An arrow whistled by, splintering on the bridge where she would have been had her direction not changed to groundward. Hiresha swung her body around to reach upward, but the bridge had left her far behind. A shock of coldness ripped below her shift. She caught hold of the fennec, misery crushing her at the thought that she had carried him into this. He mewed and screamed, the cones of his ears flattening in the wind. The grindstone spun in its sickening spiral, the entire building revolving around her as she tumbled downward. Her hand jerked forward and back under her coat as she scrabbled for the jewel in her sash. Her fingers flailed over the individual pockets searching for the Lightening enchantment. The jewel must have been forced out of the fabric because she glimpsed the aquamarine, floating blue among the fluttering white. She pawed at it, caught the gem in her right hand. But I can’t Lighten myself. I’ll blow miles away. I have no choice. She slapped the gem against herself, waited to feel all her momentum and weight drain from her.
