Fred shook his head. "No. Humans are too complicated for me," he replied.
She pursed her lips. "Then we must remain below and away from the others so they do not see me or we may be disqualified."
"That sounds easy," Fred commented.
The effort would have been simple if they hadn't caught the attention of an enemy kite who swooped down and tried to cut their anchor rope. Ruth yanked the front of their kite up and to the left. A gust from beneath them forced their kite to take a sharp turn and they swooped away from their enemy, but the other kite wasn't deterred. It flew after them and made for their line again, but Ruth swung them back and forth and whipped their line to and fro so their opponent couldn't snag it with their blades without risking snagging their canvas on the anchor rope. Fred glanced behind them and scowled. It was Advesario trying to down them.
Fred looked back to Ruth. "Do you think we can change places with them?" he asked her.
She turned her face up to him and smiled. "We can try, but be ready," she replied.
"Why-eeee!" Fred yelped when Ruth shifted her weight hard to the left.
They tilted to the left far enough so their anchor line was a few yards away from Advesario's cutting line. Then Ruth used her gargoyle strength to yank them tip the front of the kite almost completely perpendicular to the ground. They arched backwards so at one point Fred's feet flailed above him.
"Are you trying to kill us?" he yelped.
"You must hold still!" Ruth ordered him.
Their kite completed the perfect circle and once more Fred's feet kicked beneath him. Their loop meant they fell just behind and to the left of Advesario's kite, and his anchor line whipped around a few yards front of them. Advesario turned and smirked at them. He kicked his squire and pointed at the front of their kite. Together they pulled back the front of their machine and tilted their kite so it started the loop. Unfortunately for them, their anchor line rose and tightened right in front of Fred and Ruth. The pair looked at each other with wide grins. They had them now.
That is, until a horn blew from the cliffs and they felt a tug on their line. The kites stopped their battling and all glanced down their ropes to the cliffs. The officials at the edge of the cliff pointed to the east. Fred and Ruth turned their gazes in that direction, and Fred squinted when he glimpsed a wide, dark cloud barreling toward them. The front constantly rolled from the top of itself to the ground beneath it. It swept along the top of the cliff walls covering a mile a moment and swallowed everything in its path. Dark shapes of trees and boulders tumbled in its shadowy depths. Everything inside the monster was dropped behind the mile-long body of the cloud and left the landscape in a ruin of broken trees and cracked rocks.
The color drained from Fred's face and his voice was an octave higher than usual. "What's that?" he squeaked.
Ruth's eyes widened and she whipped her head up to Fred. "We must land," she told him.
The cloud sped along the ground and consumed mile after mile of wind-swept trees and rocks. The people in the city below them cried out in despair and the pair felt a tug on their line. They were being reeled back to the cliffs, as were the other kites. The pull backwards caused their kite to tip this way and that as the small gusts of the area fought against the unnatural towing of the kites.
"Why? What is it?" Fred asked her.
"A terrible wind. We must land now," she ordered him.
Fred nodded and followed her lead as she leaned to the left. Unfortunately, their rope line was already half dragged in, so they floated above the reaches of the rooftops and streets. When Ruth tried to turn them toward a rooftop the tight anchor line pulled them back level with the top of the cliffs. In her attempt to right themselves they nearly flipped over, and only Fred's quick pull on a wing leveled them parallel with the ground.
They still had fifty more yards left on their line when the crew on the ground forsook their posts and raced away to the stairs. That left the kites stuck in the air with a rope line too short to land in the city below them. Many of the kites turned toward the top of the cliffs in an effort to land and ditch their machines for the stairs.
Fred's stomach sank as he watched the officials and strongmen flee. He glanced eastward and his eyes widened when he saw the cloud was nearly upon them. Ruth turned them toward the cliffs and followed the other kites toward the safety of the ground, but only half made it to the landing area before the cloud rushed over them.
