The sun was under the Disc. Around the dark Rim, though, it found its way up through the endless waterfall, creating a glowing band between the night-time ocean and the stars. It was, indeed, beautiful, but Agnes felt that beauty was even more likely to be in the eye of the beholder if the feet of the beholder were on something solid. At ten thousand feet up, the eye of the beholder tends to water.
Perdita thought it was beautiful. Agnes wondered if, should Agnes end up as a circle of pink splash marks on the rocks, Perdita would still be there.
'Everything you want,' whispered Vlad. 'For ever.'
'I want to get down,' said Agnes.
He let go.
There was this about Agnes's shape. It was a good one for falling. She turned automatically belly down, hair streaming behind her, and floated in the rushing wind.
Oddly enough, the terror had gone. That had been fear of a situation out of her control. Now, arms outspread, skirts whipping her legs, eyes streaming in the freezing air, she could at least see what the future held even if it was not big enough to hold very much.
Perhaps she could hit a snowbank, or deep water-
It might have been worth a try, said Perdita. He doesn't seem entirely bad.
'Shut up.'
It'd just be nice if you could stop looking as though you were wearing saddlebags under your skirt...
'Shut up.'
And it'd be nice if you didn't hit the rocks like a balloon full of water...
'Shut up. Anyway, I can see a lake. I think I can sort of angle across towards it.'
At this speed it will be like hitting the ground.
'How do you know that? I don't know that. So how do you know?'
Everyone knows that.
Vlad appeared alongside Agnes, lounging on the air as though it were a sofa.
'Enjoying it?' he said.
'It's fine so far,' said Agnes, not looking at him.
She felt him touch her wrist. There was no real sense of pressure, but the fall stopped. She felt as light as the air again.
'Why are you doing this?' she said. 'If you're going to bite me, then get it over with!'
'Oh, but I couldn't be having with that!' 'You did it to Granny!' said Agnes.
'Yes, but when it's against someone's will... well, they end up so... compliant. Little more than thinking food. But someone who embraces the night of their own volition... ah, that's another thing entirely, my dear Agnes. And you're far too interesting to be a slave.'
'Tell me,' said Agnes, as a mountaintop floated by, 'have you had many girlfriends?'
He shrugged. 'One or two. Village girls. Housemaids.'
'And what happened to them, may I ask?'
'Don't look at me like that. We still find employment for them in the castle.'
Agnes loathed him. Perdita merely hated him, which is the opposite pole to love and just as attractive.
... but Nanny said if the worst came to the worst... and then he'll trust you... and they've already got Granny...