Tarquin seemed not to hear Jim. He stared toward the great fires. "Destruction," he muttered. "The hell of war turned loose after all these centuries."
Mobs had poured onto the field. Guards battled with them. The foremost tried to reach the captured invaders, yelling curses at them. Others continued toward us. I saw Tarquin stiffen. He ordered a ring of guards about us. "But why?" Jim demanded.
"They blame you," Tarquin said bitterly. "For stirring up trouble. In fact, they're demanding your lives as forfeit."
"But can't they understand?" Jim cried. "Hasn't it been made plain enough? You talked with them, explained our coming—"
Tarquin waved a hand toward the angry men and women. Some had stones, bricks and these they were hurling our way. "You can see for yourselves," he told us. "Dalin went on the air and blamed you, opposing our referendum. Said it was idiotic, that departure from Spor was unthinkable. He argued that his scientists promised the dark gas would not enter our atmosphere and would be dissipated, permitting sunlight to enter. My own people of Osmand were in doubt, even before Garok came. Now—well, they think only of this destruction, and the factors they blame, including you two."
"We're going to tackle Garok's other fleets," Jim said briefly. "Meanwhile, we're expecting you to report our act, and to plead with the people of Osmand to come with us, as many as we can take. We'll be back, in a few hours."
We collided with Garok's air fleet above Dalin's city, while it was at the height of its raid. It took us exactly eighteen minutes to clean the air, leaving destroyed planes blazing on all sides. Then we went on. But we were to get a stiff shock. Garok's sky fleet had vanished elsewhere.
"Okay," Jim decided, after we had cruised the coast line, "we'd better get back to Osmand. If Garok's fled, our mission is completed."
We withheld reporting through to Shadrak. The sky was unusually black tonight. Overhead, there were no stars. We raised the flames in Osmand some fifty miles out. Jim let out an angry yell. "Garok's attacking again," he cried. "Those are new fires."