Gil pulled one glider wing out to examine it while he waited his turn at the gas pump. It wasn't much like either the bat wing Barry had drawn or like the dragon wing he'd been copying. There was the basic structure - struts radiating from the point - but this had no flexibility at all beyond up and down and didn't generate its own lift either. It was not, he decided, going to be anything he could incorporate into a dragon unless he cheated and filled the dragon's body with gas (which was a possibility, it would help get around the size issue, but it was rather a boring solution).
He was distracted from wondering when Agatha kicked off from the floor and glided across the hangar. He looked up to follow her with his head, smiling, excitement at the thought that he'd be flying soon jolting him out of further analysis. Baron Wulfenbach stepped forward and caught the blimp between his hands, lowering it until Agatha's feet were on the floor and opening the valve. "If any of you find yourselves floating while still indoors, you have overfilled your blimp," he said. "Either let some gas out or call an adult over."
"Thank you," Agatha chirped at him, even though she'd obviously been having fun.
The Baron closed the valve, lifted her blimp to the height of his own head, and let go. He observed critically as Agatha drifted gradually downward, giggling. "There, that's about right."
Gil's own blimp, when filled, hovered above his head but didn't pull him off the ground so he thought he'd got it about right. It made him feel floaty when he walked, almost weightless, and he bounced eagerly across the room towards the open hangar door. Otilia caught his eye and tapped her foot as he got too close to the line of yellow tape marked out. She was wearing a glider too - blimp oversized for her greater weight, and her own wings folded down against her back. Gil wondered whether they'd give her extra steering if she unfolded them or just get in the way.
Gil stopped with his toes just barely not touching the tape, grinning hopefully at Otilia. It was really windy in here with the door open, and it tugged at him a little, but not so much he couldn't stay where he wanted to be.
"This feels so weird." Tarvek came up beside him, just a little farther back, and gave Otilia the slightly awed, generally adoring look he always did.
"Yes," said Gil, bouncing slightly on his toes because jumping would probably make him drift over the line. "I can't believe we're going to get to fly." He craned his head back to see how close they were to everyone's blimps being full. Sleipnir was bouncing across the hangar now, braid whipping out behind her, while Theo helped some of the younger ones get the right amount of gas in their blimps.
"I'm not sure I believe it either," Tarvek said, laughing a little.
Agatha bounded up to them, and Tarvek grabbed her arm before her enthusiasm could carry her across the line. She grinned at him. "It looks fun. And it does make sense."
"Heh." Tarvek twisted to glance over his shoulder at Baron Wulfenbach before saying, quietly, "I'm not sure this is the safest safety drill I've ever heard of."
"He taught Uncle Barry already," Agatha said cheerfully. "I think they think it's fun."
"I think it's fun," said Gil. "And I don't think we can really fall, not very fast, anyway."
At this point Baron Wulfenbach clapped his hands and everyone turned to look at him. "Everyone behind the yellow line," he ordered, and the children scrambled to obey. "Now, your wings are controlled by two sticks, which you will hold. Lowering your wings will bring you down, lifting them will slow your fall but also catch any breeze. Steering is done by shifting body weight." He strode forwards, his own glider making his steps longer, and pointed across at another hovering airship holding position. "All you need to do, and all you will need to do in an emergency, is to glide across to another airship. Hold your wings steady, lower them if you're coming in too high, and keep a straight course. If you do get caught in turbulence, especially if you feel yourself being lifted, drop your wings. You're less likely to tumble that way, and you won't fall fast. We have people below to catch you."
"Uncle Barry's one of them," Agatha confided, not very quietly.
"Actually, Barry Heterodyne is on your target airship at the moment," the Baron said drily. "Now, for the first practice run, you'll go in groups of four." He counted off four of them - to Gil's disappointment, from one end rather than who'd been ready first. "The rest of you will stay put. Now, let's go."