Their kite was yanked westward with the wind and it tumbled end over end. The whole world went black as they clutched onto their harnesses and the rungs. They didn't know which way was up and which was down. Sharp sticks and rocks scratched and bruised them. They were pushed along for a hundred yards before they hit a stop. Their rope line had reached its end, but their reprieve only lasted a moment. They heard a horrible snap as their rope line snapped and they tumbled onward.
Fred thought the storm would never end until a faint light appeared to his right. The stones and sticks lessened, and in a moment night light broke over them. The sun had finished setting and what little rays that remained were swallowed by the cloud that disappeared over the western horizon. The pair were ten miles westward from String and a hundred feet in the air. Other kites were not so lucky. Many hadn't made the journey that far and lay strewn on the ground between where the pair floated and the city, dropped from the air by the cloud that disappeared in the distance. Their aviators and squires stumbled out, but others lay on the ground with broken limbs and serious cuts and bruises.
Others flew around them either lower or higher, and their kites were in much the same condition as that flown by Fred and Ruth. The pair had lost a few feet of their trailing edge and there were large holes in the remaining canvas. To make matters worse, without the rope line they were without a rudder. The kites were now gliders, and the aviators couldn't manage the machines with the handholds and their squires weighed too little to effectively control the gliders.
The normal winds of Kite blew past them and those gliders that still flew wobbled and tilted. Many fell toward the ground, but their practiced aviators were able to pull up and save them from a hard crash landing. Ruth and Fred's glider shook and tried to perform the same dive to the ground. Fred yelped when they lost ten yards, then another. Ruth tilted left and right in an effort to stabilize them, but she didn't weight enough.
"Fred, I need your weight!" she yelled at him.
"How?" he asked her.
"You must get beside me and lean with me!" she told him.
Fred fumbled to release himself from his harness, but the straps had been tightened by the wind. He scowled, pulled out his staff, closed his eyes and pointed the end toward the harness over his chest. A small fireball shot out and hit the straps. The extreme heat burned through the thick cloth and would have burned through him if he hadn't fallen downward. Fred landed on Ruth, and she grunted but kept them both from falling through the rungs.
"Sorry," he replied.
"Apologies for later," she insisted.
The glider was less forgiving as their front tipped downward and they plummeted toward the ground. Fred quickly pocketed his staff and shifted to the right while Ruth moved to the left. They shared the front and back rungs. It was a small space, and made even smaller when Ruth transformed into her gargoyle form, and Fred was poked by her wing. She stretched out her tail behind herself and looked to her friend.
"Pull the front up!" Ruth commanded him.
Fred and Ruth leaned back and shifted their weight to the rear of the glider. Their front raised and leveled them off, but another gust swept over them and threatened to tumble them backward. Ruth turned her tail like a rudder and they weathered most of the breeze, but not all of it.
"We must shift our weight together," she told him.
"All-hey!" Fred yelped as she climbed on top of him. She guided him to the center and lay her body on top of his. Fred's mind shifted to more pleasant thoughts when her breasts pressed up against his back.
"Match my movements and we will try to land," she instructed him.
"A-all right," he replied.
Ruth leaned left and right as the wind blew and Fred mimicked her movements. They tilted the front down slightly so they slowly descended eastward. In a few tense minutes they pulled their legs from the rear rung and set their feet on the ground. They walked for a few yards and came to a stop among the rubble from the cloud. The pair threw off the glider and Fred dropped to his knees, relieved at having survived the insane winds of Kite.
CHAPTER 27
They had rested only a few moments when they heard a noise to the east. They turned and saw dozens of guards and twinners on horses galloping toward them. Ruth quickly changed back to her human form, but she could do nothing about her female appearance.
Small groups of three broke off from the main herd at each of the gliders and assisted the injured and shaken. One of the groups, led by the twinner Honorous, stopped at Fred and Ruth, and they were surprised to see a woman standing beside him. "Are either of you hurt?" Honorous asked them.
"No, we're fine," Fred replied.
The twinner nodded to Ruth. "What is this young woman doing here?" he asked Fred.
