He tried to shut his eyes, tried not to look, but terrible fascination dragged his gaze downward. The gorge was sailing by beneath them, a chasm of impossible depth, a thin white ribbon of water glimmering in its stygian depths. His stomach immediately tried to exit through his mouth, but his gritted teeth blocked its passage. The pillars of the great bridge rose up into the light like ancient bones, and strung between them, the spindly trench of the aqueduct, its frothing water sparkling in the sun. Something moved within those sparkles, crawling shapes like ants, but at this distance they could be—

‘Heads up, wee bear!’

The wall was in front of them, the wall of the city, streaked and ancient. Chel was astonished.

‘We’re going to get over it! We’re going to go right over it!’

The wind stumbled in the city’s shadow, and they were dropping, little more than the speed of their fall keeping them travelling forward. Suddenly they were no longer sailing over the wall. They were heading straight for it.

‘Shit,’ said Chel, as ancient, weathered blocks filled his vision. ‘Shit, shit, shit.’

The kite crested the wall. Chel and Lemon did not. Chel slammed into the stone, shoulder-first and gasping, his grip loosened and teeth rattled in his jaw, as Lemon thumped against his guts. Purple stars burst in his vision. They hung there, snagged on the baroque crenellations of the side wall, as the battered kite slid over the top and out of view.

‘Aye, fuck,’ Lemon moaned. ‘Don’t look down, eh?’

Chel looked down. The void waved back.

Lemon cackled again. ‘Warned you! Now hold still, I’m going to climb you.’

***

‘You know what, wee bear, that could have been a lot worse.’

Chel limped down the steps from the deserted battlements behind her, clutching his everything. He could taste blood again, and his side was scraped raw as meat. His shoulder throbbed with particular malevolence.

‘Maybe for you,’ he said, spitting pink.

‘Thought we’d only need to get over the gap in the main bridge, never thought we’d get over that one. Didn’t see us getting up enough speed.’

‘What? You mean—’

‘All past now, wee bear, best not dwell, eh?’ She nodded to a panicked citizen at the foot of the steps, who seemed astonished to see filthy and battered people descending. ‘Don’t you worry, we’re with the prince. No, no! Not that one, the other one. The good one. And she’s off. Ah, well.’

They reached the winding street, empty of traffic. Bells rang out across the city. Somewhere, up on the battlements, a ruined kite collapsed into a heap.

Chel attempted to roll the ache from his shoulder. It didn’t work. ‘I saw something, as we crossed the gorge. Looked like figures on the aqueduct. People.’