Gil watched them go, drifting easily downwards. There was enough of a breeze for it to pull them across slightly; Zulenna corrected determinedly and almost swerved in the opposite direction before straightening herself, while the other three went with it since it wasn't pulling them fast enough to miss the hangar. It was over surprisingly soon - which was both good, since it meant his turn would come sooner, and bad, because it meant his turn would be short. It looked like getting across was easy, whatever Tarvek thought, they'd barely have a chance to figure out how using their gliders worked.
The other airship shifted upward slightly, to allow the Baron and Otiia to fly back, and returned to its earlier position. Gil watched every group intently until it was finally his turn, with Agatha and Tarvek and Z.
They launched, and he pushed his wings up to catch the wind.
He could feel the air moving past him, out here he was perfectly free, hanging weightless between the airships. Behind him the familiar bulk of Castle Wulfenbach, ahead of him a brilliant blue outflier, below the silvery sheen of another airship. There was something incredibly familiar about it, as much his as the walkways and scaffoldings inside Castle Wulfenbach, even as it was all wonderfully, incredibly new. He swung his weight slightly against the breeze, let himself turn, but flying straighter would only get him there sooner and he didn't want that.
He tipped his wings down slightly, slowing, falling behind the others. Tarvek tried to turn to see what was wrong and the shift in his own weight turned his glider awkwardly across the breeze, starting to push him off course. Gil grinned at him, "I'm fine, go on," he called, not sure if Tarvek could hear. Then he turned himself fully and raced alongside the airship, flying with the wind.
"Gil!" The Baron's shout chased him down and Gil winced just a little thinking about getting caught. His grip on the handles tightened, and he turned his head to look back, straining to do it without turning his body.
The Baron was way behind, looking distinctly frustrated, and as Gil watched he veered off and circled back. Tarvek was trying to straighten up but Agatha and Z were trying to watch both of them and not making a lot of progress. Gil faced forward again, exhilarated. It was probably fairly easy to catch up to somebody who was falling or tumbling, if you knew what you were doing, but harder to outrace somebody who was already in a wind current when you had three other people to worry about.
He'd just reached that conclusion when Barry Heterodyne finished a gradual diagonal swoop and matched speed with him. "You really should be getting back, you know."
Gil looked at him, rather surprised he wasn't being grabbed, and then further surprised when he didn't have to look up. "I want to learn how to fly properly." He could drop, he thought. Drop and veer, go under their target airship, and he'd be out in the open sky. If he did it fast enough Barry might not catch him before he completed it. (And after he completed it, he admitted to himself, he might be glad to have an adult on hand.)
"Can't really blame you for that," Barry said. "But this is a safety drill and everybody else needs their own chance to practise." He let that sink in for a second. "On the other hand, Klaus appreciates competence, however old you are. If you head back now and stop worrying him for the rest of the session, he might be up for training you further, so you'd be able to assist in a real evacuation."
Gil hesitated, wondering if he could really believe that. But he appreciated being called competent - he hadn't done much yet, but he thought he was picking this up fast, and maybe it would be true. He nodded and dropped his wings slightly, just enough to get behind Barry Heterodyne and twist out of the current with his glider pointing back the way he had come, body swinging slightly too hard and tilting him wildly for a moment. He held still and let the glider settle. It felt strange, hanging in the dead air after the rush. He was going forward because the gliders were balanced to go forward, but slowly. They'd come a surprisingly long way, nearly at the tail of the airship they'd been aiming for.
"I'm not sure how to get back against the wind," Gil said. "I'm going to lose too much height." Barry would have to tell him how to get higher.
"You can get it back." Barry swung around to pace him. "Watch the seagulls." Castle Wulfenbach and the rest of its fleet attracted a lot of seagulls, especially the garbage scows. Gil followed Barry toward the nearest gulls, a little puzzled, and then saw that they were spiraling upward without flapping much.
Gil tilted towards them experimentally, feeling the tilt and dip of his glider through the rigid handholds and the shift in his harness. He slid into the place the seagulls were, expecting to have to copy their circling. But his wings and blimp caught the updraft and were lifted, suddenly, like a paper airplane being lofted. He found himself laughing, even as he tipped forward out of the updraft, he'd gone higher than he expected. He tucked his wings down slightly, he was going to want to lose some height, and slid down the air, disappointed that he quickly went back to a fairly slow glide.