Fred smiled and wrapped an arm around Ruth's shoulders. She blushed and stared at the ground. "She's my squire," he told them.
The two guards exchanged glances and one of them opened his mouth, but Honorous shook his head. "Any complaints will be brought before the officials, but not now," he told his men. He turned his attention back to Fred and Ruth. "We have been ordered to take all uninjured squires and aviators to the Senex to decide what is to be done."
Fred and Ruth rode back with the men and had their first look at the damage done to the city by the cloud. Branches and rocks dotted the streets and roofs, and here and there sat a boulder or tree. In the far eastern corner they saw some of the spools were half ripped from the ground and one of them had fallen into the city. People crowded the streets helping one another pick up the mess and assess the damage.
Their group followed others down the stairs and then westward to the Senex. The aviators and their squires were seated on the benches in the depression outside the Senex. Advesario was among those unharmed and seated on the benches, and he sneered at Fred when the young man dismounted. The man glanced at Ruth and did a double take.
Advesario jumped to his feet and pointed at her. "What's a girl doing here?" he objected.
"Remain seated where you're placed," Honorous ordered him.
Advesario glanced between Fred and Ruth, and a light clicked on behind those vacant eyes. "She's his squire, isn't she? He's got a girl for a squire!" The dozens of men in and around the depression jumped to their feet and erupted in outrage.
"No women allowed!" one of them yelled.
"Get her out of here!" another shouted.
The men crowded around Fred, Ruth and Honorous with Advesario egging them on. Advesario crossed his arms and grinned triumphantly. "No squire, no qualification. That means Crash is disqualified!"
"Quiet, if you please," a stern, loud voice broke over the crowd. Everyone turned and watched Regis step out of the Senex building and stride through the group of men to the three in the middle. "Haven't you enough decency for your injured fellow aviators and squires to not fight among those of you who are able to stand?" he scolded them.
Many of the men hung their heads, but Advesario had no shame. He pointed an accusing finger at Ruth and Fred. "Crash here has a girl as a squire. That means they're disqualified," he insisted.
Regis turned to the pair and surveyed them. "Is it true that this young woman is your squire?" he asked Fred. Fred reluctantly nodded. "And you knew this, and yet still took her on as your squire?"
"She's better than me at flying," Fred told him.
Advesario snorted. "That's not very hard to be," he protested.
Honorous glared at Advesario. "Jealous, Advesario?" he wondered.
"Why should I be jealous?" the aviator sneered.
"My men and I watched everyone land and they were the last, making them the winners of the tournament," Honorous replied.
Advesario bristled. "A woman a winner? By Phaeton we won't allow that, will we, boys!" A cheer erupted from the crowd, but was cowed when Honorous' firm eyes swept over them.
"You won't let a woman be a squire, but what about an aviator and twinner?" he challenged them.
Advesario curled back his lips. "What would we want to do that for?"
"You already have," Honorous replied. He tossed aside the robes that he wrapped around himself and revealed a wrapping of bandages around his chest. They held in place two small, but definitely feminine, breasts. Honorous smirked as their mouths dropped to the dusty ground. She turned to Regis. "I'm sorry to have deceived everyone for so long, but I didn't think anyone would understand."
"A-a girl!" Advesario wheezed. His eye twitched and he whipped his head to Regis. "Remove her from the twinners!" he demanded.
"The position of twinner is one for life. There are no exceptions except where a breach of duty is involved. I have not breached my duty," Honorous reminded him.
"B-but you're a woman!" Advesario protested.
"Man or woman, I won a tournament, one you were in, if I recall," Honorous shot back.
Advesario opened his sputtering mouth, but Regis stepped between them and held up his hands. "Let us have a moment to clear our minds, though I might add he-pardon me, she is right. The position is for life, and Honorous has not violated her duty as a twinner, merely as an aviator," Regis argued.
