Flew + crashed plane

“Go on, Vur!” Alicia cried, shaking her fist in the light of the almost full
moon. “You can do it!”

Alberto stood next to her, doubled over with laughter. He’d told Larten
not to try – no amateur could fly his 14-bis, his beloved bird of prey – but

Alicia had dared him and Larten never backed away from a dare.
“By the black blood of Harnon Oan!” Larten growled, then pulled on
the lever that was meant to control the craft. To his astonishment – as well
as Alicia’s and Alberto’s – the aircraft lifted a few feet. He flew for all of
five seconds before the wheels hit the ground. He thought that would be the
end of it, but the aircraft continued to power ahead, and when he tried the
lever again he rose maybe nine feet in the air and flew for eighty or ninety
feet before crashing back to earth.

One of the wings dipped and tipped towards the ground. Moments later
the aircraft screeched to an abrupt halt and Larten was thrown forward to
roll across the grass until he came to a painful stop.

“Vur!” Alicia yelled, racing after him. “Are you all right? Have you
broken any bones, my darling?”

“I am intact,” Larten muttered, standing and wincing.
When Alicia saw that he hadn’t been seriously injured, she threw herself
into his arms and knocked him down again. Larten was laughing by the
time Alberto caught up with him, mock-wrestling with the beautiful Alicia.

“That was superb!” Alberto applauded. “It must have been a hundred
feet at least.”

“I think slightly less,” Larten said.

“Even so… magnifique! I’ve managed no more than two hundred feet
myself and I’m an expert.”

***

The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Palace of the Damned, Chapter 4