enough breath for a prayer, put it to better use by
blowing into the firebox. It's not going to be wishes or prayers that
gets us out of here, just a head of steam."

* * * * *

A howled battlecry was echoed by massed voices and a squad of
D'zertanoj burst in through the entrance, and at the same instant the
rear of the leather wall went down and more armed men swarmed over it.
The immobile _caroj_ was trapped between the two groups of attackers
who laughed happily as they charged. Jason cursed and lit four
molotails at the same time and hurled them two and two in opposite
directions. Before they hit he had jumped to the steam valve and wound
it open; with a hissing clank the _caroj_ shuddered and got underway.

For the moment the attackers were held back by the walls of flame and
screamed even louder as the machine moved away at right angles from
between their two groups. The air whistled with crossbow bolts, but
most were badly aimed and only a few thudded into the baggage. With
each revolution of the wheels their speed picked up and when they hit
the walls the hides parted with a creaking snap. Strips of leather
whipped at them, then they were through.

The shouts and the fires grew dimmer behind them as they streaked down
the valley at a suicidal pace, hissing, rattling and crashing over the
bumps. Jason clung to the tiller and shouted for Mikah to come relieve
him, since if he let go of the thing they would turn and crash in an
instant, and as long as he held it he couldn't cut down the steam.
Some of this finally penetrated to Mikah because he crawled forward
grasping desperately to every hand-hold until he crouched beside
Jason.

"Grab this tiller and hold it straight and steer around anything big
enough to see."

As soon as the steering was taken over Jason worked his way back to
the engine and throttled down; they slowed to a clanking walk then
stopped completely. Ijale moaned and Jason felt as if every inch of
his body had been beaten with hammers. There was no sign of pursuit
since it would be at least an hour before they could raise steam in
the _caroj_ and no one on foot could have possibly matched their
headlong pace. The lantern he had used earlier had vanished during the
wild ride so Jason dug out another one of his own construction.

"On your feet, Snarbi," he ordered. "I've cracked us all out of
slavery so now it is time for you to do some of the guiding that you