Zachariah picked up Gold Bug’s creations. One was a variation of the gravity engine.

He had used something like it to save Messer’s Reach. The target had been reduced

to a splotch when he pressed the button on the device.

The other was a pair of goggles with a power pack built into the side. Machinery took

in light and allowed the wearer to see through solid objects.

He put the goggles on over his eyes and pushed the button on the power pack. The

ground thinned to the opaqueness of a thin sheet of dirty glass. He found most of the

other racers been buried in the sand.

All he had to do was dig them up and get them back in the air before the authorities

from the Houses arrived.

The thought of instant execution for the crime of walking on the ground didn’t sit

well with him.

Not everyone had a use for special chemical formulae in the outside world.

Zachariah used the gravity gun to scoop sand off the racers. He tried to be gentle with

it. One wrong move could pulp a human body.

Sir Dormir landed at the edge of where the machinist worked. He gestured and green

light dug a hole away from the nearest buried person.

“All right,” said Zachariah. “How do we get them the help they need?”

“I don’t see the dragon,” said Sir Dormir.

“Pearl?,” said Zachariah. “Pearl! Can you hear me?”

“I don’t sense her,” said Sir Dormir.

“They took Pearl,” said Zachariah. “The pooka will be devastated if he doesn’t

know.”

“How do we get them out of here?,” asked Sir Dormir.

“We fly them out of here together in their own plane,” said Zachariah. “We have to

fix up the one who is the best pilot so we can send them on the way, and then take to

the air ourselves.”

“Gear Octo is the best pilot I think,” said Sir Dormir. He pointed at the sand. The ace

from Lobster Castle drifted up from his grave. “He looks hurt.”

“Gold Bug,” said Zachariah. “Do what you can for him. We need him able to fly out

of here with everyone else if you can get that done.”

The daemon ate more of the wrecked jet from Lobster Bay. Its duplication process put

together a lantern. The beam turned on but it only shown on the desert. The machinist

walked over and turned the light on the racer.

“Knife is sending an alert,” shouted Bolan from the Rocket. “We might have

problems on the way.”

“We have to get them into the air somehow,” said Zachariah. “If we leave them, they

are done.”

“Can you buy time for us, Hardy?,” asked Sola. “Don’t do anything except be

annoying. We don’t want to hurt anybody.”

The beetle spread its wings and flew off. Sola watched it go with worry on her face.

“What happened?,” asked Gear Octo.

“You crashed,” said Sir Dormir.

“You were brought down,” said Zachariah. “I am about to ask Gold Bug to try to get

your aircraft worthy enough to try to fly out of here. You’re going to have to take

some of the others with you.”

“All right,” said Octo. “I think I can handle that.”

“Is everyone here, Sir Dormir?,” asked Zachariah.

“Yes,” said the Alvas. “But none of the daemons, or the dragon, are present.”

“Brother Rabbit?,” asked Zachariah. He didn’t know how attached the rabbit was to

his mount, but he doubted that his rival would give up his carrier.

“The pooka is mind bound,” said Sir Dormir. “I don’t know how to wake him.”

“Let’s start with the lamp,” said Zachariah. He turned the light on the pooka. The

creature didn’t move. “That didn’t help.”

“Let me see if I can break the spell,” said Sir Dormir. He raised his hand. A bolt of

lightning came out of the sky and sent Brother Rabbit hurling through the air. The

pooka hit the sand a good distance away. He spit out the sand. “There is nothing

lightning won’t fix.”

Zachariah didn’t quite agree, but it had worked wonders this time.

“What was that?,” said Brother Rabbit. He squeezed out a tiny flame on the fur of his

arm.

“Sorry,” said Zachariah. “We had to wake you. Do you remember what happened?”

“I was flying along and then everything went black,” said the pooka. “Where’s

Pearl?”

“We don’t know,” said Zachariah. “I’m going to look for her. We’re trying to get

everyone into the air. Touching down in Crater Desert is an executable offense by the

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local empire.”

“I’ll help you look for her,” said Brother Rabbit. “I can call her real name if she is

awake and can hear me.”

Zachariah looked around. The majority of the racers were out of the fight. He doubted

any of them were tough enough to take a lightning bolt to wake them up. The

daemons and Pearl were missing. If anything happened to the daemons, their partners

would die. If anything happened to Pearl, he had the feeling he would have an

enraged giant stomping on anything that happened to live on the surface of the desert.

“We need to split up so we can get things done,” said Zachariah. “Bolan, Sola, Sir

Dormir, Octo. I need you four to get the racers into the air and out of the desert. Gold

Bug will help you with that. Have him install the healing lamps in your transport to

use on the other racers. Rabbit and I will look for Pearl and the daemons. We will find

our own way out if we have to. Get everybody to safety. That has to be the priority.

Then the racing commission has to be informed. We can rest in Riordiana after we

make our escape. We don’t have any way to inform the Kellers. Hopefully, when

we’re done, there won’t be any danger for them to stumble into when they fly over.”

“All right,” said Sir Dormir. “This has to be the most exciting race I have ever been

in.”

“I have to say the same,” said Zachariah. “Come on, Rabbit. Let’s find the missing

sentients.”

The pair started across the sand. Zachariah thought about the mental power he had

fought earlier. If that was used on him, he would lose. He needed some way to block

it.

