Read Online Sky Song: Overture by Meg Merriet - Free Book Online Page B

have normally made Baker laugh and punch me in the shoulder only made him roll his eyes.
    “If you wish to climb out of a copter in a ball gown, go right ahead,” he said.
    Fitz cleared his throat. “I should accompany Maive in her search for this Belle fellow. Women should never travel alone,” he said. “I wish you luck, brothers.” He blinked and looked me over, but didn’t bother correcting himself.
    A vaulted trap door lay at our feet. Baker twisted the release and swung it open. “Ladies first,” he said, lowering the rope ladder.
    Climbing ladders in a ball gown was more difficult than I expected, and I had expected it to be pretty difficult. Wind blew my skirt about like a bell. I compressed the hoop structure and pinned it to my abdomen, but as I descended from the aircraft, it fell and tripped me. I grasped the rungs and calmed my body, regaining good form. At the bottom I dropped onto a twisted branch and traversed a twiggy maze, my dress catching on every little snare.
    Baker waited behind me and said nothing as we climbed down, even when I stopped to rip my hem free. Coming out of the leafy canopy, I saw Dirk and Molly hanging from a tree, harnessed together with layers of leather belts. Their parachute was tangled in the branches above and they were too high up to cut the lines, and too precariously situated to swing from side to side.
    “Captain!” I called out. Dirk looked about, but he couldn’t spot me.
    “Clikk? Is that you?” he called back.
    “We’re coming to help you. Don’t move!”
    “Someone there?” One of the men moved between the trees below us. It was our cook Jasper, a stout brown-bearded man with wide shoulders and stiff legs. He dragged his deployed parachute behind him. Baker and I scaled the tree and landed nearby.
    “Left my dagger on the Wastrel,” Jasper said. “Buckles jammed.”
    “I’ll cut you loose,” said Baker. He used his dagger from his boot. “Bring your canvas with you. We’ll need it to get the captain down.”
    “Who’s yer friend, Baker?” asked Jasper, licking his teeth as he undressed me with his eyes.
    “It’s Clikk,” said Baker. “He’s a…”
    Jasper frowned. “Falcon’s a girl? I’ll be damned.” We left it at that and pushed on. The cook gathered his knotted parachute into a ball and carried it over his shoulder.
    At the small clearing beneath Dirk and Molly, Baker took on the role of delegation. “Tie the strings to the stronger branches and we’ll move around to make a sort of trampoline.” We started at three different points and moved clockwise, attaching the cords to various trees. We had to keep the bottom of the tarp high enough off the ground so when Dirk and Molly came bounding down, they wouldn’t smash into the earth. Baker and Jasper were able to shimmy up the trees to tie their knots, but I was stuck on the ground in my ludicrous dress.
    “Baker, lend me your dagger,” I said.
    He was three meters over my head, but he nodded, and hopped down. He handed it to me by the hilt.
    “This will only take a moment,” I said, slashing open the elbows in my sleeves. I cut the dress a few inches below the waist, detaching skirt, hoopskirt and petticoat in one rigorous go of sawing and stabbing.
    “Careful, turtledove,” Baker said. “You’ll clip a wing.”
    “Don’t be a cad.” In my bloomers, I would actually be able to move about and climb. Once I had a moment to myself, I could remove the corset for even more range of motion.
    Baker took his dagger back, but was too distracted to sheath it. He raised his eyebrows as he observed me.
    “What?” I said. “Now I won’t slow you down.”
    “No, popsy, but now Jaz will try to have a peek at your cargo.”
    I grabbed him by his collar, and got an inch from his face as I whispered, “Call me popsy or turtledove or any other pet name, and I will cut out your tongue.”
    Baker didn’t back off, but instead tapped my chin with the hilt of his dagger. “With what