“And here I am, a Haatari storm chaser, who was taught by the great Mazdak Garzade himself, offering to you my services, to train her forfree.”
“Hmmm…” Gnomes were known to be consummate businessmen, and Herbert was intrigued. “I’m listening.”
“I’ll start immediately by taking her on a tour of the city. Doing so will demonstrate my skill to you. This outing will also serve as fine advertising. Surely when people look up to the sky and see this big, beautiful, unique girl, they’ll askwhere can I purchase such a glorious creature for myself? And I will shout down to them, go to Smorp Brothers.”
“If we do this, be sure to tell them that our kwetzels come in many different vibrant colors to choose from,” Herbert said.
Morton made a solemn plea to his brother to try and seal the deal. “I’m aware you feel betrayed by me pursuing my own goals, brother, but you also know I am a gnome of my word. Lady Azarin is what she represents herself to be. Her father is a noteworthy champion among the Haatari. If she says she can tame a kwetzel, then that is the truth. Allowing her access to this beast would help us both.”
“Fairly Deadly being trained by a such a prestigious storm rider family could be another selling point,” Herbert mused. He might be angry at his brother, but he still trusted Morton’s judgment when it came to moving exotic pets. “Very well. You may take the kwetzel out for the afternoon, and we will see how it goes. I will, of course, have to place a charm upon the beast, which would render her unconscious should she rebel and try to escape. If that doesn’t work and we have to put her down, Morton, you’re on blunderbuss duty.”
“A perfectly reasonable precaution. Can’t have her flying around the Core unsupervised! I’ll even throw in teaching Fairly how to carry an extra passenger.” Azarin thumped me on thearm. “Me and Oz here together will still be under the weight limit.”
“Wonderful!” Herbert was clearly overjoyed at this arrangement. “I look forward to working with you, Lady Garzade. I shall have my men prepare her to fly.”
I suspected Fairly Deadly might have actually understood what Herbert said, as she lifted her massive beak and made a joyous scream.
Thirty-Seven
Ilived upon barges most of my life. Suspended by air magic, I suppose you could describe what our barges do asflying.Except it’s more of a slow and steady, ponderous form of levitation.
This was not that kind of flying. It was not thatat all.
“Shit fucking hell!” I held on to the ropes as hard as I could as the kwetzel dove. My guts lurched into my throat. Wind roared in my ears and whipped tears from my eyes. Half blind, the ground was a blur beneath us.
Azarin just giggled.
Then Fairly extended one giant wing a bit farther, and suddenly, the ground was on theotherside of us. Everything shifted so fast, snot flew out of my nose. My body started to rise up out of the saddle, so I squeezed my thighs and did my best to hold on. Then the other wing moved, and everything flipped around the other way.
“Fuck!” My ass slammed back against the saddle. Then my stomach caught up with all the spinning and it took me everything in my power to not throw up on Fairly’s feathered back. Though at this speed, if anything came out, it would probably just come back and hit me right in the face.
“What a splendid maneuver! She’s got some good mobility for such a big girl. She’s not quite as limber as an eagle, but she’s got a tighter turn than a griffon, that’s for sure.”
We were going way too fast. We were much too high. This wasn’t right. We shouldn’t be up here. Through my involuntary tears, I could tell we were now even with the top of the Great Machine. The mechanical nature of the thing became more obvious this close, as there were metal walls studded with rivets, and through the gaps could be seen gigantic turning gears. It was the most complicated device mortals had ever built.
And we were going to run straight into it.
I couldn’t help it. I screamed like a little girl.
“Do you mind? You’re yelling right in my ear.” Azarin did something with the ropes in front of her, and then we were tilting so far that down was now sideways. The cords secured to my harness snapped tight and kept me from sliding off. The people in the market werevery smallbelow us.
Collision averted, we were now veering away from the Great Machine. Which was fortunate, as now I noticed there were watchmen stationed in turrets around the top of it, surely prepared to destroy anything that threatened their precious structure. They watched us suspiciously as we passed by. Azarin waved at them.
“Good girl. When we get you home, I’m going to make sure you get lots of treats. What do kwetzels eat anyway? Herbert mentioned fish. Do you like fish?”
Fairly Dangerous screamed, and hers was far louder than mine.
“Fish it is, then.”
We were gliding straight and flat away from the market. That part wasn’t so horrific. It was the climbing, turning, and swooping that made me ill.
The initial leap into the air had been the worst part. While Herbert’s men saddled the beast, and Azarin figured out the nature of the reins, Morton had thrown a safety harness on over my clothing. Then we’d climbed aboard, which by itself was rather frightening, as clambering up a big feathery thing that was big enough to smash you then eat your flattened corpse was no small feat in and of itself. But then came the crouch and jump, where Fairly demonstrated her muscled back legs weren’t just for show. The leap had been so powerful, and the acceleration so fast, it must be something like how a bullet felt when being fired from a gun.
“I love this. Isn’t this great?”
While she was having fun, I was so sick, I could barely talk. It was freezing, yet my body was covered in sweat. There was so much wind, we had to shout to be heard at all. “Yeah. It’s great.”
Fairly’s wingspan was enormous. Each wing folded down really compact, and once extended, they seemed to go forever. Every flap was a violent snap that made my teeth clack. Luckily, Fairly was so efficient, she seldom needed to flap to maintain altitude.
