"Are those holes? she asked, pointing at a nearby crater. Leaves, twigs, and grit fogged the air above it, and all the topsoil for yards around had been stripped away revealing a stained metal skin that must underlie everything here.
Garth scowled as if she'd committed some indiscretion by pointing out the hole. Yes, he said grudgingly. Spyre is ancient and decaying, and it's under an awful strain. Tears like that open up all the time. It's everyone's nightmare that one day, such a rip might not stop. If the world should ever come to an end, it will start with a tear like that one."
Faintly alarmed, Venera looked around at the many other tears that dotted the landscape. Garth laughed. Don't worry, if it's serious the patch gangs will be here in a day or two to fix itdodging bullets from the local gentry all the while. They were out doing just that when I picked you up."
Venera looked straight up. I suppose if this is greater Spyre she said, pointing, then that is Lesser Spyre?"
The empty space that the cylinder rotated around was filled with conventional town-wheels. Uncoupled from the larger structure, these rings spun grandly in midair, miles above her. Some were geared towns whose rims touched, while others turned in solitary majesty. A puff of smaller buildings surrounded the towns.
The wheels weren't entirely disconnected from Greater Spyre. Venera saw cables standing up at various angles every mile or so throughout the giant cylinder. Some angled across the world to anchor in the ground again far up Spyre's curve. Some went straight past the axis and down to an opposite point; if you climbed one of these lines, you could get to the city that hung like an iron cloud half a dozen miles above.
She didn't see any elevator traffic on the nearest cables. Most were tethered inside the maze-like grounds of the estates that dotted the land. Would anyone have a right to use those cables but the owners?
When Diamandis didn't reply, Venera glanced over at him. He was gazing up at the distant towns, his expression shifting between empty adoration and anger. He seemed lost in memory.
Then he blinked and looked down at her. Lesser Spyre, yes. My home, from which I am exiled for life. Always visible, never to be achieved again. He shook his head. Unlucky you to have landed here, lady."
"My name, she said, is Venera Fanning. She looked out again. The nearer end of the great cylinder began to curve upward less than a mile away. It rose for a mile or two, then ended in open air. I don't understand, she said. What's to prevent meor youfrom leaving? Just step off that rim yonder and you'll be in free flight in the skies of Virga. You could go anywhere."
Diamandis looked where she was pointing. Now his smile was condescending. Ejected at four hundred miles per hour, Lady Fanning, you'll be unconscious in seconds for lack of breath. Before you slow enough to awake you'll either suffocate or be eaten alive by the piranhawks. Or be shot by the sentries. Or be eviscerated by the razor wire clouds, or hit a mine
"No, it was a miracle
that you drifted unconscious through all of that, to land here. A once-in-a-million feat.
"Now that you're among us, you will never leave again."
The bird was pathetically small; they would each get a couple of mouthfuls out of it if they were lucky. I'm grateful for your help, Venera said as she lowered herself painfully back into the armchair. But you obviously don't have very much. What do you get out of helping me?"
"The warmth of your gratitude, said Diamandis. In the shadow of the stone fireplace, it was impossible to make out his expression.
Venera chose to laugh. Is that all? What if I'd been a man?"
"I'd have left you without a second thought."
"I see. She reached over to her piled clothes and rummaged through them. As I suspected. I've not come through unscathed, have I? The jewelry that had filled her flight jacket's inner pockets was gone. She looked under the table and immediately spotted something: it looked like a metal door in the floor, with a rope loop as its handle. Her feet had been resting on it earlier.
"No, it's not down there, said Diamandis with a smile.
Venera shrugged. The two most important objects in her possession were still inside her jacket. She could feel the spent bullet through the lining. As to the otherVenera slipped her hand in to touch the scuffed white cylinder that she and her husband had fought their way across half the world to collect. It didn't look like it was worth anything, so Diamandis had apparently ignored it. Venera left it where it was and straightened to find Diamandis watching her.
"Consider those trinkets to be payment for my rescuing you, he said. I can live for years on what you had in your pockets."
"So could I, she said levelly. In fact, I was counting on using those valuables to barter my way home, if I had to."
"I've left you a pair of earrings and a bracelet, he said, pointing. There they were, sitting on the table next to her toeless deck shoes. The rest is hidden, so don't bother looking."