He should have brought Gold Bug with them instead of leaving him in charge of

building transport for the other racers. The daemon could build any machinery they

might need to deal with this problem.

He hoped Rabbit was up to the challenge ahead. They might both get killed trying to

free Pearl.

“I’m going to use these goggles to search for a lair,” said Zachariah. “Then we’ll have

to think of some way to break in and free the rest of our followers.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Rabbit. He rolled the fur on his arms like they were

sleeves as he padded along. “I can get us in easily enough, if you can do the other.”

“Let’s see what Gold Bug’s glasses can do,” said Zachariah.

The machinist pulled the goggles down over his eyes and turned them on. He nodded

as he pointed at a desert dweller hidden under a shallow pile of sand. Then another

on the other side of the path they were walking.

They weren’t far enough away from the crash site in his opinion.

Brother Rabbit vanished as he looked for more guards. He hadn’t expected that. He

thought the pooka would sneak around with him to get behind one of the guards, then

the other. He turned to look at the sentries. One sank into the desert without uttering

a scream. The other guard looked over at the pile of sand settling where his comrade

used to be. He stood up. The desert opened under him and he was gone.

Brother Rabbit exploded out of the ground. His tunnel closed behind him as he stood

at Zachariah’s side.

“Any more guards?,” Brother Rabbit asked.

“I don’t see any,” said Zachariah. “Let’s see what we can do about finding whatever

cave they have adapted to their cause.”

The machinist led the way along the desert. He paused when he saw a tower standing

in the distance. He counted three more buried guards out front, and several sentries

walking carved out battlements.

“They have three guards in front of the gates, and it looks like six men standing guard

up in the middle of that pile,” said Zachariah. “How do you want to deal with this?”

“I’m going to take the guards in front of the door,” said Rabbit. “Once I do that, I will

have access to the doors to get inside. The rest will be trying to figure out how to get

inside without turning on the alarm bells.”

“All right,” said Zachariah. “Maybe I can cause a distraction from here.”

“Give me a few moments to clear the guards on the ground,” said Brother Rabbit.

“Go ahead,” said Zachariah. He nodded at the spire sticking out of the sand.

The pooka vanished into the sand. Zachariah watched him swim across the desert.

Then he yanked his victims deep into the sand before returning to the surface next to

the giant gate.

Zachariah took aim with the gravity gun. He turned the dial all the way open. He

pulled the trigger. The right gate bent enough under the pressure that his ally

squeezed through the opening without a problem.

He fired random bolts at the guards. He smiled as they flew into the air for a few

moments. Then they crashed down against the spire, or went over the edge and fell

to the sand.

Hopefully he had taught them a lesson that would carry them to the next race that

happened to fly overhead.

The gates blasted open as he watched for trouble. Pearl crashed through. Rock fell out

of place as the daemons followed. Some fired blasts of energy inside the spire to

discourage the guards from doing anything.

Brother Rabbit dropped off Pearl. He became a giant before he hit the ground. He

pulled the shovel from his pocket. He swung it into the spire with all of his strength.

The rock tipped over and fell. He put the shovel away.

The pooka grabbed the back of his circling dragon and shrank to ride it back to where

they had left the racers. Some of the daemons looked like they had been hit with

something. Zachariah turned to follow them back to where he had left the Rocket.

All they had to do was get out of the desert before they got into trouble with one of

the Houses.

Pearl circled to swoop down. She picked up Zachariah in her claws and flung him in

the air. She caught him with her back as he started to come down.

“Those rats will remember what happened until their children’s children have turned

gray,” said Rabbit. His ears flapped in the wind caused by their flight. He pulled a

carrot from his overalls and gnawed on it.

“Did you happen to find out why they caused the racers to crash?,” asked Zachariah.

“They wanted the living carriers for some stupid revolution,” said Rabbit. “They used

a ton of the local brain mix to mind control everyone into the ground. Then they took

the animals to use as living weapons.”

“Is that why the Houses forbid anyone from landing?,” asked Zachariah.

“Maybe,” said the pooka. “They might want total control on being able to put the

whammy on people. Having that escape the borders would allow people like you to

whammy them back.”

“People like me?,” said Zachariah.

“Yep,” said the giant bunny. “You all want to chase things in the dark because you’re

unafraid of what might be waiting there, and really want to know what happens if you

set your ideas on fire.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” said Zachariah.

“You want to go to the moons,” said Brother Rabbit. “I think I have not gone far

enough in my description. Who would want to go to the moon when they have their

mother’s birthright here?”

“I want to go to new places and find out new things,” said Zachariah. “That’s why I

entered the air race. I wanted to build a flying boat better than anyone else could.”

“How’s that working out for you?,” asked Brother Rabbit.

“Better than I expected,” said the machinist.

“It would almost have to be at this point,” said Brother Rabbit.

The Kellers’ ship blasted across the sky above them. Weird music drifted down to

them.

“Let’s meet up with the others so we can get back into this race,” said Zachariah.

“The Kellers can’t be allowed to win another leg.”

“So we’re going to try to catch them,” said Rabbit. He finished his carrot.

“We’re going to chase them down and overrun them,” said Zachariah. “Do you see

the Rocket anywhere?”

Brother Rabbit pointed a hairy finger at the white shape hovering in place.

“Let’s do this.” said Zachariah.