"The ancients' weapons were pretty potent," said Torcred, and the girl shivered.
She made a wide circle and flew back, but they could see nothing in the valley where Buzzard Base had been. Only an immense cloud of darkness still faintly luminous at its heart, roiling slowly upward. The air was turbulent. Ladna gave the cloud a wide berth, for Relez had warned them of that.
The girl looked questioningly at Torcred. He said, "A line due south from the Salt Sea should find us the terrapins' camp."
Obediently Ladna made a few degrees' turn to the west. "You still believe—"
"That Relez was right? I don't know. But I know this—whether the men of the floating cities have their way of the world or not, they've started a change that must lead to more change, a new civilization.... And I still want to help the terrapins make a place in it—first of all by teaching them that they are men."
The great salt lake unrolled in the moonlight and slipped away beneath the ship. They raced on over the southern reaches of the valley where they had wandered three strange days. Then in midflight the motor choked and died. The anti-ionization field had closed down again.
"Relez is in a hurry for his peace," remarked Torcred, and they laughed a little hysterically. The ship lost altitude and the shadowy desert came up to meet them, but not before they saw, a couple of miles away, a spot of light that Torcred's keen eyes identified as the camp of the terrapins. He breathed a sigh of relief at finding it undamaged by the buzzard raids.
"You can start educating them in the morning," said Ladna. "Isn't the moon lovely tonight?"
"Eh?" Torcred was jarred by the disconnectedness of her remarks. "Why wait till morning?"