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breath.
    Falling behind was less a matter of moving slowly than a pressing need not to fall. With the clouds rising, it was easy to miss gaps and broken places in the platforms, or to step too close to the joints where they were connected one to another. Those small miscalculations meant stumbling, and that meant the possibility of falling farther than a body could survive. Anise was overthinking, her every stop a hesitant hop that left her tottering on each landing, and Jermay was no better. He tiptoed from one spot to the next, occasionally jumping when the fog allowed him to see a solid place to stand; then he’d pause to gasp for air again.
    “You get used to it,” Birdie assured him, steadying his arm. “I used to fall off the practice wire all the time.”
    I nodded, marveling at how easily she skipped from space to space without fear of missing a step, even though she was dizzy from the air pressure. She may not have been born one of the Flying Jeseks, but she moved as if she had been. She took up the spot behind Winnie, leading Jermay by the hand.
    I tried to step only where they did, but there was no dirt to show their footprints. I stepped through the mist straight off the pier, and would have vanished if Klok hadn’t been guarding my back. One of his telescopic hands dove after me, giving me a lifeline. He set me gently back on the walkway with the others.
    “Penn!” Anise screamed when I fell, but I was on solid ground so fast that she was still screaming once I was safe.
    “I’m fine.” I swatted at her hands as she checked me over.
    “We’ve barely gone twenty feet. How are we supposed to navigate this death trap?”
    “Children are taught the safe ways by following cable lines, all tethered together so they can’t fall if they stumble,” Winnie said.
    “I could make something to tie us together,” Birch offered.
    “No!” I snapped, angry that I’d earned another round of humiliation. “I just need to catch my breath. Tying everyone together could make us all fall. I’ll watch where I’m going.”
    “Would you like me to carry you?” Klok displayed. “I can track the solids beneath the gas concealing them.”
    “I can deal with it.” I waved my hand through the clouds, opening a channel we could walk through, unobstructed. “Let’s just get where we’re going.”
    “Agreed,” Jermay said. “We’re being followed. Look over there.” He jerked his head.
    I cut my eyes to the side, following his. Not the best idea with the way the platforms were rocking.
    A shadow formed from nothing at the corner of my sight . . . no, not a shadow, a woman dressed in black wearing a shawl that covered her to her feet, where it mixed with the clouds, mingling like smoke among the white and trailing in her wake. She didn’t seem quite solid. The garment billowed with her movements and even when she was still, if the air picked up around her, making her appear more vision than human.
    “Her name’s Nafiza, but I’ve never seen her answer to it,” Winnie said.
    “She lives here?”
    A stupid question, as one couldn’t casually happen upon the Mile.
    “You know how every town the train stopped in, there was always some kid with a legend about the bogeyman or that one house everyone avoids because they all swear there’s something wrong with the person inside?”
    “Yeah, so?”
    “Nafiza’s my bogeyman. She’s crazy. Ignore her.”
    We tried, but Nafiza certainly didn’t ignore us. She kept following, changing directions as we did. I wanted to turn aside and ask her what she wanted—and to assure her that we didn’t mean any harm—but as soon as I tried, Klok swept me back into the group with his arm hooked around my shoulders.

    Once we were off the docking rim, the Mile transitioned into rows of stacked cubes. Shipping containers. They were piled in different directions and soldered together into a warped city skyline. Some of them had been painted with swirls of white and blue