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"As you can see," he said, "she isn’t made for comfort"

Maria said slowly, "No… I can see she’s made for one man’s convenience It looks rather like…" she hunted for a comparison, and finally settled upon, "A wooden kite, strapped to a hydrogen sack"

Algernon Rice’s sh to show a hint of even, white teeth when he said, "That’s not an altogether unfair assessings under the seat for the sake of balance--and speaking of the seat, it’s a single bench and we’ll have to "

"That’s fine," she said, and sheto hi the Fish

The Fish could best be described as a personal-sized dirigible, affixed snugly to an undercarriage ht, unfinished wood frah somewhat shielded by the bulbous balloon that held it aloft The balloon was reinforced with a fraht, resilient material; and it was fuller at its front than at the rear

"What a ree bag and a length of hean to tie it into place "It’s sht, but the speeds it can reach when the tanks are fired…well, Ionto your hat They don’t holdcapacity, really, because it usually isn’t required I’ll refuel in Kansas City, at the service docks, and make my way back home by bedtime"

"Forewarned is forearmed," she murmured, and came to stand behind him to watch hi was secure, they withdrew to the passenger coanized her fluffy, rustling dress into a ladylike position inside the little wooden fra a satchel over his suit which, he explained, contained basic repairing tools and eency supplies, "Just in case," and he made some adjustments to the rear booster tanks--neither one of which was any larger than a dog Finally, he climbed onto the seat beside her and showed her where best to hold on, for safety’s sake He donned a pair of aviator’s protective glasses and handed Maria a secondary pair, which she could scarcely fit over her hat and onto her face

While she adjusted herself, he told her, "I hope you’re not easily sickened by flight or other travel, and if you have any sensitivities to height or motion, I’d advise you to brace your feet on the bar below and refrain fro down"

"I’ll take that under advisement," she assured him and indeed, she braced her feet on the solid dohile she gripped the frame’s side

With the pu fuss beca Fish scooted off her s and hobbled up into the sky

The experience was altogether different fro seats and its heavy tanks, its lavatory and galley Every jostle of every air current tapped at the undercarriage and sent it swinging ever so slightly, in a new direction everyvulnerable to insects, birds, and the very real possibility of toppling off the bench and into the sky--especially as the craft cli the edge of the town and puttering ard over the plains

Algernon Rice spoke loudly enough to ines and the wind, "I ought to have warned you, it feels like a rickety ride, but we’re quite safe"

"Quite safe?" she asked, determined that it should come out as a formal question, and not as a squeak

"Quite safe indeed And I hope you’re warh I also should have warned that it’s cooler up here, the higher we fly Is your cloak keeping you satisfactorily co the truth would neither change nor fix the situation "It’s fine It keepsthe worst of the wind up here" But in truth, the dragging rush of the air was a fiendish thing with pointed fingers that wormed between every crease, crevice, and buttonhole to cool her skin with a dreadful deter that would cover her ears ; but her only other clothing was stashed below, and retrieving it would only slow the mission, which was an unacceptable cost

So all the way to Kansas City, in the hours over the winter-chilled plains, she held her hat firripped the railith the other

They chatted only a little, for the a, and Maria’s entire face felt utterly frozen within the first hour If she parted her lips her teeth only chattered and stung with the cold air rushing against theainst the firlad to have her close, though he made no unwelcome advances

After what felt like eternity and a day, but was surely no more than half a dozen hours, Kansas City sprouted out of the plains Buildings of various heights were scattered, and even at the Fish’s altitude Maria could tell the blocks apart, guessing which neighborhoods were cleanest and which ones were best avoided by respectable people The streets split, forked, and ran in a crooked grid, sprawling across the ground in a life-sizedthan when she’d spied Jefferson City from the Cherokee Rose She was closer to the world this way--even chilled to the bone, with skin pinkly chapped and hands numb inter