The inhabitants yelled and hollered as they pushed her back out the front door. Besteel caught sight of Eva and brought his glider close, boomrod at the ready. Eva rushed down the circular walk, trying to put some distance between her and his weapon. Once more she heard the sonic vibration. The boardwalk in front of her burst into splinters. A stack of fishing baskets tumbled down to the tier below.

Eva spun around and ran back the way she had come. She had run several meters when yet another section of the walkway shattered from Besteel’s sonic rifle. She was now cut off in both directions.

As fast as a whip Eva turned back and ran toward the gap. With all of her strength she jumped across it, landing flat on her stomach on the other side. The damaged boards underneath her began falling away as Eva grabbed at the fragments of walkway still intact. Her legs and feet dangled free while she dug her nails into the wood, clinging on for dear life. Over her shoulder she saw Besteel hovering close on his glider, his boomrod aimed right at her head. She risked a glance down at the numerous pennants and flags fluttering, with her blanket, in the morning breeze far below.

“No need to move, leettle one,” Besteel purred. “Besteel will geet you.”

Eva gulped. She could feel her grip loosening on the boards. The huntsman was almost within reaching distance. “That iz it. Stay steel.”

Eva let go of the walk and dropped down a story to the walkway below. Landing hard on her right side, she shrieked as her arm and shoulder were jolted with pain. After pulling herself up with her left hand, she was soon under the shadow of Besteel’s glider as it dropped down from above.

With a running leap Eva hurled herself off the walkway and into the middle of the open courtyard. She plummeted down many stories through the flags and pennants, her arms flailing about.

As she fell through the twisting banners, her hand caught hold of something and she hugged it close to her. Eva clutched on to a flag, even as the force of inertia jerked her body down, causing pain to surge through her right arm. She struggled to pull herself up to the transverse cable that held the bigger-than-bedsheet flags and banners. Besteel had yet to locate her as he navigated his descending craft down through the flapping pennants, his humming weapon charged and ready.

Eva looked over and saw that she was perhaps nine meters away from where the cable was anchored to the base of a walkway. Blocking out the throbbing in her arm, she began swinging hand over hand toward the cable mount. Besteel spotted her and closed in.

“Help me! Help!” Eva shrieked. She saw local bystanders on the walkway run with hands extended toward the cable she was hanging from.