Storm Warning - Mercedes Lackey [138]
Karal could not imagine what it was about him that prompted such assurance on Darkwind’s part, but he nodded bravely.
A few moments after Darkwind’s departure, Hydona appeared from inside the Palace, wearing her harness. It was a sturdy affair of leather and brass, and it looked a lot more substantial than the basket. The gryphon clacked her beak in greeting to him once she was within earshot, and sauntered over to stand beside him.
“If you would fasssten that clip herrre—” she said to him, indicating what he should do with a touch of her talon. “And that one herrre—” She nodded with approval as he engaged the two fasteners. “That isss good. When Trrreyvan comesss, do the sssame on hisss harrrnesss.” She cocked her head to one side and studied him for a moment, then added, “If it isss any help, I have carrried my little onesss in thisss verrry net. They may be fledged, but they arrre not trrruly flighted, yet. They tend to plummet.”
If she trusted her precious gryphlets in this—Hydona’s maternal qualities were one of the first things anyone mentioned about her. She wouldn’t risk her little ones. Relief made him relax, and he managed a tentative smile.
How had she read his expression so accurately? And how had she guessed the very thing that would make him feel that the net was flightworthy? “Thank you, my lady,” he replied humbly. “It does help. I have never flown before.”
With that, she chuckled. “I would be verrry sssurrrprrrisssed if you had,” she rumbled smoothly. “But I think you will enjoy it.”
Treyvan appeared from above, backwinging gracefully to a landing beside the two of them. “I have been aloft, and therrre isss a patterrrn, I think,” he said cheerfully. “Ssso—let usss sssee if I am brrrilliant, or deluded!” Caught up in his excitement, which radiated from him like warm sunshine, Karal snapped the hooks of the other side of the net onto the male gryphon’s harness, and got into the basket, suddenly eager to be off. He arranged his stylus and waxboard, and didn’t even think about being afraid until they were several stories above the ground, skimming the treetops.
And at that point, he was too caught up in the incredible feeling of power and freedom to be frightened.
Like most people he knew, he’d had dreams of flying before, but it had never been like this. He was buffeted by wind from all directions—from the backwash of both gryphons’ wings, and the maelstrom of their passage. They were moving much faster than the fastest horse he had ever ridden. He clung to the edge of the basket—which did not tip over, even when he dared to lean out to look straight down—and stared at the city below.
Was this how the gryphons always saw things? From this vantage, the city took on an entirely new look. Patterns emerged that he would not have seen from below. Now he could judge what houses were built about the same time from the way the roofs were constructed, for instance. Now he could tell that someone who had an otherwise impressive house might be either very careless or falling on hard times by the dilapidated state of what did not show from the street level. People in the poorer sections used every bit of space, too, which was not the case with those who were better off; roofs in the poorest parts of town held plants, vegetables grown in carefully-tended tubs of soil, and were strung with lines for hanging out wash. People gathered up there, women and children mostly, who gaped and pointed at him and the gryphons when they passed overhead. Children stopped in their games, and one woman even shrieked and flung her wet laundry over her head to hide.
A moment later, they were over a district of warehouses—and a moment after that, they were outside the city walls.
The gryphons strained for altitude, and climbed higher into the cloud-strewn sky. Karal watched those clouds worriedly; this would be a very bad time for a lightning storm to blow up! But, even if he were struck from the skies, he would