"Let me down! Put me down at once… you—!"
Kael Valier's voice trembled with outrage as his body jounced uncomfortably in the iron grasp that held him aloft. His legs dangled helplessly, his back protesting the heavy pressure, and his pride roared with fiercer heat than did the ache in his ribs.
This was not very nice.
And not because he feared heights. Naturally not. He had never feared flying high over the earth; he enjoyed it in the air. From the first day he strapped on his skates, he had been captivated by the spinning dizziness of speed, the feel of flying as his body cut the air like a knife. His work demanded it—endless jumps, spinning somersaults, hours and hours suspended in harnesses and wires to learn the unlearnable. On certain days, he'd been suspended in midair for five consecutive hours, muscles crying, lungs searing, and he never once experienced the presence of fear.
No, heights didn't frighten him.
But this? This was different.
