The world didn’t seem as bright as before. Diamond had come through the curtain with eyes narrowed, but this time he barely blinked with the glare. Karlan looked at the two of them, eyes jumping back and forth. Then Seldom appeared, reading the situation in an instant.

“Let’s go,” he suggested. “Right now.”

They hurried for the ladder, Elata leading.

Karlan laughed hard and then quit laughing. “Where are you going?” he shouted.

Elata broke into a shuffling trot.

Karlan laughed again, except nothing was funny. And when he shouted again, he sounded furious. “Hey, monster! Come here, I want to show you something.”

The rope ladder reached almost to the landing. Elata made a little jump and grabbed the bottom rung, pulling herself up with quick arms. Diamond looked up, and Seldom touched him on the back. “Go on,” he said.

Karlan was walking, not running. Diamond looked at him and then up at the ladder, and he jumped. He had never jumped this hard. Feeling clumsy and wrong, his hands shot past the first rung, and he fumbled with the second rung and one hand let go, and then he gripped tight with his left hand as his body began to drop. The hand clung to the stiff rope and he spun around as Karlan jogged up.

Karlan was furious, or he was pretending to be. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“We’re taking him home,” Seldom began.

“Yeah, but I’ve got something to show him.”

Diamond grabbed the ladder with his other hand and started to climb. But somebody grunted and a big hand snagged his trailing ankle, jerking hard enough to bring him down.

He expected to hit the landing. But Karlan caught him and held him in both arms, and the expression that wasn’t any smile grew worse. “You’ve never seen the world, have you?” He walked, cradling his catch. “I heard you and the mommies talking. Never left your prison until today. Well, it’s a good morning and there’s a million things to see, and I want to be the first to show you.”

Diamond squirmed.

“Quit,” Karlan told him.

He fought harder.

Then with both big arms, the boy tried to crush the fight in him.

Seldom was beside them. “What are you doing?” he asked his brother. Then with panic in the voice, he said, “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” Karlan asked.

Naming his fears seemed reckless; Seldom quit talking.

They reached the landing’s end. “You should have seen that ship up close,” said Karlan. “We don’t get traffic like that here. Not usually. But the fancy people onboard can still see us. Go on now. Give them a friendly wave.”

The machine was huge, dwarfing even the giant leatherwings. Whirling blades reminded Diamond of the pinwheel that he had until it broke. Six pinwheels were working hard, and the engines that powered them made steady warm noises, and there were rooms underneath and what might be people moving behind the rooms’ windows.

Diamond forgot everything else.

“Put him down,” said Elata. Standing back from the railing and Karlan, she was still panting from a long jump and quick run. But she was angry and brave because of it. Diamond looked helpless, and the girl despised anyone being helpless. It was important to shout her first words, and when that didn’t do any good, she said, “Don’t you dare, I mean it, I mean it.”

Karlan laughed. “Dare what?”

“Throw him over. You can’t.”

The laughter stopped. The fake smile turned into a fake serious expression, and Karlan did nothing. Maybe he was thinking, or maybe this was for show. Either way, he finally said, “Throw him? I never thought of that.”

Seldom muttered a few words.

“What’s that, brother?”

“Nothing.”

“Then be quiet.” Karlan reached up with one hand, yanking Diamond’s head to where it was staring straight at him. “Suppose I drop you. No, imagine I throw you. As far as I can, and then you fall. Do you know how to fall, little boy? Do you know how to save yourself and not get too beaten up when you crash?”

Elata cried out. There were no words in what she was saying, just raw furious noise that helped to push her past fear. She used fists on Karlan’s back and kicked him twice in the back of his leg, and when that accomplished nothing, she jumped and punched him hard in the ear.

Diamond was dropped.

He was on the landing-side of the railing, if only barely. He hit the hard slats and felt nothing but the jarring, and he put his left hand on a railing post and turned in time to see his friend throw her fist at Karlan’s stomach.

The boy deflected the blow with an arm. “Shit,” he said as he used his other arm, an open hand slapping Elata in the face, just beside her chin.

She didn’t simply fall. The impact lifted her off her feet, and her head snapped back, and the neck was twisted sideways, fighting to hold onto the dazed head. Elata landed and skidded and ended up limp. Too stunned to cry out, she slowly realized what had happened, and then she was too stubborn to make any noise. But when Karlan took one stepped toward her, Elata shrank down, instinctively protecting her face.

Seldom stared at his brother, wishing for some perfect, awful words to say. But all that came to mind was, “You’re in trouble.”

Diamond was standing. He didn’t remember getting to his feet, and he wasn’t certain when his fear and passivity evaporated. Something awful had been done, and he was caught up in anger. Somebody had to put an end to this trouble. His little hands closed, and then Karlan turned and read his face. Seeing everything clearly, the giant laughed. It was the largest, most terrible laugh of the day, and to make it worse, he said, “I showed you something. Show me your scar. I want to see how you healed up, little monster boy.”

He reached for Diamond’s shirt.

Diamond hit him in the face, in the long fleshy nose.

The impact startled. Just like with Elata, the head popped back and the neck absorbed the energy. Karlan wasn’t knocked off his feet, but he hadn’t expected that impact and needed a few moments to shake off the pain, dealing with embarrassment and the wet feel as blood flooded out of his aching nose.

With the back of a hand, he touched his blood.

“Damn you,” he whispered.

Diamond straightened his back.

Again, Karlan touched the blood above his mouth, licking his mouth clean, and after a moment of deep reflection he reached with both hands, grabbing Diamond by the long shirt and yanking it high. Then he kicked the legs out from under the little boy and put him on his back, exposing that perfect pale and unscarred belly to the world.

“What is this?” Karlan asked.

Diamond slapped the hands away and pulled the shirt down.

“I gutted you.” Karlan looked at the other two, wanting witnesses. “Where’s the scar? Do you see a scar?”

The children stared at Diamond.

“Well, damn,” Karlan said at last. “I’ve heard a lot of monster stories, but nothing like this. Nothing like you.”

Then he grabbed hold of Diamond, and before the boy could manage any fight, he threw him as far into the air as possible.

FIVE

Alone in his room, Diamond would stand on the stool, dropping soldiers to watch them hurry to the floor while guessing how falling would feel. And what imagination told him wasn’t very different from what he experienced now. Nothing was beneath his feet and hands, and the air was rushing past, and his body had no sense of control as he rolled those first few times. Yet this wasn’t what he expected either. He knew that his body would speed up, but the acceleration was slower than he assumed. He was ready to feel terror, but the tension and surprise were washed away by giddy fascination. Moments ago, Diamond was part of the world, and now the world was something apart from him. The air was moving and Marduk was moving. The forest was streaming past his little body, as if a vast force were lifting the Creation higher, its ascent yanking up the air and the trees—everything but one boy desperate to go somewhere else.