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signal for the mechanics to pull the chocks from the wheels. The plane began moving, left the hangar, and
headed toward the northwest corner. Apparently, Jenny knew the direction of the wind by looking at the
windsocket or she could detect it by her sensory system.
Hank felt uneasy, but he clamped down on his strong desire to take over the controls. Jenny taxied
perfectly, did as well as he could, turned, faced into the wind, then began moving forward. Hank,
fascinated, watched the stick and pedals move. Were they doing this because Jenny moved them, as he
would have done, or did she move the rudder and ailerons first and the cockpit controls followed? He
would have to ask her.
The takeoff was fine. When the altimeter registered a thousand feet, he knocked hard twice on the
instrument panel. Jenny dipped the left wing in acknowledgment.
Hank had ordered Jenny to level off at three thousand feet altitude. She did so, and he wondered how
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she knew when she was at that point. Did she have some means of reading the altimeter?
He kept his eye on the indicator instruments and the landmarks for a while, then talked with his
hawk-navigator. Hank had memorized the landmarks the first time around, but he asked Listiig about
them. It would give the hawk a sense of importance or at least of usefulness.
After a while, Hank said, There is much I don t understand about this world, of course. I was
wondering, for instance, why Ot became dispossessed?
Listiig, standing on his left shoulder, her talons digging into the leather jacket, the wind ruffling her
feathers, screamed in his ear. I heard about the mind-spirits attacking the flying machine! It s obvious
what happened! One of them tried to take Ot over! It ousted the one that possessed her but failed to get
into her!
Hank grimaced with disgust. This was no explanation.
No, I mean, just what is a mind-spirit or firefox?
Why, it s a spirit of the dead that has been cleansed of its sins and is sent out to live again in a body! Or
it s an evil spirit that escaped from the Faroff Land and tries to take over a body!
Sure, Hank said. Apparently, all he was going to get was a religious explanation. Which was none at
all. Do you belong to a church? he said.
Of course! Doesn t everybody?
Now and then, Hank saw large bodies of armed marching men followed by baggage trains. These were
going north to help the Ozland troops. There were also cavalrymen riding on deer and moose. Chariots
were used only for the castle guards and for ceremonial parades. Once, a long time ago, they had been
ridden in battles that took place on large unforested plains, of which there were few now and even fewer
then. They were drawn by bovines or cervines that had been bred for many generations for pulling power
or speed.
Hank had wondered why the animals, who were citizens, had allowed themselves to be bred for certain
qualities. What if a stag, for instance, had desired a mate that the human breeders did not want
impregnated?
Animals, though sentient, were more driven by their instincts than humans. A stag might be fonder of a
female than he was of others or a female might like a stag more than she did other males. They were,
however, subject to rutting seasons, and when these came their sexual drives overcame their personal
relationships.
The humans had solved this problem. They fed the animals they did not want to breed one of two
mixtures of plants. The males got one which made them sterile, though it did not cut down on their virility.
The females got one which effected a pseudo-pregnancy.
There had been and still were animals who had objected to this. But they had a choice of staying with the
humans and abiding by the law or going into the woods and taking their chances there.
This was one of the situations where an animal was a second-class citizen. But it had been established
through treaty with the animals ancestors, and most seemed to accept it ungrudgingly.
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The breeding agreement, along with some others, was the only means for animals and humans to live
together with both parties profiting. Sheep, goats, cattle, and deer provided wool, hair, milk, and labor.
They were not killed for meat, and they could not be worked to death or neglected or be ill-treated.
When they died, they were buried side by side with the humans and mourned by the humans and animals
who had cared for or loved them. Even if the Amariikian church had conformed in everything else to the
Terrestrial Catholic religion, this belief that animals had souls would have made this world s church
heretical.
Cats were a special case here as on Earth. They were pets, some of them, anyway, but they were
useful as home guards and as rodent-killers. Though most wild creatures stayed away from the areas
marked off for humans, many mice and rats took their chances. They invaded houses and barns and were
thus considered as outlaws. A human could not trap, poison, or shoot them unless he got permission from
the courts because of special circumstances. Cats were given a license to kill rodents, which they would
have taken anyway. But they were not allowed to kill any birds except outlaws.
There were other beasts among the marchers northward. Hank saw some mammoths and mastodons.
Though midgets, they were huge compared to the other creatures.
The pachyderms were used to pull great wagons but would become warriors when at the front. There
were also humpless camels which carried packs now but would usually fight unmounted and were led by
their own camel officers. Sometimes, they carried archers into battle.
When Hank landed at the capital, he found the scene had changed. Now there was a host of tents
outside the glittering walls, and men were drilling in the meadows. The riverfront was jammed with boats
and great piles of boxes being unloaded. The Emerald City was getting ready for a long siege.
Hank only stayed down long enough to discharge the Scarecrow, refuel, inspect Jenny s wires, fittings,
and fabric, and feed himself and the hawks. One of them, Wiin, would get a report on the latest news
before taking off for Glinda s capital. A half hour after landing, Hank was lifting off. He had three and a
half hours of daylight, plenty of time to get to Niklaz s castle. The sky was clear except for some
cirrocumulus clouds, and the headwind was an estimated four to six miles per hour. He would stay
overnight with the Winkie king and start at dawn for the return trip to the Emerald City.
Jenny was at two thousand feet altitude and twenty miles west of the Oz capital when a multitude of dots
sprang into being ahead. And behind and on both sides of him.
Listiig screamed, The Winged Monkeys! Holy Marzha, Mother of God! Erakna is out to get our tail!
Hank s skin chilled. It was not just the danger that caused this. The presence of magic, the teleporting
of these creatures in great numbers from afar to his immediate vicinity, made him shiver. He should be
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