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and their ethero-magnetic keels to move them along, were severely restricted. They’d fly up eventually, though, Opaz willing.
    Kapt Erndor, Nath na Kochwold and the other commanders would move heaven and earth to get up and into action just as fast as they could.
    Targon said: “And you are confident the city of Tali will be able to hold out?”
    “Tali is a sizable place, with many towers and walls sixty paces thick, for I paced them myself. Still, there is no certitude in a town holding out against a siege.”
    “We will distract them long enough.”
    “I don’t want a lot of casualties,” I said.
    “We are all your juruk jikai. The guard corps will not hang back in a fight.”
    “That’s what I’m worried about.”
    Over the deck to where we stood in the prow, Delia walked up with that smooth grace that always catches the breath in my throat. She heard the last words of our conversation.
    “I feel exactly the same about my guards,” she said. “Nath Karidge is such a bold reckless fellow.”
    Nath Karidge commanded the elite regiment called the Empress’s Devoted Life Guard. Also, Delia had a second regiment of jurukkers, a composite regiment of bows and churgurs, a powerful force designed to operate in conjunction with Nath Karidge’s First EDLG.
    Even then, we hadn’t been able to cram everyone aboard who wanted to fly north with us.
    We did have with us a force very essential to the type of warfare carried on in these latter days in Vallia.
    Although the fliers had been able to accommodate only two squadrons of aerial cavalry, we had taken those in preference to three squadrons of ground cavalry. The saddle birds were flutduins from my kingdom of Djanduin, magnificent chargers of the air. Flown by highly trained flyers from Valka, they were worth their weight in gold.
    Marion’s regiment of Jikai Vuvushis also flew with us; they were still without an official name and I’d managed to reduce their numbers to half. The balance would come on with the advance forces of the main body. I guessed Marion herself, off honeymooning with Nango, would have a few words to say when she found out. She would bring them up very smartly, I did not doubt.
    What looked like a dark cloud over the land ahead drew out attention.
    This blot of darkness covered a white road below and straggled out into the fields on either side. It did not take an old campaigner long to know exactly what we were looking at.
    Before anyone could say anything, I spoke in my old hateful, harsh, intemperate way.
    “The best service we can render those poor devils is to fly on and smash up the hostiles. When pursuit ends and the enemy are driven back, these people can return home.”
    “You are right,” said Delia. “But I feel for them — feel terribly.”
    The refugees trudged along. Some of them looked up and a few waved.
    Our bright scarves trailing over the bulwarks, the splendor of our paintwork, the glitter of weapons and the ugly snouts of our ballistae and catapults might appear grand and lordly sailing along in mid-air. I wondered how much they would reassure those people below. It is hard to see any good in the world when your farm has been burned and your family slain.
    The smoke cloud ahead thickened and grew closer.
    The King of North Vallia had been clever. The fortress town of Tali had been sited on the approach road from the Mountains of the North. The stout walls and strong garrison were there to prevent incursions. This clever king had struck far to the west, almost to the coast, and bypassed Tali.
    He would know that a force would march out to dispute his passage. They had done so, and had been routed.
    Now he had a clear run south for as far as he wanted to go, pillaging and burning. Only when we had gathered sufficient forces to meet him in pitched battle, he would be thinking, might he expect more opposition. And, the scheming devil, he was in great strength himself. This, it seemed clear, came from new hordes of