Chapter 38
Thirty-Eight
It had been the faintest sensation, but I’d been certain. That had been my spell craft.
I opened my eyes to find we were flying over an unfamiliar part of the city. It was tidy streets consisting of close-packed, white, four-to-six-story buildings. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know. I’ve not been here either.”
Glancing over my shoulder, the Great Machine was behind us, so we were on the opposite side of the market from the Slumps. Then I noticed at every corner, there was a church, and there was a particularly impressive, giant super church in the distance.
“I think this is the Cantor’s District.” I didn’t know much about the place, except that it was to aspiring priests, nuns, and monks what the Collegium was to us wizards. “Why would Gerzog be here?”
“Maybe he’s found religion and come to forsake his evil ways?” Azarin laughed at the idea. “Doubtful. Let’s go shoot him.”
The feeling was gone. “Turn back. The bullet’s behind us somewhere.”
“Hang on.” When Azarin pulled on the rope, Fairly shook her massive head in protest. She really was getting tired and cranky. “I know, girl. We’re almost done, then I’ll take you home, and Herbert will give you all the fish you can eat.”
The kwetzel relented and performed one of those rapid dropping spins. I suspected she did that just to damage my calm, but at least we were headed the right way.
I focused as hard as I could, fervently hoping I’d not imagined the sensation. Being a self-taught rank two, what the hell did I really know about tracking magic? But after a moment, I felt it again. “Veer left.”
Azarin did, and as we went over a big wooded estate, the feeling grew stronger. And once we were past its walls, it tapered off. By the time I spoke, it’d vanished entirely. “That’s it. The bullet’s in there.”
Azarin leaned down to pat the kwetzel’s neck. “Thank you. I’m guessing we’ve probably flown over two hundred miles back and forth today. That would’ve taken a lot longer to walk! Good girl. If Herbert doesn’t feed you extra fish, I’ll feed you Herbert… Now what?”
“Drop me off and I’ll go scout it out. Tell the others where I’m at, return Fairly, and then meet me back here.
This district looks like it’s filled with decent folk.
Be discreet. Make Trax wear his disguise.
” That was just a shower curtain and a basket meant to pass as robes and a hat, but in a city with this odd a population, that actually helped a lot.
“Promise you won’t do anything stupid without me.”
I didn’t know if she was worried about me getting hurt, or if she just didn’t want to miss out on the revenge and payback. “I’ll try to stay near that big estate, but if Gerzog moves, I’ll have to follow him. I’ll leave a message somehow if he does.”
“You could always stab yourself and Trax can follow the smell.”
“Yeah, but he chastises me whenever I get injured.”
“He’s a big softy.” Azarin had slowed Fairly down so much that we were no longer gliding, and the kwetzel was forced to start flapping to keep us in the air. “I don’t see a safe place to put this big girl down around here.”
I’d been afraid of that, but there was a small field below us, and based off the grey lumps, it appeared to be where the locals had shoveled all their snow. I started unbuckling my harness. “Like you said. I’ve got an air glove.”
“You’re going to do it?” She was more excited than concerned, because this was the sort of ridiculous thing she’d do without thinking it through. “You mad man. Don’t worry. You’ve been practicing. You’re rank two now. Rank twos are practically indestructible!”
That was a load of trogshit, but her confidence helped. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll get us lower.”
Once I was free of the straps keeping me from falling off, I leaned in over her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. “For luck.”
“See you soon… I just hope you jumping off doesn’t teach Fairly the wrong message, and whenever she gets tired, she starts spearing and removing passengers.”
I climbed out of the saddle, and when I went from leather to feathers, it was a whole lot slicker than expected, and I ended up sliding and then tumbling off the side of the kwetzel.
Not only was this the farthest I’d ever tried to descend, rather than a smooth step off, I started out flipping wildly end over end. My cloak flew up and wrapped around my face so I couldn’t see the ground. Azarin was about to watch me break every bone in my body.
Except I stayed calm, pulled the cloak from my eyes, extended my hand toward the ground—which was already closer than expected—and activated the spell.
“Descend.”
The Clear embedded in the glove came to life, and the air wrapped around me, not solid, but a whole lot firmer than normal.
The spell slowed me down a lot, the wild spinning stopped enough that I was able to aim for the snow pile rather than the hard frozen ground, and I got my feet under me—then I hit.
It was still way too fast, and I ended up tumbling and rolling through the snow. I hit my already bruised hip and tweaked my left wrist.
On my back, I just lay there, looking up at Fairly Deadly hovering over me. Azarin leaned over her neck, and both of them looked concerned. Yes, my landing had been so poor, I’d even made the kwetzel worried.
Azarin shouted, and was so distant, I could barely hear her over the beating wings. I think she said, “Did you break anything?”
I forced myself to get up, waved in a manner that suggested it hadn’t hurt at all, and began brushing myself off.
I even had a few feathers stuck to my cloak from my tumble.
Then I noticed a woman and her children standing on the sidewalk, so transfixed by the gigantic kwetzel, they hadn’t even noticed me fall out of the sky.
“Smorp Brothers has got all sorts of flying mounts,” Azarin yelled at them. “These even come in different colors!”
As Fairly Deadly flapped away, the little girl bounced excitedly and clapped her mittens together. “Mommy, may I have a pink one?”