destiny's wings, rather than
upborne by those of the roaring airplane. He tilted his
veins from no sane purpose, with nothing to gain. Up, Up,
(16:59):
he shot up, up, until he could see the whole
night wrapt region about him, the forest, the fire studded
camp of the Mezier's army Atla, a ruddy glow behind
her walls, where shortly he must return. But not yet,
not yet. For a time it was enough to chase
(17:21):
this new found exultation, to swim here in the void
between Earth and Heaven, alone with the thing he had
made on which he rode, alone with it, with his
spirit and his thoughts of Naya, of a fir of
the time when these blue spawn driven back to their
lairs in the hinterland of Palos, he should return to
(17:42):
claim her. It was enough to ride thus the winds
of eternity, as it were sweeping on and on in
the wheel of a mighty circle beneath the stars. A sputter,
a cough from the motor. Croft came back from his
dreams to the present. In a flash. The engine was missing.
(18:03):
Apprehension touched him with a breath arresting recognition of the fact,
and hardly had he taken it into account, when the
motor missed again, and having coughed for the second time,
it died. He was falling, falling the bombs. Oddly enough,
he thought of them rather than of being dashed to death.
(18:24):
He reached down and found the remaining four he had brought.
He hurled them over the side of the fuselage, tossing
them wide. Then he began a frantic effort to once
more start the engine. In vain. Below him, four ruddy
flashes told him the bombs had struck in a rushing whirlwind.
The air of the night was driving past the plane, doomed,
(18:46):
as it seemed, still, the will to live, to struggle,
to overcome danger and death itself remained within him. He
began an effort to straighten out the dead Plaine's course,
to catch and use to his own advantage that wind
that was whistling past him now, to catch it, to
ride once more upon it, if only as a kite
(19:07):
may sink back to the earth, and so a light
little damaged rather than broken splintered by a giddy fall.
So in the end he did straighten out at last,
and slid swiftly where before he had eddied and whirled
Z two. He breathed the prayer of thanksgiving God. For
(19:28):
an instant the face of Nia swam before his mental vision,
so clear, so bright, so seemingly herself, that it was
almost as though he beheld her in the flesh. Then
the fire dotted plane was very close, and the airplane
was shooting down toward it. Even though no longer falling,
there was little chance to choose a course. With a crash,
(19:51):
the pontoons beneath it struck through the top of a tree,
and the whole machine swerved in mid air. It staggered, checked,
lunged ahead again like a restive living creature, tipped, slid
off sidewise, and crashed down on a crumpling wing. Unable
to maintain himself in his shaken condition, Croft gave vent
(20:14):
to an inarticulate cry of anguish. The entire bulk of
Pylos seemed to rise and hit him. As catapulted from
the fuselage by the ruinous landing, he struck and lay
in a dark and senseless huddle on the ground. End
of Chapter eighteen.
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