"You can look under puffy little clouds or over dark patches on the ground, too," Barry called over, "but the seagulls are generally going to be easier to find."
The air was clear ahead of them leading to the target hangar, although the Baron launched again as they watched, jumping hard to gain altitude and then circling a few times as he waited for them to zigzag back.
Gil watched the seagulls, not just in the updrafts but where they drifted outside them. If you looked at it right you could map the sky with them, go where they went (or at least he could if he wasn't on his way back to the hangar). He felt an odd kinship with them, almost envy, hanging so easily and naturally on their hooked wings, made for height and distance. They'd already ruled out bird wings for the dragon, too much relied on muscle and not enough on bone, but for a moment he wished they hadn't.
He turned regretfully towards the hangar and slid across the breeze and in, dropping his wings to make a graceful landing, still smiling from the flight.
There was a hard thud just behind him, and all the students ahead looked wide-eyed. Gil twisted around as quickly as he could, and the Baron seized his blimp and moved it out of the way so he could scowl down at Gil. "What did you think you were doing?"
"I wanted to fly," said Gil, scowling back, for the moment still too elated (still feeling too free) to be properly scared.
"This is an emergency drill, not a game!"
"Very true," said Barry Heterodyne, landing somewhat less abruptly. "But he's back, he's safe, and," here he gave Gil a significant look, "he will not be doing that again. Will you."
Gil hesitated for one very impolitic second, remembering the moment he'd just turned and run with the wind. "No, sir."
"He is a natural, though," Barry said, as breezily as if the moment of sternness had never happened and the Baron weren't scowling at him. "Comfortable in the air. If he can demonstrate he'll be responsible about it, maybe you can train him for rescues, too."
The Baron's scowl only deepened. "He's seven. This is meant to teach him to get himself to safety, not to risk it for other people who are likely to be older than him."
"He's not going to be one of the youngest students forever," said Barry. "I wasn't suggesting you put him on rescue duty now. Anyway, once everybody's got the basics down, the more people can handle turbulence and troubleshoot, the better."
"I'll consider it. I'll be teaching some of the older students how to assist younger ones if necessary." The Baron turned his frown on Gil. "I'll consider letting you join the group, if we have no more nonsense on the return flight."
"Thank you, Herr Baron," Gil said politely. He rather thought he should thank Barry Heterodyne, but he wasn't sure if that would just annoy the Baron again.
He managed not to start grinning again until the adults weren't looking, but as soon as they'd taken off to collect the next group of students, Tarvek pounced on him. "You did that on purpose?"
"Of course I did it on purpose!" said Gil indignantly.
Tarvek spluttered. "I thought you were in trouble and then you just - just kept going!"
"You can't really get into that much trouble while surrounded by airships and adults," said Gil. Then he squeezed Tarvek's shoulder and said, "sorry," and kind of almost meant it, more than he had when he said it to the adults anyway, because he hadn't meant to scare him. "I'll behave on the way back."
"You act like getting into trouble with the adults doesn't even count," Tarvek muttered. "But okay. Thanks."
"It's not as if I like being in trouble," said Gil."But sometimes it's worth it to do things you couldn't have done without being in trouble."
Tarvek looked a little ill. "I'd rather there be at least a chance of not getting caught," he said. "But at least with the Heterodyne here they went easy on you."
Gil blinked at him, because his first thought was Agatha and although she made the other kids go easy on him he didn't think she affected the adults much. Then he realised who Tarvek meant. "He was really nice about it," Gil said. "I thought he was going to grab me and drag me back at first, but maybe that wouldn't have worked in gliders."
"He had a propeller that folded up," Tarvek said. "And goodness knows what else. I think he could have if he'd really wanted."
"It was nice of him then," said Gil.
