The shock of seeing the Raiders attack and kill helpless tribesmen was enough to drive Josh into depression. For two days after they witnessed the terrible scene he said little to anyone. Sarah understood. She had known Josh for what seemed like forever. Even back in Oldworld they had been good friends. They had been together ever since they had come from their sleep capsule into the alien Nuworld.
“Josh, you've got to stop worrying about this,” Sarah said to him finally. He was sitting out away from the camp-fire, staring into the twilight as the sun went down. Sarah sat down beside him and put her hand on his arm. “I know you pretty well. You're very upset.”
Josh looked at her. In the fading light she looked very pretty, and he thought of how glad he'd been to find that she was one of the Sleepers, when he had first come to this place. He trusted her and was glad that he had a friend who could sense his moods.
“I'm worried,” he said. He picked up a handful of sand, held it up, and let it filter through his hand into the other, then tossed it to the ground and brushed his hand against his shirt. “Maybe Jake's right,” he said quietly. “Maybe we ought to just leave.”
Sarah sat quietly beside him as he talked, and when he fell silent, she said, “I'm just as uncertain as you are. I think we all are. It's one thing to have Goél appear and say, ‘Do this,’ but it's another thing to go without any sprcific direction at all.”
“I can't understand it.” Josh frowned. “He's never left us alone this long. I just don't want to do the wrong thing.”
They talked for a long time, and finally Sarah said, “Josh, I can't tell you what to do, but I know I'd rather fail by trying to do something than give up. Nothing's worse than just quitting, is there?”
Josh looked at her and managed to smile. “A baseball player once said don't go down with a bat on your shoulder.” He straightened his back, and his mouth grew suddenly firm. “Well, that settles it. We may strike out, but we're going to go down swinging. Come on, let's go talk to the others—and you put a gag in Jake's mouth, would you? He's going to scream like blazes when I tell him what I want to do.”
Josh discovered he was right. As soon as he called the group together and said, “I have a plan,” Jake began to mutter. Josh overrode him by saying loudly, “I think we're going to have to go to the Citadel.”
Then Jake's voice reached a screech. “To the Citadel?” he almost screamed. “Have you lost your mind, Josh Adams? That's where those terrible Raiders are, don't you know that?”
“Of course I know that,” Josh said. “That's why we have to go there.”
“Why that's like—like—putting your head in a lion's mouth!” Jake sputtered.
Dave Cooper, however, came to Josh's aid. “You know, I've been thinking about the same thing, Josh,” he said. “Obviously we're not going to be able to help these people in a physical way. Why, it would take a machine gun to do anything against the Winged Raiders. If we are going to help Chief Ali and his people, it will have to be some other way.”
“I think you're right, Dave,” Sarah agreed. “It's going to have to be a matter of the spirit, not of swords or bows and arrows.”
The argument went on for a long time, and at first it seemed that Jake would win. He swayed Reb and Wash. And Abigail, of course, didn't want to go anywhere.
Finally, however, Reb came over to Josh's way of thinking. “Why, shucks,” he said. “I guess we can't sit around these tents and ride camels the rest of our lives. If you want to go, Josh, I'm with you.”
Instantly Wash, who admired Reb greatly, said, “If you'll go, I'll go too!” Finally, everyone except Jake and Abbey agreed.
“You two will have to make your own decision,” Josh said. “If you want to stay here, that's fine.”
The next morning they met with Chief Ali. He listened, his face expressionless at first, then he broke out exclaiming, “Go to the Citadel? Why, it would be suicide!”
“Just what I've been trying to tell them.” Jake nodded.
“I know it sounds like that, Chief Ali,” Josh said quickly. “But we found out that sometimes the spirit is more powerful than the sword. We can't be of help to you as warriors. There has to be another way.”
Chief Ali's face reflected admiration. He clearly had not expected this and said so. But then he asked, “What will you do? You'll surely be captured and be made into slaves of the Raiders.”
“We never know what lies ahead, not even for a day,” Josh said thoughtfully. He looked around the group. “You remember how many times everything looked so dark and then somehow we came out of it? Goél's never misled us—oh, I know, Jake, Goél's not here, but somehow I feel that even though he's not with us, this is something he would have us do.”
Chief Ali still tried to dissuade them, but they'd made up their minds.
At dawn the next morning, they mounted the camels the chief had set apart, loaded with provisions. “It's a long journey,” he said. “I have made a map showing the water holes, but it will still be difficult for you.”
“Goél won't let us go astray,” Josh said with more firmness than he felt. “Come, we'd better get going.” He mounted the camel and hung on while it swayed to its feet. When the others were ready, he looked down and said, “Chief Ali, we will do our best to help your people.”
Chief Ali said, “May safety be with you, and may you achieve by the spirit what my people have not achieved by the sword.”
The little procession moved out. Soon the camp of the Desert People fell behind the dunes, and the Sleepers saw nothing ahead for miles but rolling hills of sand. Far off, the Citadel lifted its head into the sky. And even looking at it, Josh felt a moment of disquiet.
* * *
“My mouth's plumb dry,” Reb said. “Can't even work up a spit.”
They had traveled five days and the previous day had found no water. They'd consumed all of their store, which they carried in leather bags, and now all of them were suffering from thirst.
Josh looked overhead where the blue sky looked hard enough to strike a match on. The sun beat down white rays that struck almost like a blow. If it hadn't been for the wind, which had grown steadily stronger, they would have been cooked. “I think we'll find this oasis on the map before dark,” he said, trying to look hopeful.
Jake stared at him. His lips were cracked, and his skin was sunburned. “We'd better,” he said grimly. “We can't take another day of this.”
