"There was a trail of them, little boats peppering the sea between the city and the Scar, sliding north toward it. And dirigibles, too. A flock of them, trying to get airborne. Men and women were weighing them down, trying to get aboard, clinging to ropes to drag themselves in. All overloaded, they hauled themselves over the city’s edge and flopped into the sea, where the current took them and they spun like dead whales, shedding their crews, heading for the Scar.

"Armada began to spin, slowly. The horizon lurched and angled as the city coiled clockwise in the water.

"We were half a mile away now and my mind went all cold and I suddenly knew what I had to do. I ran to the Arrogance ’s bay and looked down through the hatches. I took up my rivebow and steadied myself on the edge of the bay doors and fired at the rope that held me tethered.

"It was thick as a thigh, attached to the aerostat thirty feet from me, swinging like a python. I had six chakris. Three of them I sent wide, way wide. The fourth connected, but not cleanly-cut half the rope’s width. The fifth went wide, and I only had one more chance.

"But even though my aim felt good, and I’d steadied my hands, I missed.

"And I knew that I was dead. I dropped my rivebow, my fingers all thick and stupid, and I clung to the bars at the edge of the hatchway. I could only watch. I could feel the wind buffeting me, up through the doors, and I watched the rope fray too slowly to save me.

"The roofs, the slates, the towers, the aircabs, the flags, the monkeys all frantic with fear they didn’t understand, the citizens running stupid from one place to the next as if anywhere would be spared.

"I watched them all through my telescope. I wonder what it was like, under the sea. I wonder how the cray and the menfish and Bastard John were acting. Maybe they’re still alive, who knows? Maybe they could swim free. Maybe they quit the city as it went on toward its end.

"The Sorghum rig and Croom Park and the Grand Easterly and me were first to reach the edge.

"The wind changed for a moment, and the Arrogance drifted out over the cliff of water, and looked down into the chasm.

"Time was very slow as the Arrogance passed above the Scar. Just handfuls of seconds, but they lasted a long time."

"I crossed past the rim of the sea and looked down, over my knees dangling from the hatch, at the edges of the water. They were vertiginous.