"He is nice," said Agatha, from slightly higher up than usual. Gil turned around to discover that she'd taken advantage of the adults' distraction to overfill her blimp again and was dangling from it, looking very pleased with herself, her head exactly level with his. "He was building the propeller last night at the Clays'. And I think he's right, you'd be good at rescuing people."
"I'd like to rescue people," said Gil, thoughtfully. Until then he'd mostly been thinking about having the chance to fly again.
"Just please be careful," Tarvek said. "Agatha, come here, they're on the way back."
"I'm fine," Agatha said, but she let him adjust her blimp before the adults came in for their next landing. Gil suspected this was just to make Tarvek feel better.
Tarvek stood behind the yellow line waiting his turn and wishing, for once, that he wasn't in the same group as Gil and Agatha. Although Gil had promised to behave this time and was probably one of the least likely people in the class to have something go wrong by accident with all that he'd managed to do on purpose. He seemed to think this was a game though, and Agatha wasn't much better. As if they weren't miles up in the air with nothing below them for a very, very long way.
He never thought of Castle Wulfenbach as being in the air while he was on it, really, it was mostly like being indoors. But standing by an open hangar door waiting to launch himself out into the sky he was terribly aware of all the depth below him there was to fall through, and it made him feel as if things were squirming inside him. Nearly losing control on the way over when Gil had startled him wasn't making him feel any better, either. He took a deep breath and told himself he couldn't throw up during an emergency drill, and that once it was over he wouldn't have to do it again.
He wasn't entirely sure having to fly alongside Baron Wulfenbach helped him either, although at least the Baron seemed to be taking the situation seriously. So was Otilia, of course.
He felt the engines and pumps thrum as the airship moved upward to give them enough altitude to get back to Castle Wulfenbach, and then Otilia gave the signal and Tarvek sucked in a breath and jumped. Just this one more time.
Gil did behave himself this time, but when he looked over and Tarvek turned his head and tried to grin back, Gil's smile fell away in favour of a worried expression. Tarvek bit the inside of his lip and made himself look straight ahead instead, concentrating on the hangar door. They were perfectly safe. Otilia was right there. It was no worse than balance tests at tower-height, not really.
He touched down inside the hangar slightly awkwardly, stumbling and being tugged back up by his blimp so that he wound up on his feet anyway. He shook himself and started unbuckling his harness even as he watched Gil make his own landing. Agatha zoomed in a bit too high and was caught by Barry Heterodyne, who had beaten them back, and then nearly tangled their harnesses up trying to hug him, her blimp nosing at his bigger one like a baby whale.
"Are you okay?" Gil asked quietly, coming up beside him with his glider still on. "I didn't think I'd worried you that bad."
"You didn't," Tarvek answered equally quietly, keeping a hold on his own harness as he took it off - it would be embarrassing if he let go and it wound up on the ceiling of the hangar - in order to pull the blimp down and let the gas out. "I just didn't like flying."
Gil looked bewildered. "But it was amazing."
"It was a long way down. And we didn't have...I suppose we did have gas bags, but they're really small, and they're just meant to make us fall slower. It wasn't like being in an airship at all." Tarvek bit his lip and waited for bewilderment to give way to teasing.
"I don't think you could fall fast enough to get hurt, though, even if you went all the way down," Gil said seriously instead. "And you can get altitude back if you aim for an updraft, the seagulls find them for you, and they go fast but they're easy to get out of."
Tarvek relaxed slightly. "I'd still rather not do it again," he said. "I know you enjoyed it." But Gil had already been obsessed with flying - and now that he thought of it, did Tarvek really want a flying dragon anymore? He still wanted to make one to see if they could, but he didn't think he'd like riding it much.
"I thought it would be more fun to do extra training if you came too," said Gil. He was still holding on to his glider and hadn't even started undoing the harness, as if he didn't want to let go of it, but the final group of students was on the way back across and he sighed and began picking at a buckle. "But, you probably won't have to do it anyway. I think even when they evacuate a lab or two they hardly ever have to take the gliders."
Tarvek blinked at him. "Have you... been watching the adult safety drills?"
Gil grinned. "Just a few times."
