She fluttered from behind me at the sound of my voice. "Master I am here. What I can do to serve?"
"We're going after Jahnt," Jim said. "He can't have gotten far."
"But you run so heavily," old Prytan murmured. "My young men here—"
They were all standing looking frightened and confused. Jim swept them with a glance and drew me past them. It occurred to me that we might use the three spacesuits in which we had escaped from Curtmann. With their anti-gravity mechanisms and tiny rocket-streams we could propel ourselves over the forest. But we found now that they were gone.
Precious minutes were passing. We would have to go on foot. At the door we paused, appalled by the wind and a chromatic burst of glaring light. Meeta fluttered in the air beside my head, and as the wind hit her she was tossed back.
"You can't fly out into that, Meeta?"
"No, I am afraid it's not possible now. But you can carry me."
She fluttered to my shoulder, crouching with a tiny hand gripping my coat collar. With Jim beside me we plunged out into the roaring riot of the rainbow storm.
IV