Ishi glanced behind her, checking on the others, and immediately, she knew something was wrong. Her own glider had lifted off well, and she cut a gentle arc in the sky to point toward the ambassador’s airship. She had kept on a slightly southward tack to keep the glider nose into the wind and began to climb. The pods were to launch, and it was her job to track one of them. Her sister would follow the other. Now she climbed, getting as much altitude as she could. They were told the pods would go high, really high.

But her sister hadn’t followed. Instead, she had gone in almost the opposite direction. People had started fighting when she had lifted off, and a blackness ripped the air, and then Raj had flown his glider, too. The rip had hit him. His glider had become flames and then ash. She watched Raj fall, blinked back tears, watched her sister’s glider disappear to the north, and she turned back to the airship. She caught more air, more lift, and more altitude. Raj had saved her sister.

Raj gave himself to save her sister.

He has sent Kalla to The Beast. He wouldn’t save her to place her back in jeopardy. Kalla will be ok.

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Kalla wouldn’t be coming with her. That meant the pods were her responsibility. She caught more air. It was different from flying off the thin lines staked to the desert; this was free flying. She had never been so high before. To finally fly free like this, it was as if she had been made for it. This was who she was.

She focused on her task. Her monocle helped her. Helped her see the billowy white airship.

The air around her had become cooler. She had gained a great deal of altitude. She was almost level with the top of the God’s Step, the swampy fog that sometimes settled like a tablecloth on the plateau at the top of the cliff. She leaned her shoulders back in the harness, pushed her hands forward and caught more lift. It was so natural. So easy. She belonged in the air. It was a half-day walk to the Western City, and she was almost there. This was so much faster. She would be above the ambassador’s airship very soon.

She would be ready to follow the pods when they were released. She would follow both, and if she couldn’t follow both, she would choose and follow one.

She hoped that Raj had survived, but the way the air shook when the weapon exploded... She owed him so many things. He had helped keep Kalla safe. If the rip in the sky had stopped his air, she would come back and find where the Sisters put him. She would thank him, even if his air wasn’t working, and he was still, because he had taught her, had saved her sister, and had shown her how to fly.