Allan COLE - Wizard of the winds

Methydia clapped her hands. What a delicious speech, she said. And so well spoken. My compliments to your mother and father for raising such an honest lad."

Once again Safar felt the discomfort of a blush. I was only trying to warn you about what you might be in for, he said, a bit sullen.

Methydia kissed him and patted his cheek. Don't mind me, dear, she said. I have an old woman's blathering tongue."

Safar's eyes strayed to her lush figure, swathed in a many-layered, translucent gown.

"You're not so old, he mumbledand tore his eyes away.

"If you keep talking like that, my pretty lad, Methydia said, we're going to get ourselves in trouble.

"Now. Allow me to compose myself."

Methydia, ever the actress as Safar eventually learned, fanned her cheek with a delicate hand, saying, You have a way of troubling a woman's concentration, dear."

Safar had learned better than to automatically blurt an apology. He said, Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Ask away, Methydia replied.

"First I want to ask about the Cloudship, he said. Then I want to ask about the circus."

The answers consumed many days and many miles. In fact, during the months Safar spent with Methydia and her troupe, he never did hear the entire talealthough everyone from Biner, the muscular dwarf, to Arlain, the human dragon who preferred vegetables over meat, was more than willing to enlighten him.

The Cloudship had no life of its own and although complicated in design, it was an object and therefore easier to explain.

Essentially, it was a shipa ship with its nose bobbed off and its masts and sails removed. It had a long ship's deck, a high ship's bridge and a ship's galleys and cabins. The timbers it was made of, however, were light as parchment and strong as steel.

Methydia said the rare planks were the gift of a woodsmana long ago loverwho stole the trees from a sacred grove to prove he'd make a worthy husband. The woodsman's most ardent rivala magical toy maker of great renownturned the planks into a marvelous vessel, hoping to upstage his opponent.

"I was very young, then, Methydia said. But although I was dumb enough to attract men I didn't want, I was bright enough to not only keep my gifts, but to avoid marrying my lovers without giving insult."

The body of the Cloudship dangled beneath two balloons, each ninety feet high and made of a strong, light cloth that was not only moisture proof but offered a marvelous surface for all the colorful paints the troupe used for decoration. Methydia's face graced the front, or forward, balloon. The legend, Methydia's Flying Circus", the aft.

The quantities of hot air required to lift the vessel were provided by two big furnaces, called burners, with magically operated bellows to fan the fuela mixture of crumbled animal dung, dried herbs and witch's powders that gave off a faint odor of ammonia. Ballast was ordinary sand in ordinary bags that could be spilled out to gain greater heights. To descend, you worked the mouth"pulling on ropes that widened the balloons bottom openings so that gas could escape. One thing needing constant attention were the big clampsor carabinersthat were attached the cables holding the Cloudship's body to the balloons. They tended to loosen in a rough wind and had to be tightened constantly.

Beyond that, the vessel seemed simple enough to operate. Although sometimes there were periods of intenseand to Safar, bewilderingactivity, mostly the Cloudship seemed to run itself. Besides the main members of the troupe, there was a crew of half-a-dozen men and women called roustabouts. They were usually busy attending to the equipment and props that went into making a circus, leaving the routine operation of the Cloudship to the performers.

Part of that routine was steering. The task was performed on the bridge, where a large ship's wheel was mounted. The spoked wheel was linked to an elaborate system of scoops, sails and rudders that provided steerage.

"How fast does she go? Safar asked Biner one day. It was Biner's turn at the wheel, while Safar had the task of keeping an eye on the compass.

"Depends on the wind, Biner said, and the temperature. We've made as much as three hundred miles in a day. Other times we've been becalmed and made less than thirty in a week."

Safar watched Biner work the wheel. Despite the elaborate steering system it seemed to him direction was mainly determined by the wind.

"What happens in a storm? he asked.

Biner chortled. We pray a lot. And Methydia casts her spells. But mostly we pray. If there aren't any mountains about it's best just to let the storm be the boss. If there are, we tie up to something and hang on. Worst thing you can do is put her on the ground. That's if the storm doesn't give you any notice and you can't find a barn big enough to hold her. Wind can rip her up before you get the balloons collapsed and stowed away."

Safar could see straight off that, storm or not, the best place to be was sailing high above the earth where no oneking or outlawcould reach you.

He thought of his recent troubles in Walaria and said, It's too bad you ever have to come down."

Biner nodded understanding. Safar had told the crew an abbreviated version of his tale of woe.

"Gotta eat, he said. Food may grow in trees, but not in the air. His massive shoulders rolled in a shrug. Ground's not all bad. Wait'll you work your first show. Nothing like an audience's applause to restore your good feelings about folks. Especially the tikes, way their eyes light up warms you from the inside out."

It had already been agreed that Safar could travel with the troupe for awhile. To earn his keep he was being trained to handle the hundreds of small details that went intoin circus parlance"wowing the rubes."

"How did you become a circus performer? Safar asked. Or were you born to it?"

Biner shook his massive head. My parents were actors, he said. Came from a long line of board trodders, as a matter of fact. Made my first appearance while I was still suckling my mother's breast. Played all kinds of child parts. Kept on playing them way past my time. I'm kind of short, in case you didn't notice. My mother and father were normal-sized and never did figure out what to make of me. Then I started growing out, instead of up. And I couldn't play tikes anymore."

Biner's face darkened at some painful memory. Then he shook it off, displaying his wide teeth in a grin.

"Swept theater floors and other drudge work for a time. Then one day this Cloudship sailed right over the town, music playing, folks way up in the sky waving at us like they were gods and goddesses. They shouted for everybody to follow. So I followed. And I was bitten by the circus bug the very first show. I begged Methydia for a tryout. She gave me one and I've been with her ever since. Going on fifteen years, now. Even gave me a new name after awhileBiner, from the carabiners that hold us up. She said it's because she depends on me so much."

Although Biner's story was entirely different in its details from the background of the others, Safar soon learned the members of the troupe all had one thing in commontheir appearances had made them outcasts from regular society so they'd formed their own. It was Methydia who'd given them that chance, coming along at just the right time, it seemed, to rescue them from unpleasant circumstances.

"Weren't fer Methyida, Kairo said one day, I'd still be back at me village, gettin conked wi rocks. Kairo was the acrobat with the detachable head. Uster hide in me house, he said, so's I wouldn't get conked. So th lads'd stone me house, breakin windows and stovin holes in th roof. So me muvver threw me out. Rather I got conked th'n the house, I s'pose."

Rabix and Elgythe snake charmer and the snakehad been seasoned circus performers when Methydia found them. But they'd had a disagreement with their employer over unpaid wages and had been left at a roadside in the middle of nowhere.