"If you find this too difficult to control, try shifting to the more triangular glider shape I showed you. Even if you panic and let the shield drop, just make another, as large as possible as fast as you can. It doesn’t need to be complex – anything large will give you the drag to slow down." He paused. "If you can’t do it, signal once I’ve landed, and I’ll get the lift key and come for you."
She almost looked at him, then made the tiniest negative motion with her head. "I can manage."
"I’ll see you down there, then," he said, voice momentarily flattening. He stepped into the gap, holding the upright supports tightly. Wind ruffled his mop of hair, and with barely a pause he tipped forward, and vanished.
Catching her breath, Madeleine clutched the railing, and in the night-time shadows spotted him only because he was falling, slowing as she watched. He must not have spread the shield till he was well on his way. Conserving his strength. He curved toward the hotel, the movement controlled, effortless. She lost sight of him in the gloom as he circled, then saw a tiny shape pass over the lighted rectangle of the rooftop pool.
Seeing how quickly and easily Fisher had managed somehow made it worse for Madeleine. There was no way she could swoop down like that. Jump off a building and work out how to fly, all in an easy two-step process? Maintain a shaped shield while falling? No matter how strong she was, that was beyond any reasonable learning curve. She’d end up slamming into the support shaft of Sydney Tower, or zooming off toward the Spire. Or dropping like a stone.
Her hands on the cold railing felt slick and damp, and she shivered in the late autumn chill. Impossible. Beyond impossible.
Noi. She repeated the name out loud. Noi down there, possessed by one of the Five. The need to bring her back was a rock-hard certainty, a promise never quite spoken. Noi, and Emily, Min, Nash, Pan. Lee Rickard would certainly have something to say about being able to fly beneath the stars.
She raised her shield, working quickly, having learned the power of even a tiny wind. The possibility of being dragged off her feet helped, because it meant she could not keep standing there, clutching the railing uprights.
"Straight on till morning," she breathed, and tilted forward.
Chapter Twenty-Two
There was no plunge. Madeleine glided with soap bubble ease, the sensation almost that of sliding over ice, the shield beneath her far more responsive than she’d anticipated. She shifted it a degree, as easily as moving a mental arm, and the glide became a leisurely swoop toward Central Station.
Glorious!
Unhurriedly, for she was still very high, Madeleine attempted to follow Fisher’s instructions, and made a minor adjustment to the shape, a curling of one corner, taking care to keep her changes small. She curved to the left, circling over the Anzac Memorial at the southern end of Hyde Park, and drifted back. The hotel was a good place to aim for, with its distinctive terraces and long upper roof. Still too far below to hope to land, but if she went south again and lined herself up as if for a runway, she would have plenty of opportunity to correct her height, and face far less risk of overshooting.
The city spun below her, reduced to blockish shapes and streaking lights. The Spire was a slim shadow ahead to her right, Sydney Tower a shorter rival to the left. Blobbish lumps below were all she could make out of Hyde Park’s trees, which were far too low to pose any danger of collision, and provided a simple line to use as a guide. The hotel’s long roof was not entirely flat, had some kind of air-conditioning plant on top, but that was long and flat as well, and she dropped to a mere leg-breaking distance as the near edge of the long centre building approached. Passing above four large fans, she lifted a little to barely clear a white circular projection, then swooped down the last few feet to the surface of the roof, contracting her shield so that her landing was a little fast, but obligingly bouncy.
Done. Face-down on concrete, arms spread wide, safe. She rolled onto her back and stared up at a foreshortened view of two towers. Had he known how that flight would make her feel? Lined up this domino, knowing she would desperately need to be uplifted? It had helped, so much. Théoden, all that she felt, was still a roil of confusion and grief, but the barbed wire had rusted through. It was gratitude which blurred the stars.
The recollection that she was lying on the roof of a hotel full of possessed Blues prodded her to movement. She scrambled to her feet and padded softly to the north end of the section of roof. The curve of the pool room roof was a lighted jewel below, and Fisher waited just before it, a so-familiar silhouette. Kneeling, she reversed, dangled and dropped down off the plant level, noticing deep scrapes in the concrete as she let go. The Core must land his dragon up there.
Another drop and she was beside the pool, Fisher turning as if to take her arm, then stopping short. But Madeleine had found the strength to keep herself focused on her goals, and was not thrown by the near touch.
"Were there cameras monitoring me?" she whispered. "Will the Moths know what’s happened?"
"There were cameras, just not enough. They can’t see the place where Théoden is, and will only know that you have gone up on the roof with what they will think is him. They can tell a possessed Blue from a non-possessed, but not through a camera image."
"So they’ll know right away when they see you?"
"Yes. Every Blue we encounter, you will need to spirit punch immediately. Most of the Moths will die." The clipped tone wavered for a moment, then resumed. "If there’s multiple Moths, I’ll try to revive the fallen Blues while you fight, and it will be easier as we progress because our numbers will grow. However, the strongest Moths, particularly the Five, can survive separation from the host. That’s why, before we go for Noi, we need Nash."
"To drain, like he did the Rover." Some of what needed to be done was obvious. Dominos, falling into place.
"Nash won’t be possessed – he’s being held for much the same reason you were. Any Greens will need to be shield-paralysed and locked up. Ideally, we want to collect Nash and free Noi as quickly and quietly as possible. If an alarm is raised – well, that will involve running, and passing on the information we have before the united strength of the En-Mott clans descends on us."
He led her to an access door and eased it open. Glancing down as they stepped inside, Madeleine saw that folded paper had been wadded into the gap in the jamb. Another domino. How had Théoden felt, this last day, putting in place all the things which needed to happen after she killed him?
Madeleine took deep, calming breaths, trying to prepare herself. Going into battle, a thing which she’d technically accepted back when the Musketeers had been practicing combat, now meant facing the probability of killing another Moth like Théoden. There was no way of knowing.
But she would do it. The consequences of hesitating were too large.
The next domino had been a card key, tucked behind a picture frame in the first hallway.
"The elevators are monitored," Fisher said as he collected it. "The cameras are in the far right corners. Put your hood up and look down and to your left as we walk in, then turn and straighten. There should be no problem with anyone seeing me on camera – perhaps a little heightened attention, but not the full alert you would inspire. The security room is on the same level as Nash, so we’ll take it out first. It’s usually manned by Greens, so in this case I’ll shield-stun first, and you spirit punch anyone who doesn’t fall down. Ready?"
Madeleine tugged her hood well forward. "Is it only Noi and Nash in this building? Do you know where the others are?"