Someone else gave a slow whistle through the microphone.
"Break formation, I said. Damn it, break formation."
Over the plain, a sheet of red fire flapped up, and Jon and Arkor pulled back from the railing that edged the road. Another white streak left the horizon, and for a moment, in the glare, their shadows on the pavement were doubled in white and red.
The sound of the explosion reached them a moment later, as broken rocks leapt into visibility like a rotted jaw swung up through red fire.
Another sound behind them made them turn. The lighted roadways of Telphar looped the city like strands of pearls on skeletal fingers. A car came toward them.
Another wailing missile took the sky, and a moment later a screaming plane answered, tearing down the night. This one suddenly turned as its flaming motors caught once more and careened above their heads so close that they ducked and disappeared among the city towers: an explosion, then falling flame drooled the side of a building. "I hope that's nowhere near the Palace of the Stars," a voice said next to Jon. "We'll have a great time getting back if it is."
Jon whirled. The Duchess had gotten out of the car. The red light flared a moment in her hair, then died.
"No. That was nowhere near it," Jon said. "Am I glad to see you."
Tel and Alter, still in her cast and hospital robe, followed the Duchess out of the car.
"Well," he said, "you brought the kids too."