"We won't tolerate that, will we, boys?" Advesario called out to his fellow aviators. The crowd was less enthusiastic. Honorous was a well-known and respected twinner, and they hesitated to move against her. Advesario's face reddened with rage. "You idiots! Do you want women to be in our tournaments?" he mocked them.
"That may not be a bad idea, and one that can certainly be put before the Senex," Regis spoke up. Advesario turned to him in shock and rage. "Calm yourself, recover from your wounds, and pray for your injured aviators and squires," he advised.
Advesario clenched his hands by his side, turned and stormed through the crowd. The remaining aviators turned to Honorous, who glanced between Fred and Ruth. "Congratulations on some fine flying. I watched your landing of that glider. It couldn't have been done better, or with better cooperation," she praised them.
"It was all Ruth," Fred spoke up. He pushed her forward to stand in front of Regis and Honorous.
Ruth blushed and bowed her head. "Thank you," she whispered.
Honorous smiled and turned to Regis. "Do you really think those old men will allow them as winners knowing she's a she?" she asked him.
Regis looked around at the calm faces of the aviators and squires. "Only if their fellow fliers will allow it," he admitted. His eyes swept over the crowd looking for an answer to his statement. "What say you all? Do these excellent fliers deserve the trophy for flying well?" The men glanced at each other, unsure how to answer.
Ruth turned to them and clasped her hands together. "Please?" she pleaded. Her big brown eyes and quivering lip melted the hearts of the rough and gruff fliers.
"Ah, let 'em have it. Not like we can't try again this fall," one of the men spoke up.
"Yeah, we can give it a try again," another agreed.
"Here here!"
"Yeah, give it to 'em!"
Ruth's face beamed with pride as the aviators and squires chimed in with near-unanimous agreement. There were some in the crowds who scowled and slunk down, but they were in the minority and didn't press the matter. Honorous patted Fred on the back, and her strength was enough to cause him to stumble forward. He turned to her and rubbed his shoulder.
"You're pretty strong for a girl," he quipped.
She smirked. "How do you think I won the tournament?" she pointed out.
Regis held up his hands and silence fell over the crowd. He had a wide smile on his otherwise stoic demeanor.
"The case is not yet settled. The Senex will meet tomorrow to decide the fate of these two fliers. What is most important at this time is your fellow fliers and the city. The debris damaged many of the houses and even now clutter the street. Everyone would be glad for a helping hand to clean the debris," he told them.
The fliers dispersed to assist the city people, and Ruth turned to Fred. She paused and glanced past him, and her face lit up with a wider grin. "Someone wishes to speak with you," she told him.
Fred furrowed his brow and turned to see Pat and Ned quickly striding toward them. Pat rushed past Ned and wrapped Fred in a bone-crushing hug. He blushed until she pulled them apart and smacked him on the cheek. Fred frowned and rubbed the red spot. "What was that for?" he asked her.
"For not being more careful," she snapped.
"But it wasn't my fault that storm came up," he protested.
"Of course it is. Trouble follows you wherever you go," she reminded him. Her face softened and she smiled at the confused young man. "But I'm glad you're okay," she finished.
"As am I," Ned chimed in as he came up to stand beside Pat.
Fred raised an eyebrow and glanced between the two. "How did you know we were here?" he wondered.
Ned chuckled and tapped the top of his staff against Fred's chest. "I can track my soul wherever it goes," he told the young man.
Fred's face fell. "So you know where I'm at all the time?" he questioned him.
"Precisely," Ned agreed.
"Wonderful. . ." Fred grumbled.
"There you are," a voice spoke up. The four turned to see Canto, Sins and Percy stroll toward them. Two of the three new arrivals were filthy from head-to-foot. Sins was as clean as always.
"What happened to you?" Pat asked them.
"We've been doing work while you've been standing around here doing nothing," Canto complained.
"When we realized nothing could be done to help Ruth and Fred from the air we assisted in removing the debris from the streets. We hoped not to find you two in the rubble," Percy told them.
The Unwilling Aviator (Book 4) Page 17