The boy ran along the corridor, and so came to a room where he discovered a huge aeroplane lying black and shining in its hangar. Raphael did not even stop to look at the machine, but hurried toward the great door which filled one end of the room. It was made of steel, thick and impassive. This was the entrance he had noticed from the outside. He pushed at it frantically, and beat his hands on the great locks. He might as well have tried to overthrow the castle itself. Raphael had nearly given up in despair when he noticed a small lever on the wall. He reached over and pulled it down. With a click and whir the door swung smoothly back, and the boy stepped out onto the roof. ‘Eagles! Eagles!’ he shouted. In a moment Chief of All the Eagles in the Sky wheeled into sight. ‘Well, my boy,’ he said shortly, ‘you’ve been gone a long time.’ ‘The Sorcerer,’ choked Raphael handing him the crumpled letter, ‘has escaped by submarine with Cassie.’ ‘I thought so,’ remarked Empyrean without surprise. ‘My lieutenants reported earlier in the evening that they had seen a large fish swim from underneath the castle. It is easy to see such things from the air.’ ‘Then Cassie is lost for good?’ ‘Nonsense,’ said the eagle. ‘The war has only begun. I commanded my lieutenants to follow the submarine, and bring us news. Come, we must join them.’ Raphael scrambled upon Empyrean’s back, and they winged their way into the night. Behind them the empty castle of the Sorcerer rose in the moonlight like a silver monument out of the black sea. CHAPTER VIII ON TO MECHANA Raphael settled back between the eagle’s wings. He felt tired and very hungry. ‘Here,’ shouted the eagle, ‘lean down.’ Raphael leaned down, and Empyrean handed him something cold and slimy. ‘Thought you might be hungry,’ screamed the bird. Raphael held the thing up in the moonlight. It was a fish. I am an eagle. I must do as the eagles do, reasoned the boy. At least this will keep me from starving. But the limp fish in his hand did not bring him any desire to eat. I wonder, he thought, whether this was one of my friends under the ocean. Meanwhile he held the fish almost at arm’s length. In a few moments, however, hunger overcame distaste, and he began to eat. Raw fish had its advantages. It was filling. Cats like raw fish. When he had finished, Raphael wiped his hands carefully upon his feather suit and looked about, lulled by the rise and fall of the great wings. The moon, pale and remote, hung like a silver plate in the sky. The boy wondered how the eagle knew where he was going. He remembered dimly that mariners guide their ships over the sea at night by the aid of stars. A meteor fell in a slow blaze of sparks across the sky. Once he had been on a boat at night.... When Raphael woke, it was early morning. In the east the sun was rising, to the west, land rimmed the horizon. Near at hand flew another eagle. ‘Have they found the Sorcerer?’ called Raphael, wide awake.