A Vulin man stared at the ballon, asking, "Can I ride it?"

Tazo said, "Yeah, quick ride up and down, but then I want to inspect the gas bag."

"Careful, sis."

"Lend him your bracelet."

Vonn handed over the active slowfall ring and got him strapped in, then waved as Tazo took him and an adventurous Aves up for a few minutes. The bird asked if he could jump out, and Tazo and other passenger braced to make sure the guy could do it without hurting anyone. "Whee!"

Vonn held the rope loosely, worried for them all until they got back down. By then, Brightstep the Baron's son had arrived through the dungeon tunnel.

"I saw you overhead!" he said.

Vonn grinned. "I'd offer you a ride, finally, but Tazo's right that we really ought to check everything after that long trip. We found a local girl to become the first Centaur passenger."

Brightstep looked queasy. "I can't imagine she took it well."

"Ha, no. So your father now has access to a decent airship! A few more test flights and we can figure out how to bring it into regular service."

"Excellent! You must be hungry; I bet you didn't eat much for breakfast. Then if you like, we can try some light dungeon raiding. I haven't been in there lately and it'll be nice to fight in a tame one."

#

Vonn, Tazo and Brightstep went to lunch with Brightstep's mother; the Baron was out. The Baroness, dressed in the tie-dye fashion Selen had popularized, didn't seem to know what to do with the travelers. "I never expected you to fly into town."

Tazo told her, "It could become routine before long, milady!"

Vonn put in, "Selen Moonlit deserves partial credit for all this." He'd been careful to emphasize that.

The Baroness nodded. "Quite a lot of magicite needed, isn't there?"

Vonn nodded. "Unfortunately yes. We'd be interested in trying a greater shard sometime, too."

"For the vertical jets?" asked Brightstep.

"Right. We'd basically put one in a barrel and see how much lifting force it can give us when combined with smaller gems for heat."

"What about the wings on your last one?" the Baroness asked.

"I want to try those again, too. The value of adding wings depends on the speed, and this one's slow due to dragging a balloon."

"Airships." She drank and thought. "Even commoners will be able to travel more often. I'd like to be able to see some distant land and be back the next day."

"We may well be able to arrange that, someday."

#

Vonn came up from the Murk Passage dungeon clutching a hard-won crystal, battered but pleased. He and the others had made it down to the third floor with a pair of Human shieldbearers and had a good workout slaying beasts of muck and water. The place still had five floors, the first one just the bare tunnel and a recently discovered area protruding above a distant part of floor two.

While he and the others were getting cleaned off by magic, a young Human woman arrived. "Vonn! Glad to catch you before you go. Are you carrying letters through the sky?"

"I'd be happy to." This was a lady named Angela who'd been taking levels as an Artist and had moved with her whole family to get away from the southern Baron's restrictions.

She handed him a folded letter. "What about the ship itself? May I ride in it?"

Tazo turned to Brightstep. "We'd probably better leave before dark, and that means inspection work. Oh, this is for your father." She handed over the latest notes from the Reeve of Shieldpoint.

Vonn told Angela, "Catch us in about an hour."

He and Tazo got to work checking the balloon for tears. It had held together well but when Tazo thought to get an actual Craftsman with weaving skills to check, that woman found a loose seam. "I'm not used to seeing such a strange use of cloth!" she said.

"Can you recommend any improvements?" asked Vonn.

"I would think you'd heavily enchant the thing to hold air better. Something like a noble's winter coat."

In fact they'd looked into doing that, but it would've meant permanently spending yet more crystals. There was already some fireproofing magic woven into the bottom section, nearest the burner. They'd made do with stitching for basic sturdiness. He said, "We were hoping for a better sewing method."

The seamstress laughed. "Of course. You have some overlapping material, which is good, but you might even want to stuff the overlap with glue."

"It has to hold very hot air."

"Perhaps wool or leather strips, then? I don't know your needs, but it's an interesting problem to think about."

Vonn got some experience at learning what problems to recognize, anyway, but it was probably time to start hiring someone like this woman regularly.

#

Closer to sunset than he would've liked, Vonn got Liberty Bell airborne again. The Artist was light enough to carry as a third person, so they went up high enough to get a view of Silvermire, the dungeon tunnel, and some of the quarry village northward. The Starry River shined to the west as the three of them shielded their eyes from the glare. Beneath them the wicker hull creaked and rocked.

Angela sniffled and said, "Like a dream."

Tazo leaned up to pat her shoulder. "We'll do this again, maybe take you somewhere. Vonn's been saying that this kind of thing will only last if a lot of people stay interested in learning how to build it."

"That's something art can do. I don't know the numbers behind it all, but more people ought to see what it's like for the birdfolk."

#

With Angela safely back on the ground, Vonn and Tazo struggled with a southeastern wind to work downriver and back across. Good practice, anyway. But it took them until dark to get above Shieldpoint. They were both fussing and cursing over the controls as they tried to maneuver. As dusk deepened they could barely see more than wisps of chimney smoke and faint lights from the dock district. They hadn't thought to tell the Company crew to put out a glowing beacon. So it was a frightening process of lurching downward, fighting the wind, and nearly crashing into a house before they managed to get out and kiss the ground again. And even then they were north of the Little Star, on the edge of the former dungeon, so Vonn tasted blighted black stone. "Ugh."

Vonn stayed put and finished deflating the balloon while Tazo ran off to make sure their parents knew they were fine. The boat was intimidating to stay next to, while it hovered at a few inches up. He'd shaped the jets so that they wouldn't jam and explode if they brushed against the ground, but the intense heat from them made him worry he'd get hurt or burn the anchor rope. He had to remind himself these weren't true fuel-burning jets and not hot enough to ignite his tail.

Dad hustled back with Tazo to help haul the boat. "Glad you're back, but I don't want you crash-landing at night again."

"It wasn't a crash this time, Dad. But yeah, we'll work on it."

[Skill gain: Flight 2 (Agility)]

Vonn chuckled. "And I got a skill point for it."

"So did I!" said Tazo.