dawn. The city of Ondinium stretched out below them, still in shadow, crammed with buildings, tenements, and factories.
Cristof glanced down and shuddered.
'Oh, Lady,' he breathed, fixing his eyes on his hands as he pulled on his leather gloves.
'Don't worry. You'll be fine.' Taya clipped the floating wire cage to a ring in the ground and helped him buckle the icarus armature onto his harness. 'Snap the keel around your chest and run the straps through the rings.'
'Exactly how is this going to work?' he asked, his voice strained.
'I'm going to put so much ondium on you that even if you lose control and stall, you'll just drift to the ground,' she said, adjusting the padding around his shoulders and over his chest. His heart was pounding so hard she could feel it through her gloves. 'Breathe, exalted.'
He nodded and drew in a deep breath. She gave him a reassuring smile and tousled his hair. Then she paused and plucked at several strands of it.
'Who cuts this, anyway?'
'I do.' He brushed her hand away.
'I guess that explains it.' She stepped away and opened the hatch at the bottom of the ondium cage. 'You do a lousy job.'
'Didn't I just see you wearing red flannel pajamas and slippers with holes? I don't think you have any right to lecture me about what looks fashionable,' he retorted. His voice seemed steadier.
Taya pulled out a five-pound counterweight, pleased with herself. Her diversion had worked.
'I like those slippers. They're broken in.' She slid the buoyant ondium bar into a pocket on his belt and buttoned it. 'Anyway, nobody sees them except me.'
'Nobody?'
She pulled out another five-pound counterweight.
'Well, my best friends.'
'So seeing them should be construed as a privilege, not a punishment?'
'Watch it, clockwright.' She slid another counterweight into his belt. 'How do you feel?'
'Light.' He stepped away from her a moment. 'Strange.'
'We don't usually counterweight ourselves this much. It makes wind hard to handle. But I'm going to be doing most of the flying, so I want you to be as maneuverable as possible.' She slipped out two more five-pound counterweights and added them to the others. 'Are you floating away yet?'
'Almost.' He eyed the edge of the cliff and took a step back toward her again. 'What would happen if I got too light?'
'Well, in theory, you'd float up until you hit the moon. But in practice, you'd slide one of the counterweights out of your belt and release it into the air.' She eyed him. 'And then you'd reimburse me, because each of these weights is worth about a year of my salary.'
'As long as you keep me alive, I'll handle the expenses,' he promised.
'Deal. It's time to practice.' She stood in front of him, her own wings locked high, and showed him how to slide his arms into the straps and bars. He had no trouble mastering the release and engage mechanisms, locking his wings into high, glide, and close positions.
'The mistake most beginners make is to flap too much,' she said as he spread his wings and practiced an up and downstroke, feathers closing and opening. The downstroke lifted him and she reached up to grab the metal keel over his chest, pulling him back down to earth. 'But birds glide as often as they can because it's less effort than flapping. What I'll want you to do most of the time is lock your wings into glide position and let me guide us.'
'How are you going to do that?' he asked. His heart was pounding again, thumping against her fingers and the harness.
'We're going to be connected by a safety line. Are you remembering to breathe?'
He took another deep breath, his grey eyes fixed on her face. They were wide behind his glasses.
'There are only two dangers up there,' she lectured. 'The biggest one is that you panic and tangle your wings with mine. If that happens, we're going to stall and fall. We don't want to do that.'
'I never panic.' His coppery skin was going pale again.
'Good. The second danger is that we get caught off-balance in a wind and I have to unhook from you until I can regain control. You're so light right now that you don't have to worry about falling. Even if you folded your wings into a dive position, you'd just float down. So let the wind blow you and do your best to keep your wings spread wide. I'll come get you. All you have to do is stay calm and make yourself visible. I'll find you even if you end up floating over another mountain. Okay? Just don't panic.'
He swallowed and nodded.
'Hey!'
Taya turned and saw the dispatch office door open. Paulo had seen them.
She turned back to Cristof, shoving a flight cap into his hands.
'Lesson over. Time to go.'
'Wait! I don't have any idea what I'm doing yet!' Cristof protested, pulling on his cap.
'No time. Buckle the chin strap. That's Paulo.' She pushed him by the harness to the edge of the dock as he fumbled his goggles into place over his glasses. 'Stand still.'
'Oh, Lady,' he groaned, looking down. His fingers yanked on the cap strap.
'Eyes straight ahead. Take three deep breaths.' Taya stood behind him, pulling out her safety line. It was twenty feet of tightly wound silk cable with a braided wire core, safety hooks on each end — the same kind of line Pyke had dropped to her in the wireferry accident. She hooked their harnesses together and pulled her goggles down.
'Hey, icarus, you haven't cleared this flight!'
She glanced over her shoulder. Paulo had been grounded years ago with a bad leg, and now he hobbled toward them on a cane. Plenty of time. She yanked the line, snuggling up against Cristof's back. Lady, he was tall. Her face was even with his shoulder blades.
'Is this—'
'Lock your wings into close position,' she ordered, spreading her wings wide. His wings folded back, their metal primaries brushing against her legs. 'Walk with me to the edge.'
'Exactly how do we take off?' he asked, agitated.
'We jump.'
'Can't you be in front?'
'Walk!' She took a step forward, her knee nudging the back of his leg. He took one step, a second.
'We're at the edge!'
'Wait.'
They teetered on the edge. Paulo shouted behind them.
Taya leaned against Cristof's back.
'Crouch and jump forward as far as you can. Keep your wings folded. We'll fall for a few seconds, and then I'll stop us. Don't flap your wings. Keep them tight. If you panic and spread them, we'll get tangled up and it'll be a really short flight.'
'I understand.'
'Jump on the count of three. One. Two. Three!'
Cristof leaped.
Taya leaned against his back, her wings downstroking as hard as possible. They sagged, then thrust upward and forward. Unable to see clearly, Taya scooted herself higher on his back, wrapping her legs around Cristof's waist and tucking her feet next to his hips to seal them together.
His extra mass dragged against her as she beat her wings, but he was well counterweighted, and she pulled them up over the city and into the pale sky. As soon as they were clear of the launch dock and Secundus wireferry towers, she straightened one leg to awkwardly kick down the tailset on his armature.
'Legs up and in,' she shouted, straddling his back again.
For a moment they bobbled as Cristof tried to find the rung under the tailset, and then she felt their balance