Josh urged the company on, and all afternoon they made their way across the shifting sands. The wind blew the sand against their faces, seeming to scrape their skin off at times, and their thirst grew worse. Something like fear began to creep into all of them.
Josh studied the map, but it was hopeless. If there were only some landmarks—trees, mountains, something, he thought in despair, but there was nothing except the Citadel, looming closer as they moved onward. It was still miles away, and even if they got there, Josh knew that there was no telling what danger might come then.
Late in the afternoon when the heat was beginning to grow less torrid, Josh was plodding along, his eyes on the Citadel ahead. It was a towering mountain, like a pile of rocks that seemed to go up to the sky. The sides were sheer. He thought, Even if we get there, how will we climb up to the top? He was numbed by the heat and by thirst and fatigue. Looking backward he saw that some of the Sleepers were nearly unconscious, hanging on with the last of their strength.
He turned to look at the Citadel, and as he did, Dave cried out, “Look out—Raiders—up there!”
Josh at once twisted around, and what he saw made his blood run cold. The sky seemed to be filled with winged men. They were so close he could see the glittering eyes. They'd come silently, floating on the winds, and it was too late to do anything about it.
“They're going to kill us!” Abbey screamed.
At once Josh said, “Get off the camels!"
They all slid to the ground.
“Hold your hands up like this!” Josh called. He held his hands over his head and cried out, “We come in peace!”
Some of the winged men had notched their arrows and taken aim, but at Josh's cry the largest Raider called out, “Hold!” in a powerful voice. He shifted his body and made a wide circle, circling the group of Sleepers. His eyes were cold and glittering, Josh saw, but then the Raider cried out, “Take them! Do not kill them!”
At once the Raiders put away their bows, replaced their arrows, and came to the ground. Somehow, when they came their wings folded up neatly on their backs as an eagle's wings fold as he comes to his perch.
The leader landed lightly in front of Josh. He was very lean and not at all tall. There was not an ounce of surplus flesh on his body, although the muscles were clearly visible. He pulled a knife from his belt and said, “You're our prisoners. You're our slaves.”
Josh did not answer for a moment. He was studying the man carefully. He saw at once that the wings were not a part of the man's body. The crossed belts across the man's chest held the apparatus in place. There were, he saw, some sort of cables, tiny, almost invisible, that ran down the legs and fastened at the ankle. Other cables ran down the arms and fastened around the wrist. He did not understand but saw that the cables were attached to the wings. Somehow these people had learned how to create artificial flight in a way that men on earth had always dreamed. He remembered suddenly that Leonardo da Vinci had devised a set of wings but had never proven them to be practical.
The leader had spoken in the dialect used all over Nuworld and understood by all people. Josh had learned it when he first came and now answered, “We come in peace to speak to your leader.”
The Raider, who was dark complected and had a sneer on his face, laughed aloud. “The white one wants to speak to our leader!” he called out, and there was laughter among the other Raiders. He stepped forward and grabbed Josh's arm. His grip was paralyzing. He was stronger than any person his size had a right to be. He reached with his other hand and held Josh's face, his fingers clamping into the jaw. “You all have white skin, except that little one. You're not Desert People.”
“No, we're the servants of Goél.”
Instantly Josh saw that the word meant something to the Raider. He stiffened, and his grip grew tighter. “Goél? Goél is our enemy!” he snapped. “You'll discover that Goél has no power in the Citadel among the Raiders.” A cruel smile crossed his lips. “My name is Darkwind. You shouldn't have come here, but I can promise that you will never leave.”
For a moment Josh was unable to reply, for he'd seen that the name of Goél had raised some sort of hatred in Darkwind's dusky face. Then he said, “We mean no harm. We've come to help.”
Darkwind laughed aloud. “You will help,” he said. “We have need for many slaves.” Then he said, “Come, we'll take them to the Citadel.”
What happened next was startling. The Raiders began to produce ropes which they quickly lashed around the arms and legs and bodies of the Sleepers. Then four of them took one line apiece and sprang into the air. Their wings somehow spread through the system of cables and caught the breeze that was whipping over the desert. Instantly they began to rise. It was unlikely that any one of them could have picked up a Sleeper alone, but four of them together made a very powerful engine.
Josh felt himself snatched from the ground as the four that held him by the cords tied to his body began to rise. As they went higher, the breeze was stronger, so they rose even more rapidly.
Looking down, Josh saw Sarah snatched off the ground by four other Raiders. She cried out as the cords cut into her flesh, and Abigail was crying steadily. Reb had put up a fight, but he'd been knocked to the ground and tied fast and now he too was being lifted.
Soon they were high above the earth. Josh felt sick as the ground disappeared. He was totally helpless. He looked up at the glistening, dark bodies of the Raiders who carried him swiftly onward. They were cruel beings, he knew from their expressions. He looked ahead and saw the Citadel coming closer. They picked up speed, gliding into the wind, and he remembered suddenly the time the Sleepers had ridden on huge eagles to escape the power of the Sanhedrin.
Somehow he knew they were in worse trouble than they had ever been, and he murmured, “Goél, I may have gotten us into this, but I sure can't get us out.”
Jake was silent as he looked down at the ground. He had never liked heights, and he certainly didn't like the faces of those who carried him. “Well,” he said almost philosophically, “I hate to say I told you so, Josh, but I told you so!”
Josh, of course, was far away and couldn't hear, and Jake took no satisfaction in being right this time. He didn't like the looks of Darkwind's face, and the idea of being a slave frightened him. He set his jaw and thought about the times Goél had delivered them and shook his head. As the earth rushed beneath him, he thought, It's going to be tough, but I know somehow we're going to make it.