trees, then sand like in the desert but only a thin strip. Then, just water.
When we left land behind and were suddenly over the ocean, it was like—like I didn’t know how to fly over water. Without land underneath I felt like I would just drop out of the sky.
We were up higher than I’d ever been. There was way more wind, sometimes with us, sometimes against us. There were still goddamn bugs. But below us, only water. Above us, only sky. I was in a dream, only no dream I’d ever had.
“Why is it colder now?” I called to Gazzy, who was the closest to me.
“The higher you go, the colder it is,” he called back. “We’ve been so high that the air is actually thinner, with less oxygen. That’s a trip.”
I was gonna take his word on that. Breathing in deeply, I felt cool air filling my lungs, filling everything inside me with, like, life or something. I felt clean and fresh, I wasn’t hungry, I had water anytime I wanted it. This was the most wonderful, fantastic, unbelievable feel—
“Can I make a suggestion?” Gazzy said. He’d pulled closer to me while I’d been glorying in how fabulous it all was.
“Yeah?” I said without enthusiasm.
“Okay, you see how you’re flying, and like everything except your wings is kind of hanging down? Like your body?”
“Yeah?”
“Okay, see how we’re flying, how we push our heads forward and arch our backs and hold our legs parallel with our wings?”
I looked. Yes, indeed, so they were.
“So?” I said, ready to defend my personal flying choices.
“So our way is more streamlined,” Gazzy said. “We’re blocking less air, making less resistance.”
“Okay,” I said.
He sighed. “It’s easier,” he said gently. “It takes less energy. You don’t get as tired as fast.”
Ohhhhh. Hesitantly I tried it, arching my back, using my leg muscles to hold them parallel to my wings.
Oh, my sun, it made so much difference! I was practically gliding along, not having to move my wings nearly as hard or as fast!
“I’m like a bullet!” I said happily.
“Yep,” Gazzy agreed. “Once you get in the habit, you won’t have to think about it. You wanna see something else?”
“Yeah!” I said. I’d been flying my whole life, and now someone was teaching me how.
“Angle yourself to the left of me, about two meters past my feet,” he said.
“Okay,” I said, doing as he instructed.
“Now you’re in my slipstream,” he said. “Do you feel the air coming off me? It’s like a little air current. If you put yourself into it, basically I’m doing some of the work of you flying. Feel it?”
“I think so,” I said, trying to angle myself better. I could feel the airstream, but it was hard to stay in it.
“If you’ll notice,” he went on, “the rest of us do that naturally. We all take turns being the one in front, because that’s harder. The rest of us angle ourselves out in a vee-shape, to take advantage of the slipstream.”
“Oh, my sun, I think I’m in it!” I said excitedly. I hardly had to use my wings at all, when I was in it. I kept falling out or going above it, but now I actually knew it existed.
Oh, this was amazing! I breathed in, working on being a bullet in Gazzy’s slipstream. This was awesome.
Which is why I was so not ready five minutes later when I felt myself completely. Run. Out. Of. Steam.
With no warning my wings lost every ounce of energy. They seemed to weigh fifty kilos apiece. It was harder to breathe. My throat was closing. I had tunnel vision, then couldn’t see anything. I tried to yell for Gazzy, for anybody, but all I could get out was one last gasp.
And then the sky went black, and I was dropping like a rock toward the endless ocean.
CHAPTER 65
I blinked and drew in breath. I was still falling. I tried to stop myself with my wings, but at this speed they almost snapped off. I cried out in pain and folded them in. Now I was falling faster.
I yelled but my voice was snatched away by the wind and I couldn’t even hear it myself. I’d never flown so high. Now I was gonna hit the ocean and it’d be like a plum hitting concrete. Still—I was glad I got to do all this before I died.
An entire minute had passed. The longest minute of my life, and I’m including listening to Clete’s endless plans to bring