Behind her back, Taki raised her eyebrows at Che. ‘I take it you and Sieur Nero have much to discuss, Domina. A commission perhaps?’
‘A commission indeed,’ Genissa said happily. ‘When he is fit for it. Until then I would hear of his business in the Spiderlands, for I am sure we must have mutual acquaintances.’
‘If it pleases you, I’ll take Bella Cheerwell out to see more of our city, Domina.’
‘Of course, of course.’ Genissa waved them away, and Taki tugged at Che’s sleeve.
Nero gave her a quick nod, as if to confirm: I know what I’m doing here. Che sent him an encouraging smile back, and then followed where Taki was leading.
Once they were out of earshot of the bedroom, and Taki had taken a precautionary look around for eavesdroppers, the Fly woman said, ‘Don’t be fooled by any of that performance.’
‘By Genissa?’
‘She loves that act, all the flowers and fluff, but don’t forget she’s the head of the Destiavel, and you can’t be that without all your knives good and sharp.’
‘She’s your employer,’ Che noted.
‘Don’t think I’m not grateful for it. Her money keeps my Esca in the air. She’s also much better than a lot of the family heads. Still, she’s no fool and right now she assumes your friend is a spy from the Spiderlands. That’s what she’s really talking to him about, though he may not guess it.’
‘Nero’s smarter than he looks, as well,’ Che pointed out loyally.
‘That can’t be too hard. So, I’m going to show you more of the city. Do you know the best way of seeing Solarno?’
When Che shook her head, she continued: ‘From the air.’
‘You mean… from an airship? Or an orthopter?’
‘That’s just exactly what I mean. I’m sure I can find some pilot with a two-man who owes me a favour.’
‘Actually… I can pilot a flier.’ Ever since seeing Taki duel with the pirates over the Exalsee, the thought had been with Che. ‘Not well enough for fighting or anything, but I can pilot a flying machine.’
Taki looked doubtful. ‘Well, I could commandeer you something from the house hangers, but…’
‘I’d be really, really careful with it.’
‘I’m more worried about you, yourself. If I got into real trouble, I could always bail out and fly, but-’
‘I can fly,’ Che insisted and, when Taki still looked doubtful, she let her wings flare a little, a shimmer passing across her shoulders.
‘Sink me,’ Taki swore. ‘You really are a foreigner, right enough. The locals certainly can’t, I’ll tell you that much. I don’t know how they ever dare take to the air. Bella Cheerwell, you have yourself a flying machine. This may all work out better than I’d hoped.’
The Stormcry seemed very fat and ungainly next to Taki’s Esca Volenti, which comparison Che supposed was fitting enough. It – or she, as Taki introduced the machine – was a block-bodied fixed-wing with broad pinions that each bore a propeller, with an extra prop mounted above the pilot for good measure, ahead of a box-kite tail. The rear of the pilot’s seat touched up against a compact little steam engine that drove all three, and Che suspected it would get particularly hot in just a short space of time. The entirety of it was built of light wooden planks, brass bound. Che had to admit that out here beyond the edge of civilization they seemed to know their artificing, at least when it pertained to flying machines.
‘She’s a reliable old girl,’ Taki said. ‘Not local, mind: she’s out of the Chasme foundries across the water. We captured her from some Princep Exilla pirates years ago.’
Che had looked over the controls, which had been devised to be as simple as possible. ‘I can fly this,’ she declared, sounding far more confident than she felt.
‘Well, let’s go for a spin, then,’ Taki declared for the benefit of all the Solarnese engineers and servants within earshot. Hopping up on a crate of spare parts, she added, whispering in Che’s ear, ‘Just follow where I lead. I’m taking you somewhere special.’
‘But I thought we were-’
‘Never mind,’ Taki hissed. ‘You want to know about Solarno and the Wasps? Well, then you can come along with me. One and only chance for the truth. You with me on that?’
‘Of course.’
‘Then climb on in, and they’ll start her up for you.’
Once she had been wheeled out of the hangar onto the airstrip the Esca Volenta practically leapt into the air in a sudden flurry of wings, dancing into a long curve of waiting as Che’s new machine was pushed next out into the sun.
They flung the lower propellers and she pumped the fuel frantically with a foot-pedal, feeling them catch and start spinning, with the third engine firing a moment later. After that the propellers were dragging the Stormcry forwards, hustling the machine towards the edge of the airstrip. The strip was high up, on Solarno’s top level, well above the bulk of the city, and Che belatedly realized that if something went wrong she would come crashing down through someone’s roof on the next tier down.
She brought to mind her lessons in aeronautics. She had not revealed to Taki that her practical experience of flying had been a single, one-way trip on a stolen Wasp fixed-wing, and then a few civilian ambles once she had got back to Collegium. She had to admit that the Stormcry was the best machine anyone had ever entrusted to her.
And then the fixed-wing was out over the city, and inexplicably not falling anywhere. It just powered off, twenty feet above the roofs she had been so worried about, and she was flying.
Whether winging by her own Art or by machine, she was clumsy at flying. She flew just like a Beetle-kinden, never meant to be in the air. But, whether by Art or artifice, she loved it. Whilst Taki waited on above in the Esca Volenta, she took a circle over the airfield and the hangar, thrilling as the heavy machine responded to the movement of the sticks. The Stormcry was no piece of precision engineering but had been built for someone just like her to use, someone who was no great pilot. She loved it.
She then saw Taki, above and over to her left, suddenly turn and head out across the city’s shore, skimming over the Exalsee, and Che coaxed the Stormcry after her, vastly wider in the turn, but with a straight speed that allowed her to catch up with the orthopter out over the gleaming water and high over the scattering of islands that punctuated the inland sea: half black crags and half sandbar-beaches.
She heard her own voice whooping with sheer glee. Taki was staying deliberately close, keeping a watchful eye on her, as she let the Stormcry sling low over the water, low enough that she could clearly see the knots of trees peppering the nearest island, with stone ruins jutting out from them, the remnants of a long-abandoned tower or fort. Then there was a sailing ship making stately progress across her path, and she pulled up and over, clearing the top mast by she knew not how little, before skimming back down over the water, weaving past another island, where a lone flag flew atop a dark peak.
Taki flew close, gliding for a second and waggling her wings, obviously trying to tell Che something. When Che failed to understand she pulled the Esca closer and closer, until Che had to pull herself away when it seemed that the Esca’s beating wingtips would graze her own fixed ones.
She caught a glimpse of Taki herself, making violent gestures at her to indicate: Pull up! Higher!
Then there was a shadow ahead of her, a shadow visible beneath the water.
Che dragged the sticks back, and for a moment the Stormcry bucked in the air, shuddering, and then she was pitching upwards and the water beneath her had exploded – a great spray of it, high enough to spatter her even as she pulled away. Glancing back, she saw the giant creature submerging again. A fish, she realized, but one that could have swallowed her whole and taken a fair chunk out of her flying machine at the same time. If that water-spout had struck the Stormcry, she could have been brought straight down, into the water and those waiting jaws.