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“We know about that brake,” Piq observed. “It stops a car so good, the chains are twice as late nowadays as they used to be, and you couldn’t strictly say they were ever on time.”

Everybody laughed again. Irik quivered with anger. “Guhak has invented a car that doesn’t need to go on tracks. It can run whenever it wants wherever it wants. And one car will be able to go faster than three hax teams.”

“That I’ll believe when I’ve ridden on it,” Kuqal grinned. “Even the chains aren’t that fast.” The others bit their thumbs and nodded—except Clarey, who was rigidly keeping out of the conversation. He forced squfur down his tightening throat and said nothing.

“You’re backward clods!” Irik raged. “If the Earthmen can have cars that go through the sky without tracks why shouldn’t we have cars that run on the ground the same way? Have we tried?”

“Doesn’t seem to me it’s worth the effort,” Malesor said. “Our cars can get us where we’re going as fast as we need to go already, why bother?”

“Whatever an Earthman can do, we can do better! Soon Guhak will get his ground cars on the road. After that, it’ll only be a short step to cars that go in the sky. Then we’ll find out where the Earthmen come from and why they’re here. We’ll be as powerful as they are. We’ll get rid of them and their rotten music.”