Otilia bent down to help the youngest children out of their gliders, mostly to make sure they didn't let go of them in the process. Her own glider was off now, some of her feathers rumpled where the ropes of the harness had rubbed them, and the occasional metal gleam showing through the gaps. When she stood up after letting the last child out of her harness she shook them out, feathers not fluffing like a bird's but falling into place all the same. "I wonder if it would be possible to make these more functional?" she said, apparently addressing the Baron. "I believe it would have made things easier, especially when catching naughty children," she turned a hawklike gaze on Gil for a moment, and he ducked his head, looking a little abashed but not at all awed, before turning back to the Baron. "But I suppose it would be too hard to generate the lift necessary without a blimp?"
"Ah-" The Baron looked... flummoxed, Tarvek decided, which was a strange look on him. "It would be... challenging. Castle Heterodyne has an assortment of winged clanks with no airbags, but those are very lightly constructed. Flimsy." He hesitated. "On the other hand, your wings are proportionately much larger..."
Otilia spread one wing and ran a hand through her feathers. "They are, and not particularly light. I already have fine motor control over them, much finer than over the glider wings. I doubt they could be adapted for true flight, but living on an airship even gliding would be valuable."
She was serious about it. Tarvek wanted to say, but you can't, you're perfect. Wanting to improve a Muse was the height of pride...except it wasn't that, it was a Muse wanting to improve herself. Otilia was the Muse of Protection, of course she'd want to be able to fly when an airship crash would be the biggest threat to her charges. This wasn't what she'd been designed for...but it was what she was doing...she wouldn't be doing it forever, she was going to be his, and she shouldn't be asking the Baron...but right now did she belong to anyone at all?
"It's a little alarming to consider modifying them at all," said the Baron, which at least showed some proper feeling on the subject even if he was also pacing around Otilia looking analytical. "The silk would be simple enough - having already been replaced once -"
Otilia gave a soft chiming laugh. "It was not the first time. Some of my feathers were replaced twice because someone had spilt wine on them, and several times because my creator wanted to adjust the colours."
"You'd need sheets to catch the air at all, of course. Or else much stiffer feathers." The Baron brushed aside some of the silken feathers near the base of her wings, examining the complex gears where they rooted into her back. "These joints... They look as if they should be able to support your weight suspended from your wings, though I would recommend gradually doing so as a test. I know you have an extensive range of motion. How well can you brace them against resistance?"
"I've used one to deflect a Jäger, before, but they didn't hold up well after the first time," said Otilia.
The Baron looked rather startled at this. Tarvek couldn't blame him. "Most things don't," the Baron said. "Perhaps, again, more gradual tests. From what I recall of the overall structure..." He looked thoughtful, now, and rather surprised again. "It's not ill designed for flight. But as Van Rijn evidently never equipped you with flightworthy feathers or suggested you could fly, I would mistrust the strength of the implementation to bear your full weight against air resistance. If you could deflect a Jäger once, the struts are likely to be sturdy enough, but the joints would probably need reinforcement." The Baron glanced back suddenly at Tarvek and Gil, a smile turning up just the corners of his mouth. "Like the elbow of a bat, perhaps."
The Lord Heterodyne had talked to the Baron about them? Tarvek wasn't quite sure what to think about that. Although Lord Heterodyne was Agatha's uncle, and the Baron's friend, so maybe it wasn't that surprising.
"Would you be able to reinforce them without adding much weight, do you think?" Otilia drew one wing in front of her, lowered so she could finger the joint at the apex. "Too much would compromise my balance." Her eyes flashed for a moment. "Although I have adjusted to greater changes, and less willingly."
The Baron followed the wing around and looked up at her. "I think so. There are lighter and stronger alloys now than anything Van Rijn had available. The challenge would lie in integrating any additional pieces into your sensor and control network, or if it proved necessary to replace any of the more delicate struts."
"I would like to try it," she said. "I believe you could return me to this condition, if it didn't work."
