have known from the black scowl which Grim Hagen had worn those
many months that he would not be stopped by one defeat. You will remember,
Odin, how I told you of the little flying machines that we strapped on our
backs in the old days and went sailing through the air. They were outlawed.
But during the time that Grim Hagen held the tower he must have found the
plans for the flying machine, or maybe even one of the machines. For when
his men attacked us, each one had such a machine. And each man carried
dozens of little glass eggs. When they threw them they exploded and
dissolved nearly everything for twenty foot around.

"Oh, we fought. We killed many. But it is hard to fight the hawk. One by
one they blew up our ships. Then, carrying Maya and a few other prisoners
with them, they flew out to sea like a flight of evil birds--no, not birds,
for not even the hawk is evil. What was the word that you used for the
leather-winged, toothy things that live in the forest?"

"Dactyls," Jack Odin prompted.

"Yes, that's it," Gunnar said as he stared into the fire. "Dactyls. I like
that word. It has an evil, bloody ring to it."

He stopped talking to take a huge bite of stale bread that nearly choked
him. Then he continued his story.

"Meanwhile, in the city of the Scientists, the same kind of fighting had
been going on. We learned later that when Grim Hagen's men winged their way
in from the sea, his army had already retaken the Tower. Ato and his
soldiers were scattered. Half of them were dead. So, after scattering their
explosive eggs across the city, and killing the very old and the very
young, Grim Hagen and his men took refuge in the Tower and prepared to
withstand our siege. They had learned much from their first defeat, and
this time they held it well.

"As soon as we could patch up our ships, we came a-following and joined
forces with Ato's soldiers. We assaulted the Tower day after day. Until the
ground and the walks around it were black with our dried blood. But they
held out. Not once did they try a counter-attack. We should have guessed at
what Grim Hagen was planing. But we didn't until one of the prisoners
escaped. His name was Zol, and he was a friend of Maya's father. Poor
fellow, he is dead now, but if we of Opal went in for monuments we would
build one a mile high for Zol. He told us that Grim Hagen was readying the
Old Ship for flight into space. Also, he planned to leave the sea gates
open.

"Zol saved