A week later Makare left the tiny house, high up, under the edge of the sinkhole, and began the long walk to the meeting point for the expedition. It was all the way on the other side of the lake and right down on the lake shore. Almost as far away from home as she could go while still being inside Sweetwater.

The shortest route was to follow the nearest road down to the lake and then to walk round the lakeshore arcade. The most comfortable route would have been to walk round the top arcade, staying in the shadow of the rim of the sink hole and then cut down one of the shadier roads, lined with tall buildings. Neither of those were the route Makare chose. She chose to start by following the familiar route to the Free School.

She followed Top Arcade round to Barrode Road then followed it downhill to the Barrode Foundling House and the Free School next to it. She slowed down as she neared the Free School, hoping that someone else from the class would be walking the same way. Of course walking by the Foundling House, where almost half the class lived, also increased the chance that she’d see someone she knew. She definitely wasn’t specifically hoping to catch Djet as he was leaving.

She didn’t catch him as he was leaving because he was waiting outside the school, tending to the brazier on a bokkura and holding a pole as long as he was tall. He looked up and grinned at her as she approached.

“Want to ride with me. It’s a long walk otherwise,” he said.

“I’ve never ridden one of those things before. Is it hard?” Makare understood the principle behind the bokkura. It was just an extremely paired down sky-ship. Flight crystal goes in the brazier. When the crystal gets hot it pushes the ground away. Since the ground isn’t going anywhere the crystal goes up and so does anything attached to it.

A real sky-ship would have multiple braziers with multiple flight crystals. The braziers would be full of charcoal, or coal, or if things were going very badly for the ship, wood. The hotter the crystal the harder it pushes. The bigger the crystal the more it can push. None of that mattered for a bokkura. In most of the cities a bokkura was a narrow, flat-bottomed boat with a brazier at each end that carried cargo or a couple of passengers that weren’t in a hurry. They usually had a small central sail to push them along. One or two crystals per brazier was usually enough and they didn’t use fuel, just a piece of magic even older than the flight crystal. A hearth stone was an old bit of survival magic. It gave off enough heat to keep a person from freezing to death in the desert at night. A hearth stone wasn’t hot enough to boil water but you could use it to keep food warm, or slow cook something if you had all day to wait. It was also hot enough to power a flight crystal as long as you didn’t need much height.

Sweetwater was a small city with steep hills and not much wind so the local bokkura was even more minimal. It was just a plank of wood with a brass brazier at the centre of mass and a brass keel to keep everything together. It was common to see delivery boys and girls breathlessly punting the bokkuras up the steep roads or screaming with joy as gravity accelerated them down those same roads.

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“Controlling one can be tricky but just standing on it while someone else steers is a lot easier,” Djett sounded pretty sure of himself but Makare hesitated. “Trust me,” said Djett, “I have done this before.”

“Okay. But if I break anything you’re explaining it to my mother.”

“Agreed,” said Djet and stepped onto the front of the board. It dropped a little, under his weight, but remained levitating slightly off the ground. He handed the pole to Makare and squatted down over the brazier. He pushed the control rod down, moving the flight crystal closer to the hearth stone. The board moved up slightly. “Get on now,” he said, “Lean on the pole if you need to.”

Makare stepped gingerly onto the plank. The bokkura was solid but there was, nevertheless, a slightly bouncy feel to it. She felt it settle slightly under her weight. Djet adjusted the control rod again and then stood up. He moved his weight around, testing the balance. Makare was surprised at how natural it was to adjust to the movements of the craft under foot as it responded to Djet.

“If you’re worried that you’re going to overbalance just grab my belt,” said Djet, patting the buckle at his waist.

“That is definitely a thing I will do,” said Makare, “There’s no chance that I’d be more comfortable hitting the road with my face.”

“How about my shoulder?” said Djet. “Can you bring yourself to lean on my shoulder?” He took the pole back and used it to gently push the bokkura away from the school.

The moment the bokkura was moving it began to accelerate down the hill. Djet dragged the pole along the road surface, using it to control the acceleration.

By the time they reached the next crossing they were going much faster than Makare was comfortable with. Probably faster than she’d ever been in her life before. Djet jammed the pole between a couple of cobbles and threw his weight into a sharp turn. Makare found herself gripping his shoulders though she hadn’t intended to. The bokkura made the turn with remarkably little fuss and continued along the arcade.

“We’re going to lose some speed on the arcade and then turn down the road at the next crossing to get some back,” said Djet. “Alternating road and arcade is the most efficient way to get there.”

“Okay,” said Makare, hoping that she didn’t sound as shaky as she felt. She was pretty sure that this wasn’t the route Djet would have taken if he was alone. Surely he would have found the steepest possible hill, gone screaming down it at the maximum possible speed, and then made the turn at the last possible minute. At least he had the good sense not to do that with a novice on the back of his bokkura.

“How did you manage to afford this?” said Makare, mainly to keep her mind off the speed but also because she was genuinely curious. Flight Crystals and hearth stones weren’t cheap, never mind the cost of the rest of the craft. Bokkuras were only so ubiquitous because once they were bought there was no upkeep. There was no donkey or camel to feed. They had no moving parts and required virtually no maintenance.

“Oh it’s not mine. It belongs to the Foundling House. We have a few of them. We use them for training and hauling stuff. Don’t worry. I got permission.”

“I wasn’t worried about permission until you said that,” said Makare

“I don’t steal things,” said Djet. “From the Foundling House,” he added a moment later.