“All of us?” I asked. “Is that what you mean? Close together?”
She nodded, then managed a final act of ventriloquism, clutching her throat as she did it. Tears of pain spilled down her cheeks. I didn’t want to imagine her throat lined with barbwire but couldn’t help it.
“Dog. Middle. Now.”
We humans stepped on. Radar held back, crouching and looking worried. As soon as our weight hit the platform, it began to rise.
“Radar!” I shouted. “Jump, jump!”
For a second I thought she was going to be left behind. Then her hindquarters bunched and she leaped. Her leash was long gone, but she was still wearing her collar. Iota grabbed it and hauled her onboard. We shuffled around, making room for her in the middle. She sat, looked up at me, and whined. I knew how she felt. There was hardly room for all of us, even crammed together backs to bellies.
The floor fell away. At six feet we might have been able to jump without being hurt. At twelve we might have been able to jump without being killed. Then it was eighteen feet, and forget about it.
Eye was on one side with his toes over the edge. I was on the other, also with at least a quarter of my feet in open air. Eris, Jaya, and Leah were grouped around Radar, Leah actually straddling her. Now the floor had to be seventy feet below us. The air was dusty, and I thought if I started sneezing I might tumble off, which would be an ignominious end for the promised prince.
The voices whispered and twined. One I heard clearly said Your father’s brain is eating itself.
Jaya began to sway and closed her eyes. “I don’t like the high,” she said. “I never liked the high, even the barn loft. Oh, I can’t do this, let me off.”
She began to struggle, raising her arms to push Eris, who bumped into Iota, almost sending him off the edge. Radar gave a bark. If she panicked and started to move around, Leah would fall. And me.
“Hold that woman, Eris,” Iota growled. “Keep her still before she kills us all.”
Eris reached across Radar—and over Leah, who bent her knees in a half-crouch. Eris got her arms around Jaya. “Close your eyes, dear. Close your eyes and pretend this is all a dream.”
Jaya closed her eyes and seized Eris around the neck.
The air was colder up here, and I was slimy with sweat. I began to shiver. Sick, whispered a voice that wafted past me like a diaphanous scarf. Sick and slip, slip and fall.
Below me, the stone floor was now just a small square in the gloom. The wind was blowing and the sometimes-stone, sometimes-glass sides of the spire creaked.
Sick, the voices whispered. Sick and slip, slip and fall. Fall for sure.
We went on rising, which seemed insane to me with Flight Killer somewhere below us, but it was too late to change course now. I could only hope that Leah knew what she was doing.
We passed among thick struts of dressed stone topped with inches of dust, and now there was green glass on either side of us. Black shapes twined sinuously through it. The sides were narrowing in.
And then, suddenly, the platform stopped.
Above us, the spire narrowed into darkness. I could make out something up there, maybe a landing, but it was at least forty feet above the stopped platform where we stood crowded around my dog, who was ready to bolt at any second. Below us were leagues of empty air.
“What’s happening?” Eris asked. “Why did we stop?” Her voice was thin with terror. Jaya jerked in her arms and bumped Iota again. He waved his arms wildly to keep his balance.
“How the fuck we’re supposed to get down is a better question,” he growled. “This is what you call a pre-dicky-dicament.”
Leah was looking up anxiously, tracing the silver cable with her eyes.
“This ain’t half a way to end the story,” Eye said, and actually laughed. “Four hundred feet up and crammed together like cattle.”
I thought of shouting Rise, in the name of Leah of the Gallien, knew it was absurd, and was about to try it anyway when the platform jerked back to life. This time I was the one waving my arms to keep from plunging over the side. I think I would have gone anyway if Leah hadn’t grabbed me around the neck. Her grip was strong enough to choke my air off for a few seconds, but under the circumstances it would have been churlish to complain.
Radar scrambled to her feet and we all swayed in unison. The platform actually seemed to be shrinking around us. The curved walls of the spire were now almost close enough to touch. I looked at the approaching landing and prayed for it to come in reach before the lift stopped again, or started to plunge.