Tarvek bit his tongue hard. Everybody knew nobody could repair a Muse (but he hoped to be able to one day). Otilia appreciated their having put her back in the right body, but there hadn't been anything much physically wrong with it. (Except Baron Wulfenbach and Barry Heterodyne and Dr. Beetle had fixed her wings a little bit once already, apparently, so maybe he should just try to learn all he could from them so he had a better chance to put the lost ones back together when he grew up.) It made him feel a little ill to think the Mistress his father admired so much had done that - she'd done a lot of damage to Europa too, but that had at least been meant for a purpose. Spoiling a Muse just to see if she could do it seemed so petty.
"It may be easier than you're imagining," said Barry, finally free of his blimp and joining Otilia and the Baron with Agatha tucked against his shoulder. "Unless Van Rijn insisted on making every piece himself," here he looked inquiringly at Otilia, as this was not unheard-of behaviour in a Spark, although Van Rijn's reputation hardly centred on it, "creating them to the needed specifications wouldn't be unprecedented."
"I'm afraid I don't know," said Otilia. "Not with other creations, certainly, but I was unable to observe his work on myself."
Barry grinned. "I'm trying to be encouraging. I think you overwhelmed him."
"I appreciate it," said Otilia. "Trust me, I would not ask for something I believed would leave me damaged."
"I know." The Baron bowed slightly to her. "I am honoured by your confidence. I'll show you some designs when I've had a chance to work on them."
"Thank you," said Otilia. "For at least considering it. For now I had better get the children back to the school."
She turned to usher them out of the hangar, counting them through the door. Tarvek hung back to the end of the line and then, as she turned to walk through the door with him after her class, latched onto her hand. He was holding it tighter than he had meant to - he hadn't really meant to do that at all, but he always seemed too emotional around Otilia. She looked at him in surprise and then squeezed his hand gently.
"I assure you, the most I'm at risk of is losing some motor control in my wings. Control that was largely in aid of a graceful appearance. Although I can use them in a fight, it's not my best strategy," she said.
Tarvek shook his head. "But you should be graceful. I mean, you are, you're perfect."
"Thank you," she said.
Tarvek looked ahead at the other children, some of them were glancing back and...some of them were Fifty Families, even if none of them were closely related to the tangled branches of his family. He wondered if they felt the way he did about this, at least a little. "I don't understand why you'd want to change." Even if he did, a little, when he could see how protecting them came in.
Otilia was very quiet for several steps, and he wondered if he'd offended her, and then when she spoke it was not loud, but loud enough for the other children to hear, and he had a feeling she wasn't just talking to him anymore. "I was made to serve a purpose," she said. "And I was...glad to do so, or at least I could not be happy without doing so. But I was a work of art, and of science, and not a person in anyone's eyes. Lucrezia," a flash of green in her eyes, turning her alien and remote for a moment, "took that to its logical extreme. I expect a great many of your families were horrified when they heard what she had done. But how many were horrified only that she had desecrated a work of art? If another Storm King is ever found I will be his, and I will be glad of it as it is my nature to be. For now I intend to take advantage of being my own."
Tarvek swallowed and didn't meet his classmates' eyes. (Which was easy, because most of them stopped looking back about then.) She didn't entirely sound like she wanted to be glad about it. But he couldn't quite bring himself to ask her about that. "And they-" He stopped and tried to think. She looked down at him and was patient. "You think they're good enough to do it and won't stop thinking of you as a person any more than they would if they were... doing surgery on someone biological."
"The Baron has not treated me differently as a clank to he did as a construct. And he treated me very well as a construct," Otilia said. "The same goes for the Lord Heterodyne, although I did not know him as well."
"That's good," Tarvek said. He wasn't sure he'd have been able to do it. It would have been so strange to know her first and then find out she was a Muse. (Gil said she was a little bit different now, mostly happier and less growly.) Then he made himself say, "I hope it works."
"Thank you." She let go of his hand as they reached the school, but smiled at him. "Now, all of you have a short break before your next lesson, I believe."
Tarvek nodded and went to catch up with Agatha and Gil.